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Feral burros (Equus asinus) and horses (E. ferus caballus) inhabiting public land in the western United States are intended to be managed at population levels established to promote a thriving, natural ecological balance. Double-observer sightability (MDS) models, which use detection records from multiple observers...

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a unifying call for change - guiding global actions at multiple levels of governance for a better planet and better lives. Consequently, achieving the “future we want” may be hindered by overlooking valuable natural resources and services that are not...

The Hydrologic Toolbox is a Windows-based desktop software program that provides a graphical and mapping interface for analysis of hydrologic time-series data with a set of widely used and standardized computational methods. The software combines the analytical and statistical functionality provided in the U.S. Geological Survey Groundwater and Surface-Water Toolboxes...

Hawaii stands apart from the rest of the United States, literally and figuratively. The nearest of the eight islands that make up the Hawaiian archipelago is 2,000 miles from the U.S. mainland. Like every bit of land mass within the State, it emerged from the Pacific Ocean after thousands of...

Most applications of single-scale occupancy models do not differentiate between availability and detectability, even though species availability is rarely equal to one. Species availability can be estimated using multi-scale occupancy models; however, for the practical application of multi-scale occupancy models, it can be unclear what a robust sampling design...

The widespread availability of high-fidelity topography combined with advances in geospatial analysis offer the opportunity to reimagine approaches to the difficult problem of predicting sediment delivery from watersheds. Here we present a model that uses high-resolution topography to filter sediment sources to quantify sediment delivery to the watershed outlet. It...

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania straddles an array of landscapes. From east to west, its 46,055 square miles connect the sea-level lowlands of the Atlantic seaboard with the rolling hills of the Midwest. It also acts as a bridge between regions from north to south, with the Appalachian Mountains swooping through its...

The frog-killing chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is decimating amphibian populations around the world. Bd has a biphasic life cycle, alternating between motile zoospores that disperse within aquatic environments and sessile sporangia that grow within the mucus-coated skin of amphibians. Zoospores lack cell walls and swim rapidly through aquatic environments using a posterior flagellum and crawl across solid surfaces using actin...

Following the reviews of atomic-weight determinations and other cognate data in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021, the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (CIAAW) reports changes of standard atomic weights. The symbol A r°(E) was selected for standard atomic weight of an element...

Bedrock property quantification is critical for predicting the hydrological response of watersheds to climate disturbances. Estimating bedrock hydraulic properties over watershed scales is inherently difficult, particularly in fracture-dominated regions. Our analysis tests the covariability of above- and belowground features on a watershed scale, by linking borehole geophysical data, near-surface geophysics,...

Wildfires play a critical role in determining ecosystem structure and function and pose serious risks to human life, property and ecosystem services. Burn probability (BP) models the likelihood that a location could burn. Simulation models are typically used to predict BP but are computationally...

Management objectives for long-lived species are difficult to define because many taxa have delayed maturity and variable recruitment. White Sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus is an example of a species with a complex life history that complicates long-term status monitoring and establishment of management objectives. Historically, White...

Older urban landscapes present unique and complex stressors to urban streams and their habitats through the introduction of legacy and emerging toxic contaminants. Contaminant sources are often associated with various developed land uses such as older residential areas, active and former industrial sites, contaminated sites, and effluents from municipal wastewater...

Nevada’s geography is colorful—and contradictory. As one of the most mountainous States, Nevada shares the country’s second-deepest lake, Lake Tahoe, with neighboring California. It is also the driest State and largely covered by desert. Northern Nevada has long, cold winters, whereas the south has long, hot summers. It is the...

Wyoming has the smallest population of any State—fewer than 600,000 people—but an abun­dance of wildlife. The largest number of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), often called antelope, and the biggest public bison (Bison bison) herd in the United States live in Wyoming, which also hosts elk (Cervus elaphus), moose (Alces americanus), bighorn sheep...

Collection of juvenile salmonids at Round Butte Dam is a critical part of the effort to enhance populations of anadromous fish species in the upper Deschutes River because fish that are not collected at the dam may either incur increased mortality during dam passage or remain landlocked and lost...

The U.S. Geological Survey Integrated Water Prediction science program focuses on the development of advanced models for forecasting water use and other components of the water cycle along with water quality attributes such as temperature, water constituents, and ecological conditions. The program also is developing the cyberinfrastructure required to implement...

The Kalispel Tribe of Indians (KT), U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife are engaged in conservation of bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) in the Lake Pend Oreille (LPO) Core Area. The LPO is a complex habitat core area which falls within three states...

Informed analysis of policies related to food security, global climate change, wetland ecology, environmental nutrient flux, element cycling, groundwater weathering, continental denudation, human health, etc. depends to a large extent on quantitative estimates of solute mass fluxes into and out of all global element pools including...

We explore the response of ground motions to topography during large crustal fault earthquakes by simulating several magnitude 6.5–7.0 rupture scenarios on the Seattle fault, Washington State. Kinematic simulations are run using a 3D spectral element code and a detailed seismic velocity model for...

In southeastern New York, the villages of Ellenville, Wurtsboro, Woodridge, the hamlet of Mountain Dale, and surrounding communities in the Neversink River and Rondout Creek drainage basins rely on wells that pump groundwater from valley-fill glacial aquifers for public water supply. Glacial aquifers are vulnerable to contamination because they are...

In the Chenango River Basin of central New York, unconfined and confined glacial valley-fill aquifers are an important source of drinking-water supplies. The risk of contaminating water withdrawn by wells that tap these aquifers might be reduced if the areas contributing recharge to the wells are delineated and these areas...

Digital hydrogeologic maps were developed in eight study areas in upstate New York by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The digital maps define the hydrogeologic framework of the valley-fill aquifers and surrounding till-covered uplands in the vicinity of the villages...

Bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) in the Klamath Basin are on the southernmost border of the range of the species, where threats are most severe and where bull trout are most imperiled. In their recovery plan the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2015, https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/report/species-with-recovery-plans) suggested that...

The U.S. Geological Survey completed gravity transects in 2015, 2018, and 2019 over four features: the Bright Angel Fault, Bright Angel Monocline, Tusayan Graben, and Redlands Ranch Fault Zone in the Coconino Plateau, Coconino County, Arizona, to determine if the existence and width of high porosity (low density) zones could...