Publications
Listed here are publications, reports and articles by the Land Change Science Program in the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area.
Filter Total Items: 1145
Effects of climate-related variability in storage on streamwater solute concentrations and fluxes in a small forested watershed in the Southeastern United States Effects of climate-related variability in storage on streamwater solute concentrations and fluxes in a small forested watershed in the Southeastern United States
Streamwater quality can be affected by climate-related variability in hydrologic state, which controls flow paths and affects biogeochemical processes. Thirty-one years of input/output solute fluxes at Panola Mountain Research Watershed, a small, forested, seasonally water-limited watershed near Atlanta, Georgia, were used to quantify the effects of climatic-related variability in...
Authors
Brent Aulenbach
The landscape of soil carbon data: Emerging questions, synergies and databases The landscape of soil carbon data: Emerging questions, synergies and databases
Soil carbon has been measured for over a century in applications ranging from understanding biogeochemical processes in natural ecosystems to quantifying the productivity and health of managed systems. Consolidating diverse soil carbon datasets is increasingly important to maximize their value, particularly with growing anthropogenic and climate change pressures. In this progress report...
Authors
Avni Malhotra, Katherine Todd-Brown, Luke Nave, Niels Batjes, James Holmquist, Alison Hoyt, Colleen Iversen, Robert Jackson, Kate Lathja, Corey Lawrence, Olga Vinduśková, William Wieder, Matt Williams, Gustaf Hugelias, Jennifer Harden
PaCTS 1.0: A crowdsourced reporting standard for paleoclimate data PaCTS 1.0: A crowdsourced reporting standard for paleoclimate data
The progress of science is tied to the standardization of measurements, instruments, and data. This is especially true in the Big Data age, where analyzing large data volumes critically hinges on that data being standardized. Accordingly, the lack of community-sanctioned data standards in paleoclimatology has largely precluded the benefits of Big Data advances in the field. Building upon...
Authors
Natalie Kehrwald, Deborah Khider, Julien Emile-Geay, Nicholas P. McKay, Yolanda Gili, Daniel Garijo, Varun Ratnakar, Peter Brewer, Adam Csank, Emilie Dassie, Kristine Delong, Thomas Felix, William Gray, Lucas Jonkers, Michael Kahle, Darrell Kaufman, Julie Richey, Andreas Schmittner, Elaine Sutherland, Montserrat Alonso-Garcia, Bertrand Sebastian, Oliver Bothe, Andrew Bunn, Manuel Chevalier, Pierre Francus, Amy Frappier, Simon Goring, Belen Martrat, Helen McGregor, Kathryn Allen, Fabien Arnaud, Yarrow Axford, Timothy Barrows, Lucie Bazin, Pilaar Birch, Elizabeth Bradley, Joshua Bregy, Emilie Capron, Olivier Cartapanis, Hong-Wei Chiang, Kim Cobb, Maxime Debret, Rene Dommain, Jianghui Du, Kelsey Dyez, Suellyn Emerick, Michael Erb, Georgina Falster, Walter Finsinger, Daniel Fortier, Nicolas Gauthier, Steven George, Eric Grimm, Jennifer Hertzberg, Fiona Hibbert, Aubrey Hillman, William Hobbs, Matthew Huber, Anna Hughes, Samuel Jaccard, Ruan Jiaoyang, Markus Kienast, Bronwen Konecky, Gael Le Roux, Vyacheslav Lyubchich, Valdir Novello, Lydia Olaka, Judson Partin, Christof Pearce, Steven Phipps, Cecile Pignol, Natalia Pietrowska, Maria-Serena Poli, Alexander Prokopenko, Franciele Schwanck, Christian Stepanek, George Swann, Richard Telford, Elizabeth Thomas, Zoe Thomas, Sarah Truebe, Lucien von Gunten, Amanda Waite, Nils Weitzel, Bruno Wilhelm, John Williams, Mai Winstrup, Ning Zhao, Yuxin Zhou
Evaluating k-nearest neighbor (kNN) imputation models for species-level aboveground forest biomass mapping in northeast China Evaluating k-nearest neighbor (kNN) imputation models for species-level aboveground forest biomass mapping in northeast China
Quantifying spatially explicit or pixel-level aboveground forest biomass (AFB) across large regions is critical for measuring forest carbon sequestration capacity, assessing forest carbon balance, and revealing changes in the structure and function of forest ecosystems. When AFB is measured at the species level using widely available remote sensing data, regional changes in forest...
Authors
Yuanyuan Fu, Hong He, Todd Hawbaker, Paul D. Henne, Zhiliang Zhu, David Larsen
The state of the world’s mangrove forests: Past, present, and future The state of the world’s mangrove forests: Past, present, and future
Intertidal mangrove forests are a dynamic ecosystem experiencing rapid changes in extent and habitat quality over geological history, today and into the future. Climate and sea level have drastically altered mangrove distribution since their appearance in the geological record ∼75 million years ago (Mya), through to the Holocene. In contrast, contemporary mangrove dynamics are driven...
Authors
Daniel Friess, Kerrylee Rogers, Catherine Lovelock, Ken Krauss, Stuart Hamilton, Shing Lee, Richard Lucas, Jurgenne Primavera, Anusha Rajkaran, Suhua Shi
Paleoclimate of the subtropical Andes during the latest Miocene, Lauca Basin, Chile Paleoclimate of the subtropical Andes during the latest Miocene, Lauca Basin, Chile
Uplift of the Andean Cordillera during the Miocene and Pliocene produced large-scale changes in regional atmospheric circulation that impacted local ecosystems. The Lauca Basin (northern Chilean Altiplano) contains variably fluvial and lacustrine sedimentary sequences spanning the interval from 8.7 to 2.3 Ma. Field samples were collected from paleo-lacustrine sediments in the basin...
Authors
Melina Feitl, Andrea Kern, Amanda Jones, Sherilyn Fritz, Paul Baker, Joeckel R.M., Wout Salenbien, Debra Willard
Radiocarbon and geologic evidence reveal Ilopango volcano as source of the colossal 'mystery' eruption of 539/40 CE Radiocarbon and geologic evidence reveal Ilopango volcano as source of the colossal 'mystery' eruption of 539/40 CE
Ilopango volcano (El Salvador) erupted violently during the Maya Classic Period (250–900 CE) in a densely-populated and intensively-cultivated region of the southern Maya realm, causing regional abandonment of an area covering more than 20,000 km2. However, neither the regional nor global impacts of the Tierra Blanca Joven (TBJ) eruption in Mesoamerica have been well appraised due to...
Authors
Robert Dull, John Southon, Steffen Kutterolf, Kevin Anchukaitis, Armin Freundt, David Wahl, Payson Sheets, Paul Amaroli, Walter Hernandez, Micheal Weimann, Clive Oppenheimer
Patterns of resource allocation in a coastal marsh plant (Schoenoplectus americanus) along a sediment-addition gradient Patterns of resource allocation in a coastal marsh plant (Schoenoplectus americanus) along a sediment-addition gradient
Reductions in sediment delivery to coastal marshes increase their vulnerability to relative sea-level rise. Sediment pulses from storm events and commercial dredge-spray operations (e.g., beneficial use) represent increasingly important sediment sources to otherwise sediment-deprived marshes. These sediments can stimulate plant growth by providing nutrient and elevation subsidies, with...
Authors
Nigel Temple, James Grace, Julia A Cherry
Mid-piacenzian of the north Atlantic Ocean Mid-piacenzian of the north Atlantic Ocean
The Piacenzian Age (Pliocene) represents a past climate interval within which frequency and magnitude of environmental changes during a period of past global warmth can be analyzed, climate models can be tested, and results can be placed in a context to better prepare for future change. Here we focus on the North Atlantic region, incorporating new and existing faunal assemblage and...
Authors
Harry Dowsett, Marci Robinson, Kevin Foley, Timothy Herbert, Bette Otto-Bliesner, Whittney Spivey
Canals, backfilling and wetland loss in the Mississippi Delta Canals, backfilling and wetland loss in the Mississippi Delta
Canals and spoil banks have contributed significantly to high rates of wetland loss in the Mississippi delta. There has been relatively little research on management of canals and spoil banks and this needs to be a significant component of restoration of the delta. We analyze research on the role of backfilling canals in the context of delta restoration with special reference to Turner...
Authors
John Day, Gary Shaffer, Donald Cahoon, Ronald DeLaune
Streamflow reconstruction in the Upper Missouri River Basin using a novel Bayesian network model Streamflow reconstruction in the Upper Missouri River Basin using a novel Bayesian network model
A Bayesian model that uses the spatial dependence induced by the river network topology, and the leading principal components of regional tree-ring chronologies for paleo-streamflow reconstruction is presented. In any river basin, a convergent, dendritic network of tributaries comes together to form the main stem of a river. Consequently, it is natural to think of a spatial Markov...
Authors
Arun Ravindranath, Naresh Devineni, Upmanu Lall, Edward Cook, Gregory Pederson, Justin Martin, Connie Woodhouse
Earlier plant growth helps compensate for reduced carbon fixation after 13 years of warming Earlier plant growth helps compensate for reduced carbon fixation after 13 years of warming
1. Drylands play a dominant role in global carbon cycling and are particularly vulnerable to increasing temperatures, but our understanding of how dryland ecosystems will respond to climatic change remains notably poor. Considering that the area of drylands is projected to increase 11–23% by 2100, understanding the impacts of warming on the functions and services furnished by these arid...
Authors
Daniel Winkler, Charlotte Grossiord, Jayne Belnap, Armin Howell, Scott Ferrenberg, Hilda Smith, Sasha Reed