Regional high-frequency monitoring revealed chloride concentrations in exceedance of ecological benchmarks in urban streams across the Delaware River Basin, USA
Rosemary M. Fanelli, Michelle Morency, Brandon J. Fleming, Joel Moore, Deanna Hardesty, Megan E. Shoda
2025, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
Rising chloride concentrations pose critical risks to freshwater stream ecosystems in temperate regions like the Delaware River Basin (DRB), USA, where winter deicer applications (i.e., road salt) are common. Increasing chloride concentrations have been documented in the region, but the extent to which chloride exceeds regulatory benchmarks remains unclear because...
U.S. Geological Survey monitoring milestones—Chagrin River at Willoughby, OH (04209000)
Claire Bunch
2025, General Information Product 261
The Chagrin River at Willoughby, OH (04209000), streamgage is the 1,000th U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamgage to reach Centennial status. Centennial Streamgages are USGS streamgages that have been in operation for 100 years or more. Collecting water data since 1925, it celebrated its 100th birthday on August 1, 2025....
Detection of deer at remote camera sites in relation to snow conditions
Kaitlyn S. Vega, Adrienne M. Marshall, Leona Kay Svancara, David Edward Ausband, Timothy E Link
2025, Journal of Wildlife Management (89)
In the rain-snow transition zone of the Pacific Northwest, climate change is expected to alter the incidence of rain-on-snow and freeze-thaw events, which will change snow density and hardness dynamics. In winter, the ability of economically and ecologically important wildlife species, such as deer (Odocoileus spp.), to efficiently...
A synthesis engine for constructing geologic maps of the United States
Samuel Johnstone, Joseph P. Colgan, Warren P. Roe
2025, Data Report 1210
The geologic history of the United States is cataloged in thousands of geologic maps produced during many decades. However, the disparate nature of these individual maps makes it challenging to assess resources, research geologic histories, or characterize natural hazards holistically across the Nation. The U.S. House of Representatives 2020 appropriations...
Streamflow extents and hydraulic characteristics of Meadow Valley Wash at Stuart Ranch, near Rox, Nevada
Laura A. Dye, Christopher M. Morris, Hampton K. Childres
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5069
The former Stuart Ranch, now managed by the Bureau of Land Management, is transected by Meadow Valley Wash, where 4,600 feet of perennial stream and adjacent riparian vegetation provide critical habitat for several wildlife and aquatic species protected under the Endangered Species Act. The stream has been altered by prior...
A 21st Century butterfly net: Using eDNA to detect the imperiled Dakota skipper
David S. Pilliod, Michaela Ray Grossklaus, Stacie A. Kageyama, Cale Nordmeyer, Jerry Reinisch, Erik Runquist, Stephen Frank Spear
2025, Global Ecology and Conservation (62)
The development of environmental DNA (eDNA) methods for terrestrial arthropods could be transformative for the difficult task of assessing the status of species of conservation concern. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the efficacy of detecting the Dakota skipper (Hesperia dacotae) from its DNA left behind on...
New constraints on location and timing of the Great Lakes tectonic zone, central Upper Peninsula, Michigan, USA
Benjamin J. Drenth, Amanda Souders, William F. Cannon, Jay M. Thompson
2025, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (62) 1459-1473
The Great Lakes tectonic zone (GLTZ) forms the boundary between the Wawa–Abitibi and Minnesota River Valley subprovinces within the Archean Superior Province. The GLTZ is concealed for all of its 1100 km length, except for a segment in the central Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There, it is exposed as a northwest-striking...
Desert ecosystems shape diversification in glossy snakes (genus Arizona) requiring a re-alignment of evolutionary and conservation units
Dustin Wood, Jonathan Q. Richmond, Michael F. Westphal, Bradford D. Hollingsworth, Robert D. Fisher, Amy G. Vandergast
2025, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (213)
Subspecies are often targets for conservation, yet many lack the genetic data necessary to validate their status as distinctive evolutionary lineages. In 2016, conservationists faced this issue when designating the California glossy snake, Arizona elegans occidentalis, as a Species of Special Concern in California, a decision prompted by population declines and...
Contribution of traffic emissions to PM2.5 concentrations at bus stops in Denver, Colorado
Priyanka deSouza, Phillip Hopke, Christian L'Orange, Peter Christian Ibsen, Carl Green Jr., Brady Graeber, Brendan Cicione, Ruth Mekonnen, Saadhana Purushothama, Patrick Kinney, John Volckens
2025, Sustainability (17)
Individuals are routinely exposed to traffic-related air pollution on their commutes, which has significant health impacts. Mitigating exposure to traffic-related pollution is a key urban sustainability concern. In Denver, Colorado, low-income Americans are more likely to rely on buses and spend time waiting at bus stops. Evaluating the contribution of...
A crosswalk of the 2015 World Terrestrial Ecosystems to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Global Ecosystem Typology Framework
Kelly B. Sides, Nadia Naji, Amber Kremer, Devon Burton, Roger Sayre
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1043
To support ecosystem mapping and accounting applications, we aligned the 2015 U.S. Geological Survey/Esri/The Nature Conservancy-World Terrestrial Ecosystems (WTEs) with the International Union for Conservation of Nature Global Ecosystem Typology (GET) framework. This process, known as “crosswalking,” enabled the development of a global map of GET level 3 Ecosystem Functional...
Monitoring cyanobacteria temporal trends in a hypereutrophic lake using remote sensing: From multispectral to hyperspectral
Samantha L. Sharp, Alicia Cortes, Alexander L. Forrest, Carl J. Legleiter, Liane S. Guild, Yufang Jin, S. Geoffrey Schladow
2025, Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment (39)
Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs) and associated cyanotoxins are a concern for inland waters. Due to the extensive spatial coverage and frequent availability of satellite images, multispectral remote sensing tools demonstrate utility for monitoring these blooms. The next frontier for remote sensing of cyanoHABs in inland waters is hyperspectral data....
Favorability mapping for hydrothermal power resource assessments of the Great Basin, USA
Stanley Paul Mordensky, Erick R. Burns, John Lipor, Jacob DeAngelo
2025, Geothermics (133)
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is updating the 2008 assessment of conventional hydrothermal resources for the Great Basin in the western United States. As part of this work, the workflow for hydrothermal resource favorability maps is being modified to integrate modern data-driven machine learning (ML) methods. Improvements include: [1] using...
Python Hyperspectral Analysis Tool (PyHAT) user guide
Ryan B. Anderson, Itiya P. Aneece, Travis S.J. Gabriel
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1038
This report is a user guide for the 0.1.2 release of the Python Hyperspectral Analysis Tool (PyHAT) and its graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI is intended to provide an intuitive front end to allow users to apply sophisticated preprocessing and analysis methods to spectroscopic data. Though the PyHAT package...
Near-surface material and topography generate anomalous high-frequency ground motion amplification in Chugiak, Alaska
Te-Yang Yeh, Kim B. Olsen, Jamison Haase Steidl, Peter J. Haeussler
2025, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (115) 2793-2808
An ∼3 km long nodal array oriented approximately east–west was deployed in Chugiak, Alaska, by the U.S. Geological Survey during 2021. The array intersects with the permanent NetQuakes station NP.ARTY, where peak ground acceleration (PGA) value of 1.98g was recorded during the 2018 Mw 7.1 Anchorage, Alaska, earthquake, in sharp contrast to...
Revised marine bird collision and displacement vulnerability index for U.S. Pacific Outer Continental Shelf offshore wind energy development
Emma C. Kelsey, Jonathan J. Felis, David M. Pereksta, Josh Adams
2025, Data Report 1214
The installation of offshore wind energy infrastructure (OWEI) at sea may affect marine birds by increasing the risk of mortality from collision with OWEI (Collision Vulnerability) and causing disturbance and displacement from important habitats (Displacement Vulnerability). In 2017, we published the first comprehensive database quantifying marine bird Collision Vulnerability and...
Collaborative drought science planning in the Colorado River Basin
Patrick J. Anderson, Jeanne E. Godaire, Daniel K. Jones, William J. Andrews, Alicia A. Torregrosa, Meghan T. Bell, JoAnn M. Holloway, Molly A. Blakowski, Joseph A. Hevesi, Sharon L. Qi
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1041
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is using collaborative, interdisciplinary planning to develop data and tools needed to optimize the management of water resources and land use by resource management agencies during an ongoing, multidecadal drought in the Colorado River Basin. The USGS Actionable and Strategic Integrated Science and Technology team...
Gravity and magnetic surveys of the Skaergaard intrusion, East Greenland
Mark E. Gettings
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1030
Aeromagnetic and gravity surveys of the Skaergaard intrusion in East Greenland were carried out in July–August 1971 as part of a grant to the University of Oregon Center for Volcanology to refine the models of crystallization and differentiation of the intrusion, specifically to test whether the intrusion is underlain by...
Airborne geophysics for geologic mapping of critical mineral systems in the United States southern midcontinent
Chelsea Morgan Amaral, Anne E. McCafferty, Dylan Mark Connell
2025, Conference Paper, Geologic Mapping Forum 24/24 abstracts
The increased demand for clean energy technology and a significant reliance on foreign supply chains have given impetus to understanding critical mineral systems and locating potential resources within the United States. At least thirteen critical mineral-bearing systems have been identified throughout the U.S. southern Midcontinent (Hofstra and Kreiner, 2020) but...
Assessing policy effectiveness trends in nonindigenous aquatic species introduction in the Ohio River basin
Abigail N. Clasgens, Brent A. Murry, Kaylyn Zipp, Caroline C. Arantes, Matthew Neilson
2025, Management of Biological Invasions (16) 943-959
Aquatic invasive species (AIS) create costly, detrimental effects when established. Recognition of this in the United States reached a threshold in 1990 with the federal passage of the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act. This act created six regional panels, the national Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force, and incentivized...
Potomac Tributary Summary: A summary of trends in tidal water quality and associated factors, 1985 - 2022
Breck Maura Sullivan, Kaylyn Gootman, Alex Gunnerson, Sarah Betts, Gabriel Duran, Cindy Johnson, Christopher A. Mason, Elgin Perry, Gopal Bhatt, Jennifer L. Keisman, James S. Webber, Jon Harcum, Michael Lane, Olivia Devereux, Qian Zhang, Rebecca Murphy, Renee Karrh, Thomas Butler, Zhaoying Wei
2025, Report
The Potomac Tributary Summary outlines change over time for a suite of monitored tidal water quality parameters and associated potential drivers of those trends for the period of 1985 to 2022, and provides a brief description of the current state of knowledge explaining these observed changes. Water quality parameters described...
Revisiting an enigma on California's north coast: The Mw6.5 Fickle Hill earthquake of 21 December 1954
Margaret Hellweg, Thomas A. Lee, Douglas S. Dreger, Anthony Lomax, Lijam Hagos, Hamid Haddabi, Robert C. McPherson, Lori Dengler, Susan E. Hough, Jason R. Patton
2025, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (115) 2623-2639
Many earthquakes occur along the North Coast of California in the vicinity of the Mendocino Triple Junction (MTJ), where the Pacific, Gorda, and North American (NA) plates meet, and on the adjacent plate boundaries. The MTJ marks the nexus of the Mendocino and San Andreas faults with the Cascadia subduction...
Evaluation of daily stream temperature predictions (1979-2021) across the contiguous United States using a spatiotemporal aware machine learning algorithm
Jeremy Alejandro Diaz, Samantha K. Oliver, Galen Gorski
2025, Environmental Modelling & Software (193)
Stream temperature controls a variety of physical and biological processes that affect ecosystems, human health, and economic activities. We used 42 years (1979–2021) of data to predict daily summary statistics of stream temperature across >50,000 stream reaches in the contiguous United States using a recurrent graph convolution network. We comprehensively...
Avian influenza spillover into poultry: Environmental influences and biosecurity protections
Matthew Brandon Gonnerman, Jennifer Mullinax, Andrew Fox, Kelly A. Patyk, Victoria Fields, Mary-Jane McCool, Mia K. Torchetti, Kristina Lantz, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Diann J. Prosser
2025, One Health (21)
With the continued spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), understanding the complex dynamics of virus transfer at the wild – agriculture interface is paramount. Spillover events (i.e., virus transfer from wild birds into poultry) are related to proximity to infected wild bird populations and environmental conditions. By accounting for...
Tracking status and trends in seven key indicators of river and stream condition in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
Lindsey J. Boyle, Samuel H. Austin, Matthew J. Cashman, Zachary J. Clifton, John W. Clune, James E. Colgin, Kaitlyn E.M. Elliott, Rosemary M. Fanelli, Ellie P. Foss, Nathaniel P. Hitt, Elizabeth A. Hittle, Coral M. Howe, Emily H. Majcher, Kelly O. Maloney, Christopher A. Mason, Marina J. Metes, Douglas L. Moyer, Trevor P. Needham, Karli M. Rogers, Joshua J. Thompson, Guoxiang Yang, Tammy M. Zimmerman
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5072
Freshwater streams and rivers are recognized as vital habitats within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which has been undergoing extensive restoration efforts for more than 30 years. Resource managers need to understand stream and river condition and how these conditions are changing over time to determine whether regional long-term restoration and...
Regional differentiation in somatic growth and maturation attributes for loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the Northwest Atlantic
Larisa Avens, Margaret Lamont, Allen M. Foley, Benjamin M. Higgins, Lyndsey N. Howell, Gretchen Lovewell, Donna J. Shaver, Brian A. Stacy, J. Shelby Walker, Jamie M. Clark, Amy A. Wallace, Hannah B. Vander Zanden
2025, Marine Biology (172)
The ages and sizes at which organisms mature have significant implications for lifetime reproductive success. For species at risk of extinction, such as sea turtles, these attributes can ultimately impact probability of population persistence. Within the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, the broader loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) population comprises management units...
