2022 Volcanic activity in Alaska and the Northern Mariana Islands—Summary of events and response of the Alaska Volcano Observatory
Tim R. Orr, Hannah R. Dietterich, Ronni Grapenthin, Matthew M. Haney, Matthew W. Loewen, Pablo Saunders-Shultz, Darren Tan, Christopher F. Waythomas, Aaron G. Wech
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5108
In 2022, the Alaska Volcano Observatory responded to eruptions, volcanic unrest or suspected unrest, increased seismicity, and other significant activity at 11 volcanic centers in Alaska and in the Northern Mariana Islands. Eruptive activity in Alaska consisted of repeated small, ash-producing, phreatomagmatic explosions from Mount Young on Semisopochnoi Island; the...
Catastrophic lava flow levee failure: Precursors, processes, and implications
Elisabeth Gallant, Hannah R. Dietterich, Matthew R. Patrick, David Matthew Hyman, Brett B Carr, John J. Lyons, Elinor S. Meredith
2025, Volcanica (8) 67-80
During an effusive eruption crisis the initial advance of a lava flow is typically the primary focus of model forecasts and hazard management efforts. Flow branching and lateral expansion of lava flows can pose significant dangers within evolving flow fields throughout the duration of an eruption and are an underappreciated...
Mineral commodity summaries 2025
U.S. Geological Survey
2025, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025
Introduction Each mineral commodity chapter of the 2025 edition of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Commodity Summaries (MCS) includes information on events, trends, and issues for each mineral commodity as well as discussions and tabular presentations on domestic industry structure, Government programs, tariffs, 5-year salient statistics, and world production, reserves,...
Using machine learning in Minnesota’s StreamStats to predict fluvial sediment
Joel T. Groten, J. William Lund, Erin N. Coenen, Andrea Medenblik, Harper N. Wavra, Mike Kennedy, Gregory D. Johnson
2025, Fact Sheet 2025-3005
A thorough understanding of fluvial sediment transport is essential for addressing key environmental issues such as aquatic habitat degradation, flooding, excess nutrients, and challenges with river restoration. Fluvial sediment samples are valuable for addressing these concerns, but their collection is often impractical across all rivers and timeframes of interest. In...
Evaluation of a rapid assessment function to aid monitoring and management of common ravens (Corvus corax) in Washington state
Brianne E. Brussee, Shawn T. O’Neil, Michael T. Atamian, Colin G. Leingang, Peter S. Coates
2025, Preprint
Expanding human enterprise leading to resource subsidies for generalist species has resulted in widespread increases in common raven (Corvus corax) populations across the Western U.S. Ravens are an efficient predator and increased population abundance has led to adverse effects to multiple sensitive prey species. In regions where problematic interactions between...
Mapping bedrock outcrops in the Sierra Nevada Mountains (California, USA) using machine learning
Apoorva Ramesh Shastry, Corina Cerovski-Darriau, Brian Coltin, Jonathan D. Stock
2025, Remote Sensing (17)
Accurate, high-resolution maps of bedrock outcrops can be valuable for applications such as models of land–atmosphere interactions, mineral assessments, ecosystem mapping, and hazard mapping. The increasing availability of high-resolution imagery can be coupled with machine learning techniques to improve regional bedrock outcrop maps. In the United States, the existing 30...
Forecasting sea otter recolonization: Insights from isotopic analysis of modern and zooarchaeological populations
Emma A. Elliott Smith, Madonna L. Moss, Hannah P. Wellman, Verena A. Gill, Daniel Monson, Seth D. Newsome
2025, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences (292)
Retrospective datasets offer essential context for conservation by revealing species’ ecological roles before industrial-era human impacts. We analysed isotopic compositions of pre-industrial and modern sea otters (Enhydra lutris) to reconstruct pre-extirpation ecology and offer insights for management. Our study focuses on southeast Alaska (SEAK), where sea otters are recolonizing, and...
Groundwater hydrology, groundwater and surface-water interactions, water quality, and groundwater-flow simulations for the Wet Mountain Valley alluvial aquifer, Custer and Fremont Counties, Colorado, 2017–19
Connor P. Newman, Cory A. Russell, Zachary D. Kisfalusi, Suzanne S. Paschke
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5105
In 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District, began a study to provide a comprehensive analysis of the Wet Mountain Valley alluvial aquifer, Custer and Fremont Counties, Colorado. The study included collection of data pertaining to groundwater hydrology, groundwater and surface-water interactions, and...
Prairie Falcon (Falco mexicanus) abundance in a National Conservation Area in Idaho has increased since the 1970s–1990s
Steven Alsup, James R. Belthoff, Karen Steenhof, Michael N. Kochert, Todd E. Katzner
2025, Journal of Raptor Research (59) 1-13
The Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (NCA), in southwestern Idaho, USA supports a large population of breeding Prairie Falcons (Falco mexicanus). Abundance of Prairie Falcons in the NCA was previously monitored in 1976–1978 and 1990–1994. That research indicated maximum counts for each period in 1976...
Hotter temperatures alter riparian plant outcomes under regulated river conditions
Emily C. Palmquist, Kiona Ogle, Bradley J. Butterfield, Thomas G. Whitham, Gerard J. Allan, Patrick B. Shafroth
2025, Ecological Monographs (95)
Climate change and river regulation alter environmental controls on riparian plant occurrence and cover worldwide. Simultaneous changes to river flow and air temperature could result in unanticipated plant responses to novel environmental conditions. Increasing temperature could alter riparian plant response to hydrology and other factors, while river regulation may exacerbate...
American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) as wetland ecosystem carbon stock regulators
Christopher M. Murray, Tyler S. Coleman, Wray Gabel, Ken Krauss
2025, Scientific Reports (15)
Blue carbon refers to organic carbon sequestered by oceanic and coastal ecosystems. This stock has gained global attention as a high organic carbon repository relative to other ecosystems. Within blue carbon ecosystems, tidally influenced wetlands alone store a disproportionately higher amount of organic carbon than other blue carbon systems. North...
Integrated analysis of marked and count data to characterizefine-scale stream fish movement
Yoichiro Kanno, Kasey Celene Pregler, Seoghyun Kim
2025, Oecologia (207)
Immigration and emigration are key demographic processes of animal population dynamics. However, 3 we have limited knowledge on how fine-scale movement varies over space and time. We developed a 4 Bayesian integrated population model using individual mark-recapture and count data to characterize 5 fine-scale movement of stream fish at 20-m resolution every two...
Towards mobile wind measurements using joust configured ultrasonic anemometer for applications in gas flux quantification
Derek Hollenbeck, Colin W. Edgar, Eugenie Euskirchen, Kristen L. Manies
2025, Drones (9)
Small uncrewed aerial systems (sUASs) can be used to quantify emissions of greenhouse and other gases, providing flexibility in quantifying these emissions from a multitude of sources, including oil and gas infrastructure, volcano plumes, wildfire emissions, and natural sources. However, sUAS-based emission estimates are sensitive to the accuracy of wind...
“Leaky weirs” capture alluvial deposition and enhance seasonal mountain-front recharge in dryland streams
Laura M. Norman, Kristine; Uhlman, Hanna Coy, Natalie R. Wilson, Andrew M. Bennett, Floyd Gray, Kurt T. Ehrenberg
2025, Applied Water Science (15)
“Leaky weirs” are rock structures installed in dryland streams, which are anchored into exposed bedrock, loosely cemented, and designed to allow water to slowly pass through. They are being tested at a ranch in southeastern Arizona, USA, to restore and conserve the historic range and desert wetlands. Data are collected...
Methods to determine streamflow statistics based on data through water year 2021 for selected streamgages in or near Wyoming
Daniel W. Armstrong, David A. Lange, Katherine J. Chase
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5104
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Wyoming Water Development Office, developed streamflow statistics for streamgages in and near Wyoming. Statistics were computed for active (through September 30, 2021) and discontinued USGS streamgages with 10 or more years of daily mean streamflow record. Streamflow at each streamgage was...
Towards seamless global 30-meter terrestrial monitoring: Evaluating 2022 cloud free coverage of harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) V2.0
Qiang Zhou, Christopher Neigh, Junchang Ju, Philip Dabney, Bruce Cook, Zhe Zhu, Christopher J. Crawford, Ferran Gascon, Peter Strobl, Madhu Sridhar
2025, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters (22)
Global observations at 30-m ground sampling distance (GSD) are now possible at a cadence of 1-3 days by combining Landsat 8 and 9 with Sentinel-2A and -2B satellites. Previous studies characterizing pixel-level Landsat-class measurement frequency used data from different sources but offered little information on observation availability after rigorous quality...
Improving hydroacoustic methods for monitoring suspended-sand flux and grain size in sediment-laden rivers
Jessica Marggraf, Jerome Le Coz, Benoıt Camenen, Francois Lauters, Guillaume Dramais, Gilles Pierrefeu, David J. Topping
2025, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (50)
Suspended-sand concentration and grain-size data in rivers provide valuable information on the catchment's dynamics for scientists and river managers. Producing continuous measurements of suspended-sand concentrations remains a scientific challenge due to their high spatial and temporal variability. Traditional methods such as sediment-rating curves may be highly uncertain, and optical turbidity...
Bathymetric contour maps, surface area and capacity tables, and bathymetric change maps for selected water-supply lakes in Missouri, 2022–23
Benjamin C. Rivers, Richard J. Huizinga, Garett J. Waite
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5114
Bathymetric data were collected at 13 water-supply lakes around the periphery of Missouri by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and various local agencies, as part of a multiyear effort to establish or update the surface area and capacity tables for the surveyed...
Effects of river floods and sedimentation on a naturally dynamic Great Lakes estuary
Faith Fitzpatrick, Angus Vaughan, Eric D. Dantoin, Shelby P. Sterner, Paul Reneau, Collin Roland
2025, Journal of Great Lakes Research (51)
Some of the most biologically diverse coastal wetlands and estuaries are found along the Great Lakes, but the spatial extent and timing of river-related inundation and sedimentation vary greatly among natural and altered systems. We used hydrologic data, geomorphic change detection, and satellite imagery to study inundation and sedimentation patterns...
Metabolic interactions underpinning high methane fluxes across terrestrial freshwater wetlands
Emily Bechtold, Jared B. Ellenbogen, Jorge A. Villa, Djennyfer K. de Melo Ferreira, Angela M. Oliverio, Joel E. Kostka, Virginia I. Rich, Ruth K. Varner, Sheel Bansal, Eric J. Ward, Gil Bohrer, Mikayla A. Borton, Kelly C. Wrighton, Michael J. Wilkins
2025, Nature Communications (16)
Current estimates of wetland contributions to the global methane budget carry high uncertainty, particularly in accurately predicting emissions from high methane-emitting wetlands. Microorganisms drive methane cycling, but little is known about their conservation across wetlands. To address this, we integrate 16S rRNA amplicon datasets, metagenomes, metatranscriptomes, and annual methane flux...
The relative influence of geographic and environmental factors on rare plant translocation outcomes
Joe Bellis, Matthew A. Albrecht, Joyce Maschinski, Sarah E. Dalrymple, Matthew J. Keir, Timothy Chambers, Jennifer Possley, Edith D. Adkins, Elliott W. Parsons, Michael Kunz, Carrie Radcliffe, Emily Coffey, Thomas N. Kaye, Cheryl L. Peterson, David Aaron, Sterling A. Herron, Eric Menges, Timothy J. Bell, Michelle Coppoletta, Caityn Elam, Mceachern A. Kathryn, Paula Williamson, Deanna Boensch, Megan Bontrager, Breeden Cooper, Noah Frade, Doria R. Gordon, Steven O. Link, Tara Littlefield, Shelia Murray, Ryan O’Dell, Noel B. Pavlovic, Charlotte M. Reemts, David D. Taylor, Jonathan H. Titus, Priscilla J. Titus, Tina A. Stanley, Katherine D. Heineman
2025, Journal of Applied Ecology (62) 638-650
Conservation translocations are an established method for reducing the extinction risk of plant species through intentional movement within or outside the indigenous range. Unsuitable environmental conditions at translocation recipient sites and a lack of understanding of species–environment relationships are often identified as critical barriers to translocation success. However, previous...
Multiple dimensions define thresholds for population resilience of the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica
Megan K. La Peyre, H. Wang, Shaye E. Sable, Wei Wu, Bin Li, Devin Comba, Carlos Perez, Melanie Bates, Lauren M. Swam
2025, Ecology and Evolution (15)
A species' distribution depends on its tolerance to environmental conditions. These conditions are defined by a minimum, maximum, and optimal ranges of single and combined factors. Forays into environmental conditions outside the minimum or maximum tolerance of a species (i.e., thresholds) are predicted to have large effects on a species'...
Slow slip detectability in seafloor pressure records offshore Alaska
Erik Fredrickson, Joan S. Gomberg, William Wilcock, Susan Hautala, Albert Hermann, H. Paul Johnson
2025, Journal of Geophysical Research (128)
In subduction zones worldwide, seafloor pressure data are used to observe tectonic deformation, particularly from megathrust earthquakes and slow slip events (SSEs). However, such measurements are also sensitive to oceanographic circulation-generated pressures over a range of frequencies that conflate with tectonic signals of interest. Using seafloor pressure and temperature data...
The effectiveness of harvest for limiting wildlife disease: Insights from 20 years of chronic wasting disease in Wyoming
Wynne Emily Moss, Justin Binfet, L. Embere Hall, Samantha E. Allen, William H. Edwards, Jessica E. Jennings-Gaines, Paul DELETE Cross
2025, Ecological Applications (35)
Effective, practical options for managing disease in wildlife populations are limited, especially after diseases become established. Removal strategies (e.g., hunting or culling) are used to control wildlife diseases across a wide range of systems, despite conflicting evidence of their effectiveness. This is especially true for chronic wasting disease (CWD), an...
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...
