Tools and Techniques

Family relationships and mating systems can be investigated and defined using genetic data. This information is potentially important for conservation and management as it may influence effective population size and levels of genetic diversity.

Population models can incorporate genetic data to assess potential impacts of different management strategies on connectivity, effective population size, and genetic diversity.

Mathematical and statistical methods used to analyze biological data are powerful research tools that play several important roles in conceptualizing and understanding the structure and dynamics of ecological systems. Through the development of specialized and sophisticated quantitative tools and models, the complex nature of data arising from studies of ecological systems can be understood.

Unexplained heterogeneity in statistical models of animal responses to their physical environment is reasonable to expect because the measured habitat resources are a constraint on—but not the sole determinant of—abundance, survival, fecundity, or fitness. The ecological understanding and reliability of management predictions based on animal habitat models can be improved by shifting focus from...

Understanding species habitat requirements is incomplete without insight into nutrition, including various aspects of foraging ecology. Traditional diet studies can be challenging because of logistics, issues related to resource availability, and observations are often short-term in nature based on gut contents or scat. Additionally, perturbations such as species introductions, habitat degradation...

Greater and Gunnison sage-grouse populations are species considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Loss and fragmentation of sagebrush habitats are among the primary causes of decline in these species. A fundamental need for species conservation is to identify and subsequently maintain a set of connected populations. Landscape genetics combines the fields of population...

Mathematical and statistical models are powerful research tools that play several important roles in conceptualizing and understanding the structure and dynamics of complicated ecological systems, including developing mechanistic hypotheses pertaining to ecological systems, designing studies that elucidate ecosystem structure and function, and extracting information from data.

Branch scientists have developed the Resource for Advanced Modeling (RAM), a modeling facility for collaborative research both within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and with the wider research community. The facility provides a collaborative working environment for up to 20 scientists from within the USGS and the wider research community. There are networked, wireless computing facilities with...

A large number of bat species are considered “species of concern” in the United States and its Territories, and resource managers are increasingly interested in learning more about their distribution, status, and potential management.

Forecasts of where species might be and what impacts they may have are necessary for management of invasive species. Researchers at FORT are using various approaches to provided needed information to resource managers to combat invasive plants, animals, and disease organisms.

Information Science staff help the Climate Adaptation Science Centers with a variety of project and data management activities, including storing, managing, and distributing datasets; building and maintaining metadata; discovering datasets; and delivering their data and metadata as web services through various tools. These tools allow researchers to track projects, and the data that results from...

Increased wildfire-induced loss of sagebrush in North American shrublands are outpacing natural recovery and leading to substantial habitat loss for sagebrush-obligate species like sage-grouse. The products and information developed for this project will help restoration practitioners, biologists, and land managers evaluate the efficacy of sagebrush restoration approaches as well as their ability...