Publications
Browse more than 150,000 publications authored by our scientists over the past 100+ year history of the USGS. Publications available are: USGS-authored journal articles, series reports, book chapters, other government publications, and more.
Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center Publications
Filter Total Items: 3234
Early generation hybrids may drive range expansion of two invasive fishes
1. Introgressive hybridization between two invasive species has the potential to contribute to their invasion success and provide genetic resiliency to rapidly adapt to new environments. Additionally, differences in the behaviour of hybrids may lead to deleterious ecosystem effects that compound any negative impacts of the invading parental species.
2. Invasive silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys m
Authors
Alison A. Coulter, Marybeth K. Brey, James T. Lamer, Gregory W. Whitledge, James E. Garvey
The status of mussel health assessment and a path forward
Declines of freshwater mussel (order Unionida) populations worldwide are attributed to habitat degradation, pollution, and invasive species, among other factors. However, these purported causes do not fully explain the enigmatic decline and large-scale die-offs of mussels that have occurred in assumedly “healthy” streams across a wide geographic region. The roles of the microbiota and pathogens in
Authors
Diane L. Waller, Greg Cope
A novel picorna-like virus in a Wabash Pigtoe (Fusconaia flava) from the upper Mississippi River, USA
Unionid mussels are threatened by multiple environmental stressors and have experienced mass mortality events over the last several decades, but the role of infectious disease in unionid health and population declines remains poorly understood. Although several microbial agents have been found in unionids, to date only one virus has been documented—Lea plague virus (Arenaviridae) in propagated Tri
Authors
Tony Goldberg, Christopher N. Dunn, Eric Leis, Diane L. Waller
A comparison of bacteria cultured from unionid mussel hemolymph between stable populations in the upper Mississippi River and a mortality event in the Clinch River
The diagnosis of bacterial disease in freshwater unionid mussels has been hindered by a lack of baseline information regarding the microbial communities associated with these animals. In this study, we cultured and identified bacteria from the hemolymph of stable mussel populations from the upper Mississippi River basin and compared results to those from mussel populations experiencing a mortality
Authors
Eric Leis, Sarah Erickson, Diane L. Waller, Jordan Richard, Tony Goldberg
Is the timing, pace and success of the monarch migration associated with sun angle?
A basic question concerning the monarch butterfly’s fall migration is which monarchs succeed in reaching overwintering sites in Mexico, which fail—and why. We document the timing and pace of the fall migration, ask whether the sun’s position in the sky is associated with the pace of the migration, and whether timing affects success in completing the migration. Using data from the Monarch Watch tag
Authors
Orley R. Taylor, James P Lovett, David L Gibo, Emily L. Weiser, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Darius J. Semmens, James E. Diffendorfer, John M. Pleasants, Samuel Pecoraro, Ralph Grundel
Estimating the degree to which distance and temperature differences drive changes in fish community composition over time in the upper Mississippi River
Similarity in community composition declines as distance between locations increases, a phenomenon that has been observed in a wide variety of freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems. One driver of the distance-similarity relationship is the presence of environmental gradients that alter the suitability of sites for particular species. Although some environmental gradients, such as geology
Authors
James H. Larson, Jonathan M. Vallazza, Brent C. Knights
Watershed geomorphology modifies the sensitivity of aquatic ecosystem metabolism to temperature
How carbon cycles are regulated by environmental temperature remains a substantial uncertainty in our understanding of how watersheds will respond to ongoing climate change. Aquatic ecosystems are important components of carbon flux to the atmosphere and ocean, yet we have limited understanding of how temperature modifies ecosystem metabolic processes and, therefore, aquatic contributions to carbo
Authors
Kathi Jo Jankowski, Daniel E. Schindler
Updates to the Madison Lake (Minnesota) CE–QUAL–W2 water-quality model for assessing algal community dynamics
A previously developed CE–QUAL–W2 model for Madison Lake, Minnesota, simulated the algal community dynamics, water quality, and fish habitat suitability of Madison Lake under recent (2014) meteorological conditions. Additionally, this previously developed model simulated the complex interplay between external nutrient loading, internal nutrient loading from sediment release of phosphorus, and the
Authors
Erik A. Smith, Richard L. Kiesling
Prioritizing chemicals of ecological concern in Great Lakes tributaries using high-throughput screening data and adverse outcome pathways
Chemical monitoring data were collected in surface waters from 57 Great Lakes tributaries from 2010-13 to identify chemicals of potential biological relevance and sites at which these chemicals occur. Traditional water-quality benchmarks for aquatic life based on in vivo toxicity data were available for 34 of 67 evaluated chemicals. To expand evaluation of potential biological effects, measured ch
Authors
Steven R. Corsi, Laura A. DeCicco, Daniel L. Villeneuve, Brett Blackwell, Kellie Fay, Gerald Ankley, Austin K. Baldwin
Decline of the North American avifauna
Species extinctions have defined the global biodiversity crisis, but extinction begins with loss in abundance of organisms that can result in extreme compositional and functional changes of ecosystems. Using multiple and independent monitoring networks, we report major population losses across much of the North American avifauna, including in once common species and from nearly every biome. Integr
Authors
John R. Sauer, Kenneth V. Rosenberg, Adriaan M. Dokter, Peter J. Blancher, Adam C. Smith, Paul A. Smith, Jessica C. Stanton, Arvind O. Panjabi, Laura Helft, Michael J. Parr, Peter P. Marra
Stormwater-quality performance of line permeable pavement systems
Three permeable pavements were evaluated for their ability to improve the quality of stormwater runoff over a 22-month period in Madison, Wisconsin. Using a lined system with no internal water storage, permeable interlocking concrete pavers (PICP), pervious concrete (PC), and porous asphalt (PA) were able to significantly remove sediment and sediment-bound pollutant loads from runoff originating f
Authors
William R. Selbig, Nicolas Buer, Mari Danz
Exploring silica stoichiometry on a large floodplain riverscape
Freshwater ecosystems are critical zones of nutrient and carbon (C) processing along the land-sea continuum. Relative to our understanding of C, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) cycling within the freshwater systems, the controls on silicon (Si) cycling and export are less understood. Understanding Si biogeochemistry and its coupled biogeochemical processing with N and P has direct implications fo
Authors
Joanna C. Carey, Kathi Jo Jankowski, Paul Julian, Lienne Sethna, Patrick Thomas, Jason J. Rohweder