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
Floral resource selection by wild bees and honey bees in the Midwest United States: Implications for designing pollinator habitat
Many seed mix recommendations for creating pollinator habitat are in part based on anecdotal evidence or field observations of bees visiting forbs (i.e. use). However, there is limited information on what forbs are preferred by bees, particularly in working landscapes where bee forage may be limited. We examined floral resource selection by wild bees and honey bees on grasslands in the Midwest usi
Authors
Stacy C. Simanonok, Clint R.V. Otto, Deborah A. Buhl
Genomic signatures of thermal adaptation are associated with clinal shifts of life history in a broadly distributed frog
Temperature is a critical driver of ectotherm life-history strategies, whereby a warmer environment is associated with increased growth, reduced longevity and accelerated senescence. Increasing evidence indicates that thermal adaptation may underlie such life-history shifts in wild populations. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and copy number variants (CNVs) can help uncover the molecular me
Authors
Hugo Cayuela, Yann Dorant, Brenna R. Forester, Dan L Jeffries, Rebecca McCaffery, Lisa A Eby, Blake R. Hossack, Jérôme M W Gippet, David Pilliod, W Chris Funk
The contribution of land cover change to the decline of honey yields in the Northern Great Plains
Decreased availability of forage, as well as increased pesticide exposure, are important factors in the decline of honey bee health. Here, we isolate land cover transitions and their effect on honey production at 160 commercial apiaries in the Northern Great Plains. We found that land cover changes from 2008 to 2012 caused an annual decline in honey yields of 0.9% in the study area. Transitions fr
Authors
David Smith, Amélie Y. Davis, Claudia Hitaj, Dan Hellerstein, Amanda Preslicka, Emma Kirkpatrick, David M. Mushet, Eric Lonsdorf
Ten simple rules for productive lab meetings
The aim of this article is to delineate 10 simple rules on how to achieve productive lab meetings. We use the term “meeting” interchangeably to represent both the single meeting event and the overarching concept of the recurring meeting. In this article we speak from our experience, as a lab group at the University of Massachusetts that meets regularly (Fig 1). Although the rules are mostly tailor
Authors
Nigel Golden, Kadambari Devarajan, Cathleen Balantic, Joseph Drake, Michael T. Hallworth, Toni Lyn Morelli
Transient disease dynamics across ecological scales
Analyses of transient dynamics are critical to understanding infectious disease transmission and persistence. Identifying and predicting transients across scales, from within-host to community-level patterns, plays an important role in combating ongoing epidemics and mitigating the risk of future outbreaks. Moreover, greater emphases on non-asymptotic processes will enable timely evaluations of wi
Authors
Yun Tao, Jessica L Hite, Kevin D. Lafferty, David J D Earn, Nita Bharti
Enhancing Great Lakes coastal ecosystems research by initiating engagement between scientists and decision-makers
A disconnect between scientific research and environmental management communities can be a detriment to both. In the case of Great Lakes coastal ecosystems, which are inherently complex and subject to uncertain effects of future climatic, environmental, and anthropogenic drivers, greater collaboration could be beneficial to their sustainability. We capture the challenges and opportunities identifi
Authors
Charlotte B. Weinstein, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez, S. L. Martin, W. S. Currie, K. Grantham, Q. F. Hamlin, David W Hyndman, Kurt P. Kowalski, J. P. Martina, D. Pearsall
Long-term shedding from fully convalesced individuals indicates that Pacific herring are a reservoir for viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus
Processes that allow viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) virus to persist in the marine environment remain enigmatic, owing largely to the presence of covert and cryptic infections in marine fishes during typical sub-epizootic periods. As such, marine host reservoirs for VHS virus have not been fully demonstrated, nor have the mechanism(s) by which infected hosts contribute to virus perpetuation an
Authors
Paul Hershberger, Ashley MacKenzie, Jacob L. Gregg, M. D. Wilmot, Rachel L. Powers, Maureen K. Purcell
N supply mediates the radiative balance of N2O emissions and CO2 sequestration driven by N-fixing vs. non-fixing trees
Forests are a significant CO2 sink. However, CO2 sequestration in forests is radiatively offset by emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas, from forest soils. Reforestation, an important strategy for mitigating climate change, has focused on maximizing CO2 sequestration in plant biomass without integrating N2O emissions from soils. Although nitrogen (N)-fixing trees are often rec
Authors
Sian Kou-Giesbrecht, Jennifer L. Funk, Steven Perakis, Amelia A. Wolf, Duncan Menge
Satellite remote sensing to assess cyanobacterial bloom frequency across the United States at multiple spatial scales
Cyanobacterial blooms can have negative effects on human health and local ecosystems. Field monitoring of cyanobacterial blooms can be costly, but satellite remote sensing has shown utility for more efficient spatial and temporal monitoring across the United States. Here, satellite imagery was used to assess the annual frequency of surface cyanobacterial blooms, defined for each satellite pixel as
Authors
Megan M. Coffer, Blake Schaeffer, Wilson B. Salls, Erin Urquhart, Keith Loftin, Richard P. Stumpf, P. Jeremy Werdell, John A. Darling
Arsenic in petroleum-contaminated groundwater near Bemidji, Minnesota is predicted to persist for centuries
We used a reactive transport model to investigate the cycling of geogenic arsenic (As) in a petroleum-contaminated aquifer. We simulated As mobilization and sequestration using surface complexation reactions with Fe(OH)3 during petroleum biodegradation coupled with Fe-reduction. Model results predict that dissolved As in the plume will exceed the U.S. and EU 10 µg/L drinking water standard for ~40
Authors
Brady A. Ziegler, G.-H. Crystal Ng, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Aubrey J. Dunshee, Madeline E. Schreiber
Estimating 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-dri
Authors
Alice Alonso, Natalie G. Nelson, Simeon Yurek, David Kaplan, Maitane Olabarrieta, Peter C Frederick