Detection of Naegleria fowleri in thermally impacted recreational waters of western United States national parks
Jonathan I. Shikany, Mia M. Banks, Elliott P. Barnhart, Stacy Kinsey, Peter R. Wright, Stacie A. Kageyama, Christopher M. Merkes, Natalia Kulesza, Jason Wylie, Sandra Halonen, Ana M. Ortega-Villa, Carrie M. Long, Brent M. Peyton, Geoffrey Puzon
2026, ACS ES&T Water (6) 1704-1715
Naegleria fowleri is a thermophilic free-living amoeba (FLA) and the causative agent of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, posing public health risks in warm freshwater environments. This multiyear, multiagency study surveyed 40 thermally impacted recreational waters across five western United States national parks and recreation areas–Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Olympic...
Efficacy of increased visual and olfactory cues for luring and trapping invasive tegu lizards
Amanda Marie Kissel, Kevin L. Donmoyer, Mark Robert Sandfoss, James C. Howard, Christina M. Romagosa, Amy A. Yackel Adams
2026, Frontiers in Amphibian and Reptile Science (4)
Controlling invasive wildlife species relies on the ability to efficiently remove individuals from the invaded environment. Thus, maximizing capture potential is of high interest, particularly for species that are difficult to capture. For invasive species such as the Argentine black and white tegu lizard (Salvator merianae), increasing...
Brewing change in the (glacier) percolation zone
Louis Sass, Christopher McNeil, Emily A. Baker, Zanden Arthur Frederick, Michael Loso
2026, Alaska Park Science (24) 2-15
Alaska's glaciers are losing mass at the fastest rate of any region globally, significantly affecting both the volume and distribution of water across the landscape. Though glaciers in the Alaska region (as defined by glaciologists this includes both Alaska and portions of adjacent Canada) range from sea level to nearly...
Understanding flooding and channel dynamics along the Taiya River: Providing context for resource management
Janet H. Curran
2026, Alaska Park Science (24) 26-35
Flooding and channel change in the Taiya River Basin in recent decades have directly affected park infrastructure and cultural resources. The complexities of flooding and channel change are compounded by the changing sediment and flow regime from a changing climate and shrinking glaciers, which will continue to drive dynamic riverine change. Streamflow...
Exploring how Dolly Varden in Arctic streams respond to changes from permafrost thaw
Michael P. Carey, Jonathan A. O’Donnell, Joshua C. Koch, Kenneth Hill, Brett Poulin
2026, Alaska Park Science (24) 64-71
The influence of permafrost thaw on aquatic ecosystems is complex. Carbon, nutrients, and metals in stream discharge result in changing stream color, chemistry, and temperature. These different processes create a mosaic of spatially and temporally dynamic disturbances across the landscape with complex effects on the ecology. ...
Diverse novel and avian-associated viruses in the ileal viromes of northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)
Brian P. Bourke, Sergei V. Drovetski, Koray Ergunay, Yvonne-Marie Linton, Gary Voelker
2026, Archives of Virology (171)
Viruses are the most abundant and diverse organisms on Earth, though only a small portion cause disease. Understanding viral diversity is key to understanding and predicting pathogen emergence and zoonotic spillover. Here, we use meta-transcriptomic sequencing to examine the viral communities in the ileum of 25 Northern...
Conventional hydrothermal power-producing systems of the Great Basin, USA
Jacob DeAngelo, Erick R. Burns, Stanley Paul Mordensky
2026, Conference Paper, Proceedings, 51st workshop on geothermal reservoir engineering
As part of the update to the electric-grade conventional hydrothermal assessment of the Great Basin, USA, Monte Carlo analyses of identified resources within explored regions will be performed to make estimates of discovered resources and associated uncertainty. Analyses use conditional statistics where estimates are conditioned upon a hydrothermal favorability map,...
Living with wildfire in Lake County, Colorado: 2023 Data report
Colleen Donovan, Hannah Brenkert-Smith, Suzanne Wittenbrink, Patricia A. Champ, J. T. Shaver, Dave McCann, Christine Taniguchi, James R. Meldrum, Christopher M. Barth, Carolyn Wagner, Josh Kuehn
2026, Report
Homeowner wildfire risk mitigation and preparedness are important components of community wildfire readiness. This report describes the data collected through two efforts conducted in the Lake County, Colorado, study area: (1) parcel-level rapid wildfire risk assessments performed by trained assessors and (2) homeowner surveys in which respondents provided self-assessments of...
Adapting wildfire risk assessment for a Tribal landscape: Mount Baldy and the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona
Aaron Daniel Russell, Todd Hawbaker, Doreen Ethelbah-Gatewood, Lucas Bair, Amanda Renee Carlson, James R. Meldrum, Seth M. Munson
2026, Landscape Ecology (41)
ContextThe White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona manages their natural and cultural resources within a perpetually wildfire-risky environment. The Tribe’s values also extend beyond those of typical risk assessments to include the importance of cultural activities and sites, various recreational and revenue values,...
Living with wildfire in Cooper Landing, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska: 2023 data report
Colleen Donovan, Suzanne Wittenbrink, Hannah Brenkert-Smith, Josh Kuehn, Tim Weekley, Patricia A. Champ, Christopher M. Barth, James R. Meldrum, Carolyn Wagner, Christine Taniguchi
2026, Research Note RMRS-RN-112
Homeowner wildfire risk mitigation and preparedness are important components of community wildfire readiness. This report describes the data collected through two efforts conducted in the Cooper Landing, Alaska, study area: (1) parcel-level rapid wildfire risk assessments performed by trained assessors and (2) homeowner surveys in which respondents provided self-assessments of...
Connecting the dots: Using multiple datasets to monitor the brown bear population in Katmai National Park and Preserve
Leslie C. Skora, Tammy L. Wilson
2026, Alaska Park Science (24) 80-85
Monitoring wide-ranging wildlife populations is challenging. Surveys are time consuming, expensive, and observation conditions need to be just right. But confidently assessing the number of animals, and if their numbers are increasing or decreasing is important for park management and ecological understanding. This article describes survey methods and how they...
Abandonment of the Upper Devonian Greenland Gap Group and Scherr Formation and revision of the Upper Devonian Brallier and Foreknobs Formations in the central Valley and Ridge Province
Alan D. Pitts, Daniel H. Doctor
2026, Stratigraphy (23) 31-44
This study revises the lithostratigraphic framework of the Upper Devonian interval traditionally assigned to the Greenland Gap Group across the central Appalachian Valley and Ridge Province. The work aims to modernize and standardize lithostratigraphic nomenclature, establish a new reference section and demonstrate how the revised stratigraphy improves edge-matching of 1:24,000...
Open-source gravity reduction workflows for geothermal resource assessment
Collin Cronkite-Ratcliff
2026, Conference Paper
Potential-field geophysical data such as gravity can enhance understanding of geothermal resources at all stages of the resource life cycle, including assessment, exploration, development, and monitoring, and at multiple scales, from the reservoir scale to regional scale. However, to make gravity data useful for geothermal resource characterization, several processing steps...
Geologic map of the Sierra Nevada, California and western Nevada
Russell Graymer, M. D. O'Neal
2026, Book chapter, Sierra Nevada Earth science atlas
THE GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE SIERRA NEVADA is a core component of the Sierra Nevada Earth Science Atlas, which also includes geophysical, neotectonic, economic, and geochronologic data. The map illustrates the distribution of geologic units across the Sierra Nevada and related adjacent areas. Geologic units are grouped by type and...
Living with wildfire in Nikiski, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska: 2023 Data report
Colleen Donovan, Suzanne Wittenbrink, Hannah Brenkert-Smith, Josh Kuehn, Brenda Ahlberg, Patricia A. Champ, Christopher M. Barth, James R. Meldrum, Carolyn Wagner, Christine Taniguchi
2026, Research Note RMRS-RN-110
Homeowner wildfire risk mitigation and preparedness are important components of community wildfire readiness. This report describes the data collected through two efforts conducted in the Nikiski, Alaska, study area: (1) parcel-level rapid wildfire risk assessments performed by trained assessors and (2) homeowner surveys in which respondents provided self-assessments of their...
Report 17—Revisions to the articles of organization and procedure of the Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature of the Americas
Lynn T. Dafoe, Robert B. MacNaughton, Marie-Pierre Aubry, Carlton E. Brett, James R. Lehane, Fernando Núñez-Useche, Randall C. Orndorff, Frank Brunton, Lucy E. Edwards, Richard H. Fluegeman, Howard Harper, R. Matthew Joeckel, Norman P. Lasca, B.H. Tew
2026, Stratigraphy (23) 45-49
Several revisions to the Articles of Organization and Procedure for the North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature have been adopted following the 75th, 79th, and 80th annual meetings of the Commission in 2020, 2024 and 2025, respectively. Of these, the most substantial change was revision of Article III regarding membership...
Hyperspectral retrieval of phytoplankton absorption and community composition from NASA’s PACE-OCI in estuarine–coastal waters using a hybrid framework combining mixture-of-experts and Variational Autoencoder
Xingyu Bai, Bingqing Liu, Jiang Li, Yuanheng Xiong, Eurico J. D'Sa, Melissa Millman Baustian, Xiaodong Zhang, Brice K. Grunert, Chisom O. Emeghiebo, Cassie Glasspie, Xu Yuan
2026, Remote Sensing of Environment (337)
Retrieving the phytoplankton absorption coefficient (aphy; m−1), one of the most spectrally rich inherent optical properties, remains challenging in optically complex coastal waters worldwide. Leveraging NASA's new hyperspectral mission, PACE, we introduce Hyper-MoE-VAE, a deep-learning architecture that integrates a Mixture-of-Experts with a Variational Autoencoder to retrieve high-dimensional aphy and subsequent estimation...
Mercury cycling across a U.S. semi-arid mountain ecosystem elevation gradient
Hannah R. Miller, Sarah E. Janssen, Scott A. Taylor, Jacqueline R. Gerson, Tyler L. McIntosh, Eve-Lyn S. Hinckley
2026, JGR Biogeosciences (131)
Mountains comprise ∼30% of the Earth's surface, but mercury (Hg) cycling in these regions remains understudied, particularly in the semi-arid western U.S. where strong climatic and ecological gradients in mountainous landscapes influence Hg deposition, retention, and bioaccumulation. In this study, we quantified growing season inputs, storage, and bioaccumulation of Hg...
Terrestrial ecosystem response to changing temperature and seasonality in the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum: Shallow marine records from the Salisbury Embayment, USA
Debra A. Willard, Mei Nelissen, Appy Sluijs, Henk Brinkhuis, Tammo Reichgelt, Marci M. Robinson, Jean Self-Trail
2026, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology (41)
The Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM, ∼56 Ma) is marked by a massive and rapid rise in atmospheric CO2 and ∼5°C of global warming. It is globally characterized by a negative carbon isotope excursion (CIE), and, at least locally, is preceded by a pre-onset excursion (POE). We present palynological and bioclimatic analyses from...
Extreme precipitation variability and soil texture controls on water-table response
Claudia R. Corona, Shemin Ge, Suzanne P. Anderson, Jesse E. Dickinson
2026, Water (18)
Extreme precipitation events (EPEs), a key class of hydrometeorological extremes, are intensifying globally under climate change; however, their effects on water-table dynamics across varying soil textures remain poorly understood. To better understand the impacts of EPEs, we conducted one-dimensional modeling to evaluate water-table response time, displacement, recession...
Urbanization alters riverine fluorescent dissolved organic matter characteristics in a forested city – metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia (USA)
Shuo Chen, Rebecca Hale, Kristina G. Hopkins, Liz Ortiz Muñoz, John Kominoski, Sarah Ledford, Krista A. Capps
2026, Environmental Research (297)
Streams and rivers in urban watersheds are predicted to export more bioreactive, autochthonous dissolved organic matter (DOM) relative to forested watersheds. However, the spatial and temporal variations of DOM quality in forested urban watersheds remain uncertain, and their relationships with socioeconomic conditions, biological characteristics, and the built environment are understudied....
Bird guilds exhibit varied responses to floodplain forest restoration in the Colorado River delta, Mexico
Eduardo González-Sargas, Timothy D. Meehan, Osvel Hinojosa-Huerta, Stefanny Villagomez-Palma, Christopher Dodge, Martha Gómez-Sapiens, Pamela L. Nagler, Patrick B. Shafroth
2026, Journal of Arid Environments (234)
Grouping species into guilds can be useful to inform management decisions locally and at broader scales because guilds lack species-specificity. We investigated the response of five breeding bird guilds to riparian habitat restoration in the arid Colorado River delta, based on two decades of bird detections (2002–2021) at 230 bird...
Groundwater budget for the Mountain Home area, southern Idaho, 2022–23
Paul M. Thomas
2026, Scientific Investigations Report 2026-5118
The U.S. Geological Survey, with funding from the Idaho Department of Water Resources, developed a groundwater budget for the Mountain Home area in southern Idaho for irrigation year 2023 (November 1, 2022–October 31, 2023). This study focused on the water balance across the Cinder Cone Butte Critical Groundwater Area (CGWA),...
RoadxStr user’s guide—For collection of road-stream crossing assessment field observations
Emily Heaston, Sean Winter, Shelby Bauer, Tait Ronningen, Jason Dunham
2026, Techniques and Methods 18-B1
Intersections of drainage networks and road networks represent a critical nexus between natural waterways and human infrastructure. Managing these systems involves decisions related to management of infrastructure, hydrologic and geomorphic processes, and ecological connectivity. Interactions among these systems influence multiple values, including the intactness of transportation networks, public safety, water...
Reconstructing the Quaternary depositional history using geologic mapping and three-dimensional modeling of the subsurface near Fort Morgan, northeastern Colorado
Emily M. Taylor, Margaret E. Berry, Shannon A. Mahan, Jeremy C. Havens
2026, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5052
Centered on Fort Morgan, Colorado, this study is intended to build from previous work by adding a three-dimensional (3D) view of the subsurface to better understand the depositional history of Quaternary deposits. A 1:100,000 scale geologic map was made by combining previous geologic maps, regional soil maps, and recent field...