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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 twojtowicz@usgs.gov.

Filter Total Items: 1197

Modeling the biophysical impacts of global change in mountain biosphere reserves

Mountains and mountain societies provide a wide range of goods and services to humanity, but they are particularly sensitive to the effects of global environmental change. Thus, the definition of appropriate management regimes that maintain the multiple functions of mountain regions in a time of greatly changing climatic, economic, and societal drivers constitutes a significant challenge. Manageme
Authors
H.K.M. Bugmann, F. Ewert Bjornsen, W. Haeberli, Antoine Guisan, Daniel B. Fagre, A. Kaab

LoCoH: Non-parameteric kernel methods for constructing home ranges and utilization distributions

Parametric kernel methods currently dominate the literature regarding the construction of animal home ranges (HRs) and utilization distributions (UDs). These methods frequently fail to capture the kinds of hard boundaries common to many natural systems. Recently a local convex hull (LoCoH) nonparametric kernel method, which generalizes the minimum convex polygon (MCP) method, was shown to be more
Authors
Wayne M. Getz, Scott Fortmann-Roe, Paul C. Cross, Andrew J. Lyons, Sadie J. Ryan, Christopher C. Wilmers

CCE Fire regimes and their management

No abstract available.
Authors
R.E. Keane, C.H. Key

Second chance for the plains bison

Before European settlement the plains bison (Bison bison bison) numbered in the tens of millions across most of the temperate region of North America. Within the span of a few decades during the mid- to late-1800s its numbers were reduced by hunting and other factors to a few hundred. The plight of the plains bison led to one of the first major movements in North America to save an endangered spec
Authors
Curtis H. Freese, K. Aune, D. Boyd, James N. Derr, Steven C. Forrest, C. Cormack Gates, Peter J. Gogan, Shaun M. Grassel, Natalie D. Halbert, Kyran Kunkel, Kent Redford

A simple solar radiation index for wildlife habitat studies

Solar radiation is a potentially important covariate in many wildlife habitat studies, but it is typically addressed only indirectly, using problematic surrogates like aspect or hillshade. We devised a simple solar radiation index (SRI) that combines readily available information about aspect, slope, and latitude. Our SRI is proportional to the amount of extraterrestrial solar radiation theoretica
Authors
Kim A. Keating, Peter J. Gogan, John N. Vore, Lynn R. Irby

The art and science of weed mapping

Land managers need cost-effective and informative tools for non-native plant species management. Many local, state, and federal agencies adopted mapping systems designed to collect comparable data for the early detection and monitoring of non-native species. We compared mapping information to statistically rigorous, plot-based methods to better understand the benefits and compatibility of the two
Authors
David T. Barnett, Thomas J. Stohlgren, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Geneva W. Chong, Jenny A. Ericson, Tracy R. Davern, Sara E. Simonson

Economic Growth and Landscape Change

Prato and Fagre offer the first systematic, multi-disciplinary assessment of the challenges involved in managing the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem (CCE), an area of the Rocky Mountains that includes northwestern Montana, southwestern Alberta, and southeastern British Columbia. The spectacular landscapes, extensive recreational options, and broad employment opportunities of the CCE have made it
Authors
Tony Prato, Dan Fagre

Alpine treeline of western North America: Linking organism-to-landscape dynamics

Although the ecological dynamics of the alpine treeline ecotone are influenced by climate, it is an imperfect indicator of climate change. Mechanistic processes that shape the ecotone—seed rain, seed germination, seedling establishment and subsequent tree growth form, or, conversely tree dieback—depend on microsite patterns. Growth forms affect wind and snow, and so develop positive and negative f
Authors
George P. Malanson, David R. Butler, Daniel B. Fagre, Stephen J Walsh, Diana F. Tomback, Lori D. Daniels, Lynn M. Resler, William K. Smith, Daniel J. Weiss, David L. Peterson, Andrew G. Bunn, Christopher A. Hiemstra, Daniel Liptzin, Patrick S. Bourgeron, Zehao Shen, Constance I. Millar

Evaluating estimators for numbers of females with cubs-of-the-year in the Yellowstone grizzly bear population

Current management of the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) population in Yellowstone National Park and surrounding areas requires annual estimation of the number of adult female bears with cubs-of-the-year. We examined the performance of nine estimators of population size via simulation. Data were simulated using two methods for different combinations of population size, sample size, and coefficient of
Authors
S. Cherry, G.C. White, K.A. Keating, Mark A. Haroldson, Charles C. Schwartz

Identifying sites for elk restoration in Arkansas

We used spatial data to identify potential areas for elk (Cervus elaphus) restoration in Arkansas. To assess habitat, we used locations of 239 elk groups collected from helicopter surveys in the Buffalo National River area of northwestern Arkansas, USA, from 1992 to 2002. We calculated the Mahalanobis distance (D2) statistic based on the relationship between those elk-group locations and a suite o
Authors
R.L. Telesco, F.T. Van Manen, J. D. Clark, Michael E. Cartwright

Spatial population structure of Yellowstone bison

Increases in Yellowstone National Park, USA, bison (Bison bison) numbers and shifts in seasonal distribution have resulted in more frequent movements of bison beyond park boundaries and development of an interagency management plan for the Yellowstone bison population. Implementation of the plan under the adaptive management paradigm requires an understanding of the spatial and temporal structure
Authors
Edward M. Olexa, Peter J. Gogan