Publications
Browse more than 150,000 publications authored by our scientists over the past 100+ year history of the USGS. Publications available are: USGS-authored journal articles, series reports, book chapters, other government publications, and more.
Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center Publications
Filter Total Items: 3255
Additional common milkweed would help Canada meet its share of the trinational eastern migratory monarch butterfly recovery target
The eastern migratory monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) population has declined by ∼84% between 1993 and 2024. Population recovery in the Midwestern United States is limited by the availability of the monarch's main host plant for egg laying—common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). The extent to which common milkweed availability is limiting in other breeding regions is unknown. Our...
Authors
Greg W. Mitchell, Patrick Kirby, Jason Duffe, Lenore Fahrig, Judith Girard, Mark K. Johnston, Maxim Larrivee, Amanda E. Martin, Iman Momeni-Dehaghi, Jon Pasher, Elizabeth Rezek, Elisabeth Shapiro, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Darren Pouliot
Managing for tomorrow—A climate adaptation decision framework
Climate change presents new and compounding challenges to natural resource management. With changing climate patterns, managers are confronted with difficult decisions on how to minimize climate effects on habitats, infrastructure, and wildlife populations. To support climate adaptation decision making, we first conceptualized an approach that integrates the principles of the resist...
Authors
Kristen L. Bouska, Joshua Booker, Suzi Clark, John Delaney, Josh Eash, Max Post van der Burg, Heidi Roop
Sediment nutrient dynamics in selected Milwaukee metropolitan area streams, Wisconsin, 2022
The U.S. Geological Survey and Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District in Wisconsin have an ongoing partnership to monitor water quality in streams in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and to assess the effects of stream restoration on habitat and water quality. Because sediment nutrient dynamics can improve or further impair water quality, we measured sediment nitrogen and phosphorus...
Authors
Rebecca Kreiling, Lynn Bartsch, Kenna Jean Breckner, Patrik M. Perner, Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Hayley T. Olds
Identifying recruitment sources across trophic levels in a large river food web
Assemblages are connected through the movement of physical and biological resources including recruits. Identifying recruitment sources for predators and their prey could help us understand how assemblages use connectivity across multiple trophic levels and whether predator and prey recruitment is coupled. Recruitment sources of organisms across multiple trophic levels can be quantified...
Authors
Shaley A. Valentine, Kristen L. Bouska, Gregory W. Whitledge
Identifying strategies to manage boreal forests: Simulating moose and timber management scenarios at a landscape scale in the face of changing environmental conditions
There are ongoing debates among different stakeholders about which forest and ungulate management strategies will sustain high levels of timber and animal harvest and maintain important ecosystem functions under climate change. Ungulate-forest interactions are complex, including periods where forest regeneration is sensitive to browsing pressure, making it difficult to predict the...
Authors
Nathan R. De Jager, Wiebke Neumann, Miguel M. Girona, Joakim Hjältén, Anouschka R. Hof
Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century
Reports of declining insect populations have received widespread media attention, but evidence for declines has been variable across regions and taxonomic groups. Edwards et al. examined trends in the most surveyed taxon: butterflies (see the Perspective by Inouye). Combining data from 35 citizen science programs across the continental US, the authors found declines in overall butterfly...
Authors
Collin B. Edwards, Elise F. Zipkin, Erica H. Henry, Nick M. Haddad, Matthew L. Forister, Kevin J. Burls, Steven P. Campbell, Elizabeth E. Crone, James Diffendorfer, Margaret R. Douglas, Ryan G. Drum, Candace E. Fallon, Jeffrey Glassberg, Eliza M. Grames, Richard G. Hatfield, Shiran Hershcovich, Scott Hoffman-Black, Elise A. Larsen, Wendy Leuenberger, Mary J. Linders, Travis Longcore, Daniel A. Marschalek, James Michielini, Naresh Neupane, Leslie Ries, Arthur M. Shapiro, Ann B. Swengel, Scott R. Swengel, Douglas J. Taron, Braeden Van Deynze, Jerome Wiedmann, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Cheryl B. Schultz
Effect of copper mill waste material on benthic invertebrates and zooplankton diversity and abundance
Copper (Cu) stamp mill mining in North America from the early 1900s produced a pulverized ore by-product now known as stamp sands (SS). In a mining operation near the city of Gay (Michigan, USA), SS were originally deposited near a Lake Superior beach, but erosion and wave action have moved many SS into beaches and reefs that are critical spawning and nursery areas for native fish (e.g...
Authors
James H. Larson, Michael R. Lowe, Sean Bailey, Amanda H. Bell, Danielle M. Cleveland
Possible influence of water level management on nutrient flux in nearshore sediments of Kabetogama Lake, Minnesota, USA
Lake water level fluctuations are an important factor driving variation in many ecosystem processes. The nearshore sediments that are periodically exposed and re-inundated can develop distinct physical and chemical characteristics, especially in relationship to the organic matter content of the sediments and the particle size distribution. These sediment characteristics in turn can alter...
Authors
James H. Larson, Sean Bailey, Ryan P . Maki, Victoria G. Christensen, Erin Stelzer, James C. Smith, Jamie F. LeDuc, Seth McWhorter
Effects of river floods and sedimentation on a naturally dynamic Great Lakes estuary
Some of the most biologically diverse coastal wetlands and estuaries are found along the Great Lakes, but the spatial extent and timing of river-related inundation and sedimentation vary greatly among natural and altered systems. We used hydrologic data, geomorphic change detection, and satellite imagery to study inundation and sedimentation patterns in the naturally dynamic estuary of...
Authors
Faith Fitzpatrick, Angus A. Vaughan, Eric D. Dantoin, Shelby P. Sterner, Paul C. Reneau, Collin Joseph Roland
A case for assemblage-level conservation to address the biodiversity crisis
Traditional conservation efforts have centred on safeguarding individual species, but these strategies have limitations in a world where entire ecosystems are rapidly changing. Ecosystem conservation can maintain critical ecological functions, but often lacks the detail necessary for the effective conservation of threatened or endangered species. The conservation of such species is...
Authors
Michael W. Belitz, C.J. Campbell, Ryan G. Drum, Wendy Leuenberger, Toni Lyn Morelli, Kelly Nail, Vaughn Shirey, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Elise F. Zipken
Prioritizing chemicals of emerging concern in the Great Lakes Basin using covariance of chemical concentrations and diverse biological responses from a variety of species
The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative aims to protect and restore the nation’s largest freshwater resource, in part, by furthering our understanding of the effects of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and chemical mixtures on aquatic and terrestrial organisms. To address this goal, an interagency team conducted field studies at sites along the Maumee River in Ohio, USA, in 2016...
Authors
Kelsey Vitense, Luke C. Loken, Erin M Maloney, Brett Blackwell, Timothy W. Collette, Steven Corsi, Christine M. Custer, Erik Davenport, Satomi Kohno, Stephanie L. Hummel
The MIEM guidelines: Minimum information for reporting of environmental metabarcoding data
Environmental DNA (eDNA) and RNA (eRNA) metabarcoding has become a popular tool for assessing biodiversity from environmental samples, but inconsistent documentation of methods, data and metadata makes results difficult to reproduce and synthesise. A working group of scientists have collaborated to produce a set of minimum reporting guidelines for the constituent steps of metabarcoding...
Authors
Katy E. Klymus, Jacoby D. Baker, Cathryn L. Abbott, Rachel J. Brown, Joseph M. Craine, Zachary Gold, Margaret E. Hunter, Mark D. Johnson, Devin Nicole Jones, Michelle J. Jungbluth, Sean P. Jungbluth, Yer Lor, Aaron P. Maloy, Christopher M. Merkes, Rachel T. Noble, Nastassia V. Patin, Adam Sepulveda, Stephen Frank Spear, Joshua A. Steele, Miwa Takahashi, Alison W. Watts, Susanna Theroux