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
Effects of a crude-oil recovery remediation system operated 1999–2003 on groundwater plumes and unsaturated-zone vapor concentrations at a crude-oil spill site near Bemidji, Minnesota
A crude-oil spill occurred in 1979 when a pipeline burst near Bemidji, Minnesota. More than 70 percent of the 1.7 million liters of spilled crude oil was removed shortly thereafter. In response to a requirement by the State regulatory agency to remove the remaining crude to a sheen in all wells, in 1998, the pipeline company installed a dual-pump recovery system at the site. This additional remedi
Authors
Geoffrey N. Delin, William N. Herkelrath, Jared J. Trost
Effects of snake fungal disease on short‐term survival, behavior, and movement in free‐ranging snakes
Pathogenic fungi are increasingly associated with epidemics in wildlife populations. Snake fungal disease (SFD, also referred to as Ophidiomycosis) is an emerging threat to snakes, taxa that are elusive and difficult to sample. Thus, assessments of the effects of SFD on populations have rarely occurred. We used a field technique to enhance detection, Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) telemetry,
Authors
Jennifer M. McKenzie, Steven J. Price, Grant M. Connette, Simon J Bonner, Jeffrey M. Lorch
A Bayesian Dirichlet process community occupancy model to estimate community structure and species similarity
Community occupancy models estimate species‐specific parameters while sharing information across species by treating parameters as sampled from a common distribution. When communities consist of discrete groups, shrinkage of estimates towards the community mean can mask differences among groups. Infinite mixture models using a Dirichlet process (DP) distribution, in which the number of latent grou
Authors
Rahel Sollmann, Mitchell Eaton, William Link, Paul Mulundo, Samuel Ayebare, Sarah Prinsloo, Andrew J. Plumptre, D.S. Johnson
Southern (California) sea otter population status and trends at San Nicolas Island, 2017–2020
The southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) population at San Nicolas Island, California, has been monitored annually since the translocation of 140 sea otters to the island was completed in 1990. Monitoring efforts have varied in frequency and type across years. In 2017, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiated a sea otter monitoring and research plan to determine the eff
Authors
Julie L. Yee, Joseph A. Tomoleoni, Michael C. Kenner, Jessica Fujii, Gena B. Bentall, M. Tim Tinker, Brian B. Hatfield
Evaluating a rapid field assessment system for anticoagulant rodenticide exposure of raptors
Anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) are commonly used to control rodent pests. However, worldwide, their use is associated with secondary and tertiary poisoning of nontarget species, especially predatory and scavenging birds. No medical device can rapidly test for AR exposure of avian wildlife. Prothrombin time (PT) is a useful biomarker for AR exposure, and multiple commercially available point-of-c
Authors
Ariana J Dickson, James R. Belthoff, Kristen A Mitchell, Brian W. Smith, Zachary P. Wallace, Matthew J. Stuber, Michael J. Lockhart, Barnett A. Rattner, Todd E. Katzner
Seasonality of biological and physical systems as indicators of climatic variation and change
Evidence-based responses to climate change by society require operational and sustained information including biophysical indicator systems that provide up-to-date measures of trends and patterns against historical baselines. Two key components linking anthropogenic climate change to impacts on socio-ecological systems are the periodic inter- and intra-annual variations in physical climate systems
Authors
Jake Weltzin, Julio L. Betancourt, Benjamin I. Cook, Theresa Crimmins, Carolyn Armstrong Enquist, MD Gerst, JE Gross, GM Henebry, RA Hufft, MA Kenney, John S. Kimball, Bradley C. Reed, SW Running
COVID-19 pandemic impacts on global inland fisheries
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to environmental recovery in some ecosystems from a global “anthropause,” yet such evidence for natural resources with extraction or production value (e.g., fisheries) is limited. This brief report provides a data-driven global snapshot of expert-perceived impacts of COVID-19 on inland fisheries. We distributed an online survey assessing perceptions of inland fishery
Authors
Gretchen L. Stokes, Abigail Lynch, Benjamin S. Lowe, Simon Funge-Smith, John Valbo-Jorgensen, Samuel J. Smidt
Transport and speciation of uranium in groundwater-surface water systems impacted by legacy milling operations
Growing worldwide concern over uranium contamination of groundwater resources has placed an emphasis on understanding uranium transport dynamics and potential toxicity in groundwater-surface water systems. In this study, we utilized novel in-situ sampling methods to establish the location and magnitude of contaminated groundwater entry into a receiving surface water environment, and to investigate
Authors
Patrick A. Byrne, Christopher C. Fuller, David L. Naftz, Robert L. Runkel, Niklas J Lehto, William L Dam
Brown Bear (Ursus arctos; North America)
This chapter comprises the following sections: names, taxonomy, subspecies and distribution, descriptive notes, habitat, movements and home range, activity patterns, feeding ecology, reproduction and growth, behavior, parasites and diseases, status in the wild, and status in captivity.
Authors
Mark A. Haroldson, Melanie Clapham, Cecily M. Costello, Kerry A. Gunther, Kate Kendall, Sterling Miller, Karine Pigeon, Michael F. Proctor, Karyn D. Rode, Christopher Servheen, Gordon Stenhouse, Frank T. van Manen
Ecological and social dimensions of sloth bear conservation in Sri Lanka
Balancing the needs of humans and wildlife in Sri Lanka presents enormous socioeconomic and conservation challenges. Sloth bears are legally protected, but attacks on humans generate intense fear, which increases the potential for human-caused bear mortality and local extirpation of bears. In this chapter, what is known about the ecology and human dimensions of the sloth bear in a country with a t
Authors
Shyamala Ratnayeke, Frank T. van Manen
Migration routes and population status of the Brent Goose Branta bernicla nigricans wintering in East Asia
Of the world’s Brent Goose Branta bernicla populations, the migration routes and winter distribution of the East Asian population of Brent Geese B. b. nigricans are the least well known. We therefore marked Brent Geese at their primary pre-migratory staging area in Notsuke Bay, Hokkaido, Japan to describe their migration between breeding and wintering areas in East Asia. Additionally, count data w
Authors
Yusuke Sawa, Chieko Tamura, Toshio Ikeuchi, Kaoru Fujii, Aisa Ishioroshi, T. Shimada, Shiro Tatsuzawa, Xueqin Deng, Lei Cao, Hwajung Kim, David H. Ward