Publications
Listed here are publications, reports and articles by the Land Change Science Program in the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area.
Filter Total Items: 1284
Jump-starting coastal wetland restoration: A comparison of marsh and mangrove foundation species Jump-starting coastal wetland restoration: A comparison of marsh and mangrove foundation species
During coastal wetland restoration, foundation plant species play a critical role in creating habitat, modulating ecosystem functions, and supporting ecological communities. Following initial hydrologic restoration, foundation plant species can help stabilize sediments and jump-start ecosystem development. Different foundation species, however, have different traits and environmental...
Authors
Erik S. Yando, Michael Osland, Scott Jones, Mark W. Hester
Establishment of Salsola tragus on aeolian sands: A Southern Colorado Plateau case study Establishment of Salsola tragus on aeolian sands: A Southern Colorado Plateau case study
Russian-thistle (Salsola tragus L.), is a nonnative, C4 photosynthesizing, annual plant that infests disturbed and natural areas in the arid U.S. Southwest. Land managers of natural areas may need to decide whether a S. tragus infestation is potentially harmful and whether it should be actively managed. One factor informing that decision is an understanding of the conditions under which...
Authors
Kathryn A. Thomas, Margaret Hiza
Fire risk in revegetated bunchgrass communities Infested with Bromus tectorum Fire risk in revegetated bunchgrass communities Infested with Bromus tectorum
In rangeland ecosystems, invasive annual grass replacement of native perennials is associated with higher fire risk. Large bunchgrasses are often seeded to reduce cover of annuals such as Bromus tectorum L. (cheatgrass), but there is limited information about how revegetation reduces fire risk over the long-term. For this research note, we conducted a pilot study to assess how community...
Authors
Steve O Link, Randall W Hill, Sheel Bansal
New geochemical evidence for the origin of North America's largest dune field, the Nebraska Sand Hills, central Great Plains, USA New geochemical evidence for the origin of North America's largest dune field, the Nebraska Sand Hills, central Great Plains, USA
The Nebraska Sand Hills region is the largest dune field in North America and has diverse aeolian landforms. It has been active during both the late Pleistocene and late Holocene. Despite decades of study, the source of sediment for this large sand sea is still controversial. Here we report new trace element compositions of aeolian sand that are compared to four hypothesized sediment...
Authors
Daniel R. Muhs, James R. Budahn
Shrub persistence and increased grass mortality in response to drought in dryland systems Shrub persistence and increased grass mortality in response to drought in dryland systems
Droughts in the southwest United States have led to major forest and grassland die‐off events in recent decades, suggesting plant community and ecosystem shifts are imminent as native perennial grass populations are replaced by shrub‐ and invasive plant‐dominated systems. These patterns are similar to those observed in arid and semiarid systems around the globe, but our ability to...
Authors
Daniel E. Winkler, Jayne Belnap, David L. Hoover, Sasha C. Reed, Michael C. Duniway
Permafrost collapse is accelerating carbon release Permafrost collapse is accelerating carbon release
This much is clear: the Arctic is warming fast, and frozen soils are starting to thaw, often for the first time in thousands of years. But how this happens is as murky as the mud that oozes from permafrost when ice melts. As the temperature of the ground rises above freezing, microorganisms break down organic matter in the soil. Greenhouse gases — including carbon dioxide, methane and...
Authors
Merritt R. Turetsky, Benjamin W. Abbott, Miriam Jones, Katey Walter Anthony, David Olefeldt, Edward A. Schuur, Charles Koven, A.D. McGuire, Guido Grosse, Peter Kuhry, Gustaf Hugelius, David M. Lawrence, Carolyn Gibson, A. B. K. Sannel
Reducing sampling uncertainty in aeolian research to improve change detection Reducing sampling uncertainty in aeolian research to improve change detection
Measurements of aeolian sediment transport support our understanding of mineral dust impacts on Earth and human systems and assessments of aeolian process sensitivities to global environmental change. However, sample design principles are often overlooked in aeolian research. Here, we use high‐density field measurements of sediment mass flux across land use and land cover types to...
Authors
Nicholas P. Webb, Adrian Chappell, Brandon L. Edwards, Sarah E. McCord, Justin W. Van Zee, Bradley F. Cooper, Ericha M. Courtright, Michael C. Duniway, Brenton Sharratt, Negussie H Tedela, David Toledo
The dependence of hydroclimate projections in snow‐dominated regions of the western United States on the choice of statistically downscaled climate data The dependence of hydroclimate projections in snow‐dominated regions of the western United States on the choice of statistically downscaled climate data
We assess monthly temperature and precipitation data produced by four statistically based techniques that were used to downscale general circulation models (GCMs) in the Climate Model Intercomparison Program Phase 5 (CMIP5) (Taylor et al., 2012). We drive a simple water-balance model with the downscaled data to demonstrate the effect of the methods on the cold season hydrology of three...
Authors
Jay R. Alder, Steven W. Hostetler
Modeling barrier island habitats using landscape position information Modeling barrier island habitats using landscape position information
Barrier islands are dynamic environments because of their position along the marine–estuarine interface. Geomorphology influences habitat distribution on barrier islands by regulating exposure to harsh abiotic conditions. Researchers have identified linkages between habitat and landscape position, such as elevation and distance from shore, yet these linkages have not been fully leveraged...
Authors
Nicholas Enwright, Lei Wang, Hongqing Wang, Michael Osland, Laura Feher, Sinéad M. Borchert, Richard Day
Arctic vegetation, temperature, and hydrology during Early Eocene transient global warming events Arctic vegetation, temperature, and hydrology during Early Eocene transient global warming events
Early Eocene global climate was warmer than much of the Cenozoic and was punctuated by a series of transient warming events or ‘hyperthermals’ associated with carbon isotope excursions when temperature increased by 4–8° C. The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~55 Ma) and Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 (ETM2, 53.5 Ma) hyperthermals were of short duration ( 200 kyr) and dramatically...
Authors
Debra A. Willard, Timme H Donders, Tammo Reichgelt, David R Greenwood, Francien Peterse, Francesca Sangiorgi, Appy Sluijs, Stefan Schouten
It’s about time: A synthesis of changing phenology in the Gulf of Maine ecosystem It’s about time: A synthesis of changing phenology in the Gulf of Maine ecosystem
The timing of recurring biological and seasonal environmental events is changing on a global scale relative to temperature and other climate drivers. This study considers the Gulf of Maine ecosystem, a region of high social and ecological importance in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean and synthesizes current knowledge of 1) key seasonal processes, patterns, and events; 2) direct evidence for...
Authors
Michelle Staudinger, Katherine E. Mills, Karen Stamieszkin, Nicholas R. Record, Christine A. Hudak, Andrew Allyn, Antony Diamond, Kevin Friedland, Walt Golet, Elisabeth Henderson, Christina M. Hernandez, Thomas G. Huntington, Rubao Ji, Catherine L. Johnson, David Samuel Johnson, Adrian Jordaan, John Kocik, Yun Li, Matthew Liebman, Owen C. Nichols, Daniel Pendleton, R. Anne Richards, Thomas Robben, Andrew C. Thomas, Harvey J. Walsh, Keenan Yakola
Modelling development of riparian ranchlands using ecosystem services at the Aravaipa Watershed, SE Arizona Modelling development of riparian ranchlands using ecosystem services at the Aravaipa Watershed, SE Arizona
This paper describes how subdivision and development of rangelands within a remote and celebrated semiarid watershed near the US-Mexico border might affect multiple ecohydrological services provided, such as recharge of the aquifer, water and sediment yield, water quality, flow rates and downstream cultural and natural resources. Specifically, we apply an uncalibrated watershed model and...
Authors
Laura Norman, Miguel L. Villarreal, Rewati Niraula, Mark Haberstich, Natalie R. Wilson