Publications

Monitoring supports iterative learning about the effectiveness of management actions, information that can help managers plan future actions, facilitate decision-making, and improve outcomes.Adaptive monitoring is the evolution of a monitoring program in response to new management questions; new or changing environmental or socioeconomic conditions, improved monitoring methods, models, and tools;

Investigating the long-term fluctuations of the feeding ecology of megaherbivores such as sirenians is important, as any changes could be indicative of shifts in resource availability. The Indian River Lagoon (IRL), eastern Florida, USA, is a critical habitat for the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris). However, the IRL has experienced a substantial decline in seagrass due to the pers

Conservation translocations are increasingly used to help recover imperiled species. However, success of establishing populations remains low, especially for amphibians. Identifying factors associated with translocation success can help increase efficiency and efficacy of recovery efforts. Since the 1990s, several captive and semi-captive facilities have produced Chiricahua Leopard Frogs (Rana chi

Widespread extirpation of native fish populations has led to a rise in species reintroduction efforts worldwide. Most efforts have relied on demographic data alone to guide project design and evaluate success. However, the genetic characteristics of many imperiled fish populations including low diversity, local adaptation, and hatchery introgression emphasize the importance of genetic data in the

Coastal marshes are globally important, carbon dense ecosystems simultaneously maintained and threatened by sea-level rise. Warming temperatures may increase wetland plant productivity and organic matter accumulation, but temperature-modulated feedbacks between productivity and decomposition make it difficult to assess how wetlands and their thick, organic rich soils will respond to climate warmin

The endangered mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa) has been reduced to <10 isolated populations in the wild. Due to frequent catastrophic events (floods, droughts, wildfires), the recent dynamics of these populations have been erratic, making the future of the species highly uncertain. In 2018, a recovery plan was developed to improve the species status by reducing the impacts of various th

Understanding recruitment dynamics is an essential part of effective fisheries management, whether the focus is on conservation, harvest policy development, or invasive species control. We developed a model that estimates lake-wide Ricker stock-recruitment relations for invasive sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) in each of the five Laurentian Great Lakes to inform future control efforts. We fit ad

In arid and semiarid environments, evapotranspiration (ET) is the primary discharge component in the water balance, with potential ET exceeding precipitation. For this reason, reliable estimates of ET are needed to construct accurate water budgets in these environments. Remote sensing affords the ability to provide fast, accurate, field-scale ET estimates, but these methods have largely been restr

Understanding interactions among biogeochemical cycles is increasingly important as anthropogenic alterations of global climate and of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) cycles interactively affect the Earth system. Ecosystem processes in the dryland biome, which makes up over 40% of Earth's terrestrial surface, are often distinctively sensitive to small changes in resource availability,

In 2019, the Deep Sea Exploration to Advance Research on Coral/Canyon/Cold seep Habitats (DEEP SEARCH) project completed its third and final field season with two successful expeditions aboard NOAA Ships Ronald H. Brown and Nancy Foster.

Introduction Each year, more than 20,000 people raft the Grand Canyon, many of whom will experience this iconic landscape for the first and only time. Visitors to our region for their once-in-a-lifetime Grand Canyon experience might be surprised to see forests and wetlands in addition to deserts. While locals are seeing changes to the Colorado Plateau woodlands, many visitors may not be able to di

The USGS Great Lakes Science Center has assessed annual changes in the offshore prey fish community of Lake Huron since 1973. Assessments are based on a bottom trawl survey conducted in October of each year and an acoustics-midwater trawl survey, which began in 2004 and is conducted in September-October. Both surveys were completed in their entirety in 2019. Prey fish biomass in Lake Huron in 2019