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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: 1216

Evaluation of a present-day climate simulation with a new coupled atmosphere-ocean model GENMOM

We present a new, non-flux corrected AOGCM, GENMOM, that combines the GENESIS version 3 atmospheric GCM (Global Environmental and Ecological Simulation of Interactive Systems) and MOM2 (Modular Ocean Model version 2) nominally at T31 resolution. We evaluate GENMOM by comparison with reanalysis products (e.g., NCEP2) and three models used in the IPCC AR4 assessment. GENMOM produces a global tempera
Authors
J. R. Alder, Steven W. Hostetler, D. Pollard, A. Schmittner

Upper Colorado River Basin Climate Effects Network

The Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) Climate Effects Network (CEN) is a science team established to provide information to assist land managers in future decision making processes by providing a better understanding of how future climate change, land use, invasive species, altered fire cycles, human systems, and the interactions among these factors will affect ecosystems and the services they pro
Authors
Jayne Belnap, Donald Campbell, Jeff Kershner

Coexistence in streams: Do source-sink dynamics allow salamanders to persist with fish predators?

Theory suggests that source–sink dynamics can allow coexistence of intraguild predators and prey, but empirical evidence for this coexistence mechanism is limited. We used capture–mark–recapture, genetic methods, and stable isotopes to test whether source–sink dynamics promote coexistence between stream fishes, the intraguild predator, and stream salamanders (Dicamptodon aterrimus), the intraguild
Authors
Adam J. Sepulveda, W.H. Lowe

Greater sage-grouse of Grand Teton National Park: where do they roam?

Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) population declines may be caused by range-wide degradation of sagebrush (woody Artemisia spp.) steppe ecosystems. Understanding how greater sage-grouse use the landscape is essential for successful management. We assessed greater sage-grouse habitat selection on a landscape level in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We used a Geographic Information System (GIS
Authors
G.W. Chong, W.C. Wetzel, M.J. Holloran

Isolation of Bartonella capreoli from elk

The aim of the present study was to investigate the presence of Bartonella infections in elk populations. We report the isolation of four Bartonella strains from 55 elk blood samples. Sequencing analysis demonstrated that all four strains belong to Bartonella capreoli, a bacterium that was originally described in the wild roe deer of Europe. Our finding first time demonstrated that B. capreoli has
Authors
Y. Bai, Paul C. Cross, L. Malania, M. Kosoy

Why replication is important in landscape genetics: American black bear in the Rocky Mountains

We investigated how landscape features influence gene flow of black bears by testing the relative support for 36 alternative landscape resistance hypotheses, including isolation by distance (IBD) in each of 12 study areas in the north central U.S. Rocky Mountains. The study areas all contained the same basic elements, but differed in extent of forest fragmentation, altitude, variation in elevation
Authors
Bull R.A. Short, S.A. Cushman, R. MacE, T. Chilton, K.C. Kendall, E.L. Landguth, Maurice L. Schwartz, K. McKelvey, F.W. Allendorf, G. Luikart

Breeding chorus indices are weakly related to estimated abundance of boreal chorus frogs

Call surveys used to monitor breeding choruses of anuran amphibians generate index values that are frequently used to represent the number of male frogs present, but few studies have quantified this relationship. We compared abundance of male Boreal Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris maculata), estimated using capture–recapture methods in two populations in Colorado, to call index values derived from automa
Authors
P. S. Corn, E. Muths, A.M. Kissel, R. D. Scherer

Climatic controls on the snowmelt hydrology of the northern Rocky Mountains

The northern Rocky Mountains (NRMs) are a critical headwaters region with the majority of water resources originating from mountain snowpack. Observations showing declines in western U.S. snowpack have implications for water resources and biophysical processes in high-mountain environments. This study investigates oceanic and atmospheric controls underlying changes in timing, variability, and tren
Authors
Gregory T. Pederson, S.T. Gray, T. Ault, W. Marsh, Daniel B. Fagre, A.G. Bunn, C.A. Woodhouse, L.J. Graumlich

Multi-scale clustering of functional data with application to hydraulic gradients in wetlands

A new set of methods are developed to perform cluster analysis of functions, motivated by a data set consisting of hydraulic gradients at several locations distributed across a wetland complex. The methods build on previous work on clustering of functions, such as Tarpey and Kinateder (2003) and Hitchcock et al. (2007), but explore functions generated from an additive model decomposition (Wood, 20
Authors
Mark C. Greenwood, Richard S. Sojda, Julia L. Sharp, Rory G. Peck, Donald O. Rosenberry

Shared bacterial and viral respiratory agents in bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), domestic sheep (Ovis aries), and goats (Capra hircus) in Montana

Transmission of infectious agents from livestock reservoirs has been hypothesized to cause respiratory disease outbreaks in bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), and land management policies intended to limit this transmission have proven controversial. This cross-sectional study compares the infectious agents present in multiple populations of bighorn sheep near to and distant from their interface wit
Authors
David S. Miller, Glen C. Weiser, Keith Aune, Brent Roeder, Mark Atkinson, Neil Anderson, Thomas J. Roffe, Kim A. Keating, Phillip L. Chapman, Cleon Kimberling, Jack C. Rhyan, P. Ryan Clarke

Response of western mountain ecosystems to climatic variability and change: A collaborative research approach

No abstract available.
Authors
David L. Peterson, Craig D. Allen, Jill S. Baron, Daniel B. Fagre, Donald McKenzie, Nathan L. Stephenson, Andrew G. Fountain, Jeffrey A. Hicke, George P. Malanson, Dennis S. Ojima, Christina L. Tague, Phillip J. van Mantgem

Contexts for change in alpine tundra

Because alpine tundra is responding to climate change, a need exists to understand the meaning of observed changes. To provide context for such interpretation, the relevance of niche and neutral theories of biogeography and the continuum and classification approaches to biogeographic description are assessed. Two extensive studies of alpine tundra, from the Indian Peaks area, Colorado and Glacier
Authors
George P. Malanson, Jonathan P. Rose, P. Jason Schroeder, Daniel B. Fagre