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Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center

Our Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center's priority is to continue the important work of the Department of the Interior and the USGS, while also maintaining the health and safety of our employees and community.  Based on guidance from the White House, the CDC, and state and local authorities, we are shifting our operations to a virtual mode and have minimal staffing

News

Understanding and Managing Drought-Induced Ecological Transformations

Understanding and Managing Drought-Induced Ecological Transformations

A new strategy to help unleash USGS eDNA capabilities

A new strategy to help unleash USGS eDNA capabilities

USGS Scientist Discusses Using DNA to Assist with Aquatic Invasive Species Management in BioScience Podcast

USGS Scientist Discusses Using DNA to Assist with Aquatic Invasive Species Management in BioScience Podcast

Publications

Cryospheric sciences at the U.S. Geological Survey

IntroductionThe cryosphere is the collective parts of the Earth where water is in its frozen state and includes snow, glaciers, ice sheets, ice shelves, freshwater ice, sea ice, and permafrost. The cryosphere is a climate indicator and climate regulator. Surface cryosphere features, such as glaciers, snow, and sea ice, store freshwater and make the surface of the Earth bright white, which affects
Authors
Caitlyn Florentine, Erich Peitzsch, Miriam C. Jones, Theodore B. Barnhart, Thomas M. Cronin

Assessing predictions from optimal egg theory for an ectotherm relative to habitat duration

Optimal egg size theory predicts females must balance investment per offspring to maximize fitness based on environmental quality. In wetlands, environmental quality can be duration of water and predator presence. Ectotherms using habitats that dry or contain predators are likely under selection to optimize offspring production. We measured reproductive output of wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) in 30
Authors
Jon M. Davenport, Andrew Feltmann, LeeAnn Fishback, Blake R. Hossack

GNSS reflectometry from low-cost sensors for continuous in situ contemporaneous glacier mass balance and flux divergence

Recent advances in remote sensing have produced global glacier surface elevation change data. Parsing these elevation change signals into contributions from the climate (i.e. climatic mass balance) and glacier dynamics (i.e. flux divergence) is critical to enhance our process-based understanding of glacier change. In this study, we evaluate three approaches for direct, continuous measurements of t
Authors
Albin Wells, David R. Rounce, Louis C. Sass, Caitlyn Florentine, Adam Garbo, Emily Baker, Christopher J. McNeil

Science

Bighorn Sheep and Mountain Goat Research in Western National Park Units

Mountain goat and bighorn sheep are iconic symbols of many national lands in the West. Both species have limited distributions that can be difficult to observe and face multiple stressors including disease, increasing recreation in remote areas, and shifting weather regimes that influence their forage and thermoregulation. As species with relatively small population sizes, understanding...
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Bighorn Sheep and Mountain Goat Research in Western National Park Units

Mountain goat and bighorn sheep are iconic symbols of many national lands in the West. Both species have limited distributions that can be difficult to observe and face multiple stressors including disease, increasing recreation in remote areas, and shifting weather regimes that influence their forage and thermoregulation. As species with relatively small population sizes, understanding...
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North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat)

North American bats face unprecedented threats including habitat loss and fragmentation, white-nose syndrome, wind energy development, and climate change. However, it is difficult to evaluate the impacts of these threats due to a lack of basic information about the distribution and abundance of bats across the continent. Although bat monitoring has long been conducted in individual areas and for...
link

North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat)

North American bats face unprecedented threats including habitat loss and fragmentation, white-nose syndrome, wind energy development, and climate change. However, it is difficult to evaluate the impacts of these threats due to a lack of basic information about the distribution and abundance of bats across the continent. Although bat monitoring has long been conducted in individual areas and for...
Learn More

Using Pollinator Environmental DNA to Assess the Ecological Resilience of America’s Grasslands

Scientists from six USGS science centers are collaborating with USDA, university, and Tribal partners, and Department of the Interior land managers, to assess the status of pollinator communities and the distribution of species of conservation concern using environmental DNA. These methods will be used to improve assessments of habitat quality and pollinator responses to restoration, including...
link

Using Pollinator Environmental DNA to Assess the Ecological Resilience of America’s Grasslands

Scientists from six USGS science centers are collaborating with USDA, university, and Tribal partners, and Department of the Interior land managers, to assess the status of pollinator communities and the distribution of species of conservation concern using environmental DNA. These methods will be used to improve assessments of habitat quality and pollinator responses to restoration, including...
Learn More
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