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: 42177
Can nutrient additions facilitate recovery of Pacific salmon?
Multiple restoration actions have been implemented in response to declining salmon populations. Among these is the addition of salmon carcasses or artificial nutrients to mimic marine-derived nutrients historically provided by large spawning runs of salmon. A key assumption in this approach is that increased nutrients will catalyze salmon population growth. Although effects on aquatic...
Authors
Joseph R. Benjamin, James Bellmore, Emily J Whitney, Jason B. Dunham
Structural impacts, carbon losses, and regeneration in mangrove wetlands after two hurricanes on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands
Hurricanes Irma and Maria ravaged the mangroves of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, in 2017. Basal area losses were large (63–100%) and storm losses of carbon associated with aboveground biomass amounted to 11.9–43.5 Mg C/ha. Carbon biomass of dead standing trees increased 8.1–18.3 Mg C/ha among sites, and carbon in coarse woody debris on the forest floor increased 1.9–18.2 Mg C/ha, with...
Authors
Ken W. Krauss, Andrew From, Caroline S. Rogers, Kevin R.T. Whelan, Kristen W. Grimes, Robert Christopher Dobbs, Thomas Kelley
Resource segregation at fine spatial scales explains Karner blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis) distribution
The resource concentration hypothesis predicts that herbivorous insect density scales positively with plant density because insects are better able to identify, and remain longer in, patches with denser plant resources. While some studies support this hypothesis, others do not. Different explanations have been proposed for this discrepancy, including variation in insect dispersal ability...
Authors
Sophia N Chau, Lainey V. Bristow, Ralph Grundel, Jessica J. Hellmann
Newly documented population extends geographic range and genetic diversity for the Leaf-toed Gecko (Phyllodactylus nocticolus) into the Transverse Ranges of southern California
Between 19 – 30 May 2018, one of us [AW] discovered a disjunct population of Peninsula leaf-toed geckos, Phyllodactylus nocticolus (Phyllodactylidae) on the northern edge of the Coachella Valley in the Little San Bernardino Mountains of the Transverse Ranges (Fig. 1a). The previously northernmost location for the species is Tahquitz Canyon, Riverside Co. (MVZ 212205) in the Peninsular...
Authors
Dustin A. Wood, Alyssa Worrel-Black, Robert W. Black, Anna Mitelberg, Mark R Fisher, Robert N. Fisher, Amy G. Vandergast, Cameron W. Barrows
Dietary fat concentrations influence fatty acid assimilation patterns in Atlantic pollock (Pollachius virens)
A key aspect in the use of fatty acids (FA) to estimate predator diets using Quantitative FA Signature Analysis (QFASA) is the ability to account for FA assimilation through the use of calibration coefficients (CC). Here, we tested the assumption that CC are independent of dietary fat concentrations by feeding Atlantic pollock (Pollachius virens) three formulated diets with very similar...
Authors
Suzanne M. Budge, Katherine Townsend, Santosh P Lall, Jeffrey F. Bromaghin
Conceptualizing alternate regimes in a large floodplain-river ecosystem
Regime shifts –persistent changes in the structure and function of an ecosystem - are well-documented in many ecosystems but remain poorly understood in floodplain-river ecosystems. We apply a resilience perspective to large floodplain-river ecosystems by presenting three examples of plausible sets of alternate regimes that are relevant to natural resource management interests within the...
Authors
Kristen L. Bouska, Jeffrey N. Houser, Nathan R. De Jager, Deanne C. Drake, Scott M. Collins, Caniel K. Gibson-Reniemer, Meredith A. Thomsen
Moving beyond p<0.05 in ecotoxicology: A guide for practitioners
Statistical inferences play a critical role in ecotoxicology. Historically, Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST) has been the dominant method for inference in ecotoxicology. As a brief and informal definition of the NHST approach, researchers compare (or test) an experimental treatment or observation against a hypothesis of no relationship or effect (the null hypothesis) using the...
Authors
Richard A. Erickson, Barnett Rattner
Changes in physiology and microbial diversity in larval ornate chorus frogs are associated with habitat quality
Environmental change associated with anthropogenic disturbance can lower habitat quality, especially for sensitive species such as many amphibians. Variation in environmental quality may affect an organism’s physiological health and, ultimately, survival and fitness. Using multiple health measures can aid in identifying populations at increased risk of declines. Our objective was to...
Authors
Cory B. Goff, Susan C. Walls, David Rodriguez, Caitlin S. Gabor
Effects of barrier island salt marsh restoration on marsh bird occurrence in the Northern Gulf of Mexico
In the Northern Gulf of Mexico, salt marshes are threatened by sea level rise, erosion, and loss of protective barrier islands. These barrier islands provide critical habitat for wildlife, including globally significant populations of marsh and shorebirds. We investigated salt marsh restoration on two Louisiana barrier islands using presence of 8 marsh bird species as an index to...
Authors
Paige A. Byerly, J. Hardin Waddle, Alexis R. Premeaux, Paul S Leberg
Annual adult survival drives trends in Arctic-breeding shorebirds but knowledge gaps in other vital rates remain
Conservation status and management priorities are often informed by population trends. Trend estimates can be derived from population surveys or models, but both methods are associated with sources of uncertainty. Many Arctic-breeding shorebirds are thought to be declining based on migration and/or overwintering population surveys, but data are lacking to estimate the trends of some...
Authors
Emily L. Weiser, Richard Lanctot, Stephen C. Brown, H. River Gates, Joël Bêty, Megan L. Boldenow, Rodney W. Brook, Glen S. Brown, Willow B. English, Scott A. Flemming, Samantha E. Franks, H. Grant Gilchrist, Marie-Andree Giroux, Andrew C. Johnson, Steve J. Kendall, Lisa V. Kennedy, Laura Koloski, Eunbi Kwon, Jean-Francois Lamarre, David B. Lank, Christopher J. Latty, Nicolas Lecomte, Joseph R. Liebezeit, Rebecca L. McGuire, Laura McKinnon, Erica Nol, David C. Payer, Johanna Perz, Jennie Rausch, Martin D. Robards, Sarah T. Saalfeld, Nathan R. Senner, Paul A Smith, Mikhail Soloviev, Diana V. Solovyeva, David Ward, Paul J. Wood, Brett K. Sandercock
Proposed species extinction target fails to capture the diversity in biodiversity
We believe the 20 species extinction metric is a retrograde proposal, which does not adequately consider the lessons learnt from the 2020 Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Whilst having a single simple overarching target is appealing, we believe a positively-framed target will garner support, rather than one that aims to, at best, limit negative impacts. The Convention on Biological Diversity...
Authors
David L. O'Brien, Margaret E. Hunter, Martin F. Breed, Laura D. Bertola, Rob Ogden, Clarisse Palma da Silva, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Gernot Segelbacher, Sean M. Hoban, Rodolfo Jaffe
Historical museum collections and contemporary population studies implicate roads and introduced predatory bullfrogs in the decline of western pond turtles
The western pond turtle (WPT), recently separated into two paripatrically distributed species (Emys pallida and Emys marmorata), is experiencing significant reductions in its range and population size. In addition to habitat loss, two potential causes of decline are female-biased road mortality and high juvenile mortality from non-native predatory bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana). However...
Authors
E. Griffin Nicholson, Stephanie Manzo, Zachary Devereux, Thomas Morgan, Robert N. Fisher, Chris W. Brown, Rosi Dagit, Peter A. Scott, H. Bradley Shaffer