Energy and Wildlife

Arctic regions of Alaska are important for cultural and economic sustainability and host a wide variety of wildlife species, many of which are of conservation and management interest to the U.S. Department of the Interior. The USGS and collaborators provide information about Arctic ecosystems that are used by Arctic residents, management agencies, and industry.

Scientists at the USGS Alaska Science Center have conducted research on Alaska’s three loon species since the late 1970s. Loons rely on freshwater lakes for nesting habitat and fish and invertebrates inhabiting lakes and marine ecosystems for food. All three loon species in Alaska occur within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) on Alaska’s northern coast. Research by the USGS is...

Approximately 35% of the US and approximately 82% of DOI lands are “drylands” found throughout the western US. These lands contain oil, gas, oil shale, shale oil, and tar sand deposits and the exploration for and extraction of these resources has resulted in hundreds of thousands of operating and abandoned wells across the West. These arid and semi-arid lands have unique soil and plant communities...

The United States Large-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Database (USPVDB) provides the locations and array boundaries of U.S. ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) facilities with capacity of 1 megawatt or more. It includes corresponding PV facility information, including panel type, site type, and initial year of operation. The creation of this database was jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Energy...

USGS will deploy a small, portable radar aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel to measure the abundance, geographic distribution, and flight altitude of birds migrating across the continental shelf of the northern Gulf.

There are more than 92,000 dams in the United States, of which at least 3% of these produce hydropower. Hydropower projects create renewable energy but also can alter habitats, restrict upstream and downstream movements of fishes and other aquatic organisms, and may stress, injure or kill migrant fishes and other aquatic organisms. In addition, there are more than 5 million culverts and other road...

A new study aims to collect information on sturgeon temporal and spatial distribution to inform offshore wind energy and sand leasing operations.

Threatened humpback chub are a native fish found only in the Colorado River Basin. Once found in warm-water canyons in the Basin, the largest population now persists in the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, downstream of Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, the reservoir upstream, created by the dam.

The Hawaiian Hoary Bat ( Lasiurus semotus ) or ʻōpeʻapeʻa is the only extant land mammal native to the Hawaiian archipelago and is listed as endangered due to apparent population declines, and a lack of knowledge concerning its distribution, abundance, and habitat needs. This study is designed to apply molecular techniques to document demographic information, assess genetic variability, describe...

Renewable energy development, such as solar and wind energy, is growing in the United States and is expected to continue expanding for the foreseeable future. However, renewable energy infrastructure can be a risk to some wildlife including threatened and endangered species. Wildlife managers and energy developers need wildlife risks to be assessed and effective strategies to mitigate those risks...

Native and desired nonnative fish downstream of Glen Canyon Dam are food limited—meaning that if more or larger invertebrate food items were available, there would be more and larger fish. Aquatic insects have complex life cycles that include egg, larvae, and pupal stages that are aquatic while adults have wings and are typically terrestrial. Aquatic insects are a fundamental component of river...

Seabird and bat researchers from the USGS Western Ecological Research Center are teaming up to study how flying animals move through the marine environment. This Bureau of Ocean Energy Management supported project will add 25 remote telemetry stations to the existing global Motus Wildlife Tracking System, representing the largest single investment in coastal and offshore Motus infrastructure on...