USGS Cool Tools for Hot Topics

New Tools to Predict and Detect the Spread of Invasive Species

Lionfish are spreading through the Western North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. Photo by Ned DeLoach (Public domain.)

Contacts: 
Cindy Kolar, USGS Invasive Species Program Coordinator
Earl Campbell, USGS Invasive Species Program Manager
Pam Fuller, USGS Fishery Biologist - Wetland and Aquatic Research Center
Margaret Hunter, USGS Research Geneticist - Wetland and Aquatic

Research Center

Topics Covered:

1. Invasive Species Range Expansion - Advances in prediction and monitoring tools
2. eDNA to detect and estimate occupancy for invasive and imperiled species 
3. NAS FAST database and tools

Resources:

• USGS Invasive Species Program

Disease and Biosurveillance Tools for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Management

Mule deer does and fawns gather on their winter range just before beginning their spring migration north through the Wyoming Range mountains, Wyoming, USA. (Credit: Samantha Dwinnell, Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. Public domain.)

Contact: 
Dr. Camille Hopkins, USGS Wildlife Disease Coordinator

Topics Covered:

1. CWD spread modeling tool 
2. CWD surveillance sampling design tool

Resources:

• USGS Wildlife Disease 
• Wildlife Health Information Sharing Partnership (WHISPers)
• New Approach May Detect Chronic Wasting Disease Earlier, at Less Cost

Using Integrated Population Models can improve precision of T&E Species Management

A photo of a Least Bell's Vireo, an endangered songbird that makes its home in the vegetation surrounding rivers and streams. (Credit: Alan Schmierer. Public domain.)

Contact: 
Lianne Ball, USGS Environments Program Manager

Integrated population models (IPM) are unified analyses of multiple data sets such as abundance and one or more demographic rates (e.g., survival or fecundity), permitting a more precise estimation of parameters and more accurate population inference.   Combining data sets for an IPM allow us to better target interventions to specific parts of a specie’s life history, distinguish among causal hypotheses, and avoid negative outcomes from interventions.

Using IPMs to inform T&E management decisions has several advantages over traditional modeling techniques such as: leveraging of data to estimate latent quantities, better precision of estimated parameters, and a full accounting of process and sampling variability. An IPM is also more likely to be responsive to possible changes in system dynamics than a set of discrete models and associated weights.

Topics Covered: 

1. What are Integrated Population Models and what are they good for?

2. Examples of how they have already been used.

Resources:

• USGS Environments Program Website
• Some of the USGS scientists who can help
• Integrated analysis for population estimation, management impact evaluation, and decision-making for a declining species
• Managing individual nests promotes population recovery of a top predator
• A new parameterization for integrated population models to document amphibian reintroductions
• Brown Trout in the Lees Ferry Reach of the Colorado River—Evaluation of Causal Hypotheses and Potential Interventions

Wind Energy Turbine Mapper and Bat Distribution and Impact Tools

Image of scientist setting up a radar system in Colorado to test its efficacy in detecting birds and bats flying towards spinning wind turbines. (Credit: Todd Preston, USGS. Public domain.)

Contacts: 
Mona Khalil, USGS Energy & Wildlife Program Specialist
Sue Phillips, USGS Aridlands Research Manager -Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center 
Brian Reichert, USGS Ecologist - Fort Collins Science Center

Topics Covered:

1. North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) - USGS
2. U.S. Wind Turbine Database - USGS 
3. Generalized Mortality Estimator for Birds and Bats

Resources:

• USGS Energy and Wildlife Program
• U.S. Geological Survey—2017 Energy and wildlife research annual report
• United States Wind Turbine Database (USWTDB) Help Guide
  • USWTDB Information Video

Advances and Training Opportunities for Species Distribution Modeling

Graham’s penstemon Penstemon grahamii, a species of concern to land managers in the Colorado Plateau. (Credit: Robert Fitts, Utah Natural Heritage Program.. Photo courtesy of Robert Fitts, Utah Natural Heritage Program.)

Contact: 
Thomas Edwards, Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Assistant Unit Leader and Research Wildlife Biologist

Topics Covered:

1. Advances and training opportunities in species distribution and habitat modelling (SDM) for biologists and decision-makers
2. Discussion opportunities for:
   • Reasons why application of SDMs to management lags behind modelling advances;
   • How best to develop training that alleviates application concerns of SDMs;
   • Defining elements of decision-quality SDMs; and
   • Structure of two proposed training courses: (i) construction of SDMs, and (ii) proper interpretation of SDMs

Resources:

• Proposed outline for course on SDM construction

• AFWA workshop: Assessing Decision Risk in Species Range Maps and Distribution Models for Use in Conservation and Management

Applications to Support Landscape Restoration

Young mountain big sagebrush shown in the foreground are re-establishing in a native bunchgrass community 15 years after a fire along the Boise Front Mountains looking unto the Snake River Plain, Idaho. (Credit: Dave Pyke, USGS. Public domain.)

Contact:
Steve Hanser, USGS Sagebrush Ecosystem Program Specialist
Mike Duniway, USGS Research Ecologist and Soil Scientist - Southwest Biological Science Center
Zack Bowen, USGS Branch Chief, Ecosystem Dynamics - Fort Collins Science Center

Topics Covered:

1. Land Treatment Digital Library  
2. Land Treatment Planning Tool
3. Conservation and Restoration Strategy Tool, SageDAT
4. Disturbance Automated Reclamation Tool
5. Everglades Depth Estimation Network
6. Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow Viewer
7. Seed Selector: a tool for finding appropriate plant materials for restoration and reclamation.
8. Climate Distance Mapper: provides resource managers and practitioners climate-based guidance to plan effective restoration in degraded habitats in the southwest.
    

Resources:

• USGS Sage-grouse & Sagebrush Ecosystem
• Everglades Depth Estimation Network Factsheet

Tools to Support State and Multi-Jurisdictional Monitoring Activities

Sage-grouse habitat monitoring site in Virginia Mountains, Nevada. (Public domain.)

Contact: 
Jake Weltzin, USGS Status & Trends Program Manager

Topics Covered:

1. Tools and approaches:
   Sampling Design and Protocol Development
   Data Management and Tools for Data Exploration, Visualization and Analysis (EVA)
   Adaptive Capacity for Species Vulnerability Assessments
   Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing
   Camera Networks and Advanced Technologies
   Ecological Forecasting
    
2. Projects and resources:
   MonitoringResources.org
   USA National Phenology Network
   North American Bat Monitoring Program
   Monarch Monitoring and Conservation Assessment Tool
   Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest

Resources:

• Factsheet:  MonitoringResources.org—Supporting coordinated and cost-effective natural resource monitoring across organizations
• White-paper: Investing in citizen science can improve natural resource management and environmental protection
• How the USA National Phenology Network Supports Decision Making
• USGS Status & Trends Program