Climate Change

Research the movement of organic carbon out of the mountains and into the stream -- the “forgotten flux” of the global carbon budget. Assess how climate extremes, including both floods and drought, will alter carbon and other nutrient cycling. Lead a scientific paper on an aspect of this research that excites you.

The principals of conservation biology are waiting to be applied to restore native coregonines in the Great Lakes. Native fishes have suffered extinctions and extirpations owing to loss of habitat, interactions with invasive species, and overfishing, and now fishery managers are committed to their restoration.

This study will examine centennial- to millennial-scale North Pacific hydroclimate variability over the late-glacial and Holocene from Alaskan peatlands using cellulose extraction from peatland plants. Hydroclimate analysis will be coupled with vegetation and carbon dynamics to better understand how peatlands respond to long-term climate variability.

Do fisheries managers know the impacts of improving recreational fishing technology on the populations of fish they manage? The role of gear innovations in recreational fisheries is understudied as a driver of overexploitation in inland waters. Examining technology advances will inform recreational managment.

Much unsaturated-zone water moves not as typically slow diffuse flow, but rapidly through preferential flow channels such as root holes and fractures. Impacts are profound and far-reaching for issues such as contaminant transport, ecohydrology, and aquifer recharge. Understanding is limited and accepted theory is lacking, making preferential flow a crucial and exciting area of earth science.

Northern New England is a fascinating landscape of conifers, unique wildlife, mountainous landscapes, and warming climates. Help us better understand whether red squirrel populations are responding to climate change and predict how that will impact the vulnerable boreal birds that they prey upon.

The topic of how climate change will exacerbate the impacts of invasive species is at the cutting edge of conservation biology and applied ecology. We are looking for someone to work with a group of researchers and natural resource managers under the paradigm of translational ecology, producing publications and designing research that will improve conservation outcomes on the ground

We are inviting you to participate in an exciting project that brings together citizen science data from iNaturalist and other online platforms to improve currently static biodiversity databases. This project will ultimately identify invasive species, taxonomy changes, and potential climate migrants that will aid conservation efforts on public lands.

Seeking an energized intern to work with us to advance the science of wetland-water quality interactions in watersheds. Come and be a part of our interdisciplinary team to push science forward while learning about careers in the USGS. You can add your research capabilities and perspectives to our existing umbrella of studies and also learn new approaches, measurements, and modeling techniques.

Never has a tool been able to map the location and phenological status of buffelgrass, including nascent populations, on a regional scale. Developed for a specific management issue, CLaRe metrics hold promise for many natural resource applications. You will demonstrate these metrics in the context of an important management issue of your choice developed with the principal investigator.

Shifts in phenology provide one of the strongest indicators of an organism’s adaptive capacity to climate change, yet it is one of the most poorly known consequences of future impacts. This project seeks to improve understanding and develop adaptation strategies of the effects of phenological shifts and trophic mismatches in Atlantic coastal fish, seabird and marine mammal species.