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Understanding the effects of predicted rising sea levels, combined with changes in precipitation and freshwater inflow on key estuarine ecosystem engineers such as the eastern oyster would provide critical information to inform restoration design and predictive models. Using oyster ladders with shell bags placed at three heights to capture a...

OverviewContinuous water-quality monitoring data and chemical analysis of surface-water and groundwater samples collected during 2017–19 in the recharge zone of the Edwards aquifer were used to develop a better understanding of the surface-water/groundwater connection in and around Bexar County in south-central Texas. This fact sheet is provided to inform water-resource...

Ongoing urbanization on the Edwards aquifer recharge zone in the greater San Antonio area raises concern about the potential adverse effects on the public water supply from development. To address this concern, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the City of San Antonio, studied patterns of temporal and spatial...

Coral reefs are degrading due to many synergistic stressors. Recently there have been a number of global reports of corals occupying mangrove habitats that provide a supportive environment or refugium for corals, sheltering them by reducing stressors such as oxidative light stress and low pH. This study used satellite imagery...

Droughts are expected to increase in frequency and severity with climate change. Population impacts of such harsh environmental events are theorized to vary with life history strategies among species. However, existing demographic models generally do not consider behavioural plasticity that may modify the impact of harsh...

Petroleum in shale reservoirs is hosted in organic matter and mineral pores as well as in natural fractures and voids. For thermally mature plays, e.g., the Marcellus Shale, methane and other light alkane gases are thought to be primarily contained in organic matter pores with radii ≦50 nm. Thus, in...

Prolonged volcanic activity can induce surface weathering and hydrothermal alteration that is a primary control on edifice instability, posing a complex hazard with its challenges to accurately forecast and mitigate. This study uses a frequently active composite volcano, Mt Ruapehu, New Zealand, to develop a conceptual model of surface weathering...

Smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) predation on subyearling fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) was examined in the Snake River (USA) to identify seasonal and habitat-related changes in bass diets, and associated subyearling consumption and loss in various riverine and impounded reaches. Smallmouth bass diets reflected opportunistic foraging...

Long Island, New York, has a mix of urban/suburban to agricultural/horticultural land use and nearly 3 million residents that rely on a sole-source aquifer for drinking water. The analysis of shallow groundwater (<40 m below land surface) collected from 54 monitoring wells across Long Island detected 53 pesticides or pesticide degradates....

In recent decades, Rocky Mountain accumulated snowpack levels have experienced rapid declines, yet long-term records of snowpack prior to the installation of snowpack observation stations in the early and mid 20th century are limited. To date, a small number of tree-ring based reconstructions of April 1 Snow Water Equivalent (SWE)...

We have used a high-precision, high-resolution digital terrain model (DTM) of the NASA Mars 2020 rover Perseverance landing site in Jezero crater based on mosaicked images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (MRO HiRISE) camera as a reference dataset to evaluate DTMs based on Mars Express High Resolution...

Satellite-derived phenology metrics are valuable tools for understanding broad-scale patterns and changes in vegetated landscapes over time. However, the extraction and interpretation of phenology in ecosystems with subtle growth dynamics can be challenging. US National Park Service monitoring of evergreen pinyon-juniper ecosystems in the western US revealed an unexpected winter-peaking...

Transitions to terrestrial ecosystems attributable to land cover and land use change (LCLUC) and climate change can affect the climate at local to regional scales. However, conclusions from most previous studies do not provide information about local climate effects, and little research has directly quantified how LCLUC intensity within different...

The only self-sustaining population of endangered whooping cranes (Grus americana) requires a network of conservation lands for wintering along the Texas Gulf Coast (USA), so that this increasing population can reach downlisting under the Endangered Species Act (1,000 birds). We identify locations...

The growth hormone (Gh)/insulin-like growth-factor (Igf)/Igf binding protein (Igfbp) system regulates growth and osmoregulation in salmonid fishes, but how this system interacts with other endocrine systems is largely unknown. Given the well-documented consequences of mounting a glucocorticoid stress response on growth, we hypothesized that cortisol inhibits anabolic processes by modulating...

In the southwestern United States, post-fire debris flows commonly initiate during short bursts of intense rainfall. To date, the frequency of the rainfall rates has not been quantified. Here, we combine an existing database of debris-flow occurrences and corresponding peak storm intensities with a geospatial library of rainfall recurrence interval...

Sequencing microbial DNA from deep subsurface environments is complicated by a number of issues ranging from contamination to non-reproducible results. Many samples obtained from these environments - which are of great interest due to the potential to stimulate microbial methane generation - contain low biomass. Therefore, samples from these environments...

A step increase in annual precipitation over the eastern United States in the early 1970s commenced five decades of invigorated hydroclimate, with ongoing impacts on streamflow and water resources. Despite its far-reaching impacts, the dynamical origin of this change is unknown. Here analyses of a century of...

Municipal and domestic water users in Douglas County, Colorado, rely on groundwater from the bedrock aquifers in the Denver Basin aquifer system as part of their water supply. The four principal Denver Basin bedrock aquifers are, from shallowest to deepest, the Dawson aquifer (divided administratively into “upper” and “lower” Dawson...

Captive-rearing conservation programs focus primarily on maximizing postrelease survival. Survival increases with size in a variety of taxa, often leading to the use of enhanced size as a means to minimize postrelease losses. Head-starting is a specific captive-rearing approach used to accelerate growth in captivity prior to release in the...

Polymetallic sulfide (PMS) deposits produced at hydrothermal vents in the deep sea are of potential interest to miners. Hydrothermally active sulfide ecosystems are valued for the extraordinary chemosynthetic communities that they support. Many countries, including Canada, Portugal, and the United States,...

Coastal wetlands have disproportionately high carbon densities, known as blue carbon, compared to most terrestrial ecosystems. Mangroves and their blue carbon stocks are at risk globally from land‐use and land‐cover change (LULCC) activities such as aquaculture, alongside biophysical disturbances such as sea‐level rise and cyclones. Global estimates of carbon emissions...

Coastal cliffs constitute 80 percent of the world’s coastline, with seacliffs fronting a large proportion of the U.S. West Coast shoreline, particularly in California. Erosion of coastal cliffs can threaten infrastructure and human life, yet the spatial and temporal scope of cliff studies have been limited by cumbersome traditional methods...

The greater Port Susan area of Central Puget Sound, Washington, is home to some of the Stillaguamish Tribe’s fishing, hunting, and gathering areas since time immemorial. It is also a popular sport and commercial fishing area for the public. Large shellfish beds lie in the Port Susan and Stillaguamish estuary...

Digital flood-inundation maps for about an 8-mile reach of the Little Calumet River, Illinois, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The flood-inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Science website at https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/flood-inundation-mapping-fim-program,...