United States Geological Survey

Forecasting Marsh Resilience in the Plum Island Estuary: Integrating Uncertainty to Inform Coastal Management

Abstract Salt marshes provide critical ecosystem services yet face increasing threats from accelerated relative sea-level rise (SLR). The long-term persistence of these habitats depends on their ability to vertically accrete and laterally migrate into adjacent uplands. Predicting...

Hyporheic eDNA Removal Outweighs Water Column Degradation in a Natural River

Abstract Advances in the measurement of environmental DNA (eDNA) have transformed biodiversity monitoring in aquatic ecosystems. However, linking eDNA concentrations in streams and rivers to species abundance remains challenging as flowing water, streambed retention, and degradat...

Alaska North Slope HYDRATE 02 Geo Data Well Multicomponent Inversion and NMR Log and Core Analysis of the B1 Sand Gas Hydrate Reservoir

Abstract The Collaborative Gas Hydrate R&D Project in Alaska, a joint initiative by the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Geological Survey, aims to advance understanding of gas hydrate reservoir systems and their produ...

Incorporating Wetland Drowning Thresholds to Assess the Spatiotemporal Variability in Potential Wetland Migration and Submergence From Sea-Level Rise

Abstract In the coming decades sea-level rise rates could exceed the upper bounds of coastal wetland vertical movement leading to wetland submergence. Consequently, understanding the spatiotemporal variability of wetland migration and submergence at regional and national scales c...

The Rising Threat of Lead: Trends in Fatalities of California Condors

ABSTRACT Endangered species face threats that change over time, and understanding variation in the importance of threats is valuable for guiding species recovery. The reintroduced population of critically endangered California condors has faced a number of threats over the three...

Lithological Control of Gas Hydrate Saturation Determined by Pressure Core Analysis in Subpermafrost Reservoirs of the Alaska North Slope (HYDRATE-02 Geo Data Well)

Abstract Quantitatively degassing pressure cores by controlled depressurization is a key approach to characterizing gas hydrate reservoirs by measuring the gas hydrate saturation (Sh) of sediments. We measured Sh for 53 core sections from the Alaska North Slope during the JOGMEC-...

Strength, Stiffness, and Poisson’s Ratio Measurements for Cements Used in the Well Completions for the Extended-Duration Gas Production Test on the Alaskan North Slope

Abstract As part of an extended-duration production test from a natural gas hydrate reservoir on the Alaska North Slope, a suite of optical-fiber sensors was encased in the completion cement to provide stable downhole monitoring around each of the four project wells. How the sens...

Characterizing Physical Properties and Controls on Gas Hydrate Saturation Using Borehole Log and Core Data at the Alaska North Slope Gas Hydrate Production Test Site

Abstract The JOGMEC-DOE-USGS Collaborative Gas Hydrate R&D Project in Alaska has acquired a wealth of geophysical data at the Kuparuk State 7-11-12 site on the Alaska North Slope to facilitate site characterization and interpretation of the 2023–2024 extended duration reservoir r...

Fueling the fire: predicting cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica) impacts on fire behavior across environmental and seasonal gradients

Abstract Invasive species can fundamentally alter fire regimes by modifying fuel characteristics, yet predicting their impacts on fire behavior remains challenging. Cogongrass ( Imperata cylindrica ), a highly invasive grass spreading across the southeastern US, has been associat...

Comparing Spatial Covariance to Common Field Vegetation Metrics

Spatial covariance is a metric used to delineate grassland cores and track state transitions driven by woody encroachment in rangelands, and it does so by calculating the degree of spatial coexistence between functional groups like grasses and trees at different scales. Spatial c...

Stratigraphy and geochronology of Holocene basaltic tephra deposits on the southeastern flank of Mauna Loa volcano, Island of Hawaiʻi, and implications for volcanic hazards

Abstract Tephra deposits are widespread across the Island of Hawaiʻi, many of which have been poorly studied. An understanding of the ages and sources of these tephras is important for assessing the frequency of explosive eruptions and thus the hazard potential from individual vo...

Efficient Physics-Informed Ground-Motion Simulations with Reduced-Order Models: CyberShake Implications and High-Resolution Site Terms for Southern San Andreas Fault Earthquakes

ABSTRACT Recent advances in Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA) leverage physics-based ground-motion simulations to estimate seismic hazard, such as the CyberShake project. However, computational costs quickly escalate when performing PSHA for numerous faults or sites an...

Delayed submarine caldera subsidence creates extreme tsunami hazard

The 2022 Hunga volcano eruption generated one of the largest and most destructive volcanic tsunamis ever recorded. We interpret the timing, nature and relative hazard of volcanic-tsunamigenic processes by combining geophysical, oceanographic, atmospheric, and eye-witness observat...

Using movement data from satellite telemetry to infer nesting status and breeding propensity of a colonial breeder, the American common eider (Somateria mollissima dresseri)

Abstract Background American common eiders ( Somateria mollissima dresseri ) are ecologically and culturally important sea ducks in northeastern North America. Female eiders may not breed every year, making breeding propensity (the proportion of sexually mature females breeding i...

Evaluating interactive effects of the Conservation Reserve Program and wind energy infrastructure on grassland bird abundance in the United States

Abstract The extent of grasslands has contracted globally, leading to significant declines in grassland-obligate species, including birds. Grassland birds are threatened by multiple factors, including grassland conversion to cropland, and development, including energy infrastruct...

Direct speciation of ultra-trace platinum in marine ferromanganese oxides by wavelength-dispersive XAFS

Abstract Ultra-trace platinum (Pt) in marine ferromanganese oxides (FMOs) has remained inaccessible to direct XAFS analysis because of its extremely low abundance and severe interferences from co-existing elements. We achieved the first direct speciation of Pt at the 1 μg g−1 lev...

Competing Effects of Elastic Heterogeneity and Viscous Flow on Interseismic Coupling at Cascadia

Abstract Interseismic coupling maps are important tools for estimating future earthquake hazard at subduction zones. Often interseismic coupling is estimated from surface velocities using a homogeneous elastic Earth model. However, inversions that incorporate viscoelastic mantle...

Suite of Regional Seismic Velocity Models for the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains (CPVMv2.0): Incorporating Epistemic Uncertainty in Velocity Models

The U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain (CP) sediments are kilometers‐thick, low‐velocity deposits underlain by high‐velocity bedrock that create regional patterns of amplification and attenuation of ground motions. Capturing these effects is challenging because of the limited s...

Resolving circumarctic zero-curtain phenomena with AI-integrated earth observations

<title>Abstract</title> Across the circumarctic, permafrost landscapes store approximately 1700 billion metric tons of organic carbon - nearly twice atmospheric levels - yet reservoir stability depends on the zero-curtain, a subsurface thermal plateau that emerges when latent hea...

Polystyrene microplastics alter the accumulation and elimination dynamics of silver nanoparticles in Daphnia magna

Environmental context Microplastics are widespread aquatic contaminants that can alter the environmental behavior of co-occurring pollutants. This study shows that polystyrene microplastics substantially modify silver nanoparticle bioaccumulation in Daphnia magna, increasing wate...