Paleo-scours within the layered sulfate-bearing unit at Gale crater, Mars: Evidence for intense wind erosion
A.L. Roberts, S. Gupta, S.G. Banhan, A. Cowart, Lauren A. Edgar, W. Rapin, W.E. Dietrich, E.S. Kite, J.M. Davis, G. Caravaca, C.A. Mondro, P.J. Gasda, J.R. Johnson, S. Le Mouelic, D.M. Fey, A.B. Bryk, G. Paar, R.A. Harris, A. Fraeman, A.R. Vasavada
2025, JGR Planets (130)
The surface of modern Mars is largely shaped by wind, but the influence of past wind activity is less well constrained. Sedimentary rocks exposed in the lower foothills of Aeolis Mons, the central mound within Gale crater, record a transition from predominantly lacustrine deposition in the Murray formation to aeolian...
Environmental persistence and toxicity of weathered wildland fire retardants to rainbow trout
Christina M. Mackey, Michael G. Iacchetta, Holly J. Puglis
2025, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (88) 397-406
Long-term fire retardants are employed to combat and control wildfires by altering the way fuels burn, and they continue to decrease fire intensity after water in the retardant solution has evaporated. After application, fire retardants may persist on dry stream beds or in riparian habitats before precipitation events flush the...
Distribution and abundance of Least Bell’s Vireos (Vireo bellii pusillus) and Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii extimus) at the Mojave River Dam, San Bernardino County, California—2024 data summary
Scarlett L. Howell, Barbara E. Kus
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1025
We surveyed for Least Bell’s Vireos (Vireo bellii pusillus; vireo) and Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii extimus; flycatcher) at the Mojave River Dam study area near Hesperia, California, in 2024. Four vireo surveys were completed between April 17 and July 2, 2024, and three flycatcher surveys were completed between May...
Using distance sampling with camera traps to estimate densities of ungulates on tropical oceanic islands
Richard J. Camp, Trevor M. Bak, Matthew D Burt, Scott Vogt
2025, Journal of Tropical Ecology (41)
Reliable population estimates are one of the most elementary needs for the management of wildlife, particularly for introduced ungulates on oceanic islands. We aimed to produce accurate and precise density estimates of Philippine deer (Rusa marianna) and wild pigs (Sus scrofa) on Guam using motion-triggered cameras combined with...
Fine-resolution satellite remote sensing improves spatially distributed snow modeling to near real time
Graham A. Sexstone, Garrett Alexander Akie, David J. Selkowitz, Theodore B. Barnhart, David M. Rey, Claudia León-Salazar, Emily Carbone, Lindsay A. Bearup
2025, Remote Sensing (17)
Given the highly variable distribution of seasonal snowpacks in complex mountainous environments, the accurate snow modeling of basin-wide snow water equivalent (SWE) requires a spatially distributed approach at a sufficiently fine grid resolution (<500 m) to account for the important processes in the seasonal evolution of a snowpack (e.g., wind...
Shifting baselines of coral-reef species composition from the Late Pleistocene to the present in the Florida Keys
Lauren Toth, Anastasios Stathakopoulos, Scarlette Shan-Hwei Hsia, David A. Weinstein
2025, The Depositional Record (11) 893-916
The ongoing global-scale reassembly of modern coral reefs is unprecedented compared with the observed stability of most late Quaternary reef assemblages. One notable exception is the marine isotope stage (MIS) 5e (ca 130–116 thousand years ago [ka]) reefs in the Florida Keys, where the ubiquitous shallow-water coral, Acropora palmata, was near absent....
Linking permafrost to the abundance, biomass, and energy density of fish in Arctic headwater streams
Michael P. Carey, Joshua C. Koch, Jonathan A. O’Donnell, Brett Poulin, Christian E. Zimmerman
2025, Ecosphere (16)
Permafrost thaw alters groundwater flow, river hydrology, stream-catchment interactions, and the availability of carbon and nutrients in headwater streams. The impact of permafrost on watershed hydrology and biogeochemistry of headwater streams has been demonstrated, but there is little understanding of how permafrost influences fish in these ecosystems. We examined relations...
Using the D-Claw software package to model lahars in the Middle Fork Nooksack River drainage and beyond, Mount Baker, Washington
Cynthia A. Gardner, Mary Catherine Benage, Charles M. Cannon, David L. George
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5133
Lahars, or volcanic mudflows, are the most hazardous eruption-related phenomena that will affect communities living along rivers that originate on Mount Baker. In the past 15,000 years, the largest lahars from Mount Baker have affected the Middle Fork Nooksack River drainage and beyond. Here we use the physics-based D-Claw software...
Social sensing a volcanic eruption: Application to Kīlauea, 2018
James Hickey, James Young, Michelle Spruce, Ravi Pandit, Hywel Williams, Rudy Arthur, Wendy K. Stovall, Matthew Head
2025, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (25) 1681-1696
Protecting lives and livelihoods during volcanic eruptions is the key challenge in volcanology, conducted primarily by volcano monitoring and emergency management organisations, but it is complicated by scarce knowledge of how communities respond in times of crisis. Social sensing is a rapidly developing practice that can be adapted for volcanology....
Assessing potential collateral effects on amphibians from insecticide applications for flea control and plague mitigation
David A. Eads, Susan A. Shriner, Jeremy W. Ellis, Paul M. Cryan, Michelle Hladik, Gregory P. Dooley, Erin L. Muths
2025, PLoS ONE (20)
Ideal disease mitigation measures for wildlife are safe and benign for target species, non-target organisms, the environment, and humans. Identifying collateral (i.e., unintended) effects is a key consideration in implementing such actions. Deltamethrin dust and fipronil-laced baits represent a group of insecticides that target fleas (pulicides) and are used to...
The complete mitochondrial genomes of the freshwater mussel Ortmanniana ligamentina (Lamarck, 1819): male and female mitotypes
Katy E. Klymus, Jason Coombs, Dannise Ruiz-Ramos, Aaron Maloy, Christopher M. Barnhart
2025, Mitochondrial DNA Part B (10) 430-436
Freshwater mussels of the Unionida order are important to freshwater ecosystems but are highly imperiled worldwide. Improving our understanding of these species is crucial to their continued conservation. Some Unionid mussels exhibit double uniparental inheritance (DUI) in which individuals have two mitochondrial genomes. Of those species with DUI, sequences of...
The feasibility of using lidar-derived digital elevation models for gravity data reduction
Jacob T. Murchek, Benjamin J. Drenth, James J. Reitman, Eric D. Anderson, Benjamin Patrick Magnin, James M. DeGraff
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1019
Gravity data require submeter elevation accuracy for data processing, and differential global navigation satellite system (dGNSS) equipment is commonly used to acquire three-dimensional positional data to achieve such accuracy. However, lidar (light detection and ranging) data are commonly used to develop digital elevation models (DEMs) of Earth’s surface. Therefore, using...
Evidence of mineral alteration in a salt marsh subterranean estuary: Implications for carbon and trace element cycling
J.J. Tamborski, Meagan J. Eagle, M.T. Thorpe, M.A. Charette, B. Kurylyk, S. Rahman, Kevin D. Kroeger, Jennifer A. O’Keefe Suttles, Adrian G. Mann, Thomas W. Brooks, Z.A. Wang
2025, JGR Biogeosciences (130)
Subterranean estuaries (STE) in salt marshes are biogeochemically active zones where interactions between terrestrial groundwater and seawater drive complex cycling of carbon and trace elements, influenced by mineral dissolution. These systems, characterized by fine-grained organic-rich peat overlying permeable coastal aquifers, play a crucial role as a blue carbon sink, yet...
Evaluating episodic sediment deposition zones in freshwater mussel habitats across Missouri, USA
Qingqing Sun, Bin Wang, Brandon James Sansom, Kathleen Trauth, Henry Brown, Wenyu Zhu, James L. Kunz, M. Christopher Barnhart, Stephen E. McMurray, Andrew D Roberts, Christopher Shulse, Caleb Knerr, Jeffery A. Steevens, Baolin Deng
2025, Journal of Ecohydaulics
Point-source sedimentation, such as spills from construction-related activities, can introduce substantial sediments into streams in the short term, potentially leading to mussel burial. To estimate downstream areas where freshwater mussels might face threats from sediment burial within the mussel habitats of Missouri streams and rivers, we examined 49 reaches where...
A geospatial analysis of water-quality threats from orphan wells in principal and secondary aquifers of the United States
Joshua Woda, Karl B. Haase, Nicholas J. Gianoutsos, Kalle Jahn, Kristina Gutchess
2025, Science of the Total Environment (976)
Throughout the history of oil and gas production in the United States, millions of wells have been drilled for exploration and energy production. Hundreds of thousands of unplugged wells are no longer actively producing and are currently under orphan status, with no responsible party obligated for plugging. Orphan wells can...
Identification of representative earthquakes for probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis (PTHA) using earthquake rupture forecasts and machine learning
Eric L. Geist, Thomas E. Parsons
2025, Geophysical Journal International (242)
As probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis (PTHA) focuses more on assessments for localized, populous regions, techniques are needed to identify a subsample of representative earthquake ruptures to make the computational requirements for producing high-resolution hazard maps tractable. Moreover, the greatest epistemic uncertainty in seismic PTHA is related to source characterization, which...
Antigone canadensis (Sandhill Crane) foraging patterns influenced by crop type, roost distance, and tillage intensity during spring and autumn migration at a primary stopover area
Rachel A. Vanausdall, William L. Kendall, Daniel P. Collins
2025, Ornithological Applications (127)
The San Luis Valley in Colorado, USA, an agriculturally dominated stopover area, is used by the Rocky Mountain population of Antigone canadensis tabida (Greater Sandhill Crane) and some midcontinental individuals of A. c. canadensis (Lesser Sandhill Crane) during migration. While the numbers of both subspecies are stable, the effects of continued water scarcity and...
Status of water-level altitudes and long-term and short-term water-level changes in the Chicot and Evangeline (undifferentiated) and Jasper aquifers, greater Houston area, Texas, 2024
Jason K. Ramage, Alexandra C. Adams
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5028
Since the early 1900s, groundwater withdrawn from the primary aquifers that compose the Gulf Coast aquifer system—the Chicot, Evangeline, and Jasper aquifers—has been an important source of water in the greater Houston area, Texas. This report, prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District, City...
Nature-based solutions extend the lifespan of a regional levee system under climate change
Rae M. Taylor-Burns, Borja G. Reguero, Patrick L. Barnard, Michael W. Beck
2025, Nature Scientific Reports (15)
Nature-based solutions are receiving increasing attention as a cost-effective climate adaptation strategy. Horizontal levees are nature-based adaptation solutions that include a sloping wetland habitat buffer fronting a levee. They can offer a hybrid solution to reinforce traditional levees in estuarine areas—plants on the horizontal levee can provide wave attenuation benefits...
Dendroseismological investigation of redwood trees along the North Coast section of the San Andreas Fault
Allyson L. Carroll, Belle E. Philibosian, Stephen C. Sillett, Marie E. Antoine, Özgür Kozaci
2025, Quaternary Science Advances (18)
Sequoia sempervirens (coast redwood) tree rings have the potential to annually resolve late-Holocene earthquakes on the northern San Andreas Fault based on direct (e.g., physical damage) and indirect (e.g., co-seismic environmental change) impacts, but scarcity of suitable samples and challenges crossdating this long-lived species have limited progress. More precise dating of...
Global methane budget 2000-2020
Marielle Saunois, Adrien Martinez, Benjamin Poulter, Zhen Zhang, Peter A. Raymond, Pierre Regnier, Josep G. Canadell, Robert B. Jackson, Prabir K. Patra, Philippe Bousquet, Philippe Ciais, Edward J. Dlugokencky, Xin Lan, George H. Allen, David Bastviken, David J. Beerling, Dmitry Belikov, Donald R. Blake, Simona Castaldi, Monica Crippa, Bridget Deemer, Fraser Dennison, Giuseppe Etiope, Nicola Gedney, Lena Höglund-Isaksson, Meredith A. Holgerson, Peter O. Hopcroft, Gustaf Hugelius, Akihiko Ito, Atul K. Jain, Rajesh Janardanan, Matthew S. Johnson, Thomas Kleinen, Paul B. Krummel, Ronny Lauerwald, Tingting Li, Xiangyu Liu, Kyle C. McDonald, Joe R. Melton, Jens Mühle, Jurek Müller, Fabiola Murguia-Flores, Yosuke Niwa, Sergio Noce, Shufen Pan, Robert J. Parker, Changhui Peng, Michel Ramonet, William J. Riley, Gerard Rocher-Ros, Judith A. Rosentreter, Motoki Sasakawa, Arjo Segers, Steven J. Smith, Emily H. Stanley, Joël Thanwerdas, Hanqin Tian, Aki Tsuruta, Francesco N. Tubiello, Thomas S. Weber, Guido R. van der Werf, Douglas E. Worthy, Yi Xi, Yukio Yoshida, Wenxin Zhang, Bo Zheng, Qing Zhu, Qiuan Zhu, Qianlai Zhuang
2025, Earth System Science Data (17) 1873-1958
Understanding and quantifying the global methane (CH4) budget is important for assessing realistic pathways to mitigate climate change. CH4 is the second most important human-influenced greenhouse gas in terms of climate forcing after carbon dioxide (CO2), and both emissions and atmospheric concentrations of CH4 have continued to...
Small waterbodies of large conservation concern: Towards an integrated approach to more accurately measuring surface water dynamics
Owen P. McKenna, Audrey Claire Lothspeich, Sara Vacek, Dawn MacDonald, Josh D. Eash, Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Elyssa C. McCulloch, Caryn D. Ross, Sadia Sabrina, Joseph F. Knight
2025, Ecological Indicators (175)
Millions of small waterbodies are dispersed throughout the middle of the North American continent, and billions of dollars have been invested to conserve, restore, and manage these waterbodies in the 20th and 21st centuries. Small waterbody conservation has been supported by different stakeholders aiming at improving water quality, enhancing floodwater...
Bayesian mapping of regionally grouped, sparse, univariate earth science data
Karl J. Ellefsen, Bronwen Wang, Margaret A. Goldman
2025, Techniques and Methods 7-C29
Some earth science data are naturally grouped by region, and it is often desirable to map these data by region. However, if there are only a few samples within each region, then the map should be smoothed in an appropriate way to mitigate the problems that arise from having only...
Learning complex spatial dynamics of wildlife diseases with machine learning-guided partial differential equations
Juan Francisco Mandujano Reyes, Gina Oh, Ian McGahan, Ting Fung Ma, Robin Russell, Daniel P. Walsh, Jun Zhu
2025, Environmental Data Science (4)
Emerging wildlife pathogens often display geographic variability due to landscape heterogeneity. Modeling approaches capable of learning complex, non-linear spatial dynamics of diseases are needed to rigorously assess and mitigate the effects of pathogens on wildlife health and biodiversity. We propose a novel machine learning (ML)-guided approach that leverages prior physical...
A partner-driven decision support model to inform the reintroduction of bull trout
Joseph R. Benjamin, Judith Neibauer, Hugh Anthony, Jose Vazquez, Ashley Rawhouser, Jason B. Dunham
2025, PLoS ONE (20)
Assessments of species reintroductions involve a series of complex decisions that include human perspectives and ecological contexts. Here, we present a reintroduction assessment involving bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) using a structured decision-making process. We approached this assessment by engaging partners representing public utilities, government agencies, and Tribes with shared interests...
