Publications
This list of publications includes peer-review journal articles, official USGS publications series, reports and more authored by scientists in the Ecosystems Mission Area. A database of all USGS publications, with advanced search features, can be accessed at the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Filter Total Items: 41894
Golden Eagle dietary shifts following wildfire and shrub loss have negative consequences for nestling survivorship
Wildfires and invasive species have caused widespread changes in western North America’s shrub-steppe landscapes. The bottom–up consequences of degraded shrublands on predator ecology and demography remain poorly understood. We used a before–after paired design to study whether Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) diet and nestling survivorship changed following wildfires in southwestern Idaho, USA. W
Authors
Julie A. Heath, Michael N. Kochert, Karen Steenhof
Response to Gard et al.'s (2021) Comments on the Critical Review “Polychlorinated Biphenyl Tissue-Concentration Thresholds for Survival, Growth, and Reproduction in Fish”
This response is offered to the critique by Gard et al. (2021) of our meta-analysis of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-induced toxicity data in fish (Berninger and Tillitt 2019). Gard et al. (2021) offered numerous comments, the most substantive suggesting that 1) we should have added no-observable–adverse effect residue (NOAER) data from additional studies and all data points from selected studies
Authors
Jason P. Berninger, Donald E. Tillitt
Drivers of seedling establishment success in dryland restoration efforts
Restoration of degraded drylands is urgently needed to mitigate climate change, reverse desertification and secure livelihoods for the two billion people who live in these areas. Bold global targets have been set for dryland restoration to restore millions of hectares of degraded land. These targets have been questioned as overly ambitious, but without a global evaluation of successes and failures
Authors
Nancy Shackelford, Gustavo B. Paterno, Daniel E. Winkler, Todd E. Erickson, Elizabeth A. Leger, Lauren N. Svejcar, Martin F. Breed, Akasha M. Faist, Peter L. Harrison, Michael F. Curran, Qinfeng Guo, Anita Kirmer, Darin J. Law, Kevin Mganga, Seth M. Munson, Lauren M. Porensky, Raul Emiliano Quiroga, Péter Török, Claire E. Wainwright, Ali Abdullahi, Matt A. Bahm, Elizabeth A. Ballenger, Nichole Barger, Owen W. Baughman, Carina Becker, Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja, Chad S. Boyd, Carla M. Burton, Philip J. Burton, Eman Calleja, Peter J. Carrick, Alex Caruana, Charlie D. Clements, Kirk W. Davies, Balázs Deák, Jessica Drake, Sandra Dullau, Joshua Eldridge, Erin Espeland, Stephen E. Fick, Magda Garbowski, Enrique G. de la Riva, Peter J. Golos, Penelope A. Grey, Barry Heydenrych, Patricia M. Holmes, Jeremy J. James, Jayne Jonas-Bratten, Réka Kiss, Andrea T. Kramer, Julie E. Larson, Juan Lorite, C. Ellery Mayence, Luis Merino-Martín, Tamás Miglécz, Suanne Jane Milton, Thomas A. Monaco, Arlee M. Montalvo, Jose A. Navarro-Cano, Mark W. Paschke, Pablo Luis Peri, Monica L. Pokorny, Matthew J. Rinella, Nelmarie Saayman, Merilynn C. Schantz, Tina Parkhurst, Eric W. Seabloom, Katharine L. Stuble, Shauna M. Uselman, Orsolya Valkó, Kari E. Veblen, Scott D. Wilson, Megan Wong, Zhiwei Xu, Katharine L. Suding
Submerged aquatic vegetation habitat use of age-0 Florida bass Micropterus floridanus
Hatchery-raised, age-0 Florida bass Micropterus floridanus are commonly used for fish enhancement efforts to support popular recreational fisheries and are ecologically important as both a food source and consumer. Despite their importance and frequent use of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) habitats, critical information is lacking on the specific characteristics of SAV that influence habitat o
Authors
Audrey Looby, Laura K. Reynolds, Carrie R. Adams, Stephen Walsh, Charles W. Martin
Is the grass always greener? Land surface phenology reveals differences in peak and season-long vegetation productivity responses to climate and management
Vegetation phenology—the seasonal timing and duration of vegetative phases—is controlled by spatiotemporally variable contributions of climatic and environmental factors plus additional potential influence from human management. We used land surface phenology derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and climate data to examine variability in vegetation productivity and phenologica
Authors
David J. A. Wood, Scott Powell, Paul C. Stoy, Lindsey Thurman, Erik A. Beever
Mycobiome traits associated with disease tolerance predict many western North American bat species will be susceptible to white-nose syndrome
White-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease that has caused catastrophic population declines of bats in eastern North America, is rapidly spreading across the continent and now threatens previously unexposed bat species in western North America. The causal agent of WNS, the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, can infect many species of hibernating bats, but susceptibility to WNS varies by host sp
Authors
Karen J Vanderwolf, Lewis J. Campbell, Daniel R. Taylor, Tony L. Goldberg, David S. Blehert, Jeffrey M. Lorch
Ignitions explain more than climate or weather in driving Santa Ana Wind fires
Autumn and winter Santa Ana wind (SAW)–driven wildfires play a substantial role in area burned and societal losses in southern California. Temperature during the event and antecedent precipitation in the week or month prior play a minor role in determining area burned. Burning is dependent on wind intensity and number of human-ignited fires. Over 75% of all SAW events generate no fires; rather, fi
Authors
Jon Keeley, Janin Guzman-Morales, Alexander Gershunov, Alexandra D. Syphard, Daniel Cayan, David W Pierce, Michael Flannigan, Tim J Brown
Predicted distribution of a rare and understudied forest carnivore: Humboldt marten (Martes caurina humboldtensis)
Many mammalian species have experienced range contractions. Following a reduction in distribution that has resulted in apparently small and disjunct populations, the Humboldt marten (Martes caurina humboldtensis) was recently designated as federally Threatened and state Endangered. This subspecies of Pacific marten occurring in coastal Oregon and northern California, also known as coastal martens,
Authors
Katie Moriarty, Joel Thompson, Matthew Delheimer, Brent Barry, Mark Linnell, Taal Levi, Keith A. Hamm, Desiree A Early, Holly Gamblin, Micaela Szykman Gunther, Jordan Ellison, Janet S. Prevéy, Jennifer Hartman, Raymond J. Davis
Eagles enter rotor-swept zones of wind turbines at rates that vary per turbine
There is increasing pressure on wind energy facilities to manage or mitigate for wildlife collisions. However, little information exists regarding spatial and temporal variation in collision rates, meaning that mitigation is most often a blanket prescription. To address this knowledge gap, we evaluated variation among turbines and months in an aspect of collision risk—probability of entry by an ea
Authors
Christopher J.W. McClure, Brian W. Rolek, Melissa A. Braham, Tricia A. Miller, Adam E. Duerr, Jennifer D. McCabe, Leah Dunn, Todd Eli Katzner
Evaluation of dissolved carbon dioxide to stimulate emergence of red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii (Decapoda: Cambaridae) from infested ponds
Invasive crayfish have adverse effects on habitats and native species. Control of invasive crayfish populations is a major challenge facing natural resource managers. This study evaluated the effectiveness and optimal conditions for the control agent carbon dioxide (CO2) which can be diffused into water to facilitate capture of red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii; RSC). The efficacy of CO2 sho
Authors
Hisham Abdelrahman, Rebecca Gibson, Kaelyn Fogelman, Aaron R. Cupp, Ann Allert, James Stoeckel
Benthic and planktonic inorganic nutrient processing rates at the interface between a river and lake
The interface between lotic and lentic ecosystems is often a zone of intense metabolic activity, as primary production in streams and rivers can be light limited whereas nutrients often limit primary production in lake ecosystems. Our objective was to model the influence that rivermouths (the lotic-lentic interface) could have on the loads of soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) and dissolved inorgan
Authors
James H. Larson, Mary Anne Evans, Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Paul C. Frost, Marguerite A. Xenopoulos, William F. James, Paul Reneau
Response of forage plants to alteration of temperature and spring thaw date: Implications for geese in a warming Arctic
Changes in summer temperatures in Arctic Alaska have led to longer and warmer growing seasons over the last three decades. Corresponding with these changes in climate, the abundance and distributions of geese have increased and expanded over the same period. We used an experimental approach to assess the response of goose forage plants to simulated environmental change. We subjected Carex subspath
Authors
Paul L. Flint, Brandt W. Meixell