Publications
Below is a list of WERC's peer-reviewed publications. If you are searching for a specific publication and cannot find it in this list, please contact werc_web@usgs.gov
Filter Total Items: 3617
Herbicide treatment of invasive Vinca major growing with endangered Galium buxifolium, an island endemic
Galium buxifolium E. Greene [Rubiaceae] (sea-cliff bedstraw) is a small shrub restricted to San Miguel and Santa Cruz Islands, in the California Channel Islands. Almost all of the 26 known populations grow on vertical north-facing sea cliffs in native scrub, sandwiched between the sea below and non-native annual grasslands on the terraces above. A notable exception is a popula?tion at Pelican Bay
Authors
Kathryn McEachern, Katie Chess, Karen Flagg, Ken Niessen, Owen, Thompson
Shifting environmental foundations: The unprecedented and unpredictable future: Chapter 4
As described in Chapter 2, protected area managers have been directed, through statutes and agency policy, to preserve natural conditions in parks and wilderness. Although preserving naturalness has always been a challenge for managers, there has never been much question about whether this is the right thing to do. But given what is known now about the pace and magnitude of ongoing global changes,
Authors
Nathan L. Stephenson, Constance I. Millar, David Cole
Responding to climate change: A toolbox of management strategies: Chapter 11
Climate change and its effects are writ large across the landscape and in the natural and cultural heritage of parks and wilderness. They always have been and always will be. The sculpted walls of Yosemite National Park and the jagged scenery of the Sierra Nevada wilderness would not be as spectacular if periods of glaciation had not been followed by periods of deglaciation. High biodiversity in f
Authors
David Cole, Nathan L. Stephenson, Constance I. Millar
PCB exposure in sea otters and harlequin ducks in relation to history of contamination by the Exxon Valdez oil spill
Exposure to contaminants other than petroleum hydrocarbons could confound interpretation of Exxon Valdez oil spill effects on biota at Prince William Sound, Alaska. Hence, we investigated polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in blood of sea otters and harlequin ducks sampled during 1998. PCB concentrations characterized by lower chlorinated congeners were highest in sea otters from the unoiled area, w
Authors
Mark A. Ricca, A. Keith Miles, Brenda E. Ballachey, James L. Bodkin, Daniel Esler, Kimberly A. Trust
When parasites become prey: ecological and epidemiological significance of eating parasites
Recent efforts to include parasites in food webs have drawn attention to a previously ignored facet of foraging ecology: parasites commonly function as prey within ecosystems. Because of the high productivity of parasites, their unique nutritional composition and their pathogenicity in hosts, their consumption affects both food-web topology and disease risk in humans and wildlife. Here, we evaluat
Authors
Pieter T.J. Johnson, Andrew P. Dobson, Kevin D. Lafferty, David J. Marcogliese, Jane Memmott, Sarah A. Orlofske, Robert Poulin, David W. Thieltges
Biosecurity Plan for Palmyra Atoll
This Biosecurity Plan for Palmyra Atoll was developed for The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Palmyra Program to refine and expand goals and objectives developed through the Conservation Action Plan process. The Biosecurity Plan is one in a series of adaptive management plans designed to achieve TNC's mission toward the protection and enhancement of native wildlife and habitat. The Biosecurity Plan focus
Authors
Stacie A. Hathaway, Robert N. Fisher
Mercury assessment and monitoring protocol for the Bear Creek Watershed, Colusa County, California
This report summarizes the known information on the occurrence and distribution of mercury (Hg) in physical/chemical and biological matrices within the Bear Creek watershed. Based on these data, a matrix-specific monitoring protocol for the evaluation of the effectiveness of activities designed to remediate Hg contamination in the Bear Creek watershed is presented. The monitoring protocol document
Authors
Thomas H. Suchanek, Roger L. Hothem, James J. Rytuba, Julie L. Yee
Organochlorine and PBDE concentrations in relation to cytochrome P450 activity in livers of Forster’s Terns (Sterna forsteri) and Caspian Terns (Hydroprogne caspia), in San Francisco Bay, California
We measured halogenated organic contaminants (HOCs) [polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT)] and P450 [e.g., ethoxyresorufin-O-dealkylase (EROD)] stress in livers from Caspian tern (Hydroprogne caspia) adults and Forster’s tern (Sterna forsteri) adults and chicks in San Francisco Bay (SFB). Penta BDEs and tetra PBDEs co
Authors
Garth Herring, Joshua T. Ackerman, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Terrence L. Adelsbach, Mark J. Melancon, Katie R. Stebbins, David J. Hoffman
Climate-induced tree mortality: Earth system consequences
One of the greatest uncertainties in global environmental change is predicting changes in feedbacks between the biosphere and the Earth system. Terrestrial ecosystems and, in particular, forests exert strong controls on the global carbon cycle and influence regional hydrology and climatology directly through water and surface energy budgets [Bonan, 2008; Chapin et al., 2008].According to new resea
Authors
Henry D. Adams, Alison K. Macalady, David D. Breshears, Craig D. Allen, Nathan L. Stephenson, Scott Saleska, Travis E. Huxman, Nathan G. McDowell
The heat is on: Desert tortoises and survival
Purpose: To highlight USGS scientists' research and build support for the work being done to help with desert tortoise recovery. To educate people about desert tortoises, their habitat needs, and what people might do to help. Length: 30 minutes
Authors
Stephen M. Wessells, Steven E. Schwarzbach
Microclimate and limits to photosynthesis in a diverse community of hypolithic cyanobacteria in northern Australia
Hypolithic microbes, primarily cyanobacteria, inhabit the highly specialized microhabitats under translucent rocks in extreme environments. Here we report findings from hypolithic cyanobacteria found under three types of translucent rocks (quartz, prehnite, agate) in a semiarid region of tropical Australia. We investigated the photosynthetic responses of the cyanobacterial communities to light, te
Authors
Christopher R. Tracy, Claire Streten-Joyce, Robert Dalton, Kenneth E. Nussear, Karen S. Gibb, Keith A. Christian
Considering native and exotic terrestrial reptiles in island invasive species eradication programmes in the Tropical Pacific
Most island restoration projects with reptiles, either as direct beneficiaries of conservation or as indicators of recovery responses, have been on temperate or xeric islands. There have been decades of research, particularly on temperate islands in New Zealand, on the responses of native reptiles to mammal eradications but very few studies in tropical insular systems. Recent increases in restorat
Authors
Richard N. Fisher