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: 41764
Adaptive management to improve eagle conservation at terrestrial wind facilities
The development and installation of renewable energy comes with environmental cost, including the death of wildlife. These costs occur locally, and seem small compared to the global loss of biodiversity. However, failure to acknowledge uncertainties around these costs affects local conservation, and may lead to the loss of populations or species. Working with these uncertainties can result in adap
Authors
Leslie New, Juniper L Simonis, Mark C Otto, Emily R. Bjerre, Michael C. Runge, Brian A. Millsap
Comparisons among three diet analyses demonstrate multiple patterns in the estimated adult diet of a freshwater piscivore, Salvelinus namaycush
Understanding trophic interactions is critical for successful resource management. However, studying diet patterns (e.g., spatial and seasonal changes) can require extensive effort. Using individual analyses to interpret patterns may be further complicated by assumptions and limitations of the analytical approach. We investigated and compared predicted adult lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) diet
Authors
Matthew H. Futia, Scott F. Colborne, Aaron T. Fisk, Dimitry Gorsky, Timothy B. Johnson, Brian F. Lantry, Jana Lantry, Jacques Rinchard
U.S. Geological Survey—Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center 2019–20 research activity report
The mission of Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center is to provide scientific information needed to conserve and manage the Nation’s natural capital for current and future generations, with an emphasis on migratory birds, Department of the Interior trust resources, and ecosystems of the Nation’s interior. This report provides an overview of the studies conducted at Northern Prairie during fisc
Biodiversity effects on grape quality depend on variety and management intensity
Interactions between plants can be beneficial, detrimental or neutral. In agricultural systems, competition between crop and spontaneous vegetation is a major concern. We evaluated the relative support for three non-exclusive ecological hypotheses about interactions between crop and spontaneous plants based on competition, complementarity or facilitation.The study was conducted in Swiss vineyards
Authors
Magdalena Steiner, James Grace, Sven Bacher
A graphical causal model for resolving species identity effects and biodiversity–ecosystem function correlations: comment
In a recent paper, Schoolmaster, Zirbel, and Cronin (SZC) (2020) claim “Formal causal analysis show[s] that biodiversity–ecosystem function (BEF) correlations are non-causal associations.” If this conclusion is accepted as true, it suggests a reconsideration of much of our current understanding of how biodiversity relates to the functioning of ecosystems. On the surface, it is easy to spot clear s
Authors
James B. Grace, Michel Loreau, Bernhard Schmid
Late Pleistocene baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) forest deposit on the continental shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico
Approximately 13 km south of Gulf Shores, Alabama (United States), divers found in situ baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) stumps 18 m below the ocean surface. These trees could have only lived when sea level fell during the Pleistocene subaerially exposing the tectonically stable continental shelf. Here we investigate the geophysical properties along with microfossil and stratigraphical analyses of
Authors
Kristine L. DeLong, Suyapa Gonzalez, Jeffrey B. Obelcz, Jonathan T. Truong, Samuel J. Bentley, Kehui Xu, Carl A. Reese, Grant L. Harley, Alicia Caporaso, Zhixiong Shen, Beth Middleton
Lipidomics reveals specific lipid molecules associated with cold stress syndrome in the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris)
Cold stress syndrome (CSS) in the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) results in perturbations to many physiological pathways, often leading to further illness or death. In this study, we applied a non-targeted lipidomics approach with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography and high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry to characterize changes related to CSS in the lipidomic profi
Authors
Emily K. Griffin, Kaylie Anne Costa, Juan J. Aristizabal-Henao, Michael P. Napolitano, Margaret Hunter, Jason Ferrante, John A. Bowden
Anthropogenic edge effects in habitat selection by sun bears in a protected area
Wildlife populations in southeast Asia are increasingly experiencing a broad array of anthropogenic threats, and mammalian carnivores are particularly vulnerable. Populations of the Malayan sun bear Helarctos malayanus are estimated to have declined by 30% over the last 30 years from forest conversion to industrial plantations and mortality associated with human–bear conflicts and illegal wildlife
Authors
T. L Tee, Frank T. van Manen, P. Kretzschmar, S. P. Sharp, S. T. Wong, S. Gadas, S. Ratnayeke
Understanding sea lamprey populations in the Great Lakes prior to broad implementation of sea lamprey control
Control of invasive sea lamprey in the Great Lakes with a selective pesticide (lampricide) that targeted larval sea lamprey began in the late 1950's and continues to be one of the main methods for control. Although the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, which was formed with the mandate of controlling sea lamprey, often expresses the success of the sea lamprey control program in terms of percent redu
Authors
Kelly F. Robinson, Scott M. Miehls, Michael J. Siefkes
Intact landscape promotes gene flow and low genetic structuring in the threatened Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake
Genetic structuring of wild populations is dependent on environmental, ecological, and life-history factors. The specific role environmental context plays in genetic structuring is important to conservation practitioners working with rare species across areas with varying degrees of fragmentation. We investigated fine-scale genetic patterns of the federally threatened Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnak
Authors
Nathan Kudla, Eric M. McCluskey, Vijay Lulla, Ralph Grundel, Jennifer A. Moore
Polar bear foraging behavior
Polar bears forage in the marine environment, primarily on the sea ice over the shallow waters of the continental shelf. They are solitary, ambush hunters that catch ringed and bearded seals when they surface to breathe in ice holes or haul out on the ice to rest and molt. In most parts of their range, polar bears experience dramatic seasonal variability in their ability to catch seals, with forag
Authors
Anthony M. Pagano
Sea otter predator avoidance behavior
Predators directly affect their prey as a source of mortality, and prey respond by employing antipredator strategies. Sea otters are a keystone predator within the nearshore community, but higher trophic level avian, terrestrial, and pelagic predators (e.g., bald eagles, brown bears, wolves, white sharks, and killer whales) prey on them. Three antipredator strategies used by sea otters are vigilan
Authors
Daniel Monson