Disease, environment, and pollution: Understanding drivers behind tumour outbreaks in sea turtles
Costanza Manes, Richard M. Herren, Evan Cooper, Margaret Lilyestrom, David Godfrey, Marianne Kuzoch, Raymond R. Carthy, Ilaria Capua
2025, One Health Cases 307-322
Various wildlife diseases of the Anthropocene (the Anthropocene currently has no formal status in the Divisions of Geologic Time https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2018/3054/fs20183054.pdf, accessed 4 June 2024) have root causes that are found in human-driven environmental disturbances. Fibropapillomatosis of sea turtles is exemplary of a human-exacerbated wildlife disease, and this...
Developing biocrust field cultivation techniques for soil restoration: An assessment of bacterial communities
Sierra D. Jech, Kara Dohrenwend, Natalie Day, Nichole N. Barger, Anita Antoninka, Matthew A. Bowker, Sasha C. Reed, Colin L Tucker
2025, Applied Soil Ecology (206)
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are a coherent, thin soil surface layer, engineered and inhabited by a diverse community of moss, lichen, cyanobacteria, and other microorganisms. Biocrusts provide critical functions in dryland systems and may be lost from the ecosystem through physical disturbance or other global change drivers. Once biocrusts are...
Integrated water availability in the conterminous United States, 2010–20
Edward G. Stets, Matthew J. Cashman, Olivia L. Miller, Kathryn Powlen
2025, Professional Paper 1894-F
Water availability is defined as the spatial and temporal distribution of water quantity and quality as it relates to the needs of humans and ecosystems. Broad assessment of water availability requires the consideration of multiple indicators because water users have different sensitivities to the degradation of water conditions. This chapter...
Climate change and future water availability in the United States
Martha A. Scholl, Gregory J. McCabe, Carolyn G. Olson, Kathryn Powlen
2025, Professional Paper 1894-E
The steady rise in global temperature as a result of human activity is causing changes in Earth’s water cycle. The balance of water stored within and moving between vapor, liquid, and frozen states in the water cycle is shifting, with consequences for water availability that include increases in drought, fire...
Water use across the conterminous United States, water years 2010–20
Laura Medalie, Amy E. Galanter, Anthony J. Martinez, Althea A. Archer, Carol L. Luukkonen, Melissa A. Harris, Jonathan V. Haynes
2025, Professional Paper 1894-D
Withdrawals of water for human use are fundamental to the evaluation of the Nation’s water availability. This chapter provides an analysis of public supply, crop irrigation, and thermoelectric power water use for the conterminous United States (CONUS) during water years 2010–20. These three categories account for about 90 percent of...
Status of water-quality conditions in the United States, 2010–20
Melinda L. Erickson, Olivia L. Miller, Matthew J. Cashman, James R. Degnan, James E. Reddy, Anthony J. Martinez, Elmera Azadpour
2025, Professional Paper 1894-C
Degradation of water quality can make water harmful or unusable for humans and ecosystems. Although many studies have assessed the effect of individual constituents or narrow suites of constituents on freshwater systems, no consistent, comprehensive assessment exists over the wide range of water-quality effects on water availability. Using published studies,...
Water supply in the conterminous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, water years 2010–20
Galen Gorski, Edward G. Stets, Martha A. Scholl, James R. Degnan, John R. Mullaney, Amy E. Galanter, Anthony J. Martinez, Julie Padilla, Jacob H. LaFontaine, Hayley R. Corson-Dosch, Allen Shapiro
2025, Professional Paper 1894-B
We present an assessment of water supply across the conterminous United States (CONUS), Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico covering water years 2010–20. Our analysis drew on two national hydrologic models, the National Hydrologic Model Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System and the Weather Research and Forecasting model hydrologic modeling system. Both models produced...
The National integrated water availability assessment, water years 2010–20
Edward G. Stets, Althea A. Archer, James R. Degnan, Melinda L. Erickson, Galen Gorski, Laura Medalie, Martha A. Scholl
2025, Professional Paper 1894-A
Water availability is fundamentally important to human well-being, economic vitality, and ecosystem health. Because of its central importance, the U.S. Congress tasked the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other Federal agencies with conducting regular, comprehensive assessments of water availability in the United States through the requirements under the SECURE Water...
U.S. Geological Survey Integrated Water Availability Assessment—2010–20
Edward G. Stets, editor(s)
2025, Professional Paper 1894
This professional paper is a multichapter report that assesses water availability in the United States for water years 2010–20. This work was conducted as part of the fulfillment of the mandates of Subtitle F of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-11), also known as...
Surficial geology and Quaternary tectonics of the Madison Valley and fault zone, Madison, Gallatin, and Beaverhead Counties, southwest Montana
Chester A. Ruleman, Theodore R. Brandt
2025, Scientific Investigations Map 3508
The north-northwest-striking Madison fault is approximately 95 kilometers in length, lying at the confluence of the northeastern Basin and Range province and the Yellowstone tectonic parabola. The fault zone consists primarily of west-dipping normal faults that have east-dipping antithetic faults, which create the Madison Valley graben and several northeast-trending intrabasin...
The Center for the Advancement of Population Assessment Methodology (CAPAM): A perspective on the first 10 years
Mark N. Maunder, Paul R. Crone, Brice X. Semmens, Juan L. Valero, Lynn Waterhouse, Richard D. Methot, Andre E. Punt
2025, Fisheries Research (281)
The Center for the Advancement of Population Assessment Methodology (CAPAM) was established in 2013, envisioned as an institute that could conduct, organize, and communicate stock assessment research with the aim of benefiting fisheries assessment efforts internationally. CAPAM’s activities have focused on its workshop series and consequent special issues in Fisheries Research....
Endemic and invasive species: A history of distributional trends in the fish fauna of the lower New River drainage
Stuart A. Welsh, Daniel A. Cincotta, Nathaniel V. Owens, Jay R. Stauffer Jr.
2025, Water (17)
Invasive species are often central to conservation efforts, particularly when concerns involve potential impacts on rare, endemic native species. The lower New River drainage of the eastern United States is a watershed that warrants conservation assessment, as the system is naturally depauperate of native fish species and it is nearly...
Emotions and political identity predict public acceptance of urban deer management
Hannah M. Desrochers, M. Nils Peterson, Lincoln R. Larson, Christopher E. Moorman, Elizabeth M. Kierepka, John C. Kilgo, Nathan J. Hostetter
2025, Urban Ecosystems (28)
Addressing public preferences can enhance wildlife management effectiveness and reduce backlash. We conducted novel research on public acceptance of wildlife management by accounting for the role of underexplored drivers including emotion and political identity across an urban-to-rural gradient. Using data from a 2022 survey about white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in...
Ecosystem drivers of freshwater mercury bioaccumulation are context-dependent: Insights from continental-scale modeling
Christopher James Kotalik, James Willacker, Jeff S. Wesner, Branden L. Johnson, Colleen M. Flanagan Pritz, Sarah J. Nelson, David M. Walters, Collin A. Eagles-Smith
2025, Environmental Science and Technology (59)
Significant variation in mercury (Hg) bioaccumulation is observed across the diversity of freshwater ecosystems in North America. While there is support for the major drivers of Hg bioaccumulation, the relative influence of different external factors can vary widely among waterbodies, which makes predicting Hg risk across large spatial scales particularly...
Wave ripples formed in ancient, ice-free lakes in Gale crater, Mars
C.A. Mondro, C.M. Fedo, J.P. Grotzinger, Michael P. Lamb, S. Gupta, W.E. Dietrich, S. G. Banham, C.M. Weitz, P. Gasda, Lauren A. Edgar, D. Rubin, A.B. Bryk, E.S. Kite, G. Caravaca, J. Schieber, A.R. Vasavada
2025, Science Advances (11)
Symmetrical wave ripples identified with NASA’s Curiosity rover in ancient lake deposits at Gale crater provide a key paleoclimate constraint for early Mars: At the time of ripple formation, climate conditions must have supported ice-free liquid water on the surface of Mars. These features are the most definitive examples of...
Hybrid coral reef restoration can be a cost-effective nature-based solution to provide protection to vulnerable coastal populations
Curt D. Storlazzi, Borja Reguero, Kristen C. Alkins, James B. Shope, Aaron Cole, Camila Gaido-Lassarre, Shay Viehman, Michael W. Beck
2025, Science Advances (11)
Coral reefs can mitigate flood damages by providing protection to tropical coastal communities whose populations are dense, growing fast, and have predominantly lower-middle income. This study provides the first fine-scale, regionally modeled valuations of how flood risk reductions associated with hybrid coral reef restoration could benefit people, property, and economic...
A Colorado Front Range grassland exhibits decreasing dominance of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) over time
Janet S. Prevey, Timothy R. Seastedt
2025, Ecosphere (16)
Causes, consequences, and potentials for recovery from invasions by the invasive annual grass, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), in western North America have been extensively documented. The vast majority of these studies have come from regions where yearly precipitation is dominated by “winter-wet” patterns, but this species has also demonstrated its ability...
Local perceptions of marine conservation aquaculture for the restoration of native Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in Downeast, Maine
Melissa. E. Flye, Carly C. Sponarski, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2025, Marine Policy (171)
The entities responsible for the management of the endangered Gulf of Maine Distinct Population Segment of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) have partnered with a commercial aquaculture company to apply a novel conservation aquaculture program. This effort marks a major shift in management and has garnered mixed public reactions. Recent expansion...
An interagency perspective on improving consistency and transparency of land use and land cover mapping
Terry Sohl, Karen Schleeweis, Nate Herold, Megan Lang, Inga P. La Puma, James Wickham, Rick Mueller, Matthew Rigge, Jon Dewitz, Jesslyn F. Brown, Jeffrey Ingebritsen, James Ellenwood, Ellen Wengert, Jordan Rowe, Patrick Flanagan, Emily Kachergis, Iris Garthwaite, Zhuoting Wu
2025, Circular 1549
Executive Summary Geospatial products of land use and land cover are broadly used in many applications. For example, the annual national greenhouse gas inventory uses the National Land Cover Database, the Coastal Change Analysis Program, Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools, the Forest Inventory and Analysis, and the National Resources...
Groundwater-level elevations in the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers and Upper Black Squirrel Creek alluvial aquifer, El Paso County, Colorado, 2021–24
Zachary D. Kisfalusi, Erin K. Hennessy, Jackson B. Sharp
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5123
El Paso County is the second-most populous county in Colorado and is projected to grow another 15 percent by 2030. Within El Paso County is the Upper Black Squirrel Creek Designated Groundwater Basin (Black Squirrel Basin), an area where surface water is scarce and water users rely primarily on groundwater...
U.S. Geological Survey National Groundwater Climate Response Network
Rodney R. Caldwell, Jason M. Fine
2025, Fact Sheet 2024-3057
What is the U.S. Geological Survey National Groundwater Climate Response Network?The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) National Water Monitoring Network is a network of networks that includes the Climate Response Network (CRN). The CRN is a network of wells selected to monitor the effects of climate variability, including droughts, on groundwater...
Bayesian model selection to investigate meaningful spatial scales
Andrew Hoegh, Kathryn Irvine, Katharine M. Banner, de Wit. Luz, Brian Reichert
2025, Preprint
Ecologists and other statistical practitioners with access to high-resolution spatial data lack guidance on best approaches for discerning meaningful spatial scales for environmental covariates which is necessary when spatial factors influence environmental processes. Recently developed methods have attempted to automate investigating spatial scales for covariates by evaluating models for which...
How can we sea change? Audience subgroups and psychological cognitions to target in action-oriented ocean change communication
Jennifer L. Waldo, Mark D. Needham, Megan Siobhan Jones
2025, Marine Policy (173)
Climate change’s impacts on the oceans (“ocean change”) threaten people globally. Climate action is needed at multiple scales, from individual to collective action, and yet there is limited research on what motivates this action in response to ocean change. In this study, we conducted an online survey of residents of...
Review of the Lake Washington Ship Canal and Ballard Locks model, Seattle, Washington, 2014–20
Annett B. Sullivan, Anya C. Leach
2025, Open-File Report 2024-1078
Executive SummaryThe Hiram M. Chittenden (Ballard) Locks and Lake Washington Ship Canal connect freshwater Lake Washington and saline Shilshole Bay of Puget Sound in Seattle, Washington. The locks and canal allow for ships to traverse this reach. Anadromous salmonids also migrate through, transitioning between saline and freshwater environments, and making...
Relatedness of white-tailed deer from culling efforts within chronic wasting disease management zones in Minnesota
Alberto F. Fameli, Christopher S. Jennelle, Jessie Edson, Erik C. Hildebrand, Michelle Carstensen, W. David Walter
2025, Pathogens (14)
In white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), closely related females form social groups, avoiding other social groups. Consequently, females infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD) are more likely to infect social group members. Culling has been used to reduce CWD transmission in high-risk areas; however, its effectiveness in removing related individuals...
