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Water is vital to human life and healthy ecosystems. Here we outline the current state of national-scale water resources trend assessments, identify key gaps, and suggest advancements to better address critical issues related to changes in water resources that may threaten human development or the environment. Questions like, “Do we...

Individual growth can exert strong controls on population dynamics and be constrained by resource acquisition rates. Difficulty in accurately quantifying resource availability over large spatial extents and at high temporal frequency often limits attempts to understand the extent that resources limit individual growth. Daily estimates of stream...

The Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea, is an invasive freshwater bivalve that has established populations across the globe and is known to have deleterious effects on natural and human systems. Yet, despite being present in the Columbia River (CR) for nearly a century, little is known about this invader's basic biology and...

Coastal wetland salinization related to warming climate has the potential to impact ecological systems globally. In Alaska, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (YKD) supports large concentrations of breeding water birds and is an ecologically important area for conservation of migratory bird biodiversity. On the YKD, the majority of waterfowl nest in...

Alluvial plain landscapes are some of the most agriculturally productive lands in the world but often have modified stream ecosystems due to cultivation history. This context requires consideration when establishing water quality management goals. We analyzed state water quality databases to demonstrate that Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP) ecoregion streams have...

Dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) frequently traverse agricultural matrices in search of ephemeral dung resources and spend extended periods of time burrowing in soil. Neonicotinoids are among the most heavily applied and widely detected insecticides used in conventional agriculture with formulated products designed for row crop and livestock pest suppression. Here,...

The ability of ‘digital agriculture’ to support on-farm decision making is predicated on the real-time combination of observations and prior knowledge into an integrated digital environment. The mathematical discipline that seeks to provide this integration is known as model data assimilation (DA), with demonstrated...

Modelling and analysis of helicopter electromagnetic data result in resistivity and susceptibility models and derivatives of magnetic data that characterise shallow parts of the Stillwater Complex, critical for aiding exploration and expansion of globally scarce critical and battery mineral resources that include platinum group elements, nickel, copper...

Redox-active functional groups in dissolved organic matter (DOM) are crucial for microbial electron transfer and methane emissions. However, the extent of aquatic DOM redox properties across northern high-latitude lakes and their relationships with DOM composition have not been thoroughly described. We quantified...

There is a paucity of data evaluating water use by raptors. Although raptors are believed to satisfy their water requirements through metabolic processes, they are known to experience reduced reproductive success during periods of drought, and there is evidence of water being important for site occupancy in arid...

Bathymetric and velocimetric data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Transportation, near 15 bridges at 10 highway crossings of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers near Washington, Louisiana, and St. Louis, Missouri, on August 3–10, 2020. A multibeam echosounder mapping system was used...

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) Hinkley compressor station, in the Mojave Desert, 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California, is used to compress natural gas as it is transported through a pipeline from Texas to California. Between 1952 and 1964, cooling water was treated with a compound containing...

Digital maps of bedrock elevation and overburden thickness (depth to bedrock) were constructed for the five boroughs of New York City by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New York City Department of Design and Construction, from a compilation of historical and newly acquired data. Raster surfaces were...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management (NJOEM), created digital flood-inundation maps for approximately 1,430 square miles of the New Jersey coast and tidewaters through 10 coastal counties stretching from Cumberland County through...

One of the primary purposes of the 2023 Coastal Master Plan Integrated Compartment Model (ICM) is to forecast potential changes in coastal wetland area under varying environmental and restoration scenarios. To validate the model performance, historical analyses of observed wetland changes are needed for comparison to hindcast model runs. To...

The tire wear transformation product 6PPD-quinone (6PPDQ) has been implicated as the causative factor for broad scale mortality events for coho salmon in the Pacific Northwest. Highly variable sensitivity to 6PPDQ in closely related salmonids complicates efforts to evaluate the broader toxicological impacts to aquatic ecosystems. Our goals were to...

Two synoptic sampling campaigns were conducted to quantify metal loading to Illinois Gulch, a small stream affected by historical mining activities. The first campaign was designed to determine the degree to which Illinois Gulch loses water to the underlying mine workings, and to determine the effect of these losses on observed metal loads....

We evaluated wildlife population health from the perspective of statistical means vs. variances. We outlined the choices necessary to provide the framework for our study. These consisted of spatial and temporal boundaries (e.g., choice of sentinel species, populations, time frame), measurement techniques (molecular to population level), and appropriate statistical analyses....

The ability to colonize new habitat is essential for wild populations affected by disturbance or other forms of habitat change. For aquatic insects in small streams, overland flight is an important strategy for dispersal when barriers to in-stream migration exist and when populations are isolated in upland habitats. Two Ozark-endemic...

Stakeholder participation in social-ecological systems (SES) modeling is increasingly considered a desirable way to elicit diverse sources of knowledge about SES behavior and to promote inclusive decision-making in SES. Understanding how participatory modeling processes function in the context of long-term adaptive management of SES may allow for better design of...

Spatiotemporal variations in reference evapotranspiration (ETo) are sensitive to the meteorological data used in its estimation. The sensitivity of the ASCE standardized ETo equation to meteorological variables from GOES-PRWEB dataset was evaluated for the island of Puerto Rico. Island wide, ETo is most sensitive to daily mean relative humidity (RHmean), followed...

Paleoclimate records across the Intermountain West region of North America show significant regional variation in timing and magnitude of wet conditions that accompanied the last glacial-interglacial transition. To understand the climate controls on paleohydrologic change, well-dated records are needed across the region. The Plains of San Agustin (New Mexico, USA)...

Outdoor recreation is an important and growing activity worldwide. Water-based outdoor recreation is a subset that includes various activities such as fishing, boating, and swimming. While a large portion of water-based recreation is either free or provided at administratively set minimal entrance fees, these activities still involve significant economic value...

Acoustic instrumentation can be used to provide time-series and discrete estimates of suspended-sediment concentration, load, and sediment particle sizes in fluvial systems, which are essential for creating informed solutions to many sediment-related environmental, engineering, and land management concerns. Historically, scientists have developed relations between suspended sediment characteristics and other parameters,...

Changes in water temperature and its seasonal timing influences the physiological processes of many aquatic ectotherms. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) contribute to warmer and more consistent water temperatures in streams draining the North American Great Plains, particularly during winter months. Reduced variation in...