FORT researchers produce cutting edge tools for monitoring and conserving sage-grouse
FORT economists and social scientists investigate the complex relationship between nature and humans
Research includes studies of visitor impacts on parks, wildfire risk assessments, and economic impacts of invasive grasses.
Research includes studies of visitor impacts on parks, wildfire risk assessments, and economic impacts of invasive grasses.
FORT scientists produce tools and research for better management of invasive species
From pythons in the Everglades, to annual grasses invading the western United States, FORT invasive species research spans a wide range of taxonomic groups and landscapes.
From pythons in the Everglades, to annual grasses invading the western United States, FORT invasive species research spans a wide range of taxonomic groups and landscapes.
FORT researchers improve methods for monitoring, management, and conservation of wildlife.
Fort Collins Science Center
Welcome to the Fort Collins Science Center (FORT) located in Fort Collins, Colorado, just east of the Rocky Mountains. At FORT we develop and disseminate research-based information and tools needed to understand the nation’s biological resources in support of effective decision making.
North American Bat Monitoring Program
North American Bat Monitoring Program
The North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) is an international interagency program designed to monitor bat distributions and abundances on public and private lands, and provide trend data at the state, provincial, tribal, regional, and range-wide scales.
Burmese Pythons Invade the Everglades
Burmese Pythons Invade the Everglades
The Florida Everglades encompass a vast subtropical ecosystem. Billions of dollars have been committed to the long-term restoration of this ecosystem, but burgeoning populations of introduced and invasive reptiles threaten prospects for restoration.
News
FORT scientists hold science plan training for staff in the Bureau of Land Management
FORT scientists hold science plan training for staff in the Bureau of Land Management
USGS researchers kick-off collaboration with the Federal Highway Administration with a tour of state wildlife crossings and a day at the Fort Collins Science Center
USGS researchers kick-off collaboration with the Federal Highway Administration with a tour of state wildlife crossings and a day at the Fort Collins Science Center
Publications
Bird community response to one decade of riparian restoration along the Colorado River delta in Mexico
We assessed the response of breeding birds to one decade of riparian restoration in the Colorado River delta including active vegetation management since 2010 and various environmental water deliveries since 2014. Bird surveys were conducted from 2002 to 2021 at 230 bird count stations distributed along five river reaches with different hydrogeomorphic characteristics, across 7 routes in actively
Avian communities respond to plant and landscape composition in actively revegetated floodplains of the Colorado River delta in Mexico
We examined the influence of local habitat factors such as plant community composition and species cover, and landscape habitat factors (e.g., land cover types) on the composition of the avian community in an arid-region large river delta (Colorado River). This 106 river km-long study area has experienced restoration through environmental water deliveries and active management of vegetation for ca
A genomic hotspot of diversifying selection and structural change in the hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus)
BackgroundPrevious work found that numerous genes positively selected within the hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus) lineage are physically clustered in regions of conserved synteny. Here I further validate and expand on those finding utilizing an updated L. cinereus genome assembly and additional bat species as well as other tetrapod outgroups.MethodsA chromosome-level assembly was generated by chromat
Science
Wildlife Economics
Wildlife economics can help us better understand, and sometimes even quantify, the various relationships between humans and wildlife species. On one hand, humans benefit significantly from wildlife, for example through activities like hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing, or through the conservation of threatened and endangered species. On the other hand, wildlife can also impose substantial...
Post-Fire Hazards Impacts to Resources and Ecosystems (PHIRE): Support for Response, Recovery, and Mitigation
The Post-Fire Hazards Impacts to Resources and Ecosystems (PHIRE) project provides science to characterize climate-amplified, uncharacteristic patterns of wildfire disturbance and post-fire ecosystem recovery and enhance prediction of environmental impacts and post-fire hazards.
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Natural Hazards Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Alaska Science Center, California Water Science Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Fort Collins Science Center, Washington Water Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Wildland Fire Science
Can ruderal components of biocrust (mosses and cyanobacteria) be maintained under increasing threats of drought, grazing and feral horses?
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are a community of living organisms, like moss, lichen, and algae, covering soils in arid and semi-arid ecosystems, providing important ecological functions like carbon cycling and soil stabilization. Analyses show that biocrusts are negatively associated with the abundance of invasive annual grasses that are responsible for increasing fire across the Great Basin...
