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The USGS provides unbiased, objective, and impartial scientific information upon which our audiences, including resource managers, planners, and other entities, rely.
Browse more than 65,000 articles authored by our scientists over the past 100+ year history of the USGS and refine search by topic, location, year, and advanced search.
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Do crayfish affect stream ecosystem response to riparian vegetation removal? Do crayfish affect stream ecosystem response to riparian vegetation removal?
1. Riparian vegetation management alters stream basal resources, but stream ecosystem responses partly depend on top-down interactions with in-stream consumers. Large-bodied omnivores can exert particularly strong influences on stream benthic environments through consumption of food resources and physical disturbance of the benthos. Trophic dynamics studies conducted within the context...
Authors
Maura P. Dudley, Kelsey Solomon, Seth J. Wenger, C. Rhett Jackson, Mary Freeman, Katherine J. Elliott, Chelcy F. Miniat, Catherine M. Pringle
The Independent Volcanic Eruption Source Parameter Archive (IVESPA, version 1.0): A new observational database to support explosive eruptive column model validation and development The Independent Volcanic Eruption Source Parameter Archive (IVESPA, version 1.0): A new observational database to support explosive eruptive column model validation and development
Eruptive column models are powerful tools for investigating the transport of volcanic gas and ash, reconstructing past explosive eruptions, and simulating future hazards. However, the evaluation of these models is challenging as it requires independent estimates of the main model inputs (e.g. mass eruption rate) and outputs (e.g. column height). There exists no database of independently...
Authors
Thomas J Aubry, Samantha Engwell, Costanza Bonadonna, Guillaume Carazzo, Simona Scollo, Alexa R. Van Eaton, Isabelle A Taylor, David Jessop, Julia Eychenne, Mathieu Gouhier, Larry G. Mastin, Kristi L. Wallace, Sebastien Biass, Marcus Bursik, Roy G Grainger, Mark Jellinek, Anja Schmidt
Sin Nombre virus prevalence from 2014–2017 in wild deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus, on five of the California Channel Islands Sin Nombre virus prevalence from 2014–2017 in wild deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus, on five of the California Channel Islands
Sin Nombre virus (SNV) is a zoonotic virus that is highly pathogenic to humans. The deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus, is the primary host of SNV, and SNV prevalence in P. maniculatus is an important indicator of human disease risk. Because the California Channel Islands contain permanent human settlements, receive hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, and can have extremely high...
Authors
John L. Orrock, Brian Connolly, Peter Guiden, Jennifer L. Chandler, Gebbiena M. Bron, Charles A. Drost, David K. Garcelon
Species mixture effects and climate influence growth, recruitment and mortality in Interior West USA Populus tremuloides-conifer communities Species mixture effects and climate influence growth, recruitment and mortality in Interior West USA Populus tremuloides-conifer communities
Tree-species mixture effects (e.g. complementarity and facilitation) have been found to increase individual-tree productivity, lessen mortality and improve recruitment in forests worldwide. By promoting more efficient and complete resource use, mixture effects may also lessen individual-tree-level water stress, thus improving drought resistance. We investigated the influence of mixture...
Authors
Christopher E. Looney, Wilfred J Previant, John B. Bradford, Linda M Nagel
Time marches on, but do the causal pathways driving instream habitat and biology remain consistent? Time marches on, but do the causal pathways driving instream habitat and biology remain consistent?
Stream ecosystems are complex networks of interacting terrestrial and aquatic drivers. To untangle these ecological networks, efforts evaluating the direct and indirect effects of landscape, climate, and instream predictors on biological condition through time are needed. We used structural equation modeling and leveraged a stream survey program to identify and compare important...
Authors
Richard H Walker, Matthew J. Ashton, Matthew J. Cashman, Rosemary M. Fanelli, Kevin P. Krause, Gregory E. Noe, Kelly O. Maloney
Improved methods for understanding the role of predation on dreissenid population dynamics Improved methods for understanding the role of predation on dreissenid population dynamics
Impacts of dreissenid mussels (Dreissena spp.) on Great Lakes ecosystems are well documented, and a better understanding of mechanisms that cause variation in dreissenid abundance is needed. An outstanding question is how much dreissenid biomass is consumed by fish predation. A significant difficulty for investigating dreissenid consumption by fish is that dreissenids in stomachs are...
Authors
Kevin R. Keretz, Richard Kraus, Joseph Schmitt
Campfire Conversations at the 2020 annual meeting: Insights & lessons learned from “cuss-and-discuss” rather than “chalk-and-talk” Campfire Conversations at the 2020 annual meeting: Insights & lessons learned from “cuss-and-discuss” rather than “chalk-and-talk”
• The 2020 SRM Annual Meeting piloted “Campfire Conversation,” round-table discussions styled after the World Café approach. • The event attracted 280 attendees and enabled multidirectional knowledge exchange (i.e., “cuss and discuss”), rather than one-way “chalk-and-talk.” Attendees participated in three 20-minute facilitated round-table discussions around three topics they selected...
Authors
Terri T. Schulz, Hailey Wilmer, Heather M. Yocum, Eric M. Winford, Dannele Peck, Anna Clare Monlezun, Heidi Schmalz, Toni Klemm, Kathleen Epstein, Vincent Jansen, Windy Kelley, Retta A. Bruegger, Steven Fick, Joseph Gazing Wolf, Joshua Grace, Rebecca K. Mann, Justin D. Derner
Environmental conditions associated with occurrences of the threatened Yaqui Catfish in the Yaqui River Basin, Mexico Environmental conditions associated with occurrences of the threatened Yaqui Catfish in the Yaqui River Basin, Mexico
The Yaqui Catfish Ictalurus pricei is an understudied species, with limited information available on its ecology, distribution, and local habitat use. Native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, Yaqui Catfish populations are declining, which has prompted listing of the species as threatened in the United States and as a species of concern in Mexico. Water...
Authors
T. Hafen, A.T. Taylor, D.A. Hendrickson, D.R. Stewart, James M. Long
Comment on ‘New insights on Franciscan Complex geology, architecture, depositional age, and provenance for the western Mt. Tamalpais area, Marin County, California’ by Bero et al. (2020) Comment on ‘New insights on Franciscan Complex geology, architecture, depositional age, and provenance for the western Mt. Tamalpais area, Marin County, California’ by Bero et al. (2020)
Serious errors and inconsistencies in the article undermine many of its interpretations to the point that principal conclusions are not valid. Much dependence is placed on the maximum depositional age (Dmax) of sandstone units based on zircon analysis of 10 samples, but calculation of those Dmax values is flawed, and their use confuses maximum with actual depositional ages and makes age
Authors
Russell Graymer, Trevor A. Dumitru, Robert J. McLaughlin, Carl M. Wentworth
Range-wide declines of northern spotted owl populations in the Pacific Northwest: A meta-analysis Range-wide declines of northern spotted owl populations in the Pacific Northwest: A meta-analysis
The northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) inhabits older coniferous forests in the Pacific Northwest and has been at the center of forest management issues in this region. The immediate threats to this federally listed species include habitat loss and competition with barred owls (Strix varia), which invaded from eastern North America. We conducted a prospective meta-analysis...
Authors
Alan B. Franklin, Katie M. Dugger, Damon B. Lesmeister, Raymond J. Davis, J. David Wiens, Gary C. White, James D. Nichols, James E. Hines, Charles B. Yackulic, Carl J. Schwarz, Steven H. Ackers, Andrew L. Stevens, Larissa L. Bailey, Robin Bown, Jesse Burgher, Kenneth P. Burnham, Peter C. Carlson, Tara Chestnut, Mary M Conner, Krista E. Dilione, Eric D. Forsman, Elizabeth M. Glenn, Scott A. Gremel, Keith A. Hamm, Dale R. Herter, J. Mark Higley, Rob B. Horn, Julianna M. Jenkins, William L. Kendall, David W Lamphear, Christopher McCafferty, Trent L. McDonald, Janice A Reid, Jeremy T. Rockweit, David C. Simon, Stan G. Sovern, James Swingle, Heather Wise
Hydrologic variation influences stream fish assemblage dynamics through flow regime and drought Hydrologic variation influences stream fish assemblage dynamics through flow regime and drought
Hydrologic variation can play a major role in structuring stream fish assemblages and relationships between hydrology and biology are likely to be influenced by flow regime. We hypothesized that more variable flow regimes would have lower and more variable species richness, higher species turnover and lower assemblage stability, and greater abiotic environment-fish relationships than...
Authors
Daniel D. Magoulick, M. P. Dekar, S. W. Hodges, M. K. Scott, M. R. Rabalais, C. M. Bare
Threading the needle: How humans influence predator–prey spatiotemporal interactions in a multiple‐predator system Threading the needle: How humans influence predator–prey spatiotemporal interactions in a multiple‐predator system
Perceived predation risk and the resulting antipredator behaviour varies across space, time and predator identity. Communities with multiple predators that interact and differ in their use of space, time of activity and hunting mode create a complex landscape for prey to avoid predation. Anthropogenic presence and disturbance have the potential to shift interactions among predators and...
Authors
Asia Murphy, Duane R. Diefenbach, Mark Ternent, Matt Lovallo, David Miller