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Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.

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At least 1,783 records · Page 99Linked to original sources
USGS2023

Shifted sediment-transport regimes by climate change and amplified hydrological variability in cryosphere-fed rivers

Climate change affects cryosphere-fed rivers and alters seasonal sediment dynamics, affecting cyclical fluvial material supply and year-round water-food-energy provisions to downstream communities. Here, we demonstrate seasonal sediment-transport regime shifts from the 1960s to 2000s in four cryosphere-fed rivers characterized by glacial, nival, pluvial, and mixed regimes, respectively. Spring sees a shift toward pluvial-dominated sediment transport due to less snowmelt and more erosive rainfall. Summer is characterized by intensified glacier meltwater pulses and pluvial events that exceptionally increase sediment fluxes. Our study highlights that the increases in hydroclimatic extremes and cryosphere degradation lead to amplified variability in fluvial fluxes and higher summer sediment peaks, which can threaten downstream river infrastructure safety and ecosystems and worsen glacial/pluvial floods. We further offer a monthly-scale sediment-availability-transport model that can reproduce such regime shifts and thus help facilitate sustainable reservoir operation and river management in wider cryospheric regions under future climate and hydrological change.

Science Advances↗
USGS2024

The magmatic origin of the Columbia River Gorge, USA

Along subduction zones, high-relief topography is associated with sustained volcanism parallel to the plate margin. However, the relationship between magmatism and mountain building in arcs is poorly understood. Here, we study patterns of surface deformation and correlated fluvial knickpoints in the Columbia River Gorge to link long-term magmatism to the uplift and ensuing topographic development of the Cascade Range. An upwarped paleochannel exposed in the walls of the Gorge constrains unsteady deep magma flux, the ratio of intrusive to extrusive magmatic contributions to topography, and the impact of magmatism on Columbia River incision since 3.5 million years ago. Geophysical data indicate that deep magma influx beneath the arc axis is ongoing and not aligned with the current locations of volcanic edifices, representing a broad regional influence on arc construction.

Oregon, Washington↗
USGS2026

Satellite observations reveal widespread alteration of river thermal regimes by U.S. dams

Dams are well known to alter river thermal regimes, but assessments of downstream temperature changes have been constrained to single dams, single basins, or specific seasonal windows, thus limiting knowledge of their widespread impacts. We used satellite-based thermal infrared observations to quantify river surface temperature differences up- and downstream of 287 large dams in the United States from 2013 to 2024 across all seasons. We found downstream river temperature differences for the majority (71%) of longitudinal river profiles. These downstream changes were typically warmer (60%), and, on average, were sustained or continued to increase within 20 km downstream of the dam. We also found that the magnitude and frequency of downstream alterations varied by dam type, with 91% of extreme (≥ ±4°C) differences occurring at dams with reservoirs. This work documents the pervasive effects of large dams on downstream ecosystems across all seasons on a national scale.

Science Advances↗
USGS2010

The Origins of C4 Grasslands: Integrating Evolutionary and Ecosystem Science

The evolution of the C 4 photosynthetic pathway from the ancestral C 3 pathway in grasses led to the establishment of grasslands in warm climates during the Late Miocene (8 to 3 million years ago). This was a major event in plant evolutionary history, and their high rates of foliage production sustained high levels of herbivore consumption. The past decade has seen significant advances in understanding C 4 grassland ecosystem ecology, and now a wealth of data on the geological history of these ecosystems has accumulated and the phylogeny of grasses is much better known. Edwards et al. (p. 587) review this multidisciplinary research area and attempt to synthesize emerging knowledge about the evolution of grass species within the context of plant and ecosystem ecology.

Science↗
USGS2011

Global biodiversity: Indicators of recent declines

In 2002, world leaders committed, through the Convention on Biological Diversity, to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. We compiled 31 indicators to report on progress toward this target. Most indicators of the state of biodiversity (covering species’ population trends, extinction risk, habitat extent and condition, and community composition) showed declines, with no significant recent reductions in rate, whereas indicators of pressures on biodiversity (including resource consumption, invasive alien species, nitrogen pollution, overexploitation, and climate change impacts) showed increases. Despite some local successes and increasing responses (including extent and biodiversity coverage of protected areas, sustainable forest management, policy responses to invasive alien species, and biodiversity-related aid), the rate of biodiversity loss does not appear to be slowing.

Science↗
USGS2011

A bacterium that can grow by using arsenic instead of phosphorus

Life is mostly composed of the elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and phosphorus. Although these six elements make up nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids and thus the bulk of living matter, it is theoretically possible that some other elements in the periodic table could serve the same functions. Here, we describe a bacterium, strain GFAJ-1 of the Halomonadaceae, isolated from Mono Lake, California, that is able to substitute arsenic for phosphorus to sustain its growth. Our data show evidence for arsenate in macromolecules that normally contain phosphate, most notably nucleic acids and proteins. Exchange of one of the major bio-elements may have profound evolutionary and geochemical importance.

Science↗
USGS2011

Global seabird responses to forage fish depletion - One-third for the birds

Determining the form of key predator-prey relationships is critical for understanding marine ecosystem dynamics. Using a comprehensive global database, we quantified the effect of fluctuations in food abundance on seabird breeding success. We identified a threshold in prey (fish and krill, termed “forage fish”) abundance below which seabirds experience consistently reduced and more variable productivity. This response was common to all seven ecosystems and 14 bird species examined within the Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern Oceans. The threshold approximated one-third of the maximum prey biomass observed in long-term studies. This provides an indicator of the minimal forage fish biomass needed to sustain seabird productivity over the long term.

Science↗
USGS1975

Earthquake shaking and damage to buildings

Ground shaking close to the causative fault of an earthquake is more intense than it was previously believed to be. This raises the possibility that large numbers of buildings and other structures are not sufficiently resistant for the intense levels of shaking that can occur close to the fault. Many structures were built before earthquake codes were adopted; others were built according to codes formulated when less was known about the intensity of near-fault shaking. Although many building types are more resistant than conventional design analyses imply, the margin of safety is difficult to quantify. Many modern structures, such as freeways, have not been subjected to and tested by near-fault shaking in major earthquakes (magnitude 7 or greater). Damage patterns in recent moderate-sized earthquakes occurring in or adjacent to urbanized areas, however, indicate that many structures, including some modern ones designed to meet earthquake code requirements, cannot withstand the severe shaking that can occur close to a fault. It is necessary to review the ground motion assumed and the methods utilized in the design of important existing structures and, if necessary, to strengthen or modify the use of structures that are found to be weak. New structures situated close to active faults should be designed on the basis of ground motion estimates greater than those used in the past. The ultimate balance between risk of earthquake losses and cost for both remedial strengthening and improved earthquake-resistant construction must be decided by the public. Scientists and engineers must inform the public about earthquake shaking and its effect on structures. The exposure to damage from seismic shaking is steadily increasing because of continuing urbanization and the increasing complexity of lifeline systems, such as power, water, transportation, and communication systems. In the near future we should expect additional painful examples of the damage potential of moderate-sized earthquakes in urban areas. Over a longer time span, however, we can significantly reduce the risk to life and property from seismic shaking through better land utilization, improved building codes and construction practices, and at least the gradual replacement of poor buildings by more resistant buildings. Progress toward reducing risk from seismic shaking through better building design is slowed by deficiencies in our knowledge about the nature of damaging ground motion and the failure mechanisms in structures. For example, lacking observational data, seismologists must rely on simplified theoretical and numerical models of the earthquake process to estimate near-fault ground motion, especially for earthquakes as large as magnitude 7 and 8. Because such models have not been adequately tested against data, their reliability is unknown. Engineers lack detailed information about failure processes in structures during an earthquake. Although many structures have been instrumented to measure their response to an earthquake, few records have been obtained from buildings that actually sustained significant structural damage and few structures are properly instrumented to measure all the modes of deformation that are likely to contribute to failure. Moreover, the fact that many structures have withstood ground motion more intense than that assumed in their design indicates that conventional methods of design do not take into account important contributions to earthquake resistance by nonstructural elements and by the ability of structural elements to deform inelastically without necessarily causing failure of the structure. It is fortunate when such reserve resistance exists, but better understanding of the sources of reserve strength is needed to determine how large a margin of safety they confer and how they might be affected by changes in construction practices and materials with time. In the next few years we look forward to significant advances in knowledge and to more effective application of what is already known, largely because of substantial funding of research related to seismic engineering by the National Science Foundation . The increasing number of strong-motion seismographs operating in seismically active regions will likely provide for the first time a number of records of damaging levels of ground motion. Significant effort is being directed toward obtaining near-fault records, although many probable sites of future large earthquakes remain inadequately instrumented, especially outside the conterminous United States. New and more complete information on building response and damage mechanisms will be obtained by improved instrumentation of structures and through laboratory investigations of failure in structures and structural elements. Further developments in computer technology and in computer modeling techniques will permit more realistic simulations of the seismic response of soils and structures that take into account their inelastic behavior and their strain-dependent properties. Earthquake design codes will continually be revised to better utilize existing knowledge concerning the nature of strong ground motion and the dynamic behavior of buildings during earthquakes and to incorporate new knowledge and also experiences gained from future earthquakes. We believe that application of new knowledge, improvements in earthquake-resistant design and construction, and remedial strengthening or replacement of weak existing structures can significantly reduce our current level of exposure to earthquake hazards.

Science↗
USGS1985

Speciation and stasis in marine Ostracoda: Climatic modulation of evolution

Morphologic and paleozoogeographic analysis of Cenozoic marine Ostracoda from the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific indicates that climatic change modulates evolution by disrupting long-term stasis and catalyzing speciation during sustained, unidirectional climatic transitions and, conversely, by maintaining morphologic stasis during rapid, high-frequency climatic oscillations. In the middle Pliocene, 4 to 3 million years ago, at least six new species of Puriana suddenly appeared as the Isthmus of Panama closed, changing oceanographic circulation and global climate. Since then morphologic stasis has characterized ancestral and descendant species during many glacial-interglacial cycles. The frequency and duration of climatic events have more impact on ostracode evolution than the magnitude of climatic changes.

Science↗
USGS1992

Change in failure stress on the southern San Andreas fault system caused by the 1992 magnitude = 7.4 Landers earthquake

The 28 June Landers earthquake brought the San Andreas fault significantly closer to failure near San Bernardino, a site that has not sustained a large shock since 1812. Stress also increased on the San Jacinto fault near San Bernardino and on the San Andreas fault southeast of Palm Springs. Unless creep or moderate earthquakes relieve these stress changes, the next great earthquake on the southern San Andreas fault is likely to be advanced by one to two decades. In contrast, stress on the San Andreas north of Los Angeles dropped, potentially delaying the next great earthquake there by 2 to 10 years.

California↗
USGS1998

Evidence against hydrogen-based microbial ecosystems in basalt aquifers

It has been proposed that hydrogen produced from basalt-ground-water interactions may serve as an energy source that supports the existence of microorganisms in the deep subsurface on Earth and possibly on other planets. However, experiments demonstrated that hydrogen is not produced from basalt at an environmentally relevant, alkaline pH. Small amounts of hydrogen were produced at a lower pH in laboratory incubations, but even this hydrogen production was transitory. Furthermore, geochemical considerations suggest that previously reported rates of hydrogen production cannot be sustained over geologically significant time frames. These findings indicate that hydrogen production from basalt-ground-water interactions may not support microbial metabolism in the subsurface.

Idaho↗
USGS2015

Temperate forest health in an era of emerging megadisturbance

Although disturbances such as fire and native insects can contribute to natural dynamics of forest health, exceptional droughts, directly and in combination with other disturbance factors, are pushing some temperate forests beyond thresholds of sustainability. Interactions from increasing temperatures, drought, native insects and pathogens, and uncharacteristically severe wildfire are resulting in forest mortality beyond the levels of 20th-century experience. Additional anthropogenic stressors, such as atmospheric pollution and invasive species, further weaken trees in some regions. Although continuing climate change will likely drive many areas of temperate forest toward large-scale transformations, management actions can help ease transitions and minimize losses of socially valued ecosystem services.

Science↗
USGS2016

Cryovolcanism on Ceres

Volcanic edifices are abundant on rocky bodies of the inner solar system. In the cold outer solar system, volcanism can occur on solid bodies with a water-ice shell, but derived cryovolcanic constructs have proved elusive. We report the discovery using Dawn Framing Camera images of a landform on dwarf planet Ceres, which we argue represents a viscous cryovolcanic dome. Parent material of the cryomagma is a mixture of secondary minerals, including salts and water ice. Absolute model ages from impact craters reveal that extrusion of the dome has occurred recently. Ceres’ evolution must have been able to sustain recent interior activity and associated surface expressions. We propose salts with low eutectic temperatures and thermal conductivities as key drivers for Ceres’ long-term internal evolution.

Science↗
USGS2021

Mapping out a future for ungulate migrations

Migration of ungulates (hooved mammals) is a fundamental ecological process that promotes abundant herds, whose effects cascade up and down terrestrial food webs. Migratory ungulates provide the prey base that maintains large carnivore and scavenger populations and underpins terrestrial biodiversity (fig. S1). When ungulates move in large aggregations, their hooves, feces, and urine create conditions that facilitate distinct biotic communities. The migrations of ungulates have sustained humans for thousands of years, forming tight cultural links among Indigenous people and local communities. Yet ungulate migrations are disappearing at an alarming rate ( 1 ). Efforts by wildlife managers and conservationists are thwarted by a singular challenge: Most ungulate migrations have never been mapped in sufficient detail to guide effective conservation. Without a strategic and collaborative effort, many of the world's great migrations will continue to be truncated, severed, or lost in the coming decades. Fortunately, a combination of animal tracking datasets, historical records, and local and Indigenous knowledge can form the basis for a global atlas of migrations, designed to support conservation action and policy at local, national, and international levels.

Science↗
USGS2021

A massive rock and ice avalanche caused the 2021 disaster at Chamoli, Indian Himalaya

On 7 Feb 2021, a catastrophic mass flow descended the Ronti Gad, Rishiganga, and Dhauliganga valleys in Chamoli, Uttarakhand, India, causing widespread devastation and severely damaging two hydropower projects. Over 200 people were killed or are missing. Our analysis of satellite imagery, seismic records, numerical model results, and eyewitness videos reveals that ~27x10 6 m 3 of rock and glacier ice collapsed from the steep north face of Ronti Peak. The rock and ice avalanche rapidly transformed into an extraordinarily large and mobile debris flow that transported boulders >20 m in diameter, and scoured the valley walls up to 220 m above the valley floor. The intersection of the hazard cascade with downvalley infrastructure resulted in a disaster, which highlights key questions about adequate monitoring and sustainable development in the Himalaya as well as other remote, high-mountain environments.

Chamoli↗
USGS2026

Interacting effects of human presence and landscape modification on birds and mammals

Sustainable human–wildlife coexistence requires a mechanistic understanding of the many ways that humans affect animals. However, progress is hampered by the lack of accessible data measuring the dynamic presence of people. Here, we leverage mobile-device data to disentangle how human presence and landscape modification differentially influence the use of geographic and environmental space for 37 mammal and bird species across the United States. Human presence affected more than 65% of species, with substantial variation across species. For ~60% of species that responded to human activities, the effects were interdependent—animals tended to react more strongly to human presence in less modified habitats. Our results demonstrate that human presence and landscape modification have complex combined effects on wildlife, which need to be considered for effective management.

Science↗
USGS2012

Successional change in the Lake Superior fish community: Population trends in ciscoes, rainbow smelt, and lake trout, 1958-2008

The Lake Superior fish community underwent massive changes in the second half of the 20th century. Those changes are largely reflected in changes in abundance of the adults of principal prey species, the ciscoes ( Coregonus spp. ), the invasive rainbow smelt ( Osmerus mordax ), and the principal predator, lake trout ( Salvelinus namaycush ). To better understand changes in species abundances, a comprehensive series of gillnet and bottom trawl data collected from 1958 to 2008 were examined. In the late 1950s/early 1960s, smelt abundance was at its maximum, wild lake trout was at its minimum, and an abundance of hatchery lake trout was increasing rapidly. The bloater ( Coregonus hoyi ) was the prevalent cisco in the lake; abundance was more than 300% greater than the next most abundant cisco, shortjaw cisco ( C. zenithicus ), followed by kiyi ( C. kiyi ) and lake cisco ( C. artedi ). By the mid-1960s, abundance of hatchery lake trout was nearing maximum, smelt abundance was beginning to decline, and abundances of all ciscoes declined, but especially that of shortjaw cisco and kiyi. By the late 1970s, recovery of wild lake trout stocks was well underway and abundances of hatchery lake trout and smelt were declining and the ciscoes were reaching their nadir. During 1980–1990, the fish community underwent a dramatic shift in organization and structure. The rapid increase in abundance of wild lake trout, concurrent with a rapid decline in hatchery lake trout, signaled the impending recovery. Rainbow smelt abundance dropped precipitously and within four years, lake cisco and bloater populations rebounded on the heels of a series of strong recruitment events. Kiyi populations showed signs of recovery by 1989, and shortjaw by 2000, though well below historic maximum abundances. High abundance of adult smelt prior to 1980 appears to be the only factor linked to recruitment failure in the ciscoes. Life history traits of the cisco species were examined to better understand their different responses to conditions of low and high predator levels, i.e., late 1950s–early 1960s vs. post 1980. Bloaters are most likely to become the predominant cisco in the absence of strong predation and the least abundant under prolonged predation; smelt share this pattern. Conversely, the lake cisco and shortjaw cisco fare better when predator abundance is high. The recovery of lake trout in Lake Superior reestablished a strong top-down influence on the fish community and its present structure and organization appears to be approaching an equilibrium that reflects a more natural state. If lake trout recovery is sustained, shortjaw cisco abundance is expected to increase and join lake cisco and kiyi as dominant cisco species, and bloater and smelt will oscillate at lower abundances.

Lake Superior↗
USGS2012

Repeat surveys of spawning cisco (Coregonus artedi) in western Lake Superior: Timing, distribution and composition of spawning stocks

Acoustic (AC) and midwater trawl (MT) surveys of spawning cisco ( Coregonus artedi ) in Lake Superior have been combined with commercial yield to estimate exploitation. To time surveys properly, it is important to understand when adults typically arrive at spawning grounds and how numbers change as the spawning season progresses. We conducted repeat autumn surveys during nighttime hours at coastal sites where commercial roe fisheries occur. Spawner densities increased significantly from October to mid-November, but differences measured at sites sampled from mid- to late-November were comparatively small. Spawners occupied the upper 20–30 m of the water column during mid-November before utilizing a wider range of depths by late-November. We compared repeat AC densities to temporal trends of catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) in suspended commercial gillnets and found good agreement within sites. Because different gillnet mesh sizes were used in each roe fishery. CPUE and AC density were poorly correlated among sites. We recommend that future surveys be conducted between mid- and late-November, and that MT gear be used to measure cisco densities in the uppermost 10 m of the water column where AC estimates may be conservative. Given the short temporal window for assessing spawner density, we believe both AC-MT and gillnet surveys will be needed to ensure that harvest of different stocks is kept at a sustainable level.

Lake Superior↗