Modeling the impacts of sand placement strategies on barrier island evolution in a semi-enclosed bay system
Davina Passeri, Rangley C. Mickey, David M. Thompson, Michael Itzkin, Elizabeth Godsey, Matthew V. Bilskie, Alexander C. Seymour, Autumn C. Poisson, Jin Ikeda, Scott C. Hagen
2025, Coastal Engineering (197)
This study assesses the impacts of five proposed restoration actions at Little Dauphin Island, a low-lying relic spit in a semi-enclosed bay system on the Alabama coast. A Delft3D model is developed to simulate annual scale (five-year) sediment transport and resulting bed level changes. The model is validated with observed...
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 (multiyear),...
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 Dunham, Cameron K. Ghalambor, Erin L. Landguth, Brent W. Murray, Daniel Rokhsar, W. Chris Funk
2025, Molecular Ecology (34)
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...
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...
Variation in habitat selection by male Strix nebulosa (Great Gray Owls) across the diel cycle
Katherine B. Gura, Bryan Bedrosian, Susan Patla, Anna D. Chalfoun
2025, Ornithology (142)
Despite the long-standing recognition that animals partition activities, for example, across different periods of the day, understanding of how habitat selection varies according to specific temporal periods or behavioral activities remains limited for most species. For example, although much of the animal kingdom is nocturnally active, studies that characterize nocturnal...
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...
Jaguar density estimation in Mexico: The conservation importance of considering home range orientation in spatial capture–recapture
Sean M. Murphy, Victor H. Luja
2025, Conservation Science and Practice (7)
Accurate estimation of population parameters for imperiled wildlife is crucial for effective conservation decision-making. Population density is commonly used for monitoring imperiled species across space and time, and spatial capture–recapture (SCR) models can produce unbiased density estimates. However, many imperiled species are restricted to fragmented remnant habitats in landscapes severely...
Forecasting water levels using the ConvLSTM algorithm in the Everglades, USA
Raidan Bassah, Gerald A. Corzo Perez, Biswa Bhattacharya, Saira M. 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...
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...
Emotions and political identity predict public acceptance of urban deer management
Hannah M. Desrochers, M. Nils Peterson, Lincoln R. Larson, Christopher E. Moorman, Elizabeth M. Kierepka, John C. Kilgo, Nathan J. Hostetter
2025, Urban Ecosystems (28)
Addressing public preferences can enhance wildlife management effectiveness and reduce backlash. We conducted novel research on public acceptance of wildlife management by accounting for the role of underexplored drivers including emotion and political identity across an urban-to-rural gradient. Using data from a 2022 survey about white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in...
An interagency perspective on improving consistency and transparency of land use and land cover mapping
Terry Sohl, Karen Schleeweis, Nate Herold, Megan Lang, Inga P. La Puma, James Wickham, Rick Mueller, Matthew Rigge, Jon Dewitz, Jesslyn F. Brown, Jeffrey Ingebritsen, James Ellenwood, Ellen Wengert, Jordan Rowe, Patrick Flanagan, Emily Kachergis, Iris Garthwaite, Zhuoting Wu
2025, Circular 1549
Executive Summary Geospatial products of land use and land cover are broadly used in many applications. For example, the annual national greenhouse gas inventory uses the National Land Cover Database, the Coastal Change Analysis Program, Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools, the Forest Inventory and Analysis, and the National Resources...
Groundwater-level elevations in the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers and Upper Black Squirrel Creek alluvial aquifer, El Paso County, Colorado, 2021–24
Zachary D. Kisfalusi, Erin K. Hennessy, Jackson B. Sharp
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5123
El Paso County is the second-most populous county in Colorado and is projected to grow another 15 percent by 2030. Within El Paso County is the Upper Black Squirrel Creek Designated Groundwater Basin (Black Squirrel Basin), an area where surface water is scarce and water users rely primarily on groundwater...
Review of the Lake Washington Ship Canal and Ballard Locks model, Seattle, Washington, 2014–20
Annett B. Sullivan, Anya C. Leach
2025, Open-File Report 2024-1078
Executive SummaryThe Hiram M. Chittenden (Ballard) Locks and Lake Washington Ship Canal connect freshwater Lake Washington and saline Shilshole Bay of Puget Sound in Seattle, Washington. The locks and canal allow for ships to traverse this reach. Anadromous salmonids also migrate through, transitioning between saline and freshwater environments, and making...
Understanding and predicting infection dynamics for an endangered amphibian using long-term surveys of wild and translocated frogs
Talisin T. Hammond, Adam R. Backlin, Elizabeth Gallegos, Debra M. Shier, Ronald R. Swaisgood, Robert N. Fisher
2025, Biological Conservation (301)
Amphibians are a prominent component of Earth's sixth mass extinction and the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is a primary driver of declines. Although Bd dynamics are well studied, the environmental drivers, exacerbating risk factors, and value of conservation interventions like translocations remain challenging to predict. Here, we present results from two...
Integrated Hydro-terrestrial Modeling 2.0: Progress and path forward on building a national capability
Katherine Skalak, Nathalie Voisin, Patrick Read, Ying Fan Reinfelder
2025, Report
Growing societal pressures on U.S. water resources and the challenges inherent in understanding how future water risks may evolve are driving major investments to improve our knowledge of the integrated water cycle. This improved understanding as captured in innovations in our data, knowledge, and modeling capabilities, needs to be accelerated...
Modelling and mapping burn severity of prescribed and wildfires across the southeastern United States (2000-2022)
Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Casey Elizabeth Menick, Joshua J. Picotte, Kevin Robertson, Holly Nowell, Chris Matechik, Todd Hawbaker
2025, International Journal of Wildland Fire (34)
BackgroundThe southeastern United States (‘Southeast’) experiences high levels of fire activity, but the preponderance of small and prescribed fires means that existing burn severity products are incomplete across the region.AimsWe developed and applied a burn severity model across the Southeast to enhance our understanding of regional...
Parentage and sibship relationships among captive snakes at the Phoenix Zoo—2024 data summary
Dustin A. Wood, Anna Mitelberg, Amy G. Vandergast
2025, Data Report 1204
IntroductionThe narrow-headed gartersnake (Thamnophis rufipunctatus) is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2014). This species has a strong association with aquatic habitats, and these habitats have been highly altered by impoundments, land-use changes, and the introduction and spread of non-native aquatic species, which...
Validation of the U37K' paleotemperature proxy in the South Brazilian Bight from core-top sediments
Felipe Stanchak, Julie N. Richey, Amanda Gerotto, Amelia Shevenell, Marcia C. Bicego, Felipe A. Toledo, Michel M. de Mahiques, Renata H. Nagai
2025, Organic Geochemistry (200)
The paleothermometer based on the alkenone unsaturation index (U37K′">U37K′) is often used to reconstruct past sea surface temperatures (SST). In the SW Atlantic Ocean, however, a limited understanding of the seasonal and depth distribution of coccolithophores,...
Site-level connectivity identified from multiple sources of movement data to inform conservation of a migratory bird
M. Beal, J. Nightingale, J.R. Belo, C. Batey, H. Belting, P. Bocher, M. Burgess, T.B. Craft, N. Crockford, P. Delaporte, L. Donaldson, G. Gelinaud, J.A. Gill, T.G. Gunnarsson, B. J. Morrison, J.S. Gutierrez, J. Hooijmeijer, R.A. Howison, P. Hunke, L. Jomat, H. Lemke, J. P. Ludwig, F.A. Majoor, C. Marlow, J.A. Masero, J. Melter, I. Nicholson, M. Parejo, B. O'Mahony, E. Pasanen, J. Pessa, T. Piersma, A.D. Rocha, F. Robin, M. Roodbergen, P. Rousseau, V. Salewski, L. Schmidt, J. Smart, A. Staneva, T. Lee Tibbitts, S. Timonen, J.A. Alves, M.P. Dias
2025, Journal of Applied Ecology (62) 303-316
Migratory birds depend on a suite of sites across their annual cycles, making them vulnerable to a wide variety of anthropogenic pressures. Current area-based conservation measures have been found inadequate to safeguard migratory birds, in part due to a lack of consideration for the connectivity between sites mediated by...
Decision analysis in support of the National Elk Refuge bison and elk management plan
Jonathan D. Cook, Paul C. Cross, editor(s)
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5119
Preface This report was developed to evaluate the performance of a set of proposed alternatives for Cervus elaphus canadensis (elk) and Bison bison (bison) management at the National Elk Refuge (NER) in Wyoming, U.S.A., and to inform a National Environmental Policy Act Environmental Impact Statement focused on developing the next “Bison...
Methylmercury in subarctic amphibians: Environmental gradients, bioaccumulation, and estimated flux
Blake R. Hossack, Jon M. Davenport, C. Kabryn Mattison, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, LeeAnn Fishback, Brian J. Tornabene, Kelly Smalling
2025, Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (44) 698-709
Rapid warming in polar regions is causing large changes to ecosystems, including altering environmentally available mercury (Hg). Although subarctic freshwater systems have simple vertebrate communities, Hg in amphibians remains unexplored. We measured total Hg (THg) in wetland sediments and methylmercury (MeHg) in multiple life-stages (eggs to adults) of wood frogs...
Diverging trends in nitrate and phosphorus loads and yields across Illinois watersheds, 1997–2022
Brock J.W. Kamrath, Jennifer C. Murphy, Lindsey Ayn Schafer, Hannah Lee Podzorski, Gregory F. McIsaac
2025, Preprint
Illinois is a major contributor of nutrients to the northern Gulf of Mexico. As such, the State of Illinois initiated efforts to curb nutrient runoff over the last several decades. To evaluate progress towards these reductions, water-quality data were used to estimate incremental loads and yields of nitrate plus nitrite...
