Publications
Below is a list of WERC's peer-reviewed publications. If you are searching for a specific publication and cannot find it in this list, please contact werc_web@usgs.gov
Filter Total Items: 3741
Analysis of trends in terrestrial vegetation at Mediterranean Coast Network Parks: Channel Islands National Park Analysis of trends in terrestrial vegetation at Mediterranean Coast Network Parks: Channel Islands National Park
The five islands comprising Channel Islands National Park (CHIS) experience natural gradients in temperature and moisture driven by ocean currents. Additionally, the islands were used as ranchlands and military land before becoming a national park, resulting in widespread erosion and vegetation change. As a result, CHIS spans gradients in climate as well as ranching duration and time...
Authors
Leigh Ann Starcevich, Christopher Murray, Lena F.S. Lee, Cameron B. Williams, Kathryn McEachern
Climatological effects on survival, recruitment, and possible extirpation of a Sierra Nevada anuran Climatological effects on survival, recruitment, and possible extirpation of a Sierra Nevada anuran
The drivers of population dynamics are a primary interest of ecologists, and predicting the consequences of climate variability on wildlife populations benefits from an understanding of how weather causes variation in the vital rates of populations. Given recent and projected extremes in annual precipitation in the Sierra Nevada of California, USA, including two severe droughts, we...
Authors
Brian J. Halstead, Patrick M. Kleeman, Jonathan P. Rose, Robert L. Grasso, Gary M. Fellers
Precipitation timing mediates life-stage and population-level associations with climate for an indicator species Precipitation timing mediates life-stage and population-level associations with climate for an indicator species
Global climate change is contributing to declines in biodiversity, although changes vary across geographic regions and species. The iconic greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) is central to conservation within the North American sagebrush ecosystem, yet its vulnerability to climate effects remains poorly understood. We used hierarchical models to explore weather...
Authors
Shawn T. O’Neil, Carl Gregory Lundblad, Brianne E. Brussee, John Christopher Tull, Michael L. Casazza, Justin R. Small, Cameron L. Aldridge, Peter S. Coates
The Southwestern Pond Turtle (Actinemys pallida) in Baja California, Mexico: New localities and persistent threats The Southwestern Pond Turtle (Actinemys pallida) in Baja California, Mexico: New localities and persistent threats
The Southwestern Pond Turtle (Actinemys pallida), the only native freshwater turtle in Baja California, is experiencing alarming population declines, echoing global patterns observed in freshwater turtles. We conducted comprehensive field surveys across the major drainages of northwestern Baja California to delineate the species' current distribution, identify critical threats to its...
Authors
Jorge H. Valdez-Villavicencio, Anny Peralta-García, Bradford D. Hollingsworth, Patricia Galina-Tessaro, Robert D. Fisher, Jeff A. Alvarez, R. A. Lara-Resendiz
Drought intensity and duration interact to magnify losses in primary productivity Drought intensity and duration interact to magnify losses in primary productivity
As droughts become longer and more intense, impacts on terrestrial primary productivity are expected to increase progressively. Yet, some ecosystems appear to acclimate to multiyear drought, with constant or diminishing reductions in productivity as drought duration increases. We quantified the combined effects of drought duration and intensity on aboveground productivity in 74...
Authors
Timothy Ohlert, Melinda D. Smith, Scott L. Collins, Alan K. Knapp, Jeffrey S. Dukes, Osvaldo E. Sala, Kate D Wilkins, Seth M. Munson, Maggie I. Anderson, Meghan L. Avolio, Anping Chen, Meghan T. Hayden, Martin C. Holdrege, Ingrid J. Slette, Peter A. Wilfahrt, Claus Beier, Lauchlan H. Fraser, Anke Jentsch, Michael E. Loik, Yiqi Luo, Fernando T. Maestre, Richard P. Phillips, Sally A. Power, Laura Yahdjian, Qiang Yu, Angel Chen, Andrew J. Felton, Laureano A. Gherardi, Nicholas J. Lyon, Hamed Abdoli, Mehdi Abedi, Juan Alberti, Antonio I. Arroyo, Heidi Asbjornsen, Harald Auge, Seton Bachle, Michael Bahn, David C. Bartholomew, Amgaa Batbaatar, Taryn L. Bauerle, Karen H. Beard, Kai Behn, Ilka Beil, Lucio Biancari, Irmgard Blindow, Viviana Florencia Bondaruk, Elizabeth T. Borer, Edward W. Bork, Carlos Martin Bruschetti, Kerry M. Byrne, James F. Cahill, Dianela A. Calvo, Michele Carbognani, Cameron N. Carlyle, Karen Castillioni, Miguel Castillo-Garcia, Manjunatha H. Chandregowda, Scott X. Chang, Jeff Chieppa, Amber C. Churchill, Marcus Vinicius Cianciaruso, Amanda L. Cordeiro, Sara Cousins, Daniela F. Cusack, Sven Dahlke, Pedro Daleo, Lee H. Dietterich, Maren Dubbert, Nico Eisenhauer, T'ai G. Forte, Flavia A. Funk, Darcy Galiano, Aaron C. Greenville, Liebao Han, Siri Vatsø Haugum, Yann Hautier, Andy Hector, Hugh A. Henry, Daniela Hoss, Forest Isbell, Samuel E. Jordan, Yuguang Ke, Eugene F. Kelly, Sally E. Koerner, Juergen Kreyling, György Kröel-Dulay, Alicia I. Kröpfl, Angelika Kübert, Andrew Kulmatiski, Eric G. Lamb, Klaus Steenberg Larsen, Steven R. Lee, Smriti Pehim Limbu, Anja Linstädter, Shirong Liu, Grisel Longo, Alejandro Loydi, Junwei Luan, F. Curtis Lubbe, Andrey V. Malyshev, Cameron D. McIntire, Daniel B. Metcalfe, Malesela Vincent Mokoka, Akira S. Mori, Edwin Mudongo, Gregory S. Newman, Uffe N. Nielsen, Raúl Ochoa-Hueso, Rory C. O'Connor, Romà Ogaya, Gastón R. Oñatibia, Ildiko Orban, Brooke B. Osborne, Rafael Otfinowski, Meelis Pärtel, Jesús Pascual, Josep Peñuelas, Pablo L. Peri, David S. Pescador, Guadalupe Peter, Alessandro Petraglia, Catherine Picon-Cochard, Valério D. Pillar, Juan M. Piñeiro-Guerra, Laura Weber Ploughe, Robert M. Plowes, Cristy Portales-Reyes, Suzanne M. Prober, Yolanda Pueyo, Golsa Rahmati, Sasha C. Reed, Dana Aylén Rodríguez, William E. Rogers, Christiane Roscher, David W. Rowley, Ana M. Sánchez, Bráulio A. Santos, Michael P. Schellenberg, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Eric W. Seabloom, Ruonan Shen, Baoku Shi, Lara Souza, Andreas Stampfli, Rachel J. Standish, Marcelo Sternberg, Wei Sun, Marie Sünnemann, Michelle Tedder, Tyson J. Terry, Pål Thorvaldsen, Katja Tielbörger, Maud Tissink, Matthew A. Vadeboncoeur, Alejandro Valdecantos, Liesbeth van den Brink, Vigdis Vandvik, Liv Guri Velle, Svenja Wanke, Glenda M. Wardle, Cunzheng Wei, Christiane Werner, Georg Wiehl, Jennifer L. Williams, Amelia A. Wolf, Honghui Wu, Chong Xu, Xuechen Yang, Jenifer L. Yost, Alyssa L. Young, Ping Yue, Juan M. Zeberio, Michaela Zeiter, Haiyang Zhang, Juntao Zhu, Xiaoan Zuo
Does tidal marsh restoration lead to the recovery of trophic pathways that support estuarine fishes? Does tidal marsh restoration lead to the recovery of trophic pathways that support estuarine fishes?
Evaluation of tidal marsh restoration success is typically based on the recovery of habitat size and target species. However, food-web structure may provide valuable insight into ecosystem functioning trajectories. Here, we studied restored tidal marshes of different ages (new, young, old; spanning 1–150 years) in comparison with nearby reference sites along the San Francisco Estuary. We...
Authors
Megan D. Pagliaro, Susan E.W. De La Cruz, Isa Woo, Jake Sousa, Natalie Rich, Lenny Grimaldo, Denise Colombano, Albert Ruhí
Longevity, age-specific survival, and mean generation time of Rana muscosa: Implications for conservation of possibly the longest lived Ranid frog Longevity, age-specific survival, and mean generation time of Rana muscosa: Implications for conservation of possibly the longest lived Ranid frog
Life history strategies vary widely among species and play a vital role in extinction risk, especially in a rapidly changing environment. For many taxa, information on life history such as longevity, lifespan, and generation time is incomplete. This is especially true for amphibians, which have experienced large-scale declines in recent decades. The mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana...
Authors
Cynthia Joan Hitchcock, Adam R. Backlin, Amanda Renee Goldberg, Sarah Kay Thomsen, Erin L. Muths, Elizabeth Gallegos, Robert D. Fisher
Genetic and environmental factors associated with survival of a rare songbird in a fragmented urban landscape Genetic and environmental factors associated with survival of a rare songbird in a fragmented urban landscape
The coastal Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus) persists in small and fragmented populations throughout southern California that are subject to genetic drift and inbreeding. We combined individual banding and resighting data and genotyped individuals at 22 microsatellite loci to assess whether heterozygosity was associated with survival across three regional Cactus Wren...
Authors
Amy G. Vandergast, Anna Mitelberg, Barbara E. Kus, Kristine L. Preston, Suellen Lynn, Alexandra Houston, Robert C. Klinger
Sequoia and Sequoiadendron: Two paleoendemic megatrees with markedly different adaptive responses to recent high-severity fires Sequoia and Sequoiadendron: Two paleoendemic megatrees with markedly different adaptive responses to recent high-severity fires
Premise Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) are two iconic paleoendemic species with limited distributions, well known for their spectacular size. Recently, they have been exposed to high-severity crown fires, with starkly contrasting responses.Methods We used all available published literature and field observations to understand the...
Authors
Jon Keeley, Juli G. Pausas
Habitat features influencing waterbird use of managed wetlands enrolled in a public-private partnership for land conservation: The California Waterfowl Habitat Program Habitat features influencing waterbird use of managed wetlands enrolled in a public-private partnership for land conservation: The California Waterfowl Habitat Program
Draining, water diversion, and development have greatly reduced the availability of freshwater wetland habitat around the world, and many remaining wetlands are on private lands. Public–private partnership programs can be an important means for promoting habitat conservation and management on private lands. We investigated bird use of 117 wetlands enrolled in the California Waterfowl...
Authors
C. Alex Hartman, Joshua T. Ackerman, Sarah H. Peterson, Brady Lynn Fettig, Mark P. Herzog
Distribution, abundance, and habitat characteristics of Coastal Cactus Wrens (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus) in San Diego County, California—2024 data summary Distribution, abundance, and habitat characteristics of Coastal Cactus Wrens (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus) in San Diego County, California—2024 data summary
Executive Summary We surveyed for coastal Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus) in 507 established plots in San Diego County in 2024, encompassing four genetic clusters (Otay, Lake Jennings, Sweetwater/Encanto, and San Pasqual). Of the 507 plots, 376 have been surveyed every year starting in 2020. Two surveys were completed at each plot between March 1 and July 31, 2024. Cactus...
Authors
Suellen Lynn, Barbara E. Kus
Causal interpretations can be based on mechanistic knowledge Causal interpretations can be based on mechanistic knowledge
There exists a long-standing disconnect between statistical and mechanistic approaches to the development of causal understanding. Statistical approaches, which have dominated the literature, have focused on the need to obtain perfectly unbiased estimates of causal effects often using either experimental, quasi-experimental or other methods. Mechanistic approaches have instead focused on
Authors
James Grace, Glenn Guntenspergen, Kevin J. Buffington, Justine Annaliese Neville, Karen M. Thorne, Michael J. Osland, Melinda Martinez, Joel Carr, Debra A. Willard