Landscape Management Research Program
Landscape Management Research Program
WERC scientists study landscape level change and other environmental threats to ecosystems that provide for wildlife and humans alike. Our research programs inform the recovery of ecosystems such as the nearshore marine environment, coastal marshes, wetlands, forests, Pacific islands, arid deserts, and the sagebrush steppe. Ecosystem-level research is conducted in particular on National Parks, Bureau of Land Management and Department of Defense lands, National Wildlife Refuges, and State lands, bays, and interior and coastal waters The projects below offer a closer look into WERC studies informing ecosystem management.
Filter Total Items: 52
Coastal Wetland Vulnerability to Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise: Understanding Ecological Thresholds and Ecosystem Transformations
Eighteen USGS coastal scientists from all four coasts of the conterminous United States are working together to advance the understanding of climate change and sea-level rise impacts to coastal wetlands.
By
California Water Science Center, Chesapeake Bay Activities, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Great Lakes Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Western Geographic Science Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center , Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
Greater Sage-Grouse Population Monitoring Framework: Cheat Sheet
The Greater Sage-grouse Population Monitoring Framework fills a prominent information gap to help inform current assessments of sage-grouse population trends at nested spatial and temporal scales. It is centered on four objectives: (1) create a standardized database of lek counts; (2) develop spatial population structures by clustering leks; (3) estimate spatial trends at different temporal...
Greater Sage-Grouse Population Monitoring Framework: Targeted Annual Warning System Information Sheet
The Greater Sage-grouse Population Monitoring Framework fills a prominent information gap to aid current assessments of sage-grouse population trends across spatial and temporal scales. It centers on four objectives: 1) create a standardized database of lek counts; 2) cluster leks to develop spatial population structures; 3) estimate spatial trends across temporal extents; and 4) develop a system...
Greater Sage-Grouse Population Monitoring Framework: Glossary of Terms
The Greater Sage-grouse Population Monitoring Framework fills a prominent information gap to aid current assessments of sage-grouse population trends across spatial and temporal scales. It centers on four objectives: 1) create a standardized database of lek counts; 2) cluster leks to develop spatial population structures; 3) estimate spatial trends across temporal extents; and 4) develop a system...
Greater Sage-Grouse Population Monitoring Framework: Frequently Asked Questions
The Greater Sage-grouse Population Monitoring Framework fills a prominent information gap to aid current assessments of sage-grouse population trends across spatial and temporal scales. It centers on four objectives: 1) create a standardized database of lek counts; 2) cluster leks to develop spatial population structures; 3) estimate spatial trends across temporal extents; and 4) develop a system...
Greater Sage-Grouse Population Monitoring Framework Data Inputs Information Sheet
To support management decisions, western state wildlife agencies identified the need for a range-wide database that tracks annual counts of greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) at leks (breeding sites), recorded since the early 1950s. Researchers at Colorado State University (CSU) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) worked with state wildlife agencies to 1) construct this...
Greater Sage-Grouse Population Monitoring Framework
Greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus) are at the center of state and national land use policies largely because of their unique life-history traits as an ecological indicator for health of sagebrush ecosystems. Researchers within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Colorado State University (CSU) worked with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and state wildlife agencies to develop a...
Greater Sage-Grouse Population Monitoring Framework: Trends Analysis Information Sheet
Land and wildlife managers require accurate estimates of sensitive species’ trends to help guide conservation decisions that maintain biodiversity and promote healthy ecosystems. Accurately assessing greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) population trends can be difficult because (1) missing lek counts or incomplete repeat counts, (2) variation in counts of sage-grouse from...
Can ruderal components of biocrust (mosses and cyanobacteria) be maintained under increasing threats of drought, grazing and feral horses?
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are a community of living organisms, like moss, lichen, and algae, covering soils in arid and semi-arid ecosystems, providing important ecological functions like carbon cycling and soil stabilization. Analyses show that biocrusts are negatively associated with the abundance of invasive annual grasses that are responsible for increasing fire across the Great Basin...
Estimating spatial variation in greater sage-grouse lek buffers using seasonal space use models
Greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus) management relies on the identification and protection of core habitat for the species. Core areas are often centered on leks where the potential impacts of anthropogenic development and other disturbances can be evaluated based on buffer distances around active leks. While buffer distances have been quantified for some regions, sage-grouse space...
A user-friendly decision support tool for monitoring and managing greater sage-grouse populations
Researchers within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Colorado State University (CSU) worked with BLM and State Wildlife Agencies to develop a hierarchical population monitoring framework for managing greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus) populations and the sagebrush ecosystems that they depend upon for survival and reproduction. This hierarchical population monitoring strategy now...
Influence of future climate scenarios on habitat and population dynamics of greater sage-grouse
Sagebrush ecosystems and sagebrush-dependent wildlife species are likely to experience more frequent extreme drought and temperature conditions with changing climate. Greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus), an indicator species in sagebrush ecosystems, may experience habitat and population losses that are increasingly exacerbated by current and future climate change. However, the direct...