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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.

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USGS Wildland Fire Science

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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The USGS Ecosystems Mission Area

Learn more about us through a visual Geo-Narrative

Our Story

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.

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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?

Ecosystems Mission Area Locations

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

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News

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The Hidden Cost of Disease for Bighorn Sheep—Smaller Horns

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Friday's Findings - January 14th 2022

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Sound Waves Newsletter - November-December 2021

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Publications

Nutrient identity modifies the destabilising effects of eutrophication in grasslands

Nutrient enrichment can simultaneously increase and destabilise plant biomass production, with co-limitation by multiple nutrients potentially intensifying these effects. Here, we test how factorial additions of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium with essential nutrients (K+) affect the stability (mean/standard deviation) of aboveground biomass in 34 grasslands over 7 years. Destabilisatio
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Ecosystems, Southwest Biological Science Center

Highly pathogenic avian influenza is an emerging disease threat to wild birds in North America

Prior to the emergence of the A/goose/Guangdong/1/1996 (Gs/GD) H5N1 influenza A virus, the long-held and well-supported paradigm was that highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks were restricted to poultry, the result of cross-species transmission of precursor viruses from wild aquatic birds that subsequently gained pathogenicity in domestic birds. Therefore, management agencies typicall
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Ecosystems, Alaska Science Center, National Wildlife Health Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Eastern Ecological Science Center

Distribution and abundance of Least Bell’s Vireos (<i>Vireo bellii pusillus</i>) and Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (<i>Empidonax traillii extimus</i>) on the Middle San Luis Rey River, San Diego County, southern California—2021 Data summary

Executive SummaryWe surveyed for Least Bell’s Vireos (Vireo bellii pusillus; vireo) and Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii extimus; flycatcher) along the San Luis Rey River, between College Boulevard in Oceanside and Interstate 15 in Fallbrook, California (middle San Luis Rey River), in 2021. Surveys were conducted from April 13 to July 14 (vireo) and from May 18 to July 13 (flyca
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Ecosystems, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC)
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Science

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Diagram showing per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) movement in the environment.

Per-and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Integrated Science Team

Increasing scientific and public awareness of the widespread distribution of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in U.S. drinking-water supplies, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, wildlife, and humans has raised many public health and resource management questions that U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) science can inform. The USGS Environmental Health Program's PFAS Integrated Science Team...
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Ecosystems, Contaminant Biology, Environmental Health Program, Toxic Substances Hydrology
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Per-and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Integrated Science Team

Increasing scientific and public awareness of the widespread distribution of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in U.S. drinking-water supplies, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, wildlife, and humans has raised many public health and resource management questions that U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) science can inform. The USGS Environmental Health Program's PFAS Integrated Science Team...
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Two small birds at a bird house

PFAS Transport, Exposure, and Effects

The team is determining the movement and behavior of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from their sources in the environment, as they move through exposure pathways in ecosystems including watersheds and aquifers, their incorporation into food webs, and molecular to population scale effects on fish and wildlife. These studies are accomplished at a variety of spatial scales from regional...
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Ecosystems, Contaminant Biology, Environmental Health Program, Toxic Substances Hydrology
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PFAS Transport, Exposure, and Effects

The team is determining the movement and behavior of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from their sources in the environment, as they move through exposure pathways in ecosystems including watersheds and aquifers, their incorporation into food webs, and molecular to population scale effects on fish and wildlife. These studies are accomplished at a variety of spatial scales from regional...
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Map of North America showing locations where chronic wasting disease has been detected.

Expanding Distribution of Chronic Wasting Disease

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been detected in 28 US states and four Canadian provinces in free-ranging cervids and/or commercial captive cervid facilities. CWD has been detected in free-ranging cervids in 27 states and three provinces and in captive cervid facilities in 18 states and three provinces.
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Ecosystems, Fish & Wildlife Disease, National Wildlife Health Center
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Expanding Distribution of Chronic Wasting Disease

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been detected in 28 US states and four Canadian provinces in free-ranging cervids and/or commercial captive cervid facilities. CWD has been detected in free-ranging cervids in 27 states and three provinces and in captive cervid facilities in 18 states and three provinces.
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