Publications
This list of publications includes peer-review journal articles, official USGS publications series, reports and more authored by scientists in the Ecosystems Mission Area. A database of all USGS publications, with advanced search features, can be accessed at the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Filter Total Items: 42702
Effects of elevated sea levels and waves on southern California estuaries during the 2015–2016 El Niño Effects of elevated sea levels and waves on southern California estuaries during the 2015–2016 El Niño
The 2015–2016 El Niño provided insight into how low-inflow estuaries might respond to future climate regimes, including high sea levels and more intense waves. High waves and water levels coupled with low rainfall along the Southern California coastline provided the opportunity to examine how extreme ocean forcing impacts estuaries independently from fluvial events. From November 2015 to...
Authors
Madeleine Harvey, Sarah N Giddings, Eric D. Stein, Jeffrey A Crooks, Christine R Whitcraft, Timu W. Gallien, John L. Largier, Liesl Tiefenthaler, Hallee Meltzer, Geno Pawlak, Karen M. Thorne, Karina Johnston, Richard F. Ambrose, Stephen C Schroeter, Henry M. Page, Hany Elwany
Is your ad hoc model selection strategy affecting your multimodel inference? Is your ad hoc model selection strategy affecting your multimodel inference?
(Yackulic) 1. Ecologists routinely fit complex models with multiple parameters of interest, where hundreds or more competing models are plausible. To limit the number of fitted models, ecologists often define a model selection strategy composed of a series of stages in which certain features of a model are compared while other features are held constant. Defining these multi-stage...
Authors
Dana J. Morin, Charles B. Yackulic, James Diffendorfer, Damon B. Lesmeister, Clayton Nielsen, Janice Reid, Eric M. Schauber
Extreme mortality and reproductive failure of common murres resulting from the northeast Pacific marine heatwave of 2014-2016 Extreme mortality and reproductive failure of common murres resulting from the northeast Pacific marine heatwave of 2014-2016
About 62,000 dead or dying common murres (Uria aalge), the trophically dominant fish-eating seabird of the North Pacific, washed ashore between summer 2015 and spring 2016 on beaches from California to Alaska. Most birds were severely emaciated and, so far, no evidence for anything other than starvation was found to explain this mass mortality. Three-quarters of murres were found in the...
Authors
John F. Piatt, Julia K. Parrish, Heather M. Renner, Sarah K. Schoen, Timothy Jones, Mayumi L. Arimitsu, Kathy J. Kuletz, Barbara Bodenstein, Marisol Garcia-Reyes, Rebecca Duerr, Robin Corcoran, Robb S.A. Kaler, Gerard J. McChesney, Richard T. Golightly, Heather A. Coletti, Robert M. Suryan, Hillary K. Burgess, Jackie Lindsey, Kirsten Lindquist, Peter Warzybok, Jaime Jahncke, Jan Roletto, William J. Sydeman
RAPTURE (RAD capture) panel facilitates analyses characterizing sea lamprey reproductive ecology and movement dynamics RAPTURE (RAD capture) panel facilitates analyses characterizing sea lamprey reproductive ecology and movement dynamics
Genomic tools are lacking for invasive and native populations of sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus). Our objective was to discover single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci to conduct pedigree analyses to quantify reproductive contributions of adult sea lampreys and dispersion of sibling larval sea lampreys of different ages in Great Lakes tributaries. Additional applications of data were...
Authors
Nicholas Sard, Seth Smith, Jared Homola, Jeannette Kanefsky, Gale Bravener, Jean V. Adams, Christopher Holbrook, Peter J. Hrodey, Kevin Tallon, Kim T. Scribner
Integrating ecosystem resilience and resistance into decision support tools for multi-scale population management of a sagebrush indicator species Integrating ecosystem resilience and resistance into decision support tools for multi-scale population management of a sagebrush indicator species
Imperiled sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems of western North America are experiencing unprecedented conservation planning efforts. Advances in decision-support tools operationalize concepts of ecosystem resilience by quantitatively linking spatially explicit variation in soil and plant processes to outcomes of biotic and abiotic disturbances. However, failure to consider higher...
Authors
Mark A. Ricca, Peter S. Coates
Soil surface elevation dynamics in a mangrove-to-marsh ecotone characterized by vegetation shifts Soil surface elevation dynamics in a mangrove-to-marsh ecotone characterized by vegetation shifts
Mangrove forest encroachment into coastal marsh habitats has been described in subtropical regions worldwide in recent decades. To better understand how soil processes may influence vegetation change, we studied soil surface elevation change, accretion rates, and soil subsurface change across a coastal salinity gradient in Florida, USA, an area with documented mangrove encroachment into...
Authors
Rebecca J. Howard, Andrew From, Ken W. Krauss, Kimberly D. Andres, Nicole Cormier, Larry K. Allain, Michael Savarese
Pulsed flow-through auto-feeding beaker systems for the laboratory culture of juvenile freshwater mussels Pulsed flow-through auto-feeding beaker systems for the laboratory culture of juvenile freshwater mussels
Newly metamorphosed freshwater mussels are small and delicate, so that captive laboratory culture presents challenges for handling; for maintenance of suitable microhabitat, water quality, and food; and for avoidance of competitors and predators. To address these challenges, a new pulsed flow-through auto-feeding beaker system was developed for culturing juvenile mussels. In this system...
Authors
James L. Kunz, Eric Brunson, M. Christopher Barnhart, Elizabeth A. Glidewell, Ning Wang, Christopher G. Ingersoll
A round-robin evaluation of the repeatability and reproducibility of environmental DNA assays for dreissenid mussels A round-robin evaluation of the repeatability and reproducibility of environmental DNA assays for dreissenid mussels
Resource managers may be hesitant to make decisions based on environmental (e)DNA results alone since eDNA is an indirect method of species detection. One way to reduce the uncertainty of eDNA is to identify laboratory‐based protocols that ensure repeatable and reproducible results. We conducted a double‐blind round‐robin analysis of probe‐based assays for DNA of dreissenid (Dreissena...
Authors
Adam J. Sepulveda, Patrick R. Hutchins, Craig Jackson, Carl Ostberg, Matthew Laramie, Jon Amberg, Timothy D. Counihan, Andrew B. Hoegh, David S. Pilliod
Mercury and selenium concentrations in fishes of the Upper Colorado River Basin, southwestern United States: A retrospective assessment Mercury and selenium concentrations in fishes of the Upper Colorado River Basin, southwestern United States: A retrospective assessment
Mercury (Hg) and selenium (Se) are contaminants of concern for fish in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB). We explored Hg and Se in fish tissues (2,324 individuals) collected over 50 years (1962–2011) from the UCRB. Samples include native and non-native fish collected from lotic waterbodies spanning 7 major tributaries to the Colorado River. There was little variation of total mercury...
Authors
Natalie K. Day, Travis S. Schmidt, James Roberts, Barbara C. Osmundson, James Willacker, Collin A. Eagles-Smith
Heterogeneity in migration strategies of the whooping crane Heterogeneity in migration strategies of the whooping crane
Migratory birds use numerous strategies to successfully complete twice-annual movements between breeding and wintering sites. Context for conservation and management can be provided by characterizing these strategies. Variations in strategy among and within individuals support population persistence in response to changes in land use and climate. We used location data from 58 marked...
Authors
Aaron T. Pearse, Kristine L. Metzger, David A. Brandt, Mark T. Bidwell, Mary J. Harner, David M. Baasch, Wade C. Harrell
Demography of snowshoe hare population cycles Demography of snowshoe hare population cycles
Cyclic fluctuations in abundance exhibited by some mammalian populations in northern habitats (“population cycles”) are key processes in the functioning of many boreal and tundra ecosystems. Understanding population cycles, essentially demographic processes, necessitates discerning the demographic mechanisms that underlie numerical changes. Using mark–recapture data spanning five...
Authors
Madan K. Oli, Charles J Krebs, Alice J Kenney, Rudy Boonstra, Stan Boutin, James E. Hines
Phosphorus, nitrogen and dissolved organic carbon fluxes from sediments in freshwater rivermouths entering Green Bay (Lake Michigan; USA) Phosphorus, nitrogen and dissolved organic carbon fluxes from sediments in freshwater rivermouths entering Green Bay (Lake Michigan; USA)
Transitional areas between ecosystem types are often active biogeochemically due to resource limitation changes. Lotic-to-lentic transitions in freshwaters appear active biogeochemically, but few studies have directly measured nutrient processing rates to assess whether processing within the rivermouth is important for load estimates or the local communities. We measured oxic fluxes of...
Authors
James H. Larson, William F. James, Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Paul C. Frost, Mary Anne Evans, Paul C. Reneau, Marguerite A. Xenopoulos