Publications

Aquatic invasive plants and animals are increasingly becoming a problem, causing severe economic and ecological damage to critical freshwater systems. The best strategy for controlling an invasive pest employs an integrated pest management (IPM) approach using a combination of biological, physical, chemical, and social/cultural control methods. Here, we examine the history and...

This report describes the joint efforts of USGS UMESC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to monitor bigheaded carps in the Upper Mississippi River. The report prepared for the Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Resource Association details eDNA results from 2021.

Chemical controls ranging from natural products to synthesized chemicals are widely used in aquatic pest management activities. Chemicals can be used to lure organisms to traps or can cause direct mortality by altering the physiological function of an organism. Much of what is known about controlling pests with chemicals is from research done on terrestrial pesticides. This paper focuses...

Freshwater mussels face threats from climate change and changing land use that are dramatically altering their habitat. The health of mussel populations and the state of current and past environmental conditions can be monitored by measuring mussel growth and glycogen levels. In this study we measured growth and glycogen levels in mussels from two small river basins impacted by different...

Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus) is a common and widely distributed large-bodied species of the family Catostomidae. It inhabits large rivers and reservoirs of the eastern continental United States (east of the continental Divide) and is most abundant and common in the large rivers of the Midwest and Central Plains, though it does occur as far north and east as the Hudson Bay...

Geomorphic changes in the Upper Mississippi River (UMR) have long been a concern of river agencies charged with maintaining and restoring river habitat (GREAT 1980; Jackson et al. 1981; USFWS 1992). Large meandering alluvial rivers like the UMR are expected to constantly change and adjust their fluvial landforms within their riparian corridors as a result of the natural interaction of...

The aerial camera testing project lays the groundwork for the collection of aerial imagery that will be used in the creation of the next iteration of systemic land cover/land use data for the Upper Mississippi River System. Prior to acquisition in the summer of 2020, the new 4-band aerial camera will be assessed for image quality at various resolutions and be compared to the camera used...

Floodplain forest on the upper Mississippi River (UMR), a unique habitat in the Midwest that is important for many bird species, has been reduced and is undergoing continued reduction and changes in structure and species diversity because of river engineering and invasive species. Hydrological changes are causing tree diversity to decline favoring Acer saccharinum (silver maple) and...

No abstract available.

Telemetry of acoustically tagged bigheaded carp (i.e., bighead carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis and silver carp H. molitrix) and surrogate fish species has become an invaluable tool in management for these species in the upper Illinois Waterway Systems (i.e., upper Illinois River, lower Des Plaines River, and Chicago Area Waterway System). For example, movement probabilities between...

In most forest systems, the dynamics of forest canopy gap development play an important role in the transition from relatively short-lived early successional tree species to longer-lived, late successional tree species. In resilient forest systems, tree seedlings establish within newly created canopy gaps and grow to close the gap within one or two decades of disturbance. However...

Riparian forests play key roles in protecting biodiversity and water resources, making them priorities for conservation in human-dominated landscapes, but fragmentation associated with expanding tropical croplands threatens their ecological integrity. We compared the structure of tropical riparian forests within intact and cropland catchments in a region of intensive soybean production...