Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Ecosystems Mission Area

The USGS Ecosystems Mission Area provides science to help America achieve sustainable management and conservation of biological resources in wild and urban spaces, and places in between.

News

link

USGS Friday's Findings—December 1, 2023

link

Waste not, want not: How USGS capabilities enhance COVID-19 wastewater surveillance

link

Why we have better maps of Mars than of the seafloor—and what USGS is doing to change that

Publications

Characterizing the movement of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in an avian aquatic–terrestrial food web

The movement of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) through linked aquatic–terrestrial food webs is not well understood. Tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) in such systems may be exposed to PFAS from multiple abiotic and/or biotic compartments. We show from fatty acid signatures and carbon stable isotopes that tree swallow nestlings in southwestern Ontario fed on both terrestrial and aquat
Authors
Kailee E. Hopkins, Melissa A. McKinney, Amandeep Saini, Robert J. Letcher, Natalie K. Karouna-Renier, Kim J. Fernie

Deer management generally reduces densities of nymphal Ixodes scapularis, but not prevalence of infection with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto

Human Lyme disease–primarily caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto (s.s.) in North America–is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States. Research on risk mitigation strategies during the last three decades has emphasized methods to reduce densities of the primary vector in eastern North America, the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis). Controlling white-tailed
Authors
Alynn Martin, Danielle Buttke, Jordan Raphael, Kelsey Taylor, Sarah Maes, Christina M. Parise, Howard Ginsberg, Paul Cross

Divergent community trajectories with climate change across a fine-scale gradient in snow depth

Fine-scale microclimate variation due to complex topography can shape both current vegetation distributional patterns and how vegetation responds to changing climate. Topographic heterogeneity in mountains is hypothesized to mediate responses to regional climate change at the scale of metres. For alpine vegetation especially, the interplay between changing temperatures and topographically mediated
Authors
Meagan Ford Oldfather, Sarah C. Elmendorf, Elisa Van Cleemput, Jonathan J. Henn, Jared D. Huxley, Caitlin T. White, Hope C. Humphries, Marko J. Spasojevic, Katharine N. Suding, Nancy C. Emery

Science

Fish and Aquatic Ecology

Fish and aquatic habitats in Alaska support important commercial, sport, and subsistence fisheries and provide forage fish that support wildlife populations. The USGS Alaska Science Center conducts interdisciplinary research to inform local, state, federal, and international policy makers regarding conservation of fish, aquatic species, and their habitats. We work collaboratively with hydrologists...
link

Fish and Aquatic Ecology

Fish and aquatic habitats in Alaska support important commercial, sport, and subsistence fisheries and provide forage fish that support wildlife populations. The USGS Alaska Science Center conducts interdisciplinary research to inform local, state, federal, and international policy makers regarding conservation of fish, aquatic species, and their habitats. We work collaboratively with hydrologists...
Learn More
link

Natural Resource Damage and Assessment (NRDA) Program- DOI Monitoring and Adaptive Management Technical Assistance

WARC researchers are providing support to Louisiana Monitoring and Adaptive Management activities.
Learn More

Quantifying Changes in Wetland Area and Habitat Types in the Deepwater Horizon Louisiana Restoration Area 1985-Present with Remote Sensing

USGS researchers will quantify wetland change and wetland vegetation community type change through the analyses of aerial vegetation survey data and investigate potential relationships between Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and marsh elevation change.
link

Quantifying Changes in Wetland Area and Habitat Types in the Deepwater Horizon Louisiana Restoration Area 1985-Present with Remote Sensing

USGS researchers will quantify wetland change and wetland vegetation community type change through the analyses of aerial vegetation survey data and investigate potential relationships between Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and marsh elevation change.
Learn More