Publications

Climate variables are key determinants of geographic distributions and biophysical characteristics of ecosystems, communities, and species. Climate change is therefore affecting many species attributes, ecological interactions, and ecosystem processes. Because changes in the climate system will continue into the future regardless of emissions mitigation, strategies for protecting climate...

In June 2006, an opportunistic high-flow release was made from Tiber Dam on the Marias River in Mont., to investigate possible alternatives for partially restoring the river's natural flow pattern and variability. At two sites along the river, we measured channel geometry before and after the high-flow release to evaluate channel change and alteration of physical habitat. Streamflow...

As a major institutional agent supplying Western water resources, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) provides important leadership, technical, and financial resources in water management, serving as the West's "water broker" (Bowersox 2000; Pisani 2003). In recent years, growing numbers of constituencies using water and the over-allocation of water resources have contributed to...

A long-lived middle Pleistocene lake formed in the Valle Grande, a large moat valley of the Valles caldera innorthern New Mexico, when a post-caldera eruption (South Mountain rhyolite) dammed the drainage out of the caldera. Thedeposits of this lake were cored in May 2004 (GLAD5 project, hole VC-3) and 81 m of mostly lacustrine silty mud wererecovered. A tentative chronology has been...

The following report was prepared for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Refuge System in support of their Comprehensive Conservation Planning (CCP) efforts by the Policy Analysis and Science Assistance Branch (PASA), Fort Collins Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey. While this document provides a summary of contemporary recreation management literature and methodologies...

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are powerful tools in the field of invasive species management. GIS can be used to create potential distribution maps for all manner of taxa, including plants, animals, and diseases. GIS also performs well in the early detection and rapid assessment of invasive species. Here, we used GIS applications to investigate species richness and invasion...

The Delaware River Basin occupies an area of 12,765 square miles, in portions of south central New York, northeast Pennsylvania, northeast Delaware, and western New Jersey (fig. 1). The river begins as two streams in the Catskill Mountains, the East and West Branches. The two tributaries flow in a southwesterly direction until they meet at Hancock, N.Y. The length of the river from the...

The Valles Caldera National Preserve is one of New Mexico’s natural wonders and a popular area for public recreation, sustainable natural resource production, and scientific research and education. Here, we provide a concise overview of the natural and cultural history of the Preserve, including descriptions of the ecosystems, flora and fauna. We note that, at the landscape scale, the...

We describe a successful Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) nest in an unusual structure on the side of a building. The nest was located near the edge of the species' range along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The nest was completely obvious, suggesting that the structure itself provided adequate cover and sercurity for the jays. Blue Jays appear to be declining in some...

As attributes of the Earth's ecosystems shift in the face of human impact and sustainability of ecosystem services becomes less certain, one important tool at the disposal of the scientific community and other groups is a blueprint for understanding, evaluating, and communicating the value of ecological services. The blueprint presented here is based on (1) an examination of the...

Dendroecological techniques were applied to reconstruct stand-replacing fire history in upper montane forests in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Fourteen stand-replacing fires were dated to 8 unique fire years (1842–1901) using four lines of evidence at each of 12 sites within the upper Rio Grande Basin. The four lines of evidence were (i) quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides...

Cascading events that start at small spatial scales and propagate non-linearly through time to influence larger areas often have major impacts on ecosystem goods and services. Events such as wildfires and hurricanes are increasing in frequency and magnitude as systems become more connected through globalization processes. We need to improve our understanding of these events in order to...