Landscape Management Research Program
Landscape Management Research Program
WERC scientists study landscape level change and other environmental threats to ecosystems that provide for wildlife and humans alike. Our research programs inform the recovery of ecosystems such as the nearshore marine environment, coastal marshes, wetlands, forests, Pacific islands, arid deserts, and the sagebrush steppe. Ecosystem-level research is conducted in particular on National Parks, Bureau of Land Management and Department of Defense lands, National Wildlife Refuges, and State lands, bays, and interior and coastal waters The projects below offer a closer look into WERC studies informing ecosystem management.
Filter Total Items: 61
Waterbird Breeding Ecology and Management
The San Francisco Bay is designated as a site of hemispheric importance to shorebirds and annually supports over one million waterbirds. Within the USGS WERC waterbird breeding ecology program, Dr. Josh Ackerman and partners are studying habitat selection, movements, and factors influencing waterbird nest success and chick growth and survival.
Waterfowl Ecology in California and the Pacific Flyway
The Suisun Marsh and Central Valley in California offer some of the world’s most important wetland habitats for waterfowl in the Pacific Flyway. Mike Casazza and USGS WERC biologists are providing the science to support and evaluate waterfowl populations and habitat management in North America.
Wetland Restoration in the San Francisco Bay Delta and Pacific Northwest
Estuaries and healthy coastal habitats are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth. They provide a variety of benefits, including habitat and food for fish and wildlife, flood and erosion protection, improved water quality, increased carbon sequestration, as well as beautiful scenery and opportunities for recreation. Along the U.S. Pacific Coast, both the San Francisco Bay estuary and the...
Wildland Fire Science in Forests and Deserts
Fuel conditions and fire regimes in western forests and deserts have been altered due to past land management, biological invasions, and recent extreme weather events and climate shifts. These changes have created extreme fire risk to local and regional communities, threatening their economic health related to wildland recreation, forest production, livestock operations, and other uses of public...
Environmental Change and Fire
The effects of a changing environment can ripple throughout an ecosystem. Increased temperatures and more frequent and severe droughts in the future may influence wildfire patterns as well as water resources for communities. Dr. Jon Keeley and partners are using nearly a century’s worth of fire data to aid local landowners, and state and Federal agencies in planning for wildfire on evolving...
Balancing Fire Hazards and Resource Protection
Human impacts on fires across California have been quite diverse. In many forests, fires have been nearly excluded over the past century, causing an unhealthy accumulation of dead vegetation and a greater threat of severe fires. However, on much of California’s lower elevation foothills and valleys, humans have greatly increased fire frequency. These landscapes are often juxtaposed with...
Wildlife Connectivity in Human Environments
Today, urban development is rapidly fragmenting the open spaces of western North America. This can affect species that need large areas to roam, live at low densities, and tend to come into conflict with people. Dr. Erin Boydston studies the connectivity of wide-ranging mammals to inform long-term conservation planning in southern California. High levels of connectivity between wildlife...
Human Influence on Desert Tortoise Habitats
The deserts of the Southwest are under increasing pressure from growing human communities. The spread of cities, agricultural fields, grazing livestock, power plants, and other forms of human development in the past and present have affected the region’s natural resources, including its wildlife. WERC’s Dr. Kristin Berry is studying the response of threatened desert tortoises to changing habitats...
Ecology of California's Sandy Beaches
WERC's Dr. Kevin Lafferty studies the food webs of California's sandy beaches, which support a network of wildlife from predators to prey. Species that depend on this habitat include the endangered western snowy plover.
Food Web and Invertebrate Ecology Studies in Pacific Coast Estuaries
Invertebrate communities provide food for several economically and ecologically important fish and waterbird species in coastal estuaries. Scientists at the WERC San Francisco Bay Estuary Field Station specialize in studying foraging ecology of waterbirds and fishes, general food web dynamics across estuaries, and the effects of habitat restoration and other factors on waterbird prey availability.
Kelp Forest Community Ecology
The near shore waters along the coast of southern California host one of the most productive marine ecosystems on earth: giant kelp forests. These complex environments provide habitat, food, and hiding places for more than 1,000 species of plants and animals, but are easily disturbed by both natural events and human activities. Strong storms, fluctuating water temperatures, coastal development...
Field of Sagebrush Dreams: Planting and Restoring Functional Sagebrush in Burned Landscapes
Increased wildfire-induced loss of sagebrush in North American shrublands are outpacing natural recovery and leading to substantial habitat loss for sagebrush-obligate species like sage-grouse. The products and information developed for this project will help restoration practitioners, biologists, and land managers evaluate the efficacy of sagebrush restoration approaches as well as their ability...