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Publications

This is a list of publications written by Patuxent employees since Patuxent opened in 1939.  To search for Patuxent's publications by author or title, please click below to go to the USGS Publication Warehouse.

Filter Total Items: 8197

Evaluating conservation units using network analysis: A sea duck case study

Conserving migratory wildlife requires understanding how groups of individuals interact across seasons and landscapes. Telemetry reveals individual movements at large spatiotemporal scales; however, using movement data to define conservation units requires scaling up from individual movements to species- and community-level patterns. We developed a framework to define flyways and...
Authors
Juliet S. Lamb, Clara Cooper-Mullin, Scott Gilliland, Alicia Berlin, Timothy D. Bowman, Sean Boyd, Susan E.W. De La Cruz, Daniel Esler, Joseph R. Evenson, Paul L. Flint, Christine Lepage, Dustin Meattey, Jason Osenkowski, Peter WC Patton, Matthew Perry, Daniel H. Rosenberg, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Lucas Savoy, Jason Schamber, David Ward, John Takekawa, Scott R. McWilliams

A dataset of amphibian species in U.S. National Parks

National parks and other protected areas are important for preserving landscapes and biodiversity worldwide. An essential component of the mission of the United States (U.S.) National Park Service (NPS) requires understanding and maintaining accurate inventories of species on protected lands. We describe a new, national-scale synthesis of amphibian species occurrence in the NPS system...
Authors
Benjamin Lafrance, Andrew M. Ray, Robert N. Fisher, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Charles Shafer, David Beamer, Stephen Frank Spear, Todd W Pierson, Jon M. Davenport, Matthew L. Niemiller, R. Alexander Pyron, Brad Glorioso, William Barichivich, Brian J. Halstead, Kory Roberts, Blake R. Hossack

Do pharmaceuticals in the environment pose a risk to wildlife?

The vast majority of knowledge related to the question of, “To what extent do pharmaceuticals in the environment pose a risk to wildlife?”, stems from the Asian vulture crisis (>99% decline of some species of old-world vultures on the Indian subcontinent related to the veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac). The hazard of diclofenac and other...
Authors
Thomas G. Bean, Elizabeth A. Chadwick, Marta Herrero-Villar, Rafael Mateo, Vinny Naidoo, Barnett A. Rattner

Soil elevation change in mangrove forests and marshes of the greater Everglades: A regional synthesis of surface elevation table-marker horizon (SET-MH) data

Coastal wetlands adapt to rising seas via feedbacks that build soil elevation, which lead to wetland stability. However, accelerated rates of sea-level rise can exceed soil elevation gain, leading to wetland instability and loss. Thus, there is a pressing need to better understand regional and landscape variability in rates of wetland soil elevation change. Here, we conducted a regional...
Authors
Laura Feher, Michael Osland, Karen L. McKee, Kevin R.T. Whelan, Carlos A. Coronado-Molina, Fred H. Sklar, Ken Krauss, Rebecca Howard, Donald Cahoon, James C. Lynch, Lukas Lamb-Wotton, Tiffany G. Troxler, Jeremy R. Conrad, Gordon Anderson, William C. Vervaeke, Thomas J. Smith III, Nicole Cormier, Andrew From, Larry Allain

Usurpation and brooding of Least Tern (Sternula antillarum) chicks by Common Terns (Sterna hirundo)

While nest usurpation and subsequent incubation of eggs and even brooding of chicks from other species has been reported for Common Terns (Sterna hirundo), such behavior is considered rare. We report an observation of a Common Tern pair usurping the Least Tern (Sternula antillarum) nest and brooding the Least Tern chicks. While the Least Tern pair attempted to provide care for the chicks...
Authors
Jeffery D. Sullivan, Jonathan Irons, Anna Treadway, Ayla McDonough, Alyssa Lee, Amy O'Donnell, Carl R. Callahan, Peter C. McGowan, Diann Prosser

Alaska's climate sensitive Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta supports seven million Arctic-breeding shorebirds, including the majority of six North American populations

Baseline information about declining North American shorebird populations is essential to determine the effects of global warming at low-lying coastal areas of the Arctic and subarctic, where numerous taxa breed, and to assess population recovery throughout their range. We estimated population sizes on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in western Alaska on the eastern edge of the Bering Sea. We...
Authors
James E. Lyons, Stephen C. Brown, Sarah T. Saalfeld, James A. Johnson, Brad A. Andres, Kristine M. Sowl, Robert E. Gill, Brian J. McCaffery, Lindall Kidd, Metta McGarvey, Brad Winn, H. River Gates, Diane A. Granfors, Richard B. Lanctot

Decline in small mammal species richness in coastal-central California, 1997–2013

The richness and composition of a small mammal community inhabiting semiarid California oak woodland may be changing in response to climate change, but we know little about the causes or consequence of these changes. We applied a capture-mark-recapture model to 17 years (1997–2013) of live trapping data to estimate species-specific abundances. The big-eared woodrat was the most...
Authors
Yadav P. Ghimirey, William D. Tietje, Anne Y. Polyakov, James E. Hines, Madan K. Oli

Climate change impacts on bird migration and highly pathogenic avian influenza

The unprecedented extent of highly pathogenic avian influenza coincides with intensifying global climate changes that alter host ecology and physiology, and could impact virus evolution and dynamics.
Authors
Diann Prosser, Claire S. Teitelbaum, Shenglai Yin, Nichola J. Hill, Xiangming Xiao

Characterizing the movement of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in an avian aquatic–terrestrial food web

The movement of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) through linked aquatic–terrestrial food webs is not well understood. Tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) in such systems may be exposed to PFAS from multiple abiotic and/or biotic compartments. We show from fatty acid signatures and carbon stable isotopes that tree swallow nestlings in southwestern Ontario fed on both terrestrial...
Authors
Kailee E. Hopkins, Melissa A. McKinney, Amandeep Saini, Robert J. Letcher, Natalie K. Karouna-Renier, Kim J. Fernie

Two new species of small-eared shrews of the Genus Cryptotis Pomel, 1848, from the Colombian Andes (Mammalia: Eulipotyphla: Soricidae)

Shrews (Mammalia: Eulipotyphla: Soricidae) reach the southern limit of their New World distribution in the Andes and eastern coastal highlands of northern South America. South of Honduras, the family is represented only by species of the genus Cryptotis Pomel, 1848. In South America, soricids are restricted to moist, high-elevation environments above 1000 m, and their distribution...
Authors
Neal Woodman

Biodiversity connections—‘ties that bind’

Connectivity is a foundational concept in ecology and conservation and was the organising theme for the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Fishes Council, a professional organisation dedicated to the study and conservation of freshwater fishes native to the southeast region of the United States (US). We introduce a Special Contribution of six papers selected from presentations at...
Authors
Mary Freeman, Duncan Elkins, Brett Albanese

Evaluation of breeding distribution and chronology of North American scoters

North America's scoter species are poorly monitored relative to other waterfowl. Black Melanitta americana, surf M. perspicillata, and white-winged M. deglandi scoter abundance and trend estimates are thus uncertain in many parts of these species' ranges. The most extensive source of waterfowl abundance and distribution data in North America is the Waterfowl breeding population and...
Authors
Kristin Bianchini, Scott G. Gilliland, Alicia Berlin, Timothy D. Bowman, W. Sean Boyd, Susan E.W. De La Cruz, Daniel Esler, Joseph R. Evenson, Paul L. Flint, Christine Lepage, Scott R. McWilliams, Dustin E. Meattey, Jason E. Osenkowski, Matthew Perry, Jean-François Poulin, Eric T. Reed, Christian Roy, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Lucas Savoy, Jason L Schamber, Caleb S. Spiegel, John Takekawa, David H. Ward, Mark L. Mallory
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