Publications
USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center staff publish results of their research in USGS series reports and in peer-reviewed journals. Publication links are below. Information on all USGS publications can be found at the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Filter Total Items: 1923
Developing a photography-based harvest survey to estimate age and subspecies composition of midcontinent sandhill cranes Developing a photography-based harvest survey to estimate age and subspecies composition of midcontinent sandhill cranes
Midcontinent sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis) are managed as a single population, but hunting regulations are structured so harvest is targeted towards the more numerous lesser sandhill cranes (A. c. canadensis). However, research indicates that greater sandhill cranes (A. c. tabida) have been disproportionally exposed to harvest at a rate exceeding their proportion within the...
Authors
Andrew Dinges, Jay VonBank, Aaron Pearse, David Brandt
A global assessment of environmental and climate influences on wetland macroinvertebrate community structure and function A global assessment of environmental and climate influences on wetland macroinvertebrate community structure and function
Estimating organisms' responses to environmental variables and taxon associations across broad spatial scales is vital for predicting their responses to climate change. Macroinvertebrates play a major role in wetland processes, but studies simultaneously exploring both community structure and community trait responses to environmental gradients are still lacking. We compiled a global...
Authors
Luis B. Epele, Emilio Williams-Subiza, Matthew Bird, Aurelie Boissezon, Dani Boix, Elaine Demierre, Conor Fair, Patricia Garcia, Stephanie Gascon, Marta Grech, Hamish S. Greig, Michael Jeffries, Jamie Kneitel, Olga Loskutova, Leonardo Maltchik, Luz Manzo, Gabriela Mataloni, Kyle McLean, Musa Mlambo, Beat Oertli, Mateus Pires, Jordi Sala, Erica Scheibler, Cristina Stenert, Haitao Wu, Scott A Wissinger, Darold P. Batzer
Seasonal and breeding phenologies of 38 grassland bird species in the midcontinent of North America Seasonal and breeding phenologies of 38 grassland bird species in the midcontinent of North America
Grasslands in the midcontinent of North America are highly imperiled, and grassland birds have suffered the largest bird declines of any terrestrial biome in North America in the last 50 years. Consequently, the conservation and management of grasslands, as well as their associated avian communities, are major priorities for the State, Provincial, and Federal agencies; non-governmental...
Authors
Garrett MacDonald, Michael Anteau, Kristen Ellis, Lawrence D. Igl, Neal Niemuth, Josh Vest
Recent increases in annual, seasonal, and extreme methane fluxes driven by changes in climate and vegetation in boreal and temperate wetland ecosystems Recent increases in annual, seasonal, and extreme methane fluxes driven by changes in climate and vegetation in boreal and temperate wetland ecosystems
Climate warming is expected to increase global methane (CH4) emissions from wetland ecosystems. Although in situ eddy covariance (EC) measurements at ecosystem scales can potentially detect CH4 flux changes, most EC systems have only a few years of data collected, so temporal trends in CH4 remain uncertain. Here, we use established drivers to hindcast changes in CH4 fluxes (FCH4) since...
Authors
Sarah Feron, Avni Malhotra, Sheel Bansal, Etienne Fluet-Chouinard, Gavin McNicol, Sarah Knox, Kyle Delwiche, Raul Cordero, Zutao Ouyang, Zhen Zhang, Benjamin Poulter, Robert B. Jackson
Estimating occupancy of focal bee species Estimating occupancy of focal bee species
Current bee monitoring efforts have a limited capacity for understanding factors affecting wild bee population changes, including the effects of management. To improve the effectiveness of wild bee monitoring, we first discuss principles of biological monitoring and provide a framework to design monitoring projects to estimate species occupancy, where occupancy is defined as the...
Authors
Clint Otto, Larissa L. Bailey, Brianne Du Clos, Tamara Smith, Elaine Evans, Ian Pearse, Saff Killingsworth, Sarina Jepsen, Hollis Woodard
The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
The key to Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) management is providing open grasslands with scattered trees and shrubs for foraging, nesting, and perching. Loggerhead Shrikes have been reported to use habitats with 20–266 centimeters (cm) vegetation height, greater than or equal to (≥) 10 percent grass cover, 3–48 percent forb cover, 2–25 percent shrub cover, 3–40 percent bare ground...
Authors
Lawrence Igl, Jill A. Shaffer, Douglas H. Johnson, Marriah Sondreal, Christopher Goldade, Melvin Nenneman, Amy Zimmerman, Jason Thiele, Betty Euliss
The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus)
Keys to Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) management are providing large areas of suitable habitat (for example, native or tame grasslands of moderate vegetative height and density, low shrub density, and moderate litter and forb cover), and protecting nesting habitat from disturbance during the breeding season. Bobolinks have been reported to use habitats with 10–166 centimeters (cm)...
Authors
Jill A. Shaffer, Lawrence D. Igl, Douglas H. Johnson, Marriah Sondreal, Christopher Goldade, Amy Zimmerman, Travis Wooten, Betty Euliss
Assessing the use of long-term lek survey data to evaluate the effect of landscape characteristics and wind facilities on sharp-tailed grouse lek dynamics in North Dakota and South Dakota Assessing the use of long-term lek survey data to evaluate the effect of landscape characteristics and wind facilities on sharp-tailed grouse lek dynamics in North Dakota and South Dakota
The contribution of renewable energy to meet worldwide demand continues to grow. In the United States, wind energy is one of the fastest growing renewable energy sectors. Throughout the Great Plains of the United States, wind facilities often are placed in open landscapes of high-elevation grasslands, and those same habitats support sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus), a...
Authors
Jill A. Shaffer, Deborah Buhl, Wesley Newton
Practical guide to measuring wetland carbon pools and fluxes Practical guide to measuring wetland carbon pools and fluxes
Wetlands cover a small portion of the world, but have disproportionate influence on global carbon (C) sequestration, carbon dioxide and methane emissions, and aquatic C fluxes. However, the underlying biogeochemical processes that affect wetland C pools and fluxes are complex and dynamic, making measurements of wetland C challenging. Over decades of research, many observational...
Authors
Sheel Bansal, Irena F. Creed, Brian Tangen, Scott Bridgham, Ankur Desai, Ken Krauss, Scott Neubauer, Gregory Noe, Donald Rosenberry, Carl Trettin, Kimberly Wickland, Scott Allen, Ariane Arias-Ortiz, Anna Armitage, Dennis Baldocchi, Kakoli Banerjee, David Bastviken, Peter Berg, Matthew Bogard, Alex Chow, William Conner, Christopher Craft, Courtney Creamer, Tonya Delsontro, Jamie Duberstein, Meagan Eagle, M. Fennessey, Sarah Finkelstein, Mathias Goeckede, Sabine Grunwald, Meghan Halibisky, Ellen Herbert, Mohammad Jahangir, Olivia Johnson, Miriam Jones, Jeffrey Kelleway, Sarah Knox, Kevin Kroeger, Kevin Kuehn, David Lobb, Amanda Loder, Shizhou Ma, Damien Maher, Gavin McNicol, Jacob Meier, Beth Middleton, Christopher Mills, Purbasha Mistry, Abhijith Mitra, Courtney Mobilian, Amanda Nahlik, Sue Newman, Jessica O’Connell, Patty Oikawa, Max Post van der Burg, Charles Schutte, Chanchung Song, Camille Stagg, Jessica Turner, Rodrigo Vargas, Mark Waldrop, Markus Wallin, Zhaohui Wang, Eric Ward, Debra A. Willard, Stephanie Yarwood, Xiaoyan Zhu
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Ecosystems Land Change Science Program, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center , Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
Fire regime shapes butterfly communities through changes in nectar resources in an Australian tropical savanna Fire regime shapes butterfly communities through changes in nectar resources in an Australian tropical savanna
Fire-dependent savanna provides key habitat for butterflies globally, but we know little about how fire regimes, including fire frequency and season, affect them. These impacts are likely to be primarily indirect, through changes in overall habitat structure, the abundance of larval host plants, and/or the provision of nectar resources for adults. We examined the relationships among fire...
Authors
Julia Leone, Diane L. Larson, Anna Richards, Jon Schatz, Alan Andersen
Movement dynamics influence population monitoring and adaptive harvest management strategies in migratory birds Movement dynamics influence population monitoring and adaptive harvest management strategies in migratory birds
Informed population monitoring efforts are essential for sound management of harvested species, and adaptive strategies that provide detailed information to monitoring efforts often require data inputs from complimentary sources. Movement ecology information is seldom directly incorporated into population monitoring or adaptive harvest management strategies, yet can provide valuable...
Authors
Jay VonBank, Daniel Collins, Kristen Ellis, J. Donnelly, Jeffrey Knetter
Lipid metabolites index habitat quality for Canvasbacks on stopover areas during spring migration Lipid metabolites index habitat quality for Canvasbacks on stopover areas during spring migration
Nutrients acquired by ducks on spring migratory stopover areas influence survival and subsequent reproduction. Accordingly, wetland loss and degradation on stopover areas can lead to reduced refueling efficiency and have demographic consequences. Lipid metabolite concentrations in blood provide a useful index of daily mass change in wild birds and can be used to make inferences about...
Authors
Andrew Bouton, Michael Anteau, Eric Smith, Heath Hagy, Joseph Lancasster, Christopher Jacques