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: 1909
Cannibalistic-morph Tiger Salamanders in unexpected ecological contexts
Barred tiger salamanders [Ambystoma mavortium (Baird, 1850)] exhibit two trophic morphologies; a typical and a cannibalistic morph. Cannibalistic morphs, distinguished by enlarged vomerine teeth, wide heads, slender bodies, and cannibalistic tendencies, are often found where conspecifics occur at high density. During 2012 and 2013, 162 North Dakota wetlands and lakes were sampled for salamanders.
Authors
Kyle I. McLean, Craig A. Stockwell, David M. Mushet
A novel, non-removal method for closing drainage tile for ecological restorations
This article discussing the use of a new method and approach for closing tile for hydrological restorations without removal of the tile pipe and allows for more flexibility in restoration design.
Authors
Raymond Finocchiaro, Dave A. Azure, Michael A. Vargo
Environmental variability and population dynamics: Do European and North American ducks play by the same rules?
Density dependence, population regulation, and variability in population size are fundamental population processes, the manifestation and interrelationships of which are affected by environmental variability. However, there are surprisingly few empirical studies that distinguish the effect of environmental variability from the effects of population processes. We took advantage of a unique system,
Authors
Hannu Pöysä, Jukka Rintala, Douglas H. Johnson, Jukka Kauppinen, Esa Lammi, Thomas D. Nudds, Veli-Matti Väänänen
Do geographically isolated wetlands influence landscape functions?
Geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs), those surrounded by uplands, exchange materials, energy, and organisms with other elements in hydrological and habitat networks, contributing to landscape functions, such as flow generation, nutrient and sediment retention, and biodiversity support. GIWs constitute most of the wetlands in many North American landscapes, provide a disproportionately large fr
Authors
Matthew J. Cohen, Irena F. Creed, Laurie C. Alexander, Nandita Basu, Aram J.K. Calhoun, Christopher Craft, Ellen D’Amico, Edward S. DeKeyser, Laurie Fowler, Heather E. Golden, James W. Jawitz, Peter Kalla, L. Katherine Kirkman, Charles R. Lane, Megan Lang, Scott G. Leibowitz, David Bruce Lewis, John Marton, Daniel L. McLaughlin, David M. Mushet, Hadas Raanan-Kiperwas, Mark C. Rains, Lora Smith, Susan C. Walls
Taxonomic characterization of honey bee (Apis mellifera) pollen foraging based on non-overlapping paired-end sequencing of nuclear ribosomal loci
Identifying plant taxa that honey bees (Apis mellifera) forage upon is of great apicultural interest, but traditional methods are labor intensive and may lack resolution. Here we evaluate a high-throughput genetic barcoding approach to characterize trap-collected pollen from multiple North Dakota apiaries across multiple years. We used the Illumina MiSeq platform to generate sequence scaffolds fro
Authors
Robert S. Cornman, Clint R.V. Otto, Deborah D. Iwanowicz, Jeffery S Pettis
A guide for establishing restoration goals for contaminated ecosystems
As natural resources become increasingly limited, the value of restoring contaminated sites, both terrestrial and aquatic, becomes increasingly apparent. Traditionally, goals for remediation have been set before any consideration of goals for ecological restoration. The goals for remediation have focused on removing or limiting contamination whereas restoration goals have targeted the ultimate end
Authors
Anne M. Wagner, Diane L. Larson, Julie A. DalSoglio, James A. Harris, Paul Labus, Emma J. Rosi-Marshall, Krisin E. Skarbis
Evaluation of a formula that categorizes female gray wolf breeding status by nipple size
The proportion by age class of wild Canis lupus (Gray Wolf) females that reproduce in any given year remains unclear; thus, we evaluated the applicability to our long-term (1972–2013) data set of the Mech et al. (1993) formula that categorizes female Gray Wolf breeding status by nipple size and time of year. We used the formula to classify Gray Wolves from 68 capture events into 4 categories (year
Authors
Shannon M. Barber-Meyer, L. David Mech
White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawn risk from Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) predation during summer
Little is known about how often various prey animals are at risk of predation by Gray Wolves (Canis lupus). We used a system to monitor the presence during the day of two radio-collared Gray Wolves within 2 km of a radio-collared White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) with a fawn or fawns in August 2013 in the Superior National Forest of northeastern Minnesota. We concluded that the fawn or fa
Authors
L. David Mech, Aaron Morris, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer
Yellowstone wolf (Canis lupus) denisty predicted by elk (Cervus elaphus) biomass
The Northern Range (NR) of Yellowstone National Park (YNP) hosts a higher prey biomass density in the form of elk (Cervus elaphus L., 1758) than any other system of gray wolves (Canis lupus L., 1758) and prey reported. Therefore, it is important to determine whether that wolf–prey system fits a long-standing model relating wolf density to prey biomass. Using data from 2005 to 2012 after elk popula
Authors
L. David Mech, Shannon Barber-Meyer
Consolidation drainage and climate change may reduce Piping Plover habitat in the Great Plains
Many waterbird species utilize a diversity of aquatic habitats; however, with increasing anthropogenic needs to manage water regimes there is global concern over impacts to waterbird populations. The federally threatened Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus; hereafter plovers) is a shorebird that breeds in three habitat types in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Canada: ri
Authors
Lisa A. McCauley, Michael J. Anteau, Max Post van der Burg
Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) dyad monthly association rates by demographic group.
Preliminary data from GPS-collared wolves (Canis lupus) in the Superior National Forest of northeastern Minnesota indicated wolves had low association rates with packmates during summer. However, aerial-telemetry locations of very high frequency (VHF)-radioed wolves in this same area showed high associations among packmates during winter. We analyzed aerial-telemetry-location data from VHF-collare
Authors
Shannon M. Barber-Meyer, L. David Mech