Large streamflow differences between forested and urbanized watersheds in the energy-limited eastern United States: The role of evapotranspiration and impervious surfaces
G. Sun, Z. Bian, K. Khand, P. V. Caldwell, J. Boggs, C. Wang, Y. Chen, N. Liu, Y. Zhang, X. Chen, Gabriel B. Senay, S. G. McNulty
2026, Water Resources Research (62)
Urban forests and other green infrastructures have been viewed as part of the “Nature-based Solutions” (NbS) to mitigate emerging urban environmental change. This study focuses on the role of evapotranspiration (ET) in regulating water balances of small watersheds in the eastern United States. We compared streamflow and ET patterns at...
Origins, evolutions, and future directions of Landsat science products for advancing global inland water and coastal ocean observations
Benjamin Page, Christopher J. Crawford, Saeed Arab, Gail Schmidt, Christopher Barnes, Danika F. Wellington
2026, Earth System Science Data (18) 779-800
In April 2020, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center introduced a Level 2 provisional Aquatic Reflectance (AR) product for the Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), marking the initial phase in developing a standardized global product for Landsat-derived surface water measurements. The goal of...
Estimating paleotemperature using stable isotopes of soil-formed phyllosilicates from paleosols: A review
Kate Andrzejewski, Julia A. McIntosh, Erik L. Gulbranson, Daniel Ibarra
2026, Earth-Science Reviews (275)
Fossilized soils, or paleosols, contain soil-formed phyllosilicates whose stable isotopic compositions may be used to calculate paleotemperature and thus reconstruct ancient terrestrial environments. Though paleosols are common in the geologic record, the use of phyllosilicates as paleotemperature proxies is limited in the literature owing to difficulties with selecting optimal paleosols,...
Environmental DNA pilot monitoring program for invasive species and biodiversity assessments on Santa Cruz Island: Interim report, September 2025
Adam Sepulveda, Susanna Theroux
2026, Science Report NPS/SR—2026/381
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Southern California Coastal Water Research Project supported Channel Islands National Park, The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Santa Cruz Island Preserve, and University of California San Diego (UCSD) researchers in using environmental DNA sampling to monitor for invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) and to describe spatial...
Drinking water arsenic, urinary arsenic biomarkers, and cognitive impairment in the REGARDS study
Meghan Angley, Yijia Zhang, Anne E. Nigra, Melissa A. Lombard, Matthew O. Gribble, Liping Lu, Frederick W. Unverzagt, Leslie A. McClure, Suzanne E. Judd, Mary Cushman, John Brockman, Ka Kahe
2026, Environmental Research (294)
BackgroundThere are several pathways by which inorganic arsenic (iAs) exposure can affect cognition among adults. Few epidemiologic studies evaluate iAs in water and inter-individual differences in urinary arsenic toxicokinetics. We aimed to estimate the association between individual-level urinary arsenic biomarkers, county-level iAs in...
Frameworks for assessing tsunami hazard and risk
Natalia Zamora, Anita Grezio, Maria Papathoma-Kohle, Fatemeh Jalayer, Dimitra Salmanidou, Thomas E. Parsons, Eric L. Geist, Jacopo Selva, Mathilde B. Sørensen, Irina Rafliana
Mathilde B. Sørensen, Jorn Behrens, Fatemeh Jalayer, Finn Løvholt, Stefano Lorito, Irina Rafliana, Mario A. Salgado-Gálvez, Jacopo Selva, editor(s)
2026, Book chapter, Probabilistic tsunami hazard and risk analysis
Tsunamis are multiscale phenomena resulting from a water column displacement that may be induced by multiple sources, and range from local scale inundation processes to ocean-wide scale wave propagation. Different strategies may be required to model tsunami evolution at different scales and to characterize various intensity measures. Research in tsunami...
Carbon sequestration along a gradient of tidal marsh degradation in response to sea level rise
Mona Huyzentruyt, Maarten Wens, Gregory S. Fivash, David Walters, Steven Bouillon, Joel Carr, Glenn Guntenspergen, Matt L. Kirwan, Stijn Temmerman
2026, Biogeosciences (23) 851-865
Tidal marshes are considered one of the world's most efficient ecosystems for belowground organic carbon sequestration and hence climate mitigation. Marsh systems are however also vulnerable to degradation due to climate-induced sea level rise, whereby marsh vegetation conversion to open water often follows distinct spatial patterns: levees...
Groundwater-level elevations in the bedrock aquifers of the Denver Basin aquifer system, Elbert County, Colorado, 2015–23
Kelli M. Palko, Cory A. Russell, Nicholas J. Pieseski
2026, Scientific Investigations Report 2026-5115
Water users in Elbert County, Colorado, rely on groundwater from bedrock aquifers in the Denver Basin aquifer system (upper Dawson, lower Dawson, Denver, Arapahoe, and Laramie-Fox Hills aquifers) for approximately half of their water uses. Withdrawals from the bedrocks aquifers have increased to meet the water use needs of expanding...
Effects of carbamazepine to visual function in early life stage fish
Jason Tyler Magnuson, Holly J. Puglis, Jessica K. Leet, Adam H. Moody, Célio Freire Mariz Jr., Thea M. Edwards, Daniela M. Pampanin
2026, Environmental Research (294)
The frequent detection of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment raises concern for aquatic systems. Carbamazepine (CBZ), an antiepileptic drug, is among the most detected PPCP globally, with concentrations in surface water exceeding those that induce toxicity to aquatic organisms. Non-targeted transcriptomic profiling was conducted in zebrafish...
Thinking outside the rocks: Subsurface water storage, topography, and land cover are key modulators of large-scale riverine dissolved silicon dynamics
Sidney A. Bush, Keira Johnson, Kathi Jo Jankowski, Joanna C. Carey, Lienne R. Sethna, Nicholas Lyon, Pamela L. Sullivan
2026, Geophysical Research Letters (53)
Riverine dissolved silicon (DSi) dynamics reflect integrated geologic, hydrologic, climatic, and ecological controls. We compiled annual DSi data for 337 rivers across four continents and trained interpretable machine-learning models to predict concentrations and yields from 28 watershed variables. Both models reproduced testing data (R2 = 0.85 for concentration and 0.96 for yield)...
Harvest of long-tailed ducks from an important hunting location on Lake Michigan
Luke J. Fara, William S. Beatty, Brian R. Gray, Kevin P. Kenow, Michael W. Eichholz
2026, Journal of Wildlife Management (90)
Annual waterfowl harvest in North America is estimated through a collaborative and strategic process, with federal harvest surveys the primary method of estimation. Sea duck hunters participating in federal harvest surveys represent a small proportion of the overall waterfowl hunting population, limiting the utility of harvest estimates for sea ducks....
Vegetation cover and composition in environments surrounding uranium mines in the Grand Canyon ecosystem, Northern Arizona
Rebecca K. Mann, Michael C. Duniway, Jo Ellen Hinck
2026, Open-File Report 2025-1024
Mining uranium from breccia-pipe deposits in the greater Grand Canyon region has occurred since the mid-1900s. However, possible ecosystem contamination with harmful levels of radionuclides may have occurred due to mining activities in the 21st century. In response, a 20-year Federal moratorium on new mining claims in the Grand Canyon...
Seasonal and decadal changes in winter body condition of four sympatric diving ducks
Mason A. Hill, Susan E.W. De La Cruz, Laurie Anne Hall, Stacy M. Moskal, John Y. Takekawa, John M. Eadie
2026, Journal of Wildlife Management (90)
Winter body condition is an important driver of survival, reproductive output, and overall population health in waterfowl. Diving duck species use distinct habitats, exploit unique resources, and can collectively provide an integrated index of winter habitat quality. The San Francisco Bay (SFB) is the largest estuary on...
Decadal trends and occurrence of geogenic constituents and mixtures in groundwater across the continental United States
Melinda L. Erickson, Sarah M. Elliott, MaryLynn Musgrove, Elise Danica Hinman, Margaux Jeanne Sleckman, Sarah M. Stackpoole, Bruce D. Lindsey
2026, Environmental Science and Technology - Water (6) 664-678
Worldwide, about 50% of the population is served by groundwater-sourced drinking water. Numerous groundwater quality assessments have found that geogenic constituents are among the most common contaminants in drinking-water aquifers. Documenting changing groundwater quality is a crucial aspect of water availability assessments. We assess trends and occurrence of geogenic constituent...
Contrasting haemosporidian infections in two ecologically distinct wading birds from breeding colonies in the southeastern United States
Ke Zhang, Samantha M. Wisely, Chris K. Gulick, Abby N. Powell
2026, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife (29)
Wading birds may serve as ideal hosts for avian hemoparasites, as they are long-lived, undertake extensive movements, form dense breeding colonies, and inhabit water-associated environments that support vectors. Although previous studies have reported parasite species and prevalence in various wading bird species, little is known about their...
Recent scientific contributions by the U.S. Geological Survey in the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta Estuary
Judith Z. Drexler, Jake Weltzin
2026, Fact Sheet 2025-3058
Introduction The San Francisco Bay and Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta Estuary (hereafter, Bay-Delta) is the largest estuary on the West Coast of the United States. The Bay-Delta covers more than 1,600 square miles and drains a watershed of more than 75,000 square miles, which is greater than 40 percent of California. The...
Multi-year cut-to-drown management limits Phragmites australis growth, belowground resources, and rhizome viability in Great Lakes wetlands
Wesley A. Bickford, Kaira A. Schaefer, Spenser L. Widin, Kurt P. Kowalski
2026, Journal of Great Lakes Research (52)
The distribution and abundance of Phragmites in the Great Lakes coastal zone has expanded in part due to its unique ventilation physiology and its ability to take advantage of changes in lake levels over the past several decades. During an extended period of low lake levels in the early...
Teach me how to pycap: A high-capacity well decision support tool using analytical solutions in Python
Michael N. Fienen, Aaron Pruitt, Howard W. Reeves
2026, Groundwater (64) 223-234
Regulatory agencies in humid temperate environments rely on timely evaluations of streamflow depletion and drawdown to protect aquatic ecosystems and existing water users. Numerical models offer detailed insights, but their complexity and time demands often preclude their practical use in rapid decision-making. We present pycap-dss, an open-source Python package that...
Prioritizing resource protection and understanding potential susceptibility of springs to surficial changes in a low-temperature geothermal system
Connor P. Newman, Jeffrey D. Pepin
2026, Geothermics (136)
Geothermal systems are vulnerable to changes in water budget and composition, requiring science-based management. This study uses a dataset of spring water temperatures, time series of groundwater residence time tracers (tritium and carbon-14), and stable isotopes of water to understand geothermal flow in a low-temperature geothermal system in north west...
A catalogue of Do's and Don'ts in the modeling of environmental systems
Xifu Sun, Anthony J. Jakeman, Serena H Hamilton, Volker Grimm, Randall J. Hunt, Sondoss El Sawah, Hsiao-Hsuan Wang, Barry Croke, Min Chen
2026, Environmental Modelling and Software (198)
Modeling plays a vital role in understanding and managing complex environmental systems, but its credibility and quality depend heavily on a comprehensive set of defensible model activities and practices, especially when the system of interest is plagued with uncertainties and conflicting stakeholder perspectives. This paper proposes a...
Extreme Potomac floods at Washington D.C. during the past 500 years
Michael Toomey, Thomas M. Cronin, Jessica R. Rodysill, Julia Lynn Seidenstein, Debra A. Willard
2026, Geophysical Research Letters (53)
Washington D.C. faces one of the highest 100-year flood risks of any major city along the U.S. East Coast. In addition to storm-surge inundation during hurricanes and nor'easters, water-level observations for Washington are strongly skewed by major floods on the Potomac River. Using geologic and historic records we find new...
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other contaminants of concern in tribal waters of Montana
Kelly L. Smalling, Paul M. Bradley, Kristin M. Romanok, John T. Doyle, Margaret J. Eggers, Christine Martin, Elliott P. Barnhart, Picabo Binette, Eric M. Castro, Madisan Chavez, Stephanie A. Ewing, Stephanie E. Gordon, Mathew W. Fields, James L. Gray, Ashley M. Groshong, Chiachi Hwang, Leslie K. Kanagy, JoRee WClay LaFrance, Keith A. Loftin, Carrie Mae Long, R. Blaine McCleskey, Shannon M. Meppelink, Crystal L. Richards, Molly L. Schreiner, Jonathan I. Shikany, Mahelat Tesfamariam
2026, Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts (28) 579-597
We assessed potential exposures to a broad suite of contaminants (inorganic, organic and microbial) in culturally important surface waters from three watersheds in a northern plains Native American community (Apsáalooke [Crow Tribe of Montana]) in south-central Montana, United States, with water insecurity concerns. Inorganic (37), organic (435)...
Surface variable‐based machine learning for scalable arsenic prediction in undersampled areas
Shams Azad, Mason O. Stahl, Melinda L. Erickson, Beck A. DeYoung, Craig T. Connolly, Lawrence Chillrud, Kathrin Schilling, Ana Navas-Acien, Anirban Basu, Brian Mailloux, Benjamin C. Bostick, Steven N. Chillrud
2026, GeoHealth (10)
In the United States, private wells are not federally regulated, and many households do not test for Arsenic (As). Chronic exposure is linked with multiple health outcomes, and risk can change sharply over short distances and with well depth. Coarse maps or sparse sampling often miss exceedances....
Waterfowl move less in heterogeneous and human-populated landscapes, with implications for spread of avian influenza viruses
Claire Stewart Teitelbaum, Diann J. Prosser, Joshua T. Ackerman, Sakib Ahmed, A.B.M. Sarowar Alam, Kazi Zenifar Azmiri, Nyambaya Batbayar, Joël Bêty, Abigail Blake-Bradshaw, Dmitrijs Boiko, Nelleke H. Buitendijk, Jeffrey J. Buler, David Cabot, Michael L. Casazza, Bradley S. Cohen, Batmunkh Davaasuren, Sébastien Farau, Jamie Feddersen, John R. Fieberg, Wolfgang Fiedler, Peter Glazov, Larry R. Griffin, Matthieu Guillemain, Heath Hagy, Matthew J. Hardy, Cory Highway, David Hoffman, Tehan Kang, Allison Keever, Jennifer Kilburn, Andrea Kölzsch, Helmut Kruckenberg, Toni Laaksonen, Brian S. Ladman, Hansoo Lee, Siwan Lee, Josée Lefebvre, Pierre Legagneux, Hans Linssen, Jesper Madsen, Nicholas M. Masto, Scott R. McWilliams, Tori Mezebish Quinn, Carl P.J. Mitchell, Axelle Moreau, Gerhard Müskens, Scott Newman, Bart A. Nolet, Rascha J.M. Nuijten, Jay Osenkowski, Cory T. Overton, Antti Piironen, Betty Plaquin, Andrew M. Ramey, Jean Rodrigue, David Rodrigues, Kees H.T. Schreven, Yali Si, Jeffery D. Sullivan, John Takekawa, Philippe J. Thomas, Mariëlle van Toor, Jonas Waldenström, Christopher K. Williams, David W. Wolfson, Fei Xu, Ian G. Brosnan, Susan E.W. De La Cruz
2026, Ecology Letters (29)
Animal movements contribute to the spread of infectious diseases and are driven in part by environmental conditions. We investigated the links among the environment, animal movement, and infectious disease dynamics in waterfowl, which are among the primary wildlife hosts of avian influenza viruses. By combining telemetry data...
Assessing the influence of conservation implementation on water quality during surface runoff events at edge-of-field monitoring sites located in the Laurentian Great Lakes basin
Brittany Rose Hanrahan, Matthew W. Diebel, Rebecca B. Carvin, Edward G. Dobrowolski, Matthew John Hardebeck, Andrew Jason Kowalczk, Chad A. Toussant, Matthew J. Komiskey
2026, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation (80) 654-678
The Laurentian Great Lakes are a vital freshwater resource in the United States, and nonpoint source (NPS) nutrient pollution, specifically phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N), from agricultural land use continues to negatively impact water quality throughout the Great Lakes basin. One focus of the Great Lakes Restoration...
