Viral outbreak dynamics and evolution in wildlife at the interface with humans
Rachael Marie Giglio, Aaron Westmoreland, Mark Q. Wilber, Grete WIlson-Henjum, Aung Nyein Chan, Billy Gardner, Wantida Horpiencharoen, Roderick B. Gagne, Avery M. Corondi, Alec Baker, Matthew A. Combs, Jefferey Chandler, Kezia R. Manlove, Kim M. Pepin, W. David Walter
2025, Biology Letters (21)
In this study, we used a multi-faceted approach to understand patterns of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission and persistence in a wild white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) population. Serology data indicated transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and persistence during the seven-month sampling period. Traditional disease modelling based...
Rapid structured decision making for Hypomesus transpacificus (delta smelt) summer–fall freshwater outflow management
Brian D. Healy, Corey C. Phillis, Brian Mahardja, Cameron Koizumi, Catarina Pien, Nancy Parker, J. Louise Conrad, Julie Ekstrom, Julie Leimbach, Rafael Silberblatt, Tom Fischer, Chase Ehlo
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1055
Managers of the Central Valley Project (CVP) and State Water Projects (SWP) in California are confronted with difficult tradeoffs between water uses and associated values affected by water management decisions. These decisions involve altering the timing and magnitude of water releases from dams and reservoirs, which can affect habitats for...
USGS—An Unparalleled Scientific Asset
Shonte Jenkins, Emily Pindilli, David Applegate, Rachel E. Reagan
2025, General Information Product 263
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) delivers information critical to powering our economy, managing our natural resources, and keeping Americans safe and healthy.1Mapping the Nation$21B Geologic maps save users an estimated 15% in annual costs: a value of between $14B and $21B.$25.6B in annual value to users of imagery from Landsat...
Interaction strength and harvest intensity mediate predator–prey dynamics on coral reefs
Sophia A. Rahnke, Winter. Kawika B., Lillian Joy Tuttle Raz, Lisa C. McManus
2025, Ecosphere (16)
Understanding predator–prey relationships is fundamental to our knowledge of the stability and resilience of ecological systems. These dynamics are shaped by both ecological factors, like interaction strength, and anthropogenic factors, like harvest intensity, which can have large-scale implications for community structure. However, few studies have focused on the combined impact...
Spatial connections between the timing of hydroclimatic extremes
Stacey Archfield
2025, Nature Water (3) 1352-1353
No abstract available....
Memory and jamming in fault zone sediments
Jhardel Dasent, Vashan Wright, Katherine M. Scharer, Michael Manga, Richard Kilburn
2025, Communications Earth & Environment (6)
Many subsurface processes involve transitions in granular material states, from arrested to creeping to flowing. Experiments and frameworks for idealized systems reveal that granular fabrics develop during shearing, co-evolve with applied stress, and govern such transitions. We use microtomography to test whether fabrics at two San Andreas fault sites reflect...
Conceptual and numerical groundwater flow model of the Iowa River alluvial aquifer near Tama County, Iowa, 1980 through 2022
Kendall M.F. Goldstein, Kyle W. Davis
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5086
The Iowa River alluvial aquifer is an important source of water on the Meskwaki Settlement in Tama County, Iowa, which is land owned by the Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa (commonly known as the Meskwaki Nation). The U.S. Geological Survey constructed a groundwater flow model, including...
Approximate inland extent of saltwater intrusion at the base of the Biscayne aquifer, Miami-Dade County, Florida, 2022
Jade Ziqiu Zhang, Corinne Renshaw
2025, Scientific Investigations Map 3541
Miami-Dade County is part of a densely populated urban corridor in southeastern Florida. The Biscayne aquifer serves as Miami-Dade County’s primary drinking water source and is characterized by highly permeable karstic limestone and carbonate sand. The aquifer’s coastal location and permeable nature make it susceptible to saltwater intrusion. Monitoring the...
Harmonization of a water withdrawal dataset for the conterminous United States
Carol L. Luukkonen, Ayman H. Alzraiee, Deidre M. Herbert, Richard G. Niswonger, Joshua Larsen, Cheryl A. Buchwald, Natalie Houston, Cheryl A. Dieter, Lisa D. Miller, Jana S. Stewart
2025, JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association (61)
The U.S. Geological Survey is developing nationally consistent water-use modeling approaches to replace previous methods relying on locally specific reported and estimated data. These national assessments require datasets that incorporate water withdrawal variability across the United States and over long periods. However, source data often have unclear definitions, missing or...
Rice cultivation supports growth and survival of a threatened semi-aquatic reptile
Jonathan P. Rose, Allison M. Nguyen, Anna Jordan, Daniel Antonio Macias, Elliot James Schoenig, Giancarlo Ray Napolitano, Richard Kim, Julia S.M. Ersan, Alexandria M. Fulton, Brian J. Halstead
2025, Ecological Applications (35)
Integration of agroecosystems and other working landscapes with protected lands and waters is critical to the conservation of Earth's biodiversity. Rice agroecosystems support many species by providing aquatic habitat where natural wetlands have been altered or drained. In regions with long dry seasons, rice fields and associated irrigation canals provide...
Seasonal movements of nonnative White Catfish in the Penobscot River estuary
Andrea N. Casey, Matthew A. Mensinger, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2025, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (45) 1211-1219
ObjectiveWhite Catfish Ameiurus catus has been introduced to coastal watersheds across the United States. In the Penobscot River, Maine, this species has become increasingly common in upstream habitats that have been made accessible by recent dam removals. We characterized the movements of White Catfish to understand the temporal...
Predicting sediment bulk density for San Francisco Estuary
Samantha C. McGill, Jessica R. Lacy
2025, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (23)
Sediment bulk density (ρ-dry) and particle size are two important parameters for predicting sediment bed erosion. ρ-dry, however, is difficult to measure accurately. The units of ρdry have not been consistently reported in the literature, leading to confusion, particularly in the calculation of sediment budgets that typically require integrating mass-based...
Causal analysis of fire regime drivers in California
Jon Keeley, Alexandra D. Syphard
2025, International Journal of Wildland Fire (34)
BackgroundUnderstanding the relative contribution of climate and human factors to wildfires is critical for managing risk across California’s diverse ecosystems, in the United States (US).AimsWe propose a model that distinguishes between proximate and ultimate drivers of fire regimes and apply it to a century of fire and climate...
Geochemical and hydrological investigations of historical data collected at the Lee Acres Landfill and Giant Bloomfield Refinery, New Mexico, 1985–2020
Erin L. Gray, Christina L. Ferguson
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5091
The Lee Acres Landfill and Giant Bloomfield Refinery are adjacent properties near the City of Farmington, New Mexico, each having undergone monitoring and remediation related to historical site activities. At the landfill, site cleanup has included the installation of a capillary barrier over former liquid waste lagoons and periodic monitoring...
Biologging to identify nesting and non-nesting emergences for four species of imperiled sea turtles
Kristen Hart, Connor F. White, Donna J. Shaver, Margaret Lamont, Michael Cherkiss, Andrew G. Crowder, Nicholas M. Whitney
2025, Frontiers in Marine Science (12)
Quantifying sea turtle nesting behavior is essential for recovery planning and evaluating management actions. Traditional monitoring approaches, based on nest counts from beach surveys, can misclassify non-nesting emergences, obscure true fecundity, and underestimate clutch frequency, metrics that directly influence population models and regulatory decisions. Here, we demonstrate...
Exploring atmospheric deposition chemistry data across the United States
Ryan C. McCammon, Noel A. Deyette, Gregory A. Wetherbee
2025, Fact Sheet 2025-3041
The National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) collects atmospheric data to monitor air pollution effects on the quality of United States water supplies and ecosystems. The NADP requires consistent data collection at fixed locations and is governed by a committee with participation by many Federal and State agencies, universities, Tribes, and private companies. NADP conducts a spring...
A summary of grizzly bear distribution in the lower-48 US states in 2024
Cecily M. Costello, Justin A. Dellinger, Jennifer K. Fortin-Noreus, Mark Haroldson, Bryn Karabensh, Wayne F. Kasworm, Lori L. Roberts, Justin E. Teisberg, Frank T. van Manen, Tyler J. Vent
2025, Report
Understanding the distribution of grizzly bear populations in the lower-48 states, is important for their conservation and management, and for public safety. Previously, our research teams working in grizzly bear ecosystems in the lower-48 states used varying methods to estimate distribution of grizzly bear populations. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem...
Wetland hydrologic dynamics and duck productivity are declining in the Prairie Pothole Region, and they are linked
Michael J. Anteau, Michael L Szymanski, Aaron T. Pearse
2025, Environmental and Sustainability Indicators (29)
The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America is a globally important area hosting >50 % of North America’s breeding ducks. Ducks in the PPR depend on wetlands and grasslands which have experienced accelerated losses in extent and quality due to agriculture. While other bird populations have declined,...
Early season tropical cyclones affect birds breeding on a barrier island
Theodore J. Zenzal Jr., Amanda Nicole Anderson, Brock Geary, Jessica Schulz, Robert C. Dobbs, Wylie C. Barrow, Hardin Waddle
2025, Gulf and Caribbean Research (36) 38-48
Animal populations often experience acute natural disturbances, most of which are connected to short—term weather events. Occurrences of early—season tropical cyclones during the peak of the avian breeding season are likely to increase with climate change, which can substantially impact populations of coastal breeding birds at multiple scales. To understand...
Designs for cyanobacterial harmful algal bloom monitoring in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, California
Keith Bouma-Gregson, Lisa Lucas, Andrea Cecile Jaegge, Dulcinea Marie Avouris, Emily T. Richardson, Jacob Aaron Zwart, Tamara E. C. Kraus
2025, Preprint
Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CHABs) are a growing concern in freshwater environments. These blooms can lead to degraded water quality, ecosystem disruptions, and public health threats due to the production of potent cyanotoxins. The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta (California, USA; the Delta) has experienced CHABs since 1999, including CHABs that produce...
Groundwater salinity: Applying the specific conductance and water type proxy
R. Blaine McCleskey, Charles A. Cravotta III, Katherine J. Knierim, Paul E. Stackelberg, Courtney D. Killian
2025, Groundwater
Groundwater is increasingly needed for water supplies but may have limited utility in some locations because of its salinity. Salinity, often expressed as total dissolved solid (TDS), is frequently estimated using specific conductance (SC) measurements. However, the commonly used proxy (0.65 multiplied by SC to indicate TDS,...
Estimates of global surface water dynamics harnessing near real-time land cover observations and open science geospatial capabilities
Arushi Khare, Bikas C. Gupta, Adnan Rajib, Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Qiusheng Wu
2025, Environmental Research Letters (20)
Spatio-temporal changes to our world’s surface water resources are escalating. Translating how these changes impact communities and ecosystems requires time-varying data of Global Surface Water Extents (GSWE). Traditionally, GSWE mapping has been limited to static estimates, with recent efforts focusing on annual averages, frequency and occurrence of...
Land use and soil characteristics are associated with increased risk of treponeme-associated hoof disease in elk
Steven N. Winter, Glen A. Sargeant, Margaret A. Wild, Erin Clancey, Kathryn P. Huyvaert, Kyle Garrison, Pilar Fernandez
2025, Ecosphere (16)
Environments can shape the occurrence and extent of disease outbreaks in wildlife. We studied the effects of environmental features on the occurrence of treponeme-associated hoof disease (TAHD), an emerging infectious disease of free-ranging elk (Cervus canadensis), in southwestern Washington, USA. During the 2016–2022 harvest seasons, successful elk hunters returned mandatory...
A transdisciplinary approach to growing an applied science of cultural evolution for a sustainable future
Jeremy S. Brooks, Rebecca Koomen, Peter Søgaard-Jørgensen, Richard Eugene Waggaman Berl, Wendy Chavez-Paez, Dustin Eirdosh, Moh Abdul Hakim, Susan Hanisch, Christine Lindell, James Liu, Minh Hiếu Nguyễn, Anne Pisor, Douglas Rogers, Rainer Romero-Canyas, Erik Thulin, Tim Waring
2025, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (380)
Addressing sustainability challenges requires an integrative approach that bridges scientific research with practical application. The field of cultural evolution (CE) offers a perspective that may guide transitions and cultural transformations for a sustainable future. However, there have been few efforts to apply this field to sustainability challenges. This study explores...
Foundational principles of an applied cultural evolutionary science for natural resource management and conservation
Richard Eugene Waggaman Berl, Jonathan J. Fisk, Lily M. van Eeden, Jonathan Salerno, Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares, Kirsten Leong, Jonathan W. Long, G. Scott Boomer, Christopher K. Williams, Ugo Arbieu, Lisa Lehnen, Adam Landon, Erle C. Ellis, Bas Verschuuren, Lincoln R. Larson, Michael C. Gavin
2025, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (380)
Culture, as the filter through which people view the world and a key determinant of human behaviour, is central to the practice of natural resource management and conservation. Conservation is intended to moderate the impacts of human cultural modification of the environment, exists as an endeavour because...
