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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: 1220

Diet and macronutrient optimization in wild ursids: A comparison of grizzly bears with sympatric and allopatric black bears

When fed ad libitum, ursids can maximize mass gain by selecting mixed diets wherein protein provides 17 ± 4% of digestible energy, relative to carbohydrates or lipids. In the wild, this ability is likely constrained by seasonal food availability, limits of intake rate as body size increases, and competition. By visiting locations of 37 individuals during 274 bear-days, we documented foods consumed
Authors
Cecily M. Costello, Steven L. Cain, Shannon R Pils, Leslie Frattaroli, Mark A. Haroldson, Frank T. van Manen

Accounting for adaptive capacity and uncertainty in assessments of species’ climate-change vulnerability

Climate change vulnerability assessments (CCVAs) are valuable tools for assessing species’ vulnerability to climatic changes, yet failure to include measures of adaptive capacity and to account for sources of uncertainty may limit their effectiveness. Here, we provide a more comprehensive CCVA approach that incorporates all three elements used for assessing species’ climate change vulnerability: e
Authors
Alisa A. Wade, Brian K. Hand, Ryan Kovach, Gordon Luikart, Diane Whited, Clint C. Muhlfeld

Genomics reveals historic and contemporary transmission dynamics of a bacterial disease among wildlife and livestock

Whole-genome sequencing has provided fundamental insights into infectious disease epidemiology, but has rarely been used for examining transmission dynamics of a bacterial pathogen in wildlife. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), outbreaks of brucellosis have increased in cattle along with rising seroprevalence in elk. Here we use a genomic approach to examine Brucella abortus evolution, c
Authors
Pauline L. Kamath, Jeffrey T. Foster, Kevin P. Drees, Gordon Luikart, Christine Quance, Neil J. Anderson, P. Ryan Clarke, Eric Cole, Mark L. Drew, William H. Edwards, Jack C. Rhyan, John J. Treanor, Rick L. Wallen, Patrick J. White, Suelee Robbe-Austerman, Paul C. Cross

Linkages between unpaved forest roads and streambed sediment: why context matters in directing road restoration

Unpaved forest roads remain a pervasive disturbance on public lands and mitigating sediment from road networks remains a priority for management agencies. Restoring roaded landscapes is becoming increasingly important for many native coldwater fishes that disproportionately rely on public lands for persistence. However, effectively targeting restoration opportunities requires a comprehensive under
Authors
Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Tom A. Black, Cameron Thomas, Charlie H. Luce, Bruce Rieman, Richard Cissel, Anne Carlson, Shane Hendrickson, Eric K. Archer, Jeffrey L. Kershner

“One Health” or three? Publication silos among the One Health disciplines

The One Health initiative is a global effort fostering interdisciplinary collaborations to address challenges in human, animal, and environmental health. While One Health has received considerable press, its benefits remain unclear because its effects have not been quantitatively described. We systematically surveyed the published literature and used social network analysis to measure interdiscipl
Authors
Kezia Manlove, Josephine G Walker, Meggan E. Craft, Kathryn P. Huyvaert, Maxwell B. Joseph, Ryan S. Miller, Pauline Nol, Kelly A. Patyk, Daniel O'Brian, Daniel P. Walsh, Paul C. Cross

Movement and survival of an amphibian in relation to sediment and culvert design

Habitat disturbance from stream culverts can affect aquatic organisms by increasing sedimentation or forming barriers to movement. Land managers are replacing many culverts to reduce these negative effects, primarily for stream fishes. However, these management actions are likely to have broad implications for many organisms, including amphibians in small streams. To assess the effects of culverts
Authors
R.K Honeycutt, W.H. Lowe, Blake R. Hossack

Increasing influence of air temperature on upper Colorado River streamflow

This empirical study examines the influence of precipitation, temperature, and antecedent soil moisture on upper Colorado River basin (UCRB) water year streamflow over the past century. While cool season precipitation explains most of the variability in annual flows, temperature appears to be highly influential under certain conditions, with the role of antecedent fall soil moisture less clear. In
Authors
Connie A. Woodhouse, Gregory T. Pederson, Kiyomi Morino, Stephanie A. McAfee, Gregory J. McCabe

Energetic costs of mange in wolves estimated from infrared thermography

Parasites, by definition, extract energy from their hosts and thus affect trophic and food web dynamics even when the parasite may have limited effects on host population size. We studied the energetic costs of mange (Sarcoptes scabiei) in wolves (Canis lupus) using thermal cameras to estimate heat losses associated with compromised insulation during the winter. We combined the field data of known
Authors
Paul C. Cross, Emily S. Almberg, Catherine G Haase, Peter J. Hudson, Shane K Maloney, Matthew C Metz, Adam J Munn, Paul Nugent, Olivier Putzeys, Daniel R. Stahler, Anya C Stewart, Doug W. Smith

When environmentally persistent pathogens transform good habitat into ecological traps

Habitat quality plays an important role in the dynamics and stability of wildlife metapopulations. However, the benefits of high-quality habitat may be modulated by the presence of an environmentally persistent pathogen. In some cases, the presence of environmental pathogen reservoirs on high-quality habitat may lead to the creation of ecological traps, wherein host individuals preferentially colo
Authors
Clint Leach, Colleen T. Webb, Paul C. Cross

Detecting grizzly bear use of ungulate carcasses using global positioning system telemetry and activity data

Global positioning system (GPS) wildlife collars have revolutionized wildlife research. Studies of predation by free-ranging carnivores have particularly benefited from the application of location clustering algorithms to determine when and where predation events occur. These studies have changed our understanding of large carnivore behavior, but the gains have concentrated on obligate carnivores.
Authors
Michael R. Ebinger, Mark A. Haroldson, Frank T. van Manen, Cecily M. Costello, Daniel D. Bjornlie, Daniel J. Thompson, Kerry A. Gunther, Jennifer K. Fortin, Justin E. Teisberg, Shannon R Pils, P J White, Steven L. Cain, Paul C. Cross

Estimating abundance in the presence of species uncertainty

1.N-mixture models have become a popular method for estimating abundance of free-ranging animals that are not marked or identified individually. These models have been used on count data for single species that can be identified with certainty. However, co-occurring species often look similar during one or more life stages, making it difficult to assign species for all recorded captures. This unc
Authors
Thierry A. Chambert, Blake R. Hossack, LeeAnn Fishback, Jon M. Davenport

Coherent late-Holocene climate-driven shifts in the structure of three Rocky Mountain lakes

Large-scale atmospheric pressure centers, such as the Aleutian and Icelandic Low, have a demonstrated relationship with physical lake characteristics in contemporary monitoring studies, but the responses to these phenomena are rarely observed in lake records. We observe coherent changes in the stratification patterns of three deep (>30 m) lakes inferred from fossil diatom assemblages as a response
Authors
Jeffery R. Stone, Jasmine E. Saros, Gregory T. Pederson