Publications
Listed here are publications, reports and articles by the Land Change Science Program in the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area.
Filter Total Items: 1284
Representing 3-dimensional fuels for physics-based fire behavior models: A general framework and case study in a type-converted post-fire shrubfield Representing 3-dimensional fuels for physics-based fire behavior models: A general framework and case study in a type-converted post-fire shrubfield
Background Physics-based three-dimensional (3D) fire behavior models improve planning for prescribed fire application and wildfire mitigation, but require high spatial resolution 3D fuel models as inputs. While multiple methods and data sources for realistically representing 3D, heterogeneous fuels are available, no unifying framework exists to guide the use of these tools to create 3D...
Authors
Niko J. Tutland, Andreas Paul Wion, Carolina Jasmine May, Grant C. Hutchings, Hope Nowak, James R. Gattiker, J. Kevin Hiers, Rodman R. Linn, Scott M. Pokswinski, Ellis Q. Margolis
Rapid Holocene deposition in the Mackenzie Trough and Barrow Canyon areas in the western Arctic Ocean Rapid Holocene deposition in the Mackenzie Trough and Barrow Canyon areas in the western Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean and terrestrial environment have recently been reported to be changing drastically, but it is unclear whether these changes are similar to natural variations in the past or how sudden and large the changes are compared to natural variations. This premise served as motivation to collect sediment cores during the summer of 2022 at four sites on the Canadian continental...
Authors
Masanobu Yamamoto, Kenta Suzuki, Masafumi Murayama, Laura Gemery, Koji Seike, Leonid Polyak, Young Jin Joe, Shoma Uchida, Minoru Kobayashi, J. Onodera, Keiji Horikawa, Yuhji Yamamoto, Takayuki Omori, Michinobu Kuwae, Tomohisa Irino, Yutaka Watanabe, Motoyo Itoh, Eiji Watanabe
The conundrum of taxonomic uniformitarianism in planktic foraminifera The conundrum of taxonomic uniformitarianism in planktic foraminifera
Planktic foraminiferal species distributions in the modern ocean track environmental features like sea surface temperature (SST). Species shift their distributions as the marine environment changes, providing an analogue for past behaviour. Stationarity of species' ecological tolerances is therefore a first-order assumption of all palaeoenvironmental reconstructions based upon modern...
Authors
Harry J. Dowsett, Marci M. Robinson, Kevin M. Foley, Whittney Spivey
A review of abrupt permafrost thaw: Definitions, usage, and a proposed conceptual framework A review of abrupt permafrost thaw: Definitions, usage, and a proposed conceptual framework
Purpose of Review We review how ‘abrupt thaw’ has been used in published studies, compare these definitions to abrupt processes in other Earth science disciplines, and provide a definitive framework for how abrupt thaw should be used in the context of permafrost science.Recent Findings We address several aspects of permafrost systems necessary for abrupt thaw to occur and propose a...
Authors
Hailey Webb, Matthias Fuchs, Benjamin W. Abbott, Thomas A. Douglas, Clayton D. Elder, Jessica G. Ernakovich, Eugenie Euskirchen, Mathias Göckede, Guido Grosse, Gustaf Hugelius, Miriam C. Jones, Charles Koven, Heather Kropp, Emma Lathrop, Wenwen Li, Michael M. Loranty, Susan M Natali, David Olefeldt, Christina Schädel, Edward A.G. Schuur, Oliver Sonnentag, Jens Strauss, Anna-Maria Virkkala, Merritt R. Turetsky
Constraining snow water equivalent of wet snowpacks in southeast Alaska Constraining snow water equivalent of wet snowpacks in southeast Alaska
Quantifying snow water equivalent (SWE) with ground-penetrating radar (GPR) in a warming climate is complicated by the incidence and variability of liquid water in snow. Snow surveys conducted during the melt season serve as a valuable analog to conditions under future warming. Here, we determine the variability of wet snowpack properties (relative permittivity and density) to quantify...
Authors
Mikaila Mannello, Scott Braddock, Seth Campbell, Emma Erwin, Kristin Schild, Christopher McNeil
‘The fish that stop’: Drivers of historical decline for Pacific cod and implications for modern management in an era of rapidly changing climate ‘The fish that stop’: Drivers of historical decline for Pacific cod and implications for modern management in an era of rapidly changing climate
n the Gulf of Alaska, a series of marine heat waves depleted Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) biomass to the lowest abundance ever recorded and led to the fishery’s closure in 2020. Although the fishery has been productive for decades, this collapse may have historical precedents. Traditional knowledge holders refer to cod as ‘the fish that stop’, and there is a suggested period of...
Authors
Loren McClenachan, Bruce T. Anderson, Jason A. Addison, Steven J. Barbeaux, Karoline Moore, Kai Muir, Katherine L. Reedy, Ingrid B. Spies, Catherine F. West
Soil moisture partitioning between under canopy and interspace environments in shrublands of the northern Chihuahuan Desert Soil moisture partitioning between under canopy and interspace environments in shrublands of the northern Chihuahuan Desert
Soil moisture is a key link between hydrologic and ecologic processes in desert shrublands. Understanding how soil moisture is spatially distributed in desert shrublands provides valuable insights into how shrubs use and impact limiting water resources, and how shrublands may respond to future meteorological and climate change. Our goals were to determine how soil moisture is partitioned...
Authors
Juan Pinos, Keegan Hammond, Michael C. Duniway, John P. Anderson, Niall P. Hanan, Matthew D. Petrie
Cryptic ice wedge networks in Holocene peat, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska Cryptic ice wedge networks in Holocene peat, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (YKD), covering ~75,000 km2 of Alaska's discontinuous permafrost zone, has a historic (1902–2023) mean annual air temperature of ~−1°C and was previously thought to lack ice wedge networks. However, our recent investigations near Bethel, Alaska, revealed numerous near-surface ice wedges. Using 20 cm resolution aerial orthoimagery from 2018, we identified ~50...
Authors
Benjamin M. Jones, Mikhail Z. Kanevskiy, Melissa K. Ward Jones, Phillip R. Wilson, Isaiah Ditmer, Benjamin V. Gaglioti, Eric S. Klein, Rodrigo C. Rangel, Kristi L. Wallace, Miriam C. Jones, Matthew J. Wooller, Yuri Shur
Over, under, and through: Hydrologic connectivity and the future of coastal landscape salinization Over, under, and through: Hydrologic connectivity and the future of coastal landscape salinization
Seawater intrusion (SWI) affects coastal landscapes worldwide. Here we describe the hydrologic pathways through which SWI occurs - over land via storm surge or tidal flooding, under land via groundwater transport, and through watersheds via natural and artificial surface water channels—and how human modifications to those pathways alter patterns of SWI. We present an approach to advance
Authors
Ashley Helton, James Dennedy-Frank, Ryan Emanuel, Scott C Neubauer, Kyra Adams, Marcelo Ardon, Lawrence Band, Kevin A. Befus, Hanne Borstlap, Jamie Duberstein, Adam Gold, Kominoski John, Alex Manda, Holly A. Michael, Stephen Moysey, Allison Myers-Pigg, Justine Annaliese Neville, Gregory B. Noe, Jeeban Panthi, Elnaz Pezeshki, Matthew Sirianni, Ward.Nicolas
Anthropogenic activities have greatly altered mangroves over the last hundred years Anthropogenic activities have greatly altered mangroves over the last hundred years
Mangroves not only provide ecosystem and cultural services but also contribute to the mitigation of global warming. Mangrove dynamics and their environmental responses as re-constructed from the past can inform current mangrove conservation and restoration. However, our understanding of mangrove dynamics over the past century and the impact of human activities on these ecosystems remains...
Authors
Yao Zhang, Guangming Zhao, Ken Krauss, Lianghao Pan, Yuanqin Xu, Xianwei Meng
Glaciers in Western Canada-conterminous US and Switzerland experience unprecedented mass loss over the last four years (2021–2024) Glaciers in Western Canada-conterminous US and Switzerland experience unprecedented mass loss over the last four years (2021–2024)
Over the period 2021–2024, glaciers in Western Canada and the conterminous US (WCAN-US), and Switzerland respectively lost mass at rates of 22.2 ± 9.0 and 1.5 ± 0.3 Gt yr−1 representing a twofold increase in mass loss compared to the period 2010–2020. Since 2020, total ice volume was depleted by 12% (WCAN-US) and 13% (Switzerland). Meteorological conditions that favored high rates of...
Authors
Brian Menounos, Matthias Huss, Shawn Marshall, Mark Ednie, Caitlyn Florentine, Lea Hartl
Network of networks: Time series clustering of AmeriFlux sites Network of networks: Time series clustering of AmeriFlux sites
Environmental observation networks, such as AmeriFlux, are foundational for monitoring ecosystem response to climate change, management practices, and natural disturbances; however, their effectiveness depends on their representativeness for the regions or continents. We proposed an empirical, time series approach to quantify the similarity of ecosystem fluxes across AmeriFlux sites. We...
Authors
David E. Reed, Housen Chu, Brad G. Peter, Jiquan Chen, Michael Abraha, Brian Amiro, Ray G. Anderson, M. Altaf Arain, Paulo Arruda, Greg A. Barron-Gafford, Carl Bernacchi, Daniel P. Beverly, Sebastien C. Biraud, T. Andrew Black, Peter D. Blanken, Gil Bohrer, Rebecca Bowler, David R. Bowling, M. Syndonia Bret-Harte, Mario Bretfeld, Nathaniel A. Brunsell, Stephen H. Bullock, Gerardo Celis, Xingyuan Chen, Aimee T. Classen, David R. Cook, Alejandro Cueva, Higo J. Dalmagro, Kenneth J. Davis, Ankur Desai, Alison J. Duff, Allison L. Dunn, David Durden, Colin W. Edgar, Eugenie Euskirchen, Rosvel Bracho, Brent E. Ewers, Lawrence B. Flanagan, Christopher R. Florian, Vanessa Foord, Inke Forbrich, Brandon R. Forsythe, John M. Frank, Jaime Garatuza-Payan, Sarah Goslee, Christopher M. Gough, Mark B. Green, Timothy Griffis, Manuel Helbig, Andrew C. Hill, Ross Hinkle, Jason Horne, Elyn Humphreys, Hiroki Ikawa, Go Iwahana, Rachhpal Jassal, Bruce K. Johnson, Mark S. Johnson, Steven A. Kannenberg, Eric Kelsey, John King, John F. Knowles, Sara Knox, Hideki Kobayashi, Thomas Kolb, Randy Kolka, Ken Krauss, Lars Kutzbach, Brian T. Lamb, Beverly E. Law, Sung-Ching Lee, Xuhui Lee, Heping Liu, Henry W. Loescher, Sparkle L. Malone, Roser Matamala, Marguerite Mauritz, Stefan Metzger, Gesa Meyer, Bhaskar Mitra, J. William Munger, Zoran Nesic, Asko Noormets, Thomas L. O'Halloran, Patrick T. O'Keeffe, Steven F. Oberbauer, Walter Oechel, Patty Oikawa, Paulo C. Olivas, Andrew Ouimette, Gilberto Pastorello, Jorge F. Perez-Quezada, Claire Phillips, Gabriela Posse, Bo Qu, William L. Quinton, Michele L. Reba, Andrew D. Richardson, Valentin Picasso, Adrian V. Rocha, Julio C. Rodriguez, Roel Ruzol, Scott Saleska, Russell L. Scott, Adam P. Schreiner-McGraw, Edward A.G. Schuur, Maria Silveira, Oliver Sonnentag, David L. Spittlehouse, Ralf Staebler, Gregory Starr, Christina Staudhammer, Chris Still, Cove Sturtevant, Ryan C. Sullivan, Andy Suyker, David Trejo, Masahito Ueyama, Rodrigo Vargas, Brian Viner, Enrique R. Vivoni, Dong Wang, Eric J. Ward, Susanne Wiesner, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, David Yannick, Enrico A. Yepez, Terenzio Zenone, Junbin Zhao, Donatella Zona