Publications
Browse publications authored by our scientists. Publications available are: USGS-authored journal articles, series reports, book chapters, other government publications, and more.
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Filter Total Items: 5350
Flying under the radar: The demographic importance of immatures in long-lived seabird populations Flying under the radar: The demographic importance of immatures in long-lived seabird populations
Demographic assessments are essential for effective biological conservation management, allowing early detection of population declines and timely allocation of resources to avoid possible crises. For species with slow life-history strategies like seabirds, only the breeding adults are monitored routinely. The dynamics of immatures, often unobservable from fledging to recruitment, are...
Authors
Francesco Ventura, Christian Joseph Che-Castaldo, Paulo Catry, Karine Delord, Amanda Kuepfer, Bertille Mohring, Steffan Oppel, Richard A. Phillips, Ettiene Rouby, Caroline C. Ummenhofer, Henri Weimerskirch, Andrew G. Wood, Christophe Barbraud, Stéphanie Jenouvrier
Fueling the fire: Predicting cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica) impacts on fire behavior across environmental and seasonal gradients Fueling the fire: Predicting cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica) impacts on fire behavior across environmental and seasonal gradients
Invasive species can fundamentally alter fire regimes by modifying fuel characteristics, yet predicting their impacts on fire behavior remains challenging. Cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica), a highly invasive grass spreading across the southeastern US, has been associated with increased fuel loads and fire intensity, but it is unclear how its impacts on fuel load and fire behavior vary...
Authors
Alan Ivory, Carissa L. Wonkka, Devan McGranahan, Paul Akpejeluh, Sarah Kincy, Noah Weidig, Caleb Powell Roberts, Kody Brock, Carlos Silva, Victoria M. Donovan
White light reduces flight height of birds in low-density migration corridor White light reduces flight height of birds in low-density migration corridor
Artificial light at night (ALAN) has been shown to influence the behavior of migratory birds, yet how different light spectra modulate these effects remains unclear. We conducted a field experiment for 31 nights at a remote site in northern Colorado, USA, using 2 800-W light-emitting diode (LED) floodlights with white, red, amber, and blue lighting treatments during fall migration in...
Authors
Miguel F. Jimenez, Carrie Ann Adams, Carolyn S. Burt, Brian Daniel Gerber, Jeremy White, Riana Zinn, Kyle G. Horton
Genomic data reveal historical introgression and genetic erosion across an imperiled radiation of Caribbean Spondylurus skinks Genomic data reveal historical introgression and genetic erosion across an imperiled radiation of Caribbean Spondylurus skinks
Understanding how island biodiversity originates and persists is central to evolutionary biology and conservation. Caribbean islands, shaped by repeated cycles of isolation and connectivity, provide a natural laboratory to evaluate how dispersal, divergence, and introgression interact during diversification. Here we use low-coverage whole-genome data from modern and historical specimens...
Authors
Danielle Rivera, Nahíra Arocho-Hernandez, Jan P. Zegarra, Erin Rivernbark, Kevin Chovanec, R. Graham Reynolds, Kevin de Queiroz, Alberto Puente-Rolón, Luis Gonzalez-Arocho, Nathan J. Hostetter, Jaime A. Collazo, Rayna C. Bell
Ecological costs of waiting to restore ecosystem engineers: The case of giant tortoises in the Galapagos Islands Ecological costs of waiting to restore ecosystem engineers: The case of giant tortoises in the Galapagos Islands
In the Galápagos Islands, giant tortoises (Chelonoidis spp.) engineer terrestrial ecosystems. Endemic tortoise lineages have been lost from Floreana and Pinta Islands, resulting in ecosystem shifts, with tortoise population restoration currently being considered using hybrids that include ancestry from the now extinct C. niger of Floreana Island. We combined long-term vegetation...
Authors
Max D. Jones, Washington T. Aguilera, Jorge Carrión-Tacuri, Christian Sevilla, James P. Gibbs, Elizabeth Ann Hunter
Experimentally quantifying how long recreation noise displaces mammals: Recovery over weeks to months varies by disturbance type and species tolerance Experimentally quantifying how long recreation noise displaces mammals: Recovery over weeks to months varies by disturbance type and species tolerance
Outdoor recreation is expanding across public lands, yet managers lack evidence for how long wildlife responses to recreation persist and whether response duration depends on disturbance type and frequency. Using a field-based acoustic playback experiment in the Bridger–Teton National Forest, Wyoming, USA, we isolated recreation noise from other components of human presence and...
Authors
Julia N.D. Daniell, Mark A. Ditmer, William L. Rice, James Wilder, Brian Daniel Gerber, Svea Smith, Elizabeth Reynolds, Jesse R. Barber, Katherine A. Zeller
Comparing spatial covariance to common field vegetation metrics Comparing spatial covariance to common field vegetation metrics
Spatial covariance is a metric used to delineate grassland cores and track state transitions driven by woody encroachment in rangelands, and it does so by calculating the degree of spatial coexistence between functional groups like grasses and trees at different scales. Spatial covariance is being used in biome-scale frameworks aimed at combatting woody plant encroachment and grassland
Authors
Lauren L. Berry, Brett Alexander DeGregorio, Daniel R. Uden, Caleb Powell Roberts
Monitoring wolverine (Gulo gulo) distribution across the western United States for regional and national assessment Monitoring wolverine (Gulo gulo) distribution across the western United States for regional and national assessment
Population monitoring of at-risk species is fundamental to directing effective and timely conservation actions. For wide-ranging threatened species, such as the wolverine (Gulo gulo), monitoring across multiple jurisdictions is necessary to track their distribution to inform collaborative regional and national management and policy. We repeated a landscape-scale, multi-jurisdictional...
Authors
Brian Daniel Gerber, Jacob S. Ivan, Paul M. Lukacs, Jeffrey C. Lewis, Nathan P. Kluge, Cory E. Mosby, Kalysta I. Adkins, Justin A. Gude, Kimberly Asmus Hersey, Robert M. Inman, Robert A. Long, Heather O’Brien, Andrew C. Gygli, Eric Odell, Benjamin J. Padilla, John S. Waller, Kathleen A. Carroll
King Rails in southeastern Arkansas are majority resident King Rails in southeastern Arkansas are majority resident
King Rails (Rallus elegans), a declining species of secretive marsh bird, have a mixed migratory strategy, with some individuals migrating and some being year-round residents. Determining the distribution of migratory versus resident King Rails is critical to guiding habitat management and assessing risks to populations. We examined the migratory status of adult King Rails at the Choctaw...
Authors
Jessica M Novobilsky, Caleb Powell Roberts, Jason McCallie, Karen Rowe, Auriel M.V. Fournier
Adult sicydiine gobies visually communicate via a spectacular array of signals, ornaments, and behaviours Adult sicydiine gobies visually communicate via a spectacular array of signals, ornaments, and behaviours
Arguably, the most striking aspect of rock-climbing gobies of the subfamily Sicydiinae is their display of colour. Conversely, the taxonomy, biogeography, and migratory aspects of sicydiine biology have progressed much more than has the science of their visual communication and behaviour. Here, we form a virtual team to consolidate and offer our collective experiences in observing...
Authors
Brendan C. Ebner, Jordi Ryall, James Donaldson, David Boseto, Paul Thuesen, Philippe Keith, Clara Lord, Gerard Marquet, Robson Helavao, Helen Larson, Samuel Chak Lam Ho, Raphael Lagarde, Gavin Butler, Richard Blob, Heiko L. Schoenfuss, Takashi Maie, Marion Labeille, James Wong, Timothy Howell, Stuart A. Welsh, Philippe Gerbeaux, Midori Iida, Nozomi Hanahara, Darrell Kemp, Yoshio Suzuki, Ken Maeda
Landscape-scale drivers of bat acoustic activity in the interior mid-Atlantic Landscape-scale drivers of bat acoustic activity in the interior mid-Atlantic
We assessed the landscape scale foraging habitat associations from a multi-year perspective using generalized linear mixed models for nine bat species using bat detectors in the interior mid-Atlantic region of Maryland and Pennsylvania, United States. The landscape use trends we detected included greater Eptesicus fuscus acoustic activity along field edges than in forested habitats, and...
Authors
Zackary W. Isenhour, Katherine M. Gorman, Megan L. Moran, Hila Taylor, W. Mark Ford
Site fidelity of American Oystercatcher Haematopus palliatus in the Cape Romain Region, South Carolina, United States of America Site fidelity of American Oystercatcher Haematopus palliatus in the Cape Romain Region, South Carolina, United States of America
Site fidelity of American Oystercatchers Haematopus palliatus to both high-tide roosts and nesting habitats remains less-well studied than other aspects of their ecology. During high tides, shorebirds concentrate at roosts primarily to sleep and preen, and the loss of high-quality roost habitat has been linked to population declines in several species. Similarly, high-quality nesting...
Authors
Felicia J. Sanders, Maina C. Handmaker, Janet M. Thibault, Mark D. Spinks, Nicholas J. Wallover, Samantha A. Collins, Patrick G.R. Jodice