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: 41758
Mercury accumulation potential of aquatic plant species in West Dongting Lake, China
West Dongting Lake is a protected wetland with the potential for high levels of mercury release via wastewater and deposition from industry and agriculture during the last decade. To find out the ability of various plant species to accumulate mercury pollutants from soil and water, nine sites were studied in the downstream direction of the flow of the Yuan and Li Rivers, which are tributaries of t
Authors
Dong Peng, Mingzhu Chen, Xinyue Su, Chenchen Liu, Zhehao Zhang, Beth Middleton, Ting Lei
A meta-analysis of the stony coral tissue loss disease microbiome finds key bacteria in unaffected and lesion tissue in diseased colonies
Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) has been causing significant whole colony mortality on reefs in Florida and the Caribbean. The cause of SCTLD remains unknown, with the limited concurrence of SCTLD-associated bacteria among studies. We conducted a meta-analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA gene datasets generated by 16 field and laboratory SCTLD studies to find consistent bacteria associated with S
Authors
Stephanie M. Rosales, Lindsay K. Huebner, James S. Evans, Amy Apprill, Andew C. Baker, Anthony J. Bellantuono, Marilyn E. Brandt, Abigail S. Clark, Javier del Campo, Caroline E. Dennison, Katherine R. Eaton, Naomi E. Huntley, Christina A. Kellogg, Monica Medina, Julie L. Meyer, Erinn M. Muller, Mauricio Rodriguez-Lanetty, Jennifer L. Salerno, W. Bane Schill, Erin N. Shilling, Julia Marie Stewart, Joshua D. Voss
Movement ecology of diploid and triploid grass carp in a large reservoir and upstream tributaries
Grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella, is an herbivorous fish originally brought to North America from Asia in 1963 to control nuisance aquatic vegetation. Since their arrival, detrimental alterations to aquatic ecosystems have sometimes occurred in waterways where they were initially stocked and into which they have escaped. The movements of grass carp from lentic systems into tributaries required f
Authors
Tyler Michael Hessler, Duane Chapman, Craig Paukert, Jeff C. Jolley, Michael E. Byrne
South San Francisco Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project—A synthesis of Phase-1 mercury studies
The South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project (SBSPRP) encompasses over 6,000 hectares of former salt production ponds along the south edge of the San Francisco Bay and represents the largest wetland restoration effort on the west coast of North America. A series of studies associated with Phase 1 (2010–2018) restoration activities that are focused on a historically mercury contaminated slough and s
Authors
Mark Marvin-DiPasquale, Darell Slotton, Josh T. Ackerman, Maureen A. Downing-Kunz, Bruce E. Jaffe, Amy C. Foxgrover, Fernanda Achete, Mick van der Wegen
Preventing and controlling nonnative species invasions to bend the curve of global freshwater biodiversity loss
The Emergency Recovery Plan for freshwater biodiversity recognizes that addressing nonnative species is one of six principal actions needed to bend the curve in freshwater biodiversity loss. This is because introduction rates of nonnative species continue to accelerate globally and where these species develop invasive populations, they can have severe impacts on freshwater biodiversity. The most e
Authors
J. Robert Britton, Abigail Lynch, Helge Bardal, Stephanie J. Bradbeer, Julie A. Coetzee, Neil E. Coughlan, Tatenda Dalu, Elena Tricarico, Belinda Gallardo, Mark Lintermans, Frances Lucy, Chunlong Liu, Julian D. Olden, Rajeev Raghavan, Eleri Pritchard
Linking seed size and number to trait syndromes in trees
AimOur understanding of the mechanisms that maintain forest diversity under changing climate can benefit from knowledge about traits that are closely linked to fitness. We tested whether the link between traits and seed number and seed size is consistent with two hypotheses, termed the leaf economics spectrum and the plant size syndrome, or whether reproduction represents an independent dimension
Authors
Michal Bogdziewicz, Marie-Claire Aravena Acuña, Robert A. Andrus, Davide Ascoli, Yves Bergeron, Daniel Brveiller, Thomas Boivin, Raul Bonal, Thomas Caignard, Maxime Cailleret, Rafael Calama, Sergio Donoso Calderon, J. Julio Camarero, Chia-Hao Chang-Yang, Jerome Chave, Francesco Chianucci, Natalie L. Cleavitt, Benoit Courbaud, Andrea Cutini, Thomas Curt, Adrian Das, Hendrik Davi, Nicolas Delpiere, Sylvain Delzon, Michael Dietze, Laurent Dormont, William Farfan-Rios, Catherine A. Gehring, Gregory S. Gilbert, Georg Gratzer, Cathryn H. Greenberg, Arthur Guignabert, Qinfeng Guo, Andrew Hacket-Pain, Arndt Hampe, Qingmin Han, Kazuhiko Hoshizaki, Ines Ibanez, Jill F. Johnstone, Valentin Journé, Thomas Kitzberger, Johannes M.H. Knops, Georges Kunstler, Richard Kobe, Jonathan G. A. Lageard, Jalene M. LaMontagne, Mateusz Ledwon, Theodor Leininger, Jean-Marc Limousin, James A. Lutz, Diana Macias, Anders Marell, Eliot J.B. McIntire, Emily V. Moran, Renzo Motta, Jonathan A. Myers, Thomas A. Nagel, Shoji Naoe, Kyotaro Noguchi, Michio Oguro, Hiroko Kurokawa, Jean-Marc Ourcival, Robert Parmenter, Ignacio M. Perez-Ramos, Lukasz Piechnik, Tomasz Podgórski, John Poulsen, Tong Qiu, Miranda D. Redmond, Chantal D. Reid, Kyle C. Rodman, Pavel Šamonil, Jan Holik, C. Lane Scher, Harald Schmidt Van Marle, Barbara Seget, Mitsue Shibata, Shubhi Sharma, Miles Silman, Michael A. Steele, Jacob N. Straub, I-Fang Sun, Samantha Sutton, Jennifer J. Swenson, Peter A. Thomas, Maria Uriarte, Giorgio Vacchiano, Thomas T. Veblen, Boyd Wright, S. Joseph Wright, Thomas G. Whitham, Kai Zhu, Jess K. Zimmerman, Magdalna Zywiec, James S. Clark
Symbiotic nitrogen fixation does not stimulate soil phosphatase activity under temperate and tropical trees
Symbiotic nitrogen (N)-fixing plants can enrich ecosystems with N, which can alter the cycling and demand for other nutrients. Researchers have hypothesized that fixed N could be used by plants and soil microbes to produce extracellular phosphatase enzymes, which release P from organic matter. Consistent with this speculation, the presence of N-fixing plants is often associated with high phosphata
Authors
Emily Jager, Andrew Quebbeman, Amelia A. Wolf, Steven Perakis, Jennifer L. Funk, Duncan N.L. Menge
Lake Ontario’s nearshore zooplankton: Community composition changes and comparisons to the offshore
In large lake systems the nearshore habitat is an intermediate zone between the shoreline and offshore, is an important nursery for larval fish, and is highlighted as an area in need of research in the Laurentian Great Lakes. In this study, we used two long-term monitoring programs to characterize the nearshore zooplankton community composition using seasonal data (May – October) and to compare th
Authors
Stephanie Figary, Kristen T. Holeck, Christopher Hotaling, James M. Watkins, Jana Lantry, Mike Connerton, Scott Prindle, Zy Biesinger, Brian O'Malley, Lars G. Rudstam
Laboratory studies of potential competition for food and substrate among early juvenile Missouri River sturgeon and sympatric chub species
Juvenile Pallid Sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus predominantly consume midges (family Chironomidae) and other macroinvertebrates, while Shovelnose Sturgeon S. platorynchus, Sicklefin Chub Macrhybopsis meeki, and Shoal Chub M. hyostoma feed on those same macroinvertebrates throughout life. The primary objective of this study was to assess the substrate component of habitat selection, specifically sele
Authors
Mark L. Wildhaber, Janice L. Albers
Towards vibrant fish populations and sustainable fisheries that benefit all: Learning from the last 30 years to inform the next 30 years
A common goal among fisheries science professionals, stakeholders, and rights holders is to ensure the persistence and resilience of vibrant fish populations and sustainable, equitable fisheries in diverse aquatic ecosystems, from small headwater streams to offshore pelagic waters. Achieving this goal requires a complex intersection of science and management, and a recognition of the interconnecti
Authors
Steven J. Cooke, Elizabeth A. Fulton, Warwick H. H. Sauer, Abigail Lynch, Jason S. Link, Aaron A. Koning, Joykrushna Jena, Luiz G. M. Silva, Alison J. King, Rachel Kelly, Matthew Osborne, Julia Nakamura, Ann L. Preece, Atsushi Hagiwara, Kerstin Forsberg, Julie B. Kellner, Ilaria Coscia, Sarah Helyar, Manuel Barange, Elizabeth A. Nyboer, Meryl J. Williams, Ratana Chuenpagdee, Gavin A. Begg, Bronwyn M. Gillanders
Gene expression reveals immune response strategies of naïve Hawaiian honeycreepers experimentally infected with introduced avian malaria
The unprecedented rise in the number of new and emerging infectious diseases in the last quarter century poses direct threats to human and wildlife health. The introduction to the Hawaiian archipelago of Plasmodium relictum and the mosquito vector that transmits the parasite has led to dramatic losses in endemic Hawaiian forest bird species. Understanding how mechanisms of disease immunity to avia
Authors
Kristina L. Paxton, Loren Cassin-Sackett, Carter T. Atkinson, Elin Videvall, Michael G. Campana, Robert C. Fleischer
Ecological significance of Wild Huckleberries (Vaccinium membranaceum)
Wild huckleberry (Vaccinium globare/membranaceum complex) is a keystone species in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The fruits are a primary food source for grizzly bears and other wildlife, as well as an important traditional and contemporary human food. Huckleberry shrubs also provide cover and nesting habitat for many animal species, including small mammals and birds. The flowers pro
Authors
Janene Lichtenberg, Tabitha Graves