Annotated bibliography of scientific research relevant to oil and gas reclamation best management practices in the western United States, published from 1969 through 2020
Rebecca K. Mann, Molly L. McCormick, Seth M. Munson, Hillary F. Cooper, Lee C. Bryant, Jared K. Swenson, Laura A. Johnston, Savannah L. Wilson, Michael C. Duniway
2024, Open-File Report 2023-1068
Integrating recent scientific knowledge into management decisions supports effective natural resource management and can lead to better resource outcomes. However, finding and accessing scientific knowledge can be time consuming and costly. To assist in this process, the U.S. Geological Survey has created a series of annotated bibliographies on topics...
Climatic variability as a principal driver of primary production in the southernmost subalpine Rocky Mountain lake
Anna Shampain, Jill Baron, Peter R. Leavitt, Sarah Spaulding
2024, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research (56)
Mountain lakes are sensitive indicators of anthropogenically driven global change, with lake sediment records documenting increased primary production during the twentieth century. Atmospheric nutrient deposition and warming have been attributed to changes in other Western mountain lakes, however, the intensity of these drivers varies. We analyzed a sediment core representing...
California Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program Priority Basin Project: Domestic-Supply Assessment
Jennifer L. Shelton, Elias Tejeda
2024, Fact Sheet 2024-3002
The GAMA-PBP is a comprehensive assessment of statewide groundwater quality in California. The first phase of the GAMA-PBP in 2004–15 assessed groundwater resources used for public drinking-water supplies. The second phase is assessing groundwater resources used for domestic drinking-water supplies. An estimated 2 million Californians rely on individual domestic wells...
Modeled flooding by tsunamis and a storm versus observed extent of coral erratics on Anegada, British Virgin Islands— Further evidence for a great Caribbean earthquake six centuries ago
Yong Wei, Uri S. ten Brink, Brian F. Atwater
2024, JGR Solid Earth (129)
Models of near-field tsunamis and an extreme hurricane provide further evidence for a great precolonial earthquake along the Puerto Rico Trench. The models are benchmarked to brain-coral boulders and cobbles on Anegada, 125 km south of the trench. The models are screened by their success in flooding the mapped sites of...
Incorporating life history diversity in an integrated population model to inform viability analysis
Mark H. Sorel, Jeffrey C. Jorgensen, Richard W. Zabel, Mark David Scheuerell, Andrew R. Murdoch, Cory M. Kamphaus, Sarah J. Converse
2024, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (81) 535-548
Life history diversity can significantly affect population dynamics and effects of management actions. For instance, variation in individual responses to environmental variability can reduce extirpation risk to populations, as the portfolio effect dampens temporal variability in abundance. Moreover, differences in habitat use may cause individuals to respond differently to habitat...
Spatial extent drives patterns of relative climate change sensitivity for freshwater fishes of the United States
Samuel C. Silknetter, Abigail Benson, Jennifer A. Smith, Meryl C. Mims
2024, Ecosphere (15)
Assessing the sensitivity of freshwater species to climate change is an essential component of prioritizing conservation efforts for threatened freshwater ecosystems and organisms. Sensitivity to climate change can be systematically evaluated for multiple species using geographic attributes such as range size and climate niche...
Evaluating water-quality trends in agricultural watersheds prioritized for management-practice implementation
James S. Webber, Jeffrey G. Chanat, John Clune, Olivia Devereux, Natalie Celeste Hall, Robert D. Sabo, Qian Zhang
2024, Journal of the American Water Resources Assocation (60) 305-330
Many agricultural watersheds rely on the voluntary use of management practices (MPs) to reduce nonpoint source nutrient and sediment loads; however, the water-quality effects of MPs are uncertain. We interpreted water-quality responses from as early as 1985 through 2020 in three agricultural Chesapeake Bay watersheds...
What the cliffs near America’s earliest settlements tell us about climate change
Harry J. Dowsett, Marci M. Robinson
2024, Frontiers for Young Minds (12)
Climate change is a big problem for natural habitats, people, and the systems that support society, including roads, water supply, electrical grids, and phone and internet connections. It’s an important theme in politics, economics, and culture. Scientists make computer models to show what the climate might be like in the...
StreamStats—A quarter century of delivering web-based geospatial and hydrologic information to the public, and lessons learned
Kernell G. Ries III, Peter A. Steeves, Peter M. McCarthy
2024, Circular 1514
StreamStats is a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) web application that provides streamflow statistics, such as the 1-percent annual exceedance probability peak flow, the mean flow, and the 7-day, 10-year low flow, to the public through a map-based user interface. These statistics are used in many ways, such as in the...
Database and time series of nearshore waves along the Alaskan coast from the United States-Canada border to the Bering Sea
Anita C. Engelstad, Li H. Erikson, Borja G. Reguero, Ann E. Gibbs, Kees Nederhoff
2024, Open-File Report 2023-1094
Alaska’s Arctic coast has some of the highest coastal erosion rates in the world, primarily driven by permafrost thaw and increasing wave energy. In the Arctic, a warming climate is driving sea ice cover to decrease in space and time. A lack of long-term observational wave data along Alaska’s coast...
Quantifying spatiotemporal variation of nearshore forage fish schools with aerial surveys in Prince William Sound, Alaska
Daniel Stephen Donnelly, Mayumi L. Arimitsu, Scott Pegau, John F. Piatt
2024, Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science (16)
ObjectiveChanges in abundance and distribution of schooling forage fish, such as the Pacific Sand Lance Ammodytes hexapterus and Pacific Herring Clupea pallasii, can be difficult to document using traditional boat-based methods, especially in the shallow, nearshore habitats frequented by these species. In contrast, nearshore fish schools are easily observed and...
Influence of irrigation water and soil on annual mercury dynamics in Sacramento Valley rice fields
Luke A. Salvato, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, Jacob Fleck, Stephen A. McCord, Bruce A. Linquist
2024, Journal of Environmental Quality (53) 327-339
Methylmercury (MeHg) is a human and environmental toxin produced in flooded soils. Little is known about MeHg in rice (Oryza Sativa L.) fields in Sacramento Valley, California. The objectives of this study were to quantify mercury fractions in irrigation water and within rice fields and to determine their mercury pools in...
Cathodoluminescence differentiates sedimentary organic matter types
Paul C. Hackley, Ryan J. McAleer, Aaron M. Jubb, Brett J. Valentine, Justin E. Birdwell
2024, Scientific Reports (14)
High-resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM) visualization of sedimentary organic matter is widely utilized in the geosciences for evaluating microscale rock properties relevant to depositional environment, diagenesis, and the processes of fluid generation, transport, and storage. However, despite thousands of studies which have incorporated SEM methods, the inability of SEM to...
Sulphide petrology and ore genesis of the stratabound Sheep Creek sediment-hosted Zn–Pb–Ag–Sn prospect, and U–Pb zircon constraints on the timing of magmatism in the northern Alaska Range
Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, John N. Aleinikoff, Suzanne Paradise, John F. Slack
2024, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (61) 471-504
The Sheep Creek prospect is a stratabound Zn–Pb–Ag–Sn massive sulfide occurrence in the Bonnifield mining district, northern Alaska Range. The prospect is within a quartz–sericite–graphite–chlorite schist unit associated with Devonian carbonaceous and siliceous metasedimentary rocks. Volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits in the district are hosted in felsic...
Chemistry, growth, and fate of the unique, short-lived (2019–2020) water lake at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii
Patricia Nadeau, Shaul Hurwitz, Sara Peek, Allan Lerner, Edward F. Younger, Matthew R. Patrick, David Damby, R. Blaine McCleskey, Peter J. Kelly
2024, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (25)
Less than a year after the 2018 Kīlauea caldera collapse and eruption, water appeared in newly deepened Halemaʻumaʻu crater. The lake—unprecedented in the written record—grew to a depth of ∼50 m before lava from the December 2020 eruption boiled it away. Surface water heightened concerns of potential phreatic...
Trace silicon determination in biological samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS): Insight into volatility of silicon species in hydrofluoric acid digests for optimal sample preparation and introduction to ICP-MS
Zikri Arslan, Heather A. Lowers
2024, Minerals (14)
A method for the determination of trace levels of silicon from biological materials by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been developed. The volatility of water-soluble silicon species, hexafluorosilicic acid (H2SiF6), and sodium metasilicate (Na2SiO3) was investigated by evaporating respective solutions (50 µg/mL silicon) in nitric acid (HNO3),...
Deep learning for water quality
Wei Zhi, Alison P. Appling, Heather E. Golden, Joel Podgorski, Li Li
2024, Nature Water (2) 228-241
Understanding and predicting the quality of inland waters are challenging, particularly in the context of intensifying climate extremes expected in the future. These challenges arise partly due to complex processes that regulate water quality, and arduous and expensive data collection that exacerbate the issue of data...
Landsat Next
U.S. Geological Survey
2024, Fact Sheet 2024-3005
Landsat Next's launch in the early 2030s will ensure continuity of the longest space-based record of Earth’s land surfaces. The mission will substantially increase the breadth and quality of Earth observation data available to scientists, land managers, and others responsible for managing Earth's natural resources. Landsat Next’s constellation of three...
Geologic framework and hydrostratigraphy of the Edwards and Trinity aquifers within parts of Bandera and Kendall Counties, Texas
Allan K. Clark, Robert R. Morris, Alexis P. Lamberts
2024, Scientific Investigations Map 3518
The karstic Edwards and Trinity aquifers are classified as major sources of water in south-central Texas by the Texas Water Development Board. During 2019–23 the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Edwards Aquifer Authority, mapped and described the geology and hydrostratigraphy of the rocks composing the Edwards and Trinity...
Growth, survival, and cohort formation of juvenile Lost River (Deltistes luxatus) and shortnose suckers (Chasmistes brevirostris) in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, and Clear Lake Reservoir, California—2021–22 monitoring report
Barbara A. Martin, John M. Caldwell, Jacob R. Krause, Alta C. Harris
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1013
Executive SummaryThe work reported in this publication provides updated data and interpretation for sampling years 2015 and 2022 of the juvenile monitoring project. The study objectives, background, study area, species description, and methods remained the same or similar throughout the years, while the executive summary, results, and discussion were updated...
Too simple, too complex, or just right? Advantages, challenges, and guidance for indicators of genetic diversity
Sean M. Hoban, Jessica M. da Silva, Alice C. Hughes, Maggie Hunter, Belma Kalamujić Stroil, Linda Laikre, Alicia Mastretta-Yanes, Katie L Millette, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Lucia Ruiz Bustos, Robyn E. Shaw, Cristiano Vernesi, the Coalition for Conservation Genetics
2024, BioScience
Measuring genetic diversity of wild species using DNA-based data remains resource intensive and time consuming for nearly all species. However, genetic assessments are needed for global conservation commitments, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, and for governments and managers to evaluate conservation progress, as well as prioritizing species and...
The decision maker’s lament: If I only had some science!
Gustavo A. Bisbal
2024, Ambio (53) 898-906
Environmental decision makers lament instances in which the lack of actionable science limits confident decision-making. Their reaction when the needed scientific information is of poor quality, uninformative, unintelligible, or altogether absent is often to criticize scientists, their work, or science in general. The considerations offered here...
Characterization of the structural–stratigraphic and reservoir controls on the occurrence of gas hydrates in the Eileen Gas Hydrate Trend, Alaska North Slope
Margarita Zyrianova, Timothy Collett, Ray Boswell
2024, Journal of Marine Science Engineering (12)
One of the most studied permafrost-associated gas hydrate accumulations in Arctic Alaska is the Eileen Gas Hydrate Trend. This study provides a detailed re-examination of the Eileen Gas Hydrate Trend with a focus on the gas hydrate accumulation in the western part of the Prudhoe Bay Unit. This integrated...
Paleogene mid-crustal intrusions in the Ruby Mountains–East Humboldt Range metamorphic core complex, northeastern Nevada, USA
A.W. Snoke, C.B. Barnes, Keith A. Howard, A. Romanoski, Wayne R. Premo, C. Hetherington, A. Strike, C. Frost, P. Copeland, S-Y Lee
2024, Geosphere (20) 577-620
Middle Eocene to early Oligocene intrusions, widespread in the Ruby Mountains–East Humboldt Range metamorphic core complex, Nevada, USA, provide insights into a major Paleogene magmatic episode and its relation to tectonism in the northeastern Great Basin. These intrusions, well-exposed in upper Lamoille Canyon, range in composition from gabbro to leucomonzogranite....
Modern coral range expansion off southeast Florida falls short of Late Holocene baseline
Peter Alexander Bacon Modys, Lauren Toth, William F. Precht, Anton E. Oleinik, Richard A. Mortlock
2024, Nature Communications Earth and Environment (5)
As thermal stress and disease outbreaks decimate coral reefs throughout the tropics, there is growing evidence that higher latitude marine environments may provide crucial refuges for many at-risk, temperature-sensitive coral species. However, our understanding of how coral populations expand into new areas and sustain themselves over time...
