Simeon Yurek is a Research Ecologist at the USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center.
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Identifying optimal strategies for restoration decision making and adaptation planning in coastal areas, given uncertainty in environmental conditions and risk tolerance of decision makers
Ecological modeling of hydrologically pulsed ecosystems with complex geomorphology, dynamic food webs, animal movement, and predator-prey systems
Ensemble-style modeling of alternative scenarios of biophysical and ecological conditions and management decision making, with a goal of predicting ecological outcomes and identifying tradeoffs and risks associated with ecosystem services of interest
Science and Products
Water, Water Everywhere: Adapting Water Control Operations and Floodplain Conservation Planning to Global Change
Future of Aquatic Flows: Towards a National Synthesis of Streamflow Regimes Under a Changing Climate
Across Trophic Level System Simulation (ATLSS) Program for the Greater Everglades
North Carolina Sustainable Rivers Program
Coastal Resource Evaluation for Management Application (CREMA)
Real-time Coastal Salinity Index for monitoring coastal drought and ecological response to changing salinity values
Climate Change Adaptation for Coastal National Wildlife Refuges
Wading bird foraging on a wetland landscape: A comparison of two strategies
Hierarchical functional response of a forager on a wetland landscape
SiteOpt: An open-source R-package for site selection and portfolio optimization
Cape Romain partnership for coastal protection
Estimating the influence of oyster reef chains on freshwater detention at the estuary scale using Landsat-8 imagery
Modeling structural mechanics of oyster reef self-organization including environmental constraints and community interactions
Trends in oyster populations in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico: An assessment of river discharge and fishing effects over time and space
Spatial conservation planning under uncertainty using modern portfolio theory and nash bargaining solution
Spatial conservation planning under uncertainty: Adapting to climate change risks using modern portfolio theory
Resource concentration mechanisms facilitate foraging success in simulations of a pulsed oligotrophic wetland
Spatially explicit modeling in ecology: A review
Persistence and diversity of directional landscape connectivity improves biomass pulsing in expanding and contracting wetlands
Non-USGS Publications**
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
- Science
Water, Water Everywhere: Adapting Water Control Operations and Floodplain Conservation Planning to Global Change
Global change processes are producing shifts in temperature, precipitation, and seasonal streamflow regimes across North America. Much of the floodplain hydrology in the U.S. is managed through water control operations, often implemented on short time scales (e.g., weekly decisions), in response to short-term changes in precipitation. This operational model does not account for potential long-termFuture of Aquatic Flows: Towards a National Synthesis of Streamflow Regimes Under a Changing Climate
In ecosystems characterized by flowing water, such as rivers and streams, the dynamics of how the water moves - how deep it is, how fast it flows, how often it floods - have direct effects on the health, diversity, and sustainability of underlying communities. Yet increasingly, climate extremes like droughts and floods are disrupting fragile stream ecosystems by specifically changing their internaAcross Trophic Level System Simulation (ATLSS) Program for the Greater Everglades
Goals of the ATLSS Program are to help achieve a better understanding of components of the Everglades ecosystem, to provide an integrative tool for empirical studies, and to apply these tools to an adaptive management framework.North Carolina Sustainable Rivers Program
In 2002, The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers launched a collaborative effort to find more sustainable ways to manage river infrastructure to maximize benefits for people and nature. As of 2021, the Sustainable Rivers Program study area includes 40 rivers, 89 reservoirs, and 10,953 downstream river miles. The USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center and USGS Wetland and...Coastal Resource Evaluation for Management Application (CREMA)
Coastal environments are dynamic systems that provide high ecological, economical, recreational, and cultural value. Managing coastal systems requires a comprehensive understanding of the complex interactions between geological and ecological processes, as well as the ability to predict both the near-term and long-term impacts of storms and sea-level rise. The Coastal Resource Evaluation for...Real-time Coastal Salinity Index for monitoring coastal drought and ecological response to changing salinity values
Many coastal areas are experiencing departures from normal conditions due to changing land use and climate patterns, including increased frequency, severity, or duration of floods and droughts, in some cases combinations of the two. To address these issues, the U.S. Geological Survey developed the Coastal Salinity Index (CSI) to identify and communicate fluctuating salinity conditions due to suchClimate Change Adaptation for Coastal National Wildlife Refuges
National Wildlife Refuges provide habitat for important fish and wildlife species and services that benefit coastal communities, like storm-surge protection. USGS scientists are helping coastal refuges plan for and adapt to sea-level rise. - Publications
Filter Total Items: 15
Wading bird foraging on a wetland landscape: A comparison of two strategies
Tactile-feeding wading birds, such as wood storks and white ibises, require high densities of prey such as small fishes and crayfish to support themselves and their offspring during the breeding season. Prey availability in wetlands is often determined by seasonal hydrologic pulsing, such as in the subtropical Everglades, where spatial distributions of prey can vary through time, becoming heterogeHierarchical functional response of a forager on a wetland landscape
We show that for some foragers the form that a functional response takes depends on the temporal and spatial scales considered. In representing the consumption rate of an organism, it may be necessary to use a hierarchy of functional responses. Consider, for example, a wading bird foraging in wetland landscape characterized by a spatial distribution of potential foraging sites, such as ponds. At tSiteOpt: An open-source R-package for site selection and portfolio optimization
Conservation planning involves identifying and selecting actions to best achieve objectives for managing natural, social and cultural resources. Conservation problems are often high dimensional when specified as combinatorial or portfolio problems and when multiple competing objectives are considered at varying spatial and temporal scales. Although analytical techniques such as modern portfolio thCape Romain partnership for coastal protection
This final report summarizes activities, outcomes, and lessons learned from a 3-year project titled “Climate Change Adaptation for Coastal National Wildlife Refuges” with the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and local partners in the surrounding South Carolina Lowcountry. The Lowcountry is classified as the 10-county area encompassing the coastal plain of South Carolina (this report specEstimating the influence of oyster reef chains on freshwater detention at the estuary scale using Landsat-8 imagery
Oyster reef chains grow in response to local hydrodynamics and can redirect flows, particularly when reef chains grow perpendicular to freshwater flow paths. Singularly, oyster reef chains can act as porous dams that may facilitate nearshore accumulation of fresh or low-salinity water, in turn creating intermediate salinities that support oyster growth and estuarine conditions. However, oyster-driModeling structural mechanics of oyster reef self-organization including environmental constraints and community interactions
Self-organization is a process of establishing and reinforcing local structures through feedbacks between internal population dynamics and external factors. In reef-building systems, substrate is collectively engineered by individuals that also occupy it and compete for space. Reefs are constrained spatially by the physical environment, and by mortality, which reduces production but exposes substrTrends in oyster populations in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico: An assessment of river discharge and fishing effects over time and space
Within the Big Bend region of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, one of the least developed coastlines in the continental USA, intertidal and subtidal populations of eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica (hereafter referred to as “oyster”) are a critical ecosystem and important economic constituent. We assessed trends in intertidal oyster populations, river discharge, and commercial fishing activitySpatial conservation planning under uncertainty using modern portfolio theory and nash bargaining solution
In recent years, researchers from interdisciplinary teams involving ecologists, economists and operations re- searchers collaborated to provide decision support tools to address the challenges of preserving biodiversity by optimizing the design of reserves. The goal of this paper is to further advance this area of research and provide new solutions to solve complex Spatial Conservation Planning (Spatial conservation planning under uncertainty: Adapting to climate change risks using modern portfolio theory
Climate change and urban growth impact habitats, species, and ecosystem services. To buffer against global change, an established adaptation strategy is designing protected areas to increase representation and complementarity of biodiversity features. Uncertainty regarding the scale and magnitude of landscape change complicates reserve planning and exposes decision makers to risk of failing to meeResource concentration mechanisms facilitate foraging success in simulations of a pulsed oligotrophic wetland
ContextMovement of prey on hydrologically pulsed, spatially heterogeneous wetlands can result in transient, high prey concentrations, when changes in landscape features such as connectivity between flooded areas alternately facilitate and impede prey movement. Predators track and exploit these concentrations, depleting them as they arise.ObjectivesWe sought to describe how prey pulses of fish rapiSpatially explicit modeling in ecology: A review
The use of spatially explicit models (SEMs) in ecology has grown enormously in the past two decades. One major advancement has been that fine-scale details of landscapes, and of spatially dependent biological processes, such as dispersal and invasion, can now be simulated with great precision, due to improvements in computer technology. Many areas of modeling have shifted toward a focus on capturiPersistence and diversity of directional landscape connectivity improves biomass pulsing in expanding and contracting wetlands
In flood-pulsed ecosystems, hydrology and landscape structure mediate transfers of energy up the food chain by expanding and contracting in area, enabling spatial expansion and growth of fish populations during rising water levels, and subsequent concentration during the drying phase. Connectivity of flooded areas is dynamic as waters rise and fall, and is largely determined by landscape geomorphoNon-USGS Publications**
McManus, L.C., Yurek, S., Teare, P.B., Dolan, T.E. and Serafy, J.E., 2014. Killifish habitat suitability as a measure of coastal restoration performance: integrating field data, behavioral trials and simulation. Ecological Indicators, 44, pp.173-181.**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.