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
Alaska landbird montoring survey: Alaska regional protocol framework for monitoring landbirds using point counts
Alaska provides habitat for 143 species of landbirds that occur regularly in the state, about half of which breed predominantly north of the border between the contiguous United States and Canada. The road-based North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) provides some data on population trends in Alaska, but most northern populations are inadequately monitored by this program because of a paucity o
Authors
Colleen M. Handel, Steven M. Matsuoka, Melissa N. Cady, Diane A. Granfors
Using tree-rings to unravel avalanche frequency and associated climate drivers in the northern Rocky Mountains
No abstract available.
Authors
Erich Peitzsch
Reptile and amphibian diversity and abundance in an urban landscape: Impacts of fragmentation and the conservation value of small patches
Urbanization is a major contributor to habitat loss and fragmentation and is considered a global threat to biodiversity. We studied reptile and amphibian species diversity and abundance in a highly fragmented landscape adjacent to the second largest metropolitan area in the United States. Habitat patches in our study area were made up of remnant native vegetation surrounded by roads, housing, and
Authors
Kathleen Semple Delaney, Gary Busteed, Robert N. Fisher, Seth P D Riley
Perfluoroalkyl substances in plasma of smallmouth bass from the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu is an economically important sportfish and within the Chesapeake Bay watershed has experienced a high prevalence of external lesions, infectious disease, mortality events, reproductive endocrine disruption and population declines. To date, no clear or consistent associations with contaminants measured in fish tissue or surface water have been found. Therefore,
Authors
Vicki S. Blazer, Stephanie Gordon, Heather L. Walsh, Cheyenne R. Smith
Floral resource selection by wild bees and honey bees in the Midwest United States: Implications for designing pollinator habitat
Many seed mix recommendations for creating pollinator habitat are in part based on anecdotal evidence or field observations of bees visiting forbs (i.e. use). However, there is limited information on what forbs are preferred by bees, particularly in working landscapes where bee forage may be limited. We examined floral resource selection by wild bees and honey bees on grasslands in the Midwest usi
Authors
Stacy C. Simanonok, Clint R.V. Otto, Deborah A. Buhl
Genomic signatures of thermal adaptation are associated with clinal shifts of life history in a broadly distributed frog
Temperature is a critical driver of ectotherm life-history strategies, whereby a warmer environment is associated with increased growth, reduced longevity and accelerated senescence. Increasing evidence indicates that thermal adaptation may underlie such life-history shifts in wild populations. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and copy number variants (CNVs) can help uncover the molecular me
Authors
Hugo Cayuela, Yann Dorant, Brenna R. Forester, Dan L Jeffries, Rebecca McCaffery, Lisa A Eby, Blake R. Hossack, Jérôme M W Gippet, David Pilliod, W Chris Funk
The contribution of land cover change to the decline of honey yields in the Northern Great Plains
Decreased availability of forage, as well as increased pesticide exposure, are important factors in the decline of honey bee health. Here, we isolate land cover transitions and their effect on honey production at 160 commercial apiaries in the Northern Great Plains. We found that land cover changes from 2008 to 2012 caused an annual decline in honey yields of 0.9% in the study area. Transitions fr
Authors
David Smith, Amélie Y. Davis, Claudia Hitaj, Dan Hellerstein, Amanda Preslicka, Emma Kirkpatrick, David M. Mushet, Eric Lonsdorf
Ten simple rules for productive lab meetings
The aim of this article is to delineate 10 simple rules on how to achieve productive lab meetings. We use the term “meeting” interchangeably to represent both the single meeting event and the overarching concept of the recurring meeting. In this article we speak from our experience, as a lab group at the University of Massachusetts that meets regularly (Fig 1). Although the rules are mostly tailor
Authors
Nigel Golden, Kadambari Devarajan, Cathleen Balantic, Joseph Drake, Michael T. Hallworth, Toni Lyn Morelli
Transient disease dynamics across ecological scales
Analyses of transient dynamics are critical to understanding infectious disease transmission and persistence. Identifying and predicting transients across scales, from within-host to community-level patterns, plays an important role in combating ongoing epidemics and mitigating the risk of future outbreaks. Moreover, greater emphases on non-asymptotic processes will enable timely evaluations of wi
Authors
Yun Tao, Jessica L Hite, Kevin D. Lafferty, David J D Earn, Nita Bharti
Enhancing Great Lakes coastal ecosystems research by initiating engagement between scientists and decision-makers
A disconnect between scientific research and environmental management communities can be a detriment to both. In the case of Great Lakes coastal ecosystems, which are inherently complex and subject to uncertain effects of future climatic, environmental, and anthropogenic drivers, greater collaboration could be beneficial to their sustainability. We capture the challenges and opportunities identifi
Authors
Charlotte B. Weinstein, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez, S. L. Martin, W. S. Currie, K. Grantham, Q. F. Hamlin, David W Hyndman, Kurt P. Kowalski, J. P. Martina, D. Pearsall
Long-term shedding from fully convalesced individuals indicates that Pacific herring are a reservoir for viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus
Processes that allow viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) virus to persist in the marine environment remain enigmatic, owing largely to the presence of covert and cryptic infections in marine fishes during typical sub-epizootic periods. As such, marine host reservoirs for VHS virus have not been fully demonstrated, nor have the mechanism(s) by which infected hosts contribute to virus perpetuation an
Authors
Paul Hershberger, Ashley MacKenzie, Jacob L. Gregg, M. D. Wilmot, Rachel L. Powers, Maureen K. Purcell