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: 42878
Food-web structure in canyon and slope-associated fauna revealed by stable isotopes Food-web structure in canyon and slope-associated fauna revealed by stable isotopes
Food webs and associated trophic linkages among organisms are central themes in ecology that provide insight into the structure and function of ecosystems. In the deep sea, food webs rely on particulate flux raining from surface waters for energy (Klages et al. 2003), except for chemosynthetic communities, which rely on in situ production via chemosynthesis (Van Dover 2007). In general...
Authors
Amanda W. J. Demopoulos, Jennifer P. McClain-Counts, Steve W. Ross, Sandra Brooke, Michael Rhode
Ecology of the Eastern Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula) at Rainey Slough, Florida: A vanished Eden Ecology of the Eastern Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula) at Rainey Slough, Florida: A vanished Eden
Eastern Kingsnakes (Lampropeltis getula) are an important component and predator in herpetofaunal communities, but many Eastern Kingsnake populations have declined precipitously in the last few decades, particularly in the southeastern United States. Here, we describe an intensive capture–mark–recapture study of L. getula conducted during 1974–1978 in a canal bank–Water Hyacinth...
Authors
J. Steve Godley, Brian J. Halstead, Roy W. McDiarmid
Impacts of mastication fuel treatments on California, USA, chaparral vegetation structure and composition Impacts of mastication fuel treatments on California, USA, chaparral vegetation structure and composition
Mechanical fuel treatments are a primary pre-fire strategy for potentially mitigating the threat of wildland fire, yet there is limited information on how they impact shrubland ecosystems. Our goal was to assess the impact of mechanical mastication fuel treatments on chaparral vegetation and to determine the extent to which they emulate early post-fire succession. Mastication treatments
Authors
Teresa J. Brennan, Jon E. Keeley
Climate change and collapsing thermal niches of Mexican endemic reptiles Climate change and collapsing thermal niches of Mexican endemic reptiles
Recent climate change should result in expansion of species to northern or high elevation range margins, and contraction at southern and low elevation margins due to extinction. Climate models predict dramatic extinctions and distributional shifts in the next century, but there are few ground-truths of these dire forecasts leading to uncertainty in predicting extinctions due to climate...
Authors
Barry Sinervo, Donald B. Miles, Rafael A. Lara Resendiz, Jeffrey E. Lovich, Joshua R. Ennen, Johannes Muller, Robert D. Cooper, Philip C. Rosen, Joseph A. E. Stewart, Juan Carlos Santos, Jack W. Sites, Paul Gibbons, Eric Goode, L. Scott Hillard, Luke Welton, Mickey Agha, Gabriel Caetano, Mercy Vaughn, Cristina Melendez Torres, Hector Gadsden, Gamaliel Castenada Gaytan, Patricia Galina-Tessaro, Fernando I. Valle Jimenez, Jorge H. Valdez-Villavicencio, Norberto Martinez Mendez, Guillermo Woolrich Pina, Victor Luja Molina, Anibal Diaz de la Vega Perez, Diego M. Arenas Moreno, Saul Dominguez Guerrero, Natalia Fierro, Scott Butterfield, Michael Westpha, Raymond B. Huey, William Mautz, Víctor Sánchez-Cordero, Fausto R. Mendez de la Cruz
Herring Disease Program – Herring Disease Program II Herring Disease Program – Herring Disease Program II
No abstract available.
Authors
Paul Hershberger, Maureen K. Purcell
Adaptive harvest management for the Svalbard population of pink-footed geese (Anser brachyrhynchus) Adaptive harvest management for the Svalbard population of pink-footed geese (Anser brachyrhynchus)
This document describes progress to date on the development of an adaptive harvest-management strategy for maintaining the Svalbard population of pink-footed geese (Anser brachyrhynchus) near their target level (60,000) by providing for sustainable harvests in Norway and Denmark. Specifically, this report provides an assessment of the most recent monitoring information and its...
Yellowstone grizzly bear investigations — Annual report of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team 2016 Yellowstone grizzly bear investigations — Annual report of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team 2016
This Annual Report summarizes results of grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) monitoring and research conducted in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) during 2016. The report also contains a summary of grizzly bear management actions to address conflict situations.
Fisheries research and monitoring activities of the Lake Erie Biological Station, 2016 Fisheries research and monitoring activities of the Lake Erie Biological Station, 2016
Authors
Betsy L. Bodamer Scarbro, Richard T. Kraus, Patrick Kocovsky, Christopher Vandergoot
Quantifying the relative contribution of an ecological reserve to conservation objectives Quantifying the relative contribution of an ecological reserve to conservation objectives
Evaluating the role public lands play in meeting conservation goals is an essential step in good governance. We present a tool for comparing the regional contribution of each of a suite of wildlife management units to conservation goals. We use weighted summation (simple additive weighting) to compute a Unit Contribution Index (UCI) based on species richness, population abundance, and a
Authors
Kevin Aagaard, James E. Lyons, Wayne E. Thogmartin
Lake Ontario benthic prey fish assessment, 2016 Lake Ontario benthic prey fish assessment, 2016
Benthic prey fishes are a critical component of the Lake Ontario food web, serving as energy vectors from benthic invertebrates to native and introduced piscivores. Beginning in 1978, Lake Ontario benthic prey fishes were assessed using bottom trawls collected from the lake’s south shore (depth range: 8 – 150 m). Historically, the survey targeted the then dominant species, Slimy Sculpin...
Authors
Brian Weidel, Maureen Walsh, Jeremy P. Holden, Michael J. Connerton
Status and trends in the Lake Superior fish community, 2016 Status and trends in the Lake Superior fish community, 2016
In 2016, the Lake Superior fish community was sampled with daytime bottom trawls at 76 nearshore and 35 offshore stations. Spring and summer water temperatures in 2016 were warmer than average and considerably warmer than observed in 2014 and 2015. In the nearshore zone, a total of 17,449 individuals from 20 species or morphotypes were collected. Nearshore lakewide mean biomass was 2.2...
Authors
Mark Vinson, Lori M. Evrard, Owen T. Gorman, Daniel Yule
The response of arid soil communities to climate change: Chapter 8 The response of arid soil communities to climate change: Chapter 8
Arid and semiarid ecosystems cover approximately 40% of Earth’s terrestrial surface and are present on each of the planet’s continents [1]. Drylands are characterized by their aridity, but there is substantial geographic, edaphic, and climatic variability among these vast ecosystems, and these differences underscore substantial variation in dryland soil microbial communities, as well as...
Authors
Blaire Steven, Theresa Ann McHugh, Sasha C. Reed