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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: 41778

Early career researchers have questions about peer review—we asked the ASLO editors for answers

Peer review is the formal means by which the scientific community assesses the originality, reproducibility, validity, and quality of a research study (Bakker and Traniello 2019). As such, peer review assures nonexperts that they can trust a study's findings (Jamieson et al. 2019). Despite the critical importance of peer review, graduate students, postdocs, and other early career researchers (ECRs
Authors
Mary R. Gradoville, Bridget Deemer

Using physiological conditions to assess current and future habitat use of a Subarctic frog

Species with especially close dependence on the environment to meet physiological requirements, such as ectotherms, are highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change. Climate change is occurring rapidly in the Subarctic and Arctic, but there is limited knowledge on ectotherm physiology in these landscapes. We investigated how environmental conditions and habitat characteristics influence the
Authors
T. Hastings, Blake R. Hossack, L. Fishback, J. M. Davenport

Integrating growth and survival models for flexible estimation of size-dependent survival in a cryptic, endangered snake

Estimates of demographic rates for animal populations and individuals have many applications for ecological and conservation research. In many animals, survival is size-dependent, but estimating the form of the size–survival relationship presents challenges. For elusive species with low recapture rates, individuals’ size will be unknown at many points in time. Integrating growth and capture–mark–r
Authors
Jonathan P. Rose, Richard Kim, Elliot James Schoenig, Patrick C. Lien, Brian J. Halstead

Importance of local weather and environmental gradients on demography of a broadly distributed temperate frog

Amphibian populations are sensitive to environmental temperatures and moisture, which vary with local weather conditions and may reach new norms and extremes as contemporary climate change progresses. Using long-term (11–16 years) mark-recapture data from 10 populations of the Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) from across its U.S. range, we addressed hypotheses about how demographic relati
Authors
David Pilliod, Rebecca McCaffery, Robert Arkle, Rick D. Scherer, Jacqueline B. Cupples, Lisa A. Eby, Blake R. Hossack, Hallie Lingo, Kristin N. Lohr, Bryce A. Maxell, Megan J. McGuire, Chad Mellison, Marisa K. Meyer, James C. Munger, Teri Slatauski, Rachel Van Horne

Late season movement and habitat use by Oregon spotted frog (Rana pretiosa) in a large reservoir in Oregon, USA

Dam-created reservoirs are common landscape features that can provide habitat for amphibians, but their water level fluctuations and nonnative predators can differ markedly from more natural habitats. We compared fall movement and habitat use by the Oregon Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa) in the reservoir pool with nearby river and pond habitats at Crane Prairie Reservoir in central Oregon, USA. Movem
Authors
Christopher Pearl, Jennifer Rowe, Brome McCreary, Michael J. Adams

Reassessing perennial cover as a driver of duck nest survival in the Prairie Pothole Region

Conservation plans designed to sustain North American duck populations prominently feature a key hypothesis stating that the amount of the landscape in perennial cover surrounding upland duck nests positively influences nest survival rates. Recent conflicting research testing this hypothesis creates ambiguity regarding which management actions to pursue and where to prioritize conservation deliver
Authors
Aaron T. Pearse, Michael J. Anteau, Max Post van der Burg, Mark H. Sherfy, Thomas K. Buhl, Terry L. Shaffer

Phenological variation in spring migration timing of adult alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) in coastal Massachusetts

The timing of biological events in plants and animals, such as migration and reproduction, is shifting due to climate change. Anadromous fishes are particularly susceptible to these shifts as they are subject to strong seasonal cycles when transitioning between marine and freshwater habitats to spawn. We used linear models to determine the extent of phenological shifts in adult Alewife Alosa pseud
Authors
Rebecca M. Dalton, John J. Sheppard, John T. Finn, Adrian Jordaan, Michelle Staudinger

The Coalition for Conservation Genetics: Working across organizations to build capacity and achieve change in policy and practice

The Coalition for Conservation Genetics (CCG) brings together four eminent organizations with the shared goal of improving the integration of genetic information into conservation policy and practice. We provide a historical context of conservation genetics as a field and reflect on current barriers to conserving genetic diversity, highlighting the need for collaboration across traditional divides
Authors
Francine Kershaw, Michael W. Bruford, W. Chris Funk, Catherine E. Grueber, Sean M. Hoban, Maggie Hunter, Linda Laikre, Anna J. MacDonald, Mariah H. Meek, Cinnamon Mittan, David O´Brien, Rob Ogden, Robyn E. Shaw, Cristiano Vernesi, Gernot Segelbacher

Riparian forest productivity decline initiated by streamflow diversion then amplified by atmospheric drought 40 years later

Riparian trees and their annual growth rings can be used to reconstruct drought histories related to streamflow. Because the death of individual trees reduces competition for survivors, however, tree-ring chronologies based only on surviving trees may underestimate drought impacts. This problem can be addressed by calculating productivity at the stand scale to account for tree mortality and establ
Authors
Derek M. Schook, J. M. Friedman, Jamie D. Hoover, Steven E. Rice, Richard D. Thaxton, David J. Cooper

Hydroclimatic conditions, wildfire, and species assemblages influence co-occurrence of bull trout and tailed frogs in northern Rocky Mountain streams

Although bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) and tailed frogs (Ascaphus montanus) have co-existed in forested Pacific Northwest streams for millennia, these iconic cold-water specialists are experiencing rapid environmental change caused by a warming climate and enhanced wildfire activity. Our goal was to inform future conservation by examining the habitat associations of each species and conditio
Authors
David Pilliod, Robert Arkle, Russel F Thurow, Dan J Isaak

Resist-accept-direct (RAD) considerations for climate change adaptation in fisheries: The Wisconsin experience

Decision-makers in inland fisheries management must balance ecologically and socially palatable objectives for ecosystem services within financial or physical constraints. Climate change has transformed the potential range of ecosystem services available. The Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework offers a foundation for responding to climate-induced ecosystem modification; however, ecosystem trajec
Authors
Zachary S. Feiner, Aaron D. Shultz, Greg G. Sass, Ashley Trudeau, Matthew G. Mitro, Colin J. Dassow, Alexander W. Latzka, Daniel A. Isermann, Bryan M. Maitland, Jared Joseph Homola, Holly Susan Embke, Michael Preul

Estimating species misclassification with occupancy dynamics and encounter rates: A semi-supervised, individual-level approach

1. Large-scale, long-term biodiversity monitoring is essential to conservation, land management, and identifying threats to biodiversity. However, multispecies surveys are prone to various types of observation error, including false positive/negative detection, and misclassification, where a species is thought to have been encountered but not correctly identified. Previous methods assume an imperf
Authors
Anna Spiers, Andy Royle, Christa Torrens, Maxwell Joseph