Publications
FORT scientists have produced more than 2000 peer reviewed publications that are registered in the USGS Publications Warehouse, along with many others prior to their work at the USGS or in conjunction with other government agencies.
Filter Total Items: 2379
Drought, multi-seasonal climate, and wildfire in northern New Mexico Drought, multi-seasonal climate, and wildfire in northern New Mexico
Wildfire is increasingly a concern in the USA, where 10 million acres burned in 2015. Climate is a primary driver of wildfire, and understanding fire-climate relationships is crucial for informing fire management and modeling the effects of climate change on fire. In the southwestern USA, fire-climate relationships have been informed by tree-ring data that extend centuries prior to the...
Authors
Ellis Q. Margolis, Connie A. Woodhouse, Thomas W. Swetnam
Patterns in Greater Sage-grouse population dynamics correspond with public grazing records at broad scales Patterns in Greater Sage-grouse population dynamics correspond with public grazing records at broad scales
Human land use, such as livestock grazing, can have profound yet varied effects on wildlife interacting within common ecosystems, yet our understanding of land-use effects is often generalized from short-term, local studies that may not correspond with trends at broader scales. Here we used public land records to characterize livestock grazing across Wyoming, USA, and we used Greater...
Authors
Adrian P. Monroe, Cameron L. Aldridge, Timothy J. Assal, Kari E. Veblen, David A. Pyke, Michael L. Casazza
The relationship between female brooding and male nestling provisioning: does climate underlie geographic variation in sex roles? The relationship between female brooding and male nestling provisioning: does climate underlie geographic variation in sex roles?
Comparative studies of populations occupying different environments can provide insights into the ecological conditions affecting differences in parental strategies, including the relative contributions of males and females. Male and female parental strategies reflect the interplay between ecological conditions, the contributions of the social mate, and the needs of offspring. Climate is...
Authors
Jongmin Yoon, Helen Sofaer, T. Scott Sillett, Scott A. Morrison, Cameron K. Ghalambor
Designing ecological climate change impact assessments to reflect key climatic drivers Designing ecological climate change impact assessments to reflect key climatic drivers
Identifying the climatic drivers of an ecological system is a key step in assessing its vulnerability to climate change. The climatic dimensions to which a species or system is most sensitive – such as means or extremes – can guide methodological decisions for projections of ecological impacts and vulnerabilities. However, scientific workflows for combining climate projections with...
Authors
Helen Sofaer, Joseph J. Barsugli, Catherine S. Jarnevich, John T. Abatzoglou, Marian Talbert, Brian W. Miller, Jeffrey T. Morisette
Accounting for sampling patterns reverses the relative importance of trade and climate for the global sharing of exotic plants Accounting for sampling patterns reverses the relative importance of trade and climate for the global sharing of exotic plants
Aim The distributions of exotic species reflect patterns of human-mediated dispersal, species climatic tolerances and a suite of other biotic and abiotic factors. The relative importance of each of these factors will shape how the spread of exotic species is affected by ongoing economic globalization and climate change. However, patterns of trade may be correlated with variation in...
Authors
Helen Sofaer, Catherine S. Jarnevich
Tell me a story! A plea for more compelling conference presentations Tell me a story! A plea for more compelling conference presentations
Effective communication with other scientists is an essential component of the scientific process, underlying success in publishing papers, building collaborations, securing grants and jobs, and stimulating further research. Oral presentations at professional meetings provide an opportunity to share research findings with a relatively broad scientific audience. However, many scientists...
Authors
Kathryn Langin
Amphibian conservation: clarifications to comments from Andreone Amphibian conservation: clarifications to comments from Andreone
We appreciate the comments from Andreone (2016) regarding our proposed alternative strategy for addressing the amphibian crisis. Andreone recognizes the utility of an Incident Command System approach but doubts the feasibility of implementation at an international level. We stated in our original article, however, that ‘the feasibility of our suggestion is debatable, but our point is...
Authors
Erin L. Muths, Robert N. Fisher
Management of plains cottonwood at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota Management of plains cottonwood at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Establishment of cottonwood trees is driven by flood-induced channel migration, which provides the new surfaces necessary for successful germination and survival. Along the Little Missouri River the largest floods typically result from snowmelt in March or April. Seed release occurs in early summer, and seedlings usually germinate in moist, open locations on point bars at relatively low...
Authors
Jonathan M. Friedman, Eleanor R. Griffin
Opinion: Why we need a centralized repository for isotopic data Opinion: Why we need a centralized repository for isotopic data
Stable isotopes encode and integrate the origin of matter; thus, their analysis offers tremendous potential to address questions across diverse scientific disciplines (1, 2). Indeed, the broad applicability of stable isotopes, coupled with advancements in high-throughput analysis, have created a scientific field that is growing exponentially, and generating data at a rate paralleling the...
Authors
Jonathan N. Pauli, Seth D. Newsome, Joseph A. Cook, Chris Harrod, Shawn A. Steffan, Christopher J. O. Baker, Merav Ben-David, David Bloom, Gabriel J. Bowen, Thure E. Cerling, Carla Cicero, Craig Cook, Michelle Dohm, Prarthana S. Dharampal, Gary Graves, Robert Gropp, Keith A. Hobson, Chris Jordan, Bruce MacFadden, Suzanne Pilaar Birch, Jorrit Poelen, Sujeevan Ratnasingham, Laura Russell, Craig A. Stricker, Mark D. Uhen, Christopher T. Yarnes, Brian Hayden
The Nitrogen Footprint Tool network: A multi-institution program to reduce nitrogen pollution The Nitrogen Footprint Tool network: A multi-institution program to reduce nitrogen pollution
Anthropogenic sources of reactive nitrogen have local and global impacts on air and water quality and detrimental effects on human and ecosystem health. This paper uses the nitrogen footprint tool (NFT) to determine the amount of nitrogen (N) released as a result of institutional consumption. The sectors accounted for include food (consumption and upstream production), energy...
Authors
Elizabeth A. Castner, Allison M. Leah, Neal Leary, Jill Baron, Jana E. Compton, James N. Galloway, Meredith G. Hastings, Jacob Kimiecik, Jonathan Lantz-Trissel, Elizabeth de la Riguera, Rebecca Ryals
Tree mortality across biomes is promoted by drought intensity, lower wood density and higher specific leaf area Tree mortality across biomes is promoted by drought intensity, lower wood density and higher specific leaf area
Drought events are increasing globally, and reports of consequent forest mortality are widespread. However, due to a lack of a quantitative global synthesis, it is still not clear whether drought-induced mortality rates differ among global biomes and whether functional traits influence the risk of drought-induced mortality. To address these uncertainties, we performed a global meta...
Authors
Sarah Greenwood, Paloma Ruiz-Benito, Jordi Martínez-Vilalta, Francisco Lloret, Thomas Kitzberger, Craig D. Allen, Rod Fensham, Daniel C. Laughlin, Jens Kattge, Gerhard Bonisch, Nathan J. B. Kraft, Alistair S. Jump
Urbanization may limit impacts of an invasive predator on native mammal diversity Urbanization may limit impacts of an invasive predator on native mammal diversity
Aim Our understanding of the effects of invasive species on faunal diversity is limited in part because invasions often occur in modified landscapes where other drivers of community diversity can exacerbate or reduce the net impacts of an invader. Furthermore, rigorous assessments of the effects of invasive species on native communities that account for variation in sampling, species...
Authors
Brian E. Reichert, Adia R. Sovie, Brad J. Udell, Kristen M. Hart, Rena R. Borkhataria, Mathieu Bonneau, Robert Reed, Robert A. McCleery