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: 42999
Clade 2.3.4.4 H5 North American highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses infect, but do not cause clinical signs in American Black Ducks (Anas rubripes) Clade 2.3.4.4 H5 North American highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses infect, but do not cause clinical signs in American Black Ducks (Anas rubripes)
Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) from the goose/Guangdong/1996 clade 2.3.4.4 H5 lineage spread from Asia into North America in 2014, most likely by wild bird migrations. Although several variants of the virus were detected, an H5N8 and H5N2 were the most widespread in North American wild birds and domestic poultry. In early 2015, the H5N2 virus spread through commercial...
Authors
Erica Spackman, Diann Prosser, Mary Pantin-Jackwood, Christopher B. Stephens, Alicia Berlin
Absence of PCB hot spot effect in walleye Sander vitreus from lower Green Bay of Lake Michigan Absence of PCB hot spot effect in walleye Sander vitreus from lower Green Bay of Lake Michigan
Under certain conditions, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) concentration in individuals of one sex of an adult fish population may exceed that of the other sex by more than a factor of two. This phenomenon, known as the PCB hot spot effect, has been postulated to be contingent upon the following two conditions: (1) presence of a PCB hot spot in the bottom sediments of the aquatic ecosystem...
Authors
Charles P. Madenjian, Daniel J. Dembkowski, Daniel A. Isermann, Stuart A. Batterman, Sergei C. Chernyak, Stewart F. Cogswell, Mark E. Holey
Forecasting for dry and wet avalanches during mixed rain and snow storm events Forecasting for dry and wet avalanches during mixed rain and snow storm events
Professionals in coastal and some inland mountain ranges regularly face mixed rain-snow events. Professionals in inland ranges frequently deal with persistent slab avalanches failing on old faceted layers buried deep within the snowpack. What happens when you combine these snowpack and weather events? Widespread avalanching involving faceted layers during mixed rain-snow events is rarely...
Authors
Scott Savage, Erich H. Peitzsch, Simon Trautman, Benjamin VandenBos
Vertical habitat use of adult Walleye conflicts with expectations from fishery-independent surveys Vertical habitat use of adult Walleye conflicts with expectations from fishery-independent surveys
Stock assessments of Walleyes Sander vitreus in Lake Erie rely on a combination of suspended and bottom overnight gill‐net surveys to provide population and demographic information. However, the assumption that Walleyes undertake diel vertical migrations and become available to the suspended gill nets at night has never been validated. To understand how vertical habitat use affects the
Authors
Ann Marie Gorman, Richard T. Kraus, Lee Gutowsky, Christopher Vandergoot, Yingming Zhao, Carey Knight, Matt Faust, Todd Hayden, Charles Krueger
The Laurentian Great Lakes: A case study in ecological disturbance and climate change The Laurentian Great Lakes: A case study in ecological disturbance and climate change
Climate change effects are already significant, but can also magnify other ecological problems. This can be clearly seen in the Laurentian Great Lakes, which have suffered habitat degradation, fishery overharvest and dramatic alterations by invasive species. Thermal changes are expected to cause extensive loss of suitable fish habitat, and changing precipitation patterns will aggravate...
Authors
James E. McKenna
Survival of Bristle-thighed Curlews equipped with externally mounted transmitters Survival of Bristle-thighed Curlews equipped with externally mounted transmitters
Telemetry devices are widely used in avian research, but the degree to which the deployment of such devices affects the survival of study subjects is often not addressed. It is generally assumed that such effects are less pronounced in large-bodied species that conduct relatively short migrations and carry relatively light telemetry devices. We studied Bristle-thighed Curlews Numenius...
Authors
Daniel R. Ruthrauff, T. Lee Tibbitts, Vijay P. Patil
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