Publications

Fire is an important ecological process that has helped shape western landscapes. Wildfire suppression and other management practices may have altered historic fire regimes in ecosystems adapted to frequent, low-severity fires. Compounding this problem is the encroachment of homes into fire-prone areas. Fire affects a number of abiotic and biotic components of ecosystems, and had many...

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

In New Mexico, the tawny-bellied cotton rat (Sigmodon fulviventer) previously was known only from central and southwestern parts of the state. In central New Mexico, most records were from areas of tall grass and marshes associated with the middle Rio Grande valley. In 2003, we discovered S. fulviventer in grassy and marshy habitats >100 km west of the Rio Grande in west-central New...

No abstract available.

We summarize current knowledge about grass buffers for protecting small, isolated wetlands in agricultural contexts, including information relevant to protecting playas from runoff containing sediments, nutrients, pesticides, and other contaminants, and information on how buffers may affect densities and productivity of grassland birds. Land-uses surrounding the approximately 60,000...

No abstract available.

Migratory birds face many changes to the landscapes they traverse and the habitats they use. Wind turbines and communications towers, which pose hazards to birds and bats in flight, are being erected across the United States and offshore. Human activities can also destroy or threaten habitats critical to birds during migratory passage, and climate change appears to be altering migratory...

No abstract available.

The land of the United States in dissected by more than 4 million miles of roads that fragment wildlife habitat on both public and private lands. Traffic on these roads causes additional effects. On secondary roads, which provide access to the most natural habitat, the levels, timing, and types of traffic are seldom known. In order to understand the effects of traffic on wildlife, USGS...

Floodplain sediments can be dated precisely based on the change in anatomy of tree rings upon burial. When a stem of tamarisk (Tamarix ramosissima) or sandbar willow (Salix exigua) is buried, subsequent annual rings in the buried section resemble the rings of roots: rings become narrower, vessels within the rings become larger, and transitions between rings become less distinct. We...