Catherine Jarnevich, Ph.D.
Biography
Catherine began working for the USGS while obtaining her doctorate in ecology in 2000. She gained skills in integrating disparate datasets of species’ location data and using these to generate spatially explicit models of species occurrence and abundance. Since that time she has developed a research program through the USGS Resource for Advanced Modeling to assist multiple agencies and groups with species distributions, focusing on invasive species. Catherine’s current research involves the application of habitat suitability models to answer different applied research and management questions for various species across a range of taxa and spatial scales. She has also been working with spatially explicit state and transition modeling to inform efficient landscape scale invasive plant management.
Science and Products
Iterative near-term ecological forecasting: Needs, opportunities, and challenges
Two foundational questions about sustainability are “How are ecosystems and the services they provide going to change in the future?” and “How do human decisions affect these trajectories?” Answering these questions requires an ability to forecast ecological processes. Unfortunately, most ecological forecasts focus on centennial-scale climate...
Dietze, Mike; Fox, Andrew; Beck-Johnson, Lindsay; Betancourt, Julio L.; Hooten, Mevin; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Keitt, Timothy H.; Kenney, Melissa A.; Laney, Christine M.; Larsen, Laurel G.; Loescher, Henry W.; Lunch, Claire K.; Pijanowski, Bryan; Randerson, James T.; Read, Emily; Tredennick, Andrew T.; Vargas, Rodrigo; Weathers, Kathleen C.; White, Ethan P. Comparison of four modeling tools for the prediction of potential distribution for non-indigenous weeds in the United States
This study compares four models for predicting the potential distribution of non-indigenous weed species in the conterminous U.S. The comparison focused on evaluating modeling tools and protocols as currently used for weed risk assessment or for predicting the potential distribution of invasive weeds. We used six weed species (three highly...
Magarey, Roger; Newton, Leslie; Hong, Seung C.; Takeuchi, Yu; Christie, Dave; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Kohl, Lisa; Damus, Martin; Higgins, Steven I.; Miller, Leah; Castro, Karen; West, Amanda M.; Hastings, John; Cook, Gericke; Kartesz, John; Koop, Anthony Minimizing effects of methodological decisions on interpretation and prediction in species distribution studies: An example with background selection
Evaluating the conditions where a species can persist is an important question in ecology both to understand tolerances of organisms and to predict distributions across landscapes. Presence data combined with background or pseudo-absence locations are commonly used with species distribution modeling to develop these relationships. However, there...
Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Talbert, Marian; Morisette, Jeffrey T.; Aldridge, Cameron L.; Brown, Cynthia; Kumar, Sunil; Manier, Daniel J.; Talbert, Colin; Holcombe, Tracy R. Response: The geographic distribution of Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) revisited: The importance of assumptions about error balance
No abstract available.
Hahn, Micah; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Monaghan, Andrew J.; Eisen, Rebecca J. Crossing boundaries in a collaborative modeling workspace
There is substantial literature on the importance of bridging across disciplinary and science–management boundaries. One of the ways commonly suggested to cross boundaries is for participants from both sides of the boundary to jointly produce information (i.e., knowledge co-production). But simply providing tools or bringing people together in the...
Morisette, Jeffrey T.; Cravens, Amanda E.; Miller, Brian W.; Talbert, Marian; Talbert, Colin; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Fink, Michelle; Decker, Karin; Odell, Eric Using multi-date satellite imagery to monitor invasive grass species distribution in post-wildfire landscapes: An iterative, adaptable approach that employs open-source data and software
Among the most pressing concerns of land managers in post-wildfire landscapes are the establishment and spread of invasive species. Land managers need accurate maps of invasive species cover for targeted management post-disturbance that are easily transferable across space and time. In this study, we sought to develop an iterative, replicable...
West, Amanda M.; Evangelista, Paul H.; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Kumar, Sunil; Swallow, Aaron; Luizza, Matthew; Chignell, Steve Accounting for sampling patterns reverses the relative importance of trade and climate for the global sharing of exotic plants
AimThe distributions of exotic species reflect patterns of human-mediated dispersal, species climatic tolerances and a suite of other biotic and abiotic factors. The relative importance of each of these factors will shape how the spread of exotic species is affected by ongoing economic globalization and climate change. However, patterns of trade...
Sofaer, Helen; Jarnevich, Catherine S. Designing ecological climate change impact assessments to reflect key climatic drivers
Identifying the climatic drivers of an ecological system is a key step in assessing its vulnerability to climate change. The climatic dimensions to which a species or system is most sensitive – such as means or extremes – can guide methodological decisions for projections of ecological impacts and vulnerabilities. However, scientific workflows for...
Sofaer, Helen; Barsugli, Joseph J.; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Abatzoglou, John T.; Talbert, Marian; Miller, Brian W.; Morisette, Jeffrey T. Ecology and space: A case study in mapping harmful invasive species
The establishment and invasion of non-native plant species have the ability to alter the composition of native species and functioning of ecological systems with financial costs resulting from mitigation and loss of ecological services. Spatially documenting invasions has applications for management and theory, but the utility of maps is...
Brunn, Stanley D.; Dodge, Martin; David T. Barnett; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Chong, Geneva W.; Stohlgren, Thomas J.; Sunil Kumar; Holcombe, Tracy R. Evaluating simplistic methods to understand current distributions and forecast distribution changes under climate change scenarios: An example with coypu (Myocastor coypus)
Invasive species provide a unique opportunity to evaluate factors controlling biogeographic distributions; we can consider introduction success as an experiment testing suitability of environmental conditions. Predicting potential distributions of spreading species is not easy, and forecasting potential distributions with changing climate is even...
Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Young, Nicholas E.; Sheffels, Trevor R.; Carter, Jacoby; Systma, Mark D.; Talbert, Colin Modeling the geographic distribution of Ixodes scapularis and Ixodes pacificus (Acari: Ixodidae) in the contiguous United States
In addition to serving as vectors of several other human pathogens, the black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis Say, and western black-legged tick, Ixodes pacificus Cooley and Kohls, are the primary vectors of the spirochete (Borrelia burgdorferi ) that causes Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne disease in the United States. Over the past two...
Hahn, Micah; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Monaghan, Andrew J.; Eisen, Rebecca J. Integrating remote sensing with species distribution models; Mapping tamarisk invasions using the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling (SAHM)
Early detection of invasive plant species is vital for the management of natural resources and protection of ecosystem processes. The use of satellite remote sensing for mapping the distribution of invasive plants is becoming more common, however conventional imaging software and classification methods have been shown to be unreliable. In this...
West, Amanda M.; Evangelista, Paul H.; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Young, Nicholas E.; Stohlgren, Thomas J.; Talbert, Colin; Talbert, Marian; Morisette, Jeffrey; Anderson, Ryan