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Since the early 1900s, groundwater withdrawn from the primary aquifers that compose the Gulf Coast aquifer system—the Chicot, Evangeline, and Jasper aquifers—has been an important source of water in the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...
Variability in hydrologic response to wildfire between snow zones in forested headwaters
Quinn Miller, David M Barnard, Megan Sears, John C. Hammond, Stephanie Kampf
2025, Hydrological Processes (39)
Rising temperatures and shifting fire regimes in the western United States are pushing fires upslope into areas of deep winter snowpack, where we have little knowledge of the likely hydrologic impacts of wildfire. We quantified differences in the timing and magnitude of stormflow responses to summer rainstorms among six catchments...
Leveraging detection uncertainty to estimate Renibacterium salmoninarum infection status among multiple tissues and assays
Tawni B.R. Firestone, Eric R. Fetherman, Kathryn P. Huyvaert, John D. Drennan, Rebecca E. Brock, Brooke Yeatts, Dana L. Winkelman
2025, PLoS ONE (20)
Effective disease surveillance relies on accurate pathogen testing and robust prevalence estimates. Diagnostic specificity (DSp), the probability that an uninfected animal tests negative, is high when false positives are low. Diagnostic sensitivity (DSe) is the probability an infected animal tests positive; higher DSe means fewer false negatives. However, sensitivity and...
Ultrasonic deterrents provide no additional benefit over curtailment in reducing bat fatalities at an Ohio wind energy facility
Jeffrey Clerc, Manuela Huso, Michael R. Schirmacher, Michael D. Whitby, Cris D. Hein
2025, PLoS ONE (20)
Wind energy is important for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions but also contributes to global bat mortality. Current strategies to minimize bat mortality due to collision with wind-turbine blades fall broadly into two categories: curtailment (limiting turbine operation during high-risk periods) and deterrence (discouraging bat activity near turbines). Recently, there...
Marginalizing time in habitat selection and species distribution models improves inference
Joseph Michael Eisaguirre, Layne G. Adams, Bridget Borg, Heather E. Johnson
2025, Diversity and Distributions (31)
AimRecent methodological advances for studying how animals move and use space with telemetry data have focused on fine-scale, more mechanistic inference. However, in many cases, researchers and managers remain interested in larger scale questions regarding species distribution and habitat use across study areas, landscapes, or seasonal ranges. Point processes offer...
Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Lower Cretaceous Hosston and Travis Peak Formations, U.S. Gulf Coast, 2024
Lauri A. Burke, Stanley T. Paxton, Scott A. Kinney, Nicholas J. Gianoutsos, Russell F. Dubiel, Janet K. Pitman, Christopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Phuong A. Le, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller
2025, Fact Sheet 2025-3021
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 28 million barrels of oil and 35.8 trillion cubic feet of gas in conventional and continuous accumulations within the Lower Cretaceous Hosston and Travis Peak Formations of the onshore U.S. Gulf Coast region....
Organic matter composition versus microbial source: Controls on carbon loss from fen wetland and permafrost soils
Sommer F. Starr, Kimberly Wickland, Anne M. Kellerman, Amy M. McKenna, Martin M. Kurek, Aubrey Miller, Ariana Karsaras, Thomas A. Douglas, Rachel Mackelprang, Ashley L. Shade, Robert G.M. Spencer
2025, JGR Biogeosciences (130)
Wetland and permafrost soils contain some of Earth's largest reservoirs of organic carbon, and these stores are threatened by rapid warming across the Arctic. Nearly half of northern wetlands are affected by permafrost. As these ecosystems warm, the cycling of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and the opportunities for microbial degradation...
No evidence for an active margin-spanning megasplay fault at the Cascadia Subduction Zone
Madeleine C. Lucas, Anna M. Ledeczi, Harold J. Tobin, Suzanne M. Carbotte, Janet Watt, Shuoshuo Han, Brian Boston, D. Jiang
2025, Seismica (2)
It has been previously proposed that a megasplay fault within the Cascadia accretionary wedge, spanning from offshore Vancouver Island to Oregon, has the potential to slip during a future Cascadia subduction zone earthquake. This hypothetical fault has major implications for tsunami size and arrival times and is included in disaster-planning...
Climate-driven deoxygenation of lakes alters the nutrient-toxin profile of a food fish
Stephen F. Jane, Sebastian A. Heilpern, J. Thomas Brenna, Thomas M. Detmer, Charles T. Driscoll, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Shree K. Giri, Raymond P. Glahn, Kurt J. Jirka, Julia Kim, Mario R. Montesdeoca, Connor I. Olson, Hui Gyu Park, Eileen A. Randall, Peter B. McIntyre
2025, Ecotoxicology and Public Health (59) 9486-9496
Climate change is rapidly altering fisheries supporting aquatic ecosystems. The implications for food security depend not only on harvest biomass but also concentrations of nutrients and toxins in fish. Using brook trout from Adirondack lakes (New York, USA), we tested whether ongoing lake deoxygenation trends will affect fish muscle omega-3...
Lessons in business recovery following the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence, Türkiye informed by women entrepreneurs
Ezgi Orhan, Anne Wein, Cynthia Kroll, Juan Fung
2025, Earthquake Spectra (41) 1910-1940
On 6 February 2023, Southern Türkiye was hit by devastating earthquakes, directly affecting over 14 million people in 11 cities, causing more than 50,000 deaths and the destruction of more than 800,000 buildings. This article goes beyond the physical damage imposed by the catastrophe to discuss the effects of the...
Interpreting a sudden population decline in a long-lived species (Malaclemys terrapin rhizophorarum)
Jacquelyn C. Guzy, Brian J. Smith, Mathew Denton, Michael Cherkiss, David Roche, Andrew G. Crowder, Kristen Hart
2025, Ecology and Evolution (15)
Long-term ecological studies are critical for providing insight into population dynamics and detecting population declines, particularly for species of conservation concern. However, spatiotemporal variation and logistical challenges make the identification of sudden population declines difficult. We conducted an in-water capture-mark-recapture study of mangrove diamond-backed terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin rhizophorarum) within Big...
Long-term patterns in growth of White Sturgeon in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River basin, California.
Michael Quist, Shannon Blackburn, Marta Ulaski, Zachary Jackson
2025, Frontiers in Freshwater Science (3)
Introduction: The Sacramento-San Joaquin River system (SSJ) of California includes both riverine, delta, and estuarine habitats and is among the most modified aquatic ecosystems in the United States. Water development projects in the system are associated with declines of many native species, including White Sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus.Methods: We used White Sturgeon...
Using long-term ecological datasets to unravel the impacts of short-term meteorological disturbances on phytoplankton communities
V. Tran-Khac, J.P. Doubek, Vijay P. Patil, J.D. Stockwell, R. Adrian, C.-W. Change, G. Dur, A. Lewandowska, J.A. Rusak, N. Salmaso, D. Straile, S.J. Thackeray, P. Venail, R. Bhattacharya, J. Brentrup, R. Bruel, H. Feuchtmayr, M.O. Gessner, H-P. Grossart, B.W. Ibelings, S. Jacquet, S. MacIntyre, S.S. Matsuzaki, E. Nodine, P. Nõges, L.G. Rudstam, F. Soulignac, P. Verburg, P. Znachor, T. Zohary, O. Anneville
2025, Freshwater Biology (70)
Extreme meteorological events such as storms are increasing in frequency and intensity, but our knowledge of their impacts on aquatic ecosystems and emergent system properties is limited. Understanding the ecological impacts of storms on the dynamics of primary producers remains a challenge that needs to be addressed to assess...
Native Yellowstone cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus virginalis bouvieri growth and survival in a headwater stream primarily driven by warming stream temperatures, with non-native brown trout Salmo trutta posing an additional threat to survival
Kadie B. Heinle, Robert Al-Chokhachy, Adam Sepulveda, Christine E. Verhille
2025, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (82) 1-17
Warming rivers and interactions with non-native species impact salmonid species globally. Understanding how hydroclimatic conditions synergistically and independently interact with non-native species is critical for effectively managing salmonids into the future. We used a 10-year mark–recapture dataset to assess how native Yellowstone cutthroat trout (YCT) Oncorhynchus virginalis bouvieri and non-native brown trout Salmo...
Horizontal transport of Picture Gorge Basalt magma through the Monument Dike Swarm determined by magnetic fabric
Margaret Susan Avery, Anthony Francis Pivarunas
2025, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (26)
Flood basalts of the mid-Miocene Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) cover 210,000 km2 of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The source of CRBG melt is debated; widely spaced feeder dike swarms can be projected toward hypothetical sources near the Oregon-Idaho border. In this study, we use anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) to track...
Factors influencing landslide occurrence in low-relief formerly glaciated landscapes: Landslide inventory and susceptibility analysis in Minnesota, USA
Laura Triplett, Morena N Hammer, Stephen B. DeLong, Karen B. Gran, Carrie E. Jennings, Zachary T. Engle, Julie K. Bartley, Dylan J. Blumentritt, Andy Breckenridge, Stephanie Day, Melissa A. Kohout, Philip H. Larson, Jeni A. McDermott, Emilie Richard
2025, Natural Hazards (121) 11799-11827
In landscapes recently impacted by continental glaciation, landslides may occur where topographic relief has been generated by the drainage of glacial lakes and ensuing post-glacial fluvial network development into unconsolidated glacially derived sediments and exhumed bedrock. To investigate linkages among environmental variables, post-glacial landscape development, and landslides, we created a...
Modeling lamprey distribution using flow, geomorphology, and elevation in a terminal lake system
Jacob C. Dickey, Benjamin J. Clemens, Michael Dumelle, Melanie J. Davis
2025, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (154) 322-338
ObjectiveLampreys are an ecologically important group of fishes. Several species are imperiled and lack key distribution and habitat data. The terminal Goose Lake Basin, U.S.A. is home to two such species, the Goose Lake Lamprey, Entosphenus sp. (formally undescribed), and the Pit-Klamath Brook Lamprey, E. lethophagus. Species distribution models (SDMs)...
Failure to meet the exchangeability assumption in Bayesian multispecies occupancy models: Implications for study design
Gavin G. Cotterill, Douglas A. Keinath, Tabitha A. Graves
2025, Preprint
Bayesian hierarchical models are ubiquitous in ecology. Random effect model structures are often employed that treat individual effects as deviations from larger population-level effects. In this way individuals are assumed to be "exchangeable" samples. Ecologists may address this exchangeability assumption intuitively, but might in certain modeling contexts ignore it altogether,...
