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: 41763
Integrative phylogenetic, phylogeographic and morphological characterisation of the Unio crassus species complex reveals cryptic diversity with important conservation implications
The global decline of freshwater mussels and their crucial ecological services highlight the need to understand their phylogeny, phylogeography and patterns of genetic diversity to guide conservation efforts. Such knowledge is urgently needed for Unio crassus, a highly imperilled species originally widespread throughout Europe and southwest Asia. Recent studies have resurrected several species fro
Authors
Manuel Lopes-Lima, Juergen Geist, Sarah Egg, Luboš Beran, Ani Bikashvili, Bert Van Bocxlaer, Arthur E. Bogan, Ivan N. Bolotov, O. A. Chelpanovskaya, Karel Douda, Vasco Fernandes, André Gomes-dos-Santos, Duarte V. Gonçalves, Mustafa E. Gürlek, Nathan Johnson, Ioannis Karaouzas, Ümit Kebapçı, Alexander V. Kondakov, Ralph Kuehn, Jasna Lajtner, Levan Mumladze, Karl-Otto Nagel, Eike Neubert, Martin Österling, John M. Pfeiffer, Vincent Prié, Nicoletta Riccardi, Jerzy Sell, Lea D. Schneider, Spase Shumka, Ioan Sirbu, Grita Skujienė, Chase H. Smith, Ronaldo Sousa, Katharina Stöckl, Jouni Taskinen, Amílcar Teixeira, Milcho Todorov, Teodora Trichkova, Maria Urbanska, Santtu Välilä, Simone Varandas, Joana Veríssimo, Ilya V. Vikhrev, G. Woschitz, Katarzyna Zając, Tadeusz Zając, David T. Zanatta, Alexandra Zieritz, Stamatis Zogaris, Elsa Froufe
Rising water temperature in rivers: Ecological impacts and future resilience
Rising water temperatures in rivers due to climate change are already having observable impacts on river ecosystems. Warming water has both direct and indirect impacts on aquatic life, and further aggravates pervasive issues such as eutrophication, pollution, and the spread of disease. Animals can survive higher temperatures through physiological and/or genetic acclimation, behavioral and phenolog
Authors
Matthew F. Johnson, Lindsey K. Albertson, Adam C. Algar, Stephen J. Dugdale, Patrick Edwards, Judy England, Christopher Gibbins, So Kazama, Daisuke Komori, Andrew Maccoll, Eric Arthur Scholl, Robert Wilby, Fabio de Oliveira Roque, Paul F. Wood
Writing SMART objectives for natural resource and environmental management
In natural resource and environmental management, well-written objectives are critical for effective decision-making and the achievement of desired outcomes. This article aims to improve practitioners' ability to identify and write SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) objectives for natural resource and environmental management.We differentiate between research and manage
Authors
Caleb A. Aldridge, Michael E. Colvin
Analysis adapted from text mining quantitively reveals abrupt and gradual plant-community transitions after fire in sagebrush steppe
ContextPlant communities vary both abruptly and gradually over time but differentiating between types of change can be difficult with existing classification and ordination methods. Structural topic modeling (STRUTMO), a text mining analysis, offers a flexible methodology for analyzing both types of temporal trends.ObjectivesOur objectives were to (1) identify post-fire dominant sagebrush steppe p
Authors
Cara Applestein, Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew Germino
Accurately characterizing climate change scenario planning in the U.S. National Park Service: Comment on Murphy et al. 2023
We more accurately locate the boundary between current practice and research priorities regarding climate change scenario planning in U.S. federal land management agencies by supplementing the characterization in a recent article (“Understanding perceptions of climate change scenario planning in United States public land management agencies”) of its use in the U.S. National Park Service. Accuratel
Authors
Joel H. Reynolds, Brian W. Miller, Gregor W. Schuurman, Wylie A. Carr, Amy Symstad, John E. Gross, Amber N. Runyon
Nerodia clarkii (Saltmarsh Watersnake). Predation
Predators of Nerodia clarkii are suspected to include larger species of crabs, fish, wading birds, snakes, alligators, and crocodiles. To our knowledge, there have only been two published observations of predation on N. clarkii, including a predation attempt from a Callinectes sapidus (Blue Crab) in Mississippi, USA and a successful predation by a Grus americana (Whooping Crane) in Texas, USA. Her
Authors
Bryna L. Daykin, Sidney T. Godfrey, Michael Cherkiss, Gareth Blakemore, Frank J. Mazzotti
Characterizing vegetation and return periods in avalanche paths using lidar and aerial imagery
Snow avalanches are a hazard and ecological disturbance across mountain landscapes worldwide. Understanding how avalanche frequency affects forests and vegetation improves infrastructure planning, risk management, and avalanche forecasting. We implemented a novel approach using lidar, aerial imagery, and a random forest model to classify imagery-observed vegetation within avalanche paths in southe
Authors
Erich Peitzsch, Chelsea Martin-Mikle, Jordy Hendrikx, Karl W. Birkeland, Daniel B. Fagre
Sea turtle density surface models along the United States Atlantic coast
Spatially explicit estimates of marine species distribution and abundance are required to quantify potential impacts from human activities such as military training and testing, fisheries interactions, and offshore energy development. There are 4 protected species of sea turtle (loggerhead, green, Kemp’s ridley, and leatherback) commonly found along the east coast of the USA, our study area, and w
Authors
Andrew DiMatteo, Jason J. Roberts, D. Todd Jones-Farrand, Lance Garrison, Kristen Hart, Robert D. Kenney, William A. McLellan, Kate Lomac-MacNair, Debra Palka, Meghan E. Rickard, Kelsey E. Roberts, Ann M. Zoidis, L. Sparks
Allochthonous marsh subsidies enhances food web productivity in an estuary and its surrounding ecosystem mosaic
Terrestrial organic matter is believed to play an important role in promoting resilient estuarine food webs, but the inherent interconnectivity of estuarine systems often obscures the origins and importance of these terrestrial inputs. To determine the relative contributions of terrestrial (allochthonous) and aquatic (autochthonous) organic matter to the estuarine food web, we analyzed carbon, nit
Authors
Melanie J. Davis, Isa Woo, Susan E. W. De La Cruz, Christopher S. Ellings, Sayre Hodgson, Glynnis Nakai
Wildfire probability estimated from recent climate and fine fuels across the big sagebrush region
BackgroundWildfire is a major proximate cause of historical and ongoing losses of intact big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) plant communities and declines in sagebrush obligate wildlife species. In recent decades, fire return intervals have shortened and area burned has increased in some areas, and habitat degradation is occurring where post-fire re-establishment of sagebrush is hindered b
Authors
Martin C. Holdrege, Daniel Rodolphe Schlaepfer, Kyle A. Palmquist, Michele R. Crist, Kevin E. Doherty, William K. Lauenroth, Thomas E. Remington, Karin L. Riley, Karen C. Short, John C. Tull, Lief A. Wiechman, John B. Bradford
The past, present, and a future for native charr in Japan
Charrs (Salvelinus) reach their southernmost distribution in Japan, and are uniquely adapted to the short, steep streams of this island archipelago. Southern Asian Dolly Varden (Salvelinus curilus) occur only in Hokkaido Island, whereas white-spotted charr (Salvelinus leucomaenis) range to southern Honshu. Both species diverged from an ancestral lineage during the late Pliocene/early Pleistocene,
Authors
K.D. Fausch, Kentaro Morita, Jun-ichi Tsuboi, Yoichiro Kanno, Shoichiro Yamamoto, Daisuke Kishi, Jason B. Dunham, Itsuro Koizumi, Koh Hasegawa, Mikio Inoue, Takuya Sato, Satoshi Kitano
Brief communication: Recent estimates of glacier mass loss for western North America from laser altimetry
Glaciers in western North American outside of Alaska are often overlooked in global studies because their potential to contribute to changes in sea level is small. Nonetheless, these glaciers represent important sources of freshwater, especially during times of drought. Differencing recent ICESat-2 data from a digital elevation model derived from a combination of synthetic aperture radar data (Ter
Authors
Brian Menounos, Alex Gardner, Caitlyn Florentine, Andrew Fountain