Climate and Land Use

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...

The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) covers parts of five states and three Canadian provinces. The region contains millions of wetlands that annually produce 50-80% of the continent’s duck population. Previous modeling efforts indicated that climate change would result in a shift of waterfowl habitat from the central PPR to the southeast PPR where the majority of wetlands have been drained. However...

An increased understanding of prairie-pothole-wetland macroinvertebrate dynamics is crucial to better inform conservation strategies related to waterfowl production, biodiversity enhancement, and wetland function/health maintenance. Wetlands in general are highly variable in space and time, and wetland macroinvertebrates are adapted to this great variability. Wetland ecosystems are also influenced...

Wetlands significantly contributes to regional, national and global carbon budgets. Because prairie-pothole wetlands have 1) highly productive vegetation and 2) low rates of carbon decomposition, they are ideal systems for accumulating and storing carbon in the soil. However, because prairie-pothole wetlands are located in areas of intense agricultural activity, this important pool of stored...

Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge is situated within a riverine system where refuge wetlands receive sediment-laden inflows that have been associated with diminished plant communities and water quality conditions. Accordingly, improved habitat- and water-quality conditions have been recognized as overall management goals, and the collection of baseline biotic and abiotic data has been identified...

NPWRC is developing, applying, and refining an integrated, process-based, systems model for prairie-pothole wetlands to facilitate forecasts of how climate and land-use change will affect wetland processes and biota. The Pothole Hydrology Linked System Simulator model (PHyLiSS) simulates changes in hydrology, water chemistry, plant communities, invertebrates, and other biota as a result of altered...

NPWRC is leading a partnership with North Dakota State University to examine ecological, social, and financial considerations of farming practices within temporarily-ponded wetlands. There has been a long history of cropping prairie pothole wetlands which are embedded within farm fields. Often wet conditions during spring or summer prevent farmers from getting a harvestable yield from these areas...

The Prairie Pothole Region of the northern Great Plains annually hosts 50–80% of North America’s ducks during the breeding season. Accordingly, there are significant government and private funds that go to conservation for the purposes of improving duck production in the region. The Prairie Pothole Region ecosystem has a number of stressors, intensive agriculture being chief among them. The...

Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) recently completed a project aimed at understanding the impacts of wetland drainage on wetlands that receive drainage water. The biological communities of prairie pothole wetlands evolved in a hydrologically dynamic system due to periodic wet and dry conditions. NPWRC research indicates that relative to wetlands in undrained landscapes, wetlands...

Wind-energy development in the northern Great Plains primarily occurs along the Missouri Coteau and Missouri River Plateau in North Dakota and South Dakota. While these areas rank high in wind-energy potential they also contain important breeding habitat for sharp-tailed grouse and greater prairie-chickens. The impact of these wind-energy developments on prairie grouse populations and trends in...

This effort is aimed at understanding how productivity of larger and more permanent wetlands is influenced by a combination of inter-annual hydrological dynamics and land-use impacts. Historically, aquatic-invertebrates productivity and abundance was driven by inter-annual hydrological dynamics because drying periods allow for nutrient cycling and a subsequent pulse of productivity when wet...

Resource managers are tasked with managing complex systems with inherent uncertainty around how those systems might change with time and respond to management actions in a changing climate. Scenario planning—often implemented as a qualitative, participatory exercise for exploring multiple possible futures—is a valuable tool for addressing uncertainty. At the same time, quantitative information on...