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
Machine learned daily life history classification using low frequency tracking data and automated modelling pipelines: Application to North American waterfowl
BackgroundIdentifying animal behaviors, life history states, and movement patterns is a prerequisite for many animal behavior analyses and effective management of wildlife and habitats. Most approaches classify short-term movement patterns with high frequency location or accelerometry data. However, patterns reflecting life history across longer time scales can have greater relevance to species bi
Authors
Cory T. Overton, Michael L. Casazza, Joseph Bretz, Fiona McDuie, Elliott Matchett, Desmond Alexander Mackell, Austen Lorenz, Andrea Mott, Mark P. Herzog, Josh T. Ackerman
Long-term effects of prescribed fire on large tree growth in mixed conifer forests at Lassen Volcanic National Park, California
Prescribed fire in dry coniferous forests of the western U.S. is used to reduce fire hazards. How large, old trees respond to these treatments is an important management consideration. Growth is a key indicator of residual tree condition, which can be predictive of mortality and response to future disturbance. Using a combination of long-term plot records and dendrochronological samples, we analyz
Authors
Zachary Wenderott, Phillip J. van Mantgem, Micah C. Wright, Calvin A. Farris, Rosemary L. Sherriff
Abundance and productivity of Marbled Murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) off central California during the 2020 and 2021 breeding seasons
Marbled murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) have been listed as “endangered” by the State of California and “threatened” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 1992 in California, Oregon, and Washington. Information regarding marbled murrelet abundance, distribution, population trends, and habitat associations is critical for risk assessment, effective management, evaluation of conservation
Authors
Jonathan J. Felis, Josh Adams, Cheryl Horton, Emily C. Kelsey, Laney M. White
What common-garden experiments tell us about climate responses in plants
Common garden experiments are indoor or outdoor plantings of species or populations collected from multiple distinct geographic locations, grown together under shared conditions. These experiments examine a range of questions for theory and application using a variety of methods for analysis. The eight papers of this special feature comprise a cross section of contemporary approaches, summarized a
Authors
Susanne Schwinning, Christopher J. Lorti, Todd C. Esque, Lesley A. DeFalco
Invasion of annual grasses following wildfire corresponds to maladaptive habitat selection by a sagebrush ecosystem indicator species
Numerous wildlife species within semi-arid shrubland ecosystems across western North America are experiencing substantial habitat loss and fragmentation. These changes in habitat are often attributed to a diverse suite of factors including prolonged and increasingly severe droughts, conifer expansion, anthropogenic development, domestic and feral livestock grazing, and invasion of exotic annual gr
Authors
Brianne E. Brussee, Peter S. Coates, Shawn T. O'Neil, Michael L. Casazza, Shawn P. Espinosa, John D. Boone, Elisabeth M. Ammon, Scott C. Gardner, David J. Delehanty
Limits to reproduction and seed size-number trade-offs that shape forest dominance and future recovery
The relationships that control seed production in trees are fundamental to understanding the evolution of forest species and their capacity to recover from increasing losses to drought, fire, and harvest. A synthesis of fecundity data from 714 species worldwide allowed us to examine hypotheses that are central to quantifying reproduction, a foundation for assessing fitness in forest trees. Four ma
Authors
Tong Qiu, Robert Andrus, Marie-Claire Aravena Acuna, Davide Ascoli, Yves Bergeron, Roberta Berretti, Daniel Berveiller, Thomas Biovin, Raul Bonal, Don C. Bragg, Thomas Caignard, Rafael Calama, J. Julio Camarero, Chia-Huo Chang-Yang, Natalie L. Cleavitt, Benoit Courbaud, Francois Courbet, Thomas Curt, Adrian Das, Evangelia Daskalakou, Hendrik Davi, Nicolas Delpierre, Sylvain Delzon, Michael Dietze, Sergio Donoso Calderon, Laurent Dormont, Josep Maria Espelta, Timothy J. Fahey, William Farfan-Rios, Catherine A. Gehring, Gregory S. Gilbert, Georg Gratzner, Cathryn H. Greenberg, Qinfeng Guo, Andrew Hacket-Pain, Arndt Hampe, Qingmin Han, Janneke Hille Ris Lambers, Kazuhiko Hoshizaki, Ines Ibanez, Jill F. Johnstone, Valentin Journé, Daisuke Kabeya, Christopher L. Kilner, Thomas Kitzberger, Johannes M. H. Knops, Richard K. Kobe, Georges Kunstler, Hiroko Kurokawa, Jonathan G. A. Lageard, Jalene LaMontagne, Mateusz Ledwon, Francois Lefevre, Theodor Leininger, Jean-Marc Limousin, James A. Lutz, Diana Macias, Eliot J. B. McIntire, Christopher M. Moore, Emily V. Moran, Renzo Motta, Jonathan A. Myers, Thomas A. Nagel, Kyotaro Noguchi, Jean-Marc Ourcival, Robert Parmenter, Ian Pearse, Ignacio M. Perez-Ramos, Lukasz Piechnik, John Poulsen, Renata Poulton-Kamakura, Miranda Redmond, Chantal D. Reid, Kyle C. Rodman, Francisco Rodrigues-Sanchez, Javier Sanguinetti, C. Lane Scher, Wiliam H Schlesinger, Harald Schmidt Van Marle, Barbara Seget, Shubhi Sharma, Miles Silman, Michael A. Steele, Nathan L. Stephenson, Jacob N. Straub, I-Fang Sun, Samantha Sutton, Jennifer J. Swenson, Margaret Swift, Peter A. Thomas, Maria Uriarte, Giorgio Vacchiano, Thomas T. Veblen, Amy V. Whipple, Thomas G. Whitham, Andreas Wion, Boyd Wright, S. Joseph Wright, Kai Zhu, Jess Zimmermann, Roman Zlotin, Magdalena Zywiec, James S. Clark
Globally, tree fecundity exceeds productivity gradients
Lack of tree fecundity data across climatic gradients precludes the analysis of how seed supply contributes to global variation in forest regeneration and biotic interactions responsible for biodiversity. A global synthesis of raw seedproduction data shows a 250-fold increase in seed abundance from cold-dry to warm-wet climates, driven primarily by a 100-fold increase in seed production for a give
Authors
Valentin Journé, Robert A. Andrus, Marie-Claire Aravena Acuna, Davide Ascoli, Roberta Berretti, Daniel Berveiller, Michal Bogdziewicz, Thomas Boivin, Raul Bonal, Thomas Caignard, Rafael Calama, J. Julio Camarero, Chia-Hao Chang-Yang, Benoit Courbaud, Francois Courbet, Thomas Curt, Adrian Das, Evangelia Daskalakou, Hendrik Davi, Nicolas Delpierre, Sylvain Delzon, Michael Dietze, Sergio Donoso Calderon, Laurent Dormont, Josep Maria Espelta, Timothy J. Fahey, William Farfan-Rios, Catherine A. Gehring, Gregory S. Gilbert, Georg Gratzer, Cathryn H. Greenberg, Qinfeng Guo, Andrew Hacket-Pain, Arndt Hampe, Qingmin Han, Janneke Hille Ris Lambers, Kazuhiko Hoshizaki, Ines Ibanez, Jill F. Johnstone, Daisuke Kabeya, Roland Kays, Thomas Kitzberger, Johannes M. H. Knops, Richard K. Kobe, Georges Kunstler, Jonathan G. A. Lageard, Jalene M. LaMontagne, Theodor Leininger, Jean-Marc Limousin, James A. Lutz, Diana Macias, Eliot J. B. McIntire, Christopher M. Moore, Emily V. Moran, Renzo Motta, Jonathan A. Myers, Thomas A. Nagel, Kyotaro Noguchi, Jean-Marc Ourcival, Robert Parmenter, Ian Pearse, Ignacio M. Perez-Ramos, Lukasz Piechnik, John Poulsen, Renata Poulton-Kamakura, Tong Qiu, Miranda D. Redmond, Chantal D. Reid, Kyle C. Rodman, Francisco Rodriguez-Sanchez, Javier D Sanguinetti, C. Lane Scher, Harald Schmidt Van Marle, Barbara Seget, Shubhi Sharma, Miles Silman, Michael A. Steele, Nathan L. Stephenson, Jacob N. Straub, Jennifer J. Swenson, Margaret Swift, Peter A. Thomas, Maria Uriarte, Giorgio Vacchiano, Thomas T. Veblen, Amy V. Whipple, Thomas G. Whitham, Boyd Wright, S. Joseph Wright, Kai Zhu, Jess K. Zimmerman, Roman Zlotin, Magdalena Zywiec, James S. Clark
A novel herpesvirus detected in 3 different species of chelonians
Herpesviruses are found in free-living and captive chelonian populations, often in association with morbidity and mortality. To date, all known chelonian herpesviruses fall within the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae. We detected a novel herpesvirus in 3 species of chelonians: a captive leopard tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis) in western TX, USA; a steppe tortoise (Testudo [Agrionemys] horsfieldii) fo
Authors
John M. Winter, James F. X. Wellehan, Kathleen Apakupakul, Jamie Palmer, Maris Brenn-White, Kali Standorf, Kristin H. Berry, April L. Childress, Pete Koplos, Michael M. Garner, Sharon L. Deem
Range-wide persistence of the endangered arroyo toad (Anaxyrus californicus) for 20+ years following a prolonged drought
Prolonged drought due to climate change has negatively impacted amphibians in southern California, U.S.A. Due to the severity and length of the current drought, agencies and researchers had growing concern for the persistence of the arroyo toad (Anaxyrus californicus), an endangered endemic amphibian in this region. Range-wide surveys for this species had not been conducted for at least 20 years.
Authors
Cynthia Joan Hitchcock, Elizabeth Gallegos, Adam R. Backlin, Russell Barabe, Peter H. Bloom, Kimberly Boss, Cheryl S. Brehme, Christopher W. Brown, Denise Clark, Elizabeth R. Clark, Kevin Cooper, Julie Donnell, Edward L Ervin, Peter Famolaro, Kim M. Guilliam, Jaquelyn Hancock, Nicholas Hess, Steven Howard, Valerie Hubbartt, Patrick Lieske, Robert E. Lovich, Tritia Matsuda, Katherin Meyer-Wilkins, Kamarul Muri, Barry Nerhus, Jeffrey A. Nordland, Brock Ortega, Robert Packard, Ruben Ramirez, Sam C. IV Stewart, Samuel Sweet, Manna L. Warburton, Jeffrey Wells, Ryan Winkleman, Kirsten Winter, Brian Zitt, Robert N. Fisher
Spatial effects in relation to reproductive performance of Common Murres (Uria aalge) at a re-established colony
A main goal of seabird colony restoration is for the colony to become self-sustaining. To do so, elevated rates must be attained in (1) reproductive success and (2) recruitment by immigrants and birds produced at the colony. Thus, an understanding of the factors affecting reproductive success and recruitment at restoration sites is vital. We examined how spatial features at the colony level affect
Authors
Gerard J. McChesney, Julie L. Yee, Michael W. Parker, William M. Perry, Harry R. Carter, Richard T. Golightly, Stephen W. Kress
Fijian sea krait behavior relates to fine-scale environmental heterogeneity in old-growth coastal forest: The importance of integrated land–sea management for protecting amphibious animals
The importance of terrestrial coastal ecosystems for maintaining healthy coral reef ecosystems remains understudied. Sea kraits are amphibious snakes that require healthy coral reefs for foraging, but little is known about their requirements of terrestrial habitats, where they slough their skin, digest prey, and breed. Using concurrent microclimate measurements and behavior surveys, we show that a
Authors
Christopher G. Lowe, Gunnar Keppel, Kalisi Waqa, Stefan Peters, Robert N. Fisher, Annette Scanlon, Tamara Osborne-Naikatini, Nunia Thomas-Moko
Seed menus: An integrated decision-support framework for native plant restoration in the Mojave Desert
The combination of ecosystem stressors, rapid climate change, and increasing landscape-scale development has necessitated active restoration across large tracts of disturbed habitats in the arid southwestern United States. In this context, programmatic directives such as the National Seed Strategy for Rehabilitation and Restoration have increasingly emphasized improved restoration practices that p
Authors
Daniel F. Shryock, Lesley A. DeFalco, Todd C. Esque