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: 41756
Rangeland pitting for revegetation and annual weed control
On the GroundSoil pitting is an ancient technique for concentrating soil moisture to enable plant establishment and promote plant growth. It is especially effective in arid areas where plant establishment is limited by water availability.Pits created by digging and mounding action have been shown to be effective. Small pits made by soil compression are not very durable. Larger pits last longer and
Authors
Danielle Bilyeu Johnston, Rebecca K. Mann
Prairie dog responses to vector control and vaccination during an initial Yersinia pestis invasion
We evaluated the invasion of plague bacteria Yersinia pestis into a population of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus; BTPDs) in South Dakota. We aimed to ascertain if Y. pestis invaded slowly or rapidly, and to determine if vector (flea) control or vaccination of BTPDs assisted in increasing survival rates. We sampled BTPDs in 2007 (before Y. pestis documentation), 2008 (year of confi
Authors
David A. Eads, Dean E. Biggins, Shantini Ramakrishnan, Amanda R. Goldberg, Samantha L. Eads, Tonie E. Rocke
Saproxylic beetles' morphological traits and higher trophic guilds indicate boreal forest naturalness
Forests contribute to numerous ecosystem functions and services and contain a large proportion of terrestrial biodiversity, but they are being negatively impaced by anthropogenic activities. Forests that have never been clear-cut and have old growth characteristics, termed “near-natural,” often harbor different and richer species assemblages than managed forests. Alternative management strategies
Authors
Ross Wetherbee, Tone Birkemoe, Ryan C. Burner, Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson
Assessing the use of long-term lek survey data to evaluate the effect of landscape characteristics and wind facilities on sharp-tailed grouse lek dynamics in North Dakota and South Dakota
The contribution of renewable energy to meet worldwide demand continues to grow. In the United States, wind energy is one of the fastest growing renewable energy sectors. Throughout the Great Plains of the United States, wind facilities often are placed in open landscapes of high-elevation grasslands, and those same habitats support sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus), a resident gamebi
Authors
Jill A. Shaffer, Deborah A. Buhl, Wesley E. Newton
Relative effectiveness of a radionuclide (210Pb), surface elevation table (SET), and LiDAR at monitoring mangrove forest surface elevation change
Sea-level rise (SLR) is one of the greatest future threats to mangrove forests. Mangroves have kept up with or paced past SLR by maintaining their forest floor elevation relative to sea level through root growth, sedimentation, and peat development. Monitoring surface elevation change (SEC) or accretion rates allows us to understand mangrove response to SLR and prioritizes resilient ecosystems for
Authors
Richard A. MacKenzie, Ken Krauss, Nicole Cormier, Eugene Eperiam, Jan van Aardt, Ali Rouzbeh Kargar, Jessica Grow, J. Val Klump
Ecological benefits of integrative weed management of Melaleuca quinquenervia in Big Cypress National Preserve
The southern tip of North America coalesces into one of the world’s largest freshwater wetlands, the Everglades, Florida, USA. Though this region is much like an island, home to high biodiversity and endemism, it is also the site of a century of development and associated landscape-scale species invasions. Melaleuca quinquenervia (hereafter melaleuca), a tree native to tropical Australia, was plan
Authors
Melissa C. Smith, Paul Julien, Don DeAngelis, Bo Zhang
Co-production of models to evaluate conservation alternatives for a threatened fish in a rapidly changing landscape
Reintroductions are one means of managing species distributions, but the feasibility of such efforts is uncertain. Here we consider reintroduction for threatened bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) that currently occupy a small fraction of historically occupied habitats in the upper Klamath River basin owing to climate warming and human modifications of ecosystems. We engaged stakeholders across m
Authors
Joseph R. Benjamin, Jason B. Dunham, Nolan P. Banish, David K Hering, Zachary Tiemann
Strategic restoration planning for land birds in the Colorado River Delta, Mexico
Ecological restoration is an essential strategy for mitigating the current biodiversity crisis, yet restoration actions are costly. We used systematic conservation planning principles to design an approach that prioritizes restoration sites for birds and tested it in a riparian forest restoration program in the Colorado River Delta. Restoration goals were to maximize the abundance and diversity of
Authors
Joanna Grand, Timothy D Meehan, William V. Deluca, Julia Morton, Jennifer Pitt, Alejandra Calvo-Fonseca, Chris Dodge, Martha Gómez-Sapiens, Eduardo González Sargas, Osvel Hinojosa-Huerta, Pamela L. Nagler, Carlos Restrepo-Giraldo, Patrick B. Shafroth, Stefanny Villagomez-Palma, Chad B Wilsey
Perceived constraints to participating in wildlife-related recreation
Wildlife-related recreationists play an important role in conservation. Understanding constraints to wildlife-related activities is critical for maintaining or increasing participation in activities like birdwatching and hunting. A mail-out survey was administered to a generalized sample representative of U.S. residents (i.e., not specific to birdwatching or hunting) in early 2017 to determine wha
Authors
Nicholas Cole, Emily J. Wilkins, Kaylin Clements, Rudy Schuster, Ashley A. Dayer, H. W. Harshaw, David C. Fulton, Jennifer N. Duberstein, Andrew H. Raedeke
Do seeding and seedling planting result in similar restored plant communities?
AimsRestoration practitioners often face a tradeoff between low cost but risky seeding vs expensive but more reliable seedling planting to meet revegetation goals. Knowing under what environmental and management conditions direct seeding vs seedling planting benefit different species could improve restoration practice.MethodsWe compared seed emergence to planted-seedling survival among perennial h
Authors
Bradley J. Butterfield, Seth M. Munson
Bobcat occupancy, tree islands, and invasive Burmese pythons in an Everglades conservation area
Bobcats (Lynx rufus) are terrestrial mammals that also inhabit tree islands (i.e., topographically elevated patches of forested land) embedded in the subtropical Everglades wetlands, which serve as a dry refuge habitat during the wet season in this region of Florida, USA. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan seeks to restore Everglades water flow to pre-drainage conditions, but little is
Authors
Katherine M. Buckman, Laura D'Acunto, Stephanie Romanach, Rachel M. Taylor, Nathan J. Dorn
Decline in small mammal species richness in coastal-central California, 1997–2013
The richness and composition of a small mammal community inhabiting semiarid California oak woodland may be changing in response to climate change, but we know little about the causes or consequence of these changes. We applied a capture-mark-recapture model to 17 years (1997–2013) of live trapping data to estimate species-specific abundances. The big-eared woodrat was the most frequently captured
Authors
Yadav P. Ghimirey, William D. Tietje, Anne Y. Polyakov, James E. Hines, Madan K. Oli