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: 42874
The expectations and challenges of wildlife disease research in the era of genomics: Forecasting with a horizon scan-like exercise The expectations and challenges of wildlife disease research in the era of genomics: Forecasting with a horizon scan-like exercise
The outbreak and transmission of disease-causing pathogens are contributing to the unprecedented rate of biodiversity decline. Recent advances in genomics have coalesced into powerful tools to monitor, detect, and reconstruct the role of pathogens impacting wildlife populations. Wildlife researchers are thus uniquely positioned to merge ecological and evolutionary studies with genomic...
Authors
Robert R. Fitak, Jennifer D. Antonides, Eric J. Baitchman, Elisa Bonaccorso, Josephine Braun, Steven Kubiski, Elliott Chiu, Anna C. Fagre, Roderick B. Gagne, Justin S. Lee, Jennifer L. Malmberg, Mark D. Stenglein, Robert J. Dusek, David Forgacs, Nicholas M. Fountain-Jones, Marie L. J. Gilbertson, Katherine E. L. Worsley-Tonks, W. Chris Funk, Daryl R. Trumbo, Bruno M. Ghersi, Wray Grimaldi, Sara E. Heisel, Claire M. Jardine, Pauline L. Kamath, Dibesh Karmacharya, Christopher P. Kozakiewicz, Simona Kraberger, Dagan A. Loisel, Cait McDonald, Steven Miller, Devon O’Rourke, Caitlin N. Ott-Conn, Mónica Páez-Vacas, Alison J. Peel, Wendy C. Turner, Meredith C. VanAcker, Sue VandeWoude, Jill Pecon-Slattery
Patterning emergent marsh vegetation assemblages in coastal Louisiana, USA, with unsupervised artificial neural networks Patterning emergent marsh vegetation assemblages in coastal Louisiana, USA, with unsupervised artificial neural networks
Question Are self‐organizing maps (SOMs) useful for patterning coastal wetland vegetation communities? Do SOMs provide robust alternatives to traditional classification methods, particularly when underlying species response functions are unknown or difficult to approximate, or when a need exists to continuously classify new samples obtained under ongoing long‐term ecosystem monitoring...
Authors
Gregg A. Snedden
Assessment of operational and structural factors influencing performance of fish collectors in forebays of high-head dams Assessment of operational and structural factors influencing performance of fish collectors in forebays of high-head dams
Providing efficient downstream passage is critical for improving populations of migratory fishes in impounded river systems. High‐head dams, such as those used for water storage or flood‐risk management, pose unique passage challenges requiring unique solutions. Systems to collect fish in dam forebays (“forebay collectors”) for transport to downstream release locations have been used at...
Authors
Tobias J. Kock, Nicholas E Verretto, Nicklaus K Ackerman, Russell W. Perry, John W Beeman, Michael C Garello, Scott D Fielding
Modeling effects of crop production, energy development and conservation-grassland loss on avian habitat Modeling effects of crop production, energy development and conservation-grassland loss on avian habitat
Birds are essential components of most ecosystems and provide many services valued by society. However, many populations have undergone striking declines as their habitats have been lost or degraded by human activities. Terrestrial grasslands are vital habitat for birds in the North American Prairie Pothole Region (PPR), but grassland conversion and fragmentation from agriculture and...
Authors
Jill A. Shaffer, Cali L. Roth, David M. Mushet
To what extent is drought-induced tree mortality a natural phenomenon? To what extent is drought-induced tree mortality a natural phenomenon?
Aim Catastrophic forest mortality due to more extreme rainfall deficits and higher temperatures under future climate scenarios has been predicted. The aim of this study is to explore the magnitude of historical drought-induced tree mortality under pre-warming conditions.Location North-eastern Australia.Time period 1845–2017.Major taxa studied Trees.Methods Field survey, historical...
Authors
R. Fensham, Boris Laffineur, Craig D. Allen
Early-warning signals of individual tree mortality based on annual radial growth Early-warning signals of individual tree mortality based on annual radial growth
Tree mortality is a key driver of forest dynamics and its occurrence is projected to increase in the future due to climate change. Despite recent advances in our understanding of the physiological mechanisms leading to death, we still lack robust indicators of mortality risk that could be applied at the individual tree scale. Here, we build on a previous contribution exploring the...
Authors
Maxime Cailleret, Vasilis Dakos, Steven Jansen, Elisabeth M. R. Robert, Tuomas Aakala, Mariano M. Amoroso, Joe A. Antos, Christof Bigler, Harald Bugmann, Marco Caccianaga, Jesus-Julio Camarero, Paolo Cherubini, Marie R. Coyea, Katarina Cufar, Adrian J. Das, Hendrik Davi, Guillermo Gea-Izquierdo, Sten Gillner, Laurel J. Haavik, Henrik Hartmann, Ana-Maria Heres, Kevin R. Hultine, Pavel Janda, Jeffrey M. Kane, Viachelsav I. Kharuk, Thomas Kitzberger, Tamir Klein, Tom Levanic, Juan-Carlos Linares, Fabio Lombardi, Harri Makinen, Ilona Mészáros, Juha M. Metsaranta, Walter Oberhuber, Andreas Papadopoulos, Any Mary Petritan, Brigitte Rohner, Gabriel Sanguesa-Barreda, Jeremy M. Smith, Amanda B. Stan, Dejan B. Stojanovic, Maria-Laura Suarez, Miroslav Svoboda, Volodymyr Trotsiuk, Ricardo Villalba, Alana R. Westwood, Peter H. Wyckoff, Jordi Martínez-Vilalta
Methods of environmental valuation Methods of environmental valuation
Commensurate valuation of market and nonmarket public goods allows for a more valid benefit-cost analysis. Economic methods for valuing nonmarket public goods include actual behavior-based revealed preference methods, such as the hedonic property method for urban-suburban public goods and travel cost models for outdoor recreation. For valuing proposed public goods for which there is no...
Authors
John B. Loomis, Christopher Huber, Leslie Richardson
A comparison of age- and size-structured assessment models applied to a stock of cisco in Thunder Bay, Ontario A comparison of age- and size-structured assessment models applied to a stock of cisco in Thunder Bay, Ontario
Stock assessments are critical to modern fisheries management, supporting the calculation of key reference variables used to make informed management decisions. However, there is still considerable uncertainty as to which class of assessment models is appropriate to use under different circumstances. A common class of models used when age data are available are statistical catch-at-age...
Authors
Nicholas C Fisch, James R. Bence, Jared T. Myers, Eric K. Berglund, Daniel Yule
Multiple approaches to surface water quality assessment provide insight for small streams experiencing oil and natural gas development Multiple approaches to surface water quality assessment provide insight for small streams experiencing oil and natural gas development
Historic, current, and future oil and natural gas development can affect water quality in streams flowing through developed areas. We compared small stream drainages in a semi-arid landscape with varying amounts of disturbance from oil and natural gas development to examine potential effects of this development on surface water quality. We used physical, chemical, and biological...
Authors
Annika W. Walters, Carlin Girard, Richard H. Walker, Aida Farag, David A. Alvarez
Landscape evolution of a fluvial sediment-rich Avicennia marina mangrove forest: Insights from seasonal and inter-annual surface-elevation dynamics Landscape evolution of a fluvial sediment-rich Avicennia marina mangrove forest: Insights from seasonal and inter-annual surface-elevation dynamics
Mangrove forests are vulnerable to accelerated sea-level rise associated with climate warming because they occupy a relatively narrow zone on the mid-to-upper-intertidal flats. The fate of these ecosystems largely depends on their capacity to accrete sediment at a rate sufficient to maintain their elevation relative to sea level. We investigated the role of biophysical processes and...
Authors
Andrew Swales, Glen Reeve, Donald R. Cahoon, Catherine Lovelock
Late-Quaternary vegetation, climate, and fire history of the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Plain based on a 30,000-yr multiple-proxy record from White Pond, South Carolina (USA) Late-Quaternary vegetation, climate, and fire history of the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Plain based on a 30,000-yr multiple-proxy record from White Pond, South Carolina (USA)
The patterns and drivers of late Quaternary vegetation dynamics in the southeastern United States are poorly understood due to low site density, problematic chronologies, and a paucity of independent paleoclimate proxy records. We present a well-dated (15 accelerator mass spectrometry 14C dates) 30,000-yr record from White Pond, South Carolina that consists of high-resolution analyses of...
Authors
Teresa R. Krause, James M. Russell, Rui Zhang, John W. Williams, Stephen Jackson
Natural resource management decision-making under climate uncertainty: Building social-ecological resilience in southwestern Colorado Natural resource management decision-making under climate uncertainty: Building social-ecological resilience in southwestern Colorado
The goal of this project was to facilitate climate change adaptation that contributes to social-ecological resilience, ecosystem and species conservation, and sustainable human communities in southwestern Colorado. The team developed and piloted integrated adaptation planning tools and principles that merge the strengths of the iterative scenario process, the Adaptation for Conservation...
Authors
Nina Burkardt, Marcie Bidwell, Katherine Clifford, Betsy Neely, Patricia Orth, Imtiaz Rangwala, Renee Rondeau, Carina Wyborn, Laurie Yung