Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units program—2020 research abstracts

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) serves as the research arm of the U.S. Department of the Interior and has established a series of strategic goals that focus its efforts on serving the American people. Within the USGS, the Ecosystems Mission Area is responsible for conducting and sponsoring research that addresses the following thematic objectives under the overarching strategic goal of “Science that Supports Our Resources in Wild and Urban Spaces, and the Landscapes In-Between”:

• Science supporting a legacy of sustainable fish and wildlife,
• Social science and human components in land, water, and wildlife conservation,
• Trusted science supporting hard decisions on at-risk species,
• Science to battle costly biological threats,
• Providing science for managing risks and responding to extreme events,
• Science for preservation and restoration of iconic landscapes, and
• Science to support adaptation and address impacts of climate and land change.

This report provides abstracts of most of the ongoing and recently completed research investigations of the USGS Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units program. The report is organized by the following major science themes that contribute to the objectives of the USGS:

• Advanced Technologies
• Climate Science
• Decision Science
• Ecological Flows
• Ecosystem Services
• Energy
• Fish and Wildlife Health and Disease
• Human Dimensions
• Invasive Species
• Landscape Ecology
• Species and Habitat Management
• Species of Greatest Conservation Need
• Threatened and Endangered Species