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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: 41758

Cross-continental evaluation of landscape-scale drivers and their impacts to fluvial fishes: Understanding frequency and severity to improve fish conservation in Europe and the United States

Fluvial fishes are threatened globally from intensive human landscape stressors degrading aquatic ecosystems. However, impacts vary regionally, as stressors and natural environmental factors differ between ecoregions and continents. To date, a comparison of fish responses to landscape stressors over continents is lacking, limiting understanding of consistency of impacts and hampering efficiencies
Authors
Maria M. Üblacker, Dana M. Infante, Arthur R. Cooper, Wesley M. Daniel, Stefan Schmutz, Rafaela Schinegger

Thermography captures the differential sensitivity of dryland functional types to changes in rainfall event timing and magnitude

Drylands of the southwestern United States are rapidly warming, and rainfall is becoming less frequent and more intense, with major yet poorly understood implications for ecosystem structure and function. Thermography-based estimates of plant temperature can be integrated with air temperature to infer changes in plant physiology and response to climate change. However, very few studies have evalua
Authors
Mostafa Javadian, Russell L. Scott, Joel A. Biederman, Fangyue Zhang, Joshua B. Fisher, Sasha C. Reed, Daniel L. Potts, Miguel L. Villarreal, Andrew F. Feldman, William K. Smith

Stakeholder attitudes and perspectives on wildlife disease surveillance as a component of a One Health approach in Thailand

Coordinated wildlife disease surveillance (WDS) can help professionals across disciplines effectively safeguard human, animal, and environmental health. The aims of this study were to understand how WDS in Thailand is utilized, valued, and can be improved within a One Health framework. An online questionnaire was distributed to 183 professionals (55.7% response rate) across Thailand working in wil
Authors
Serena Elise George, Moniek Smink, Nareerat Sangkachai, Anuwat Wiratsudakul, Walasinee Sakcamduang, Sarin Suwanpakdee, Jonathan M. Sleeman

Dissolved organic carbon dynamics and fluxes in Mississippi-Atchafalaya deltaic system impacted by an extreme flood event and hurricanes: A multi-satellite approach using Sentinel-2/3 and Landsat-8/9 data

Transport of riverine and wetland-derived dissolved organic carbon (DOC) spanning tidal wetlands, estuaries, and continental shelf waters functionally connects terrestrial and aquatic carbon reservoirs, yet the magnitude and ecological significance of this variable and its spatiotemporal linkage remains uncertain for coastal deltaic regions, such as Mississippi River Delta Plain, which includes Mi
Authors
Bingqing Liu, Eurico J. D'Sa, Francesca Messina, Melissa Millman Baustian, Kanchan Maiti, Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Wei Huang, Ioannis Y. Georgiou

BioLake: A first assessment of lake temperature-derived bioclimatic predictors for aquatic invasive species

Aquatic invasive species (AIS) present major ecological and economic challenges globally, endangering ecosystems and human livelihoods. Managers and policy makers thus need tools to predict invasion risk and prioritize species and areas of concern, and they often use native range climate matching to determine whether a species could persist in a new location. However, climate matching for AIS ofte
Authors
Ryan C. Burner, Wesley Daniel, Peder S. Engelstad, Christopher J. Churchill, Richard A. Erickson

Sensitivity of North American grassland birds to weather and climate variability

Grassland birds in North America have experienced sharp declines over the last 60 years driven by the widespread loss and degradation of grassland habitats. In recent decades, modern climate change has amplified these pressures. Climate change is occurring more rapidly in grasslands relative to some other ecosystems, and exposure to extreme and novel climate conditions may affect grassland bird ec
Authors
Scott Maresh Nelson, Christine Ribic, Neal D. Niemuth, Jacy Bernath-Plaisted, Benjamin Zuckerberg

Successful eradication of invasive American bullfrogs leads to coextirpation of emerging pathogens

Interventions of the host–pathogen dynamics provide strong tests of relationships, yet they are still rarely applied across multiple populations. After American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) invaded a wildlife refuge where federally threatened Chiricahua leopard frogs (R. chiricahuensis) were reintroduced 12 years prior, managers launched a landscape-scale eradication effort to help ensure continue
Authors
Blake R. Hossack, David L. Hall, Catherine L. Crawford, Caren S. Goldberg, Erin L. Muths, Brent H. Sigafus, Thierry Chambert

Considering pollinators' ecosystem services in the remediation and restoration of contaminated lands: Overview of research and its gaps

The concept of ecosystem services provides a useful framework for understanding how people are affected by changes to the natural environment, such as when a contaminant is introduced (e.g., oil spills, hazardous substance releases) or, conversely, when contaminated lands are remediated and restored. Pollination is one example of an important ecosystem service; pollinators play a critical role in
Authors
James Meldrum, Diane L. Larson, Timothy B. Hoelzle, Jo Ellen Hinck

Apparent discrepancies in the review “Avian host range of Chlamydophila spp. based on isolation, antigen detection and serology” by Kaleta, E.F. & Taday, E.M.A. (2003), Avian Pathology, 32, 435–462

Citing published reports and their own diagnostic data, Kaleta and Taday (Citation2003) (https://doi.org/10.1080/03079450310001593613) reported that 469 domestic and free-living bird species were determined to be chlamydia-positive, based on isolation of the organism and antigen detection or on serological detection of circulating antibodies. However, I was unable to reconcile the designation of c
Authors
J. Christian Franson

Wildfire immediately reduces nest and adult survival of greater sage-grouse

Wildfire events are becoming more frequent and severe on a global scale. Rising temperatures, prolonged drought, and the presence of pyrophytic invasive grasses are contributing to the degradation of native vegetation communities. Within the Great Basin region of the western U.S., increasing wildfire frequency is transforming the ecosystem toward a higher degree of homogeneity, one dominated by in
Authors
Emily (Emmy) A Tyrrell, Peter S. Coates, Brian G. Prochazka, Brianne E. Brussee, Shawn P. Espinosa, Joshua M. Hull

Changes in abiotic drivers of green sea urchin demographics following the loss of a keystone predator

Sea urchin population demographics can respond to changes in keystone species abundances, with the magnitude of these responses varying depending on environmental influences. In this study, sea urchin populations were surveyed across 15 Aleutian archipelago islands over a 30-year period to understand how patterns of sea urchin demography (density, biomass, and size structure) varied through differ
Authors
Ben P. Weitzman, B. Konar, M. S. Edwards, D. B. Rasher, Michael C. Kenner, M. T. Tinker, J. A. Estes

Supporting the development and use of native plant materials for restoration on the Colorado Plateau (Fiscal Year 2022 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