Publications
Below is a list of available NOROCK peer reviewed and published science. If you are in search of a specific publication and cannot find it below or through a search, please contact twojtowicz@usgs.gov.
Filter Total Items: 1211
Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) not detected in an intensive survey of wild North American amphibians
The salamander chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans [Bsal]) is causing massive mortality of salamanders in Europe. The potential for spread via international trade into North America and the high diversity of salamanders has catalyzed concern about Bsal in the U.S. Surveillance programs for invading pathogens must initially meet challenges that include low rates of occurrence on the l
Authors
Hardin Waddle, Daniel A. Grear, Brittany Mosher, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Michael J. Adams, Adam R. Backlin, William Barichivich, Adrianne B. Brand, Gary M. Bucciarelli, Daniel L. Calhoun, Tara Chestnut, Jon M. Davenport, Andrew E. Dietrich, Robert N. Fisher, Brad Glorioso, Brian J. Halstead, Marc P Hayes, R. Ken Honeycutt, Blake R. Hossack, Patrick M. Kleeman, Julio A. Lemos-Espinal, Jeffrey M. Lorch, Robert W. Atkinson, Erin L. Muths, Christopher Pearl, Katherine Richgels, Charles W Robinson, Mark F. Roth, Jennifer Rowe, Walter Sadinski, Brent H. Sigafus, Iga Stasiak, Samuel Sweet, Susan C. Walls, Gregory J Watkins-Colwell, C. LeAnn White, Lori A Williams, Megan E. Winzeler
Comparative performance and trend of remotely sensed phenology and productivity metrics across the Western United States
Vegetation phenology and productivity play a crucial role in surface energy balance, plant and animal distribution, and animal movement and habitat use and can be measured with remote sensing metrics including start of season (SOS), peak instantaneous rate of green-up date (PIRGd), peak of season (POS), end of season (EOS), and integrated vegetation indices. However, for most metrics, we do not ye
Authors
Tabitha Graves, Ethan Edward Berman, Nathaniel Mikle, Jerod Merkle, Aaron N. Johnston, Geneva W. Chong
Mountain stoneflies may tolerate warming streams: Evidence from organismal physiology and gene expression
Rapid glacier recession is altering the physical conditions of headwater streams. Stream temperatures are predicted to rise and become increasingly variable, putting entire meltwater-associated biological communities at risk of extinction. Thus, there is a pressing need to understand how thermal stress affects mountain stream insects, particularly where glaciers are likely to vanish on contemporar
Authors
Scott Hotaling, Alisha A. Shah, Kerry L. McGowan, Lusha M. Tronstad, J. Joseph Giersch, Debra S. Finn, H. Arthur Woods, Michael E. Dillon, Joanna L. Kelley
Benthic suffocation of invasive lake trout embryos by fish carcasses and sedimentation in Yellowstone Lake
Introduced Lake Trout Salvelinus namaycush threaten native Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri in Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park, where gill nets have been used to suppress subadult and adult Lake Trout since 1995. However, survival of embryonic and larval life history stages can have profound effects on the population dynamics of Lake Trout. Inducing additional
Authors
Alex S. Poole, Todd M. Koel, Nathan A. Thomas, Alexander V. Zale
Group density, disease, and season shape territory size and overlap of social carnivores
1. The spatial organization of a population can influence the spread of information, behaviour, and pathogens. Territory size and territory overlap, components of spatial organization, provide key information as these metrics may be indicators of habitat quality, resource dispersion, contact rates, and environmental risk (e.g., indirectly transmitted pathogens). Furthermore, sociality and behaviou
Authors
E. E. Brandell, Nicholas M. Fountain-Jones, Marie L. J. Gilbertson, Paul C. Cross, P. J. Hudson, Douglas W. Smith, Daniel R. Stahler, Craig Packer, Meggan E. Craft
Direct and indirect effects of fire on eastern box turtles
Prescribed fire is an increasingly important management tool for eastern deciduous forests, but relativity little is known about the direct effects of fire on the eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina). We used very high frequency (VHF) transmitters to monitor mortality, movement, and spatial ecology of 118 box turtles in response to 17 prescribed fires across 4 seasons and 3 sites in ea
Authors
K. Harris, Joseph D. Clark, R. Elmore, C.A. Harper
Estimating inundation of small waterbodies with sub-pixel analysis of Landsat imagery: Long-term trends in surface water area and evaluation of common drought indices
Small waterbodies are numerically dominant in many landscapes and provide several important ecosystem services, but automated measurement of waterbodies smaller than a standard Landsat pixel (0.09 ha) remains challenging. To further evaluate sub‐Landsat pixel techniques for estimating inundation extent of small waterbodies (basin area: 0.06–1.79 ha), we used a partial spectral unmixing method with
Authors
Ibrahima Sall, Christopher J. Jarchow, Brent H. Sigafus, Lisa A Eby, Michael James Forzley, Blake R. Hossack
msocc: Fit and analyse computationally efficient multi‐scale occupancy models in R
Environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling is a promising tool for the detection of rare and cryptic taxa, such as aquatic pathogens, parasites and invasive species. Environmental DNA sampling workflows commonly rely on multi‐stage hierarchical sampling designs that induce complicated dependencies within the data. This complex dependence structure can be intuitively modelled with Bayesian multi‐scale occup
Authors
Christian Stratton, Adam J. Sepulveda, Andrew B. Hoegh
Western bumble bee: Declines in United States and range-wide information gaps
In recent decades, many bumble bee species have declined due to changes in habitat, climate, and pressures from pathogens, pesticides, and introduced species. The western bumble bee (Bombus occidentalis ), once common throughout western North America, is a species of concern and will be considered for listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). We
Authors
Tabitha Graves, William Michael Janousek, Sarah M. Gaulke, Amy Nicholas, Douglas Keinath, Christine M. Bell, Syd Cannings, Richard G. Hatfield, Jennifer M Heron, Jonathan B Koch, Helen L Loffland, Leif L Richardson, Ashley T. Rohde, Jessica Rykken, James P. Strange, Lusha Tronstead, Cory Sheffield
Carbon dioxide-induced mortality of four species of North American fishes
Fisheries managers have a growing interest in the use of carbon dioxide (CO2) as a tool for controlling invasive fishes. However, limited published data exist on susceptibility of many commonly encountered species to elevated CO2 concentrations. Our objective was to estimate the 24-h 50% lethal concentration (LC50) and 95% lethal concentration (LC95) of CO2 for four fishes (Rainbow Trout Oncorhync
Authors
Hilary B. Treanor, Andrew M. Ray, Jon Amberg, Mark P. Gaikowski, Jason E. Ilgen, Robert Gresswell, Leslie Gains-Germain, Molly A H Webb
Informing amphibian conservation efforts with abundance-based metapopulation models
Science-based management strategies are needed to halt or reverse the global decline of amphibians. In many cases, sound management requires reliable models built using monitoring data. Historically, monitoring and statistical modeling efforts have focused on estimating occupancy using detection–nondetection data. Spatial occupancy models are useful for studying colonization–extinction dynamics, b
Authors
Paige E Howell, Blake R. Hossack, Erin L. Muths, Brent H. Sigafus, Richard B. Chandler
Increased drought severity tracks warming in the United States’ largest river basin
Across the Upper Missouri River Basin, the recent drought of 2000 to 2010, known as the “turn-of-the-century drought,” was likely more severe than any in the instrumental record including the Dust Bowl drought. However, until now, adequate proxy records needed to better understand this event with regard to long-term variability have been lacking. Here we examine 1,200 y of streamflow from a networ
Authors
Justin Martin, Gregory T. Pederson, Connie A. Woodhouse, Edward R. Cook, Gregory J. McCabe, Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Erika K. Wise, Patrick Erger, Larry S. Dolan, Marketa McGuire, Subhrendu Gangopadhyay, Katherine J. Chase, Jeremy Littell, Stephen Gray, Scott St. George, Jonathan M. Friedman, David J. Sauchyn, Jeannine-Marie St. Jacques, John C. King