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
Life history diversity of Snake River finespotted cutthroat trout: managing for persistence in a rapidly changing environment
Over the last century, native trout have experienced dramatic population declines, particularly in larger river systems where habitats associated with different spawning life history forms have been lost through habitat degradation and fragmentation. The resulting decrease in life history diversity has affected the capacity of populations to respond to environmental variability and disturbance. Un
Authors
Kristen M. Homel, Robert E. Gresswell, Jeffrey L. Kershner
Context-dependent survival, fecundity and predicted population-level consequences of brucellosis in African buffalo
Chronic infections may have negative impacts on wildlife populations, yet their effects are difficult to detect in the absence of long-term population monitoring. Brucella abortus, the bacteria responsible for bovine brucellosis, causes chronic infections and abortions in wild and domestic ungulates, but its impact on population dynamics is not well understood.
We report infection patterns and fi
Authors
Erin E. Gorsich, Vanessa O. Ezenwa, Paul C. Cross, Roy G. Bengis, Anna E. Jolles
Book Reivew: A chance for lasting survival: Ecology and behavior of wild giant pandas
“If we watch species going extinct in front of us, how useful is that we publish 100 or even 1,000 papers by studying them?” (p. 330). This quote from senior author Pan Wenshi captures an important essence of this book. A translation of a 2001 monograph originally published in Chinese, this volume details the findings of a 15-year research program in the Qinling Mountains by Wenshi and his student
Authors
Frank T. van Manen
Review of the book Handbook of spatial point-pattern analysis in Ecology, by Thorsten Wiegand and Kirk A. Moloney
No abstract available.
Authors
Kathryn M. Irvine
Monitoring Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem wetlands: Can long-term monitoring help us understand their future?
In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), changes in the drying cycles of wetlands have been documented. Wetlands are areas where the water table is at or near the land surface and standing shallow water is present for much or all of the growing season. We discuss how monitoring data can be used to document variation in annual flooding and drying patterns of wetlands monitored across Yellowstone
Authors
Andrew M. Ray, Adam J. Sepulveda, Blake R. Hossack, Debra Patla, David Thoma, Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Andrea R. Litt
Temporal patterns in adult salmon migration timing across southeast Alaska
Pacific salmon migration timing can drive population productivity, ecosystem dynamics, and human harvest. Nevertheless, little is known about long-term variation in salmon migration timing for multiple species across broad regions. We used long-term data for five Pacific salmon species throughout rapidly warming southeast Alaska to describe long-term changes in salmon migration timing, interannual
Authors
Ryan P. Kovach, Stephen Ellison, Sanjay Pyare, David Tallmon
Consequences of actively managing a small Bull Trout population in a fragmented landscape
Habitat fragmentation, which affects many native salmonid species, is one of the major factors contributing to the declines in distribution and abundance of Bull Trout Salvelinus confluentus. Increasingly, managers are considering options to maintain and enhance the persistence of isolated local populations through active management strategies. Understanding the ecological consequences of such act
Authors
Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Sean Moran, Peter McHugh, Shana Bernall, Wade Fredenberg, Joseph M. DosSantos
Rapid growth and genetic diversity retention in an isolated reintroduced black bear population in the central appalachians
Animal reintroductions are important tools of wildlife management to restore species to their historical range, and they can also create unique opportunities to study population dynamics and genetics from founder events. We used non-invasive hair sampling in a systematic, closed-population capture-mark-recapture (CMR) study design at the Big South Fork (BSF) area in Kentucky during 2010 and Tennes
Authors
Sean M. Murphy, John J. Cox, Joseph D. Clark, Benjamin J. Augustine, John T. Hast, Dan Gibbs, Michael Strunk, Steven Dobey
Assessing the components of adaptive capacity to improve conservation and management efforts under global change
Natural-resource managers and other conservation practitioners are under unprecedented pressure to categorize and quantify the vulnerability of natural systems based on assessment of the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of species to climate change. Despite the urgent need for these assessments, neither the theoretical basis of adaptive capacity nor the practical issues underlying its
Authors
Adrienne Nicotra, Erik A. Beever, Amanda Robertson, Gretchen Hofmann, John O’Leary
Evaluating physical habitat and water chemistry data from statewide stream monitoring programs to establish least-impacted conditions in Washington State
Various GIS-generated land-use predictor variables, physical habitat metrics, and water chemistry variables from 75 reference streams and 351 randomly sampled sites throughout Washington State were evaluated for effectiveness at discriminating reference from random sites within level III ecoregions. A combination of multivariate clustering and ordination techniques were used. We describe average o
Authors
Siri K. Wilmoth, Kathryn M. Irvine, Chad Larson
Presence and abundance of non-native plant species associated with recent energy development in the Williston Basin
The Williston Basin, located in the Northern Great Plains, is experiencing rapid energy development with North Dakota and Montana being the epicenter of current and projected development in the USA. The average single-bore well pad is 5 acres with an estimated 58,485 wells in North Dakota alone. This landscape-level disturbance may provide a pathway for the establishment of non-native plants. To e
Authors
Todd M. Preston
Empirical evaluation of the conceptual model underpinning a regional aquatic long-term monitoring program using causal modelling
Conceptual models are an integral facet of long-term monitoring programs. Proposed linkages between drivers, stressors, and ecological indicators are identified within the conceptual model of most mandated programs. We empirically evaluate a conceptual model developed for a regional aquatic and riparian monitoring program using causal models (i.e., Bayesian path analysis). We assess whether data g
Authors
Kathryn M. Irvine, Scott Miller, Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Erik Archer, Brett B. Roper, Jeffrey L. Kershner