Revisiting the geochronology of late Quaternary marine terraces and uplift rates in coastal Santa Barbara County, California, USA
Daniel R. Muhs, R. Randall Schumann, Jordon Bright, Helen M. Roberts, Lindsey T. Groves
2026, Geomorphology (501)
In several early studies, central California marine terraces between Santa Barbara and Point Conception were interpreted to record sea-level high stands of the last interglacial complex, ∼80 ka to ∼120 ka (marine isotope stage [MIS] 5). These ages and their elevations (∼20 m to ∼45 m) indicate modest rates of tectonic...
Widespread terrestrial ecosystem disruption at the onset of the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum
Mei Nelissen, Debra A. Willard, Han Konijnenburg-van Cittert, Gabriel J. Bowen, Teuntje Hollaar, Appy Sluijs, Joost Frieling, Henk Brinkhuis
2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (123)
The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~56 Mya) interval was marked by massive 13C-depleted carbon emissions into the ocean/atmosphere system, manifested as a negative carbon isotope excursion (CIE) in sedimentary components, and ~5 °C global average warming. Episodes of hydrological perturbations and soil-erosion have been widely documented for the PETM but their...
Toxicity of anticoagulant rodenticides on Pacific salmon: Assessing lethal and sublethal effects
Lillian M. Pavord, Melissa K. Driessnack, Aaron B. Shiels, Steven Volker, Barnett A. Rattner, Jenifer McIntyre
2026, Ecotoxciology and Environmental Safety (310)
To restore native biodiversity on island ecosystems containing invasive rodents, partial- and whole-island eradications generally rely on broadcast baiting with anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs). This approach can result in bait pellets entering aquatic environments, raising concerns about effects to non-target fish. Salmonids are a dominant group of fishes on many temperate...
Harmonization of aggregated freshwater biotic data to support continental and global assessment
Jennifer Lento, Sarah M. Laske, Joseph M. Culp, Willem Goedkoop, Maria Kahlert, Danny C.P. Lau, Isabelle Lavoie, Jordan Musetta-Lambert, Jón S. Ólafsson, Kirsten S. Christoffersen
2026, PLOS Water (5)
Biodiversity loss and conservation are increasingly coming into focus in global policy fora, requiring information and assessments at wider spatial and temporal scales than previously considered. However, the monitoring framework required to support such data collection and assessment is lacking in many countries and is not harmonized...
Recent range expansion and documentation of a reproductive population of northern snakehead Channa argus (Cantor, 1842) in the Saint Francis River Drainage, Missouri
Edward M. Sterling, Taylor A. Bookout, Erin Holmes, Neil Baalman, Cody Henderson, Patrick Kroboth
2026, Records of Biological Invasions (15) 183-194
Northern snakehead Channa argus (Cantor, 1842) is an aquatic invasive fish species in the United States with first documented occurrence in the wild in the 2000s. Management efforts to control their populations in the eastern United States are ongoing. In the Mississippi River basin, limited resources have been allocated to...
Luminescence dating of hydrothermal explosions in the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field
Karissa Cordero, Nathan Brown, Lauren N. Harrison, Shaul Hurwitz
2026, Quaternary Research
Hydrothermal explosions are a significant geological hazard in some active volcanic systems; however, the timing and triggering mechanisms of these explosions are poorly constrained. This study applies luminescence dating techniques to hydrothermal explosion deposits in the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field to constrain explosion chronologies and evaluate potential triggering mechanisms. We...
The surface is not superficial: Utilizing hyper-local thermal photogrammetry for pedestrian thermal comfort inquiry
Logan Steinharter, Peter Christian Ibsen, Priyanka deSouza, Melissa R. McHale
2026, Remote Sensing (18)
The scale and magnitude of urban heating are often assessed using Satellite-Derived Land Surface Temperature (SD-LST). Yet, discrepancies in spatial resolution limit SD-LST’s ability to reflect pedestrian thermal experience, potentially leading to ineffective mitigation strategies. Hyper-local measurements of urban heat, defined as surface temperatures (TS) at the...
Genomic evidence for local adaptation to elevation and climate sheds new light on variable responses to global change in American pikas (Ochotona princeps)
Erik A. Beever, Elizabeth Osterhoudt, Ethan B. Linck
2026, Molecular Ecology (35)
No abstract available....
Early Pliocene (Zanclean) sea surface temperature for PlioMIP3
Harry J. Dowsett, Kevin M. Foley
2026, Global and Planetary Change (259)
Paleoclimate researchers have been comparing Pliocene environmental data to paleoclimate model results since the 1980s. The Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP) began in 2008 with a focus on the Late Pliocene. Here we assess the availability and utility of sea surface temperature (SST) data for verification of...
Compounding of 100-year coastal floods by rainfall in an urban environment
Shima Kasaei, Phillip M. Orton, Thomas Wahli, David K. Ralston, John C. Warner
2026, Environmental Research Letters (21)
Coastal and pluvial flooding are both becoming more prevalent and severe due to climate change and urbanization in floodplains. The co-occurrence of these flood drivers is generally assumed to exacerbate the resulting flood impacts, a result referred to as compound flooding. However, few observational or modeling studies have investigated the...
Coral reef protection may help avert risks to people, property, and economic activity caused by projected reef degradation
Curt D. Storlazzi, Borja Reguero, Kimberly Yates, Kristen Alkins, James B. Shope, Camila Gaido-Lasserre, Theresa Fregoso, Michael W. Beck
2026, Earth's Future (14)
Degradation of coral reefs over the past several decades has caused regional-scale erosion of the shallow seafloor that serves as a protective barrier against coastal hazards along southeast Florida, USA. How future change in coral reefs may affect coastal flooding, however, has been less attended than other factors contributing to...
Conducting feasibility assessments of potential conservation reintroductions: A case study with the imperiled foothill yellow-legged frog, Rana boylii
Daniel Antonio Macias, Patrick M. Kleeman, Michelle L. Hladik, Kelly Smalling, Paul G. Johnson, Daniel A. Grear, Jonathan P. Rose, Brian J. Halstead
2026, Natural Areas Journal (46) 31-43
Conservation translocations are an increasingly common and often necessary component of recovering species that have become extirpated from portions of their range. Understanding and ameliorating potential threats that reduce the likelihood of successful population establishment at recipient sites is a key component of successful translocation planning. We examined multiple potential...
Hydrologic dynamics of ephemerally flooded playas in a dryland environment
Charles R. Kimsal, Enrique R. Vivoni, Osvaldo E. Sala, H. Curtis Monger, Owen P. McKenna
2026, Water Resources Research (62)
Ephemerally flooded playas are common in the southwestern United States and globally in drylands. Often formed in closed basins, playas are depressions which inundate infrequently from local precipitation and streamflow produced near the playa or from upland areas. Few studies have quantified the hydrologic connectivity between upland catchments and playas...
Monitoring recreation on federally managed lands and waters—Aspects of visitor use
Emily J. Wilkins, Dieta Hanson, Whitney Boone, Spencer A. Wood, Christian S.L. Crowley, Rudy Schuster
2026, Preprint
Federally managed public lands and waters receive about 1 billion recreational visits each year. Data on these visitors can aid in guiding policy decisions, managing resources effectively, and communicating the economic contributions of lands and waters. This report explores the methods used by agencies to collect data on aspects of...
Gerrard strain Rainbow Trout are not piscivorous in a shallow, polymictic reservoir
Kaitlyn M. Furey, Christopher S. Guy, Bradley W. Liermann, Patrick Saffel, David A. Schmetterling
2026, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (46) 247-258
ObjectiveGeorgetown Lake (Montana, USA) is renowned for its multispecies salmonid fishery. Although many anglers target kokanee Oncorhynchus nerka in Georgetown Lake, the body length of kokanee has typically been considered unsatisfactory. To reduce the density of kokanee and increase the average size, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks began stocking the piscivorous Gerrard...
An integrated mudstone facies classification scheme and revised interpretation of the sedimentologic processes driving carbon burial in the Cenomanian–Turonian Greenhorn Formation, Colorado, U.S.A.
Jason A. Flaum, Katherine L. French, Justin E. Birdwell, Kira K. Timm
2026, Journal of Sedimentary Research (96) 1-23
Standardizing facies descriptions has proven key to integrating interpretations of depositional processes and environments from sedimentologic observations with geochemistry data for mudstone lithologies. Because of their fine-grained nature, high degree of compaction, and heterogeneous composition, standardizing methods for mudstone descriptions has proven difficult, but it is critical...
Quantifying post-fire live tree presence and spatial variation using Sentinel-2 time series
Saba J. Saberi, Phillip J. van Mantgem, Micah C. Wright, Christopher Y.S. Wong, Andrew M. Latimer, Derek J.N. Young
2026, Forest Ecology and Management (605)
Accurate mapping of post-fire surviving trees is important for tracking forest recovery and prioritizing land management decisions. Satellite-based remote sensing is an effective method to assess post-fire forest conditions. Traditionally, differenced satellite-derived burn severity indices are computed by differencing one year pre- and post-fire spectral reflectance values. Differenced...
Groundwater tracing used to delineate recharge areas and map karst groundwater pathways for subterranean streams at Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve
Benjamin V. Miller
2026, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5084
Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve in southwestern Oregon is a 4,554-acre area managed by the National Park Service that is home to several cave systems, including Oregon Caves, which is the longest cave in Oregon, with 3.03 miles of mapped passages. Because of the interconnected nature of karst hydrologic...
A review and synthesis of post-wildfire shifts in hydrologic processes and streamflow generation mechanisms
Brian A. Ebel, John C. Hammond, Michelle A. Walvoord, Trevor Fuess Partridge, David M. Rey, Sheila F. Murphy
2026, Environmental Research: Water (1)
Critical water supply watersheds in the western United States (WUS) are impacted by wildfires, with potential negative effects on water quality and quantity. Scientific understanding is currently insufficient to deliver estimates of wildfire consequences for water quantity that are regionally accurate. Regional variability in the directionality and...
Computation of regional groundwater budgets for the Virginia Coastal Plain aquifer system
Jason P. Pope, Alison D. Gordon, Ryan S. Frederiks
2026, Preprint
Computation of detailed groundwater flow budgets for subdivisions of Virginia’s Coastal Plain aquifer system has enabled quantification and more thorough understanding of groundwater flow within this important water resource. A zone budget analysis conducted on previously published groundwater models of the Virginia Coastal Plain and Virginia Eastern Shore shows that...
Low-frequency earthquakes track the motion of a captured slab fragment
David R. Shelly, Amanda M. Thomas, Kathryn Z. Materna, Robert J. Skoumal
2026, Science (391) 294-299
Accurate tectonic models are essential for assessing seismic hazard and fault interactions. However, the plate configuration at the complex Mendocino triple junction, where the San Andreas Fault and the Cascadia subduction zone meet, remains uncertain. We analyzed fault slip associated with a recently identified zone of tectonic tremor and low-frequency...
Ground-motion simulations for the 2024 Mw 4.8 Tewksbury, New Jersey, earthquake
Oliver S. Boyd, Ebru Bozdağ, Haiyang Liam Kehoe, Morgan P. Moschetti
2026, Seismological Research Letters (97) 755-766
Ground-motion simulations of notable earthquakes in the central and eastern United States are limited and typically assume one-dimensional (1D) Earth structure. In this study, we use a three-dimensional (3D) seismic velocity model to better constrain the depth and focal mechanism of the April 5th, 2024, moment magnitude 4.8 Tewksbury earthquake...
Assessment of undiscovered continuous and conventional oil and gas resources in the Woodford and Barnett Shales of the Permian Basin Province, Texas and New Mexico, 2025
Andrea D. Cicero, Christopher J. Schenk, Jenny H. Lagesse, Benjamin G. Johnson, Tracey J. Mercier, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Sarah E. Gelman, Jane S. Hearon, Phuong A. Le
2026, Fact Sheet 2026-3059
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean continuous and conventional resources of 1.6 billion barrels of oil and 28.3 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Woodford and Barnett Shales of the Permian Basin Province....
More water, more of the time: Spatial changes in flooding over 83 years in the upper Mississippi River floodplain and relationships with streamgage-derived proxies
Molly Van Appledorn, Nathan R. De Jager, Jason J. Rohweder, Marcella Windmuller-Campione, Daniel Griffin
2026, Water Resources Research (62)
The hydrologic regime of the upper Mississippi River (UMR) has become wetter, with greater discharges, longer-lasting high-flow conditions, and seasonal shifts in these patterns over the past several decades. How these changes are expressed spatially as floodplain inundation area, frequency, depth, duration, and timing is not well understood. It is...
A new inventory and conservation assessment of United States islands
Roger Sayre, Madeline T. Martin, Nadia Naji, Kelly B. Sides, Jill Janene Cress, Kevin Butler, Keith Van Graafeiland, Deniz Karagulle, Charlie Frye, Sean Breyer, Dawn Wright, John Klavitter, Dena Spatz, David Will, Gregg Howald, Alex Wegmann, Charlotte K. Stanley, Nick Holmes
2026, Annals of the American Association of Geographers
To support conservation-focused research and management we developed a new 30-m resolution polygon data layer of the nonlacustrine and nonriverine islands of the United States, with associated attributes describing key physical and conservation geography characteristics. Islands were grouped into a three-tiered hierarchy of island regions (twelve), island provinces (twenty-eight), and...
