Publications
This list of publications includes peer-review journal articles, official USGS publications series, reports and more authored by scientists in the Ecosystems Mission Area. A database of all USGS publications, with advanced search features, can be accessed at the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Filter Total Items: 41763
Presence of the herbaceous marsh species Schoenoplectus americanus enhances surface elevation gain in transitional coastal wetland communities exposed to elevated CO2 and sediment deposition events
Coastal wetlands are dynamic ecosystems that exist along a landscape continuum that can range from freshwater forested wetlands to tidal marsh to mudflat communities. Climate-driven stressors, such as sea-level rise, can cause shifts among these communities, resulting in changes to ecological functions and services. While a growing body of research has characterized the landscape-scale impacts of
Authors
Camille Stagg, Claudia Laurenzano, William C. Vervaeke, Ken Krauss, Karen L. McKee
Invasion of annual grasses following wildfire corresponds to maladaptive habitat selection by a sagebrush ecosystem indicator species
Numerous wildlife species within semi-arid shrubland ecosystems across western North America are experiencing substantial habitat loss and fragmentation. These changes in habitat are often attributed to a diverse suite of factors including prolonged and increasingly severe droughts, conifer expansion, anthropogenic development, domestic and feral livestock grazing, and invasion of exotic annual gr
Authors
Brianne E. Brussee, Peter S. Coates, Shawn T. O'Neil, Michael L. Casazza, Shawn P. Espinosa, John D. Boone, Elisabeth M. Ammon, Scott C. Gardner, David J. Delehanty
Supporting the development and use of native plant materials for restoration on the Colorado Plateau (Fiscal Year 2021 Report)
A primary focus of the Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program (CPNPP) is to identify and develop appropriate native plant materials (NPMs) for current and future restoration projects. Multiple efforts have characterized the myriad challenges inherent in providing appropriate seed resources to enable effective, widespread restoration and have identified a broad suite of research activities to provid
Authors
Robert Massatti, Daniel E. Winkler, Sasha C. Reed, Michael C. Duniway, Seth M. Munson, John B. Bradford
Accounting for residual heterogeneity in double-observer sightability models decreases bias in burro abundance estimates
Feral burros (Equus asinus) and horses (E. ferus caballus) inhabiting public land in the western United States are intended to be managed at population levels established to promote a thriving, natural ecological balance. Double-observer sightability (MDS) models, which use detection records from multiple observers and sighting covariates, perform well for estimating feral horse abundances, but th
Authors
Jacob Daniel Hennig, Kathryn A. Schoenecker, James W. Cain, Gary W. Roemer, Jeffrey L. Laake
A future for the inland fish and fisheries hidden within the sustainable development goals
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a unifying call for change - guiding global actions at multiple levels of governance for a better planet and better lives. Consequently, achieving the “future we want” may be hindered by overlooking valuable natural resources and services that are not explicitly included in the SDGs. Not recognizing the direct, intrinsic value of some nat
Authors
Vittoria Elliott, Abigail Lynch, Sui C. Phang, Steve J. Cooke, Ian. G. Cowx, Julie E. Claussen, James Dalton, William Darwall, Ian Harrison, Karen J. Murchie, E. Ashley Steel, Gretchen L. Stokes
Amphibian mucus triggers a developmental transition in the frog-killing chytrid fungus
The frog-killing chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is decimating amphibian populations around the world. Bd has a biphasic life cycle, alternating between motile zoospores that disperse within aquatic environments and sessile sporangia that grow within the mucus-coated skin of amphibians. Zoospores lack cell walls and swim rapidly through aquatic environments using a posterior fla
Authors
Kristyn A. Robinson, Sarah M. Prostak, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Lillian K. Fritz-Laylin
Monitoring fish abundance and behavior, using multi-beam acoustic imaging sonar, at a Selective Water Withdrawal structure in Lake Billy Chinook, Deschutes River, Oregon, 2020
Collection of juvenile salmonids at Round Butte Dam is a critical part of the effort to enhance populations of anadromous fish species in the upper Deschutes River because fish that are not collected at the dam may either incur increased mortality during dam passage or remain landlocked and lost to the anadromous fish population. Adaptive resolution imaging sonar systems were used to assess the be
Authors
Collin D. Smith, Tyson W. Hatton, Noah S. Adams
Risk assessment for bull trout introduction into Sullivan Lake and Harvey Creek, northeastern Washington
The Kalispel Tribe of Indians (KT), U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife are engaged in conservation of bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) in the Lake Pend Oreille (LPO) Core Area. The LPO is a complex habitat core area which falls within three states (Montana, Idaho, and Washington) and a tribal entity. As part of the conservation process, KT worked in
Authors
Jill M. Hardiman, Rachel B. Breyta, Carl O. Ostberg
Distribution of bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) in conjunction with habitat and trout assemblages in creeks within the Klamath Basin, Oregon 2010–16
Bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) in the Klamath Basin are on the southernmost border of the range of the species, where threats are most severe and where bull trout are most imperiled. In their recovery plan the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2015, https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/report/species-with-recovery-plans) suggested that Klamath Basin bull trout are at increased risk of extirpation due to ha
Authors
Barbara A. Martin, Nolan Banish, David A. Hewitt, Brian S. Hayes, Amari Dolan-Caret, Alta C. Harris, Caylen Kelsey
Limits to reproduction and seed size-number trade-offs that shape forest dominance and future recovery
The relationships that control seed production in trees are fundamental to understanding the evolution of forest species and their capacity to recover from increasing losses to drought, fire, and harvest. A synthesis of fecundity data from 714 species worldwide allowed us to examine hypotheses that are central to quantifying reproduction, a foundation for assessing fitness in forest trees. Four ma
Authors
Tong Qiu, Robert Andrus, Marie-Claire Aravena Acuna, Davide Ascoli, Yves Bergeron, Roberta Berretti, Daniel Berveiller, Thomas Biovin, Raul Bonal, Don C. Bragg, Thomas Caignard, Rafael Calama, J. Julio Camarero, Chia-Huo Chang-Yang, Natalie L. Cleavitt, Benoit Courbaud, Francois Courbet, Thomas Curt, Adrian Das, Evangelia Daskalakou, Hendrik Davi, Nicolas Delpierre, Sylvain Delzon, Michael Dietze, Sergio Donoso Calderon, Laurent Dormont, Josep Maria Espelta, Timothy J. Fahey, William Farfan-Rios, Catherine A. Gehring, Gregory S. Gilbert, Georg Gratzner, Cathryn H. Greenberg, Qinfeng Guo, Andrew Hacket-Pain, Arndt Hampe, Qingmin Han, Janneke Hille Ris Lambers, Kazuhiko Hoshizaki, Ines Ibanez, Jill F. Johnstone, Valentin Journé, Daisuke Kabeya, Christopher L. Kilner, Thomas Kitzberger, Johannes M. H. Knops, Richard K. Kobe, Georges Kunstler, Hiroko Kurokawa, Jonathan G. A. Lageard, Jalene LaMontagne, Mateusz Ledwon, Francois Lefevre, Theodor Leininger, Jean-Marc Limousin, James A. Lutz, Diana Macias, Eliot J. B. McIntire, Christopher M. Moore, Emily V. Moran, Renzo Motta, Jonathan A. Myers, Thomas A. Nagel, Kyotaro Noguchi, Jean-Marc Ourcival, Robert Parmenter, Ian Pearse, Ignacio M. Perez-Ramos, Lukasz Piechnik, John Poulsen, Renata Poulton-Kamakura, Miranda Redmond, Chantal D. Reid, Kyle C. Rodman, Francisco Rodrigues-Sanchez, Javier Sanguinetti, C. Lane Scher, Wiliam H Schlesinger, Harald Schmidt Van Marle, Barbara Seget, Shubhi Sharma, Miles Silman, Michael A. Steele, Nathan L. Stephenson, Jacob N. Straub, I-Fang Sun, Samantha Sutton, Jennifer J. Swenson, Margaret Swift, Peter A. Thomas, Maria Uriarte, Giorgio Vacchiano, Thomas T. Veblen, Amy V. Whipple, Thomas G. Whitham, Andreas Wion, Boyd Wright, S. Joseph Wright, Kai Zhu, Jess Zimmermann, Roman Zlotin, Magdalena Zywiec, James S. Clark
Scale-dependent influence of the sagebrush community on genetic connectivity of the sagebrush obligate Gunnison sage-grouse
Habitat fragmentation and degradation impacts an organism's ability to navigate the landscape, ultimately resulting in decreased gene flow and increased extinction risk. Understanding how landscape composition impacts gene flow (i.e., connectivity) and interacts with scale is essential to conservation decision-making. We used a landscape genetics approach implementing a recently developed statisti
Authors
Shawna J Zimmerman, Cameron L. Aldridge, Mevin B. Hooten, Sara J. Oyler-McCance
Development and application of Landsat-based wetland vegetation cover and unvegetated-vegetated marsh ratio (UVVR) for the conterminous United States
Effective management and restoration of salt marshes and other vegetated intertidal habitats require objective and spatially integrated metrics of geomorphic status and vulnerability. The unvegetated-vegetated marsh ratio (UVVR), a recently developed metric, can be used to establish present-day vegetative cover, identify stability thresholds, and quantify vulnerability to open-water conversion ove
Authors
Neil K. Ganju, Brady Couvillion, Zafer Defne, Kate Ackerman