Foundational science in flight—USGS bird programs support conservation, culture, and a thriving U.S. economy
David Ziolkowski, Antonio Celis-Murillo, Jenn Malpass, Keith L. Pardieck, Julien Martin, Lauren Emily Walker
2025, Fact Sheet 2025-3011
Birds are vital to our economy, ecosystems, and cultural heritage. Investing in bird conservation benefits communities, businesses, and working lands while reinforcing our nation’s legacy of stewardship and biodiversity. By valuing birds, we ensure a richer, healthier, and more vibrant future for all Americans. The USGS leads two national bird...
Peak streamflow trends in Minnesota and their relation to changes in climate, water years 1921–2020
Tara Williams-Sether, Chris Sanocki
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5064-E
This report chapter summarizes the effect of hydroclimatic variability of annual peak streamflow in Minnesota and is part of a larger U.S. Geological Survey multistate study to assess potential nonstationarity in annual peak streamflows across the Midwest. Spatial and temporal patterns were examined for nonstationarity in annual peak streamflow, daily...
Peak streamflow trends in North Dakota and their relation to changes in climate, water years 1921–2020
Karen R. Ryberg, Tara Williams-Sether
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5064-H
Standardized guidelines for completing flood-flow frequency analyses are presented in a U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods report known as Bulletin 17C, https://doi.org/10.3133/tm4B5. In recent decades (since about 2000), a better understanding of long-term climatic persistence (periods of clustered floods or droughts, or wet or dry periods) and...
Bedrock fracture characterization of the New Hampshire State Route 111 bypass, Windham, New Hampshire
Gregory J. Walsh, Nicholas Edwin Powell
2025, Data Report 1208
Bedrock roadcuts developed with blasting along the New Hampshire State Route 111 bypass in Windham expose the metasedimentary Silurian Berwick Formation and intrusions of multiple phases of foliated to nonfoliated granite to granitic pegmatite of the Devonian New Hampshire Plutonic Suite. Fracture characterization at two roadway rock cuts (roadcuts) included...
Quantifying sea otter abundance, distribution, habitat use, and foraging intake in Cook Inlet, Alaska
Daniel Monson, Kimberly A. Kloecker, Nicole LaRoche, Collin Power, Laura Geissinger, Elizabeth Hasan, Tahzay Jones, Ben Weitzman
2025, OCS Study BOEM 2025-019
Following near extirpation from the fur trade, sea otters (Enhydra lutris) have returned to occupy lower Cook Inlet since the 1950s, or earlier, with numbers increasing to ~11,000 and ~9,000 on the west and east side, respectively, by 2017. Northward range expansion on the west side has been negligible for...
Fisheries research and monitoring activities of the Lake Erie Biological Station, 2024
Mark Richard Dufour, Francesco Guzzo, Corbin David Hilling, Kevin R. Keretz, Richard Kraus, Richard Cole Oldham, James Roberts, Joseph Schmitt
2025, Report
A comprehensive understanding of fish populations and their interactions is the cornerstone of modern fishery management and the basis for Lake Erie’s Fish Community Objectives (FCOs) developed in 2020 (Francis et al. 2020). The 2024 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Lake Erie Biological Station Annual Report is responsive to these FCOs...
Methodology
North American Bird Conservation Initiative, A. Rodewald, Mike Brasher, John Alexander, Elisabeth M. Ammon, Tracy E. Borneman, Dustin Brewer, Stephen Brown, Jennie N. Duberstein, Beth Flint, Adam Hannuksela, Kathleen Holland, J. A. Hostetler, Edwin Juarez, Robin Kaler, Chris Latimer, Elva Manquera, Kate Martin, Chris McCreedy, Nicole Michel, Corina Newsome, Andrew Olsen, Marc Romano, Kenneth V. Rosenberg, B. Ryder, Rebekah J. Rylander, John R. Sauer, Adam Smith, Dena Spatz, Caleb Spiegel, Tice Supplee, Roberta Swift, Eric VanderWerf, Josh Vest, Olivia Wang
2025, Report, State of the birds report, United States of America 2025
Following the approach developed by Gregory and van Strien (2010), State of the Birds reports focus on composite summaries of population change for collections of species that share common primary habitat or taxonomic affinity. In this report, we provide composite indexes for habitat-obligate species as defined in earlier reports (Grassland, Aridland, Eastern Forest and...
Landscape transcriptomic analysis detects thermal stress responses and potential adaptive variation in wild brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) during successive heatwaves
Justin Waraniak, Sarah Batchelor, Tyler Wagner, Jason Keagy
2025, Science of Total Environment (969)
Extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of climate change. Critically, such extreme weather events can be more important drivers of extirpation and selection than changes in annual or seasonal averages and they pose a particularly large threat to poikilothermic organisms. In...
Avian influenza infection and antibodies not identified in eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) sampled on the Delmarva Peninsula
Jeffery D. Sullivan, Johanna Alexandra Harvey, Rebecca L. Poulson, David E. Stallknecht, C. Robert Long, Cindy P. Driscoll, Diann Prosser, Jennifer M. Mullinax
2025, Avian Diseases (69) 2-5
Although highly pathogenic avian influenza presents a notable threat to domestic turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo domesticus), there have been minimal infections identified in wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) across the United States. Indeed, recent infections in wild turkeys have either been linked back to or suspected to be the result of spillback...
A practical decision tool for marine bird mortality assessments
Johanna Alexandra Harvey, Andrew M. Ramey, Stephanie Avery-Gomm, Gregory Robertson, Marc Romano, Jennifer M. Mullinax, Megan Boldenow, Philip W. Atkinson, Diann J. Prosser
2025, Preprint
Given the rise in anthropogenic, environmental, and disease events contributing to marine bird mortality, there is a critical need to improve the rigor of mortality assessments. Deficits in data collection and mortality estimation can hinder a manager’s ability to document event scales and inform population level impacts. Therefore, to inform...
Cancer risk and estimated lithium exposure in drinking groundwater in the US
Jiajun Luo, Liange Zheng, Zhihao Jin, Yuqing Yang, William I. Krakowka, Eric Hong, Melissa A. Lombard, Joseph D. Ayotte, Habibul Ahsan, Jayant M. Pinto, Briseis Aschebrook-Kilfoy
2025, JAMA Network Open (8)
Importance Lithium is a naturally occurring element in drinking water and is commonly used as a mood-stabilizing medication. Although clinical studies have reported associations between receiving lithium treatment and reduced cancer risk among patients with bipolar disorder, to our knowledge, the association between environmental lithium exposure and cancer risk has never...
Range-wide ecology, conservation, and research needs for yellow lampmussel (Lampsilis cariosa)
Stefanie J. Farrington, Christina Amy Murphy, David Perkins, Allison H. Roy
2025, Hydrobiologia (852) 2729-2754
The freshwater mussel yellow lampmussel (Lampsilis cariosa) is declining throughout its range along the Atlantic Slope of the eastern United States and Canada, and the species is a target for proactive conservation to avoid federal listing. This paper synthesizes information about the ecology (physiology and life history, host fishes, and...
Current distribution of the nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) in the United States
Brett Alexander DeGregorio, Anant Deshwal
2025, Diversity (17)
The nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus: hereafter armadillo) was first recorded in the United States (U.S.) in the state of Texas in 1849 and has been expanding its range northward and eastward since then. With the widespread adoption of participatory science as well as the proliferation of nationwide wildlife game...
An early detection rapid response case study of the Black and White Tegu (Salvator merianae) and implications for a broader framework
Mark Robert Sandfoss, Amanda Marie Kissel, Lisa Marie McBride, Matthew Fox Metcalf, Sarah Rae Sherburne, Travis R. Mangione, Matthew McCollister, Amy A. Yackel Adams
2025, Management of Biological Invasions (16) 581-591
Documentation of successful early detection rapid response (EDRR) efforts is lacking from the scientific literature but is needed to inform invasive species response protocols. The Black and White tegu (Salvator merianae) has become established in several Florida counties and its spread is of significant conservation concern. It is of high...
Multispectral red-edge indices accurately estimate nitrogen content in winter cereal cover crops
Alison Thieme, Jyoti Jennewein, W. Dean Hively, Brian T. Lamb, Alicia Whitcraft, S.B. Mirsky, S.C. Reberg-Horton, C. Justice
2025, Agronomy Journal (117)
Winter cover crops reduce erosion and nutrient runoff from agricultural systems. Although cereal cover crops can decrease field nitrate leaching by 50%–95%, the magnitude of this reduction varies within and between fields, making it challenging to monitor the impact of cover crops on nitrate leaching at large spatial extents. Satellite...
Exploration for blind geothermal systems in the eastern Great Basin of Utah: An update on the “Lund North” INGENIOUS detailed study site
Christian L. Hardwick, Eugene Szymanski, Nicole R. Hart-Wagoner, S. Ashton, N. Christensen, Tait E. Earney, James E. Faulds, Jonathan M.G. Glen, A.I. Hiscock, Stefan Kirby, T. Knudsen, S. Kobe, Cary R. Lindsey, Benjamin Lyter Morbeck, Jared R. Peacock, Grant Harold Rea-Downing, William D. Schermerhorn, K. Smith
2025, Conference Paper, Proceedings, 50th workshop on geothermal reservoir engineering
Existing geothermal production in Utah is commonly collocated with surficial expressions of geothermal heat including active hot springs and hot spring deposits. However, geothermal potential across the Great Basin region is thought to be much higher for hidden or blind geothermal systems. Accordingly, exploration techniques that can locate geothermal resources...
Remote single-station seismic monitoring of the July–October 2022 earthquake swarm at Tau volcano, American Samoa
Clara Yoon, Robert Skoumal, Andrew J. Michael, A.D. Jolly, Andria P. Ellis, Drew T. Downs, Peter Dotray, Natalia I. Deligne, Jefferson Chang, Ninfa Lucia Bennington, Aaron Wech, Matthew M. Haney, Alicia J. Hotovec-Ellis, Elinor Lutu-McMoore, Marcus Langkilde
2025, The Seismic Record (5) 83-96
From July to October 2022, a non-eruptive volcanic earthquake swarm occurred within ~15 km of Taʻū Island, located in eastern American Samoa. Felt reports from local residents were the only available information about the swarm when it started, as American Samoa lacked a seismic monitoring network. We developed a...
Local, regional, and distal recordings of seismic unrest at Tau Island volcano, American Samoa
Aaron Wech, Matthew M. Haney, Jefferson Chang, A.D. Jolly, Clara Yoon, Robert J. Skoumal
2025, Bulletin of Volcanology (87)
A seismic swarm near Taʻū Island, a volcanic island in eastern American Samoa, occurred from July to October 2022. The earliest unrest was noted as felt shaking reports in late July, and instrumentation varied in the beginning of the sequence as the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory responded...
Long-term trends in microseismicity during operational shut-ins at the Coso Geothermal Field, California
Joanna Holmgren, J. Ole Kaven, Volker Oye
2025, The Seismic Record (5) 73-82
Pausing injection and production can lead to induced seismicity in a variety of settings, with some of the largest events occurring during these so-called shut-ins. In geothermal fields, shut-ins are periodically conducted for maintenance on wells and surface infrastructure, thereby offering recurring means of estimating stress changes in the subsurface...
Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 in double-crested cormorants (Nannopterum auritum) of the Chesapeake Bay, USA
Johanna Alexandra Harvey, Jeffery Dale Sullivan, Rebecca L. Poulson, Deborah L. Carter, Cindy P. Driscoll, Peter C. McGowan, Carl R. Callahan, Amy W. O'Donnell, Jennifer M. Mullinax, David E. Stallknecht, Diann J. Prosser
2025, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (61) 348-356
Double-crested Cormorants (Nannopterum auritum) have historically exhibited low levels of infection and antibodies to avian influenza virus (AIV). The recent global expansion of clade 2.3.4.4b A/goose/Guangdong/1/1996 highly pathogenic (HP) avian influenza virus H5N1 (HPAI H5N1) has resulted in large-scale mortalities across diverse waterbird taxa including cormorants. We sampled 32 and...
AAPG Energy and Minerals Division Tight Oil and Gas Committee Activities and Commodity Report for 2021-2022: Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Gulf Coast basin, Louisiana and Mississippi
Celeste D. Lohr
2025, Preprint
The Upper Cretaceous Tuscaloosa marine shale (TMS) potential production area encompasses 20.4 million acres across central Louisiana (LA), southern Mississippi (MS), southwestern Alabama (AL), and a small southwestern section of the Florida panhandle (Hackley et al., 2018). It remains a minor and largely undeveloped unconventional shale oil play with production...
Is sexual size dimorphism in walleye, Sander vitreus, a driver of seasonal movements in Lake Erie?
Christian J. Bihun, Matthew Faust, Richard Kraus, Thomas MacDougall, Jason Robinson, Christopher Vandergoot, Graham D. Raby
2025, Journal of Fish Biology (106) 430-441
Walleye (Sander vitreus) are a sexually dimorphic species in which females are larger than males in adulthood. Walleye can also exhibit sex- and population-based differences in migration behavior. In Lake Erie, we used acoustic telemetry to test the prediction that female walleye exhibit larger broad-scale movements than males during the...
Reproductive parameters in invasive blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) from tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Delaware, 2020–22
Heather L. Walsh, Christine L. Densmore, Amy M. Regish, Jessica L. Norstog, Johnny Moore, Branson Williams, Noah Bressman, Zachary Crum
2025, Open-File Report 2024-1074
Over the past few decades, Ictalurus furcatus (Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1840; blue catfish) have become a formidable invasive species in tidal tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Delaware. Knowledge of their reproductive behaviors can support managers in the determination of ideal timing and implementation of mitigation...
Catastrophic lava flow levee failure: Precursors, processes, and implications
Elisabeth Gallant, Hannah R. Dietterich, Matthew R. Patrick, David Matthew Hyman, Brett B Carr, John J. Lyons, Elinor S. Meredith
2025, Volcanica (8) 67-80
During an effusive eruption crisis the initial advance of a lava flow is typically the primary focus of model forecasts and hazard management efforts. Flow branching and lateral expansion of lava flows can pose significant dangers within evolving flow fields throughout the duration of an eruption and are an underappreciated...
“Leaky weirs” capture alluvial deposition and enhance seasonal mountain-front recharge in dryland streams
Laura M. Norman, Kristine; Uhlman, Hanna Coy, Natalie R. Wilson, Andrew M. Bennett, Floyd Gray, Kurt T. Ehrenberg
2025, Applied Water Science (15)
“Leaky weirs” are rock structures installed in dryland streams, which are anchored into exposed bedrock, loosely cemented, and designed to allow water to slowly pass through. They are being tested at a ranch in southeastern Arizona, USA, to restore and conserve the historic range and desert wetlands. Data are collected...
