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: 41778
Know what you don't know: Embracing state uncertainty in disease-structured multistate models
Hidden Markov models (HMMs) are broadly applicable hierarchical models that derive their utility from separating state processes from observation processes yielding the data. Multistate models such as mark–recapture and dynamic multistate occupancy models are HMMs frequently used in ecology. In their early formulations, states, such as pathogen infection status, were assumed to be perfectly observ
Authors
Matthijs Hollanders, Andy Royle
A characterization of the deep-sea coral and sponge community along the California, Oregon, and Washington coasts using a remotely operated vehicle on the EXPRESS 2019 expedition
NOAA’s Deep-Sea Coral Research Technology Program (DSCRTP) began a 4-year funding initiative for the U.S. West Coast in 2018. The goals of the West Coast Deep-Sea Coral Initiative were to: 1) gather baseline information on DSCS in areas subject to fishing regulation changes prior to the implementation of Amendment 28; 2) improve our understanding of known DSCS bycatch “hot spots”; and 3) explore a
Authors
Tom Laidig, Diana Watters, Nancy G. Prouty, Meredith Everett, Lizzie Duncan, Liz Clarke, Chris Caldow, Jill Bourque, Jennifer McClain Counts, Amanda Demopoulos
Are canned sardines or dry cat food more effective as bait for capturing Northwestern Pond Turtles (Actinemys marmorata) and Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans)?
During an occupancy study of Northwestern Pond Turtles (Actinemys marmorata) and Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) in California’s Sacramento Valley in 2018, we tested the relative effectiveness of 2 bait types: sardines packed in soybean oil and Meow Mix® Original Choice dry cat food. We sampled 116 sites with 2 traps each: one baited with sardines and one baited with dry cat food. Sa
Authors
Alexandria M Fulton, Jonathan P. Rose, Brian J. Halstead
An evaluation of transmitter effects on adult and juvenile Common Terns using leg-loop harness attachments
Marking birds with transmitters allows for the collection of data that are critical for fully understanding avian life history, but researchers must also be confident that performing such studies is as safe as possible for transmittered individuals. While much could be learned from tracking juveniles across dependency periods and first migration, doing so would require a harness-based attachment m
Authors
Evan J Buck, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Claire S. Teitelbaum, David F. Brinker, Peter C. McGowan, Diann Prosser
Observed and forecasted changes in land use by polar bears in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, 1985–2040
Monitoring changes in the distribution of large carnivores is important for managing human safety and supporting conservation. Throughout much of their range, polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are increasingly using terrestrial habitats in response to Arctic sea ice decline. Their increased presence in coastal areas has implications for bear-human conflict, inter-species interactions, and polar bear h
Authors
Karyn D. Rode, David C. Douglas, Todd C. Atwood, George M. Durner, Ryan R. Wilson, Anthony M. Pagano
Evolutionary ecology of fire
Fire has been an ecosystem process since plants colonized land over 400 million years ago. Many diverse traits provide a fitness benefit following fires, and these adaptive traits vary with the fire regime. Some of these traits enhance fire survival, while others promote recruitment in the postfire environment. Demonstrating that these traits are fire adaptations is challenging, since many arose e
Authors
Jon Keeley, Juli G. Pausas
Modeled distribution shifts of North American birds over four decades based on suitable climate alone do not predict observed shifts
As climate change alters the global environment, it is critical to understand the relationship between shifting climate suitability and species distributions. Key questions include whether observed changes in population abundance are aligned with the velocity and direction of shifts predicted by climate suitability models and if the responses are consistent among species with similar ecological tr
Authors
Qiongyu Huang, Brooke L. Bateman, Nicole Michel, Anna M. Pidgeon, Voelker C. Radeloff, Patrician Heglund, Andrew J. Allstadt, Jesse Wong, John R. Sauer
Mangroves provide blue carbon ecological value at a low freshwater cost
“Blue carbon” wetland vegetation has a limited freshwater requirement. One type, mangroves, utilizes less freshwater during transpiration than adjacent terrestrial ecoregions, equating to only 43% (average) to 57% (potential) of evapotranspiration (ET). Here, we demonstrate that comparative consumptive water use by mangrove vegetation is as much as 2905 kL H2O ha−1 year−1 less than adjacent ecoreg
Authors
Ken Krauss, Catherine E. Lovelock, Luzhen Chen, Uta Berger, Marilyn C. Ball, Ruth Reef, Ronny Peters, Hannah Bowen, Alejandra G. Vovides, Eric Ward, Marie-Christin Wimmler, Joel A. Carr, Pete Bunting, Jamie A. Duberstein
When do climate services achieve societal impact? Evaluations of actionable climate adaptation science
To cope with complex environmental impacts in a changing climate, researchers are increasingly being asked to produce science that can directly support policy and decision making. To achieve such societal impact, scientists are using climate services to engage directly with stakeholders to better understand their needs and inform knowledge production. However, the wide variety of climate-services
Authors
Aparna Bamzai, Renee A. McPherson
Limited rigor in studies of raptor mortality and mitigation at wind power facilities
Wind power is an expanding source of renewable energy. However, there are ecological challenges related to wind energy generation, including collisions of wildlife with turbines. Lack of rigor, and variation in study design, together limit efforts to understand the broad-scale effects of wind power infrastructure on wildlife populations. It is not clear, however, whether these types of limitations
Authors
Tara Conkling, Christopher J. W. McClure, Sandra Cuadros, S. R. Loss, Todd E. Katzner
Underwater hearing in sea ducks with applications for reducing gillnet bycatch through acoustic deterrence
As diving foragers, sea ducks are vulnerable to underwater anthropogenic activity, including ships, underwater construction, seismic surveys and gillnet fisheries. Bycatch in gillnets is a contributing source of mortality for sea ducks, killing hundreds of thousands of individuals annually. We researched underwater hearing in sea duck species to increase knowledge of underwater avian acoustic sens
Authors
Kathleen A. McGrew, Sara E. Crowell, Jonathan Fiely, Alicia Berlin, Glenn H. Olsen, Jennifer James, Heather Hopkins, Christopher J. Williams
Towards critical white ice conditions in lakes under global warming
The quality of lake ice is of uppermost importance for ice safety and under-ice ecology, but its temporal and spatial variability is largely unknown. Here we conducted a coordinated lake ice quality sampling campaign across the Northern Hemisphere during one of the warmest winters since 1880 and show that lake ice during 2020/2021 commonly consisted of unstable white ice, at times contributing up
Authors
Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer, Ulrike Obertegger, Hugo Rudebeck, Ellinor Jakobsson, Joachim Jansen, Galina Zdorovennova, Sheel Bansal, Benjamin Block, Cayelan C. Carey, Jonathan P. Doubek, Hilary Dugan, Oxana Erina, Irina Fedorova, Janet Fischer, Laura Grinberga, Hans-Peter Grossart, Külli Kangur, Lesley B. Knoll, Alo Laas, Fabio Lepori, Jacob Meier, Nikolai Palshin, Mark Peternell, Merja Pulkkanen, James A. Rusak, Sapna Sharma, Danielle Wain, Roman Zdorovennov