Impacts of flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus L.) on macrophyte diversity and composition in the Upper Mississippi River
Alicia Carhart, Danelle M. Larson, Jennifer Froehly, Eric Lund, Stephanie Szura, Seth Fopma
2025, Biological Invasions (27)
Flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus L.), a perennial plant native to Eurasia, made a widespread appearance in the Upper Mississippi River in the United States in 2020, following extremely high river discharge during the previous year. Flowering rush expanded rapidly and was found at 1–10% of sites (n = 6,630 total sites) across a...
Applying U.S. Geological Survey science to understand effects to water supply in the Upper Colorado River Basin
Natalie K. Day, Cory A. Williams
2025, Fact Sheet 2025-3036
IntroductionThe Colorado River Basin is a vital source of water to more than 40 million people in the Western United States and Mexico, including in major cities like Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Los Angeles, and San Diego, and supports irrigation for about 16,000 square kilometers of agricultural land. Since...
Harmless tags or hazardous ads? Investigating the potential for ear tags to increase predation on neonatal ungulates
Matthew T. Turnley, W. Sue Fairbanks, Robert Charles Lonsinger, Michael J. Cherry, Marlin M. Dart, Randy W. DeYoung, Derek P. Hahn, Levi J. Heffelfinger, Celine M.J. Rickels, Evan P. Tanner, H. George Wang, M. Colter Chitwood
2025, Canadian Journal of Zoology
Studies involving individually marked animals provide insights predicated on the assumption marked individuals are accurate models of their unmarked counterparts. Taxa-specific and marker-specific examinations are needed to determine if marked animals are suitable models for the parameter(s) being measured. Our objective was to determine if brightly colored ear tags influenced...
The American black bear (Ursus americanus) as an apex predator: Investigating the ecological role of the world’s most abundant large carnivore
John M. Nettles, Caroline M. Abramowitz, Wesley W. Boone, Stephen N. Harris, Chloe E. Horton, Meghan P. Keating, Dana L. Nelson, Samantha N. Smith, Katelyn N. Steen, Erin K. Buchholtz, David S. Jachowski
2025, Mammal Review
IntroductionAmerican black bears (Ursus americanus) have been documented to have top-down effects, both consumptive (through predation) and nonconsumptive (through fear effects). However, their behavioural and dietary adaptability has led to uncertainty about the conditions under which these may occur.ObjectivesWe aimed to (1) investigate when,...
Using imaging spectroscopy and elevation in machine learning to estimate soil salinity in intermittently tidal wetlands
German Silva, Dar Roberts, Kristin B. Byrd, Dana Chadwick, Ian Walker, Jennifer King
2025, Ecosphere (16)
Coastal soil salinization patterns are changing due to drought, sea level rise (SLR), and changing freshwater inflow. These changes are expected to impact coastal wetland plant health and ecosystem function, such as changes to biomass and productivity. These impacts have led to greater interest in how we monitor soil salinization...
A global dataset of terrestrial biological nitrogen fixation
Carla R. Reis Ely, Steven Perakis, Cory C. Cleveland, Duncan Menge, Sasha Reed, Sarah A. Batterman, Timothy E. Crews, Katherine A Dynarski, Maga G. Gei, Michael J. Gundale, Sarah E. Jovan, Sian Kou-Giesbrecht, Mark B. Peoples, Emilio Rodriguez-Caballero, Verity G. Salmon, Fiona M. Soper, Anika P. Staccone, Benton Taylor, Bettina Weber, Nina Wurzburger
2025, Scientific Data (12)
Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is the main natural source of new nitrogen inputs in terrestrial ecosystems, supporting terrestrial productivity, carbon uptake, and other Earth system processes. We assembled a comprehensive global dataset of field measurements of BNF in all major N-fixing niches across natural terrestrial biomes derived from the analysis...
Elk personality and anthropogenic food subsidy: Managing conflict and migration loss
Gavin G. Cotterill, Eric K. Cole, Paul C. Cross, Sarah R. Dewey, Ben L. Wise, Tabitha A. Graves
2025, Ecosphere (16)
The continued decline of long-distance ungulate migrations threatens to decouple important ecological processes that increase biodiversity and wildlife abundance. Past research has focused on preserving migration paths where habitat fragmentation and loss disrupt movement corridors. However, shifting residency-migration trade-offs are the stronger driver of migration loss in some populations. Suburban...
Global maps of critical mineral production in 2023
Jaewon Chung, Sean Xun, Steven D. Textoris
2025, Fact Sheet 2025-3038
Introduction The global production of many mineral commodities, especially critical minerals, is concentrated in a few countries that have mineral resources and the infrastructure necessary to mine and process those resources. For this reason, the type and amount of mineral production differ by country. For example, many countries produce such metallic...
Launching into societal benefits from the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission
Margaret Srinivasan, Vardis Tsontos, Matthew Bonnema, Santiago Pena-Luque, Alexandre de Amorim-Teixiera, Alexandre Abdalla Araujo, Edward Beighley, Charon Birkett, Curtis Chen, Louise Croneborg-Jones, Cedric David, Shailen Desai, Alain Dib, Bradley Doorn, Robert W. Dudley, Bareerah Fatima, Luciana Fenoglio, Renato Prata de Moraes Frasson, Chandana Gangodagamage, Stephanie Granger, Isabel Houghton, Gregg Jacobs, Indu Jayaluxmi, Pierre-Yves Le Traon, Cassandra Nickles, Nicolas Picot, Guy Schumann, Babette Tchonang, Paula Torre Zaffaroni, Peter Van Oevelen, Jinbo Wang, Jerry Wegiel
2025, Water Resources Research (61)
The 10th Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) Applications Meeting, held one year after the satellite's launch, highlighted significant milestones in mission progress and showcased the innovative work of SWOT Early Adopters (EA) using mission data products. Over 100 participants from diverse sectors convened to discuss operational applications leveraging SWOT's...
Site response and wave propagation effects in the eastern United States
Stephen H. Hartzell, Luis B. Martinetti, Carlos Mendoza, Robert G. Schmitt
2025, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (115) 2485-2506
Fourier amplitude spectra from regional earthquakes in the eastern United States are used in a parametric inversion for source, path, and site effects. Five earthquakes are selected for analysis during the installation of the United States National Seismic Network (US), Earthscope’s USArray Transportable Array (TA), and other temporary arrays to...
Contributions of Great Salt Lake playa- and industrially-sourced priority pollutant metals in dust contribute to possible health hazards in the communities of northern Utah
Annie L. Putman, Molly A. Blakowski, Destry N. DiViesti, Diego P. Fernandez, Morgan C. McDonnell, Patrick C. Longley, Daniel K. Jones
2025, GeoHealth (9)
Communities and ecosystems of northern Utah, USA receive particulate pollution from anthropogenic activity and dust emissions from sources including the Great Salt Lake (“the Lake”) playa. In addition to affecting communities, anthropogenic pollution is delivered to the Lake's playa sediments, which are eroded during dust events. Yet, spatial variability in...
High resolution mapping of submerged sediment size and suitable salmon spawning habitat using topo-bathymetric Lidar in the Santiam Basin, Oregon
James White, Karen Michelle Bartelt, Brandon Overstreet, Jacob Ryan Kelley
2025, Water Resources Research (61)
The distribution of river-bed grain sizes plays a foundational role in river morphology and ecology. River-bed grain size is a key driver of channel form and process, and has first order effects on aquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages, fish nesting, and biogeochemical processes. Despite this importance, tools to spatially quantify grain-size distributions,...
The U.S. Geological Survey National Atmospheric Deposition Program, National Trends Network, 2023
Ryan C. McCammon, Noel A. Deyette
2025, General Information Product 258
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been a National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) partner agency since 1981. NADP is composed of five atmospheric monitoring networks that verify Clean Air Act effectiveness and provide essential data to protect human health and preserve ecosystems for current and future generations. Stakeholders include land...
The U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Network—Groundwater, 2024
Bruce D. Lindsey, James A. Kingsbury, Leah Marissa Santangelo
2025, General Information Product 256
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) operates a National Water Quality Network (NWQN) to monitor trends in groundwater quality and assess emerging contaminants of concern. It is a “network of networks” with 81 subnetworks being sampled on a decadal time scale. Each year, 8 of the subnetworks are sampled. Subnetworks have...
Vibrio pectenicida strain FHCF-3 is a causative agent of sea star wasting disease
Melanie B. Prentice, Grace Crandall, Amy M. Chan, Katherine M. Davis, Paul Hershberger, Jan F. Finke, Jason Hodin, Andrew McCracken, Colleen T. Kellogg, Rute Carvalho, Carolyn Prentice, Kevin X. Zhong, Drew Harvell, Curtis A. Suttle, Alyssa-Lois M. Gehman
2025, Nature Ecology & Evolution (9) 1739-1751
More than 10 years following the onset of the sea star wasting disease (SSWD) epidemic, affecting over 20 asteroid species from Mexico to Alaska, the causative agent has been elusive. SSWD killed billions of the most susceptible species, sunflower sea stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides), initiating a trophic cascade involving unchecked urchin population...
Three decades of declines restructure butterfly communities in the Midwestern United States
Wendy Leuenberger, Jeffrey W. Doser, Michael W. Belitz, Leslie Ries, Nick M. Haddad, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Elise F. Zipkin
2025, PNAS (122)
Insects are declining worldwide, yet gaps remain in our understanding of how declines are distributed across species within communities. Using three decades of butterfly monitoring data aggregated from the Midwestern United States, we found that no butterfly species increased in abundance from 1992 to 2023. 59 out of 136 species...
Sea star wasting disease mystery finally solved
Kevin D. Lafferty
2025, Nature Ecology and Evolution (9) 1552-1553
A decade after a marine epidemic killed off sea stars and triggered ecosystem-wide effects along the Pacific Coast of North America, researchers have identified the bacterial pathogen that is responsible for sea star wasting disease....
Coral restoration can drive rapid increases in reef accretion potential
Lauren Toth, Selena Anne-Marie Johnson, Erin O. Lyons, Jason Spadaro, Anastasios Stathakopoulos, Sierra Kathleen Bloomer, Jennifer Mallon, Connor Monroe Jenkins, Sara D. Williams, Ian Combs, Zachary Craig, Erinn Muller
2025, Scientific Reports (15)
Coral-reef degradation is disrupting the balance between reef accretion and erosion and threatening the persistence of essential coral-reef habitats. In south Florida, most reefs are already net eroding, and without intervention, valuable ecosystem services may be lost. Coral restoration holds the potential to reverse those trends; however, typical restoration monitoring...
Analysis of summer water temperatures of the lower Virgin River near Mesquite, Nevada, 2019–21
Katherine J. Earp
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5065
The lower Virgin River is a sandy, shallow reach of the Virgin River that flows from northern Arizona to Lake Mead in Nevada. The Virgin River hosts several native fish species, including two endangered fish, woundfin (Plagopterus argentissimu) and Virgin River chub (Gila seminuda). All native fish species in the...
Variable partitioning of lithium in rhyolitic melt during decompression and ascent
Madison Myers, Roberta Spallanzani, Darin Schwartz, Celestine N. Mercer, Behnaz Hosseini
2025, Economic Geology (120) 1191-1206
The partitioning behavior of Li in magmatic systems is increasingly being investigated due to the economic importance of Li in the transition to sustainable energy resources (e.g., batteries). However, at upper crustal pressures, it remains uncertain whether Li preferentially partitions into the vapor or liquid (brine) phase or remains in the...
Forecast, monitor, adapt: A multi-agency strategy to protect people from postfire debris flows
Francis K. Rengers, Jason W. Kean, Cory A. Williams, Mark F. Henneberg, John R. Banta, Eric Schroder, Cara Sponaugle, David Callery, Erin Walter, Todd Blake, Dennis M. Staley
2025, GSA Today (35) 16-21
In 2020, a wildfire burned across Glenwood Canyon in Colorado, USA. A history of postfire debris flows in the region and a hazard assessment for the burn area indicated that potentially life-threatening debris flows could be triggered by rainfall within months of a wildfire. As a result, four government agencies...
Random forest regression models for estimating low-streamflow statistics at ungaged locations in New York, excluding Long Island
Timothy J. Stagnitta, Joshua Woda, Alexander P. Graziano
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5060
Models to estimate low-streamflow statistics at ungaged locations in New York, excluding Long Island and including hydrologically connected basins from bordering States, were developed for the first time by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. A total of 224 basin characteristics...
Astronomical optical interferometry from the lunar surface: High sensitivity at sub-miliarcsecond scales
G. T. van Belle, T. Boyajian, M. Creech-Eakman, J. Elliott, K. Ennico-Smith, D. Hillsberry, K. Hubbard, T. Ito, S. R. Kulkarni, C. Langford, L. Lee, D. Leisawitz, E. Mamajek, May Martin, T. Matsuo, D. Mawet, J. Monnier, J. Morse, D. Mozurkewich, P. Niles, M. Panning, Lori M. Pigue, A. Sanghi, G. Schaefer, J. Scott, S. B. Shaklan, L. Spencer, A. Tohuvavohu, P. Tuthill, K. Valenta, J. Wachs
G. T. van Belle, S. B. Shaklan, S. R. Kulkarni, editor(s)
2025, Report
The lunar surface is a compelling opportunity for large, distributed optical facilities, with significant advantages over orbital facilities for high spatial resolution astrophysics. Serious development of mission concepts is timely because of the confluence of multiple compelling factors. First, lunar access technology is maturing rapidly, in the form of both US uncrewed and crewed...
White-nose syndrome surveillance and bat monitoring activities in North Coast and Cascades Network parks 2016–2024
Tara Chestnut, Jenny Urbina, Michael Elizabeth Hansen, Rebecca McCaffery, Dylan J. Rhea-Fournier, Jennifer Allen, Taal Levi
2025, Science Report NPS/SR-2025/340
Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), the causative agent of white-nose syndrome (WNS) in bats, has caused serious declines in bat populations across North America. We conducted WNS surveillance in five different park units in the North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN) from 2016 to 2024, following the initial detection of Pd and...
Living with wildfire in Montrose County, Colorado: 2023 Data report
Hannah Brenkert-Smith, Aaron Johnson, Suzanne Wittenbrink, Colleen Donovan, Josh Kuehn, James Meldrum, Patricia A. Champ, Christopher M. Barth, Carolyn Wagner, Christine Taniguchi
2025, Research Note RMRS-RN-107
During 2022–2024, the Wildfire Research (WiRē) Center partnered with the West Region Wildfire Council (WRWC) to learn more about parcel-level wildfire risk in Montrose County, Colorado. This research project was part of a larger, sustained collaboration between WiRē and the WRWC, moving the focus from areas typically characterized as fire-prone...
