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
Linking landscape-scale conservation to regional and continental outcomes for a migratory species Linking landscape-scale conservation to regional and continental outcomes for a migratory species
Land-use intensification on arable land is expanding and posing a threat to biodiversity and ecosystem services worldwide. We develop methods to link funding for avian breeding habitat conservation and management at landscape scales to equilibrium abundance of a migratory species at the continental scale. We apply this novel approach to a harvested bird valued by birders and hunters in...
Authors
Brady J. Mattsson, Jim H Devries, James A. Dubovsky, Darius J. Semmens, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Jonathan J. Derbridge, Laura Lopez-Hoffman
Consequences of ignoring group association in spatial capture-recapture analysis Consequences of ignoring group association in spatial capture-recapture analysis
Many models in population ecology, including spatial capture–recapture (SCR) models, assume that individuals are distributed and detected independently of one another. In reality, this is rarely the case – both antagonistic and gregarious relationships lead to non-independent spatial configurations, with territorial exclusion at one end of the spectrum and group-living at the other...
Authors
Richard Bischof, Pierre Dupont, Cyril Milleret, Joseph Chipperfield, J. Andrew Royle
A pheromone antagonist liberates female sea lamprey from a sensory trap to enable reliable communication A pheromone antagonist liberates female sea lamprey from a sensory trap to enable reliable communication
The evolution of male signals and female preferences remains a central question in the study of animal communication. The sensory trap model suggests males evolve signals that mimic cues used in nonsexual contexts and thus manipulate female behavior to generate mating opportunities. Much evidence supports the sensory trap model, but how females glean reliable information from both...
Authors
Tyler John Buchinger, Anne M Scott, Skye D. Fissette, Cory Brant, Mar Huertas, Ke Li, Nicholas S. Johnson, Weiming Li
Dynamics, variability, and change in seasonal precipitation reconstructions for North America Dynamics, variability, and change in seasonal precipitation reconstructions for North America
Cool and warm season precipitation totals have been reconstructed on a gridded basis for North America using 439 tree-ring chronologies correlated with December-April totals and 547 different chronologies correlated with May-July totals. These discrete seasonal predictor chronologies are not significantly correlated with the alternate season and the reconstructions calibrate at least 40%...
Authors
David W. Stahle, Edward R Cook, Dorian J Burnette, Max C.A. Torbenson, Ian M Howard, Daniel Griffin, Jose Villanueva Diaz, Benjamin I. Cook, Park A. Williams, Emma Watson, David J. Sauchyn, Neil Pederson, Connie A. Woodhouse, Gregory T. Pederson, David M. Meko, Bethany Coulthard, Christopher J. Crawford
Physical characteristics and simulated transport of pallid sturgeon and shovelnose sturgeon eggs Physical characteristics and simulated transport of pallid sturgeon and shovelnose sturgeon eggs
The imperiled pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) and closely related, but more common, shovelnose sturgeon (S. platorynchus) are believed to broadcast adhesive, demersal eggs in the current and over coarse substrate in turbid rivers of the North American midcontinent. It has been hypothesized that eggs settle immediately following fertilization, but field conditions preclude direct...
Authors
Kimberly Chojnacki, Susannah O. Erwin, Amy E. George, James Candrl, Robert B. Jacobson, Aaron J. Delonay
An overview of agent-based models in plant biology and ecology An overview of agent-based models in plant biology and ecology
Agent-based modeling (ABM) has become an established methodology in many areas of biology, ranging from the cellular to the ecological population and community levels. In plant science, two different scales have predominated in their use of ABM. One is the scale of populations and communities, through the modeling of collections of agents representing individual plants, interacting with...
Authors
Bo Zhang, Donald L. DeAngelis
Ecology of influenza A viruses in wild birds and wetlands of Alaska Ecology of influenza A viruses in wild birds and wetlands of Alaska
Alaska represents a globally important region for the ecology of avian-origin influenza A viruses (IAVs) given expansive wetlands in this region which serve as habitat for numerous hosts of IAVs that disperse among four continents during the annual cycle. Extensive sampling of wild birds for IAVs in Alaska since 1991 has greatly extended inference regarding intercontinental viral...
Authors
Andrew M. Ramey, Andrew B. Reeves
North Carolina State climate report North Carolina State climate report
Our scientific understanding of the climate system strongly supports the conclusion that North Carolina’s climate has changed in recent decades and the expectation that large changes—much larger than at any time in the state’s history—will occur if current trends in greenhouse gas concentrations continue. Even under a scenario where emissions peak around 2050 and decline thereafter...
Authors
Kenneth E. Kunkel, David R Easterling, Andrew Ballinger, Solomon Bililign, Sarah M Champion, D Reide Corbett, Kathie Dello, Jenny Dissen, James P. Kossin, Gary Lackmann, Rick Luettich, Baker Perry, Walter Robinson, Laura E. Stevens, Brooke C. Stewart, Adam Terando
Validation of a screening method for the detection of colistin-resistant E. coli containing mcr-1 in feral swine feces Validation of a screening method for the detection of colistin-resistant E. coli containing mcr-1 in feral swine feces
A method was developed and validated for the detection of colistin-resistant Escherichia coli containing mcr-1 in the feces of feral swine. Following optimization of an enrichment method using EC broth supplemented with colistin (1 µg/mL) and vancomycin (8 µg/mL), aliquots derived from 100 feral swine fecal samples were spiked with of one of five different mcr-1 positive E. coli strains...
Authors
Jeffrey C Chandler, Alan B. Franklin, Sarah N. Bevins, Kevin T Bentler, Jonas Bonnedahl, Christina Ahlstrom, Bledar Bisha, Susan A. Shriner
A 'weight of evidence' approach to evaluating structural equation models A 'weight of evidence' approach to evaluating structural equation models
It is possible that model selection has been the most researched and most discussed topic in the history of both statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM). The reason for this is because selecting one model for interpretive use from amongst many possible models is both essential and difficult. The published protocols and advice for model evaluation and selection in SEM studies...
Authors
James Grace
Eradication of peste des petits ruminants and the wildlife-livestock interface Eradication of peste des petits ruminants and the wildlife-livestock interface
Growing evidence suggests that multiple wildlife species can be infected with peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV), with important consequences for the potential maintenance of PPRV in communities of susceptible hosts, and the threat that PPRV may pose to the conservation of wildlife populations and resilience of ecosystems. Significant knowledge gaps in the epidemiology of PPRV...
Authors
Amanda E. Fine, Mathieu Pruvot, Camila Benfield, Alexandre Caron, Giovanni Cattoli, Philippe Chardonnet, Maurizio Dioli, Thomas Dulu, Martin Gilbert, Richard Kock, Juan Lubroth, Jeffery Mariner, Stephane Ostrowski, Satya Parida, Sasan Fereidouni, Enkhtuvshin Shiilegdamba, Jonathan M. Sleeman, Claudia Schultz, Jean-Jacques Soula, Yves van der Stede, Berhe G. Tekola, Chris Walzer, Steffen Zuther, Feliz Njeumi
Organic compounds in produced waters from the Bakken Formation and Three Forks Formation in the Williston Basin, North Dakota Organic compounds in produced waters from the Bakken Formation and Three Forks Formation in the Williston Basin, North Dakota
The organic composition of produced waters (flowback and formation waters) from the middle member of the Bakken Formation and the Three Forks Formation in the Williston Basin, North Dakota were examined to aid in the remediation of surface contamination and help develop treatment methods for produced-water recycling. Twelve produced water samples were collected from the Bakken and Three...
Authors
Matthew S. Varonka, Tanya Gallegos, Anne L. Bates, Colin A. Doolan, William H. Orem