Contributions of erosion, deposition, and human activities to a change in sand storage in the bed of San Francisco Bay, California, 1980s to 2010s
Theresa A. Fregoso, Bruce E. Jaffe, Amy C. Foxgrover, Donald L. Woodrow, Bethany Kharrazi, Kevin Orzech
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1022
This study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) provides estimates of the change in sand storage in bed sediments from the 1980s to 2010s in the San Francisco Bay area, California. The study is part of a larger project called “Research to Understand Impacts of Bay Sand Mining on Sand...
Valuing recreational fishing using creel survey statistics
Luke Boehm, Richard T. Melstrom, Kevin L. Pope
2025, Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (4) 378-390
Recreation demand analysis has relied on mail and internet surveys to collect information on individual recreators. However, conducting these surveys is costly and time-consuming. Alternative sources that report aggregate visitation may go unused due to a lack of information about trip starting points. We set up and solve a system...
Cold-induced vomiting of a white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) by an invasive Burmese python (Python bivitattus) in Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, USA
Travis R. Mangione, Grant S. McCargar, Matthew Fox Metcalf, Lisa Marie McBride, Eli X. Suastegui, Josue I. Perez, Cohen W. Eastridge, Matthew F. McCollister, Christina Romagosa, Amanda Marie Kissel, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Mark Robert Sandfoss
2025, Ecology and Evolution (15)
The Burmese python (Python bivittatus) is native to Southeast Asia and has an established invasive population throughout South Florida. As part of the effort to understand invasive python biology and potential impacts to the native ecosystem, we have been using radio-telemetry to investigate feeding rates of adult female pythons. The...
The conundrum of taxonomic uniformitarianism in planktic foraminifera
Harry J. Dowsett, Marci M. Robinson, Kevin M. Foley, Whittney Spivey
2025, Palaeontology (68)
Planktic foraminiferal species distributions in the modern ocean track environmental features like sea surface temperature (SST). Species shift their distributions as the marine environment changes, providing an analogue for past behaviour. Stationarity of species' ecological tolerances is therefore a first-order assumption of all palaeoenvironmental reconstructions based upon modern analogue methods....
Real-time oil spill concentration assessment through fluorescence imaging and deep learning
Biplab Poudel, Jiacheng Xie, Congyu Guo, Olivia Watt, Erin L. Pulster, Rishi J. Patel, Jeffery A. Steevens, Dong Xu
2025, Journal of Hazardous Materials (496)
Oil spills may pose severe ecological and socioeconomic threats, necessitating rapid and accurate environmental assessment. Traditional assessment methods used to determine the extent of a spill including gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, satellite imaging, and visual surveys, are often time-consuming, expensive, and limited by weather conditions or sampling constraints. Furthermore, these methods...
Wet meadow regeneration through restoration of biophysical feedbacks
Michael Pollock, Laura M. Norman
2025, Frontiers in Environmental Science (13)
Wet meadows are globally significant ecosystems that provide critical hydrological, ecological, and biogeochemical functions, yet their extent has declined dramatically due to land use changes and hydrologic alteration. These sedge-dominated wetlands exist at the drier end of the wetland gradient, maintained by shallow groundwater and periodic inundation. This paper is...
Cyanotoxin and domoic acid occurrence, relation with salinity, and potential recreational health risks in U.S. coasts in the 2015 US EPA National Coastal Condition Assessment
Ariel R. Donovan, Zachary R. Laughrey, Robin A. Femmer, Sarena L. Senegal, Keith A. Loftin
2025, Harmful Algae (149)
In the first nationwide study of cyanotoxins in U.S. estuaries, algal toxins, cyanotoxins, chlorophyll, and salinity were measured in samples collected during the National Coastal Condition Assessment 2015. Anatoxin-a (ANAA), cylindrospermopsin (CYLS), domoic acid (DMAC), and microcystins (MCs) were detected by LC/MS/MS in 0.6, 0.9, 8.3, and 2.0 % of...
A spatial analysis of the groundwater emergence flood hazard in Long Island, New York and near coastal areas surrounding Long Island Sound in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island
Kristina Kirkyla Masterson, Robert J. Welk, Janet R. Barclay, Kalle Jahn, Liv M. Herdman
2025, Preprint
Long Island, New York and near coastal areas surrounding Long Island Sound are densely populated and, like other coastal areas, are susceptible to flooding from several potential sources, including stormwater from precipitation events, tidal flooding and storm surge, and groundwater inundation or groundwater emergence flooding. The latter refers to the...
Reflections on a trio of North American earthquakes in 1925
Susan E. Hough, Maurice Lamontagne, John E. Ebel, L. Baise
2025, Seismological Research Letters (97) 548-563
In 1925, three moderately large damaging earthquakes occurred in North America over four months: the 28 February (local time; LT) M 6.2 Charlevoix, 27 June (LT) M 6.6 Montana, and 29 June M 6.5 Santa Barbara earthquakes. The centennial anniversaries of these events motivated this retrospective consideration focused on the ground motions generated by the three...
The impact of the May 1921 superstorm on American telecommunication systems
Jeffrey J. Love, Greg M. Lucas, Anna Kelbert, Neesha R. Schnepf, Paul A. Bedrosian, Sara K. McBride
2025, Space Weather (23)
A compilation is presented of impacts (interference and damage) realized on long-line telegraph and telephone systems across North America during the 13-16 May 1921 magnetic storm. Impacts occurred primarily during local nighttime, after the third of four sudden commencements, and during the storm’s most-prominent main phase. Impacts are attributed to rapid and high-amplitude geomagnetic...
Detroit River becoming a crucible for boundary organization experimentation
John H. Hartig, Robin L. DeBruyne, Katie Stammler, James C. Boase, Edward F. Roseman
2025, Journal of Great Lakes Research (51)
The Detroit River has a long history of human use and abuse, resulting in public outcry over water pollution and resource degradation. This public outcry helped catalyze the enactment of many laws and the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement which led to enhanced research, monitoring, and water pollution control....
Proactive assisted gene flow for Caribbean corals in an era of rapid coral reef decline
Andrew C. Baker, Iliana B. Baums, Sarah W. Davies, Andrea G. Grottoli, Carly D. Kenkel, Sheila A. Kitchen, Ilsa B. Kuffner, Mikhail V. Matz, Margaret W. Miller, Erinn M. Muller, John E. Parkinson, Carlos Prada, Andrew A. Shantz, R. van Hooidonk, R. Scott Winters
2025, Science (389) 344-347
Coral reefs are one of the most well-documented marine ecosystems under increasing threat from climate change. Catastrophic episodes of coral bleaching and subsequent mortality caused by prolonged heat stress (1) highlight the need to test and implement new approaches to prevent species loss and retain ecosystem function (2). One of...
Benchmarking shoreline prediction models over multi-decadal timescales
Yongjing Mao, Giovanni Coco, Sean Vitousek, Jose A. A. Antolinez, Georgios Azorakos, Masayuki Banno, Clément Bouvier, Karin R. Bryan, Laura Cagigal, Kit Calcraft, Bruno Castelle, Xinyu Chen, Maurizio D'Anna, Lucas de Freitas Pereira, Iñaki de Santiago, Aditya N. Deshmukh, Bixuan Dong, Ahmed Elghandour, Amirmahdi Gohari, Eduardo Gomez-de la Peña, Mitchell D. Harley, Michael Ibrahim, Déborah Idier, Camilo Jaramillo Cardona, Changbin Lim, Ivana Mingo, Julian O'Grady, Daniel Pais, Oxana Repina, Arthur Robinet, Dano Roelvink, Joshua Simmons, Erdinc Sogut, Katie Wilson, Kristen Splinter
2025, Communications Earth & Environment (6)
Robust predictions of shoreline change are critical for sustainable coastal management. Despite advancements in shoreline models, objective benchmarking remains limited. Here we present results from ShoreShop2.0, an international collaborative benchmarking workshop, where 34 groups submitted shoreline change predictions in a blind competition. Subsets of shoreline observations at an undisclosed site...
Spatially explicit demographics of Mojave Desert Tortoises on a demography plot in California, USA
Sarah Doyle, Sean M. Murphy, K. Kristina Drake, Julie Hendrix, Todd C. Esque
2025, Herpetologica (81) 215-223
Obtaining reliable estimates of demographic parameters is critical to effective wildlife conservation and management. Densities of Mojave Desert Tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) were historically derived from capture–mark–recapture surveys on small, often strategically placed demography plots, or demographic study areas, that also provided information on demographic composition and vital rates. After protection...
Advancing the implementation of coastal restoration in Louisiana through a co-production of science framework
Jacob M. Oster, Jessica R. Henkel, Alyssa Dausman, Eva D. Windhoffer, Bingqing Liu, Melissa Millman Baustian, Denise Reed, Summer Langlois, David C. Lindquist
2025, Estuaries and Coasts (48)
Coastal Louisiana faces complex challenges from the compounding effects of coastal land loss and climate change. The State of Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) and the RESTORE Act Center of Excellence for Louisiana (LA-COE) have adopted a co-production of science framework to help ensure that scientific research funded...
Ice thickness regulates heat flux in permanently ice-covered lakes
Hilary A. Dugan, Maciej Obryk, Michael Gooseff, Peter Doran, Amy Chiuchiolo, Jade Lawrence, John Priscu
2025, Limnology and Oceanography (70) 2556-2568
The permanently ice-covered lakes of Taylor Valley, Antarctica, are rare ecosystems where permanent ice cover and year-round vertically stable water columns provide critical redox zones for cold-adapted microorganisms. Using 30 yr of limnological data from the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research program, we assessed the water column heat flux of...
The pre-maria geologic history of the Imbrium basin preserved by remnant highlands massifs
Ben D. Byron, Catherine M. Elder, Lori M. Pigue, Jean-Pierre Williams
2025, JGR Planets (130)
The Imbrium basin is one of the largest and youngest impact basins on the Moon. It has experienced multiple phases of volcanism that filled the basin with basaltic lavas, obscuring most evidence of geologic activity prior to the emplacement of mare basalts. Elevated basin ring massifs, however, can retain some...
Rupture process of the Mw7.0 December 5, 2024 Offshore Cape Mendocino earthquake
Frederick Pollitz, Katherine Anna Guns, Clara Yoon
2025, Geophysical Research Letters (52)
The Mw7.0 December 5, 2024 Offshore Cape Mendocino earthquake ruptured a km long portion of the east-west trending Mendocino fault zone (MFZ). In order to clarify the rupture process, we assemble three-component seismograms from regional seismic stations, horizontal coseismic displacement vectors derived from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) time series, and...
Mapping global coral vulnerability to stony coral tissue loss disease: Implications for biosecurity and conservation
Kevin D. Lafferty, Giovanni Strona
2025, Frontiers in Marine Science (12)
Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) has devastated Caribbean coral reefs since 2014, but its potential for global impact remains uncertain. We developed predictive models to assess the worldwide vulnerability of coral reefs to SCTLD under different origin and spread hypotheses. Using random forest regression models incorporating coral taxonomy and...
Assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources of the northern Arabian Peninsula, 2024
Christopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Phuong A. Le, Andrea D. Cicero, Ronald M. Drake II, Sarah E. Gelman, Jane S. Hearon, Benjamin G. Johnson, Jenny H. Lagesse, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Kira K. Timm
2025, Fact Sheet 2025-3035
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean conventional resources of 5.1 billion barrels of oil and 19.5 trillion cubic feet of gas in the northern Arabian Peninsula....
Environmental characteristics of select managed ponds in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta—Implications for native fish conservation and research
Frederick V. Feyrer, Shawn Acuña, Jordan M. Buxton, Ethan R. Enos, Michelle L. Hladik, James Orlando, Matthew J. Young
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1040
The use of wetlands to support native fish research and conservation efforts in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta (Delta) of California is a growing priority. The purpose of our study was to examine the physiochemical and biological characteristics of select managed ponds in the Delta to determine if they would be...
Development of regression equations to estimate flow durations, low-flow frequencies, and mean flows at ungaged stream sites in Connecticut using data through water year 2022
Elizabeth A. Ahearn, Gardner C. Bent
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5027
To aid Federal and State regulatory agencies in the effective management of water resources, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Connecticut Department of Transportation, updated flow statistics for 118 streamgages and developed 47 regression equations to estimate selected flow...
Bright spots for advancing ecological understanding and conservation decision-making
Holly Susan Embke, Zachary S. Feiner, Gretchen Hansen, Daniel A. Isermann, Olaf P. Jensen, Christopher I. Rounds, Quinn Smith, M. Jake Vander Zanden
2025, Conservation Biology (39)
A lot can be learned by studying bright spots—defined as unexpected positive outcomes. In fields like public health, education, and oncology, identifying factors behind bright spots reveals previously unknown drivers of success that can be replicated elsewhere. This concept is being applied in conservation but is hampered by variations in...
Public support for puma reintroduction in the eastern United States
L. Mark Elbroch, Jazmin Murphy, Shelby Carlson, John A. Vucetich, Richard Eugene Waggaman Berl, Lexi Galiardi, Shelby Perry, Tom Butler, Neil H. Carter, Joseph W. Hinton, Axel Moehrenschlager, Emily M. Carrollo, Rana Bayrakcismith, Jeremy T. Bruskotter
2025, Conservation Science and Practice (7)
Pumas (Puma concolor) are among the species identified as having the potential to enhance ecosystem function. Previous research highlights sufficient ecological habitat to support pumas in the eastern United States; however, their reintroduction requires social and institutional support as well. To this end, we conducted research to assess attitudes about...
The 3D National Topography Model Call for Action—Part 2: The Next Generation 3D Elevation Program
Vicki Lukas, Larry Sugarbaker, Cindy A. Thatcher, Allyson L. Jason, Jason M. Stoker
2025, Circular 1553
The three-dimensional (3D) National Topography Model initiative to integrate elevation and hydrography data includes the next generation of hydrography data from the 3D Hydrography Program and the next generation of elevation data from the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP). The first-ever collection of light detection and ranging (lidar) data for the...
