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
Resistance, resilience, and recovery of dryland soil bacterial communities across multiple disturbances
Dryland ecosystems are sensitive to perturbations and generally slow to recover post disturbance. The microorganisms residing in dryland soils are especially important as they contribute to soil structure and nutrient cycling. Disturbance can have particularly strong effects on dryland soil structure and function, yet the natural resistance and recovery of the microbial components of dryland soils
Authors
Blaire Steven, Michala Lee Phillips, Jayne Belnap, La Verne Gallegos-Graves, Cheryl R. Kuske, Sasha C. Reed
The scope and severity of white-nose syndrome on hibernating bats in North America
Assessing the scope and severity of threats is necessary for evaluating impacts on populations to inform conservation planning. Quantitative threat assessment often requires monitoring programs that provide reliable data over relevant spatial and temporal scales, yet such programs can be difficult to justify until there is an apparent stressor. Leveraging efforts of wildlife management agencies to
Authors
Tina L. Cheng, Jonathan D. Reichard, Jeremy TH Coleman, Ted Weller, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Brian Reichert, Alyssa Bennett, Hugh G. Broders, Joshua Campbell, Katherine Etchison, Daniel J. Feller, Richard Geboy, Traci Hemberger, Carl Herzog, Alan C. Hicks, Sandra Houghton, Jessica Humber, Joseph A. Kath, Andrew L. King, Susan C. Loeb, Ariane Masse, Katrina M. Morris, Holly Niederriter, Gerd E. Nordquist, Roger W. Perry, Rick Reynolds, David Blake Sasse, Michael R. Scafini, Richard C. Stark, Craig W. Stihler, Steven C. Thomas, Gregory G. Turner, Shevenell Webb, Bradley Westrich, Winifred F. Frick
Estimating and applying fish and invertebrate density and production enhancement from seagrass, salt marsh edge, and oyster reef nursery habitats in the Gulf of Mexico
Seagrasses, oyster reefs, and salt marshes are critical coastal habitats that support high densities of juvenile fish and invertebrates. Yet which species are enhanced through these nursery habitats, and to what degree, remains largely unquantified. Densities of young-of-year fish and invertebrates in seagrasses, oyster reefs, and salt marsh edges as well as in paired adjacent unstructured habitat
Authors
Philine S.E. zu Ermgassen, Bryan M. DeAngelis, Jonathan R. Gair, Sophus zu Ermgassen, Ronald J. Baker, Andre Daniels, Timothy C. MacDonald, Kara Meckley, Sean P. Powers, Marta Ribera, Lawrence P. Rozas, Jonathan H. Grabowski
Fine-scale plant defence variability increases top-down control of an herbivore
Herbivore populations are regulated by a combination of plant defences and natural enemies. While plant defence can suppress herbivore populations, these defences can also adversely affect natural enemies, thereby releasing herbivores from top-down control.Over their life spans, herbivores and their natural enemies may experience substantial variation in plant defence. Recent studies have demonstr
Authors
Ryan Paul, Ian Pearse, Paul J. Ode
Historical effective population size of North American hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus) and challenges to estimating trends in contemporary effective breeding population size from archived samples
BackgroundHoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus) are among the bat species most commonly killed by wind turbine strikes in the midwestern United States. The impact of this mortality on species census size is not understood, due in part to the difficulty of estimating population size for this highly migratory and elusive species. Genetic effective population size (Ne) could provide an index of changing cen
Authors
Robert S. Cornman, Jennifer A. Fike, Sara J. Oyler-McCance, Paul M. Cryan
Global resorption efficiencies of trace elements in leaves of terrestrial plants
Leaf nutrient resorption is a critical nutrient conservation strategy. Previous studies focus mainly on resorption patterns of macronutrients, but resorption patterns of trace elements remain poorly understood.A meta-analysis was conducted to explore the general patterns of the leaf resorption of eight trace elements [i.e. copper (Cu), molybdenum (Mo), zinc (Zn), boron (B), manganese (Mn), sodium
Authors
Hao Chen, Sasha C. Reed, Xiaotao Lü, Kongcao Xiao, Kelin Wang, Dejun Li
Environmental factors influencing annual sucker (Catostomus sp.) migration into a Great Lakes tributary
Fish migration in rivers is a growing area of concern as mounting anthropogenic influences, particularly fragmentation from dams and barriers, constitute major threats to global river species diversity. Barriers can impede the movement of fishes between areas critical to the completion of their lifecycle, affecting both population and ecosystem viability. In response, fish passage solutions have b
Authors
Reid G Swanson, Erin L. McCann, Nicholas S. Johnson, Daniel P. Zielinski
Assessment of undiscovered gas resources in Upper Devonian to Lower Cretaceous strata of the western North Slope, Alaska, 2021
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean of 1,407 billion (1.4 trillion) cubic feet of gas in conventional accumulations in Upper Devonian to Lower Cretaceous strata of the western North Slope, Alaska.
Authors
David W. Houseknecht, Tracey J. Mercier, Christopher J. Schenk, Thomas E. Moore, William A. Rouse, Julie A. Dumoulin, William H. Craddock, Richard O. Lease, Palma J. Botterell, Margaret M. Sanders, Rebecca A. Smith, Christopher D. Connors, Christopher P. Garrity, Katherine J. Whidden, Jared T. Gooley, John W. Counts, Joshua H. Long, Christina A. DeVera
New faunal records from a World Heritage Site in danger: Rennell Island, Solomon Islands
Remote oceanic islands have high potential to harbor unique fauna and flora, but opportunities to conduct in-depth biotic surveys are often limited. Furthermore, underrepresentation of existing biodiversity in the literature has the potential to detract from conservation planning and action. Between 18 and 29 October 2018, we surveyed the terrestrial vertebrates of East Rennell, a UNESCO World Her
Authors
Tyrone H Laverty, Lucas H. DeCicco, Jonathan Q. Richmond, Ikuo G Tigulu, Michael J. Anderson, David Boseto, Robert G Moyle
Virulence and infectivity of UC, MD and L strains of infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) in four populations of Columbia River Basin Chinook salmon
Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis Virus (IHNV) infects juvenile salmonid fish in conservation hatcheries and aquaculture facilities, and in some cases, causes lethal disease. This study assesses intra-specific variation in the IHNV susceptibility of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Columbia River Basin (CRB), in the northwestern United States. The virulence and infectivity of IHNV
Authors
Daniel G. Hernandez, William E. Brown, Kerry A. Naish, Gael Kurath
Long‐term surveys support declines in early‐season forest plants used by bumblebees
Populations of bumble bees and other pollinators have declined over the past several decades due to numerous threats, including habitat loss and degradation. However, we can rarely investigate the role of resource loss due to a lack of detailed long‐term records of forage plants and habitats.We use 22‐year repeated surveys of more than 262 sites located in grassland, forest, and wetland habitats a
Authors
John Michael Mola, Leif L Richardson, Greg Spyreas, David N. Zaya, Ian Pearse
Evaluation of remote site incubators to incubate wild- and hatchery-origin Westslope Cutthroat Trout embryos
Fish managers must weigh trade-offs among cost, speed, efficiency, and ecological adaptation when deciding how to translocate native salmonids to either establish or genetically augment populations. Remote site incubators (RSIs) appear to be a reasonable strategy, but large-scale evaluations of this method have been limited. We used 129 RSIs to incubate >35,700 eyed embryos of Westslope Cutthroat
Authors
Bradley B. Shepard, Patrick Clancey, Lee M. Nelson, Carter Kruse, Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Daniel Drinan, Alexander V. Zale