Publications
Listed here are publications, reports and articles by the Land Change Science Program in the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area.
Filter Total Items: 1145
Sediment accumulation in prairie wetlands under a changing climate: The relative roles of landscape and precipitation Sediment accumulation in prairie wetlands under a changing climate: The relative roles of landscape and precipitation
Sediment accumulation threatens the viability and hydrologic functioning of many naturally formed depressional wetlands across the interior regions of North America. These wetlands provide many ecosystem services and vital habitats for diverse plant and animal communities. Climate change may further impact sediment accumulation rates in the context of current land use patterns. We...
Authors
Susan K. Skagen, Lucy Burris, Diane Granfors
Structured heterogeneity in a marine terrace chronosequence: Upland mottling Structured heterogeneity in a marine terrace chronosequence: Upland mottling
Soil mottles generally are interpreted as a product of reducing conditions during periods of water saturation. The upland soils of the Santa Cruz, CA, marine terrace chronosequence display an evolving sequence of reticulate mottling from the youngest soil (65 ka) without mottles to the oldest soil (225 ka) with well-developed mottles. The mottles consist of an interconnected network of...
Authors
Marjorie S. Schulz, David Stonestrom, Corey Lawrence, Thomas Bullen, John Fitzpatrick, Emily Kyker-Snowman, Jane Manning, Meagan Mnich
Optimizing available network resources to address questions in environmental biogeochemistry Optimizing available network resources to address questions in environmental biogeochemistry
An increasing number of network observatories have been established globally to collect long-term biogeochemical data at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Although many outstanding questions in biogeochemistry would benefit from network science, the ability of the earth- and environmental-sciences community to conduct synthesis studies within and across networks is limited and seldom...
Authors
Eve-Lyn Hinckley, Suzanne Andersen, Jill Baron, Peter Blanken, Gordon Bonan, William Bowman, Sarah Elmendorf, Noah Fierer, Andrew Fox, Keli Goodman, Katherine Jones, Danica Lombardozzi, Claire Lunch, Jason Neff, Michael SanClements, Katherine Suding, Will Wieder
Disentangling vegetation diversity from climate–energy and habitat heterogeneity for explaining animal geographic patterns Disentangling vegetation diversity from climate–energy and habitat heterogeneity for explaining animal geographic patterns
Broad-scale animal diversity patterns have been traditionally explained by hypotheses focused on climate–energy and habitat heterogeneity, without considering the direct influence of vegetation structure and composition. However, integrating these factors when considering plant–animal correlates still poses a major challenge because plant communities are controlled by abiotic factors...
Authors
Borja Jimenez-Alfaro, Milan Chytry, Ladislav Mucina, James Grace, Marcel Rejmanek
Production of greenhouse-grown biocrust mosses and associated cyanobacteria to rehabilitate dryland soil function Production of greenhouse-grown biocrust mosses and associated cyanobacteria to rehabilitate dryland soil function
Mosses are an often-overlooked component of dryland ecosystems, yet they are common members of biological soil crust communities (biocrusts) and provide key ecosystem services, including soil stabilization, water retention, carbon fixation, and housing of N2 fixing cyanobacteria. Mosses are able to survive long dry periods, respond rapidly to precipitation, and reproduce vegetatively...
Authors
Anita Antoninka, Matthew Bowker, Sasha Reed, Kyle Doherty
Seasonal flows of international British Columbia-Alaska rivers: The nonlinear influence of ocean-atmosphere circulation patterns Seasonal flows of international British Columbia-Alaska rivers: The nonlinear influence of ocean-atmosphere circulation patterns
The northern portion of the Pacific coastal temperate rainforest (PCTR) is one of the least anthropogenically modified regions on earth and remains in many respects a frontier area to science. Rivers crossing the northern PCTR, which is also an international boundary region between British Columbia, Canada and Alaska, USA, deliver large freshwater and biogeochemical fluxes to the Gulf of...
Authors
Sean Fleming, Eran Hood, Helen Dalhke, Shad O’Neel
Effects of permafrost aggradation on peat properties as determined from a pan-Arctic synthesis of plant macrofossils Effects of permafrost aggradation on peat properties as determined from a pan-Arctic synthesis of plant macrofossils
Permafrost dynamics play an important role in high-latitude peatland carbon balance and are key to understanding the future response of soil carbon stocks. Permafrost aggradation can control the magnitude of the carbon feedback in peatlands through effects on peat properties. We compiled peatland plant macrofossil records for the northern permafrost zone (515 cores from 280 sites) and...
Authors
Claire Treat, Miriam Jones, P. Camill, A. Gallego-Sala, M. Garneau, Jennifer Harden, G. Hugelius, E.S. Klein, Ulla Kokfelt, P. Kuhry, Julie Loisel, J.H. Mathijssen, J.A. O'Donnell, P.O. Oksanen, T.M. Ronkainen, A. Sannel, J. Talbot, C.M. Tarnocal, M. Valiranta
Greenhouse gas fluxes from salt marshes exposed to chronic nutrient enrichment Greenhouse gas fluxes from salt marshes exposed to chronic nutrient enrichment
We assessed the impact of nutrient additions on greenhouse gas fluxes using dark static chambers in a microtidal and a macrotidal marsh along the coast of New Brunswick, Canada approximately monthly over a year. Both were experimentally fertilized for six years with varying levels of N and P. For unfertilized, N and NPK treatments, average yearly CO2 emissions (which represent only...
Authors
Gail Chmura, Lisa Kellman, Lee van Ardenne, Glenn Guntenspergen
Evidence for nonuniform permafrost degradation after fire in boreal landscapes Evidence for nonuniform permafrost degradation after fire in boreal landscapes
Fire can be a significant driver of permafrost change in boreal landscapes, altering the availability of soil carbon and nutrients that have important implications for future climate and ecological succession. However, not all landscapes are equally susceptible to fire-induced change. As fire frequency is expected to increase in the high latitudes, methods to understand the vulnerability...
Authors
Burke Minsley, Neal Pastick, Bruce Wylie, Dana R.N. Brown, M. Kass
Impacts of climate change on land-use and wetland productivity in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America Impacts of climate change on land-use and wetland productivity in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America
Wetland productivity in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America is closely linked to climate. A warmer and drier climate, as predicted, will negatively affect the productivity of PPR wetlands and the services they provide. The effect of climate change on wetland productivity, however, will not only depend on natural processes (e.g., evapotranspiration), but also on human...
Authors
Benjamin Rashford, Richard Adams, Jun Wu, Richard Voldseth, Glenn Guntenspergen, Brett Werner, W. Carter Johnson
Comment on "Worldwide evidence of a unimodal relationship between productivity and plant species richness" Comment on "Worldwide evidence of a unimodal relationship between productivity and plant species richness"
Fraser et al. (Reports, 17 July 2015, p. 302) report a unimodal relationship between productivity and species richness at regional and global scales, which they contrast with the results of Adler et al. (Reports, 23 September 2011, p. 1750). However, both data sets, when analyzed correctly, show clearly and consistently that productivity is a poor predictor of local species richness.
Authors
Andrew Tredennick, Peter Adler, James Grace, W Stanley Harpole, Elizabeth Borer, Eric Seabloom, T. Michael Anderson, Jonathan Bakker, Lori Biederman, Cynthia Brown, Yvonne Buckley, Cheng-Jin Chu, Scott L. Collins, Michael Crawley, Philip Fay, Jennifer Firn, Daniel S. Gruner, Nicole Hagenah, Yann Hautier, Andy Hector, Helmut Hillebrand, Kevin Kirkman, Johannes Knops, Ramesh Laungani, Eric M. Lind, Andrew MacDougall, Rebecca McCulley, Charles E. Mitchell, Joslin Moore, John Morgan, John L. Orrock, Pablo L. Peri, Suzanne Prober, Anita C. Risch, Martin Schuetz, Karina Speziale, Rachel Standish, Lauren Sullivan, Glenda Wardle, Ryan Williams, Louie Yang
Soil moisture and biogeochemical factors influence the distribution of annual Bromus species Soil moisture and biogeochemical factors influence the distribution of annual Bromus species
Abiotic factors have a strong influence on where annual Bromus species are found. At the large regional scale, temperature and precipitation extremes determine the boundaries of Bromus occurrence. At the more local scale, soil characteristics and climate influence distribution, cover, and performance. In hot, dry, summer-rainfall-dominated deserts (Sonoran, Chihuahuan), little or no...
Authors
Jayne Belnap, John Stark, Benjamin Rau, Edith Allen, Susan Phillips