Data

These datasets (S1-S4) document the transmission of a bacterial pathogen (Mycoplasma agassizii) between desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii). The desert tortoises were experimentally introduced in captivity and were used to create and compare models predicting transmission probability given data on the hosts and their interactions. Datasets S1 & S2 include variables describing the...

Parental incubation behavior largely influences nest survival, a critical demographic process in avian population dynamics, and behaviors vary across species with different life history breeding strategies. Although research has identified nest survival advantages of mixing colonies, behavioral mechanisms that might explain these effects is largely lacking. We examined parental...

Ecological factors favoring either resprouting or obligate seeding in plants have received considerable attention recently. Three ecological models have been proposed to explain patterns of these two life history types. In this study we test these three models using data from California chaparral. We take an innovative approach to testing these models by not testing community or...

This study provides timely and highly useful information about greater sage-grouse over a large area of the Great Basin. USGS researchers and their colleagues created a template for combining landscape-scale occurrence or abundance data with habitat selection data in order to identify areas most critical to sustaining populations of species of conservation concern. The template also...

Fire ranks among the top three threats to the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) throughout its range, and among the top two threats in the western part of its range. The national research strategy for this species and the recent U.S. Department of the Interior Secretarial Order 3336 call for science-based threats assessment of fire to inform conservation planning and fire...

The spring 2015 mainland sea otter count began on 2 May and wasn't completed until 2 July. The delay in finishing the census was due primarily to limited availability of the survey plane (because of the need for the plane during the oil spill in the Refugio State Beach area). Overall viewing conditions this year were more favorable than those during the 2014 spring census (View Score = 2...

Accurate, complete fuels data are critical for making fuel management decisions and for predicting fire behavior and fire effects. A fuel photo series is a useful reference that allows natural resource managers to quickly quantify fuel and vegetation properties by comparing on site conditions to a series of photos showing a range of calculated fuel loads within a similar vegetative...

San Francisco Bay, California is considered a mercury-impaired watershed. Elevated concentrations of mercury are found in water and sediment as well as fish and estuarine birds. Sources of mercury to the watershed since 1845 include sediment-associated mercury from mercury mining, mercury losses from gold amalgamation activities in mines of the Sierra Nevada, aerial deposition of mercury...

The USGS Western Ecological Research Center conducted seabird and marine mammal surveys for the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Pacific Outer Continental Shelf Region to inform future alternative energy planning, development, and management in the northern California Current System (CCS). \r\n\r\nNamed the Pacific Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment (PaCSEA), the...