Advances in volcano monitoring driven by the first decade of Sentinel-1 observations
Juliet Biggs, Nantheera Anantrasirichai, Kyle R. Anderson, Valerie Cayol, Edna W. Dualeh, Quentin Dumont, Susanna K. Ebmeier, Jean Luc Froger, Matthew Gaddes, Federico Galleto, Pablo J. Gonzales, Ian Hamling, Andrew Hooper, Milan Lazecky, Camila Novoa Lizama, Matthew E. Pritchard
2026, Remote Sensing of Environment (339)
Sentinel-1 has transformed how satellite radar data (SAR and InSAR) are used in volcanology. The systematic, long-term archive and open-access policy means that volcano observatories and research organisations have invested in integrating Sentinel-1 datasets into their monitoring systems. We identify 233 high priority volcanoes and estimate that Sentinel-1 data has...
Rapid seismic and infrasound assessment of large landslides: A case study from Denali National Park and Preserve (Alaska)
Liam Toney, Michael E. West, Ezgi Karasözen, Denny M Capps, Elaine A. Collins, Kate E. Allstadt, Jana Pursley, Heather McFarlin, Anne Mangeney, David Fee, Dennis M. Staley, Matthew M. Haney, John J. Lyons, John Bellini
2026, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface (131)
Large, rapid landslides are a global hazard that can occur in remote, mountainous areas. Eyewitness reports of landslides and satellite imagery can often be limited or delayed, particularly during inclement weather. However, landslide-generated seismic and infrasound (low-frequency atmospheric sound) waves can be remotely detected in near real-time. This information can...
Decadal shifts in groundwater age detected by environmental tracers across California, USA
Bryant C. Jurgens, Zeno F. Levy
2026, Geophysical Research Letters (53)
Groundwater age offers important insight into recharge, storage, and contamination risk. Although models predict age changes can be driven by pumping and climate variability, direct observational evidence remains limited. Here, we analyzed paired environmental tracer suites (tritium, carbon-14, and tritiogenic helium-3) collected a decade apart from 268...
The collective application of shorebird tracking data to conservation
Autumn-Lynn Harrison, Candace Stenzel, Alexandra Anderson, Jessica Howell, Richard B. Lanctot, Marley Aikens, Joaquín Aldabe, Liam A. Berigan, Joël Bêty, Erik Blomberg, Juliana Bosi de Almeida, Andy J. Boyce, David W. Bradley, Stephen C. Brown, Jay D. Carlisle, Edward Cheskey, Katherine Christie, Sylvain Christin, Rob Clay, Ashley A. Dayer, Jill L. Deppe, Willow B. English, Scott A. Flemming, Olivier Gilg, Christine Gilroy, Susan Heath, Jason M. Hill, J. Mark Hipfner, James A. Johnson, Luanne Johnson, Bart Kempenaers, Paul Knaga, Eunbi Kwon, Benjamin J. Lagassé, Jean-François Lamarre, Christopher Latty, Don-Jean Léandri-Breton, Nicolas Lecomte, Pam Loring, Laura Anne McDuffie, Rebecca L McGuire, Scott Moorhead, Juan G. Navedo, David Newstead, Erica Nol, Alina Olalla-Kerstupp, Bridget Olson, Elizabeth Olson, Julie Paquet, Allison K. Pierce, Jennie Rausch, Kevin Regan, Matthew E. Reiter, Amber M. Roth, Mike Russell, Daniel R. Ruthrauff, Sarah T. Saalfeld, Amy L. Scarpignato, Shiloh Schulte, Nathan R. Senner, Joseph A.M. Smith, Paul A. Smith, Zach Spector, Kelly Srigley Werner, Michelle L. Stantial, Audrey R. Taylor, T. Lee Tibbitts, Mihai Valcu, Nils Warnock, Walter Wehtje, Brad Winn, Michael B. Wunder
2026, Conservation Biology
Addressing urgent conservation issues, such as the drastic declines of North American migratory birds, requires creative, evidence-based, efficient, and collaborative approaches. The abundance of over 50% of monitored North American shorebird populations has declined by over 50% since 1980. To address these declines, we developed a partnership...
Insights into Mountain Pass carbonatite formation from in-situ sulfur isotopes and geochemistry of sulfate and sulfide minerals
Erin Kay Benson, Kathryn E. Watts, Michael J. Pribil, Jay M. Thompson, Heather A. Lowers
2026, Mineralium Deposita
The Mountain Pass carbonatite stock hosts a world-class rare earth element deposit and may be classified as a carbonate-sulfate igneous rock, as it contains on average > 50 volume percent carbonate minerals and 20 to 30 volume percent sulfate minerals. The sulfates range in composition from barite to celestine...
Constraining source and path effects of large magnitude earthquakes using ground motion simulations
Xiaofeng Meng, Robert Graves, Christine A Goulet
2026, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
The purpose of this study is to use ground‐motion simulations to investigate ways in which source and path effects for large‐magnitude earthquakes can be represented in nonergodic ground‐motion models (GMMs). To achieve this, we designed a ground‐motion study in the San Francisco Bay Area that includes earthquakes...
A three-dimensional geologic framework model of the northern Great Plains region of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming, USA
Leland R. Spangler
2026, Scientific Investigations Report 2026-5127
This report presents a new three-dimensional geologic framework model (GFM) of the northern Great Plains region, encompassing parts of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The model provides a regionally consistent, geographic information system (GIS)-ready representation of Phanerozoic sedimentary strata, major fault systems, and Precambrian basement geometry across two...
Deep critical zone controls on shallow landslides
Seulgi Moon, Giuseppe Formetta, Justin T. Higa, Riccardo Busti, Dino G. Bellugi, David G. Milledge, Brian A. Ebel, William E. Dietrich
2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (123)
The deep critical zone (CZ) has long been recognized for its importance in influencing shallow landslides but was not considered feasible to include in slope stability models at the watershed scale. In this study, we demonstrate that simple approximations of the CZ in a fully coupled hydrologic and soil slope...
Sackung at Bald Eagle ridge, central Colorado: An updated interpretation of ridge-spreading movement, structures, and mechanisms from 50 years (1975–2025) of U.S. Geological Survey research
Jeffrey A. Coe, Nikita N. Avdievitch, Kate E. Allstadt, Elaine A. Collins, Erin K. Jensen, Olivia J. Hoch, Lauren N. Schaefer, Chester A. Ruleman, Jonathan W. Godt, Vince Matthews III
2026, Engineering Geology (366)
Slow gravitational failures of mountain peaks and ridges are poorly understood. Herein, we report on 50 years of studies at a slowly spreading castellate ridge in the Sawatch Range in central Colorado. The orientations of geomorphic-structural features indicate that the fractured Precambrian granitic rock underlying the ridge has extended and...
Current and near-future conditions of aquatic spatial data for use in ecological models in the United States
Grace C. Henderson, Peder Engelstad, Cameron J. Reimer, Shelby K. LeClare, Linnea S. Fraser, Demetra A. Williams, Keana S. Shadwell, Wesley M. Daniel, Ian A. Pfingsten, Catherine S. Jarnevich
2026, Knowledge and Management of Aquatic Ecosystems
To address increasing demand for ecological models of aquatic species that can inform the management of national freshwater resources, we leveraged manager input to develop suites of environmental data layers characterizing freshwater habitats for the contiguous United States. Using the National Hydrography Dataset, these new data cover...
Ice sheet dynamics drive pronounced changes in the subsurface freshwater-saltwater interface
Julia Guimond, Aaron Mohammed, Barret L. Kurylyk, Michelle A. Walvoord, Victor F. Bense
2026, Geophysical Research Letters (53)
Saltwater is migrating into freshwater aquifers globally with water quality and biogeochemical implications, yet saltwater intrusion in glaciated regions is sparsely investigated. Field observations suggest that groundwater head in glaciated systems is influenced by ice sheet forcings and provides evidence that seawater infiltrated into offshore aquifers during past deglaciation events....
The U.S. Geological Survey 2025 Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands time-independent earthquake rupture forecast
Kevin Ross Milner, Alexandra Elise Hatem, Richard W. Briggs, Jessica Ann Thompson Jobe, Andrea L. Llenos, Andrew J. Michael, Allison Shumway, Edward H. Field, Kirstie Lafon Haynie
2026, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
We present the 2025 U.S. Geological Survey Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands (PRVI) time‐independent earthquake rupture forecast (ERF), developed for the 2025 update to the National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) for PRVI. The updated ERF improves upon a prior model from 2003, including an expanded fault inventory with slip‐rate...
Depositional interplay between the Ancestral Rocky Mountains and Ouachita–Marathon–Sonora orogenies: Insights from provenance records in the late Paleozoic Marfa Basin, West Texas, U.S.A.
Sandra Juárez-Zúñiga, Daniel F. Stockli, Benjamin G. Johnson, Timothy F. Lawton
2026, Basin Research (38)
The Marfa Basin in West Texas is a late Palaeozoic synorogenic depocenter associated with regional deformation linked to the Ancestral Rocky Mountains (ARM) and Ouachita–Marathon–Sonora (OMS) orogenies in southwestern Laurentia. Basin strata range in age from Middle Pennsylvanian to the middle Permian and include the Cieneguita, Alta, Pinto Canyon, Rose...
Dog attacks on wild desert tortoises: A risk model
Andrea S. Carlson, Kristin H. Berry, Jeremy S. Mack
2026, Journal of Wildlife Management
We retrospectively compiled a database of 6,727 live, wild Agassiz's desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) and evaluated them for clinical signs of trauma to shell and limbs at 50 sites in the Mojave and Colorado (western Sonoran) deserts of California, USA, spanning the years 1977–2006. Our objectives were...
Invasion resistance varies by fuel break type in sagebrush ecosystems
Austin L. Nash, Brianne E. Brussee, Cali L. Weise, Douglas J. Shinneman, Susan K. McIlroy, Sarah C. Webster, Steven R. Mathews, Seth J. Dettenmaier, Lea A. Condon, Michele R. Crist, Cameron L. Aldridge, Julie A. Heinrichs, Mark A. Ricca, Shawn T. O’Neil, Peter S. Coates
2026, Fire Ecology
Background Wildfire is an increasingly important driver of changes within sagebrush (Artemisia spp. L.) ecosystems of the western USA, often resulting in increased spread of exotic annual grasses, such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.), and subsequent losses of native vegetation and wildlife habitat. Fuel breaks— areas of land treated to...
Multi-site evaluation of a postfire debris-flow runout forecast method
Katherine R. Barnhart, Jason W. Kean, Donald N. Lindsay, Eric Leland Bilderback
2026, Earth's Future (14)
Postfire debris flows pose a hazard to human life, property, and infrastructure when they travel from steep source areas to urbanized alluvial fans or other developed areas. Existing methods for rapid (<1 week) postfire debris-flow hazard assessment document the increase in the likelihood and size of debris flows as the magnitude...
Epigenetics in captivity: Restoring wild phenotypes in captive-reared salmonids
Tia Attfield, Andrew Edgar Honsey, Amanda Susanne Ackiss, Andreas Luek, Brian Meagher, Hayley Nuetzel, Ilana Koch, Julien April, Kristy Wakeling, Kyle Wellband, Raphael Bouchard, Sarah J. Lehnhert, Shawn R. Narum, Timothy Healy, Trevor E. Pitcher, Clare J. Venney
2026, Evolutionary Applications (19)
Captive rearing is a common practice for the stocking, conservation, and supplementation of fish species worldwide, but captive-reared fish can exhibit altered phenotypes leading to reduced fitness in nature compared to wild conspecifics. In salmonids, certain studies have found limited genetic differentiation between wild and captive-reared fish. However, documented changes...
Spatial units to support Lake Erie Cisco Coregonus artedi restoration
Joshua P. Egan, Amanda Susanne Ackiss, Andrew M. Muir
2026, Report
At the request of the Lake Erie Committee, spatial units for Lake Erie Cisco were delineated during spring 2024. Spatial units correspond to the reproductive habitat of extirpated (unoccupied spatial units) and extant (occupied spatial units) populations. Spatial units were delineated using a Council of Lake Committees-endorsed method that involves...
The effects of scientific uncertainty and values trade-offs on flow management decisions for an endangered fish
Brian Mahardja, William E. Smith, Brian D. Healy, Cameron Koizumi, Matthew L. Nobriga, Shawn Acuña, Brian A. Crawford, Kristin K. Arend, Michael C. Runge
2026, Ecosphere (17)
Consumptive use of freshwater is of concern in many estuarine ecosystems, and various frameworks have been used to prescribe environmental flows to benefit native species. However, few of these frameworks explicitly examine the potential trade-offs between socioeconomic and conservation-oriented values. This is exemplified in California, USA, where freshwater management has...
Finding the (small) cores: Spatial covariance tracks grassland bird community occupancy in fragmented grasslands
Lauren L. Berry, Brett Alexander DeGregorio, Daniel R. Uden, Caleb Powell Roberts
2026, Ecosphere (17)
Grasslands are an imperiled ecosystem, and grassland bird abundance is declining across North America. One of the strongest drivers for these declines is woody plant encroachment of grasslands. In the Great Plains and Sagebrush biomes of North America, spatial covariance—a remote-sensing metric for tracking boundaries between vegetation...
Groundwater drought in the United States: Spatial and temporal variability
Glenn Hodgkins, Caelan Simeone, Melissa A. Lombard, Todd Caldwell, John C. Hammond, Michael Wieczorek, Robert W. Dudley
2026, Journal of Hydrology (671)
Many communities and ecosystems in the United States that are dependent on groundwater are potentially adversely affected by groundwater drought. We computed yearly groundwater-drought metrics and mean groundwater levels at well locations across the conterminous United States (CONUS), using data from wells and remotely sensed and modeled Gravity Recovery and...
Small-volume tephra deposits of the May 1924 explosions from Halemaʻumaʻu, Kīlauea volcano, and their origin
Drew T. Downs, Johanne Schmith, Julie Chang, Kendra J. Lynn, Don Swanson, Ben Gaddis, Ashton F. Flinders
2026, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (473)
More than 50 explosive eruptions occurred from Halemaʻumaʻu at Kīlauea volcano over 17 days from May 11 to 27, 1924. Ballistics weighing as much as 14,000 kg were ejected and most landed within 2 km of the vent. Fine ash made up a major component of the tephra and was dispersed...
Hydrologic variability drives environmental and geospatial relationships in Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu) distribution
Sarah F. Sorensen, J. Tyler Fox, Daniel D. Magoulick
2026, Science of the Total Environment (1025)
Hydrologic variation is a primary driver of stream ecosystems. Changing hydrology can lead to assemblage shifts and alterations in suitable habitat for freshwater species. As climate change is predicted to alter flow patterns in addition to increasing water temperatures, insight into relationships between species occupancy, hydrology, and...
Alternative future vegetation pathways reveal potential transformations of western US ecosystems
Tyler J. Hoecker, Kimberley T. Davis, Caitlin E. Littlefield, Jeffrey C Chandler, Sean A. Parks, Andy John Maguire, Kerry Kemp, Svetlana Yegorova, Solomon Dobrowski
2026, Global Change Biology (32)
Managing ecosystems in an era of rapid change is inherently challenging not only because of uncertainty in future climate but also due to diverse responses of ecosystems to climate. Projections of ecological transformation alongside information about plausible vegetation trajectories can help land managers explore divergent scenarios and consider how modeled...
Satellite time series analysis to quantify changing climax ciénegas using a state and transition model approach
Laura M. Norman, Roy E. Petrakis, Natalie R. Wilson, Barry R. Middleton, Miguel L. Villarreal, Michael Pollock, Thomas A. Minckley, Dean Hendrickson
2026, Ecological Indicators (184)
Ciénegas are rare wetlands in arid landscapes of the North American Southwest, historically providing critical ecological and hydrological functions but increasingly threatened by changing climate and land use pressures. This study quantifies changes in ciénega condition and floodplain dynamics using a state-and-transition model (STM) informed by expert...
