Publications
Listed here are publications, reports and articles by the Land Change Science Program in the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area.
Filter Total Items: 1145
Increasing temperature seasonality may overwhelm shifts in soil moisture to favor shrub grass dominance in Colorado Plateau drylands Increasing temperature seasonality may overwhelm shifts in soil moisture to favor shrub grass dominance in Colorado Plateau drylands
Ecosystems in the southwestern U.S. are hotspots for climate change, and are predicted to experience continued warming and drying. In these water-limited systems, the balance between herbaceous and woody plant abundance impacts biodiversity and ecosystem processes, highlighting the need to understand how climate change will influence functional composition. However, variability in topo...
Authors
Jennifer R. Gremer, Caitlin Andrews, Jodi Norris, Lisa Thomas, Seth Munson, Michael Duniway, John Bradford
The geology and paleontology of Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, Nevada The geology and paleontology of Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, Nevada
On December 19, 2014, Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, located in the Las Vegas Valley of southern Nevada, was established by Congress as the 405th unit of the National Park Service to “conserve, protect, interpret, and enhance for the benefit of present and future generations the unique and nationally important paleontological, scientific, educational, and recreational...
Authors
Kathleen Springer, Jeffrey Pigati, Eric Scott
The Las Vegas Formation The Las Vegas Formation
The Las Vegas Formation was established in 1965 to designate the distinctive light-colored, fine-grained, fossil-bearing sedimentary deposits exposed in and around the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada. In a coeval designation, the sediments were subdivided into informal units with stratigraphic and chronologic frameworks that have persisted in the literature. Use of the Las Vegas Formation name...
Authors
Kathleen Springer, Jeffrey Pigati, Craig Manker, Shannon Mahan
The planktonic foraminiferal response to the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum on the Atlantic coastal plain The planktonic foraminiferal response to the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum on the Atlantic coastal plain
Planktonic foraminiferal assemblages in two cores from Maryland and New Jersey show evidence for significant changes in surface ocean habitats on the continental shelf during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). At both sites, significant assemblage shifts occur immediately before the onset of the event. These changes include the appearance of abundant triserial/biserial species...
Authors
Caitlin Livsey, Tali Babila, Marci Robinson, Timothy J. Bralower
Coastal wetlands: A synthesis Coastal wetlands: A synthesis
This book and this synthesis address the pressing need for better management of coastal wetlands worldwide because these wetlands are disappearing at an alarming rate; in some countries the loss is 70%–80% in the last 50 years. Managing requires understanding. Although our understanding of the functioning of coastal wetland ecosystems has grown rapidly over the past decade, still much...
Authors
Charles Hopkinson, Eric Wolanski, Donald Cahoon, Gerardo Perillo, Mark Brinson
Evaluating restored tidal freshwater wetlands Evaluating restored tidal freshwater wetlands
As restoration of tidal freshwater wetlands has progressed in North America and Eurasia, research findings have continued to emerge on the postrestoration success of these ecosystems. The most common approaches used to restore tidal freshwater wetlands involve excavation or placement of dredged sediment to restore tidal hydrology compatible with vegetation establishment and managed...
Authors
Andrew Baldwin, Richard Hammerschlag, Donald Cahoon
North Atlantic midlatitude surface-circulation changes through the Plio-Pleistocene intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation North Atlantic midlatitude surface-circulation changes through the Plio-Pleistocene intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation
The North Atlantic Current (NAC) transports warm salty water to high northern latitudes, with important repercussions for ocean circulation and global climate. A southward displacement of the NAC and Subarctic Front, which separate subpolar and subtropical water masses, is widely suggested for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and may have acted as a positive feedback in glacial expansion...
Authors
Clara Bolton, Ian Bailey, Oliver Friedrich, Kazuyo Tachikawa, Thibault de Garidel-Thoron, Laurence Vidal, Corinne Sonzogni, Gianluca Marino, Eelco Rohling, Marci Robinson, Magali Ermini, Mirjam Koch, Matthew Cooper, Paul Wilson
Quantifying uncertainty in Sr/Ca-based estimates of SST from the coral Orbicella faveolata Quantifying uncertainty in Sr/Ca-based estimates of SST from the coral Orbicella faveolata
The strontium to calcium ratio (Sr/Ca) in aragonitic skeletons of massive corals provides a proxy for sea surface temperature (SST) that can be used to reconstruct paleoclimates across decades, centuries, and, potentially, millennia. Determining the reproducibility of Sr/Ca records among contemporaneous coral colonies from the same region is critical to quantifying uncertainties...
Authors
Jennifer Flannery, Julie Richey, Lauren Toth, Ilsa Kuffner, Richard Poore
Estimating metal concentrations with regression analysis and water-quality surrogates at nine sites on the Animas and San Juan Rivers, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah Estimating metal concentrations with regression analysis and water-quality surrogates at nine sites on the Animas and San Juan Rivers, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah
The purpose of this report is to evaluate the use of site-specific regression models to estimate metal concentrations at nine U.S. Geological Survey streamflow-gaging stations on the Animas and San Juan Rivers in Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Downstream users could use these regression models to determine if metal concentrations are elevated and pose a risk to water supplies...
Authors
M. Mast
The Pothole Hydrology-Linked Systems Simulator (PHyLiSS)—Development and application of a systems model for prairie-pothole wetlands The Pothole Hydrology-Linked Systems Simulator (PHyLiSS)—Development and application of a systems model for prairie-pothole wetlands
The North American Prairie Pothole Region covers about 770,000 square kilometers of the United States and Canada (including parts of 5 States and 3 provinces: North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, Iowa, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta). The Laurentide Ice Sheet shaped the landscape of the region about 12,000 to 14,000 years ago. The retreat of the ice sheet left behind low
Authors
Owen McKenna, David Mushet, Eric J. Scherff, Kyle McLean, Christopher T. Mills
Chronic physical disturbance substantially alters the response of biological soil crusts to a wetting pulse, as characterized by metatranscriptomic sequencing Chronic physical disturbance substantially alters the response of biological soil crusts to a wetting pulse, as characterized by metatranscriptomic sequencing
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are microbial communities that are a feature of arid surface soils worldwide. In drylands where precipitation is pulsed and ephemeral, the ability of biocrust microbiota to rapidly initiate metabolic activity is critical to their survival. Community gene expression was compared after a short duration (1 hour) wetting pulse in both intact and soils...
Authors
Blaire Steven, Jayne Belnap, Cheryl Kuske
Change in dominance determines herbivore effects on plant biodiversity Change in dominance determines herbivore effects on plant biodiversity
Herbivores alter plant biodiversity (species richness) in many of the world’s ecosystems, but the magnitude and the direction of herbivore effects on biodiversity vary widely within and among ecosystems. One current theory predicts that herbivores enhance plant biodiversity at high productivity but have the opposite effect at low productivity. Yet, empirical support for the importance of...
Authors
Sally E. Koerner, Melinda Smith, Deron Burkepile, Niall Hanan, Meghan Avolio, Scott L. Collins, Alan K. Knapp, Nathan Lemoine, Elisabeth Forrestel, Stephanie Eby, Dave Thompson, Gerardo Aguado-Santacruz, John Anderson, T. Anderson, Ayana Angassa, Sumanta Bagchi, Elisabeth Bakker, Gary Bastin, Lauren Baur, Karen H. Beard, Erik A. Beever, Patrick Bohlen, Elizabeth Boughton, Don Canestro, Ariela Cesa, Enrique Chaneton, Jimin Cheng, Carla D’Antonio, Claire Deleglise, Fadiala Dembele, Josh Dorrough, David Eldridge, Barbara Fernandez-Going, Silvia Fernandez-Lugo, Lauchlan Fraser, Bill Freedman, Gonzalo Garcia-Salgado, Jacob Goheen, Liang Guo, Sean Husheer, Moussa Karembe, Johannes Knops, Tineke Kraaij, Andrew Kulmatiski, Minna-Maarit Kytoviita, Felipe Lezama, Gregory Loucougaray, Alejandro Loydi, Daniel Milchunas, Suzanne Milton, John Morgan, Claire Moxham, Kyle Nehring, Han Olff, Todd Palmer, Salvador Rebollo, Corinna Riginos, Anita C. Risch, Marta Rueda, Mahesh Sankaran, Takehiro Sasaki, Kathryn Schoenecker, Nick Schultz, Martin Schutz, Angelika Schwabe, Frances Siebert, Christian Smit, Karen Stahlheber, Christian Storm, Dustin Strong, Jishuai Su, Yadugiri Tiruvaimozhi, Claudia Tyler, James Val, Martijn Vandegehuchte, Kari Veblen, Lance Vermeire, David Ward, Jianshuang Wu, Truman Young, Qiang Yu, Tamara Zelikova