Ecosystem Change and Disturbance

USGS and Colorado State University scientists are modelling multispecies connectivity through intact and disturbed areas of the sagebrush landscape.

USGS and Colorado State University scientists will use data about sage-grouse and mule deer population data across Wyoming to evaluate the effectiveness of disturbance thresholds and investigate the efficacy of other disturbance metrics.

Little is known about the role of fire in the sagebrush ecosystem within the range of the Gunnison sage-grouse ( Centrocercus minimus), and fire has been mostly absent from these systems in the 20th century, partially owing to active fire suppression.

USGS scientists are using a time-varying approach to monitor and predict recovery of sagebrush ecosystems following disturbance.

USGS led an interagency team of Federal and State agency biologists to develop a report that synthesizes greater sage-grouse scientific literature.

The USGS is developing science and decision support tools to inform policy and management decisions about various aspects of the energy development life cycle.

Beginning in 2012, the USGS collaborated with the USDA to assess the effectiveness of pollinator plantings and how alteration of landscapes has affected native pollinators and potentially contributed to their decline. The 2008 Farm Bill recognized contributions made by pollinators and made conservation of pollinator habitat a priority. The USGS is assessing native bee habitat, diversity, and...

States across the U.S. have developed Wildlife Action Plans, with the purpose of preventing future listings under the federal Endangered Species Act. Habitat loss and fragmentation are key threats to wildlife in the U.S., and housing development is a major driver of both. USGS is working to quantify the vulnerability of and threat to priority areas in State Wildlife Action Plans from future...

There is a well-known bias in the location of protected areas both within the US and globally. Lands protected for conservation tend to be located on less productive soils at high elevations far from cities. USGS is exploring whether this ‘high and far’ paradigm applies within protected areas as well. That is, does human modification within lands that already have some degree of protection, also...

Many issues currently facing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other large land managers span large landscapes, including sage-grouse conservation, wildfires, and energy development. Such challenges involve changes at both local and broad scales, but monitoring has typically focused at the scale of individual sites. The USGS is working to develop broad-scale indicators for monitoring...

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is committed to implementing a landscape approach to resource management to help achieve sustainable social, environmental, and economic outcomes on the public lands it manages. USGS is providing science support for the effort, including identifying core principles of a landscape approach, demonstrating the benefits of multiscale data for evaluating potential...

Riparian ecologists at the Fort Collins Science Center study interactions among flow, channel change, and vegetation along rivers across the western United States and worldwide. Our work focuses on issues relevant to the management of water and public lands, including dam operation, invasive species, and ecological restoration. Investigations take place on a range of scales. For example...