Publications
This list of publications includes peer-review journal articles, official USGS publications series, reports and more authored by scientists in the Ecosystems Mission Area. A database of all USGS publications, with advanced search features, can be accessed at the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Filter Total Items: 41772
Exploring metapopulation-scale suppression alternatives for a global invader in a river network experiencing climate change
Invasive species can dramatically alter ecosystems, but eradication is difficult, and suppression is expensive once they are established. Uncertainties in the potential for expansion and impacts by an invader can lead to delayed and inadequate suppression, allowing for establishment. Metapopulation viability models can aid in planning strategies to improve responses to invaders and lessen invasive
Authors
Brian D. Healy, Phaedra E. Budy, Charles Yackulic, Brendan P. Murphy, Robert C. Schelly, Mark C. McKinstry
Causality guided machine learning model on wetland CH4 emissions across global wetlands
Wetland CH4 emissions are among the most uncertain components of the global CH4 budget. The complex nature of wetland CH4 processes makes it challenging to identify causal relationships for improving our understanding and predictability of CH4 emissions. In this study, we used the flux measurements of CH4 from eddy covariance towers (30 sites from 4 wetlands types: bog, fen, marsh, and wet tundra)
Authors
Kunxiaojia Yuan, Qing Zhu, Fa Li, William J. Riley, Margaret Torn, Housen Chu, Gavin McNicol, Mingshu Chen, Sara Knox, Kyle B. Delwiche, Huayi Wu, Dennis Baldocchi, Hongxu Ma, Ankur R. Desai, Jiquan Chen, Torsten Sachs, Masahito Ueyama, Oliver Sonnentag, Manuel Helbig, Eeva-Stiina Tuittila, Gerald Jurasinski, Franziska Koebsch, David I. Campbell, Hans Peter Schmid, Annalea Lohila, Mathias Goeckede, Mats B. Nilsson, Thomas Friborg, Joachim Jansen, Donatella Zona, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Eric Ward, Gil Bohrer, Zhenong Jin, Licheng Liu, Hiroki Iwata, Jordan P. Goodrich, Robert B. Jackson
A synthesis of coral reef research at Buck Island Reef National Monument and Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands: 1961 to 2022
This synthesis focuses on the history of research on coral reefs within two U.S. National Park Service units in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands: Buck Island Reef National Monument (from 1961 to 2022) and Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve (from 1980 to 2022). Buck Island Reef National Monument (BUIS) is off the north shore of the island of St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin
Authors
Caroline Rogers
What makes wildfires destructive in California?
As human impacts from wildfires mount, there is a pressing need to understand why structures are lost in destructive fires. Despite growing research on factors contributing to structure loss, fewer studies have focused on why some fires are destructive and others are not. We characterized overall differences between fires that resulted in structure loss (“destructive fires”) and those that did not
Authors
Alexandra D. Syphard, Jon Keeley, Mike Gough, Mitchell Lazarz, John Rogan
Restoration of Gavia immer (common loon) in Minnesota—2021 annual report
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused extensive injury to natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico, and Gavia immer (common loon) were negatively affected from the spill. The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group funded the project Restoration of Common Loons in Minnesota to restore common loons lost to the spill. In 2020–21, priority lakes in an eight-county region in north-central Minnesota we
Authors
William S. Beatty, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Kevin P. Kenow, Brian R. Gray
Environmental DNA metabarcoding read numbers and their variability predict species abundance, but weakly in non-dominant species
Metabarcoding of environmental DNA (eDNA) provides more comprehensive, efficient, and non-invasive sampling of biological communities than conventional methods. However, limitations of metabarcoding include taxon-specific biases in amplification and sequencing that distort assessments of community composition. Further, hyper-abundant species may disproportionately affect community composition asse
Authors
James Skelton, Allison Cauvin, Maggie Hunter
Distribution and demography of Coastal Cactus Wrens in Southern California, 2015–19
Surveys and monitoring for the coastal Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus) were completed in San Diego County between March 2015 and July 2019. A total of 383 plots were surveyed across 3 genetic clusters (Otay, Lake Jennings, and Sweetwater/Encanto). From 2015 to 2019, 317 plots were surveyed 8 times (twice per year in 2015, 2017–19). Additional plots were added in later years as wrens
Authors
Suellen Lynn, Alexandra Houston, Barbara E. Kus
Over the hills and through the farms: Land use and topography influence genetic connectivity of northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens) in the Prairie Pothole Region
ContextAgricultural land-use conversion has fragmented prairie wetland habitats in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR), an area with one of the most wetland dense regions in the world. This fragmentation can lead to negative consequences for wetland obligate organisms, heightening risk of local extinction and reducing evolutionary potential for populations to adapt to changing environments.Objectives
Authors
Justin M. Waraniak, David M. Mushet, Craig A. Stockwell
Diminishing Arctic lakes
The Arctic is home to the largest surface water fraction of any terrestrial biome, containing thousands of low-lying lakes. Now, it appears that some Arctic lakes are drying due to rising air temperatures and autumn rains, causing permafrost to thaw and water bodies to drain.
Authors
Rebecca A Finger-Higgens
Hot, wet and rare: Modelling the occupancy dynamics of the narrowly distributed Dixie Valley toad
Context: Small population sizes and no possibility of metapopulation rescue put narrowly distributed endemic species under elevated risk of extinction from anthropogenic change. Desert spring wetlands host many endemic species that require aquatic habitat and are isolated by the surrounding xeric terrestrial habitat.Aims: We sought to model the occupancy dynamics of the Dixie Valley toad (Anaxyrus
Authors
Jonathan P. Rose, Patrick M. Kleeman, Brian J. Halstead
Bayesian applications in environmental and ecological studies with R and Stan
Modern ecological and environmental sciences are dominated by observational data. As a result, traditional statistical training often leaves scientists ill-prepared for the data analysis tasks they encounter in their work. Bayesian methods provide a more robust and flexible tool for data analysis, as they enable information from different sources to be brought into the modelling process. Bayesian
Authors
Song S. Qian, Mark Richard Dufour, Ibrahim Alameddine
Updates for Wake Atoll biosecurity management, biological control, survey, and management, and integrated pest management plans
Pests and invasive species have been defined as any organism that can have real or perceived adverse effects on operations, or the well-being of personnel, native plants, animals, their environment and ecosystem processes; attack or damage real property, supplies, equipment, or are otherwise undesirable (paraphrased from many sources including 53 Federal Register [FR] 15975, May 4, 1988, as amende
Authors
Stacie A. Hathaway, James D. Jacobi, Robert Peck, Robert N. Fisher