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Ecosystems Mission Area

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.

News

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USGS ecologist forges the key to unlocking a long-standing scientific debate about habitat fragmentation

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USGS Friday's Findings—December 1, 2023

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Waste not, want not: How USGS capabilities enhance COVID-19 wastewater surveillance

Publications

Climate change impacts on bird migration and highly pathogenic avian influenza

The unprecedented extent of highly pathogenic avian influenza coincides with intensifying global climate changes that alter host ecology and physiology, and could impact virus evolution and dynamics.
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Diann Prosser, Claire S. Teitelbaum, Shenglai Yin, Nichola J. Hill, Xiangming Xiao

Organic layers preserved in ice patches: A new record of Holocene environmental change on the Beartooth Plateau, USA

Growing season temperatures play a crucial role in controlling treeline elevation at regional to global scales. However, understanding of treeline dynamics in response to long-term changes in temperature is limited. In this study, we analyze pollen, plant macrofossils, and charcoal preserved in organic layers within a 10,400-year-old ice patch and in sediment from a 6000-year-old wetland located a
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Mio Alt, Kathryn Puseman, Craig Lee, Gregory T. Pederson, Joseph R. McConnell, Nathan J. Chellman, David B. McWethy

Characterizing the movement of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in an avian aquatic–terrestrial food web

The movement of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) through linked aquatic–terrestrial food webs is not well understood. Tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) in such systems may be exposed to PFAS from multiple abiotic and/or biotic compartments. We show from fatty acid signatures and carbon stable isotopes that tree swallow nestlings in southwestern Ontario fed on both terrestrial and aquat
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Kailee E. Hopkins, Melissa A. McKinney, Amandeep Saini, Robert J. Letcher, Natalie K. Karouna-Renier, Kim J. Fernie

Science

Southwest Energy Exploration, Development, and Reclamation (SWEDR)

Approximately 35% of the US and approximately 82% of DOI lands are “drylands” found throughout the western US. These lands contain oil, gas, oil shale, shale oil, and tar sand deposits and the exploration for and extraction of these resources has resulted in hundreds of thousands of operating and abandoned wells across the West. These arid and semi-arid lands have unique soil and plant communities...
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Southwest Energy Exploration, Development, and Reclamation (SWEDR)

Approximately 35% of the US and approximately 82% of DOI lands are “drylands” found throughout the western US. These lands contain oil, gas, oil shale, shale oil, and tar sand deposits and the exploration for and extraction of these resources has resulted in hundreds of thousands of operating and abandoned wells across the West. These arid and semi-arid lands have unique soil and plant communities...
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Fish and Aquatic Ecology

Fish and aquatic habitats in Alaska support important commercial, sport, and subsistence fisheries and provide forage fish that support wildlife populations. The USGS Alaska Science Center conducts interdisciplinary research to inform local, state, federal, and international policy makers regarding conservation of fish, aquatic species, and their habitats. We work collaboratively with hydrologists...
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Fish and Aquatic Ecology

Fish and aquatic habitats in Alaska support important commercial, sport, and subsistence fisheries and provide forage fish that support wildlife populations. The USGS Alaska Science Center conducts interdisciplinary research to inform local, state, federal, and international policy makers regarding conservation of fish, aquatic species, and their habitats. We work collaboratively with hydrologists...
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Natural Resource Damage and Assessment (NRDA) Program- DOI Monitoring and Adaptive Management Technical Assistance

WARC researchers are providing support to Louisiana Monitoring and Adaptive Management activities.
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