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
Global assessment of marine plastic exposure for oceanic birds
Plastic pollution is distributed patchily around the world’s oceans. Likewise, marine organisms that are vulnerable to plastic ingestion or entanglement have uneven distributions. Understanding where wildlife encounters plastic is crucial for targeting research and mitigation. Oceanic seabirds, particularly petrels, frequently ingest plastic, are highly threatened, and cover vast distances during
Authors
Bethany L. Clark, Ana P. B. Carneiro, Elizabeth J. Pearmin, Marie-Morgane Rouyer, Thomas A Clay, Win Cowger, Richard A. Phillips, Andrea Manica, Carolina Hazin, Marcus Eriksen, Jacob González-Solís, Josh Adams, Yuri V. Albores-Barajas, Joanna Alfaro-Shigueto, Maria Saldhanha Alho, Deusa Teixeira Araujo, José Manuel Arcos, John P. Y. Arnould, Nadito J. P. Barbosa, Christophe Barbraud, Annalea M. Beard, Jessie Beck, Elizabeth Bell, Della G. Bennet, Maud Berlincourt, Manuel Biscoito, Oskar K. Bjørnstad, Mark Bolton, Katherine A. Booth Jones, John J. Borg, Karen Bourgeois, Vincent Bretagnolle, Joël Bried, James V. Briskie, M. de L. Brooke, Katherine C. Brownlie, Leandro Bugoni, Licia Calabrese, Letizia Campioni, Mark J. Carey, Ryan D. Carle, Nicholas Carlile, Ana R. Carreiro, Paulo Catry, Teresa Catry, Jacopo G. Cecere, Filipe R. Ceia, Yves Cherel, Chang-Yong Choi, Marco Cianchetti-Benedetti, Rohan H. Clarke, Jaimie Cleeland, Valentina Colodro, Bradley C. Congdon, Jóhannis Danielsen, Federico De Pascalis, Zoe Deakin, Nina Dehnhard, Giacomo Dell’Omo, Karine Delord, Sébastien Descamps, Ben J. Dilley, Herculano A. Dinis, Jerome Dubos, Brendon J. Dunphy, Louise M. Emmerson, Ana Isabel Fagundes, Annette L. Fayet, Jonathan J. Felis, Johannes H. Fischer, Amanda Freeman, Aymeric Fromant, Giorgia Gaibani, David García, Carina Gjerdrum, Ivandra Soeli Gonçalves Correia Gomes, Manuela G. Forero, José Pedro Granadeiro, W. James Grecian, David Grémillet, Tim Guilford, Gunnar Thor Hallgrimsson, Luke R. Halpin, Erpur Snær Hansen, April Hedd, Morten Helberg, Halfdan H. Helgason, Leeann M. Henry, Hannah F. R. Hereward, Marcos Hernandez-Montero, Mark A. Hindell, Peter J. Hodum, Simona Imperio, Audrey Jaeger, Mark Jessopp, Patrick Jodice, Carl G. Jones, Christopher W. Jones, Jón Einar Jónsson, Adam Kane, Sven Kapelj, Yuna Kim, Holly Kirk, Yann Kolbeinsson, Philipp L. Kraemer, Lucas Krüger, Paulo Lago, Todd J. Landers, Jennifer L. Lavers, Matthieu Le Corre, Andreia Leal, Maite Louzao, Jeremy Madeiros, Maria Magalhães, Mark L. Mallory, Juan F. Masello, Bruno Massa, Sakiko Matsumoto, Fiona McDuie, Laura McFarlane Tranquilla, Fernando Medrano, Benjamin J. Metzger, Teresa Militão, William A. Montevecchi, Rosalinda C. Montone, Leia Navarro-Herrero, Verónica C. Neves, David G. Nicholls, Malcolm A. C. Nicoll, Ken Norris, Steffen Oppel, Daniel Oro, Ellie Owen, Oliver Padget, Vítor H. Paiva, David Pala, Jorge M. Pereira, Clara Péron, Maria V. Petry, Admilton de Pina, Ariete T. Moreira Pina, Patrick Pinet, Pierre A. Pistorius, Ingrid L. Pollet, Benjamin J. Porter, Timothée A. Poupart, Christopher D. L. Powell, Carolina B. Proaño, Júlia Pujol-Casado, Petra Quillfeldt, John L. Quinn, Andre F. Raine, Helen Raine, Iván Ramírez, Jaime A. Ramos, Raül Ramos, Andreas Ravache, Matt J. Rayner, Timothy A. Reid, Gregory J. Robertson, Gerard J. Rocamora, Dominic P. Rollinson, Robert A. Ronconi, Andreu Rotger, Diego Rubolini, Kevin Ruhomaun, Asunción Ruiz, James C. Russell, Peter G. Ryan, Sarah Saldanha, Ana Sanz-Aguilar, Mariona Sardà-Serra, Yvan G. Satgé, Katsufumi Sato, Wiebke C. Schäfer, Stefan Schoombie, Scott A. Shaffer, Nirmal Jivan Shah, Akiko Shoji, Dave Shutler, Ingvar A. Sigurðsson, Mónica C. Silva, Alison E. Small, Cecilia Soldatini, Hallvard Strøm, Christopher A. Surman, Akinori Takahashi, Vikash R. V. Tatayah, Graeme A. Taylor, Robert J. Thomas, David R. Thompson, Paul M. Thompson, Thorkell L. Thórarinsson, Diego Vicente-Sastre, Eric Vidal, Ewan D. Wakefield, Susan M. Waugh, Henri Weimerskirch, Heiko U. Wittmer, Takashi Yamamoto, Ken Yoda, Carlos B. Zavalaga, Francis J. Zino, Maria P. Dias
Seasonal habitat utilization provides evidence for site fidelity during both spawn and non-spawning seasons in Lake Ontario cisco Coregonus artedi
The Lake Ontario cisco Coregonus artedi population declined in the 20th century, and restoration of this species is a management objective. Management tools to restore cisco are limited because little is known about cisco spawning behavior and habitat use. We tagged 76 cisco from a remnant population in Chaumont Bay, Lake Ontario with acoustic transmitters and characterized seasonal habitat use fr
Authors
Alexander J. Gatch, Dimitry Gorsky, Brian C. Weidel, Zy F. Biesinger, Michael J. Connerton, Cameron Davis, Hannah Lachance, Brian O'Malley
Presence of hummock and hollow microtopography reflects shifting balances of shallow subsidence and root zone expansion along forested wetland river gradients
Tidal freshwater forested wetlands (TFFWs) are in an active phase of transition to tidal marsh with sea level rise and salinity incursion along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States (U.S.). A prominent feature of TFFWs is hummock/hollow microtopography where hollows represent the flat, base-elevation of the floodplain where inundation occurs relatively frequently, while hummocks provid
Authors
Ken Krauss, Gregory Noe, Jamie A. Duberstein, Nicole Cormier, Andrew From, Thomas Rossiter Doody, William H. Conner, Donald Cahoon, Darren Johnson
Validation of a species-specific probe-based qPCR assay for the threatened meltwater stonefly, Lednia tumana, in environmental samples
A probe-based quantitative real-time PCR assay was developed to detect meltwater stonefly (Lednia tumana) environmental (e)DNA in water samples. The limits of detection and quantification, respectively, were 12.1 and 58.4 gene copies for calibration standards and these values were similarly low in a relevant environmental sample matrix (8.6 and 174.2, respectively). The assay’s utility was demonst
Authors
Patrick Ross Hutchins, Jonathan Giersch, Adam Sepulveda, Clint C. Muhlfeld
Development of a quantitative PCR assay for detecting northwest salamander (ambystoma gracile) in environmental DNA samples
We developed a primer and probe based quantitative PCR assay for use with environmental DNA to detect Northwest salamander (Ambystoma gracile), a species endemic to the temperate Pacific coastal region of North America. The assay targets a region in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop gene. Tests of the assay were performed in silico (using the NCBI BLAST tool), in vitro (using DNA extracted from
Authors
Marshal Hoy, Carl Ostberg
Managing an ongoing threat: Bats and white-nose syndrome
No abstract available.
Authors
Tricia Lynn Fry, Amy Haeseler, Anne Ballmann, Tonie E. Rocke
2023 Coastal master plan: ICM-wetlands – Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) updates
Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) provides critical structural habitat for valuable nekton and wildlife species across coastal ecosystems and can buffer the negative effects of land loss. Landscape change and restoration efforts across coastal Louisiana can impact the occurrence, coverage, and species assemblages of SAV, and changes to these foundational species can have cascading impacts across
Authors
Kristin DeMarco, Donald Schoolmaster, Brady Couvillion
2023 Coastal master plan: Landscape input data
Coastal Louisiana is a complex landscape. The composition of the landscape, as well as the processes which influence said landscape, vary in both space and time. The models used in the 2023 Coastal Master Plan must attempt to reflect that spatial and temporal variability. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the spatial data sets upon which the models are initialized are of the highest qu
Authors
Brady Couvillion
Modeling habitat suitability across different levels of invasive plant abundance
Predicting where invasive plants are likely to spread and become abundant is critical for informing invasive plant management. Species distribution models are a key tool for informing the geography of invasion risk, but most distribution models are limited by their use of presence data, including no information on invader population abundance. In this study, we ask how habitat suitability varies f
Authors
Evelyn M. Beaury, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Ian Pearse, Annette E. Evans, Nathan Teich, Peder Engelstad, Jillian LaRoe, Bethany A. Bradley
Using state-and-transition simulation models to scope post-fire success in restoring greater sage-grouse habitat
Wildfires are increasingly modifying wildlife habitat in the western United States and managers need ways to scope the pace and degree to which post-fire restoration actions can re-create habitat in dynamic landscapes. We developed a spatially explicit state-transition simulation model (STSM) to project post-fire revegetation and the potential for sage-grouse habitat restoration in sagebrush ecosy
Authors
Elizabeth Kari Orning, Julie A. Heinrichs, David A. Pyke, Peter S. Coates, Cameron L. Aldridge
Assessing impacts of human stressors on stream fish habitats across the Mississippi River basin
Effective conservation of stream fishes and their habitats is complicated by the fact that human stressors alter the way in which natural factors such as stream size, catchment geology, and regional climate influence stream ecosystems. Consequently, efforts to assess the condition of stream fishes and their habitats must not only attempt to characterize the effects of human stressors but must acco
Authors
Jared Ross, Dana M. Infante, Arthur R. Cooper, Joanna B. Whittier, Wesley Daniel