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Elevated nitrogen loads are pervasive in the Long Island Sound, an estuary that receives freshwater and nutrients from both surface-water and groundwater discharge. Surface-water nitrogen loads to the Long Island Sound are relatively well characterized, but less is known about groundwater-transported nitrogen loads. Prior work on the northern shore of...

Groundwater-quality data and potential fluid-migration pathways near the Placerita Oil Field in Los Angeles County, California, were examined by the U.S. Geological Survey to determine if oil-field fluids (water and gas from oil-producing and non-producing zones) have mixed with groundwater resources. Six of the 13 new groundwater samples collected for...

Ecological restoration projects are designed to improve natural and cultural resources. Spending on restoration also stimulates economic impacts to the restoration economy through the creation or support of jobs and business activity. This paper presents accessible methods for quantifying the economic impacts supported by restoration spending...

Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharges can be a source of organic contaminants, including pesticides, to rivers. An integrated model was developed for the Potomac River watershed (PRW) to determine the amount of accumulated wastewater percentage of streamflow (ACCWW) and calculate predicted environmental concentrations...

Pesticides and pesticide degradates (herein referred to as pesticides) in surface water were assessed at 78 sites on 4 Hawaiian Islands (Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Maui, and Island of Hawaiʻi) during 2015–19. Each site was downstream of or near agricultural land, developed land, or both. Most (58) sites were streams; the remaining...

IntroductionNational parks and preserves in the South Atlantic-Gulf Region contain valuable coastal habitats such as tidal wetlands and mangrove forests, as well as irreplaceable historic buildings and archeological sites located in low-lying areas. These natural and cultural resources are vulnerable to accelerated sea-level rise and escalating high tide flooding events....

Spatial and temporal distribution data provide critical information for invasive species management. For example, distribution data can help managers with early detections and guiding other response actions. Environmental DNA (eDNA)-based sampling exists as one tool for monitoring invasive species. As part of bigheaded carp Hypophthalmichthys spp. monitoring efforts in the Illinois River,...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in partnership with the International Joint Commission installed and operated continuous water-quality monitors at three sites on the Souris River from May 2019 to October 2023. Continuously recorded data included dissolved oxygen (DO), water temperature, and specific conductance at the Souris River near Sherwood, North...

Exposure to heavy metals has been documented in a wide range of wildlife species, but infrequently in ground squirrels. This is despite their tendency to be targets of recreational shooters and the accumulation of lead ammunition in the soil environments they inhabit. We...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Colorado Springs Utilities and Colorado Springs Stormwater Enterprise, synthesized previous studies and evaluated recent monitoring data to understand the distribution of fish and invertebrates in the Fountain Creek Basin and documented response to streamflow, water temperature, and water quality. The goal was to...

Executive Summary The U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) Center of Excellence (ECCOE) focuses on improving the accuracy, precision, calibration, and product quality of remote-sensing data, leveraging years of multiscale optical system geometric and radiometric calibration and characterization experience. The ECCOE Landsat Cal/Val Team continually...

To better understand the primary drivers of the thermal regime in a Great Lakes estuary, and their implications for local biota, water temperature variations in the Milwaukee Estuary of Lake Michigan were studied between July and October of 2019 using a network of 25 sensors at 18 locations. Like Lake...

Well integrity monitoring has always been a critical component of subsurface oil and gas operations. Distributed fiber-optic sensing is an emerging technology that shows great promise for monitoring processes, both in boreholes and in other settings. In this study, we present a case study of using distributed temperature sensing (DTS)...

Changing biodiversity and environmental conditions may allow multi-host pathogens to spread among host species and affect prevalence. There are several widely acknowledged theories about mechanisms that may influence variation in pathogen prevalence, including the controversially debated dilution effect and abundance-occupancy relationship hypotheses. Here, we explore such abundance-occupancy relationships for unique...

The advent of machine learning techniques has led to a proliferation of landscape classification products. These approaches can fill gaps in wetland inventories across the United States (U.S.) provided that large reference datasets are available to develop accurate models. In this study, we tested the feasibility of expediting the classification...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) operated 11,850 continuous surface-water monitoring locations (streamgages) across the United States in 2023. The streamgages provide information on river height and streamflow, typically at 15-minute intervals. This information is then made available to everyone, most of it delivered nearly in realtime on the USGS National...

Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Ecosystem Restoration Program, the U.S. Department of the Interior has invested in assessing and recovering degraded ecosystems to promote healthy human communities and wildlife habitats. One priority established by the program is the need to address degraded ecosystems associated with mine lands, including active, inactive,...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology), conducted a study to describe the current understanding of the regional groundwater system of the lower Duwamish River valley and groundwater and surface-water interactions in the lower Duwamish Waterway. The lower Duwamish Waterway is the...

ObjectiveDebris flows are among the most extreme disturbances to streams and are predicted to become more frequent under climate change. We assessed the response of steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss (anadromous Rainbow Trout)/Rainbow Trout (hereafter, collectively referred to as O. mykiss) and Coastrange Sculpin Cottus aleuticus populations to major postfire debris...

Although Mars today does not have a core dynamo, magnetizations in the Martian crust and in meteorites suggest a magnetic field was present prior to 3.7 billion years (Ga) ago. However, the lack of ancient, oriented Martian bedrock samples available on Earth has prevented accurate estimates of...

Constraining stresses in the Earth's crust in volcanic regions is critical for understanding many mechanical processes related to eruptive activity. Dike pathways, in particular, are shaped by the orientation of principal stress axes. Therefore, accurate models of dike trajectories and future vent locations rely on accurate estimates...

Ecologists, biologists, and conservation scientists are increasingly interested in the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) data for research and potentially decision-making. While commercial DNA extraction kits are typically user-friendly and accessible, they may fail to deliver the desired results with inherently complex eDNA samples,...

Dust events originate from multiple sources in arid and semi-arid regions, making it difficult to quantify source contributions. Dust geochemical/mineralogical composition, if the sources are sufficiently distinct, can be used to quantify the contributions from different sources. To test the...

The U.S. Geological Survey North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC), established in 2012, is part of a national network supporting climate-informed decisions that benefit wildlife and habitats. The NC CASC provides climate science for the U.S. Department of the Interior, State agencies, and Tribal nations to support effective...

During 2023–24, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Edwards Aquifer Authority, revised a previous publication of the geologic framework and hydrostratigraphy of the Edwards and Trinity aquifers that was completed during 2018–20 within northern Medina County, Texas. The purpose of this report is to present the updated geologic...