Hysteretic response of suspended-sediment in wildfire affected watersheds of the Pacific Northwest and Southern Rocky Mountains
Gregory D. Clark, Sheila F. Murphy, Katherine Skalak, David W. Clow, Garrett Alexander Akie, Kurt D. Carpenter, Sean E. Payne, Brian A. Ebel
2025, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (50)
Wildfires can have a profound impact on hydrosedimentary interactions, or the relationship between sediment and runoff, in forested headwater streams. Quantification of sediment-runoff dynamics at the event scale is integral for understanding source areas and transport of suspended-sediment through a watershed following wildfire. Here we used high-frequency turbidity and stream...
Post-fire recovery of sagebrush-steppe communities is better explained by elevation than climate-derived indicators of resistance and resilience
Cara Applestein, Matthew Germino
2025, Journal of Applied Ecology
More landscapes require restoration than can feasibly be treated, and so decision-support tools to prioritize areas for treatment are needed. Moreover, restoration is complicated by the threat of biological invasion in disturbed areas, and so indicators of ecosystem resistance to invasion and resilience to disturbance (hereafter R&R) are important...
Relationship of atmospheric nitrogen deposition to soil nitrogen cycling along an elevation gradient in the Colorado Front Range
Deborah A. Repert, Ruth C. Heindel, Sheila F. Murphy, Kaitlyn M. Jeanis
2025, Earth's Future (13)
Microbial processing of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition regulates the retention and mobilization of N in soils, with important implications for water quality. Understanding the links between N deposition, microbial communities, N transformations, and water quality is critical as N deposition shifts toward reduced N and remains persistently high in many...
Sulfur-to-iron ratio as a proxy for degree of organic sulfurization
Katherine L. French, Justin E. Birdwell
2025, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (26)
The degree of organic sulfurization is broadly relevant yet underreported. We present a statistically significant correlation between whole rock S/Fe and the measured degree of organic sulfurization in the thermally immature Cenomanian–Turonian Eagle Ford Group. This relationship shows a sink switch for sulfur from pyrite to organic matter. Excess iron...
Annual NLCD (National Land Cover Database)—The next generation of land cover mapping
U.S. Geological Survey
2025, Fact Sheet 2025-3001
Introduction The widely used National Land Cover Database (NLCD) has long been the foundational land cover source for scientists, resource managers, and decision makers across the United States.In 2024, a reinvention as Annual NLCD added the key improvement of annual time steps to show decades of change at a higher frequency...
Stratigraphic notes—Volume 2, 2025
Randall C. Orndorff, Nancy R. Stamm, David R. Soller, editor(s)
2025, Professional Paper 1879-2
This is the second volume in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) series of reports on stratigraphy entitled “Stratigraphic Notes,” which consists of short papers that highlight stratigraphic studies, changes in stratigraphic nomenclature, and explanations of stratigraphic names and concepts used on published geologic maps. “Stratigraphic Notes” is a long-term...
Simulating human behavior under earthquake early warning
Matthew Wood, Sara McBride, Xilei Zhao, Dare Baldwin, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Xiaojian Zhang, Nico Luco, Ruggiero Lovreglio, Tom Cova
2025, Heliyon
Earthquakes are a rapid-onset hazard where advance planning and learning plays a key role in mitigating injuries and death to individuals. Recent advances in earthquake detection have resulted in the development of earthquake early warning (EEW) systems. These systems can provide advance warning to predetermined geographic regions that an earthquake...
Population genomics reveals local adaptation related to temperature variation in two stream frog species: Implications for vulnerability to climate warming
Brenna R. Forester, Amanda S. Cicchino, Alisha A. Shah, Austin B. Mudd, Eric C. Anderson, Jessen V. Bredeson, Andrew J. Crawford, Jason B. Dunham, Cameron K. Ghalambor, Erin L. Landguth, Brent W. Murray, Daniel Rokhsar, W. Chris Funk
2025, Molecular Ecology
Identifying populations at highest risk from climate change is a critical component of conservation efforts. However, vulnerability assessments are usually applied at the species level, even though intraspecific variation in exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity play a crucial role in determining vulnerability. Genomic data can inform intraspecific vulnerability by identifying...
Evidence for nonlocal sediment transport on hillslopes from fault scarp morphology
Harrison J. Gray, Tyler Doane, Sylvia R. Nicovich, Christopher DuRoss, Ryan D. Gold
2025, Geology
Hillslope sediment transport processes such as bioturbation, rainsplash, and granular mechanics occur across the entire planet. Yet, it remains uncertain how these small-scale processes act together to shape landscapes. Longstanding hillslope diffusion theory posits that hillslope processes are spatially limited, whereas new concepts of nonlocal sediment transport argue otherwise. However,...
Considering multiecosystem trade-offs is critical when leveraging systematic conservation planning for restoration
Nicholas J. Van Lanen, C.J. Duchardt, L. Pejchar, J.E. Shyvers, Cameron L. Aldridge
2025, Global Change Biology (31)
Conservationists are increasingly leveraging systematic conservation planning (SCP) to inform restoration actions that enhance biodiversity. However, restoration frequently drives ecological transformations at local scales, potentially resulting in trade-offs among wildlife species and communities. The Conservation Interactions Principle (CIP), coined more than 15 years ago, cautions SCP practitioners regarding the importance of jointly and...
From subsidies to stressors: Shifting ecological baselines alter biological responses to nutrients in highly modified agricultural streams
Stephen Edward Devilbiss, Jason M. Taylor, Matthew B. Hicks
2025, Ecological Applications (35)
Subsidy–stress gradients offer a useful framework for understanding ecological responses to perturbation and may help inform ecological metrics in highly modified systems. Historic, region-wide shifts from bottomland hardwood forest to row crop agriculture can cause positively skewed impact gradients in alluvial plain ecoregions, resulting in tolerant organisms that typically exhibit...
Hydrogeologic framework of the Mountain Home area, southern Idaho
Lauren M. Zinsser, Scott D. Ducar
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5132
In the arid western Snake River Plain around the City of Mountain Home, Idaho, declining groundwater levels concern agricultural, municipal, and other water users who rely on groundwater for sustenance because surface-water resources are limited. The U.S. Geological Survey developed this hydrogeologic framework to provide an updated characterization of groundwater...
Prospectivity mapping for geologic hydrogen
Sarah E. Gelman, Jane S. Hearon, Geoffrey S. Ellis
2025, Professional Paper 1900
Geologic, or naturally occurring, hydrogen has the potential to become a new, low-carbon, primary energy resource. Often referred to as “white” or “gold” hydrogen, this gas occurs naturally in the Earth’s subsurface, similar to petroleum resources. However, unlike petroleum, which releases carbon dioxide when burned, burning hydrogen only produces water...
Tracing metal sources and groundwater flow paths in the Upper Animas River watershed using rare earth elements and stable isotopes
Connor P. Newman, Rory M. Cowie, Rick Wilkin, Alexis Navarre-Sitchler
2025, Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis
Groundwater flow paths and processes that govern metal mobility and transport are difficult to characterize in mountainous bedrock watersheds. Despite the difficulty in holistic characterization, conceptual understanding of subsurface hydrologic and geochemical processes is key to developing remediation plans for locations affected by acid mine drainage, such as the Upper...
Forecasting water levels using the ConvLSTM algorithm in the Everglades, USA
Raidan Bassah, Gerald A. Corzo Perez, Biswa Bhattacharya, Saira Haider, Eric D. Swain, Nicholas Aumen
2025, Journal of Hydrology (652)
Forecasting water levels in complex ecosystems like wetlands can support effective water resource management, ecological conservation, and understanding surface and groundwater hydrology. Predictive models can be used to simulate the complex interactions among natural processes, hydrometeorological factors, and human activities. The Greater Everglades in the USA is a well-known example...
Optimization of wetland environmental DNA metabarcoding protocols for Great Lakes region herpetofauna
Olivia M. Ruppert, Jared Joseph Homola, Jeannette Kanefsky, Alyssa Swinehart, Kim T. Scribner, John D. Robinson
2025, Environmental DNA (7)
Many species of reptiles and amphibians (herpetofauna) rely on wetlands that are being degraded and lost at a high rate. Characterization of herpetofauna diversity in different wetland types may help guide conservation strategies. However, traditional survey methods often involve sampling within small temporal windows, and the gear deployed may be...
Integrated water availability in the conterminous United States, 2010–20
Edward G. Stets, Matthew J. Cashman, Olivia L. Miller, Kathryn A. Powlen
2025, Professional Paper 1894-F
Water availability is defined as the spatial and temporal distribution of water quantity and quality as it relates to the needs of humans and ecosystems. Broad assessment of water availability requires the consideration of multiple indicators because water users have different sensitivities to the degradation of water conditions. This chapter...
Climate change and future water availability in the United States
Martha A. Scholl, Gregory J. McCabe, Carolyn G. Olson, Kathryn A. Powlen
2025, Professional Paper 1894-E
The steady rise in global temperature as a result of human activity is causing changes in Earth’s water cycle. The balance of water stored within and moving between vapor, liquid, and frozen states in the water cycle is shifting, with consequences for water availability that include increases in drought, fire...
Water use across the conterminous United States, water years 2010–20
Laura Medalie, Amy E. Galanter, Anthony J. Martinez, Althea A. Archer, Carol L. Luukkonen, Melissa A. Harris, Jonathan V. Haynes
2025, Professional Paper 1894-D
Withdrawals of water for human use are fundamental to the evaluation of the Nation’s water availability. This chapter provides an analysis of public supply, crop irrigation, and thermoelectric power water use for the conterminous United States (CONUS) during water years 2010–20. These three categories account for about 90 percent of...
Status of water-quality conditions in the United States, 2010–20
Melinda L. Erickson, Olivia L. Miller, Matthew J. Cashman, James R. Degnan, James E. Reddy, Anthony J. Martinez, Elmera Azadpour
2025, Professional Paper 1894-C
Degradation of water quality can make water harmful or unusable for humans and ecosystems. Although many studies have assessed the effect of individual constituents or narrow suites of constituents on freshwater systems, no consistent, comprehensive assessment exists over the wide range of water-quality effects on water availability. Using published studies,...
Water supply in the conterminous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, water years 2010–20
Galen Gorski, Edward G. Stets, Martha A. Scholl, James R. Degnan, John R. Mullaney, Amy E. Galanter, Anthony J. Martinez, Julie Padilla, Jacob H. LaFontaine, Hayley R. Corson-Dosch, Allen Shapiro
2025, Professional Paper 1894-B
We present an assessment of water supply across the conterminous United States (CONUS), Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico covering water years 2010–20. Our analysis drew on two national hydrologic models, the National Hydrologic Model Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System and the Weather Research and Forecasting model hydrologic modeling system. Both models produced...
The National integrated water availability assessment, water years 2010–20
Edward G. Stets, Althea A. Archer, James R. Degnan, Melinda L. Erickson, Galen Gorski, Laura Medalie, Martha A. Scholl
2025, Professional Paper 1894-A
Water availability is fundamentally important to human well-being, economic vitality, and ecosystem health. Because of its central importance, the U.S. Congress tasked the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other Federal agencies with conducting regular, comprehensive assessments of water availability in the United States through the requirements under the SECURE Water...
U.S. Geological Survey Integrated Water Availability Assessment—2010–20
Edward G. Stets, editor(s)
2025, Professional Paper 1894
This professional paper is a multichapter report that assesses water availability in the United States for water years 2010–20. This work was conducted as part of the fulfillment of the mandates of Subtitle F of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-11), also known as...
Surficial geology and Quaternary tectonics of the Madison Valley and fault zone, Madison, Gallatin, and Beaverhead Counties, southwest Montana
Chester A. Ruleman, Theodore R. Brandt
2025, Scientific Investigations Map 3508
The north-northwest-striking Madison fault is approximately 95 kilometers in length, lying at the confluence of the northeastern Basin and Range province and the Yellowstone tectonic parabola. The fault zone consists primarily of west-dipping normal faults that have east-dipping antithetic faults, which create the Madison Valley graben and several northeast-trending intrabasin...
The Center for the Advancement of Population Assessment Methodology (CAPAM): A perspective on the first 10 years
Mark N. Maunder, Paul R. Crone, Brice X. Semmens, Juan L. Valero, Lynn Waterhouse, Richard D. Methot, André E. Punt
2025, Fisheries Research (281)
The Center for the Advancement of Population Assessment Methodology (CAPAM) was established in 2013, envisioned as an institute that could conduct, organize, and communicate stock assessment research with the aim of benefiting fisheries assessment efforts internationally. CAPAM’s activities have focused on its workshop series and consequent special issues in Fisheries Research....