Imperiled Species
Imperiled Species
Generally speaking, imperiled species are those animals and plants that are in decline and may be in danger of extinction. While some species are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, many species are not due to the lack of knowledge regarding their status and the environmental factors that may threaten their future.
Filter Total Items: 58
Population Monitoring of the Federally Threatened Okaloosa Darter at Eglin Air Force Base
USGS' and Loyola University New Orleans' innovative research techniques played a role in the decision to downlist the Okaloosa Darter, a freshwater fish endemic to northwest Florida, from Endangered to Threatened in 2011, and the removal of the fish from the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2023.
Beach Compaction and the Impacts of Tilling on Nesting Sea Turtles and Foraging Shorebirds
Researchers are investigating beach compaction, the incubation environment for turtle nests, and shorebird nest abundance at beaches throughout the southeastern United States to better understand the impacts of beach compaction to nesting turtles and foraging seabirds.
Sturgeon Occurrence and Behavior in the Outer Continental Shelf
A new study aims to collect information on sturgeon temporal and spatial distribution to inform offshore wind energy and sand leasing operations.
Monitoring Impacts of U.S.-Mexico Border Barrier and Lighting on Migratory Birds
Researchers will use a multi-scale approach to determine how barrier construction and lighting may impact migratory birds in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
Natural Resource Damage and Assessment (NRDA) Program-Louisiana’s Monitoring and Adaptive Management
The USGS is participating in the Louisiana-Trustee Implementation Group Monitoring and Adaptive Management work group to assess the injuries caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and to select the appropriate restoration measures to compensate the public for the injury to coastal and marine resources.
Mark-Recapture Estimation of Razor-backed Musk Turtle Abundance in Louisiana
USGS scientists are working to determine the baseline population numbers of the Razor-backed Musk Turtle.
Seasonal Surveys of Shorebird and Coastal Waterbird Utilization of Dredged Material Islands in the Baptiste Collette Bayou, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) New Orleans District, Louisiana
To assess use of dredge material areas, avian ecologists from USGS WARC are conducting bird surveys across the annual life cycle.
Across Trophic Level System Simulation (ATLSS) Program for the Greater Everglades
Goals of the ATLSS Program are to help achieve a better understanding of components of the Everglades ecosystem, to provide an integrative tool for empirical studies, and to apply these tools to an adaptive management framework.
Strategic Habitat Conservation for Gulf Sturgeon
WARC researchers partnered with Gulf Sturgeon decision makers and biologists to develop a Bayesian network model that uses habitat characteristics to predict the quantity of juvenile winter foraging habitat under alternative river discharge and timing of juvenile arrival scenarios.
Strategic Habitat Conservation for Brown Pelican
WARC researchers partnered with managers and species experts to develop a Bayesian network model and a geospatial habitat characteristics dataset to predict the number of Brown Pelican breeding pairs on islands in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Strategic Habitat Conservation for Beach Mice (Peromyscus polionotus ssp.)
WARC researchers partnered with beach mice managers and biologists to estimate habitat objectives and the amount of effort needed to achieve the habitat objective (i.e., management efficiency) for three beach mice subspecies in Florida’s panhandle.
Development and Implementation of Environmental DNA (eDNA) Tools to Aid Listing and Recovery Efforts for Imperiled and Common Freshwater Mussels
Researchers will develop and optimize an eDNA assay to delineate the current distribution of P. inflatus . The assay will then be used to provide up-to-date distributional information and detection rates for P. inflatus in the Pearl River basin.