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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

Characterization of a small population of the orangeblack Hawaiian damselfly (Megalagrion xanthomelas) in anchialine pools at Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park, Hawai‘i Island

The endangered orangeblack Hawaiian damselfly (Megalagrion xanthomelas) is a lowland inhabitant of freshwater and brackish wetland environments. Formerly one of the most widely distributed native insects in Hawai‘i, it now appears restricted to small populations on the islands of O‘ahu, Moloka‘i, Maui, and Hawai‘i. On Hawai‘i island, anchialine pools provide important habitat for M. xanthomelas, a
Authors
Robert W. Peck, Sarah Nash

Breaking up is hard to do: Magmatism during oceanic arc breakup, subduction reversal, and cessation

The formerly continuous Vitiaz Arc broke into its Vanuatu and Fijian portions during a reversal of subduction polarity in the Miocene. Basaltic volcanism in Fiji that accompanied the breakup ranged from shoshonitic to low-K and boninitic with increasing distance from the broken edge of the arc that, presumably, marks the broken edge of the slab. The Sr-Pb-Nd isotope ratios of the slab-derived comp
Authors
James F. Gill, Erin Todd, Kaj Hoernle, Folkmar Hauff, Alison Ann Price, Matthew G. Jackson

VIMTS: Variational-based Imputation for Multi-modal Time Series

Multi-modal time series data in real applications often contain data of different dimensionalities, e.g., high-dimensional modality such as image data series, and low-dimensional univariate time series. Multi-modal time series data with missing high-dimensional modal values are ubiquitous in real-world classification and regression applications. To accurately predict the target labels, it is impor
Authors
Xiaowei Jia, Jennifer Burlingame Hoyle Fair, Benjamin Letcher

Sea otters in a California estuary: Detecting temporal and spatial dynamics with volunteer monitoring

Volunteer monitoring can support conservation of imperiled wildlife, by providing higher resolution data in space and time than those available from professional scientists. However, concerns have been raised that data collected by amateurs are inaccurate or inconsistent and thus do not allow for robust detection of spatial or temporal trends. We evaluated the rigor and value of volunteer monitori
Authors
Ron Eby, Susan Rosso, John Copriviza, Robert Scoles, Yohn Gideon, Joseph Mancino, Karl A. Mayer, Julie L. Yee, Kerstin Wasson

Bottom trawl assessment of Lake Ontario's benthic preyfish community, 2021

Since 1978, the Lake Ontario preyfish community survey has provided information on the status and trends of the benthic preyfish community related to Fish Community Objectives that includes understanding preyfish population dynamics and community diversity. Beginning in 2015, the benthic preyfish survey expanded from US-only to incorporate lake-wide sampling sites which increased the survey’s spat
Authors
Brian O'Malley, Scott P. Minihkeim, Thomas Andrew Sanfilippo, Jessica A Goretzke, Jeremy P. Holden

Efficacy of manipulating reproduction of common ravens to conserve sensitive prey species: Three case studies

Expansion of human enterprise across western North America has resulted in an increase in availability of anthropogenic resource subsidies for generalist species. This has led to increases in generalists’ population numbers across landscapes that were previously less suitable for their current demographic rates. Of particular concern are growing populations of common ravens (Corvus corax; ravens),
Authors
Corina A. Sanchez, Brianne E. Brussee, Peter S. Coates, Kerry L. Holcomb, Seth M. Harju, Timothy A. Shields, Mercy Vaughn, Brian G. Prochazka, Steven R. Mathews, Steffen Cornell, Chad V. Olson, David J. Delehanty

Synthesis of nest predation impacts of common ravens on sensitive avian species

Decades of mounting scientific evidence have revealed that common raven (Corvus corax; raven) population numbers have been increasing across nearly all regions of their geographic range in North America. Concomitantly, numerous native wildlife species have experienced elevated predation rates from ravens as populations have increased and expanded their range. Managers are concerned that increased
Authors
Peter S. Coates, William C. Webb, Seth J. Dettenmaier, Seth M. Harju, David J. Delehanty

A desert tortoise-common raven viable conflict threshold

Since 1966, common raven (Corvus corax; raven) abundance has increased throughout much of this species’ Holarctic distribution, fueled by an ever-expanding supply of anthropogenic resource subsidies (e.g., water, food, shelter, and nesting substrate) to ecoregion specific raven population carrying capacities. Consequently, ravens are implicated in declines of both avian and reptilian species of co
Authors
Kerry L. Holcomb, Peter S. Coates, Brian G. Prochazka, Timothy Shields, William I. Boarman

A rapid assessment function to estimate common raven population densities: Implications for targeted management

Common raven (Corvus corax; raven) populations have increased over the past 5 decades within the western United States. Raven population increases have been largely attributed to growing resource subsidies from expansion of human enterprise. Concomitantly, managers are becoming increasingly concerned about elevated adverse effects on multiple sensitive prey species, damage to livestock and agricul
Authors
Brianne E. Brussee, Peter S. Coates, Shawn T. O'Neil, Seth J. Dettenmaier, Pat J. Jackson, Kristy B. Howe, David J. Delehanty

The use of boundary-spanning organizations to bridge the knowledge-action gap in North America

The goals of boundary-spanning organizations include communicating among researchers, stakeholders, and resource managers to improve decision-making. These efforts span public agencies, environmental non-governmental organizations, and private stakeholders and occur throughout Canada, the USA, and Mexico. We describe how the core philosophy of boundary-spanning organizations may help address conse
Authors
Mark W. Schwartz, Erica Fleishman, Matthew A. Williamson, John N. Williams, Toni Lyn Morelli

Satellite solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence and near-infrared reflectance capture complementary aspects of dryland vegetation productivity dynamics

Mounting evidence indicates dryland ecosystems play an important role in driving the interannual variability and trend of the terrestrial carbon sink. Nevertheless, our understanding of the seasonal dynamics of dryland ecosystem carbon uptake through photosynthesis [gross primary productivity (GPP)] remains relatively limited due in part to the limited availability of long-term data and unique cha
Authors
Xian Wang, Joel A. Biederman, John F. Knowles, Russell L. Scott, Alexander J Turner, Matthew P. Dannenberg, Philipp Köhler, Christian Frankenberg, Marcy E Litvak, Gerald N. Flerchinger, Beverly E. Law, Hyojung Kwon, Sasha C. Reed, William J Parton, Greg A. Barron-Gafford, William K. Smith

SMaRT: A science-based tiered framework for common ravens

Large-scale increases and expansion of common raven (Corvus corax; raven) populations are occurring across much of North America, leading to increased negative consequences for livestock and agriculture, human health and safety, and sensitive species conservation. We describe a science-based adaptive management framework that incorporates recent quantitative analyses and mapping products for addre
Authors
Seth J. Dettenmaier, Peter S. Coates, Cali L. Roth, Sarah C. Webster, Shawn T. O'Neil, Kerry L. Holcomb, John C. Tull, Pat J. Jackson