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
Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus specialization in a multihost salmonid system
Many pathogens interact and evolve in communities where more than one host species is present, yet our understanding of host–pathogen specialization is mostly informed by laboratory studies with single species. Managing diseases in the wild, however, requires understanding how host–pathogen specialization affects hosts in diverse communities. Juvenile salmonid mortality in hatcheries caused by inf
Authors
David Paez, Shannon L. LaDeau, Rachel Breyta, Gael Kurath, Kerry A. Naish, Paige Ferguson
Forest vegetation change and its impacts on soil water following 47 years of managed wildfire
Managed wildfire is an increasingly relevant management option to restore variability in vegetation structure within fire-suppressed montane forests in western North America. Managed wildfire often reduces tree cover and density, potentially leading to increases in soil moisture availability, water storage in soils and groundwater, and streamflow. However, the potential hydrologic impacts of manag
Authors
Jens Stevens, Gabrielle F. S. Boisramé, Ekaterina Rakhmatulina, Sally E. Thompson, Brandon M. Collins, Scott L. Stephens
Bridging the research-management gap: Landscape ecology in practice on public lands in the western United States
The field of landscape ecology has grown and matured in recent decades, but incorporating landscape science into land management decisions remains challenging. Many lands in the western United States are federally owned and managed for multiple uses, including recreation, conservation, and energy development. We argue for stronger integration of landscape science into the management of these publi
Authors
Sarah K. Carter, David Pilliod, Travis S. Haby, Karen L. Prentice, Cameron L. Aldridge, Patrick J. Anderson, Zachary H. Bowen, John B. Bradford, Samuel A. Cushman, Joseph C. DeVivo, Michael C. Duniway, Ryan S. Hathaway, Lisa Nelson, Courtney A. Schultz, Rudy Schuster, E. Jamie Trammell, Jake Weltzin
Mixed organic and inorganic tapwater exposures and potential effects in greater Chicago area, USA
Safe drinking water at the point of use (tapwater, TW) is a public-health priority. TW exposures and potential human-health concerns of 540 organics and 35 inorganics were assessed in 45 Chicago area United States (US) homes in 2017. No US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforceable Maximum Contaminant Level(s) (MCL) were exceeded in any residential or water treatment plant (WTP) pre-distrib
Authors
Paul Bradley, Maria Argos, Dana W. Kolpin, Shannon M. Meppelink, Kristin M. Romanok, Kelly L. Smalling, Michael J. Focazio, Joshua M. Allen, Julie E. Dietze, Michael J. Devito, Ariel Donovan, Nicola Evans, Carrie E. Givens, James L. Gray, Christopher P. Higgins, Michelle Hladik, Luke Iwanowicz, Celeste A. Journey, Rachael F. Lane, Zachary Laughrey, Keith A. Loftin, R. Blaine McCleskey, Carrie A. McDonough, Elizabeth K Medlock Kakaley, Michael T. Meyer, Andrea Holthouse-Putz, Susan D Richardson, Alan Stark, Christopher P. Weis, Vickie S. Wilson, Abderrahman Zehraoui
Integrating broad‐scale data to assess demographic and climatic contributions to population change in a declining songbird
Climate variation and trends affect species distribution and abundance across large spatial extents. However, most studies that predict species response to climate are implemented at small spatial scales or are based on occurrence‐environment relationships that lack mechanistic detail. Here, we develop an integrated population model (IPM) for multi‐site count and capture‐recapture data for a decli
Authors
Jim Saracco, Madeleine A. Rubenstein
Hydrogeologic characterization, groundwater chemistry, and vulnerability assessment, Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, Colorado and Utah
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (UMUT), initiated a study in 2016 to increase understanding of the hydrogeology and chemistry of groundwater within select areas of the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation (UMUR) in Colorado and Utah, identify vulnerabilities to the system and other natural resources, and outline information needs to aid in the understanding and p
Authors
Nancy J. Bauch, L. Rick Arnold
Genes in space: What Mojave desert tortoise genetics can tell us about landscape connectivity
Habitat loss and fragmentation in the Mojave Desert have been increasing, which can create barriers to movement and gene flow leading to decreased populations of native species. Disturbance and degradation of Mojave desert tortoise habitat includes linear features (e.g. highways, railways, and a network of dirt roads), urbanized areas, and their associated infrastructure, mining activities, energy
Authors
Kirsten E. Dutcher, Amy G. Vandergast, Todd C. Esque, Anna Mitelberg, Marjorie D Matocq, Jill S. Heaton, Ken E Nussear
A random forest approach for bounded outcome variables
Random forests have become an established tool for classication and regres-
sion, in particular in high-dimensional settings and in the presence of non-additive
predictor-response relationships. For bounded outcome variables restricted to the
unit interval, however, classical modeling approaches based on mean squared error
loss may severely suer as they do not account for heteroscedasticity in the
Authors
Leonie Weinhold, Matthias Schmid, Richard M. Mitchell, Kelly O. Maloney, Marvin N. Wright, Moritz Berger
A spatially explicit, empirical estimate of tree-based biological nitrogen fixation in forests of the United States
Quantifying human impacts on the nitrogen (N) cycle and investigating natural ecosystem N cycling depend on the magnitude of inputs from natural biological nitrogen fixation (BNF). Here, we present two bottom‐up approaches to quantify tree‐based symbiotic BNF based on forest inventory data across the coterminous United States and SE Alaska. For all major N‐fixing tree genera, we quantify BNF input
Authors
Anika Staccone, Wenying Liao, Steven Perakis, Jana Compton, Christopher L. Clark, Duncan Menge
Sensitivity of warm water fishes and rainbow trout to selected contaminants
Guidelines for developing water quality standards allow U.S. states to exclude toxicity data for the family Salmonidae (trout and salmon) when deriving guidelines for warm-water habitats. This practice reflects the belief that standards based on salmonid data may be overprotective of toxic effects on other fish taxa. In acute tests with six chemicals and eight fish species, the salmonid, Rainbow T
Authors
John M. Besser, Rebecca A. Dorman, Chris D. Ivey, Danielle M. Cleveland, Jeffery Steevens
Flea sharing among sympatric rodent hosts: implications for potential plague effects on a threatened sciurid
For vector-borne diseases, the abundance and competency of different vector species and their host preferences will impact the transfer of pathogens among hosts. Sylvatic plague is a lethal disease caused by the primarily flea-borne bacterium Yersinia pestis. Sylvatic plague was introduced into the western United States in the early 1900s and impacts many species of rodents. Plague may be suppress
Authors
Amanda R. Goldberg, Courtney J. Conway, Dean E. Biggins
Co-occurrence and occupancy dynamics of mourning doves and Eurasian collared-doves
Understanding how land cover and potential competition with invasive species shape patterns of occupancy, extirpation, and colonization of native species across a landscape can help target management for declining native populations. Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) populations have declined throughout the United States from 1965–2015. The expansion of the Eurasian collared‐dove (Streptopelia deca
Authors
Adam W. Green, Helen Sofaer, David L Otis, Nicholas J Van Lanen