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: 41989
Mountain sentinels in a changing world: Review and conservation implications of weather and climate effects on mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus)
Climate change is occurring at an accelerated rate in high-elevation alpine and mountain ecosystems. Cold-adapted, mountain species are at risk due to forecasted change and knowledge is needed to respond to current and future conservation challenges. Mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) are an iconic species of North American mountain cultures and landscapes, and due to specialized...
Authors
Kevin White, Becky Cadsand, Steeve D. Côté, Tabitha A. Graves, Sandra Hamel, Richard B. Harris, Forest Hayes, Eran Hood, Kevin Hurley, Tyler Jessen, Bill Jex, Erich Peitzsch, Wesley Sarmento, Helen M. Schwantje, Joel Berger
Ungulate personality and the human shield contribute to long-distance migration loss
Long-distance ungulate migrations are declining and past research has focused on preserving migration paths where habitat fragmentation and loss disrupts movement corridors. However, changing residency-migration tradeoffs are the stronger driver of long-distance migration loss in some populations. The human shield effect relative to predation risk and anthropogenic food resources likely...
Authors
Gavin G. Cotterill, Paul C. Cross, Eric K. Cole, Sarah R. Dewey, Benjamin L. Wise, Tabitha A. Graves
U.S. Geological Survey science strategy to address chronic wasting disease and cervid health in 2024–2028
Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a neurological disease similar to scrapie in goats and sheep, has been spreading since the 1960s throughout cervid populations in the United States. It is currently detected in 30 States and now also extends to Canada, Korea, and Scandinavia. CWD is a fatal disease caused by an infectious abnormally folded prion protein. Population-level effects of CWD on...
Authors
Jason Ferrante, Jonathan D. Cook, Paul C. Cross, M. Camille Hopkins
Using camera traps to estimate site occupancy of invasive Argentine Black and White Tegus (Salvator merianae) in South Florida
The introduction of nonnative species is a leading cause of biodiversity loss. Many invasive species are cryptic or elusive in nature and therefore often evade detection, complicating their management. Occupancy modeling can reveal the presence and spread of invasive species over time and therefore has important management implications. Camera traps can be used to estimate occupancy, or...
Authors
Samantha N. Smith, Melissa A. Miller, Hardin Waddle, Sarah Cooke, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Andrea Currylow, Kevin Donmoyer, Frank J. Mazzotti
Using life history traits to assess climate change vulnerability in understudied species
Climate change is a primary threat to biodiversity, but for many species, we still lack information required to assess their relative vulnerability to changes. Climate change vulnerability assessment (CCVA) is a widely used technique to rank relative vulnerability to climate change based on species characteristics, such as their distributions, habitat associations, environmental...
Authors
Ross K Hinderer, Blake R. Hossack, Lisa A Eby
Trophic transfer of fipronil residues to black-footed ferrets: Implications for ferret safety, flea control, and plague mitigation
Sylvatic plague, caused by the flea-borne bacterium Yersinia pestis, is an invasive disease in North America that causes reductions of native fauna and transforms ecosystems. Fipronil baits have shown promise in reducing flea loads on prairie dogs Cynomys spp. for plague mitigation. Many species depend on prairie dogs and their ecological influences, including the black-footed ferret...
Authors
Tyler N. Tretten, David A. Eads, John P. Hughes, Gregory P. Dooley, Dean E. Biggins
Evolutionary perspectives on thiamine supplementation of managed Pacific salmonid populations
Thiamine deficiency complex (TDC) has been identified in an ever-expanding list of species and populations. In many documented occurrences of TDC in fishes, juvenile mortality can be high—up to 90% at the population level. Such sweeping demographic losses and concomitant decreases in genetic diversity due to TDC can be prevented by treating pre-spawn females or fertilized eggs with...
Authors
Avril M. Harder, Aimee N. Reed, Freya Elizabeth Rowland
Cryospheric sciences at the U.S. Geological Survey
IntroductionThe cryosphere is the collective parts of the Earth where water is in its frozen state and includes snow, glaciers, ice sheets, ice shelves, freshwater ice, sea ice, and permafrost. The cryosphere is a climate indicator and climate regulator. Surface cryosphere features, such as glaciers, snow, and sea ice, store freshwater and make the surface of the Earth bright white...
Authors
Caitlyn Florentine, Erich Peitzsch, Miriam C. Jones, Theodore B. Barnhart, Thomas M. Cronin
High genetic diversity, low population genetic structure, strong natal philopatry, and longevity revealed in the Black Swift (Cypseloides niger borealis)
Genetic diversity is a critical cornerstone of biodiversity and is a central goal in management and conservation biology. Such diversity has implications for survivability, adaptability, and resiliency of a species. This study aimed to determine levels of genetic diversity and population genetic structure in the Northern Black Swift (Cypseloides niger borealis). This species nests across...
Authors
Carolyn Gunn, Kim Potter, Jennifer A. Fike, Sara J. Oyler-McCance
Reconstructing half a century of coregonine recruitment reveals species-specific dynamics and synchrony across the Laurentian Great Lakes
Understanding how multiple species and populations vary in their recruitment dynamics can elucidate the processes driving recruitment across space and time. Lake Whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) and Cisco (C. artedi) are socioecologically important fishes across their range; however, many Laurentian Great Lakes populations have experienced declining, poor, or sporadic recruitment in...
Authors
Taylor A. Brown, Lars G. Rudstam, Suresh A. Sethi, Paul Ripple, Jason Smith, Ted Treska, Christopher Hessell, Erik Olsen, Ji X. He, Jory Jonas, Benjamin J. Rook, Joshua Blankenheim, Sarah J.H. Beech, Erin Brown, Eric K. Berglund, H. Andrew Cook, Erin S. Dunlop, Stephen James, Steven A. Pothoven, Zach Amidon, John A. Sweka, Dray Carl, Scott Hansen, David Bunnell, Brian Weidel, Andrew Edgar Honsey
Sea level rise threatens Florida’s insular vertebrate biodiversity
Islands are some of the most biodiverse places on earth, but they are also hotspots of biodiversity loss. The coastline of Florida, U.S.A., is surrounded by thousands of islands, many of which are home to species that occur nowhere else. A rapidly emerging threat to these low-lying islands is inundation as sea levels rise. The capacity of island-dwelling species to adapt to climate...
Authors
Erin L. Koen, William Barichivich, Elizabeth Braun De Torrez, Susan Walls