Bacterial community structure across a sand dune chronosequence at the Indiana Dunes National Park
Muruleedhara Byappanahalli, Noel B. Pavlovic, Cindy H Nakatsu
2025, Journal of Great Lakes Research (51)
The microbial role in dune succession along the Great Lakes freshwater sand dunes remains poorly understood. A chronosequence study was conducted to understand the relationships among soil bacterial communities, soil chemistry, and prescribed burning at the Indiana Dunes National Park. Soil bacterial communities and chemistry, as well as groundlayer vegetation...
Relating surface water dynamics in wetlands and lakes to spatial variability in hydrologic signatures
Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Peter Nieuwlandt, Heather E. Golden, Charles R. Lane, Jay Christensen, William Keenan, Wayana Dolan
2025, Wetland Ecology & Management (33)
The retention of surface water in wetlands and lakes can modify the timing, duration, and magnitude of river discharge. However, efforts to characterize the influence of surface water on discharge regimes have been generally limited to small, wetland-dense watersheds. We developed random forest models to explain spatial variability in six...
Identifying presence or absence of grizzly and polar bear cubs from the movements of adult females with machine learning
Erik Andersen, Justin Clapp, Milan Vinks, Todd C. Atwood, Daniel D. Bjornlie, Cecily M. Costello, David Gustine, Mark A. Haroldson, Lori L. Roberts, Karyn D. Rode, Frank T. van Manen, Ryan H. Wilson
2025, Movement Ecology (13)
BackgroundInformation on reproductive success is crucial to understanding population dynamics but can be difficult to obtain, particularly for species that birth while denning. For grizzly (Ursus arctos) and polar bears (U. maritimus), den visits are impractical because of safety and logistical considerations. Reproduction is typically documented through direct...
Adapting visitor use management under a changing climate across the U.S. National Park System
Emily J. Wilkins, Sarah Lynn Rappaport Keener, Wylie Carr, Samantha G. Winder, Julianne Reas, Daniela B. Daniele, Spencer A. Wood
2025, Journal of Environmental Management (391)
Research shows that climate change is already affecting both resources and visitors in U.S. National Parks. We sought to better understand if and how park staff across the National Park Service are adapting to climatic changes that affect visitor use, as well as barriers and challenges to adaptation and information...
Incidence of pollution, bioaccumulation, biomagnification, and toxic effects of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in aquatic ecosystems: A review
Cunlong Wang, Jason Tyler Magnuson, Chunmiao Zheng, Wenhui Qiu
2025, Aquatic Toxicology (286)
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistently accumulated in both environmental media and biological systems, leading to significant toxicological effects. Although research on PFAS has expanded in recent years, systematic reviews on its concentration distribution in aquatic environments and biota, as well as its toxicological effects, remain scarce. Moreover, existing...
Environmental drivers of productivity explain population patterns of an Arctic-nesting goose across a half-century
Antti Piironen, Jeffrey M. Knetter, Kyle A. Spragens, Joshua Dooley, Vijay P. Patil, Eric T. Reed, Megan V. Ross, Daniel Gibson, Adam C. Behney, Mark J. Petrie, Todd Sanders, Mitch D. Weegman
2025, Ecological Applications (35)
Joint estimation of demographic rates and population size has become an essential tool in ecology because it enables evaluating mechanisms for population change and testing hypotheses about drivers of demography in a single modeling framework. This approach provides a comprehensive perspective on population dynamics and how animal populations will respond...
The systematics of stable hydrogen (δ2H) and oxygen (δ18O) isotopes and tritium (3H) in the hydrothermal system of the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field, USA
Shaul Hurwitz, R. Blaine McCleskey, Bryant Jurgens, Jacob B. Lowenstern, Laura E. Clor, Andrew Hunt
2025, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (26)
To improve our understanding of hydrothermal activity on the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field, we collected and analyzed a large data set of δ2H, δ18O, and the 3H concentrations of circum-neutral and alkaline waters. We find that (a) hot springs are fed by recharge throughout the volcanic plateau, likely focused through fractured,...
Assessment of water chemistry of the Coconino aquifer in northeastern Arizona
Casey J.R. Jones
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5038
The Coconino aquifer was investigated as a potential groundwater resource for the Hopi Tribe and Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona. Basic groundwater chemistry, including major ions, total dissolved solids, and selected trace metal concentrations, are presented and analyzed to characterize the Coconino aquifer. The geochemical compositions of groundwater are associated...
Automated generation of an urban synthetic elevation checkpoint network across the North Carolina coastline, USA
Alexander C. Seymour, Christine J. Kranenburg, Kara S. Doran
2025, Science of Remote Sensing (12)
Lidar and structure from motion-derived digital elevation and surface models have widespread application. Consideration of a topographic model's vertical root mean squared error (RMSEz) and systematic directional bias is important for many of these applications, particularly landscape change detection and measurement. Due to logistic, resource, and time constraints, wide area...
Future of coral bleaching research
Andrea G. Grottoli, Ann M. Hulver, R. Vega Thurber, R. J. Toonen, E. R. Schmeltzer, Ilsa B. Kuffner, K. L. Barott, Iliana B. Baums, K. Castillo, Leila Chapron, M. A. Coffroth, D. J. Combosch, A. M.S. Correa, Eric D. Crandall, Megan Donahue, Jose M. Eirin-Lopez, Thomas Felis, C. Ferrier-Pages, Hugo B Harrison, Scott F. Heron, Danwei Huang, Adriana Humanes, Carly D. Kenkel, Thomas Krueger, Joshua Madin, Mikhail V Matz, Lisa C. McManus, Monica Medina, Erinn M. Muller, J. Padilla-Gamino, Hollie M. Putnam, Y Sawall, Tom Shlesinger, Michael J. Sweet, Christian Voolstra, V. M. Weis, Christian Wild, H. C. Wu
2025, BioScience (75) 585-598
Coral bleaching is the largest global threat to coral reef ecosystem persistence this century. Advancing our understanding of coral bleaching and developing solutions to protect corals and the reefs they support are critical. In the present article, we, the US National Science Foundation–funded Coral Bleaching Research Coordination Network, outline future...
Integrating contaminant source indicators, water quality measures, and ecotoxicity to characterize contaminant mixtures and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) variability in an urban watershed
J.R. Behrens, A.S. Joyce, P.L. Ferguson, Dana W. Kolpin, N. Jayasundara, N. Barbo, E.S. Bernhardt
2025, Environmental Science & Technology (59) 13958-13969
Thousands of chemical contaminants threaten watersheds but are time and cost prohibitive to monitor. Identifying their sources, transport, and ecological risk is limited in heterogeneous urban watersheds. We present an integrative watershed approach using source-specific indicator compounds, common water quality measures, and ecotoxicity assays to examine the distribution of contaminant...
Organic matter availability and the production of methane-derived dissolved organic carbon at methane seeps
Ellen Jennifer Lalk, John Pohlman, Laura Lapham
2025, Global Biogeochemical Cycles (39)
Methane seeps located along continental margins and slopes export sedimentary methane and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) into the ocean. The flux of these reduced carbon molecules from the seafloor into the ocean impacts ocean chemistry and supports deep-sea life. While significant effort has been made to understand how the anaerobic...
Completion summary for monitor wells NRF-17 and NRF-18 at the Naval Reactors Facility, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho
Brian V. Twining, Kerri C. Treinen, Jeffrey A. Zingre
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5049
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)—in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the Naval Reactors Laboratory Field Office that supports operations for the Naval Reactors Facility (NRF) located at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL)—drilled and constructed well NRF-17 (formerly borehole USGS 151) and well NRF-18 (formerly borehole USGS...
The U.S. Geological Survey National Streamgage Network, 2024
Brian E. McCallum, Melissa L. Riskin
2025, General Information Product 252
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) operated 12,165 continuous surface-water monitoring locations (streamgages) across the United States in 2024. 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...
Estimating earthquake source depth using teleseismic broadband waveform modeling at the USGS National Earthquake Information Center
William L. Yeck, Robert B. Herrmann, John Patton, William D. Barnhart, Harley M. Benz
2025, Seismological Research Letters (96) 3643-3655
The U.S. Geologic Survey National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) monitors global seismicity, producing a catalog of earthquake source parameters in near-real-time to provide information that can help mitigate the societal impact of earthquakes. The NEIC commonly relies on teleseismic observations to constrain earthquake source parameters (e.g., location, depth, magnitude, and...
Identification of novel hepaciviruses and Sylvilagus-associated viruses via metatranscriptomics in North American lagomorphs
Maria Jenckel, Wei-Shan Chang, Emily A. Wright, Robert D. Bradley, Robert J. Dusek, Hon S. Ip, Robyn Hall, Ina Smith, Tanja Strive
2025, Virus Evolution (11)
Cottontails (Sylvilagus spp.) and jackrabbits (Lepus spp.) within the Leporidae family are native to North America and are found in a wide range of habitats, including deserts, forests, and grasslands. Although there is a growing body of research describing the arrival of the highly virulent rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus 2 (RHDV2, GI.2)...
2024 Surprise Inlet landslides: Insights from a prototype landslide‐triggered tsunami monitoring system in Prince William Sound, Alaska
Ezgi Karasozen, Michael E. West, Katherine R. Barnhart, John J. Lyons, Terry Nichols, Lauren N. Schaefer, Bohyun Bahng, Summer Ohlendorf, Dennis M. Staley, Gabriel J. Wolken
2025, Geophysical Research Letters (52)
Alaska's coastal communities face growing landslide hazards owing to glacier retreat and extreme weather intensified by the warming climate, yet hazard monitoring remains challenging. As part of ongoing experimental monitoring in Prince William Sound, we detected three large landslides (0.5–2.3 M m3) at Surprise Inlet on 20 September 2024, within the span...
A newly identified creeping strand of the Concord fault, San Francisco Bay Area
Austin John Elliott, Danielle Madugo, Jessica Vermeer
2025, Seismological Research Letters (96) 3837-3848
The Concord fault constitutes a major branch of the Pacific–North America transform plate boundary in Northern California, bridging the strike‐slip Bartlett Springs ‐ Green Valley Fault system to the north with the Greenville and Calaveras Faults to the south. Like many faults in the San Francisco Bay Area its long‐term...
Estimating mortality of Lake Sturgeon in the Lake Winnebago system using traditional age-based approaches and capture–recapture models
Jeremiah S. Shrovnal, Margaret H. Stadig, Joshua K. Raabe, Daniel A. Isermann
2025, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (45) 616-632
Objective The Lake Winnebago system in Wisconsin supports a popular winter spear fishery for Lake Sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens. Setting harvest caps for this fishery relies on estimating instantaneous natural mortality rate (M), which can be done using age-based approaches or capture–recapture models that incorporate recoveries of fish with passive integrated transponder...
Expansion of aquatic and marsh area into once forest and agricultural area reflects changing hydrological conditions along the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers (1989-2020)
Nathan R. De Jager, Jason J. Rohweder
2025, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (197)
We examined 30-year trends in the abundance and distribution of aquatic and floodplain vegetation, as well as human land uses in five study reaches of the Upper Mississippi River and one reach of the Illinois River using aerial photography collected in years 1989, 2000, 2010, and 2020. Permanently inundated area...
Hydraulic conductivity and transmissivity estimates from slug tests in wells within the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, Arkansas and Mississippi, 2020
Aaron L. Pugh
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5101
During the spring and summer of 2020, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted single-well slug tests on selected observation wells within the Mississippi Alluvial Plain in Arkansas and Mississippi to estimate hydraulic conductivity and transmissivity values for the Mississippi River Valley alluvial and middle Claiborne aquifers. Well and aquifer data were...
ECCOE Landsat quarterly Calibration and Validation report—Quarter 4, 2024
Md Obaidul Haque, Nahid Hasan, Ashish Shrestha, Rajagopalan Rengarajan, Mark Lubke, Daniel Steinwand, Paul Bresnahan, Jerad L. Shaw, Kathryn Ruslander, Esad Micijevic, Michael J. Choate, Cody Anderson, Jeff Clauson, Kurt Thome, Ed Kaita, Raviv Levy, Jeff Miller, Leibo Ding, Cibele Teixeira Pinto
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1036
Executive Summary The U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) Center of Excellence 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 Earth Resources Observation and Science Cal/Val...
Assessing spatial variability of nutrients, phytoplankton, and related water-quality constituents in the California Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta at the landscape scale—Comparison of four (2018, 2020, 2021, 2022) spring high-resolution mapping surveys
Emily Richardson, Tamara Kraus, Katy O’Donnell, Jeniffer Soto-Perez, Crystal Sturgeon, Elizabeth Stumpner, Brian Bergamaschi
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5035
Executive SummaryThis report summarizes results from boat-based, high-resolution water-quality mapping surveys completed before, during, and after upgrades to the EchoWater Resource Recovery Facility (EchoWater Facility), the regional wastewater facility for the City of Sacramento and surrounding areas, near Elk Grove, California. Surveys were completed in the tidal aquatic environments of...
Arctic speleothems reveal nearly permafrost-free Northern Hemisphere in the Late Miocene
Anton Vaks, Andrew Mason, Sebastian F.M. Breitenbach, Alena Maria Giesche, Alexander Osinzev, Irina Adrian, Aleksandr Kononov, Stuart Umbo, Franziska A. Lechleitner, Marcelo Rosensaft, Gideon M. Henderson
2025, Nature Communications (16)
Arctic warming is happening at nearly four times the global average rate. Long-term trends of permafrost dynamics cannot be estimated directly from monitoring of present-day thaw processes, requiring paleoclimate-proxy information. Here we use cave carbonates (speleothems) from a northern Siberian cave to determine when the Northern Hemisphere was mostly permafrost-free....
Differential habitat use of wintering Whooping Cranes throughout the range of the Eastern Migratory Population
Hillary L. Thompson, Anne E Lacy, Robert F Baldwin, Patrick G.R. Jodice
2025, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 16th North American Crane Workshop
In 2001, a reintroduced population of whooping cranes (Grus americana), the Eastern Migratory Population (EMP), was established in the eastern United States. There has been no assessment of habitat use of the EMP across the current winter distribution. During 2 winters, we used radio-telemetry to track groups of cranes each...
