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
Intended consequences statement
As the biodiversity crisis accelerates, the stakes are higher for threatened plants and animals. Rebuilding the health of our planet will require addressing underlying threats at many scales, including habitat loss and climate change. Conservation interventions such as habitat protection, management, restoration, predator control, translocation, genetic rescue, and biological control have the pote
Authors
Ryan Phelan, Bridget Baumgartner, Stewart Brand, Evelyn Brister, Stanley W. Burgiel, R. Alta Charo, Isabelle Coche, Al Cofrancesco, Jason A. Delborne, Owain Edwards, Joshua P. Fisher, Martin Gaywood, Doria R. Gordon, Gregg Howald, Margaret Hunter, Peter Kareiva, Aditi Mankad, Michelle Marvier, Katherine Moseby, Andrew E. Newhouse, Ben J. Novak, Gerry Ohrstrom, Steven Olson, Megan J. Palmer, Stephen S. Palumbi, Neil Patterson, Miguel Pedrono, Francisco Pelegri, Yasha Rohwer, Oliver A. Ryder, J. Royden Saah, Robert M. Scheller, Philip J. Seddon, H. Bradley Shaffer, Beth Shapiro, Mike Sweeney, Mark R. Tercek, Delphine Thizy, Whitney Tilt, Michele Weber, Renee D. Wegrzyn, Bruce Whitelaw, Matthew Winkler, Josh Wodak, Mark Zimring, Paul Robbins
Plague transforms positive effects of precipitation on prairie dogs to negative effects
Rodents characteristically benefit from increased precipitation, especially in typically dry habitats; “good years” of high precipitation improve their forage and water balance. However, Yersinia pestis (plague), a flea-borne pathogen of mammals that was introduced to western North America, has the greatest negative impact on at least some species of rodents during years of above-average precipita
Authors
Dean E. Biggins, David A. Eads, Jerry L. Godbey
Heterotrophic respiration and the divergence of productivity and carbon sequestration
Net primary productivity (NPP) and net ecosystem production (NEP) are often used interchangeably, as their difference, heterotrophic respiration (soil heterotrophic CO2 efflux, RSH = NPP−NEP), is assumed a near-fixed fraction of NPP. Here, we show, using a range-wide replicated experimental study in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) plantations that RSH responds differently than NPP to fertilization and
Authors
Asko Noormets, Rosvel Bracho, Eric Ward, John Seiler, Brian Strahm, Wen Lin, Kristin McElligott, Jean-Christophe Domec, Carlos Gonzalez-Benecke, Eric J. Jokela, Daniel M. Markewitz, Cassandra Meek, Guofang Miao, Steve G. McNulty, John S. King, Lisa Samuelson, Ge Sun, Robert Teskey, Jason R. Vogel, Rodney E. Will, Jinyan Yang, Timothy A. Martin
Reply to comment by R. Parkinson on “Increasing rates of carbon burial in southwest Florida coastal wetlands” by J. Breithaupt et al.
Breithaupt et al. (2020) investigated why rates of organic carbon (OC) burial in coastal wetlands appear to increase over the past ∼120 years. After comparing dating methods and applying biogeochemical analyses, we concluded that neither dating method nor carbon degradation contribute to the observed trend. Rather, we concluded that OC burial has increased in the past century. Parkinson's (2021) C
Authors
Joshua L. Breithaupt, Joseph M. Smoak, Thomas S. Bianchi, Derrick Vaughn, Christian J. Sanders, Kara R. Radabaugh, Michael Osland, Laura Feher, James C. Lynch, Donald Cahoon, Gordon Anderson, Kevin R. T. Whelan, Brad E. Rosenheim, Ryan P. Moyer, Lisa G. Chambers
Gopherus Agassizii (Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise). Overwinter movement
No abstract available.
Authors
Kristy L. Cummings, Jeffrey E. Lovich, Shellie R. Puffer
Assessing the impact of an online climate science community: The Early Career Climate Forum
Online science communities can serve as powerful platforms for advancing scientific knowledge, capacity, and outreach by increasing collaboration and information sharing among geographically distant peers, practitioners, and the public. Here, we examine the value and role of the Early Career Climate Forum (ECCF), a climate-focused online science community that is based in the United States and is
Authors
Meaghan Guckian, Ezra Markowitz, Clay Tucker, Elsita Kiekebusch, Toni Klemm, Lindsey Middleton, Adrienne Wootten, Michelle Staudinger
Domoic acid and saxitoxin in seabirds in the United States between 2007 and 2018
As harmful algal blooms (HABs) increase in magnitude and duration worldwide, they are becoming an expanding threat to marine wildlife. Over the past decade, blooms of algae that produce the neurotoxins domoic acid (DA) and saxitoxin (STX) and documented concurrent seabird mortality events have increased bicoastally in the United States. We conducted a retrospective analysis of HAB related mortalit
Authors
Corinne Gibble, Raphael Kudela, Susan Knowles, Barbara Bodenstein, Kathi Lefebvre
Predicting the spatiotemporal exposure of aquatic species to intrusions of fire retardant in streams with limited data
Because fire retardant can enter streams and harm aquatic species including endangered fish, agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) must estimate the downstream extent of toxic effects every time fire retardant enters streams (denoted as an “intrusion”). A challenge in estimating the length of stream affected by the intrusion and the exposure time of species in the affected reach is the l
Authors
Chris R. Rehmann, P. Ryan Jackson, Holly J. Puglis
A climate risk management screening and assessment review for Madagascar’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy
Madagascar, a country rich in natural capital and biodiversity but with high levels of poverty, food insecurity, and population growth, faces a number of development challenges, including obtaining sustained financial support from external sources and building internal capacity to address the poor environmental, health, and socio-economic conditions. Climate change poses an increasing threat to ac
Authors
Janet Alice Cushing, Sarah R. Weiskopf, Toni Lyn Morelli, Bonnie Myers
Lake trout rehabilitation in Lake Ontario, 2020
Each year we report on the progress toward rehabilitation of the Lake Ontario lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) population, including the results of stocking, annual assessment surveys, creel surveys, and evidence of natural reproduction observed from standard surveys performed by USGS and NYSDEC. Response to the COVID-19 pandemic limited survey effort such that spring and summer bottom trawl sur
Authors
Brian F. Lantry, Brian C. Weidel, Scott P. Minihkeim, Michael J. Connerton, Jessica Goretzke, Dimitry Gorsky, Christopher Osborne
Status of siscowet lake trout in Lake Superior in 2017
No abstract available.
Authors
M. J. Seider, S. P. Sitar, Mark Vinson
Supporting the development and use of native plant materials for restoration on the Colorado Plateau (Fiscal Year 2020 Report)
A primary focus of the Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program (CPNPP) is to identify and develop appropriate native plant materials (NPMs) for current and future restoration projects. Multiple efforts have characterized the myriad challenges inherent in providing appropriate seed resources to enable effective, widespread restoration and have identified a broad suite of research activities to provid
Authors
Robert Massatti, Daniel E. Winkler, Sasha C. Reed, Michael C. Duniway, Seth M. Munson, John B. Bradford