Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS)
Publications
Mapping burned areas using dense time-series of Landsat data
Complete and accurate burned area data are needed to document patterns of fires, to quantify relationships between the patterns and drivers of fire occurrence, and to assess the impacts of fires on human and natural systems. Unfortunately, in many areas existing fire occurrence datasets are known to be incomplete. Consequently, the need to...
Hawbaker, Todd J.; Vanderhoof, Melanie K.; Beal, Yen-Ju G.; Takacs, Joshua; Schmidt, Gail L.; Falgout, Jeff T.; Williams, Brad; Brunner, Nicole M.; Caldwell, Megan K.; Picotte, Joshua J.; Howard, Stephen M.; Stitt, Susan; Dwyer, John L. Seven recommendations to make your invasive alien species data more useful
Science-based strategies to tackle biological invasions depend on recent, accurate, well-documented, standardized and openly accessible information on alien species. Currently and historically, biodiversity data are scattered in numerous disconnected data silos that lack interoperability. The situation is no different for alien species data, and...
Groom, Quentin J.; Adriaens, Tim; Desmet, Peter; Simpson, Annie; De Wever, Aaike; Bazos, Ioannis; Cardoso, Ana Cristina; Charles, Lucinda; Christopoulou, Anastasia; Gazda, Anna; Helmisaari, Harry; Hobern, Donald; Josefsson, Melanie; Lucy, Frances; Marisavljevic, Dragana; Oszako, Tomasz; Pergl, Jan; Petrovic-Obradovic, Olivera; Prévot, Céline; Ravn, Hans Peter; Richards, Gareth; Roques, Alain; Roy, Helen; Rozenberg, Marie-Anne A.; Scalera, Riccardo; Tricarico, Elena; Trichkova, Teodora; Vercayie, Diemer; Zenetos, Argyro; Vanderhoeven, Sonia
Grand challenges for integrated USGS science—A workshop report
Executive SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a long history of advancing the traditional Earth science disciplines and identifying opportunities to integrate USGS science across disciplines to address complex societal problems. The USGS science strategy for 2007–2017 laid out key challenges in disciplinary and interdisciplinary arenas,...
Jenni, Karen E.; Goldhaber, Martin B.; Betancourt, Julio L.; Baron, Jill S.; Bristol, R. Sky; Cantrill, Mary; Exter, Paul E.; Focazio, Michael J.; Haines, John W.; Hay, Lauren E.; Hsu, Leslie; Labson, Victor F.; Lafferty, Kevin D.; Ludwig, K.A.; Milly, Paul C. D.; Morelli, Toni L.; Morman, Suzette A.; Nassar, Nedal T.; Newman, Timothy R.; Ostroff, Andrea C. ; Read, Jordan S.; Reed, Sasha C.; Shapiro, Carl D.; Smith, Richard A.; Sanford, Ward E.; Sohl, Terry L.; Stets, Edward G.; Terando, Adam J.; Tillitt, Donald E.; Tischler, Michael A.; Toccalino, Patricia L.; Wald, David J.; Waldrop, Mark P.; Wein, Anne; Weltzin, Jake F.; Zimmerman, Christian E. Relationships between gas field development and the presence and abundance of pygmy rabbits in southwestern Wyoming
More than 5957 km2 in southwestern Wyoming is currently covered by operational gas fields, and further development is projected through 2030. Gas fields fragment landscapes through conversion of native vegetation to roads, well pads, pipeline corridors, and other infrastructure elements. The sagebrush steppe landscape where most of this...
Germaine, Stephen S.; Carter, Sarah K.; Ignizio, Drew A.; Freeman, Aaron T.
Community for Data Integration 2016 annual report
The Community for Data Integration (CDI) represents a dynamic community of practice focused on advancing science data and information management and integration capabilities across the U.S. Geological Survey and the CDI community. This annual report describes the various presentations, activities, and outcomes of the CDI monthly forums, working...
Langseth, Madison L.; Hsu, Leslie; Amberg, Jon J.; Bliss, Norman; Bock, Andrew R.; Bolus, Rachel T.; Bristol, R. Sky; Chase, Katherine J.; Crimmins, Theresa M.; Earle, Paul S.; Erickson, Richard; Everette, A. Lance; Falgout, Jeff T.; Faundeen, John L.; Fienen, Michael N.; Griffin, Rusty; Guy, Michelle R.; Henry, Kevin D.; Hoebelheinrich, Nancy J.; Hunt, Randall J.; Hutchison, Vivian B.; Ignizio, Drew A.; Infante, Dana M.; Jarnevich, Catherine; Jones, Jeanne M.; Kern, Tim; Leibowitz, Scott; Lightsom, Francis L.; Marsh, R. Lee; McCalla, S. Grace; McNiff, Marcia; Morisette, Jeffrey T.; Nelson, John C.; Norkin, Tamar; Preston, Todd M.; Rosemartin, Alyssa; Sando, Roy; Sherba, Jason T.; Signell, Richard P.; Sleeter, Benjamin M.; Sundquist, Eric T.; Talbert, Colin B.; Viger, Roland J.; Weltzin, Jake F.; Waltman, Sharon; Weber, Marc; Wieferich, Daniel J.; Williams, Brad; Windham-Myers, Lisamarie Dam metrics representing stream fragmentation and flow alteration for the conterminous United States linked to the NHDPLUSV1
This CSV file contains 21 dam metrics representing stream fragmentation and flow alteration for nearly 2.3 million stream reaches in the conterminous USA. Dam metrics fall into four main categories: segment-based, count and density, distance-based, and cumulative reservoir storage (described below). These data were developed using spatially...
Cooper, Arthur R.; Infante, Dana M. Integrating multiple data sources in species distribution modeling: A framework for data fusion
The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the use of species distribution models (SDMs) to characterize patterns of species’ occurrence and abundance. Efforts to parameterize SDMs often create a tension between the quality and quantity of data available to fit models. Estimation methods that integrate both standardized and non-standardized...
Pacifici, Krishna; Reich, Brian J.; Miller, David A.W.; Gardner, Beth; Stauffer, Glenn E.; Singh, Susheela; McKerrow, Alexa J.; Collazo, Jaime A. Long-term fish monitoring in large rivers: Utility of “benchmarking” across basins
In business, benchmarking is a widely used practice of comparing your own business processes to those of other comparable companies and incorporating identified best practices to improve performance. Biologists and resource managers designing and conducting monitoring programs for fish in large river systems tend to focus on single river basins or...
Ward, David L.; Casper, Andrew F.; Counihan, Timothy D.; Bayer, Jennifer M.; Waite, Ian R.; Kosovich, John J.; Chapman, Colin; Irwin, Elise R.; Sauer, Jennifer S.; Ickes, Brian; McKerrow, Alexa J. Informing watershed connectivity barrier prioritization decisions: A synthesis
Water resources and transportation infrastructure such as dams and culverts provide countless socio-economic benefits; however, this infrastructure can also disconnect the movement of organisms, sediment, and water through river ecosystems. Trade-offs associated with these competing costs and benefits occur globally, with applications in barrier...
McKay, S. K.; Cooper, A. R.; Diebel, M.W.; Elkins, D.; Oldford, G.; Roghair, C.; Wieferich, Daniel J. A comparison of NLCD 2011 and LANDFIRE EVT 2010: Regional and national summaries.
In order to provide the land cover user community a summary of the similarity and differences between the 2011 National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) and the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Program Existing Vegetation 2010 Data (LANDFIRE EVT), the two datasets were compared at a national (conterminous U.S.) and regional (Eastern...
McKerrow, Alexa J.; Dewitz, Jon; Long, Donald G.; Nelson, Kurtis; Connot, Joel A.; Smith, Jim
Estimated historical distribution of grassland communities of the Southern Great Plains
The purpose of this project was to map the estimated distribution of grassland communities of the Southern Great Plains prior to Euro-American settlement. The Southern Great Plains Rapid Ecoregional Assessment (REA), under the direction of the Bureau of Land Management and the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative, includes four...
Reese, Gordon C.; Manier, Daniel J.; Carr, Natasha B.; Callan, Ramana; Leinwand, Ian I.F.; Assal, Timothy J.; Burris, Lucy; Ignizio, Drew A. Powell Center Newsletter, Volume 3, Issue 1
Newsletter for the John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, covering news from most of FY2016.
McNiff, Marcia