USGS Energy and Wildlife Research Year in Review

• Dam Removal and Species Recovery 

Estimating Fatalities and Population-Level Impacts to Birds and Bats from Renewable Energy 

• The geographic extent of bird populations affected by renewable-energy development   

• Utilizing high-resolution genetic markers to track population-level exposure of migratory birds to renewable energy development 

• Numbers of wildlife fatalities at renewable energy facilities in a targeted development region  

• Accounting for the fraction of carcasses outside the searched area in the estimation of bird and bat fatalities at wind energy facilities 

• BatTool: Projecting bat populations facing multiple stressors using a demographic model 

• Understanding fatality patterns and sex ratios of Brazilian free-tailed bats at wind energy facilities in western California and Texas 

• Tracking data highlight the importance of human-induced mortality for large migratory birds at a flyway scale 

• Assessing the use of long-term lek survey data to evaluate the effect of landscape characteristics and wind facilities on sharp-tailed grouse lek dynamics in North Dakota and South Dakota 

Back to Top >>

Golden Eagle Conservation: Reducing Risks and Mitigating Impacts  

• Predicting the spatial distribution of wintering golden eagles to inform full annual cycle conservation in western North America 

• Winter distribution of golden eagles in the Eastern USA  

• Conservation plan for golden eagles in eastern North America 

• Key breeding habitats of threatened golden eagles across Eastern Canada identified using a multi-level, multi-scale habitat selection approach 

• Lead poisoning of raptors: State of the science and cross-discipline mitigation options for a global problem 

• Efficacy of non-lead ammunition distribution programs to offset fatalities of golden eagles in Wyoming 

Back to Top >>

Reducing Impacts to Bats from Land-Based Wind Energy 

• A decade of curtailment studies demonstrates a consistent and effective strategy to reduce bat fatalities at wind turbines in North America 

• Potential for spatial coexistence of a transboundary migratory species and wind energy development 

• Summer Roost Site Suitability Analyses of Four North American Bat Species in the Eastern U.S. 

Back to Top >>

Power Lines and Rights of Ways 

• Ectoparasitism and energy infrastructure limit survival of preadult Golden Eagles in the Southern Great Plains 

• Illegal shooting of protected nongame birds along power lines coincides with places and times of peak legal recreational shooting 

• Tracking data highlight the importance of human-induced mortality for large migratory birds at a flyway scale 

• Avian electrocution case definition for wildlife 

Back to Top >>

Offshore Wind Energy: Avoiding Effects to Marine Fish and Wildlife 

• A framework for studying the effects of offshore wind energy development on birds and bats in the Eastern U.S. 

• Geese migrating over the Pacific Ocean select altitudes coinciding with offshore wind turbine blades  

• Black Terns beyond the breeding grounds: Occurrence, relative density, and habitat associations in the northern Gulf of Mexico  

• Sea turtle density surface models along the United States Atlantic coast 

• Realizing the potential of eDNA biodiversity monitoring tools in the marine environment with application to offshore renewable energy 

• Deep learning workflow to support in-flight processing of digital aerial imagery for wildlife population surveys 

• Consumer isoscapes reveal heterogeneous food webs in deep-sea submarine canyons and adjacent slopes in the U.S. Atlantic margin  

• Expanding our view of the cold-water coral niche and accounting of the ecosystem services of the reef habitat 

• Report: A management-focused population viability analysis for North Atlantic right whales 

• Data Release: Oceanographic conditions at Richardson reef reveal new suitable habitat for cold-water corals 

Back to Top >>

Big Game Movements and Migration: Avoiding Conflict with Energy Development  

• Ungulate migrations of the Western United States, volume 4 

• Declining pronghorn population productivity caused by woody encroachment and oil and gas development 

• Existing evidence on the effects of climate variability and climate change on ungulates in North America: A systematic map 

• Effects of noise from oil and gas development on ungulates and small mammals—A science synthesis to inform National Environmental Policy Act analyses 

Back to Top >>

Energy Development Planning and Decision Making 

• Structured science syntheses to inform decision making on Federal public lands 

• Modeling rare plant habitat together with public land managers using an iterative, coproduced process to inform decision-making on multiple-use public lands 

• Accuracy, accessibility, and institutional capacity shape the utility of habitat models for managing and conserving rare plants on western public lands  

• Aligning renewable energy expansion with climate-driven range shifts  

• Observed impacts of large wind farms on grassland carbon cycling 

Back to Top >>

Solar Energy: Considerations for Natural Resource Management and Land Cover Change 

• Predicting the effects of solar energy development on plants and wildlife in the Desert Southwest, United States  

• Mixed responses of tenebrionid beetles to solar energy development in the Mojave Desert 

• U.S. Photovoltaic Database v2.0 

• The interplay of future solar energy, land cover change, and their projected impacts on natural lands and croplands in the US 

• Investigating the “Lake Effect” Influence on Avian Behavior From California’s Utility-Scale Photovoltaic Solar Facilities 

• Sustainability trade-offs across modeled floating-solar waterscapes 

• Unprecedented distribution data for Joshua trees reveal contemporary climate associations of a Mojave Desert icon 

• Data Release: Integrating land use land cover change into future scenarios of electricity systems  

• Data Release: Bureau of Land Management Riverside East Solar Energy Zone Volume 1  

Back to Top >>

Monarch Butterflies and Bees: Science for Habitat Conservation and Management 

• Milkweed and floral resource availability for monarch butterflies in the United States 

• Non-negligible near-term risk of extinction to the eastern migratory population of monarch butterflies—An updated assessment (2006–22) 

• Challenges Creating Monarch Management Strategies for Electric Power Companies in the U.S.  

• Monarch Butterfly Roost Site-Selection Criteria and Locations East of the Appalachian Mountains  

• Bees of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge—A preliminary report on a bee survey in a vulnerable semi-desert grassland of the Sonoran Desert 

• Comparing modern identification methods for wild bees: Metabarcoding and image-based morphological taxonomic assignment  

• Range-wide genetic analysis of an endangered bumble bee reveals population structure, isolation by distance, and low colony abundance 

Back to Top >>

Oil and Gas Exploration and Industrial Development in the Arctic 

• Identifying indicators of polar bear population status 

• The post-emergence period for denning polar bears: Phenology and influence on cub survival  

• Potential impacts of an autumn oil spill on polar bears summering on land in northern Alaska  

• Effects of vehicle traffic on space use and road crossings of caribou in the Arctic 

Back to Top >>

Other Effects from Oil and Gas Extraction Activities 

• Effects of noise from oil and gas development on ungulates and small mammals—A science synthesis to inform National Environmental Policy Act analyses   

• Illegal dumping of oil and gas wastewater alters arid soil microbial communities 

Back to Top >>

Restoration and Reclamation following Oil and Gas Development and Mining 

• Annotated bibliography of scientific research relevant to oil and gas reclamation best management practices in the western United States, published from 1969 through 2020 

• Oil and gas reclamation—Operations, monitoring methods, and standards  

• Dryland soil recovery after disturbance across soil and climate gradients of the Colorado Plateau 

• Annotated bibliography of scientific research relevant to oil and gas reclamation best management practices in the western United States, published from 1969 through 2020 

• Matching existing and future native plant materials to disturbance-driven restoration needs 

• Remote sensing for monitoring mine lands and recovery efforts 

• Data Release: Disturbance, energy, climate partitions, cultivars and species habitat data for the Colorado Plateau and environs 

Back to Top >>

Hydropower Operations and Fish Passage  

• Flooding and dam operations facilitate rapid upstream migrations of native and invasive fish species on a regulated large river 

• The value of information is context dependent: A demonstration of decision tools to address multispecies river temperature management under uncertainty 

• Influence of a guide net on the presence and behavior of fish near the selective water withdrawal structure in Lake Billy Chinook, Oregon, 2022 

• Predicted hydropower impacts of different management scenarios for Lake Powell releases 

• FishPass baseline assessment of fish community assemblage and migratory patterns in in the Boardman River, Traverse City, Michigan, USA 

• Effect of backwatering a streamgage weir on the passage performance of adult American Shad  

Back to Top >>

Dam Removal and Species Recovery 

• Large-scale dam removal and ecosystem restoration 

• Dam removal cost databases and drivers 

• Initial responses of Chinook salmon and steelhead to removal of two dams on the Elwha River, Washington State, U.S.A. 

• Challenges of implementing a multi-agency monitoring and adaptive management strategy for federally threatened Chinook salmon and steelhead trout during and after dam removal in the Elwha River  

• Translocation in a fragmented river provides demographic benefits for imperiled fishes 

• Applying intrinsic potential models to evaluate salmon introduction into main-stem and tributary habitats upstream from the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project, northern Washington 

• Back from the brink: Estimating daily and annual abundance of natural-origin salmon smolts from 30-years of mixed-origin capture-recapture data 

• Prey supply and predation as potential limitations to feasibility of anadromous salmonid introductions in a reservoir 

• Growth performance of Rainbow Trout in reservoir tributaries and implications for steelhead growth potential above Skagit River dams 

Back to Top >>