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Threats

Fish and wildlife are experiencing increased threats from climate change, land use, drought, extreme storm events, and invasive species and disease. We are studying how species populations and distributions respond to threats and provide managers with the tools and technologies to choose the most effective management strategies to support species now and into the future. 

Filter Total Items: 120

Improving Our Ability to Forecast Tidal Marsh Response to Sea Level Rise

Our overall objective is to understand what controls the vulnerability of coastal marshes to risks associated with global change drivers and rising sea levels. Fundamental questions pertaining to coastal wetland vulnerability still need to be addressed. What factors explain spatial and geographic variation in tidal wetland vulnerability? How do short term climatic events (storms) influence the...
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Improving Our Ability to Forecast Tidal Marsh Response to Sea Level Rise

Our overall objective is to understand what controls the vulnerability of coastal marshes to risks associated with global change drivers and rising sea levels. Fundamental questions pertaining to coastal wetland vulnerability still need to be addressed. What factors explain spatial and geographic variation in tidal wetland vulnerability? How do short term climatic events (storms) influence the...
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Monitoring Hawaiian Biodiversity: Changes to forest birds and their habitat

Hawaiian forests are beset by many stressors, resulting in a complex pattern of altered ecosystems, impeirled species, and (in some areas) substantial protection and restoration. Short-term studies focused on specific sites or biota have limited value in understanding landscape-level change. Long-term and spatialy extensive data are needed to understand how ecosystems are reacting to both stressor...
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Monitoring Hawaiian Biodiversity: Changes to forest birds and their habitat

Hawaiian forests are beset by many stressors, resulting in a complex pattern of altered ecosystems, impeirled species, and (in some areas) substantial protection and restoration. Short-term studies focused on specific sites or biota have limited value in understanding landscape-level change. Long-term and spatialy extensive data are needed to understand how ecosystems are reacting to both stressor...
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Climate Change and Trout

Cold-water fishes like trout, salmon, and charr are especially vulnerable to shifting conditions related to climate change; for example, warmer temperatures and more variable hydroclimate. Native cutthroat trout of the southern Rocky Mountains now only occupy a tiny fraction of their historic habitats because of stressors such as non-native fishes, habitat fragmentation, and detrimental land...
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Climate Change and Trout

Cold-water fishes like trout, salmon, and charr are especially vulnerable to shifting conditions related to climate change; for example, warmer temperatures and more variable hydroclimate. Native cutthroat trout of the southern Rocky Mountains now only occupy a tiny fraction of their historic habitats because of stressors such as non-native fishes, habitat fragmentation, and detrimental land...
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Bat Species of Concern: An Ecological Synthesis for Resource Managers

A large number of bat species are considered “species of concern” in the United States and its Territories, and resource managers are increasingly interested in learning more about their distribution, status, and potential management.
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Bat Species of Concern: An Ecological Synthesis for Resource Managers

A large number of bat species are considered “species of concern” in the United States and its Territories, and resource managers are increasingly interested in learning more about their distribution, status, and potential management.
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Giant Constrictor Snakes in Florida: A Sizeable Research Challenge

Since the mid-1990s, several species of non-native, giant constrictor snakes, such as Burmese pythons and boa constrictors, have surfaced in localities throughout southern Florida. Several are known or suspected to be breeding and appear to be spreading northward. Increasingly, media and other reports of sightings or encounters with these animals have emphasized the dangers they could impose on...
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Giant Constrictor Snakes in Florida: A Sizeable Research Challenge

Since the mid-1990s, several species of non-native, giant constrictor snakes, such as Burmese pythons and boa constrictors, have surfaced in localities throughout southern Florida. Several are known or suspected to be breeding and appear to be spreading northward. Increasingly, media and other reports of sightings or encounters with these animals have emphasized the dangers they could impose on...
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Statistical Models for the Design and Analysis of Environmental DNA (eDNA) Surveys of Invasive and Imperiled Species

Detecting invasive species at low densities or prior to population establishment is critical for successful control and eradication. For example, Burmese pythons occupy thousands of square kilometers of mostly inaccessible habitats.
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Statistical Models for the Design and Analysis of Environmental DNA (eDNA) Surveys of Invasive and Imperiled Species

Detecting invasive species at low densities or prior to population establishment is critical for successful control and eradication. For example, Burmese pythons occupy thousands of square kilometers of mostly inaccessible habitats.
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Paddlefish Tracking Map - Visualizing U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Tower and Boat Observational Data

Partnering with the Caddo Lake Institute, the USGS WARC Advanced Applications Team developed a web-based mapping application that visualizes the paddlefish tracking observations being collected by FWS.
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Paddlefish Tracking Map - Visualizing U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Tower and Boat Observational Data

Partnering with the Caddo Lake Institute, the USGS WARC Advanced Applications Team developed a web-based mapping application that visualizes the paddlefish tracking observations being collected by FWS.
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Cloud Water Interception in Hawai‘i

Because of the extreme climate gradients in Hawai‘i, relatively small shifts in atmospheric circulation can cause major changes in rainfall, cloud cover, and humidity. Because it has been shown that cloud water forms an important input at specific sites, we need to understand how these inputs vary across the landscape, or how interactions with plant communities alter direct inputs. Such changes...
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Cloud Water Interception in Hawai‘i

Because of the extreme climate gradients in Hawai‘i, relatively small shifts in atmospheric circulation can cause major changes in rainfall, cloud cover, and humidity. Because it has been shown that cloud water forms an important input at specific sites, we need to understand how these inputs vary across the landscape, or how interactions with plant communities alter direct inputs. Such changes...
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Ecology, Population Dynamics, and Translocation of the Endangered Laysan Teal

The Laysan teal has the most restricted range of any duck species and is especially vulnerable to extinction because of its small population size and vulnerability to climate change. The species was believed to be endemic to one island until new sub-fossil evidence and ancient DNA-testing revealed Laysan teal were widespread across the Hawaiian archipelago. Despite its previously wide distribution...
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Ecology, Population Dynamics, and Translocation of the Endangered Laysan Teal

The Laysan teal has the most restricted range of any duck species and is especially vulnerable to extinction because of its small population size and vulnerability to climate change. The species was believed to be endemic to one island until new sub-fossil evidence and ancient DNA-testing revealed Laysan teal were widespread across the Hawaiian archipelago. Despite its previously wide distribution...
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Palila Restoration

The palila is an endangered species of Hawaiian honeycreeper which exists only in subalpine forests dominated by māmane and naio on Mauna Kea Volcano. The diet of this finch-billed bird is unusually restricted; immature seeds, flowers, and insects found on māmane trees are critical to its existence. Māmane also is the preferred nesting substrate of the palila. Federal court orders have resulted in...
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Palila Restoration

The palila is an endangered species of Hawaiian honeycreeper which exists only in subalpine forests dominated by māmane and naio on Mauna Kea Volcano. The diet of this finch-billed bird is unusually restricted; immature seeds, flowers, and insects found on māmane trees are critical to its existence. Māmane also is the preferred nesting substrate of the palila. Federal court orders have resulted in...
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Evaluating ‘I‘iwi Responses to Nectar Availability and Habitat Quality

‘I‘iwi populations have severely declined in recent decades in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park (HAVO) and elsewhere in the Hawaiian Islands due to the cumulative impacts of many invasive threats that have degraded habitats, disrupted food webs, competed for resources, depredated nests and birds, and transmitted diseases.
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Evaluating ‘I‘iwi Responses to Nectar Availability and Habitat Quality

‘I‘iwi populations have severely declined in recent decades in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park (HAVO) and elsewhere in the Hawaiian Islands due to the cumulative impacts of many invasive threats that have degraded habitats, disrupted food webs, competed for resources, depredated nests and birds, and transmitted diseases.
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Climate change impacts on the landscape

Conduct research needed to provide the information and knowledge necessary for decision-makers to make informed decisions pertaining to management of biological resources in Hawai‘i and the Pacific island ecosystems relative to changing climate conditions.
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Climate change impacts on the landscape

Conduct research needed to provide the information and knowledge necessary for decision-makers to make informed decisions pertaining to management of biological resources in Hawai‘i and the Pacific island ecosystems relative to changing climate conditions.
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