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: 41764
Reanalysis indicates little evidence of reduction in eagle mortality rate by automated curtailment of wind turbines
Unintended consequences of renewable energy development include collision-caused deaths of birds and bats. Energy companies may risk prosecution if protected species are among the casualties. Shutting down turbines during high collision-risk conditions could reduce mortality rates, and several companies are developing systems to identify such conditions.A recent peer-reviewed article published in
Authors
Manuela Huso, Daniel Dalthorp
Macroscale analyses suggest invasive plant impacts depend more on the composition of invading plants than on environmental context
AimNative biodiversity is threatened by the spread of non-native invasive species. Many studies demonstrate that invasions reduce local biodiversity but we lack an understanding of how impacts vary across environments at the macroscale. Using ~11,500 vegetation surveys from ecosystems across the United States, we quantified how the relationship between non-native plant cover and native plant diver
Authors
Evelyn M. Beaury, Helen Sofaer, Regan Early, Ian Pearse, Dana M. Blumenthal, Jeffrey Corbin, Jeffrey M. Diez, Jeffrey Dukes, David Barnett, Ines Ibanez, Laís Petri, Montserrat Vilà, Bethany A. Bradley
Potential economic consequences along migratory flyways from reductions in breeding habitat of migratory waterbirds
The migration of species, often across continents, makes it difficult to quantify the cumulative effects of local- and regional-scale conservation actions. Further, variation in stakeholder interests, differing jurisdictional governance processes, priorities, and monitoring abilities across the migratory range shapes place-specific differences in management actions. These differences may lead mana
Authors
Wayne E. Thogmartin, James H. Devries, Darius J. Semmens, James E. Diffendorfer, James A. Dubovksy, Jonathan J. Derbridge, Brady J. Mattsson
Assessing contaminants of emerging concern in the Great Lakes Ecosystem: A decade of method development and practical application
Assessing the ecological risk of contaminants in the field typically involves consideration of a complex mixture of compounds which may or may not be detected via instrumental analyses. Further, there are insufficient data to predict the potential biological effects of many detected compounds, leading to their being characterized as contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). Over the past several ye
Authors
Gerald T. Ankley, Steven R. Corsi, Christine M. Custer, Drew R. Ekman, Stephanie L. Hummel, Kimani L. Kimbrough, Heiko L. Schoenfuss, Daniel L. Villeneuve
CGS: Coupled growth and survival model with cohort fairness
Fish modeling in complex environments is critical for understanding drivers of population dynamics in aquatic systems. This paper proposes a Bayesian network method for modeling fish survival and growth over multiple connected rivers. Traditional fish survival models capture the effect of multiple environmental drivers (e.g., stream temperature, stream flow) by adding different variables, which in
Authors
Erhu He, Yue Wan, Benjamin Letcher, Jennifer Burlingame Hoyle Fair, Yiquin Xie, Xiaowei Jia
The founding charter of the Omic Biodiversity Observation Network (Omic BON)
Omic BON is a thematic Biodiversity Observation Network under the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), focused on coordinating the observation of biomolecules in organisms and the environment. Our founding partners include representatives from national, regional, and global observing systems; standards organizations; and data and sample management infrastructures
Authors
Raissa Meyer, Neil Davies, Kathleen J. Pitz, Christopher Meyer, Robyn Samuel, Jane Anderson, Ward Appeltans, Katharine Barker, Francisco P. Chavez, J. Emmett Duffy, Kelly D. Goodwin, Maui Hudson, Maggie Hunter, Johannes Karstensen, Christine M. Laney, Margaret Leinen, Paula Mabee, James A. Macklin, Frank Muller-Karger, Nicolas Pade, Jay Pearlman, Lori Phillips, Pieter Provoost, Ioulia Santi, Dmitry Schigel, Lynn M. Schriml, Alice Soccodato, Saara Suominen, Katherine M. Thibault, Visotheary Ung, Jodie van de Kamp, Elycia Wallis, Ramona Walls, Pier Luigi Buttigieg
Confirmation of significant sea turtle nesting activity on a remote island chain in the Gulf of Mexico
Globally, six of the seven sea turtle species are threatened or endangered and as such, monitoring reproductive activity for these species is necessary for effective population recovery. Remote beaches provide a challenge to conducting these surveys, which often results in data gaps that can hamper management planning. Throughout the summer of 2022, aerial surveys were conducted over the Chandeleu
Authors
Margaret Lamont, Dianne Ingram, Todd Baker, Matt Weigel, Brian M. Shamblin
Genetic analysis of federally endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow subpopulations in the Greater Everglades, USA
The federally endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow (Ammospiza maritima mirabilis) is endemic to the Greater Everglades ecosystem in southern Florida, inhabiting fragmented marl prairies in six individual subpopulations. The subspecies is threatened by loss of breeding habitat from fire and water management. Genetic information is severely limited for the subspecies but could help inform decisions
Authors
Caitlin Beaver, Thomas Virzi, Maggie Hunter
A global biodiversity observing system to unite monitoring and guide action
The rate and extent of global biodiversity change is surpassing our ability to measure, monitor and forecast trends. We propose an interconnected worldwide system of observation networks — a global biodiversity observing system (GBiOS) — to coordinate monitoring worldwide and inform action to reach international biodiversity targets.
Authors
Andrew Gonzalez, Petteri Vihervaara, Patricia Balvanera, Amanda E. Bates, Elisa Bayraktarov, Peter J. Bellingham, Andreas Bruder, Jillian Campbell, Michael D. Catchen, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Jonathan Chase, Nicholas Coops, Mark J. Costello, Maria Dornelas, Gregoire Dubois, Emmett J. Duffy, Hilde Eggermont, Nestor Fernandez, Simon Ferrier, Gary N. Geller, Michael J. Gill, Dominique Gravel, Carlos A. Guerra, Robert P. Guralnick, Michael Harfoot, Tim Hirsch, Sean M. Hoban, Alice C. Hughes, Maggie Hunter, Forest Isbell, Walter Jetz, Norbert Juergens, W. Daniel Kissling, Cornelia B. Krug, Yvan Le Bras, Brian Leung, Maria C. Londoño-Murcia, Jean-Michel Lord, Michel Loreau, Amy Luers, Keping Ma, Anna J. MacDonald, Melodie McGeoch, Katie L. Millette, Zsolt Molnár, Akira S. Mori, Frank E. Muller-Karger, Hiroyuki Muraoka, Laetitia M. Navarro, Tim Newbold, Aidin Niamir, David Obura, Mary O’Connor, Marc Paganini, Henrique M. Pereira, Timothée Poisot, Laura J. Pollock, Andy Purvis, Adriana Radulovici, Duccio Rocchini, Michael E. Schaepman, Gabriela Schaepman-Strub, Dirk S. Schmeller, Ute Schmiedel, Fabien D. Schneider, Mangal M. Shakya, Andrew K Skidmore, Andrew L. Skowno, Yayoi Takeuchi, Mao-Ning Tuanmu, Eren Turak, Woody Turner, Mark C. Urban, Nicolás Urbina-Cardona, Ruben Valbuena, Basile van Havre, Elaine Wright
Identifying drivers of population dynamics for a stream breeding amphibian using time series of egg mass counts
The decline in amphibian populations is one of the starkest examples of the biodiversity crisis. For stream breeding amphibians, alterations to natural flow regimes by dams, water diversions, and climate change have been implicated in declines and extirpations. Identifying drivers of amphibian declines requires long time series of abundance data because amphibian populations can exhibit high natur
Authors
Jonathan P. Rose, Sarah J. Kupferberg, Ryan A. Peek, Don Ashton, James B. Bettaso, Steven Bobzien, Ryan M. Bourque, Koen G.H. Breedveld, Alessandro Catenazzi, Joseph E. Drennan, Earl Gonsolin, Marcia Grefsrud, Andrea E. Herman, Matthew R. House, Matt R. Kluber, Amy J. Lind, Karla R. Marlow, Alan Striegle, Michael van Hattem, Clara A. Wheeler, Jeffery T. Wilcox, Kevin D. Wiseman, Brian J. Halstead
Improving the Midwest Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Tool to support regional climate adaptation
An online climate vulnerability assessment dashboard was developed in 2021 through collaboration between U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to support regional climate adaptation efforts. The dashboard included 15 climate change impact metrics (five each from three categories: hydrology, precipitation, and temperature) and five metrics representing each watershe
Authors
John T. Delaney, Kristen L. Bouska
Geographic and taxonomic variation in adaptive capacity among mountain-dwelling small mammals: implications for conservation status and actions
Contemporary climate change is modifying the distribution, morphology, phenology, physiology, evolution, and interspecific interactions of species. Effects of climate change are mediated not only through the magnitude of change experienced (exposure) and an animal's sensitivity to such changes, but also through the ability of the population or species to adjust to climatic variability and change g
Authors
Erik A. Beever, Jennifer L. Wilkening, Peter D. Billman, Lindsey Thurman, Kristina A. Ernest, David H. Wright, Alisha M. Gill, April C. Craighead, Nolan A. Helmstetter, Leona K. Svancara, Meghan J. Camp, Sabuj Bhattacharyya, Jedediah Fitzgerald, Jocelyn M. R. Hirose, Marie L. Westover, Francis D. Gerraty, Kelly B. Klingler, Danielle A. Schmidt, Dylan K. Ryals, Richard N. Brown, Steven L. Clark, Neil Clayton, Gail H. Collins, Kyle A. Cutting, Daniel F. Doak, Clinton W. Epps, Janet E. Foley, Johnnie French, Charles L. Hayes, Zachary A. Mills, Lucas Moyer-Horner, Lyle B. Nichols, Kate B. Orlofsky, Mary M. Peacock, Nicholas C. Penzel, Johnny Peterson, Nathan G. Ramsay, Tom Rickman, Megan M. Robinson, Hillary L. Robison, Karen M. C. Rowe, Kevin C. Rowe, Michael A. Russello, Adam B. Smith, Joseph A. E. Stewart, Will W. Thompson, James H. Thorne, Matthew D. Waterhouse, Shana S. Weber, Kenneth C. Wilson