Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Publications

Filter Total Items: 506

The tortoise and the antilocaprid: Adapting GPS tracking and terrain data to model wildlife walking functions

Context The relationship between slope and terrestrial animal locomotion is key to landscape ecology but underexplored across species. This is partly due to a lack of scalable methodology that applies to a diversity of wildlife. Objectives This study investigates the slope-speed relationship for two species, Texas tortoise (Gopherus berlandieri) and pronghorn (Antilocapra americana)...
Authors
Samuel Norton Chambers, Joshua W. Von Nonn, Matthew Alexander Burgess, Lance R. Brady, Jeffrey Bracewell, Daniel A. Guerra, Miguel L. Villarreal

National population exposure and evacuation potential in the United States to earthquake-generated tsunami threats

Previous efforts to characterize tsunami threats to people have focused primarily on individual scenarios in specific areas but have not recognized multiple scenarios across an entire country. This study addresses this gap by quantifying population exposure and evacuation potential in the United States to 102 earthquake-related, tsunami-hazard zones, including 92 local scenarios, 8...
Authors
Nathan J. Wood, Jeff Peters, Anne F Sheehan, Doug Bausch

Ecological thresholds and transformations due to climate change: The role of abiotic stress

An ecological threshold is the point at which a comparatively small environmental change triggers an abrupt and disproportionately large ecological response. In the face of accelerating climate change, there is concern that abrupt ecosystem transformations will become more widespread as critical ecological thresholds are crossed. There has been ongoing debate, however, regarding the...
Authors
Michael Osland, John B. Bradford, Lauren Toth, Matthew Germino, James Grace, Judith Z. Drexler, Camille Stagg, Eric E. Grossman, Karen M. Thorne, Stephanie Romanach, Davina Passeri, Gregory Noe, Jessica R. Lacy, Ken Krauss, Kurt P. Kowalski, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Neil K. Ganju, Nicholas Enwright, Joel A. Carr, Kristin B. Byrd, Kevin Buffington

Unlocking ecological insights from sub-seasonal visible-to-shortwave infrared imaging spectroscopy: The SHIFT campaign

We stand at the threshold of a transformative era in Earth observation, marked by space-borne visible-to-shortwave infrared (VSWIR) imaging spectrometers that promise consistent global observations of ecosystem function, phenology, and inter- and intra-annual change. However, the full value of repeat spectroscopy, the information embedded within different temporal scales, and the...
Authors
K. Dana Chadwick, Frank W. Davis, Kimberley Miner, Ryan Pavlick, Mark Reynolds, Philip A. Townsend, Philip Brodrick, Christiana Ade, Jean Allen, Leander D. L. Anderegg, Yoseline Angel, Indra Boving, Kristin B. Byrd, Petya Campbell, Luke Carberry, Katherine Cavanaugh, Kyle C. Cavanaugh, Kelly Easterday, Regina Eckert, Michelle M. Gierach, Kaitlin Gold, Erin Hestir, Fred Huemmrich, Maggie Klope, Raymond F. Kokaly, Piper Lovegreen, Kelly Luis, Conor McMahon, Nicholas Nidzieko, Francisco Ochoa, Anna Ongjoco, Elsa Ordway, Madeleine Pascolini-Campbell, Natalie Queally, Dar A. Roberts, Clare Saiki, Fabian D Schneider, Alexey N. Shiklomanov, German Silva, Jordan Snyder, Michele Thornton, Anna Trugman, Nidhi Vinod, Ting Zheng, Dulcinea M. Avouris, Brianna Baker, Latha Baskaran, Tom Bell, Megan Berg, Michael Bernas, Niklas Bohn, Renato Braghiere, Zach Breuer, Andrew J. Brooks, Nolan Burkard, Julia Burmistrova, Kerry-Anne Cawse-Nicholson, John Chapman, Johana Chazaro-Haraksin, Joel Cryer, K.C. Cushman, Kyla M. Dahlin, Phuong Dao, Athena DiBartolo, Michael Eastwood, Clayton D. Elder, Angela Giordani, Kathleen Grant, Robert O. Green, Alexa Hanson, Brendan Heberlein, Mark Helmlinger, Simon Hook, Daniel J. Jensen, Emma Johnson, Marie Johnson, Michael Kiper, Christopher Kibler, Jennifer Y. King, Kyle Kovach, Aaron Kreisberg, Daniel Lacey, Evan Lang, Christine M. Lee, Amanda M Lopez, Brittany Lopez Barreto, Andrew Maguire, Elliott Marsh, Charles E. Miller, Dieu My Nguyen, Cassandra Nickles, Jonathan Ocón, Elijah Papen, Maria Park, Benjamin Poulter, Ann M. Raiho, Porter Reim, Timothy J. Robinson, Fernando Romero Galvan, Ethan Shafron, Brenen R. Skalitzky, Sydney Stroschein, Nicole Chin Taylor, David R. Thompson, Kate Thompson, Cecily Tye, Joelie Van Beek, Cecilia Vanden Heuvel, Jonathan Vellanoweth, Evert Vermeer, Claire Villanueva-Weeks, Kristen Zumdahl, David Schimel

Population vulnerability of residents, employees, and cruise-ship passengers to tsunami hazards of islands in complex seismic regions: A case study of the U.S. Virgin Islands

Reducing the potential for loss of life from tsunamis is challenging on islands located in complex seismic regions given the multiple sources that surround islands, differences among islands in the amount of time needed to evacuate before wave arrival, and the high number of residents, employees, and tourists in tsunami-hazard zones. We examine variations in population vulnerability in...
Authors
Nathan J. Wood, Jeff Peters, Christopher Moore

Applications of unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) in landscape ecology: A review of recent research, challenges and emerging opportunities

ContextUnoccupied aerial systems/vehicles (UAS/UAV, a.k.a. drones) have become an increasingly popular tool for ecological research. But much of the recent research is concerned with developing mapping and detection approaches, with few studies attempting to link UAS data to ecosystem processes and function. Landscape ecologists have long used high resolution imagery and spatial analyses...
Authors
Miguel L. Villarreal, Tara B.B. Bishop, Temuulen Ts. Sankey, William K. Smith, Matthew Alexander Burgess, Trevor Caughlin, Jeffrey K. Gillan, Caroline Havrilla, Tao Huang, Raymond Lebeau, Cindy L. Norton, Joel B. Sankey, Victoria Mary Scholl, Joshua W. Von Nonn, Erika Yao

“Leaky weirs” capture alluvial deposition and enhance seasonal mountain-front recharge in dryland streams

“Leaky weirs” are rock structures installed in dryland streams, which are anchored into exposed bedrock, loosely cemented, and designed to allow water to slowly pass through. They are being tested at a ranch in southeastern Arizona, USA, to restore and conserve the historic range and desert wetlands. Data are collected to assess how leaky weirs impact surface water, subsurface water, and...
Authors
Laura M. Norman, Kristine Uhlman, Hanna Coy, Natalie R. Wilson, Andrew M. Bennett, Floyd Gray, Kurt T. Ehrenberg

Phenology in higher education

Phenological data collection and analysis are well-suited to higher education settings, providing valuable opportunities for hands-on data collection, manipulation, and interpretation. Few subjects are more conducive or accessible for engaging diverse learners in meaningful and impactful science at such large scales and minimal cost. In this chapter, we provide a range of examples of how...
Authors
Theresa Crimmins, Brittany S. Barker, Darby D. Bergl, Samantha Brewer, Kirsten de Beurs, Sarah Jones, Tammy Long, Emily Mohl, Emma Oschrin, Andrew D. Richardson, Tiffany A. Schriever, Jessica J. Walker, Tanisha M. Williams

Hyperspectral remote sensing for terrestrial applications

No abstract available.
Authors
Prasad Thenkabail, Itiya Aneece, Pardhasaradhi Teluguntla, Richa Upadhyay, Asfa Siddiqui, Justin George Kalambukattu, Suresh Kumar, Murali Krishna Gumma, Venkateswarlu Dheeravath

Federal lands greenhouse gas emissions and sequestration in the United States: Estimates for 2005–22

In 2016, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior requested that the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) produce a publicly available and annually updated database of estimated greenhouse gas emissions associated with the extraction and use of fossil fuels from Federal lands. The first report in this series included emissions estimates from 2005 to 2014 and were reported for 29...
Authors
Matthew D. Merrill, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Philip A. Freeman

Soil cover heterogeneity associated with biocrusts predicts patch-level plant diversity patterns

ContextSoil resource heterogeneity drives plant species diversity patterns at local and landscape scales. In drylands, biocrusts are patchily distributed and contribute to soil resource heterogeneity important for plant establishment and growth. Yet, we have a limited understanding of how such heterogeneity may relate to patterns of plant diversity and community structure.ObjectivesWe...
Authors
Caroline A. Havrilla, Miguel L. Villarreal

Machine learning and new-generation spaceborne hyperspectral data advance crop type mapping

Hyperspectral sensors provide near-continuous spectral data that can facilitate advancements in agricultural crop classification and characterization, which are important for addressing global food and water security issues. We investigated two new-generation hyperspectral sensors, Germany’s Deutsches Zentrum für Luft‐ und Raumfahrt Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS) and Italy’s...
Authors
Itiya Aneece, Prasad Thenkabail, Richard L. McCormick, Alifu Haireti, Daniel Foley, Adam Oliphant, Pardhasaradhi Teluguntla
Was this page helpful?