Publications

This Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) publication was prepared by an agency of the United States Government. Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the U.S. Geological Survey, no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the display or utility of the data on any other system, nor shall the act of distribution imply any such warranty. The U.S...

Florida scrub-jays Aphelocoma coerulescens are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act due to loss and degradation of scrub habitat. This study concerned the development of an optimal strategy for the restoration and management of scrub habitat at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which contains one of the few remaining large populations of scrub-jays in Florida...

Watercraft-related trauma is the predominant cause of human-induced mortality in manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris), a federal- and state-listed endangered species. Pyothorax (documented in this case report) and other secondary infections are common sequelae of inhalation of water and the open wounds caused by boat propellers. These secondary infections can lead to the demise of...

Beach vitex (Vitex rotundifolia L. f.), a woody vine from Korea, was introduced into the United States as a dune stabilization plant in the mid-1980s. By the mid- to late-1990s, Beach vitex was observed spreading from landscape plantings along the South Carolina coast, crowding out native dune species. In 2003, in response to concerns about possible impacts of the plant on native dune...

Premise of the Study: Climate warming is predicted to have far‐reaching effects on the distribution of species, but those effects may depend on the flexibility of regenerating species in responding to climate gradients. We conducted a study to determine whether the variation in the response of seed banks to temperature varied across the latitudinal range of Taxodium distichum swamps in...

The City of Tulsa, Oklahoma, uses water from Lake Eucha and Spavinaw Lake in the Eucha-Spavinaw basin of northwestern Arkansas and northeastern Oklahoma for public water supply. Increases in algal biomass, which cause taste and odor problems in drinking water produced from the lakes, may be attributable to increases in nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in the lakes and in streams...

No abstract available.

This report summarizes the environmental settings of streams in New York and South Carolina, where the U.S. Geological Survey completed detailed investigations during 2005-09 into factors contributing to mercury bioaccumulation in top-predator fish and other stream organisms. Descriptions of location, land use/land cover, climate, precipitation, atmospheric deposition, hydrology, water...

Witchweed [(Striga asiatica (L.) O. Kuntze)] is a parasitic weed from Asia and Africa that attaches to the roots of grasses and grass crops such as corn and sorghum. Witchweed was first detected in the western hemisphere in a corn field in Columbus County, North Carolina, in July, 1956. Since that time, a federal/state cooperative program has eliminated over 99% of the 432,000+ acres...

From September to November 2000, United States Fish and Wildlife Service biologists investigated incidents involving 221 bird deaths at 3 mine sites located in New Mexico and Arizona. These bird deaths primarily involved passerine and waterfowl species and were assumed to be linked to consumption of acid metalliferous water (AMW). Because all of the carcasses were found in or near...

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are known to contaminate the Neponset River, which flows through parts of Boston, Massachusetts, and empties into the Neponset River Estuary, an important fish-spawning area. The river is dammed and impassable to fish. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game, Division of Ecological Restoration...

At least 1,065 introduced vertebrate species have been introduced in the United States and its territories, including at least 86 mammalian, 127 avian, 179 reptilian/amphibian, and 673 fish species. Examples in each major taxonomic group include domestic cat, small Indian mongoose, red fox, goat, pig, rabbit, rats, house mouse, gray squirrel, nutria, starling, Indian common myna, red...