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: 41778
Local sea level rise information sheets for Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida
Two Pagers for Federally Managed Lands
The Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative partnered with individuals at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Wetland and Aquatic Research Center and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to produce customized two-pager information sheets for federal coastal refuges, parks, and reserves across the northern Gulf of Mexico (i.e., sea-level rise sensitive federa
Authors
Bogdan Chivoiu, Michael J. Osland, Renee C. Collini, Sara Martin, John M. Tirpak, Benjamin Wilson
Movements and habitat use of loons for assessment of conservation buffer zones in the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska
Oil and gas development in the Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska, may pose threats to wildlife. Management guidelines within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska dictate buffer zones for coastal wildlife habitat and for breeding and foraging sites of yellow-billed loons (YBLOs; Gavia adamsii), a species of conservation concern. However, few data exist to assess the value of these buffer zones for YB
Authors
Sharon Poessel, Brian D. Uher-Koch, John M. Pearce, Joel A. Schmutz, Todd E. Katzner, David C. Douglas, Vanessa R. von Biela, Autumn-Lynne Harrison
Monitoring chemical contaminants in the Gulf of Maine, using sediments and mussels (Mytilus edulis): An evaluation
The objective of this paper is to determine whether contaminant data on mussels and sediments can be used interchangeably, or not, when assessing the degree of anthropogenic contamination of a water body. To obtain adequate coverage of the entire Gulf of Maine, Bay of Fundy sediment samples were collected, analyzed and combined with similar data from four coastal monitoring programs. This required
Authors
Adria Elskus, Lawrence A LeBlanc, James S Latimer, David Page, Gareth Harding, Peter G Wells
Black oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani) population size, use of marine reserve complexes, and spatial distribution in Oregon
The Black Oystercatcher is a large shorebird found along the west coast of North America. Because of their small global population size, low reproductive rate, and dependence on rocky intertidal habitats, they are considered a “species of high conservation concern” and may act as an indicator of intertidal ecosystem health. In 2015, the Audubon Society of Portland initiated a 3-year shore-based po
Authors
Joe Liebezeit, Amelia O'Connor, James E. Lyons, Courtney Shannon, Shawn Stephensen, Elise Elliott-Smith
Bending the curve of global freshwater biodiversity loss: An emergency recovery plan
Despite their limited spatial extent, freshwater ecosystems host remarkable biodiversity, including one-third of all vertebrate species. This biodiversity is declining dramatically: Globally, wetlands are vanishing three times faster than forests, and freshwater vertebrate populations have fallen more than twice as steeply as terrestrial or marine populations. Threats to freshwater biodiversity ar
Authors
David Tickner, Jeff Opperman, Robin Abell, Mike Acreman, Angela Arthington, Stuart E. Bunn, Steven J. Cooke, Will Darwall, Gavin Edwards, Ian Harrison, Kathy Hughes, Tim Jones, David Leclere, Abigail Lynch, Philip Leonard, Mike McClain, Pete McIntyre, Dean Muruven, Julian D. Olden, Steve Ormerod, James Robinson, Rebecca Tharme, Michele Thieme, Klement Tockner, Mark Wright, Lucy Young
Low renesting propensity and reproductive success make renesting unproductive for the threatened Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus)
Upon reproductive failure, many bird species make a secondary attempt at nesting (hereafter, “renesting”). Renesting may be an effective strategy to maximize current and lifetime reproductive success, but individuals face uncertainty in the probability of success because reproductive attempts initiated later in the breeding season often have reduced nest, pre-fledging, and post-fledging brood surv
Authors
Rose J. Swift, Michael J. Anteau, Megan Ring, Dustin L. Toy, Mark H. Sherfy
American eels produce and release bile acids that vary across life stage
The American eel (Anguilla rostrata ) is an imperilled fish hypothesized to use conspecific cues, in part, to coordinate long‐distance migration during their multistage life history. Here, holding water and tissue from multiple American eel life stages was collected and analysed for the presence, profile and concentration of bile acids. Distinct bile acid profiles were identified in glass, elver,
Authors
Andrew K. Schmucker, Nicholas S. Johnson, Ugo Bussy, Ke Li, Heather S. Galbraith, Yu-Wen Chung-Davidson, Weiming Li
Corrigendum to ‘Field-scale intercomparison analysis of ecosystems in partitioning surface energy balance components in a semi-arid environment’- Ecohydrology and hydrobiology 19 (2019) 24-37
No abstract available.
Authors
Venkataramana Sridhar, Mirza M Billah, Prasanth Valayamkunnath, Wenguang Zhao, Richard G Allen, Matthew Germino
The IPBES global assessment: Pathways to action
The first Global Assessment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services found widespread, accelerating declines in Earth’s biodiversity and associated benefits to people from nature. Addressing these trends will require science-based policy responses to reduce impacts, especially at national to local scales. Effective scaling of science-policy efforts dr
Authors
Mary H. Ruckelshaus, Stephen T. Jackson, Harold A. Mooney, Katharine L. Jacobs, Karim- Aly S. Kassam, Mary T. K. Arroyo, András Báldi, Ann M. Bartuska, James W. Boyd, Lucas N. Joppa, Anikó Kovács-Hostyánszki, Jill Petraglia Parsons, Robert J. Scholes, Jason F. Shogren, Zhiyun Ouyang
Submarine canyons influence macrofaunal diversity and density patterns in the deep-sea benthos
Submarine canyons are often morphologically complex features in the deep sea contributing to habitat heterogeneity. In addition, they act as major conduits of organic matter from the shallow productive shelf to the food deprived deep-sea, promoting gradients in food resources and areas of sediment resuspension and deposition. This study focuses on the Baltimore and Norfolk canyons, in the western
Authors
Craig M. Robertson, Amanda Demopoulos, Jill Bourque, Furu Mienis, Gerard Duineveld, Mark Lavaleye, R. Koivisto, S. Brooke, S. Ross, M. Rhode, A. Davies
Population ecology and spatial synchrony in abundance within and among populations of valley oak (Quercus lobata) leaf gall wasps
What factors drive population variability through space and time? Here we assess patterns of abundance of seven species of gall wasps in three genera occurring on the leaves of valley oaks (Quercus lobata ) at 10 sites throughout this species' statewide range in California, from 2000 to 2006. Our primary goals were to understand the factors driving variability in gall abundance and to assess the e
Authors
Brian Barringer, Walter D. Koenig, Ian Pearse, Jean Knops
Intraspecific variation in surface water uptake in a perennial desert shrub
Despite broad recognition that water is a major limiting factor in arid ecosystems, we lack an empirical understanding of how this resource is shared and distributed among neighbouring plants. Intraspecific variability can further contribute to this variation via divergent life‐history traits, including root architecture. We investigated these questions in the shrub Artemisia tridentata and hypoth
Authors
Andrii Zaiats, Brynne E. Lazarus, Matthew Germino, Marcelo D. Serpe, Bryce A. Richardson, Sven Buerki, T. Trevor Caughlin