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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: 42712

Interactions and impacts of domesticated animals on cranes in agriculture Interactions and impacts of domesticated animals on cranes in agriculture

Affiliations of most cranes to humans and agriculture means they often interact with a variety of domestic animals. Those interactions can be beneficial or neutral when domestic animal densities and their impact on wetland or grassland systems are low to moderate, as found in more traditional agricultural practices. The most common interaction is with grazers, primarily domestic...
Authors
Jane E. Austin, Kunikazu Momose, George W. Archibald

Observed climate change Observed climate change

As discussed in Chapter 1, climate is one of the principal factors that have determined the composition and extent of forest ecosystems in the Mid-Atlantic region during the past several thousand years. This chapter describes the climate trends in the assessment area that have been observed during the past century, including documented patterns of climate-related processes and extreme...
Authors
Patricia R. Butler-Leopold, Louis R. Iverson, Frank R. Thompson, Leslie A. Brandt, Stephen D. Handler, Maria K. Janowiak, P. Danielle Shannon, Christopher W. Swanston, Scott Bearer, Alexander Bryan, Kenneth L. Clark, Greg Czarnecki, Philip DeSenze, William D. Dijak, Jacob S. Fraser, Paul F. Gugger, Andrea Hille, Justin Hynicka, Claire A. Jantz, Matthew C. Kelly, Katrina M. Krause, Inga P. La Puma, Deborah Landau, Richard G. Lathrop, Laura P. Leites, Evan Madlinger, Stephen N. Matthews, Gulnihal Ozbay, Matthew P. Peters, Anantha Prasad, David A. Schmit, Collin Shephard, Rebecca Shirer, Nicholas S. Skowronski, Al Steele, Susan Stout, Melissa Thomas-Van Gundy, John Thompson, Richard M. Turcotte, David A. Weinstein, Alfonso Yanez

President's address for Wetland Science and Practice - October 2018 President's address for Wetland Science and Practice - October 2018

As 2018 moves into its last quarter, those of us in the southern U.S. check the skies for hurricanes, academics and students return to the classroom, and researchers wrap up the last of their year’s field work. For SWS, the last quarter brings new ways to promote internationalization...
Authors
Beth A. Middleton

Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Average annual temperature for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands has increased by more than 1.5°F since 1950. Under a higher emissions pathway, historically unprecedented warming is projected by the end of the 21st century, including increases in extreme heat events. Future changes in total precipitation are uncertain, but extreme precipitation is projected to increase, with...
Authors
Jennifer Runkle, Kenneth E. Kunkel, Laura E. Stevens, Sarah Champion, David Easterling, Adam Terando, Liqiang Sun, Brooke C. Stewart, Glenn Landers

Toxicity assessment of groundwater contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons at a well-characterized, aged, crude oil release site Toxicity assessment of groundwater contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons at a well-characterized, aged, crude oil release site

Management of petroleum-impacted waters by monitored natural attenuation requires an understanding of the toxicology of both the original compounds released and the transformation products formed during natural breakdown. Here, we report data from a groundwater plume consisting of a mixture of crude oil compounds and transformation products in an effort to bridge the gap between...
Authors
Jennifer T. McGuire, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Barbara A. Bekins, Hannah Link, Dalma Martinović-Weigelt

Preliminary evaluation of behavioral response of nesting waterbirds to small unmanned aircraft flight Preliminary evaluation of behavioral response of nesting waterbirds to small unmanned aircraft flight

Small unmanned aircraft systems present an emerging technology with the potential to survey colonial waterbird populations while reducing disturbance in comparison to traditional ground counts. Recent research with these systems has been performed on some colonially nesting avian species; however, none have focused on wading bird species. During 2015–2016, this study tested the...
Authors
Kaitlyn Reintsma, Peter C. McGowan, Carl R. Callahan, Tom Collier, David Gray, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Diann J. Prosser

Occupancy modeling species–environment relationships with non‐ignorable survey designs Occupancy modeling species–environment relationships with non‐ignorable survey designs

Statistical models supporting inferences about species occurrence patterns in relation to environmental gradients are fundamental to ecology and conservation biology. A common implicit assumption is that the sampling design is ignorable and does not need to be formally accounted for in analyses. The analyst assumes data are representative of the desired population and statistical...
Authors
Kathryn M. Irvine, Thomas J. Rodhouse, Wilson J. Wright, Anthony R. Olsen

A geostatistical state‐space model of animal densities for stream networks A geostatistical state‐space model of animal densities for stream networks

Population dynamics are often correlated in space and time due to correlations in environmental drivers as well as synchrony induced by individual dispersal. Many statistical analyses of populations ignore potential autocorrelations and assume that survey methods (distance and time between samples) eliminate these correlations, allowing samples to be treated independently. If these...
Authors
Daniel J. Hocking, James T. Thorson, Kyle O’Neil, Benjamin H. Letcher

Floristic and climatic reconstructions of two Lower Cretaceous successions from Peru Floristic and climatic reconstructions of two Lower Cretaceous successions from Peru

Climate during the Early Cretaceous in tropical South America has often been reconstructed as arid. However, some areas seem to have been humid. We reconstructed the floristic composition of two tropical stratigraphic successions in Peru using quantitative palynology (rarefied species richness and abundance), and used the abundance of aridity vs. humidity indicator species to infer the...
Authors
Paula J. Mejia-Velasquez, Steven R. Manchester, Carlos A. Jaramillo, Luiz Quiroz, Lucas B. Fortini

Quantifying climate sensitivity and climate-driven change in North American amphibian communities Quantifying climate sensitivity and climate-driven change in North American amphibian communities

Changing climate will impact species’ ranges only when environmental variability directly impacts the demography of local populations. However, measurement of demographic responses to climate change has largely been limited to single species and locations. Here we show that amphibian communities are responsive to climatic variability, using >500,000 time-series observations for 81...
Authors
David A.W. Miller, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Erin L. Muths, Staci M. Amburgey, M. J. Adams, Maxwell B. Joseph, J. Hardin Waddle, Pieter T.J. Johnson, Maureen E. Ryan, Benedikt R. Schmidt, Daniel L. Calhoun, Courtney L. Davis, Robert N. Fisher, David M. Green, Blake R. Hossack, Tracy A.G. Rittenhouse, Susan C. Walls, Larissa L. Bailey, Sam S. Cruickshank, Gary M. Fellers, Thomas A. Gorman, Carola A. Haas, Ward Hughson, David S. Pilliod, Steven J. Price, Andrew M. Ray, Walter Sadinski, Daniel Saenz, William J. Barichivich, Adrianne B. Brand, Cheryl S. Brehme, Rosi Dagit, Katy S. Delaney, Brad M. Glorioso, Lee B. Kats, Patrick M. Kleeman, Christopher Pearl, Carlton J. Rochester, Seth P. D. Riley, Mark F. Roth, Brent Sigafus

Vegetative community response to landscape-scale post-fire herbicide (imazapic) application Vegetative community response to landscape-scale post-fire herbicide (imazapic) application

Disturbances such as wildfire create time-sensitive windows of opportunity for invasive plant treatment, and the timing of herbicide application relative to the time course of plant community development following fire can strongly influence herbicide effectiveness. We evaluated the effect of herbicide (imazapic) applied in the first winter or second fall after the 113,000 ha Soda...
Authors
Cara Applestein, Matthew J. Germino, Matthew Fisk
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