Publications
Listed here are publications, reports and articles by the Land Change Science Program in the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area.
Filter Total Items: 1284
The Coastal Carbon Library and Atlas: Open source soil data and tools supporting blue carbon research and policy The Coastal Carbon Library and Atlas: Open source soil data and tools supporting blue carbon research and policy
Quantifying carbon fluxes into and out of coastal soils is critical to meeting greenhouse gas reduction and coastal resiliency goals. Numerous ‘blue carbon’ studies have generated, or benefitted from, synthetic datasets. However, the community those efforts inspired does not have a centralized, standardized database of disaggregated data used to estimate carbon stocks and fluxes. In this...
Authors
James R. Holmquist, David H. Klinges, Michael Lonneman, Jaxine Wolfe, Brandon M. Boyd, Meagan J. Eagle, Jonathan Sanderman, Katherine Todd-Brown, Lauren N. Brown, E. Fay Belshe, Samantha K. Chapman, Ron Corstanje, Christopher N. Janousek, James T. Morris, Gregory B. Noe, Andre S. Rovai, Amanda C. Spivak, Megan Vahsen, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Kevin D. Kroeger, Patrick Megonigal
Biophysical drivers of coastal treeline elevation Biophysical drivers of coastal treeline elevation
Sea level rise is leading to the rapid migration of marshes into coastal forests and other terrestrial ecosystems. Although complex biophysical interactions likely govern these ecosystem transitions, projections of sea level driven land conversion commonly rely on a simplified “threshold elevation” that represents the elevation of the marsh-upland boundary based on tidal datums alone. To...
Authors
Grace Molino, Joel A. Carr, Neil K. Ganju, Mathew Kirwan
How to handle glacier area change in geodetic mass balance How to handle glacier area change in geodetic mass balance
Innovations in geodesy enable widespread analysis of glacier surface elevation change and geodetic mass balance. However, coincident glacier area data are less widely available, causing inconsistent handling of glacier area change. Here we quantify the bias introduced into meters water equivalent (m w.e.) specific geodetic mass balance results when using a fixed, maximum glacier area...
Authors
Caitlyn Florentine, Louis C. Sass, Christopher J. McNeil, Emily Baker, Shad O'Neel
Mapping development preferences on the perceived value of ecosystem services and land use conflict and compatibility in Greater Kuala Lumpur Mapping development preferences on the perceived value of ecosystem services and land use conflict and compatibility in Greater Kuala Lumpur
Rapid and unplanned development can diminish the social values for ecosystem services associated with urban landscapes. Tropical Global South cities, such as Greater Kuala Lumpur (GKL), Malaysia, that are highly biodiverse, are particularly vulnerable to the fragmentation and loss of natural ecosystems. This study investigates the social values for ecosystem services in GKL, a rapidly...
Authors
Karen T. Lourdes, Chris N. Gibbins, Benson C. Sherrouse, Darius J. Semmens, Perrine Hamel, Ruzana Sanusi, Badrul Azhar, Jay Diffendorfer, Alex M. Lechner
Relative effectiveness of a radionuclide (210Pb), surface elevation table (SET), and LiDAR at monitoring mangrove forest surface elevation change Relative effectiveness of a radionuclide (210Pb), surface elevation table (SET), and LiDAR at monitoring mangrove forest surface elevation change
Sea-level rise (SLR) is one of the greatest future threats to mangrove forests. Mangroves have kept up with or paced past SLR by maintaining their forest floor elevation relative to sea level through root growth, sedimentation, and peat development. Monitoring surface elevation change (SEC) or accretion rates allows us to understand mangrove response to SLR and prioritizes resilient...
Authors
Richard A. MacKenzie, Ken Krauss, Nicole Cormier, Eugene Eperiam, Jan van Aardt, Ali Rouzbeh Kargar, Jessica Grow, J. Val Klump
Limited role of absolute humidity in intraurban heat variability Limited role of absolute humidity in intraurban heat variability
Monitoring and understanding the variability of heat within cities is important for urban planning and public health, and the number of studies measuring intraurban temperature variability is growing. Recognizing that the physiological effects of heat depend on humidity as well as temperature, measurement campaigns have included measurements of relative humidity alongside temperature...
Authors
Darryn W. Waugh, Benjamin Zaitchik, Anna A. Scott, Peter Christian Ibsen, G. Darrel Jenerette, Jason Schartz, Christopher J. Kucharik
Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (PlioMIP3) – Science plan and experimental design Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (PlioMIP3) – Science plan and experimental design
The Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP) was initiated in 2008. Over two phases PlioMIP has helped co-ordinate the experimental design and publication strategy of the community, which has included an increasing number of climate models and modelling groups from around the world. It has engaged with palaeoenvironmental scientists to foster new data synthesis supporting the...
Authors
Alan M Haywood, Julia C. Tindall, Lauren Burton, M.A. Chandler, Aisling M Dolan, Harry J. Dowsett, R. Feng, Tamara Fletcher, Kevin M. Foley, Daniel Hill, Stephen Hunter, B. Otto-Bliesner, D.J. Lunt, Marci M. Robinson, U. Salzmann
On the relationship between aquatic CO2 concentration and ecosystem fluxes in some of the world’s key wetland types On the relationship between aquatic CO2 concentration and ecosystem fluxes in some of the world’s key wetland types
To understand patterns in CO2 partial pressure (PCO2) over time in wetlands’ surface water and porewater, we examined the relationship between PCO2 and land–atmosphere flux of CO2 at the ecosystem scale at 22 Northern Hemisphere wetland sites synthesized through an open call. Sites spanned 6 major wetland types (tidal, alpine, fen, bog, marsh, and prairie pothole/karst), 7 Köppen...
Authors
Jessica L. Richardson, Ankur R. Desai, Jonathon Thom, Kim Lindgren, Hjalmar Laudon, Matthias Peichl, Mats B. Nilsson, Audrey Campeau, Jarvi Jarveoja, Peter Hawman, Deepak R. Mishra, Dontrece Smith, Brenda D’Acunha, Sara H. Knox, Darian Ng, Mark S. Johnson, Joshua M. Blackstock, Sparkle L. Malone, Steve F. Oberbauer, Matteo Detto, Kimberly Wickland, Inke Forbrich, Nathaniel B Weston, Jacqueline K.Y. Hung, Colin W. Edgar, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Syndonia Bret-Harte, Jason Dobkowski, George Kling, Evan S. Kane, Pascal Badiou, Matthew Bogard, Gil Bohrer, Thomas O'Halloran, Jonny Ritson, Ariane Arias-Otriz, Dennis Baldocchi, Patty Oikawa, Julie Shahan, Maiyah Matsumura
Proximity to roads does not modify inorganic nitrogen deposition in a topographically complex, high traffic, subalpine forest Proximity to roads does not modify inorganic nitrogen deposition in a topographically complex, high traffic, subalpine forest
Vehicles are an important source for N deposition that may negatively impact roadside ecosystems. While elevated roadside N deposition has been found in many locations, it is not yet known if vehicle emissions cause measurable increases of N deposition in complex, mountainous terrain adjacent to roads. To address this, this study investigated the effect of vehicle N emissions on...
Authors
Katherine S. Rocci, M. Francesca Catrufo, Jill Baron
Organic layers preserved in ice patches: A new record of Holocene environmental change on the Beartooth Plateau, USA Organic layers preserved in ice patches: A new record of Holocene environmental change on the Beartooth Plateau, USA
Growing season temperatures play a crucial role in controlling treeline elevation at regional to global scales. However, understanding of treeline dynamics in response to long-term changes in temperature is limited. In this study, we analyze pollen, plant macrofossils, and charcoal preserved in organic layers within a 10,400-year-old ice patch and in sediment from a 6000-year-old wetland...
Authors
Mio Alt, Kathryn Puseman, Craig Lee, Gregory T. Pederson, Joseph R. McConnell, Nathan J. Chellman, David B. McWethy
Practical guide to measuring wetland carbon pools and fluxes Practical guide to measuring wetland carbon pools and fluxes
Wetlands cover a small portion of the world, but have disproportionate influence on global carbon (C) sequestration, carbon dioxide and methane emissions, and aquatic C fluxes. However, the underlying biogeochemical processes that affect wetland C pools and fluxes are complex and dynamic, making measurements of wetland C challenging. Over decades of research, many observational...
Authors
Sheel Bansal, Irena F. Creed, Brian Tangen, Scott D. Bridgham, Ankur R. Desai, Ken Krauss, Scott C Neubauer, Gregory B. Noe, Donald O. Rosenberry, Carl C. Trettin, Kimberly Wickland, Scott T. Allen, Ariane Arias-Ortiz, Anna R. Armitage, Dennis Baldocchi, Kakoli Banerjee, David Bastviken, Peter Berg, Matthew J. Bogard, Alex T. Chow, William H. Conner, Christopher Craft, Courtney Creamer, Tonya Delsontro, Jamie Duberstein, Meagan J. Eagle, M. Siobhan Fennessey, Sarah A. Finkelstein, Mathias Goeckede, Sabine Grunwald, Meghan Halibisky, Ellen R. Herbert, Mohammad Jahangir, Olivia Johnson, Miriam C. Jones, Jeffrey Kelleway, Sarah Knox, Kevin D. Kroeger, Kevin Kuehn, David Lobb, Amanda Loder, Shizhou Ma, Damien Maher, Gavin McNicol, Jacob Meier, Beth A. Middleton, Christopher T. Mills, Purbasha Mistry, Abhijith Mitra, Courtney Mobilian, Amanda M. Nahlik, Sue Newman, Jessica O’Connell, Patty Oikawa, Max Post van der Burg, Charles A Schutte, Chanchung Song, Camille L. Stagg, Jessica Turner, Rodrigo Vargas, Mark P. Waldrop, Markus Wallin, Zhaohui Aleck Wang, Eric Ward, Debra A. Willard, Stephanie A. Yarwood, Xiaoyan Zhu
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Ecosystems Land Change Science Program, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center , Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
Understanding marsh elevation and accretion processes and vulnerability to rising sea levels across climatic and geomorphic gradients in California, USA Understanding marsh elevation and accretion processes and vulnerability to rising sea levels across climatic and geomorphic gradients in California, USA
Tidal marshes build elevations by below- and aboveground organic and mineral soil processes. Marsh elevation and accretion data can be used to determine if marshes are keeping pace with sea-level rise. Using a network of 54 deep rod surface elevation tables with paired feldspar marker horizon plots, we tracked elevation and accretion trends across 16 marshes in California, USA. All sites...
Authors
Karen M. Thorne, McKenna Leigh Bristow, Lyndsay L. Rankin, Katya E. Kovalenko, Justine Annaliese Neville, Chase M. Freeman, Glenn R. Guntenspergen