Publications
This is a list of publications written by Patuxent employees since Patuxent opened in 1939. To search for Patuxent's publications by author or title, please click below to go to the USGS Publication Warehouse.
Filter Total Items: 8128
Planning for ex situ conservation in the face of uncertainty Planning for ex situ conservation in the face of uncertainty
Ex situ conservation strategies for threatened species often require long-term commitment and financial investment to achieve management objectives. We present a framework that considers the decision to adopt ex situ management for a target species as the end point of several linked decisions. We used a decision tree to intuitively represent the logical sequence of decision making. The...
Authors
Stefano Canessa, Sarah J. Converse, Matt West, Nick Clemann, Graeme Gillespie, Michael McFadden, Aimee J. Silla, Kirsten M Parris, Michael A McCarthy
Paying the pipers: Mitigating the impact of anticoagulant rodenticides on predators and scavengers Paying the pipers: Mitigating the impact of anticoagulant rodenticides on predators and scavengers
Anticoagulant rodenticides, mainly second-generation forms, or SGARs, dominate the global market for rodent control. Introduced in the 1970s to counter genetic resistance in rodent populations to first-generation compounds such as warfarin, SGARs are extremely toxic and highly effective killers. However, their tendency to persist and accumulate in the body has led to the widespread...
Authors
John E. Elliott, Barnett A. Rattner, Richard F. Shore, Nico W. van den Brink
Quantitative evidence for the effects of multiple drivers on continental-scale amphibian declines Quantitative evidence for the effects of multiple drivers on continental-scale amphibian declines
Since amphibian declines were first proposed as a global phenomenon over a quarter century ago, the conservation community has made little progress in halting or reversing these trends. The early search for a “smoking gun” was replaced with the expectation that declines are caused by multiple drivers. While field observations and experiments have identified factors leading to increased...
Authors
Evan H. Campbell Grant, David A. W. Miller, Benedikt R. Schmidt, M. J. Adams, Staci M. Amburgey, Thierry A. Chambert, Sam S. Cruickshank, Robert N. Fisher, David M. Green, Blake R. Hossack, Pieter T.J. Johnson, Maxwell B. Joseph, Tracy A. G. Rittenhouse, Maureen E. Ryan, J. Hardin Waddle, Susan C. Walls, Larissa L. Bailey, Gary M. Fellers, Thomas A. Gorman, Andrew M. Ray, David S. Pilliod, Steven J. Price, Daniel Saenz, Walt Sadinski, Erin L. Muths
Population trends for North American winter birds based on hierarchical models Population trends for North American winter birds based on hierarchical models
Managing widespread and persistent threats to birds requires knowledge of population dynamics at large spatial and temporal scales. For over 100 yrs, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) has enlisted volunteers in bird monitoring efforts that span the Americas, especially southern Canada and the United States. We employed a Bayesian hierarchical model to control for variation in survey...
Authors
Candan U. Soykan, John R. Sauer, Justin G. Schuetz, Geoffrey S. LeBaron, Kathy Dale, Gary M. Langham
Female gonadal hormones and reproductive behaviors as key determinants of successful reproductive output of breeding whooping cranes (Grus americana) Female gonadal hormones and reproductive behaviors as key determinants of successful reproductive output of breeding whooping cranes (Grus americana)
Reproductive success of endangered whooping cranes (Grus americana) maintained ex situ is poor. As part of an effort to identify potential causes of poor reproductive success in a captive colony, we used non-invasive endocrine monitoring to assess gonadal and adrenal steroids of bird pairs with various reproductive outcomes and evaluated the relationships of hormones and behaviors to...
Authors
Megan E. Brown, Sarah J. Converse, Jane N. Chandler, Charles Shafer, Janine L Brown, Carol L Keefer, Nucharin Songsasen
Identification and distribution of the Olympic Shrew (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae), Sorex rohweri Rausch et al., 2007 in Oregon and Washington, based on USNM specimens Identification and distribution of the Olympic Shrew (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae), Sorex rohweri Rausch et al., 2007 in Oregon and Washington, based on USNM specimens
Review of specimens of long-tailed shrews (Mammalia, Soricidae, Sorex) from the northwestern United States in the National Museum of Natural History (USNM), Washington, DC, has revealed the presence of the Olympic Shrew, Sorex rohweri Rausch et al., 2007, in the Coastal Range west of the Willamette Valley in Oregon. This determination nearly doubles the documented distribution for this...
Authors
Neal Woodman, Robert D. Fisher
Tree island pattern formation in the Florida Everglades Tree island pattern formation in the Florida Everglades
The Florida Everglades freshwater landscape exhibits a distribution of islands covered by woody vegetation and bordered by marshes and wet prairies. Known as “tree islands”, these ecogeomorphic features can be found in few other low gradient, nutrient limited freshwater wetlands. In the last few decades, however, a large percentage of tree islands have either shrank or disappeared in...
Authors
Joel A. Carr, P. D’Odorico, Victor C. Engel, Jed Redwine
Pranked by Audubon: Constantine S. Rafinesque's description of John James Audubon's imaginary Kentucky mammals Pranked by Audubon: Constantine S. Rafinesque's description of John James Audubon's imaginary Kentucky mammals
The North American naturalist Constantine S. Rafinesque spent much of the year 1818 engaged in a solo journey down the Ohio River Valley to explore parts of what was then the western United States. Along the way, he visited a number of fellow naturalists, and he spent more than a week at the Henderson, Kentucky, home of artist and ornithologist John James Audubon. During the succeeding...
Authors
Neal Woodman
Temporal bird community dynamics are strongly affected by landscape fragmentation in a Central American tropical forest region Temporal bird community dynamics are strongly affected by landscape fragmentation in a Central American tropical forest region
Habitat loss and fragmentation are considered the main causes of species extinctions, particularly in tropical ecosystems. The objective of this work was to evaluate the temporal dynamics of tropical bird communities in landscapes with different levels of fragmentation in eastern Guatemala. We evaluated five bird community dynamic parameters for forest specialists and generalists: (1)...
Authors
A.C. Blandon, S.B. Perelman, M. Ramírez, A. Lopez, O. Javier, Chandler S. Robbins
Ecological resistance in urban streams: the role of natural and legacy attributes Ecological resistance in urban streams: the role of natural and legacy attributes
Urbanization substantially changes the physicochemical and biological characteristics of streams. The trajectory of negative effect is broadly similar around the world, but the nature and magnitude of ecological responses to urban growth differ among locations. Some heterogeneity in response arises from differences in the level of urban development and attributes of urban water...
Authors
Ryan M. Utz, Kristina G. Hopkins, Leah Beesley, Derek B. Booth, Robert J. Hawley, Matthew E. Baker, Mary Freeman, Krista L. Jones
Overestimation of marsh vulnerability to sea level rise Overestimation of marsh vulnerability to sea level rise
Coastal marshes are considered to be among the most valuable and vulnerable ecosystems on Earth, where the imminent loss of ecosystem services is a feared consequence of sea level rise. However, we show with a meta-analysis that global measurements of marsh elevation change indicate that marshes are generally building at rates similar to or exceeding historical sea level rise, and that...
Authors
Matthew L. Kirwan, Stijn Temmerman, Emily E. Skeehan, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Sergio Fagherazzi
Application of effective discharge analysis to environmental flow decision-making Application of effective discharge analysis to environmental flow decision-making
Well-informed river management decisions rely on an explicit statement of objectives, repeatable analyses, and a transparent system for assessing trade-offs. These components may then be applied to compare alternative operational regimes for water resource infrastructure (e.g., diversions, locks, and dams). Intra- and inter-annual hydrologic variability further complicates these already...
Authors
S. Kyle McKay, Mary Freeman, A.P. Covich