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: 41756
Prey selection by black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes): Implications for intersexual resource partitioning and conservation
Intraspecific resource partitioning may play a critical role in how predators optimize prey selection. The Black-footed Ferret (Mustela nigripes; henceforth, ferret) is a highly specialized predator of prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.; henceforth, PDs). Adult ferrets are sexually dimorphic and PDs are of similar size making them a difficult prey item. PD young are born 6 to 8 weeks prior to births of fe
Authors
Dean E. Biggins, David A. Eads, Shantini Ramakrishnan, Amanda R. Goldberg, Samantha L. Eads, Joanna Hardin, Darla Konkel
Opportunities for improved consideration of cultural benefits in environmental decision-making
Many cultural benefits of ecosystem services (ES) are difficult to capture in standard ES assessments. Scholars and practitioners often respond to this gap by seeking to develop new scientific methods to capture and integrate the plural values associated with diverse cultural benefits categories. This increasing emphasis on value pluralism represents an essential step toward recognitional justice
Authors
Kristin R. Hoelting, Joshua W. Morse, Rachelle K. Gould, Doreen E. Martinez, Rina S. Hauptfeld, Amanda E. Cravens, Sara J. Breslow, Lucas Bair, Rudy Schuster, Michael C. Gavin
Advancing knowledge pluralism and cultural benefits in ecosystem services theory and application
Improved consideration of the cultural benefits of ecosystem services (ES) requires attention to knowledge pluralism in addition to value pluralism. Theorists have increasingly argued that meaningful inclusion of cultural benefits of ES requires attention to plural values, beyond the individual, instrumental values associated with ecosystems. However, there has been little engagement around the ro
Authors
Kristin R. Hoelting, Doreen E. Martinez, Rudy Schuster, Michael C. Gavin
Advancing knowledge pluralism and cultural benefits in ecosystem services theory and application
Improved consideration of the cultural benefits of ecosystem services (ES) requires attention to knowledge pluralism in addition to value pluralism. Theorists have increasingly argued that meaningful inclusion of cultural benefits of ES requires attention to plural values, beyond the individual, instrumental values associated with ecosystems. However, there has been little engagement around the ro
Authors
Kristin R. Hoelting, Doreen E Martinez, Rudy Schuster, Michael C. Gavin
Accelerating elevation gain indicates land loss associated with erosion in Mississippi River Deltaic Plain tidal wetlands
In recent years, the Mississippi River Deltaic Plain (MRDP) has experienced the highest rates of wetland loss in the USA. Although the process of vertical drowning has been heavily studied in coastal wetlands, less is known about the relationship between elevation change and land loss in wetlands that are experiencing lateral erosion and the contribution of erosion to land loss in the MRDP. We qua
Authors
Camille Stagg, Leigh Anne Sharp, Emily Fromenthal, Brady Couvillion, Victoria Woltz, Sarai Piazza
Quantifying effectiveness and best practices for bumblebee identification from photographs
Understanding pollinator networks requires species level data on pollinators. New photographic approaches to identification provide avenues to data collection that reduce impacts on declining bumblebee species, but limited research has addressed their accuracy. Using blind identification of 1418 photographed bees, of which 561 had paired specimens, we assessed identification and agreement across 2
Authors
Anne Colgan, Richard G. Hatfield, Amy Dolan, Wendy Velman, Rebecca Newton, Tabitha Graves
How well do existing surveys track fish community performance measures in the St. Clair-Detroit River System?
The St. Clair-Detroit River System (SCDRS) connects Lake Huron to Lake Erie and provides important habitats for many fishes of economic and ecological importance. Portions of the SCDRS are designated as Great Lakes Areas of Concern and fish production and conservation may be compromised. Efforts to address beneficial use impairments have focused on restoring habitat for native fishes and improving
Authors
Corbin David Hilling, M. L. Belore, J. Boase, Justin A. Chiotti, Robin L. DeBruyne, Susan E. Doka, Richard Drouin, Christine M. Mayer, Jeff T. Tyson, T. Wills, Edward F. Roseman
Flash drought: A state of the science review
In the two decades, since the advent of the term “flash drought,” considerable research has been directed toward the topic. Within the scientific community, we have actively forged a new paradigm that has avoided a chaotic evolution of conventional drought but instead recognizes that flash droughts have distinct dynamics and, particularly, impacts. We have moved beyond the initial debate over the
Authors
Jordan Christian, Mike Hobbins, Andrew Hoell, Jason Otkin, Trenton W. Ford, Amanda E. Cravens, Kathryn Powlen, Hailan Wang, Vimal Mishra
Evaluating conservation units using network analysis: A sea duck case study
Conserving migratory wildlife requires understanding how groups of individuals interact across seasons and landscapes. Telemetry reveals individual movements at large spatiotemporal scales; however, using movement data to define conservation units requires scaling up from individual movements to species- and community-level patterns. We developed a framework to define flyways and identify importan
Authors
Juliet S. Lamb, Clara Cooper-Mullin, Scott Gilliland, Alicia Berlin, Timothy D. Bowman, Sean Boyd, Susan E. W. De La Cruz, Daniel Esler, Joseph R. Evenson, Paul L. Flint, Christine Lepage, Dustin Meattey, Jason Osenkowski, Peter WC Patton, Matthew Perry, Daniel H. Rosenberg, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Lucas Savoy, Jason Schamber, David Ward, John Takekawa, Scott R. McWilliams
Extreme drought impacts have been underestimated in grasslands and shrublands globally
Drought has well-documented societal and economic consequences. Climate change is expected to intensify drought to even more extreme levels, but because such droughts have been historically rare, their impact on ecosystem functioning is not well known. We experimentally imposed the most frequent type of intensified drought—one that is ~1 y in duration—at 100 grassland and shrubland sites distribut
Authors
Melinda D. Smith, Kate D Wilkins, Martin C. Holdrege, Peter A. Wilfahrt, Scott L. Collins, Alan K. Knapp, Osvaldo E. Sala, Jeffrey S. Dukes, Richard P. Phillips, Laura Yahdjian, Laureano A. Gherardi, Timothy Ohlert, Claus Beier, Lauchlan H. Fraser, Anke Jentsch, Michael E. Loik, Fernando T. Maestre, Sally A. Power, Qiang Yu, Andrew J. Felton, Seth M. Munson, Yiqi Luo, Hamed Abdoli, Mehdi Abedi, Concepción L. Alados, Juan Alberti, Moshe Alon, Hui An, Brian Anacker, Maggie Anderson, Harald Auge, Seton Bachle, Khadijeh Bahalkeh, Michael Bahn, Amgaa Batbaatar, Taryn Bauerle, Karen H. Beard, Kai Behn, Ilka Beil, Lucio Biancari, Irmgard Blindow, Viviana Florencia Bondaruk, Elizabeth T. Borer, Edward W. Bork, Carlos Martin Bruschetti, Kerry M. Byrne, James F. Cahill Jr., Dianela A. Calvo, Michele Carbognani, Augusto Cardoni, Cameron N. Carlyle, Miguel Castillo-Garcia, Scott X. Chang, Jeff Chieppa, Marcus V. Cianciaruso, Ofer Cohen, Amanda L. Cordeiro, Daniela F. Cusack, Sven Dahlke, Pedro Daleo, Carla M. D'Antonio, Lee H. Dietterich, Tim S. Doherty, Maren Dubbert, Anne Ebling, Nico Eisenhauer, Felícia M. Fischer, T'ai G. W. Forte, Tobias Gebauer, Beatriz Gozalo, Aaron C. Greenville, Karlo G. Guidoni-Martins, Heather J. Hannusch, Siri Vatsø Haugum, Yann Hautier, Mariet Hefting, Hugh A. L. Henry, Daniela Hoss, Johannes Ingrisch, Oscar Iribarne, Forest Isbell, Yari Johnson, Samuel E. Jordan, Eugene F. Kelly, Kaitlin Kimmel, Juergen Kreyling, György Kröel-Dulay, Alicia Kröpfl, Angelika Kübert, Andrew Kulmatiski, Eric G. Lamb, Klaus Steenberg Larsen, Julie Larson, Jason Lawson, Cintia V. Leder, Anja Linstädter, Jielin Liu, Shirong Liu, Alexandra G. Lodge, Grisel Longo, Alejandro Loydi, Junwei Luan, Frederick Curtis Lubbe, Craig Macfarlane, Kathleen Mackie-Haas, Andrey V. Malyshev, Adrián Maturano-Ruiz, Thomas Merchant, Daniel B. Metcalfe, Akira S. Mori, Edwin Mudongo, Gregory S. Newman, Uffe N. Nielsen, Dale Nimmo, Yujie Niu, Paola Nobre, Rory C. O'Connor, Romà Ogaya, Gastón R. Oñatibia, Ildikó Orbán, Brooke B. Osborne, Rafael Otfinowski, Meelis Pärtel, Josep Penuelas, Pablo L. Peri, Guadalupe Peter, Alessandro Petraglia, Catherine Picon-Cochard, Valério D. Pillar, Juan Manuel Piñeiro-Guerra, Laura W. Ploughe, Robert M. Plowes, Cristy Portales-Reyes, Suzanne M. Prober, Yolanda Pueyo, Sasha C. Reed, Euan G. Ritchie, Dana Aylén Rodríguez, William E. Rogers, Christiane Roscher, Ana M. Sánchez, Bráulio A. Santos, María Cecilia Scarfó, Eric W. Seabloom, Baoku Shu, Lara Souza, Andreas Stampfli, Rachel J. Standish, Marcelo Sternberg, Wei Sun, Marie Sünnemann, Michelle Tedder, Pål Thorvaldsen, Dashuan Tian, Katja Tielbörger, Alejandro Valdecantos, Liesbeth van den Brink, Vigdis Vandvik, Mathew R. Vankoughnett, Liv Guri Velle, Changhui Wang, Yi Wang, Glenda M. Wardle, Christiane Werner, Cunzheng Wei, Georg Wiehl, Jennifer L. Williams, Amelia A. Wolf, Michaela Zeiter, Fawei Zhang, Juntao Zhu, Ning Zong, Xiaoan Zuo
Comparing maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods for fitting hidden Markov models to multi-state capture-recapture data of invasive carp in the Illinois River
BackgroundHidden Markov Models (HMMs) are often used to model multi-state capture-recapture data in ecology. However, a variety of HMM modeling approaches and software exist, including both maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods. The diversity of these methods obscures the underlying HMM and can exaggerate minor differences in parameterization.MethodsIn this paper, we describe a general framework
Authors
Charles J. Labuzzetta, Alison A. Coulter, Richard A. Erickson
Can the planetary health concept save freshwater biodiversity and ecosystems?
People clearly need and benefit from healthy freshwater ecosystems; Given the precarious state of these important systems and services, current efforts to address the freshwater biodiversity crisis remain insufficient. Planetary health is an emerging framework that aims to secure the state of natural systems within environmental limits that ensure humanity can flourish. The planetary health concep
Authors
Steven J. Cooke, Abigail Lynch, David Tickner, Robin Abell, Tatenda Dalu, Kathryn J. Fiorella, Rajeev Raghavan, Ian J. Harrison, Sonja C. Jähnig, Derek Vollmer, Steve Carpenter