A geospatial analysis of water-quality threats from orphan wells in principal and secondary aquifers of the United States
Joshua Woda, Karl B. Haase, Nicholas J. Gianoutsos, Kalle Jahn, Kristina Gutchess
2025, Science of the Total Environment (976)
Throughout the history of oil and gas production in the United States, millions of wells have been drilled for exploration and energy production. Hundreds of thousands of unplugged wells are no longer actively producing and are currently under orphan status, with no responsible party obligated for plugging. Orphan wells can...
Global methane budget 2000-2020
Marielle Saunois, Adrien Martinez, Benjamin Poulter, Zhen Zhang, Peter A. Raymond, Pierre Regnier, Josep G. Canadell, Robert B. Jackson, Prabir K. Patra, Philippe Bousquet, Philippe Ciais, Edward J. Dlugokencky, Xin Lan, George H. Allen, David Bastviken, David J. Beerling, Dmitry Belikov, Donald R. Blake, Simona Castaldi, Monica Crippa, Bridget R. Deemer, Fraser Dennison, Giuseppe Etiope, Nicola Gedney, Lena Höglund-Isaksson, Meredith A. Holgerson, Peter O. Hopcroft, Gustaf Hugelius, Akihiko Ito, Atul K. Jain, Rajesh Janardanan, Matthew S. Johnson, Thomas Kleinen, Paul B. Krummel, Ronny Lauerwald, Tingting Li, Xiangyu Liu, Kyle C. McDonald, Joe R. Melton, Jens Mühle, Jurek Müller, Fabiola Murguia-Flores, Yosuke Niwa, Sergio Noce, Shufen Pan, Robert J. Parker, Changhui Peng, Michel Ramonet, William J. Riley, Gerard Rocher-Ros, Judith A. Rosentreter, Motoki Sasakawa, Arjo Segers, Steven J. Smith, Emily H. Stanley, Joël Thanwerdas, Hanqin Tian, Aki Tsuruta, Francesco N. Tubiello, Thomas S. Weber, Guido R. van der Werf, Douglas E. Worthy, Yi Xi, Yukio Yoshida, Wenxin Zhang, Bo Zheng, Qing Zhu, Qiuan Zhu, Qianlai Zhuang
2025, Earth System Science Data (17) 1873-1958
Understanding and quantifying the global methane (CH4) budget is important for assessing realistic pathways to mitigate climate change. CH4 is the second most important human-influenced greenhouse gas in terms of climate forcing after carbon dioxide (CO2), and both emissions and atmospheric concentrations of CH4 have continued to...
Bayesian mapping of regionally grouped, sparse, univariate earth science data
Karl J. Ellefsen, Bronwen Wang, Margaret A. Goldman
2025, Techniques and Methods 7-C29
Some earth science data are naturally grouped by region, and it is often desirable to map these data by region. However, if there are only a few samples within each region, then the map should be smoothed in an appropriate way to mitigate the problems that arise from having only...
Learning complex spatial dynamics of wildlife diseases with machine learning-guided partial differential equations
Juan Francisco Mandujano Reyes, Gina Oh, Ian McGahan, Ting Fung Ma, Robin Russell, Daniel P. Walsh, Jun Zhu
2025, Environmental Data Science (4)
Emerging wildlife pathogens often display geographic variability due to landscape heterogeneity. Modeling approaches capable of learning complex, non-linear spatial dynamics of diseases are needed to rigorously assess and mitigate the effects of pathogens on wildlife health and biodiversity. We propose a novel machine learning (ML)-guided approach that leverages prior physical...
Marginalizing time in habitat selection and species distribution models improves inference
Joseph Michael Eisaguirre, Layne G. Adams, Bridget Borg, Heather E. Johnson
2025, Diversity and Distributions (31)
AimRecent methodological advances for studying how animals move and use space with telemetry data have focused on fine-scale, more mechanistic inference. However, in many cases, researchers and managers remain interested in larger scale questions regarding species distribution and habitat use across study areas, landscapes, or seasonal ranges. Point processes offer...
Interpreting a sudden population decline in a long-lived species (Malaclemys terrapin rhizophorarum)
Jacquelyn C. Guzy, Brian J. Smith, Mathew Denton, Michael Cherkiss, David Roche, Andrew G. Crowder, Kristen Hart
2025, Ecology and Evolution (15)
Long-term ecological studies are critical for providing insight into population dynamics and detecting population declines, particularly for species of conservation concern. However, spatiotemporal variation and logistical challenges make the identification of sudden population declines difficult. We conducted an in-water capture-mark-recapture study of mangrove diamond-backed terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin rhizophorarum) within Big...
Using long-term ecological datasets to unravel the impacts of short-term meteorological disturbances on phytoplankton communities
V. Tran-Khac, J.P. Doubek, Vijay P. Patil, J.D. Stockwell, R. Adrian, C.-W. Change, G. Dur, A. Lewandowska, J.A. Rusak, N. Salmaso, D. Straile, S.J. Thackeray, P. Venail, R. Bhattacharya, J. Brentrup, R. Bruel, H. Feuchtmayr, M.O. Gessner, H-P. Grossart, B.W. Ibelings, S. Jacquet, S. MacIntyre, S.S. Matsuzaki, E. Nodine, P. Nõges, L.G. Rudstam, F. Soulignac, P. Verburg, P. Znachor, T. Zohary, O. Anneville
2025, Freshwater Biology (70)
Extreme meteorological events such as storms are increasing in frequency and intensity, but our knowledge of their impacts on aquatic ecosystems and emergent system properties is limited. Understanding the ecological impacts of storms on the dynamics of primary producers remains a challenge that needs to be addressed to assess...
Native Yellowstone cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus virginalis bouvieri growth and survival in a headwater stream primarily driven by warming stream temperatures, with non-native brown trout Salmo trutta posing an additional threat to survival
Kadie B. Heinle, Robert Al-Chokhachy, Adam Sepulveda, Christine E. Verhille
2025, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (82) 1-17
Warming rivers and interactions with non-native species impact salmonid species globally. Understanding how hydroclimatic conditions synergistically and independently interact with non-native species is critical for effectively managing salmonids into the future. We used a 10-year mark–recapture dataset to assess how native Yellowstone cutthroat trout (YCT) Oncorhynchus virginalis bouvieri and non-native brown trout Salmo...
Modeling lamprey distribution using flow, geomorphology, and elevation in a terminal lake system
Jacob C. Dickey, Benjamin J. Clemens, Michael Dumelle, Melanie J. Davis
2025, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (154) 322-338
ObjectiveLampreys are an ecologically important group of fishes. Several species are imperiled and lack key distribution and habitat data. The terminal Goose Lake Basin, U.S.A. is home to two such species, the Goose Lake Lamprey, Entosphenus sp. (formally undescribed), and the Pit-Klamath Brook Lamprey, E. lethophagus. Species distribution models (SDMs)...
Failure to meet the exchangeability assumption in Bayesian multispecies occupancy models: Implications for study design
Gavin G. Cotterill, Douglas A. Keinath, Tabitha A. Graves
2025, Preprint
Bayesian hierarchical models are ubiquitous in ecology. Random effect model structures are often employed that treat individual effects as deviations from larger population-level effects. In this way individuals are assumed to be "exchangeable" samples. Ecologists may address this exchangeability assumption intuitively, but might in certain modeling contexts ignore it altogether,...
Methodology for defining and compiling abandoned and active hydrocarbon well inventories
Brian A. Varela, Marc L. Buursink
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5030
Hydrocarbon wells are not active forever; when they become permanently disused (abandoned), well infrastructure must be remediated or repurposed. Knowing which wells are abandoned is the initial and often complicated step in taking responsibility for well infrastructure. Each State creates laws and regulates hydrocarbon operations, which includes well abandonment. The...
Dynamic riskscapes for prey: Disentangling the impact of human and cougar presence on deer behavior using GPS smartphone locations
Heather Abernathy, Mark Dittmer, David Stoner, Kent Hersey, Kathryn A. Schoenecker, Pat Jackson, Kristin Engebretsen, Julie Young, George Wittemyer
2025, Ecography (2025)
Prey species adjust their behavior along human-use gradients by balancing risks from predators and humans. During hunting seasons, prey often exhibit strong antipredator responses to humans but may develop tolerance in suburban areas to exploit human-mediated resources. Additionally, areas with high human activity may offer reduced predation risk if apex...
Practical genetic diversity protection: an accessible framework for IUCN subpopulation and Evolutionarily Significant Unit identification
Julia C. Geue, Laura D. Bertola, Paulette Bloomer, Anna Bruniche-Olsen, Jessica M. da Silva, J. Andrew DeWoody, Ancuta Fedorca, Jose A. Godoy, Catherine E. Grueber, Margaret Hunter, Christina Hvilsom, Isa-Rita M. Russo, Evelyn L. Jensen, Alexander Kopatz, Anna J. MacDonald, Silvia Pérez-Espona, Antoinette J. Piaggio, Jennifer C. Pierson, Helen Senn, Gernot Segelbacher, Paul Sunnucks, Cock van Oosterhout, Deborah M. Leigh
2025, Preprint
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) sets global conservation standards, including the Red List of Threatened Species and the Green Status of Species. Recent analyses showed that genetic diversity has not been effectively considered by IUCN species assessments, despite being fundamental to species’ fitness and adaptive potential. Incorporation...
Metal fingerprints of Eocene rhyolite magmas coincident with Carlin-type gold deposition in Nevada USA
Celestine N. Mercer, Hannah R. Babel, Cameron Mark Mercer, Albert H. Hofstra
2025, Minerals (15)
Eocene magmatic systems contemporaneous with world-class Carlin-type Au deposits in Nevada (USA) have been proposed by some researchers as a key ingredient for Au mineralization, though evidence conclusively demonstrating their genetic relationship remains tenuous. This study provides the first direct evidence of the pre-eruptive metal budget of volatile- and metal-charged...
One-hundred fundamental, open questions to integrate methodological approaches in lake ice research
Joshua Culpepper, Sapna Sharma, Grant Gunn, Madeline Magee, Michael Frederick Meyer, Eric Anderson, Christoper D. Arp, Sarah Cooley, Wayana Dolan, Hilary Dugan, Claude R. Duguay, Benjamin C. Jones, Georgiy Kirillin, Robert Ladwig, Matti Lepparanta, Di Long, John J. Magnuson, Tamlin Pavelsky, Sebastiano Piccolroaz, Dale M. Robertson, Bethel Steele, Manu Tom, Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer, R. Iesytn Woolway, Marguerite A. Xenopoulos, Xiao Yang
2025, Water Resources Research (616)
The rate of technological innovation within aquatic sciences outpaces the collective ability of individual scientists within the field to make appropriate use of those technologies. The process of in situ lake sampling remains the primary choice to comprehensively understand an aquatic ecosystem at local scales; however, the impact of climate change on lakes necessitates...
Occurrence of pesticides in Oregon coastal waters
Bria Bleil, Elise F. Granek, Michelle L. Hladik
2025, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (44) 2098-2107
Pesticides are used globally for a wide range of applications including agricultural, forestry, roadsides, freshwater systems, and personal use. While pesticides have ensured efficient crop production, they are frequently transported away from application sites and are found in almost all terrestrial and aquatic environments. Pesticides are frequently detected in watersheds...
Overview of The SCEC/USGS Community Stress Drop Validation Study using the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence
Rachel E. Abercrombie, Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom, Shanna Chu, Taka’aki Taira, Dino Bindi, Oliver S. Boyd, Xiaowei Chen, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Emma Devin, Douglas Dreger, William Ellsworth, Fan Wenyuan, Rebecca Harrington, Yihe Huang, Kilian Kemna, Meichen Liu, Adrien Oth, Grace Alexandra Parker, Colin Pennington, Matteo Picozzi, Christine J. Ruhl, Peter Shearer, Daniele Spallarossa, Daniel Trugman, Ian Vandevert, Qimin Wu, Clara Yoon, Ellen Yu, Gregory C. Beroza, Tom Eulenfeld, Trey Knudson, Kevin Mayeda, Paola Morasca, James S. Neely, Jorge I. Roman-Nieves, Claudio Satriano, Mariano Supino, William R. Walter, Ralph Archuleta, Gail Marie Atkinson, Giovanna Calderoni, Chen Ji, Hongfeng Yang, Jiewen Zhang
2025, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (115) 734-759
We present initial findings from the ongoing Community Stress Drop Validation Study to compare spectral stress‐drop estimates for earthquakes in the 2019 Ridgecrest, California, sequence. This study uses a unified dataset to independently estimate earthquake source parameters through various methods. Stress drop, which denotes the change in average shear stress...
Gillnet sampling methods for monitoring status and trends of Clear Lake Hitch in Clear Lake, Lake County, California
Frederick Feyrer, Matthew J. Young, Brock Huntsman, Veronica Violette, Justin K. Clause, Jordan Buxton, Danielle Palm, Marissa L. Wulff, Jeff Gronemyer, Luis Santana
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1018
The Clear Lake Hitch (Lavinia exilicauda chi) is a minnow endemic to Clear Lake, Lake County, California. This species is listed as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act and has been petitioned for listing under the United States Endangered Species Act. In 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey,...
An early Holocene wet period in the southwestern United States
Kathleen B. Springer, Adam M. Hudson, Jeffrey S. Pigati, Katharine W. Huntington, Andrew J. Schauer
2025, Geology (53) 631-635
Multiple generations of spring-fed streams traversed ∼800 km2 of the Las Vegas Valley in southern Nevada between ca. 10.9 ka and 8.5 ka, depositing an extensive tufa network. The scale of this network and diversity of tufa morphologies is novel in North America and offers an opportunity to obtain quantitative paleoclimate...
Spatially explicit capture-mark-recapture to evaluate demographic status of the Louisiana black bear
Joseph D. Clark, Heidi L. Adams, Ben Augustine, John R. Berry III, Dustin Champagne, Maria Davidson, John Hanks, Jared S. Laufenberg, Sean M. Murphy
2025, Journal of Wildlife Management (89)
Louisiana black bears (Ursus americanus luteolus) occur in semi-isolated fragments of bottomland hardwood forest in the lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley and were listed as threatened under the United States Endangered Species Act in 1992. A population viability analysis based on radio-telemetry and capture-mark-recapture (CMR) data collected from 2002 to 2012...
Airborne geophysical analysis to decipher salinization for coastal Louisiana
Michael Attia, Frank T.-C. Tsai, Shuo Yang, Burke J. Minsley, Wade Kress
2025, Water Research (271)
Coastal Louisiana is known for saltwater intrusion that threatens wetlands, aquifers, and rivers. However, the extent of saltwater intrusion is not well understood. This study develops an innovative framework with airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data to map chloride concentration distributions for wetlands in the Mississippi River deltaic plain and Chenier plain...
U.S. Geological Survey Colorado River Basin science and technology collaboration meetings on drought (2021)—Synthesis of findings
Adrian Pierre-Frederic Monroe, Jason S. Alexander, Eric D. Anderson, Patrick J. Anderson, William J. Andrews, Jessica M. Driscoll, Rebecca J. Frus, Joseph A. Hevesi, Daniel K. Jones, Kathryn A. Thomas, Anne C. Tillery, Alicia A. Torregrosa, Katharine G. Dahm
2025, Circular 1551
Ongoing, prolonged, and severe drought and water overuse during the first two decades of the 21st century have reduced water supplies of the Colorado River Basin, with effects cascading to ecosystems and human communities throughout the basin. In June and July 2021, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Colorado River Basin...
Monitoring recreation on federally managed lands and waters—Visitation estimation
Dieta Hanson, Emily J. Wilkins, Spencer H. Wood, Christian S.L. Crowley, Whitney Boone, Rudy Schuster
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5022
Federally managed public lands and waters attract millions of visitors each year, generating significant economic benefits for surrounding communities. Accurate visitation data are crucial for guiding policy decisions and managing resources effectively. This report explores the methods employed by agencies to collect and use data on recreational visitation to Federal...
How sampling design of GPS collar deployment influences consistency of mapped migration corridors over time
Emily R. Gelzer, Justine A. Becker, Samantha P.H. Dwinnell, Gary L. Fralick, Embere Hall, Rusty C. Kaiser, Matthew J. Kauffman, Tayler N. LaSharr, Kevin L. Monteith, Anna C. Ortega, Jill E. Randall, Hall Sawyer, Mark A. Thonhoff, Jerod A. Merkle
2025, Journal of Wildlife Management (89)
Federal and state agencies within the United States have recently issued directives prioritizing the conservation of ungulate migration corridors and winter ranges. The ability to identify and delineate the spatial distribution of seasonal ranges underpins these policies. While such delineations are often derived from global positioning system (GPS) collar data...
2022–2024 Status and trends of the Palila (Loxioides bailleui)
Noah Hunt, Chauncey K. Asing, Lindsey Nietmann, Paul C. Banko, Richard J. Camp
2025, Hawaii Cooperative Studies Unit Technical Report HCSU-115
Palila (Loxioides bailleui) are critically endangered Hawaiian honeycreepers specializing on the seedpods of māmane (Sophora chrysophylla) and restricted to Mauna Kea volcano on the Island of Hawaiʻi. A previous analysis of survey data estimated an 89% population decline between 1998 and 2021. Using the most recent annual survey data from...
