Publications
Listed here are publications, reports and articles by the Land Change Science Program in the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area.
Filter Total Items: 1145
Modeling transient soil moisture limitations on microbial carbon respiration: A cost-performance comparison Modeling transient soil moisture limitations on microbial carbon respiration: A cost-performance comparison
Soil microorganisms are known to survive periods of aridity and to recover rapidly after wetting events, with the ability to transition between a dormant state in dry conditions and an active state in wet conditions. Though this dynamic behavior has been previously incorporated into soil carbon respiration modeling frameworks, a direct comparison between this active-dormant transition...
Authors
Yuchen Liu, Corey R. Lawrence, Mathew Winnick, Hsiao-Tieh Hsu, Katherine Maher, Jennifer Druhan
Carbon dioxide emissions and methane flux from forested wetland soils of the Great Dismal Swamp, USA Carbon dioxide emissions and methane flux from forested wetland soils of the Great Dismal Swamp, USA
The Great Dismal Swamp, a freshwater forested peatland, has accumulated massive amounts of soil carbon since the postglacial period. Logging and draining have severely altered the hydrology and forest composition, leading to drier soils, accelerated oxidation, and vulnerability to disturbance. The once dominant Atlantic white cedar, cypress, and pocosin forest types are now fragmented...
Authors
Laurel Gutenberg, K. W. Krauss, John Qu, Changwoo Ahn, Dianna M. Hogan, Zhiliang Zhu, Chenyang Xu
Typha (cattail) invasion in North American wetlands: Biology, regional problems, impacts, ecosystem services, and management Typha (cattail) invasion in North American wetlands: Biology, regional problems, impacts, ecosystem services, and management
Typha is an iconic wetland plant found worldwide. Hybridization and anthropogenic disturbances have resulted in large increases in Typha abundance in wetland ecosystems throughout North America at a cost to native floral and faunal biodiversity. As demonstrated by three regional case studies, Typha is capable of rapidly colonizing habitats and forming monodominant vegetation stands due...
Authors
Sheel Bansal, Shane Lishawa, Sue Newman, Brian Tangen, Douglas Wilcox, Dennis Albert, Michael J. Anteau, Michael J Chimney, Ryann L. Cressey, Edward S. DeKeyser, Kenneth J Elgersam, Sarah A Finkelstein, Joanna Freeland, Richard Grosshans, Page E. Klug, Daniel J Larkin, Beth A. Lawrence, George Linz, Joy Marburger, Gregory E. Noe, Clint Otto, Nicholas Reo, Jennifer Richards, Curtis J. Richardson, LeRoy Rodgers, Amy J Shrank, Dan Svedarsky, Steven E. Travis, Nancy Tuchman, Arnold van der Valk, Lisamarie Windham-Myers
Digital mapping of ecological land units using a nationally scalable modeling framework Digital mapping of ecological land units using a nationally scalable modeling framework
Ecological site descriptions (ESDs) and associated state-and-transition models (STMs) provide a nationally consistent classification and information system for defining ecological land units for management applications in the United States. Current spatial representations of ESDs, however, occur via soil mapping and are therefore confined to the spatial resolution used to map soils...
Authors
Jonathan J. Maynard, Travis W. Nauman, Shawn W. Salley, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Michael C. Duniway, Curtis J. Talbot, Joel R. Brown
Rapid broad-scale ecosystem changes and their consequences for biodiversity Rapid broad-scale ecosystem changes and their consequences for biodiversity
Biodiversity contributes to and depends on ecosystem structure and associated function. Ecosystem structure, such as the amount and type of tree cover, influences fundamental abiotic variables such as near-ground incoming solar radiation (e.g., Royer et al. 2011), which in turn affects species and associated biodiversity (e.g., Trotter et al. 2008). In many systems, foundational...
Authors
David D. Breshears, Jason P. Field, Darin J. Law, Juan C. Villegas, Craig D. Allen, Neil S. Cobb, John B. Bradford
Negative impacts of summer heat on Sierra Nevada tree seedlings Negative impacts of summer heat on Sierra Nevada tree seedlings
Understanding the response of forests to climate change is important for predicting changes in biodiversity and ecosystem services, including carbon storage. Seedlings represent a key demographic stage in these responses, because seedling establishment is necessary for population persistence and spread, and because the conditions allowing seedlings to survive and grow are often more...
Authors
Emily V. Moran, Adrian J. Das, Jon Keeley, Nathan L. Stephenson
Spatial patterns of meadow sensitivities to interannual climate variability in the Sierra Nevada Spatial patterns of meadow sensitivities to interannual climate variability in the Sierra Nevada
Conservation of montane meadows is a high priority for land and water managers given their critical role in buffering the effects of climate variability and their vulnerability to increasing temperatures and evaporative demands. Recent advances in cloud computing have provided new opportunities to examine ecological responses to climate variability over the past few decades, and at large...
Authors
Christine M. Albano, Meredith L. McClure, Shana E. Gross, Wesley Kitlasten, Christopher Soulard, Charles Morton, Justin Huntington
Late Quaternary paleohydrology of desert wetlands and pluvial lakes in the Soda Lake basin, central Mojave Desert, California (USA) Late Quaternary paleohydrology of desert wetlands and pluvial lakes in the Soda Lake basin, central Mojave Desert, California (USA)
Sediment cores taken near extant springs along the western margin of Soda Lake playa, as well as from the playa center, reveal dramatic hydrologic changes that occurred in the central Mojave Desert during the late Quaternary. Results of stratigraphic, chronologic, physical, chemical, and microfossil analyses of seven cores, ranging in length from 5 to 23 m, help refine the timing and...
Authors
Jeffrey S. Honke, Jeffrey S. Pigati, J. Wilson, J. Bright, H.L. Goldstein, Gary L. Skipp, M.C. Reheis, J. C. Havens
Thin-layer sediment addition to an existing salt marsh to combat sea-level rise and improve endangered species habitat in California, USA Thin-layer sediment addition to an existing salt marsh to combat sea-level rise and improve endangered species habitat in California, USA
Current tidal marsh elevations and their accretion rates are important predictors of vulnerability to sea-level rise. When tidal marshes are at risk, adaptation measures, such as sediment addition to increase elevations, can be implemented to prevent degradation and loss. In 2016, wildlife managers prescribed a thin-layer sediment addition of locally sourced dredged material from Anaheim...
Authors
Karen M. Thorne, Chase M. Freeman, Jordan A. Rosencranz, Neil K. Ganju, Glenn R. Guntenspergen
Enhanced El Niño-Southern Oscillation variability in recent decades Enhanced El Niño-Southern Oscillation variability in recent decades
The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) represents the largest source of year-to-year global climate variability. While Earth system models suggest a range of possible shifts in ENSO properties under continued greenhouse gas forcing, many centuries of preindustrial climate data are required to detect a potential shift in the properties of recent ENSO extremes. Here we reconstruct the...
Authors
Pamela R. Grothe, Kim M. Cobb, Giovanni Liguori, Emanuele Di Lorenzo, Antonietta Capotondi, Yanbin Lu, Hai Cheng, R. Lawrence Edwards, John R. Southon, Guaciara M. Santos, Daniel M. Decampo, Jean Lynch-Stieglitz, Tianran Chen, Hussein R. Sayani, Diane M. Thompson, Jessica L. Conroy, Andrea L. Moore, Kayla Townsend, Melat Hagos, Gemma O’Connor, Lauren Toth
Late Quaternary vegetation development following deglaciation of northwestern Alexander Archipelago, Alaska Late Quaternary vegetation development following deglaciation of northwestern Alexander Archipelago, Alaska
The Cordilleran Ice sheet covered most of southeastern Alaska during the Last Glacial Interval (LGI: Marine Isotope Stage 2). Ice began to recede from western Alexander Archipelago ~17,000 + 700 yr BP. In this study pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating of three sediment cores were used to reconstruct, for the first time, the postglacial development of vegetation of the northwestern...
Authors
Thomas A. Ager
Guidance for assessing interregional ecoystem service flows Guidance for assessing interregional ecoystem service flows
Ecosystem services (ES) assessments commonly focus on a specific biophysical region or nation and take its geographic borders as the system boundary. Most geographical regions are, however, not closed systems but are open and telecoupled with other regions through ES imports and exports, which are mediated by fluxes of matter, energy and information. Interregional ES flows are often...
Authors
Thomas Koellner, Aletta Bonn, Sebastian Arnhold, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Dor Friedman, Carlos Guerra, Thomas Kastner, Meidad Kissinger, Janina Kleeman, Christian Kuhlicke, Jianguo Liu, Laura Lopez-Hoffman, Alexandra Marques, Berta Martin-Lopez, Catharina J. E. Schulp, Sarah Wolff, Matthias Schroter