Land cover map of an area of the Missouri River used to classify potential breeding habitat for least terns and piping plovers on emergent sandbars.
Mark T Wiltermuth
My current position is Branch Chief for Biogeographic Science within the Science Synthesis, Analysis and Research Program in USGS Core Science Systems.
Our group focuses on biodiversity and biogeographic analysis and synthesis to provide foundational data and analyses at a national scale. The current portfolio includes overseeing our activities in species occurrence, species range, and habitat distributions modeling, synthesis of biodiversity and conservation information, the Protected Areas Database of the United States, the Integrated Taxonomic Information System, and biogeographic information systems.
Science and Products
Advancing Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for High Elevation and Endangered Lowland Coquí Frogs in the U.S. Caribbean
Amphibians in the US Caribbean, like the well-known coquí frog, are particularly vulnerable to human-caused climate change. Coquí frogs are represented by 17 species across Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands and include several mountainous and coastal species that are threatened by extreme heat and drying, loss of coastal freshwater marshes through saltwater intrusion, or both. Over the...
Scoping the Feasibility of Incorporating Climate Change into Risk Assessments of Aquatic Invasive Species in the Upper Midwest
Aquatic invasive species threaten our lakes, streams, and wetlands. These species not only change the biology within the waterbody, but they can change the way we use those waterbodies and the resources they produce. Those changes may have large economic impacts, such as direct management costs and indirect costs to fisheries, tourism and commerce. These species can be small like zebra...
PAD-US Vision
What if you could find the location of any park or protected open space in the United States? By zooming in on a map you could see detailed boundaries and all nearby protected lands, and you could analyze these data to inform decisions about conservation, recreation, or land use planning.
Data integration and information synthesis
Integrating data from multiple sources across various spatial and temporal scales is a challenge that Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center is taking on to facilitate more effective synthesis of information that is useful for understanding ecosystems and analysis of management decisions. A revitalized focus on data management and documentation during this past year is a foundation to future...
Interaction of land use and wet/dry cycles on invertebrate populations of northern prairie wetlands: implications for waterbird habitat conservation
This effort is aimed at understanding how productivity of larger and more permanent wetlands is influenced by a combination of inter-annual hydrological dynamics and land-use impacts. Historically, aquatic-invertebrates productivity and abundance was driven by inter-annual hydrological dynamics because drying periods allow for nutrient cycling and a subsequent pulse of productivity when wet...
Inventory, mapping, estimation, and monitoring of least tern and piping plover habitats on the upper Missouri River using satellite imagery
Emergent sandbar maps of the Missouri River produced by Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center continue to be used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to monitor and manage critical breeding habitat for the endangered Interior population of least terns and the threatened Northern Great Plains population of piping plovers. These maps have been created and...
Developing a sampling and modeling framework to support Dakota skipper management decisions
The presence or absence of an endangered species on the landscape can have significant policy implications for public land managers and private landowners. The Dakota Skipper, a grassland dependent butterfly, was recently listed as a threatened species under The Endangered Species Act in 2014. This listing has created controversy in the states of North and South Dakota because of the potential...
Extending ScienceCache—a Mobile Application for Data Collection—to Accommodate Broader Use within USGS
ScienceCache was originally developed as a mobile device data collection application for a citizen science project. ScienceCache communicates with a centralized database that facilitates near real-time use of collected data that enhances efficiency of data collection in the field. We improved ScienceCache by creating a flexible, reliable platform that reduces effort required to set up a...
Missouri River Land cover map
Land cover map of an area of the Missouri River used to classify potential breeding habitat for least terns and piping plovers on emergent sandbars.
Science and Products
Advancing Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for High Elevation and Endangered Lowland Coquí Frogs in the U.S. Caribbean
Amphibians in the US Caribbean, like the well-known coquí frog, are particularly vulnerable to human-caused climate change. Coquí frogs are represented by 17 species across Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands and include several mountainous and coastal species that are threatened by extreme heat and drying, loss of coastal freshwater marshes through saltwater intrusion, or both. Over the...
Scoping the Feasibility of Incorporating Climate Change into Risk Assessments of Aquatic Invasive Species in the Upper Midwest
Aquatic invasive species threaten our lakes, streams, and wetlands. These species not only change the biology within the waterbody, but they can change the way we use those waterbodies and the resources they produce. Those changes may have large economic impacts, such as direct management costs and indirect costs to fisheries, tourism and commerce. These species can be small like zebra...
PAD-US Vision
What if you could find the location of any park or protected open space in the United States? By zooming in on a map you could see detailed boundaries and all nearby protected lands, and you could analyze these data to inform decisions about conservation, recreation, or land use planning.
Data integration and information synthesis
Integrating data from multiple sources across various spatial and temporal scales is a challenge that Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center is taking on to facilitate more effective synthesis of information that is useful for understanding ecosystems and analysis of management decisions. A revitalized focus on data management and documentation during this past year is a foundation to future...
Interaction of land use and wet/dry cycles on invertebrate populations of northern prairie wetlands: implications for waterbird habitat conservation
This effort is aimed at understanding how productivity of larger and more permanent wetlands is influenced by a combination of inter-annual hydrological dynamics and land-use impacts. Historically, aquatic-invertebrates productivity and abundance was driven by inter-annual hydrological dynamics because drying periods allow for nutrient cycling and a subsequent pulse of productivity when wet...
Inventory, mapping, estimation, and monitoring of least tern and piping plover habitats on the upper Missouri River using satellite imagery
Emergent sandbar maps of the Missouri River produced by Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center continue to be used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to monitor and manage critical breeding habitat for the endangered Interior population of least terns and the threatened Northern Great Plains population of piping plovers. These maps have been created and...
Developing a sampling and modeling framework to support Dakota skipper management decisions
The presence or absence of an endangered species on the landscape can have significant policy implications for public land managers and private landowners. The Dakota Skipper, a grassland dependent butterfly, was recently listed as a threatened species under The Endangered Species Act in 2014. This listing has created controversy in the states of North and South Dakota because of the potential...
Extending ScienceCache—a Mobile Application for Data Collection—to Accommodate Broader Use within USGS
ScienceCache was originally developed as a mobile device data collection application for a citizen science project. ScienceCache communicates with a centralized database that facilitates near real-time use of collected data that enhances efficiency of data collection in the field. We improved ScienceCache by creating a flexible, reliable platform that reduces effort required to set up a...
Missouri River Land cover map
Land cover map of an area of the Missouri River used to classify potential breeding habitat for least terns and piping plovers on emergent sandbars.
Land cover map of an area of the Missouri River used to classify potential breeding habitat for least terns and piping plovers on emergent sandbars.