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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: 41771

Resource partitioning across a trophic gradient between a freshwater fish and an intraguild exotic

The introduction of exotic species has the potential to cause resource competition with native species and may lead to competitive exclusion when resources are limiting. On the other hand, information is lacking to predict under what alternate trophic conditions coexistence may occur. Comparing diets of native yellow perch Perca flavescens and nonindigenous white perch Morone americana, we examine
Authors
Richard Kraus, Joseph Schmitt, Kevin R. Keretz

Examining the potential conflict between sea otter recovery and Dungeness crab fisheries in California

Human exploitation of marine mammals led to precipitous declines in many wild populations within the last three centuries. Legal protections enacted throughout the 20th century have enabled the recovery of many of these species and some recoveries have resulted in conflict with humans for shared resources. With legal protections and reintroduction programs, the southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris n
Authors
Andre M. Boustany, David Hernandez, Emily A Miller, Fujii. Jessica, Teri E. Nicholson, Joseph A. Tomoleoni, Kyle S. Van Houtan

From forests to fish: Mercury in mountain lake food webs influenced by factors at multiple scales

Mountain lakes, while seemingly pristine, have been subjected to historical fish stocking practices and exposure to atmospherically deposited contaminants like mercury. Mercury bioaccumulation in these ecosystems varies widely due to strong environmental gradients, and there are complex, hierarchical factors that affect mercury transport and loading, methylmercury production, and food web biomagni
Authors
Ariana M. Chiapella, Collin Eagles-Smith, Angela L Strecker

Population estimates for selected breeding seabirds at Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, Kauaʻi, in 2019

Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge (KPNWR) is an important seabird breeding site located at the northeastern tip of Kauaʻi in the main Hawaiian Islands. Despite the regional significance of KPNWR as one of the most important breeding sites for red-tailed tropicbirds (Phaethon rubricauda), red-footed boobies (Sula sula), and wedge-tailed shearwaters (Ardenna pacifica) in the main Hawaiian Islan
Authors
Jonathan J. Felis, Emily C. Kelsey, Josh Adams, Jennilyn G. Stenske, Laney M. White

Experimental challenge of a North American bat species, big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), with SARS-CoV-2

The recently emerged novel coronavirus, SARS‐CoV‐2, is phylogenetically related to bat coronaviruses (CoVs), specifically SARS‐related CoVs from the Eurasian bat family Rhinolophidae. As this human pandemic virus has spread across the world, the potential impacts of SARS‐CoV‐2 on native North American bat populations are unknown, as is the ability of North American bats to serve as reservoirs or i
Authors
Jeffrey S. Hall, Susan Knowles, Sean Nashold, Hon S. Ip, Ariel Elizabeth Leon, Tonie E. Rocke, Saskia Annatina Keller, Mariano Carossino, Udeni B.R. Balasuriya, Erik K. Hofmeister

Non-analog increases to air, surface, and belowground temperature extreme events due to climate change

Air temperatures (Ta) are rising in a changing climate, increasing extreme temperature events. Examining how Ta increases are influencing extreme temperatures at the soil surface and belowground in the soil profile can refine our understanding of the ecological consequences of rising temperatures. In this paper, we validate surface and soil temperature (Ts: 0–100-cm depth) simulations in the SOILW
Authors
M.D. Petrie, John B. Bradford, W.K. Lauenroth, D.R. Schlaepfer, Caitlin M. Andrews, D.M. Bell

Occupancy and detectability of northern long-eared bats in the Lake States Region

The northern long‐eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) is one of the bat species most affected by white‐nose syndrome. Population declines attributed to white‐nose syndrome contributed to the species’ listing as federally threatened under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Although one of the most abundant Myotine bats in eastern North America prior to white‐nose syndrome, little is known about northe
Authors
Brenna A. Hyzy, Robin E. Russell, Alexander Silvis, W. Mark Ford, Jason D. Riddle, Kevin R. Russell

Spatial capture–recapture with random thinning for unidentified encounters

Spatial capture–recapture (SCR) models have increasingly been used as a basis for combining capture–recapture data types with variable levels of individual identity information to estimate population density and other demographic parameters. Recent examples are the unmarked SCR (or spatial count model), where no individual identities are available and spatial mark–resight (SMR) where individual id
Authors
José Jiménez, Ben Augustine, Daniel W. Linden, Richard B. Chandler, Andy Royle

Quantifying plant-soil-nutrient dynamics in rangelands: Fusion of UAV hyperspectral-LiDAR, UAV multispectral-photogrammetry, and ground-based LiDAR-digital photography in a shrub-encroached desert grassland

Rangelands cover 70% of the world's land surface, and provide critical ecosystem services of primary production, soil carbon storage, and nutrient cycling. These ecosystem services are governed by very fine-scale spatial patterning of soil carbon, nutrients, and plant species at the centimeter-to-meter scales, a phenomenon known as “islands of fertility”. Such fine-scale dynamics are challenging t
Authors
Joel B. Sankey, Temuulen T. Sankey, Junran Li, Sujith Ravi, Guan Wang, Joshua Caster, Alan Kasprak

Evidence of an extreme weather‐induced phenological mismatch and a local extirpation of the endangered Karner blue butterfly

In 2011, an experiment was undertaken to examine spring synchrony between the endangered Karner blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis) (Kbb) and its obligate host plant, wild blue lupine (Lupinus perennis) at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (INDU), where the southernmost population of Kbb occurred at the time of this study. From 2012 to 2014, field‐placed Kbb eggs were observed for larvae ha
Authors
Tamatha Patterson, Ralph Grundel, Jason D. K. Dzurisin, Randy L. Knutson, Jessica Hellmann

Shifts in the wintering distribution and abundance of Emperor Geese in Alaska

For wildlife species that winter at northern latitudes, harsh overwinter conditions can play an important role in population dynamics. Recent changes in global temperatures have resulted in distributional shifts of wildlife species, as well as amelioration of winter climates in northern landscapes. The emperor goose (Anser canagicus), an endemic migratory bird of the Bering Sea region, winters acr
Authors
Brian D. Uher-Koch, Raymond M. Buccheit, Charles R. Eldermire, Heather M. Wilson, Joel A. Schmutz

The elephant in the lab (and field): Contamination in aquatic environmental DNA studies

The rapid evolution of environmental (e)DNA methods has resulted in knowledge gaps in smaller, yet critical details like proper use of negative controls to detect contamination. Detecting contamination is vital for confident use of eDNA results in decision-making. We conducted two literature reviews to summarize (a) the types of quality assurance measures taken to detect contamination of eDNA samp
Authors
Adam Sepulveda, Patrick R. Hutchins, Meghan Forstchen, Madeline Mckeefry, Anna M Swigris