Gillnet sampling methods for monitoring status and trends of Clear Lake Hitch in Clear Lake, Lake County, California
Frederick Feyrer, Matthew J. Young, Brock Huntsman, Veronica Violette, Justin K. Clause, Jordan Buxton, Danielle Palm, Marissa L. Wulff, Jeff Gronemyer, Luis Santana
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1018
The Clear Lake Hitch (Lavinia exilicauda chi) is a minnow endemic to Clear Lake, Lake County, California. This species is listed as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act and has been petitioned for listing under the United States Endangered Species Act. In 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey,...
Utility of a swath laser rangefinder for characterizing mass movement flow depth and landslide initiation
Maciej Obryk, Emily Christina Bedinger, Alexandra M. Iezzi, Emily H Bryant, Kate E. Allstadt, David L. George, Benjamin B. Mirus
2025, Landslides (22) 2693-2700
Mass movements such as debris flows and landslides are some of the deadliest and most destructive natural hazards occurring mostly in alpine and volcanic settings. With ever-growing populations located downslope from known debris flow channels, early warning systems can help prevent loss of life. Geophysical and technological advances have improved...
An early Holocene wet period in the southwestern United States
Kathleen B. Springer, Adam M. Hudson, Jeffrey S. Pigati, Katharine W. Huntington, Andrew J. Schauer
2025, Geology (53) 631-635
Multiple generations of spring-fed streams traversed ∼800 km2 of the Las Vegas Valley in southern Nevada between ca. 10.9 ka and 8.5 ka, depositing an extensive tufa network. The scale of this network and diversity of tufa morphologies is novel in North America and offers an opportunity to obtain quantitative paleoclimate...
Spatially explicit capture-mark-recapture to evaluate demographic status of the Louisiana black bear
Joseph D. Clark, Heidi L. Adams, Ben Augustine, John R. Berry III, Dustin Champagne, Maria Davidson, John Hanks, Jared S. Laufenberg, Sean M. Murphy
2025, Journal of Wildlife Management (89)
Louisiana black bears (Ursus americanus luteolus) occur in semi-isolated fragments of bottomland hardwood forest in the lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley and were listed as threatened under the United States Endangered Species Act in 1992. A population viability analysis based on radio-telemetry and capture-mark-recapture (CMR) data collected from 2002 to 2012...
Sources and risk factors for nitrate, pathogens, and fecal contamination of private wells in rural southwestern Wisconsin, USA
Joel P. Stokdyk, Aaron D. Firnstahl, Kenneth Bradbury, Maureen A. Muldoon, Burney Kieke Jr., Mark A. Borchardt
2025, Water Research (275)
Household well water can be degraded by contaminants from the land's surface, but private well owners lack means to protect the source water from neighboring disturbances. Rural residents of southwestern Wisconsin, USA, rely on private well water, and the combination of land use and fractured carbonate bedrock makes groundwater vulnerable...
Nonstationary flood frequency analysis using regression in the north-central United States
Sara B. Levin
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5034
Traditional flood frequency methods assume that the statistical properties of peak streamflow do not change with time and may not be appropriate for many areas in the north-central United States. This study examines a nonstationary flood frequency analysis method that uses ordinary least squares linear regression to estimate flood magnitudes...
The crystalline silica respiratory hazard from rhyolitic lava dome eruptions in New Zealand's Taupo Volcanic Zone: A case study from the 1315 CE Kaharoa eruption
Claire J. Horwell, Helen M. Emerson, Paul Ashwell, David Damby, Steve Self, Claire Nattrass, Rebecca J. Carey, Bruce F. Houghton
2025, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (461)
The rhyolitic Kaharoa 1315 CE eruption was a complex, long-lived event from Tarawera volcano, New Zealand. Explosive phases were followed by around 5 years of lava dome extrusion and collapse which produced block-and-ash flows (BAF). Lava domes generate crystalline silica in the form of cristobalite, and rhyolitic magmas often contain quartz...
Status and trends of the Lake Huron prey fish community, 1976-2024
Darryl W. Hondorp, Robin L. DeBruyne, Cory Brant, Peter C. Esselman, Timothy P. O’Brien
2025, Report
The U. S. Geological Survey-Great Lakes Science Center has monitored annual changes in the offshore (depth > 9m) prey fish community of Lake Huron since 1973. Monitoring of prey fish populations in Lake Huron is based on a bottom trawl survey that targets demersal species (i.e., those predominantly or intermittently...
Airborne geophysical analysis to decipher salinization for coastal Louisiana
Michael Attia, Frank T.-C. Tsai, Shuo Yang, Burke J. Minsley, Wade Kress
2025, Water Research (271)
Coastal Louisiana is known for saltwater intrusion that threatens wetlands, aquifers, and rivers. However, the extent of saltwater intrusion is not well understood. This study develops an innovative framework with airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data to map chloride concentration distributions for wetlands in the Mississippi River deltaic plain and Chenier plain...
U.S. Geological Survey Colorado River Basin science and technology collaboration meetings on drought (2021)—Synthesis of findings
Adrian Pierre-Frederic Monroe, Jason S. Alexander, Eric D. Anderson, Patrick J. Anderson, William J. Andrews, Jessica M. Driscoll, Rebecca J. Frus, Joseph A. Hevesi, Daniel K. Jones, Kathryn A. Thomas, Anne C. Tillery, Alicia A. Torregrosa, Katharine G. Dahm
2025, Circular 1551
Ongoing, prolonged, and severe drought and water overuse during the first two decades of the 21st century have reduced water supplies of the Colorado River Basin, with effects cascading to ecosystems and human communities throughout the basin. In June and July 2021, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Colorado River Basin...
Monitoring recreation on federally managed lands and waters—Visitation estimation
Dieta Hanson, Emily J. Wilkins, Spencer H. Wood, Christian S.L. Crowley, Whitney Boone, Rudy Schuster
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5022
Federally managed public lands and waters attract millions of visitors each year, generating significant economic benefits for surrounding communities. Accurate visitation data are crucial for guiding policy decisions and managing resources effectively. This report explores the methods employed by agencies to collect and use data on recreational visitation to Federal...
Integrated stratigraphic and geochemical analysis of organic-rich intervals of the Lewis Shale in the eastern Washakie Basin, Wyoming
Jane S. Hearon, Paul C. Hackley, Justin E. Birdwell
2025, The Mountain Geologist (62) 5-36
Geological studies in the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway (KWIS) in North America reveal highly variable sedimentological conditions on its western shore caused by rapidly changing sea level and detrital input during the seaway’s closure. Here we examine a 601-foot (183 meters) continuous core through the lower part of the Maastrichtian...
Geologic hydrogen potential in the Rocky Mountain region
Jane S. Hearon, Sarah E. Gelman, Geoffrey S. Ellis
2025, Newsletter
No abstract available....
USGS critical minerals review
Graham W. Lederer, James V. Jones III, Darcy McPhee, Patricia J Loferski, Robert R. Seal, Paul A. Bedrosian, Patricia Grace Macqueen, V. J. S. Grauch, Federico Solano, Joshua Mark Rosera, David George Pineault
2025, Mining Engineering 38-53
No abstract available....
Alaskan hydrology in transition: Changing precipitation and evapotranspiration patterns are projected to reshape seasonal streamflow and water temperature by midcentury (2035-2064)
D Blaskey, Yifan Cheng, A. C. Newman, Joshua C. Koch, M Goseff, K Musselman
2025, Journal of Hydrometeorology (26) 613-626
High spatial and temporal resolution models are essential for understanding future climate impacts and developing effective climate resilience plans. However, existing regional and global river models often lack the resolution needed to accurately capture local conditions. This study uses a series of high-resolution models, including the Regional Arctic System Model,...
Anatectic origin of Mississippian spodumene-bearing pegmatites in western Maine during orogenic plateau collapse
Myles M Felch, Ian William Hillenbrand, J. Dykstra Eusden, Christopher S. Holm-Denoma, Dwight C. Bradley, Amber T.H. Whittaker, Michael J. Jercinovic, Michael L. Williams, Laura Pianowski
2025, Economic Geology (120) 779-806
Spodumene pegmatites are an important lithium source, but the processes and tectonic settings in which they form are poorly understood. The Rumford pegmatite district surrounding Plumbago Mountain, western Maine, is host to numerous spodumene pegmatites, including the Plumbago North pegmatite (a world-class spodumene resource). Competing petrogenetic models for these spodumene...
The socio-ecological niche
Michael C Mcinturff, Peter S. Alagona, Clare E.B. Cannon, David N. Pellow
2025, People and Nature (7) 1185-1197
1. Ecologists recognise that we live on an increasingly human-dominated planet, yet most of the field's foundational concepts remain essentially biophysical, with little reference to human society.2. There are few better examples of this divide between ecological and social theory than the niche concept. During its century-long history, the niche...
How sampling design of GPS collar deployment influences consistency of mapped migration corridors over time
Emily R. Gelzer, Justine A. Becker, Samantha P.H. Dwinnell, Gary L. Fralick, Embere Hall, Rusty C. Kaiser, Matthew Kauffman, Tayler N. LaSharr, Kevin L. Monteith, Anna C. Ortega, Jill E. Randall, Hall Sawyer, Mark A. Thonhoff, Jerod A. Merkle
2025, Journal of Wildlife Management (89)
Federal and state agencies within the United States have recently issued directives prioritizing the conservation of ungulate migration corridors and winter ranges. The ability to identify and delineate the spatial distribution of seasonal ranges underpins these policies. While such delineations are often derived from global positioning system (GPS) collar data...
2022–2024 Status and trends of the Palila (Loxioides bailleui)
Noah Hunt, Chauncey K. Asing, Lindsey Nietmann, Paul C. Banko, Richard J. Camp
2025, Hawaii Cooperative Studies Unit Technical Report HCSU-115
Palila (Loxioides bailleui) are critically endangered Hawaiian honeycreepers specializing on the seedpods of māmane (Sophora chrysophylla) and restricted to Mauna Kea volcano on the Island of Hawaiʻi. A previous analysis of survey data estimated an 89% population decline between 1998 and 2021. Using the most recent annual survey data from...
Factors influencing daily nest survival rates of Aleutian terns in the Kodiak Archipelago, Alaska
Jill E. Tengeres, Katie Dugger, Robin M. Corcoran, Donald E. Lyons
2025, Journal of Wildlife Management (89)
The Aleutian tern (Onychoprion aleuticus) is a species of high conservation concern in Alaska, USA, owing to large declines at known breeding locations since the 1960s. The small population size and ephemeral behavior of this species have limited the collection of basic biological information and hindered the identification of potential...
Idiosyncratic spatial scaling of biodiversity–disease relationships
Neil A. Gilbert, Graziella Vittoria DiRenzo, Elise Zipkin
2025, Ecography (2025)
High host biodiversity is hypothesized to dilute the risk of vector-borne diseases if many host species are ‘dead ends' that cannot effectively transmit the disease and low-diversity areas tend to be dominated by competent host species. However, many studies on biodiversity–disease relationships characterize host biodiversity at single, local spatial scales,...
Cenozoic stratigraphy of Colorado
Robert G. Raynolds, Marieke Dechesne
2025, Map Series 55
As a successor to previous Colorado stratigraphy charts (MS-53 Colorado Stratigraphic Chart and MS-54 Cretaceous Stratigraphy of Colorado), this Colorado Geological Survey (CGS) publication resulted from a collaboration between the CGS, USGS, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS). The chart was designed to illustrate Cenozoic stratigraphy spanning...
Trade-offs in designing a participatory acoustic study of bats: Comparison of user engagement and eata quality between two ultrasonic detectors
Anya Metcalfe, Theodore J. Weller, Carol Fritzinger, Brandon P. Holton, Theodore Kennedy
2025, Journal of North American Bat Research 89-99
Technology for the acoustic detection of animals has advanced rapidly over the past few decades. Due to ease of use, consistency, and safety, acoustic methods are particularly useful for science applications that engage the public. In this study, we evaluated the technological and educational trade-offs between 2 acoustic bat detectors...
On the interface between cultural transmission, phenotypic diversity, demography and the conservation of migratory ungulates
Brett R. Jesmer, Janey Fugate, Matthew Kauffman
2025, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (380)
Recent evidence indicates that green-wave surfing behaviour in ungulates and the migrations that stem from this behaviour are socially learned, culturally transmitted across generations and become more efficient via cumulative cultural evolution. But given a lack of corroborative evidence, whether ungulate migration is a cultural phenomenon remains a hypothesis deserving...
Vegetation community monitoring: Forest structure in Klamath Network parks
Sean Smith, Lauren N. Youngblood, Micah Wright, Phillip J. van Mantgem
2025, Science Authors Report NPS/SR-2025/291
The Klamath Network, comprising six national park units in northern California and southern Oregon, initiated a vegetation monitoring protocol in 2011 to discern ecologically significant vegetation trends in these parks. The premise of the protocol is that multivariate analyses of species composition data is the most robust means for early...
