Publications
USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center staff publish results of their research in USGS series reports and in peer-reviewed journals. Publication links are below. Information on all USGS publications can be found at the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Filter Total Items: 1907
The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
The key to Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) management is providing open grasslands with scattered trees and shrubs for foraging, nesting, and perching. Loggerhead Shrikes have been reported to use habitats with 20–266 centimeters (cm) vegetation height, greater than or equal to (≥) 10 percent grass cover, 3–48 percent forb cover, 2–25 percent shrub cover, 3–40 percent bare ground, and 11–6
Authors
Lawrence D. Igl, Jill A. Shaffer, Douglas H. Johnson, Marriah L. Sondreal, Christopher M. Goldade, Melvin P. Nenneman, Amy L. Zimmerman, Jason P. Thiele, Betty R. Euliss
The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus)
Keys to Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) management are providing large areas of suitable habitat (for example, native or tame grasslands of moderate vegetative height and density, low shrub density, and moderate litter and forb cover), and protecting nesting habitat from disturbance during the breeding season. Bobolinks have been reported to use habitats with 10–166 centimeters (cm) average veget
Authors
Jill A. Shaffer, Lawrence D. Igl, Douglas H. Johnson, Marriah L. Sondreal, Christopher M. Goldade, Amy L. Zimmerman, Travis L. Wooten, Betty R. Euliss
Assessing the use of long-term lek survey data to evaluate the effect of landscape characteristics and wind facilities on sharp-tailed grouse lek dynamics in North Dakota and South Dakota
The contribution of renewable energy to meet worldwide demand continues to grow. In the United States, wind energy is one of the fastest growing renewable energy sectors. Throughout the Great Plains of the United States, wind facilities often are placed in open landscapes of high-elevation grasslands, and those same habitats support sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus), a resident gamebi
Authors
Jill A. Shaffer, Deborah A. Buhl, Wesley E. Newton
Practical guide to measuring wetland carbon pools and fluxes
Wetlands cover a small portion of the world, but have disproportionate influence on global carbon (C) sequestration, carbon dioxide and methane emissions, and aquatic C fluxes. However, the underlying biogeochemical processes that affect wetland C pools and fluxes are complex and dynamic, making measurements of wetland C challenging. Over decades of research, many observational, experimental, and
Authors
Sheel Bansal, Irena F. Creed, Brian Tangen, Scott D. Bridgham, Ankur R. Desai, Ken Krauss, Scott C Neubauer, Gregory Noe, Donald O. Rosenberry, Carl C. Trettin, Kimberly Wickland, Scott T. Allen, Ariane Arias-Ortiz, Anna R. Armitage, Dennis Baldocchi, Kakoli Banerjee, David Bastviken, Peter Berg, Matthew J. Bogard, Alex T. Chow, William H. Conner, Christopher Craft, Courtney Creamer, Tonya Delsontro, Jamie Duberstein, Meagan J. Eagle, M. Siobhan Fennessey, Sarah A. Finkelstein, Mathias Goeckede, Sabine Grunwald, Meghan Halibisky, Ellen R. Herbert, Mohammad Jahangir, Olivia Johnson, Miriam C. Jones, Jeffrey Kelleway, Sarah Knox, Kevin D. Kroeger, Kevin Kuehn, David Lobb, Amanda Loder, Shizhou Ma, Damien Maher, Gavin McNicol, Jacob Meier, Beth A. Middleton, Christopher T. Mills, Purbasha Mistry, Abhijith Mitra, Courtney Mobilian, Amanda M. Nahlik, Sue Newman, Jessica O'Connell, Patty Oikawa, Max Post van der Burg, Charles A Schutte, Chanchung Song, Camille Stagg, Jessica Turner, Rodrigo Vargas, Mark Waldrop, Markus Wallin, Zhaohui Aleck Wang, Eric Ward, Debra A. Willard, Stephanie A. Yarwood, Xiaoyan Zhu
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center , Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
Fire regime shapes butterfly communities through changes in nectar resources in an Australian tropical savanna
Fire-dependent savanna provides key habitat for butterflies globally, but we know little about how fire regimes, including fire frequency and season, affect them. These impacts are likely to be primarily indirect, through changes in overall habitat structure, the abundance of larval host plants, and/or the provision of nectar resources for adults. We examined the relationships among fire regime, b
Authors
Julia B. Leone, Diane L. Larson, Anna E. Richards, Jon Schatz, Alan N. Andersen
Movement dynamics influence population monitoring and adaptive harvest management strategies in migratory birds
Informed population monitoring efforts are essential for sound management of harvested species, and adaptive strategies that provide detailed information to monitoring efforts often require data inputs from complimentary sources. Movement ecology information is seldom directly incorporated into population monitoring or adaptive harvest management strategies, yet can provide valuable information on
Authors
Jay Alan VonBank, Daniel P. Collins, Kristen S. Ellis, J. Patrick Donnelly, Jeffrey M. Knetter
Lipid metabolites index habitat quality for Canvasbacks on stopover areas during spring migration
Nutrients acquired by ducks on spring migratory stopover areas influence survival and subsequent reproduction. Accordingly, wetland loss and degradation on stopover areas can lead to reduced refueling efficiency and have demographic consequences. Lipid metabolite concentrations in blood provide a useful index of daily mass change in wild birds and can be used to make inferences about quality of st
Authors
Andrew Bouton, Michael J. Anteau, Eric J. Smith, Heath Hagy, Joseph Lancasster, Christopher Jacques
Factors influencing autumn–winter movements of midcontinent Mallards and consequences for harvest and habitat management
Annual phenology and distributions of migratory wildlife have been noticeably influenced by climate change, leading to concerns about sustainable populations. Recent studies exploring conditions influencing autumn migration departure have provided conflicting insights regarding factors influencing the movements of Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), a popular game species. We determined factors affecti
Authors
Aaron T. Pearse, M. Szymanski, Cynthia A. Anchor, Michael J. Anteau, Rocco Murano, David A. Brandt, Joshua D. Stafford
Submersed macrophyte density regulates aquatic greenhouse gas emissions
Shallow freshwater ecosystems emit large amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), yet emissions are highly variable. The role that aquatic macrophytes play in regulating aquatic GHG emissions is uncertain despite their ability to dominate shallow waterbodies. Here, we studied the effects of submersed macrophyte (Ceratophyllum demersum) density on CO2 and
Authors
Meredith E. Theus, Nicholas E. Ray, Sheel Bansal, Meredith A. Holgerson
Climate-induced shifts in grassland bird nesting phenology have implications for grassland management
Grasslands are among the most impacted ecosystems globally. In the midcontinent of North America, a > 80% loss of grasslands has made their conservation a major priority for resource managers. Grassland ecosystems evolved under periodic disturbances; consequently, grassland management often involves regular actions such as grazing, haying, or burning to maintain ecosystem integrity. The timing of
Authors
Michael J. Anteau, Kristen S. Ellis, Garrett J. MacDonald, Lawrence Igl, Neal D. Niemuth, Josh Vest
Scenario-Based Decision Analysis: Integrated scenario planning and structured decision making for resource management under climate change
Managing resources under climate change is a high-stakes and daunting task, especially because climate change and associated complex biophysical responses engender sustained directional changes as well as abrupt transformations. This environmental non-stationarity challenges assumptions and expectations among scientists, managers, rights holders, and stakeholders. These challenges are anything but
Authors
Brian W. Miller, Mitchell Eaton, Amy Symstad, Gregor W. Schuurman, Imtiaz Rangwala, William R. Travis
Reimagining large river management using the Resist–Accept–Direct (RAD) framework in the Upper Mississippi River
BackgroundLarge-river decision-makers are charged with maintaining diverse ecosystem services through unprecedented social-ecological transformations as climate change and other global stressors intensify. The interconnected, dendritic habitats of rivers, which often demarcate jurisdictional boundaries, generate complex management challenges. Here, we explore how the Resist–Accept–Direct (RAD) fra
Authors
Nicole K. Ward, Abigail Lynch, Erik A. Beever, Joshua Booker, Kristen L. Bouska, Holly Susan Embke, John F. Kocik, Joshua Kocik, Mary Grace T. Lemon, David J. Lawrence, Douglas Limpinsel, Madeline Magee, Bryan M. Maitland, Owen P. McKenna, Andrew R. Meier, John M. Morton, Jeffrey Muehlbauer, Robert Newman, Devon C. Oliver, Heidi M. Rantala, Greg G. Sass, Aaron D. Shultz, Laura Thompson, Jennifer L. Wilkening