Publications
Below is a list of WERC's peer-reviewed publications. If you are searching for a specific publication and cannot find it in this list, please contact werc_web@usgs.gov
Filter Total Items: 3618
Gauging resource exploitation by juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in restoring estuarine habitat
In the context of delta restoration and its impact on salmonid rearing, success is best evaluated based on whether out-migrating juvenile salmon can access and benefit from suitable estuarine habitat. Here, we integrated 3 years of post-restoration monitoring data including habitat availability, invertebrate prey biomass, and juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) physiological conditi
Authors
Melanie J. Davis, Christopher S. Ellings, Isa Woo, Sayre Hodgson, Kimberly A. Larsen, Glynnis Nakai
Waterbird habitat in California's Central Valley basins under climate, urbanization, and water management scenarios
California's Central Valley provides critical, but threatened habitat and food resources for migrating and wintering waterfowl, shorebirds, and other waterbirds. The Central Valley is comprised of nine basins that were defined by the Central Valley Joint Venture (CVJV) to assist in conservation planning. Basins vary in composition and extent of habitats, which primarily include croplands and wetla
Authors
Elliott Matchett, Joseph P. Fleskes
Foraging and fasting can influence contaminant concentrations in animals: an example with mercury contamination in a free-ranging marine mammal
Large fluctuations in animal body mass in relation to life-history events can influence contaminant concentrations and toxicological risk. We quantified mercury concentrations in adult northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) before and after lengthy at sea foraging trips (n = 89) or fasting periods on land (n = 27), and showed that mercury concentrations in blood and muscle changed in re
Authors
Sarah H. Peterson, Joshua T. Ackerman, Daniel E. Crocker, Daniel P. Costa
Egg turning behavior and incubation temperature in Forster’s terns in relation to mercury contamination
Egg turning behavior is an important determinant of egg hatchability, but it remains relatively understudied. Here, we examined egg turning rates and egg temperatures in Forster’s terns (Sterna forsteri). We used artificial eggs containing a data logger with a 3-D accelerometer, a magnetometer, and a temperature thermistor to monitor parental incubation behavior of 131 tern nests. Overall, adults
Authors
Gregory T. Taylor, Joshua T. Ackerman, Scott A. Shaffer
Unique parasite aDNA in moa coprolites from New Zealand suggests mass parasite extinctions followed human-induced megafauna extinctions
Having split early from Gondwana, Zealandia (now modern New Zealand) escaped discovery until the late 13th century, and therefore remains an important glimpse into a human-free world. Without humans or other land mammals, diverse and peculiar birds evolved in isolation, including several flightless moa species, the giant pouakai eagle (Harpagornis moorei), the kiwi (Apteryx mantelli), and the kaka
Authors
Kevin D. Lafferty, Skylar R. Hopkins
The relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic drivers to population growth vary among local populations of Greater Sage-Grouse: An integrated population modeling approach
Consideration of ecological scale is fundamental to understanding and managing avian population growth and decline. Empirically driven models for population dynamics and demographic processes across multiple spatial scales can be powerful tools to help guide conservation actions. Integrated population models (IPMs) provide a framework for better parameter estimation by unifying multiple sources of
Authors
Peter S. Coates, Brian G. Prochazka, Mark A. Ricca, Brian J. Halstead, Michael L. Casazza, Erik J. Blomberg, Brianne E. Brussee, Lief Wiechman, Joel Tebbenkamp, Scott C. Gardner, Kerry P. Reese
Reproductive output and clutch phenology of female Agassiz's desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) in the Sonoran Desert region of Joshua Tree National Park
Agassiz's desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) reaches the southern edge of its range in the Sonoran Desert of California. The reproductive ecology of this wideranging species is understudied here compared to populations in the adjacent Mojave Desert. Understanding potential geographic variation in reproductive ecology is important for effective management of conservation-reliant species like G. a
Authors
Jeffrey E. Lovich, Shellie R. Puffer, Mickey Agha, Joshua R. Ennen, Kathie Meyer-Wilkins, Laura A. Tennant, Amanda L Smith, Terence R. Arundel, Kathleen D. Brundige, Michael S. Vamstad
Spatial and temporal variability in growth of giant gartersnakes: Plasticity, precipitation, and prey
The growth rate of reptiles is plastic and often varies among individuals, populations, and years in response to environmental conditions. For an imperiled species, the growth rate of individual animals is an important component of demographic models, and changes in individual growth rates might precede changes in abundance. We analyzed a long-term dataset on the growth of Giant Gartersnakes (Tham
Authors
Jonathan P. Rose, Brian J. Halstead, Glenn D. Wylie, Michael L. Casazza
Informing our successors: What botanical information for Santa Cruz Island will researchers and conservation managers in the century ahead need the most?
Climate changes are predicted to drive changes in plant species composition and vegetation cover around the world. Preserved specimens and other botanical information that we gather today—a period future practitioners may look back on as an early stage of modern anthropogenic climate change—will be of value to conservation managers and conservation biologists in the decades and centuries ahead. He
Authors
John M. Randall, Kathryn McEachern, John Knapp, Paula Power, Steve Junak, Kristina Gill, Denise Knapp, Matt Guilliams
Direct and indirect controls on organic matter decomposition in four coastal wetland communities along a landscape salinity gradient
Coastal wetlands store more carbon than most ecosystems globally. As sea level rises, changes in flooding and salinity will potentially impact ecological functions, such as organic matter decomposition, that influence carbon storage. However, little is known about the mechanisms that control organic matter loss in coastal wetlands at the landscape scale. As sea level rises, how will the shift from
Authors
Camille L. Stagg, Melissa M. Baustian, Carey L. Perry, Tim J. B. Carruthers, Courtney T. Hall
Serologic surveillance of wild and pen-reared ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) as a method of understanding disease reservoirs
We investigated exposure to infectious diseases in wild (n=33) and pen-reared (n=12) Ring-necked Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) in the Central Valley of California during 2014 and 2015. Serologic tests were positive for antibodies against hemorrhagic enteritis (HE), infectious bursal disease (IBD), and Newcastle disease (ND) viruses in both wild and pen-reared pheasants.
Authors
Ian Dwight, Peter S. Coates, Simone T. Stoute, C. Gabriel Senties-Cue, Radhika V. Gharpure, Maurice E. Pitesky
Could changes in the agricultural landscape of northeastern China have influenced the long-distance transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5Nx viruses?
In the last few years, several reassortant subtypes of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAI H5Nx) have emerged in East Asia. These new viruses, mostly of subtype H5N1, H5N2, H5N6, and H5N8 belonging to clade 2.3.4.4, have been found in several Asian countries and have caused outbreaks in poultry in China, South Korea, and Vietnam. HPAI H5Nx also have spread over considerable distances w
Authors
Marius Gilbert, Diann J. Prosser, Geli Zhang, Jean Artois, Madhur S. Dhingra, Michael J. Tildesley, Scott H. Newman, Fusheng Guo, Peter Black, Filip Claes, Wantanee Kalpradvidh, YeunKyung Shin, Wooseog Jeong, John Y. Takekawa, Hansoo Lee, Xiangming Xiao