Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK)
Publications
Below is a list of available NOROCK peer reviewed and published science. If you are in search of a specific publication and cannot find it below or through a search, please contact ssoileau@usgs.gov.
Increased drought severity tracks warming in the United States’ largest river basin
Across the Upper Missouri River Basin, the recent drought of 2000 to 2010, known as the “turn-of-the-century drought,” was likely more severe than any in the instrumental record including the Dust Bowl drought. However, until now, adequate proxy records needed to better understand this event with regard to long-term variability have been lacking....
Martin, Justin; Pederson, Gregory T.; Woodhouse, Connie A.; Cook, Edward R.; McCabe, Gregory J.; Anchukaitis, Kevin J.; Wise, Erika K.; Erger, Patrick; Dolan, Larry S.; McGuire, Marketa; Gangopadhyay, Subhrendu; Chase, Katherine J.; Littell, Jeremy S.; Gray, Stephen; St. George, Scott; Friedman, Jonathan M.; Sauchyn, David J.; St. Jacques, Jeannine-Marie; King, John C. Parsing complex terrain controls on mountain glacier response to climate forcing
Glaciers are a key indicator of changing climate in the high mountain landscape. Glacier variations across a mountain range are ultimately driven by regional climate forcing. However, changes also reflect local, topographically driven processes such as snow avalanching, snow wind-drifting, and radiation shading as well as the initial glacier...
Florentine, Caitlyn Elizabeth; Harper, Joel T.; Fagre, Daniel B. Dynamics, variability, and change in seasonal precipitation reconstructions for North America
Cool and warm season precipitation totals have been reconstructed on a gridded basis for North America using 439 tree-ring chronologies correlated with December-April totals and 547 different chronologies correlated with May-July totals. These discrete seasonal predictor chronologies are not significantly correlated with the alternate season and...
Stahle, David W.; Cook, Edward R; Burnette, Dorian J; Torbenson, Max C.A.; Howard, Ian M; Griffin, Daniel; Villanueva Diaz, Jose; Cook, Benjamin I.; Williams, Park A.; Watson, Emma; Sauchyn, David J.; Pederson, Neil; Woodhouse, Connie A.; Pederson, Gregory T.; Meko, David M.; Coulthard, Bethany; Crawford, Christopher J. Amphibian chytrid prevalence on boreal toads in SE Alaska and NW British Columbia: Tests of habitat, life stages, and temporal trends
Tracking and understanding variation in pathogens such as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis ([Bd]), which causes amphibian chytridiomycosis and has caused population declines globally, is a priority for many land managers. However, there has been relatively little sampling of amphibian communities at high latitudes. We used skin swabs collected...
Hossack, Blake R.; Adams, Michael J.; Honeycutt, R Ken; Belt, Jami J; Pyare, S A round-robin evaluation of the repeatability and reproducibility of environmental DNA assays for dreissenid mussels
Resource managers may be hesitant to make decisions based on environmental (e)DNA results alone since eDNA is an indirect method of species detection. One way to reduce the uncertainty of eDNA is to identify laboratory‐based protocols that ensure repeatable and reproducible results. We conducted a double‐blind round‐robin analysis of probe‐based...
Sepulveda, Adam J.; Hutchins, Patrick R.; Jackson, Craig; Ostberg, Carl; Laramie, Matthew; Amberg, Jon J.; Counihan, Timothy; Hoegh, Andrew B.; Pilliod, David Parsing the effects of demography, climate, and management on recurrent brucellosis outbreaks in elk
1. Zoonotic pathogens can harm human health and well-being directly or by impacting livestock. Pathogens that spillover from wildlife can also impair conservation efforts if humans perceive wildlife as pests. Brucellosis, caused by the bacterium Brucella abortus, circulates in elk and bison herds of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and poses a...
Cotterill, Gavin G.; Cross, Paul; Merkle, J. A.; Rogerson, JD; Scurlock, BM; Du Toit, Johan T. Survival and conflict behavior of American black bears after rehabilitation
Wildlife agencies face difficult situations when orphaned or injured American black bear (Ursus americanus ) cubs (<12 months old) or yearlings (≥12 and <24 months old) are captured. One option is bear rehabilitation, the care and feeding of cubs or yearlings in a semi‐natural environment, followed by release. Unfortunately, the...
Blair, Coy D; Muller, Lisa I; Clark, Joseph D.; Stiver, William H Global status of trout and char: Conservation challenges in the twenty-first century
Freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened ecosystems in the world (Richter et al. 1997; Strayer and Dudgeon 2010), and freshwater fishes may now be the most threatened group of vertebrates (Ricciardi and Rasmussen 1999; Vorosmarty et al. 2010; Darwall and Freyhof 2016). Of the 7,300 freshwater fish species globally assessed by the...
Muhlfeld, Clint C.; Dauwalter, Daniel C.; D'Angelo, Vincent S.; Ferguson, Andrew; Giersch, J. Joseph; Impson, Dean; Koizumi, Itsuro; Kovach, Ryan; McGinnity, Philip; Schoeffmann, Johannes; Epifanio, John; Vøllestad, Leif Asbjørn Applying spatially explicit capture–recapture models to estimate black bear density in South Carolina
Population density is an important component of wildlife management decisions, but can be difficult to estimate directly for an itinerant, wide‐ranging species such as the American black bear (Ursus americanus ). In South Carolina, USA, where there has been growth in black bear populations and bear–human‐conflict reports during the past...
Azad, Shefali; McFadden, Katherine; Clark, Joseph D.; Wactor, Tammy; Jachowski, David S. Species-specific responses to wetland mitigation among amphibians in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Habitat loss and degradation are leading causes of biodiversity declines, therefore assessing the capacity of created mitigation wetlands to replace habitat for wildlife has become a management priority. We used single season occupancy models to compare the occurrence of larvae of four species of pond‐breeding amphibians in wetlands created for...
Swartz, LK; Lowe, WH; Muths, Erin L.; Hossack, Blake R. Connectivity in the Crown: Highway 2 wildlife crossings
This report summarizes data collected to inform decisions on how to best mitigate the effects on wildlife migration from increasing traffic, development, and recreation along US highway 2. The highway, railway, and river split the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem. This data addresses SO 3362 by providing information on major wildlife trails,...
Waller, John S.; Graves, Tabitha; Anderson, Brad; Kittson, Brandon; Gaulke, Sarah Mccrimmon Contrasting demographic responses of toad populations to regionally synchronous pathogen (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) dynamics
We used long-term capture-recapture data from 3 boreal toad populations in western Montana to estimate how apparent survival is affected by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a fungal pathogen that causes disease and has been implicated in amphibian population declines globally. Despite similar levels of Bd prevalence and synchronous pathogen...
Hossack, Blake R.; Russell, Robin E.; Mccaffery, Rebecca