The USGS Ecosystems Mission Area

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Ecosystems Science at USGS

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USGS Landscape Science Strategy

Science informing decision making on public lands and across all of our Nation’s landscapes.

USGS science helps understand the causes, consequences, and benefits of wildfire and helps prevent and manage larger, catastrophic events.

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DISCOVRE

Diversity, Systematics and Connectivity of Vulnerable Reef Ecosystems

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Ecosystems

The USGS Ecosystems Mission Area provides science to help America achieve sustainable management and conservation of biological resources in wild and urban spaces, and places in between.

Newsletter - EcoNews

Native westslope cutthroat trout swim in the north fork of the Flathead River in northwestern Montana.

This quarterly newsletter highlights ecosystems science and activities coming out of our Science Centers and Cooperative Research Units across the Nation.

EcoNews Issues

Webinar - Friday's Findings

Colorado Aspen with mountains in the background

A public webinar series meant to offer our audience an opportunity to discover the Ecosystems science capacity within the USGS.

Upcoming Webinars

Where's our Science?

Find out where Ecosystems Science Centers, Field Stations, Climate Adaptation Science Centers, and Cooperative Research Units are located.

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News

October 3, 2022

Friday's Findings - October 14th 2022

September 29, 2022

Polar Bear Hair Sheds Light on Seal Populations Under the Arctic Sea Ice

September 22, 2022

New Report Offers Path Forward for Interagency Efforts to Revive the West’s Disappearing Sagebrush Ecosystem

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Publications

September 29, 2022

Measuring and attributing sedimentary and geomorphic responses to modern climate change: Challenges and opportunities

Today, climate change is affecting virtually all terrestrial and nearshore settings. This commentary discusses the challenges of measuring climate-driven physical landscape responses to modern global warming: short and incomplete data records, land use and seismicity masking climatic effects, biases in data availability and resolution, and signal attenuation in sedimentary systems. We identify opp

Ecosystems, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Southwest Biological Science Center

September 28, 2022

Does large dam removal restore downstream riparian vegetation diversity? Testing predictions on the Elwha River, Washington, USA

Large dams and their removal can profoundly affect riparian ecosystems by altering flow and sediment regimes, hydrochory, and landform dynamics, yet few studies have documented these effects on downstream plant communities. Ecological theory and empirical results suggest that by altering disturbance regimes, reducing hydrochory, and shifting communities to later successional stages, dams reduce do

Ecosystems, Fort Collins Science Center

September 27, 2022

Marshes and mangroves as nature-based coastal storm buffers

Tidal marshes and mangroves are increasingly valued for nature-based mitigation of coastal storm impacts, such as flooding and shoreline erosion hazards, which are growing due to global change. As this review highlights, however, hazard mitigation by tidal wetlands is limited to certain conditions, and not all hazards are equally reduced. Tidal wetlands are effective in attenuating short-period st

Ecosystems, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

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Science

October 3, 2022

Planetary Volatiles - Snow and Ice

The USGS Astrogeology Science Center conducts research on planetary volatiles. Volatiles include substances that have a high vapor pressure relative to the ambient atmosphere. We study the longevity, locations and other characteristics of volatiles. More specifically: H2O ice, snow and frost are volatiles on the Earth. We study the persistence of perennial snowfields in Colorado and Mongolia. Mars...

Core Science Systems, Ecosystems, Natural Hazards, Water Resources, Astrogeology Science Center

October 3, 2022