Book Chapters
Science Quality and Integrity
The USGS provides unbiased, objective, and impartial scientific information upon which our audiences, including resource managers, planners, and other entities, rely.
The USGS provides unbiased, objective, and impartial scientific information upon which our audiences, including resource managers, planners, and other entities, rely.
Browse more than 5,500 book chapters authored by our scientists over the past 100+ year history of the USGS and refine search by topic, location, year, and advanced search.
Filter Total Items: 6071
Plant invasions in protected areas of tropical pacific islands, with special reference to Hawaii
Isolated tropical islands are notoriously vulnerable to plant invasions. Serious management for protection of native biodiversity in Hawaii began in the 1970s, arguably at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Concerted alien plant management began there in the 1980s and has in a sense become a model for protected areas throughout Hawaii and Pacific Island countries and territories. We review the relati
Authors
R. Flint Hughes, Jean-Yves Meyer, Lloyd L. Loope
North America
Plant phenological observations and networks in North America have been largely local and regional in extent until recent decades. In the USA, cloned plant monitoring networks were the exception to this pattern, with data collection spanning the late 1950s until approximately the early 1990s. Animal observation networks, especially for birds have been more extensive. The USA National Phenology Net
Authors
Mark D. Schwartz, Elisabeth G. Beaubien, Theresa Crimmins, Jake Weltzin
Surface water quality in streams and rivers: Scaling, and climate change
This chapter explores spatial and temporal scaling and the impact of climate change on four basic water quality parameters: temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and suspended sediment. An introduction describing the conditions and changes in these water quality parameters is presented. Temporal scaling of water quality parameters is discussed on diel (24 h), precipitation event, and seasonal time sc
Authors
John Loperfido
The music of earthquakes and Earthquake Quartet #1
Earthquake Quartet #1, my composition for voice, trombone, cello, and seismograms, is the intersection of listening to earthquakes as a seismologist and performing music as a trombonist. Along the way, I realized there is a close relationship between what I do as a scientist and what I do as a musician. A musician controls the source of the sound and the path it travels through their instrument
Authors
Andrew J. Michael
Animal migration and risk of spread of viral infections
The potential contribution of migration towards the spread of disease is as varied as the ecology of the pathogens themselves and their host populations. This chapter outlines multiple examples of viral diseases in animal populations and their mechanisms of viral spread. Many species of insects, mammals, fish, and birds exhibit migratory behavior and have the potential to disperse diseases over lo
Authors
Diann J. Prosser, Jessica L. Nagel, John Y. Takekawa
Structured decision making
Wildlife management is a decision-focused discipline. It needs to integrate traditional wildlife science and social science to identify actions that are most likely to achieve the array of desires society has surrounding wildlife populations. Decision science, a vast field with roots in economics, operations research, and psychology, offers a rich set of tools to help wildlife managers frame, deco
Authors
Michael C. Runge, J. Barry Grand, Michael S. Mitchell
Forest ecosystems: Vegetation, disturbance, and economics
Forests cover about 47% of the Northwest (NW–Washington, Oregon, and Idaho) (Smith et al. 2009, fig. 5.1, table 5.1). The impacts of current and future climate change on NW forest ecosystems are a product of the sensitivities of ecosystem processes to climate and the degree to which humans depend on and interact with those systems. Forest ecosystem structure and function, particularly in relativel
Authors
Jeremy S. Littell, Jeffrey A. Hicke, Sarah L. Shafer, Susan M. Capalbo, Laurie L. Houston, Patty Glick
Measuring suspended sediment
Suspended sediment in streams and rivers can be measured using traditional instruments and techniques and (or) surrogate technologies. The former, as described herein, consists primarily of both manually deployed isokinetic samplers and their deployment protocols developed by the Federal Interagency Sedimentation Project. They are used on all continents other than Antarctica. The reliability of th
Authors
J. R. Gray, M. N. Landers
Colorado geology then and now: Following the route of the Colorado Scientific Society’s 1901 trip through central Colorado
In 1901, Charles Van Hise asked Samuel Emmons and Whitman Cross to organize a grand excursion across Colorado as part of the combined meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, GSA, and the Colorado Scientific Society (CSS). This trip replays part of that 10-day excursion across Colorado. Shortened to three days, this trip takes in some of the same sites as the 1901 trip,
Authors
Beth Simmons
Nitrate Trends in Minnesota Rivers
The objective of this study was to assess long-term trends (30 to 35 years) of flow-adjusted concentrations of nitrite+nitrate-N (hereinafter referred to as nitrate) in a way that would allow us to discern changing trends. Recognizing that these trends are commonly different from one river to another river and from one part of the state to another, our objective was to examine as many river monito
Authors
Dave Wall, Dave Christopherson, Dave Lorenz, Gary Martin
Interactions between an exotic ecosystem engineer (Dreissena spp.) and native burrowing mayflies (Hexagenia spp.) in soft sediments of western Lake Erie
No abstract available.
Authors
Kristen M. DeVanna, Don W. Schloesser, Jonathan M. Bossenbroek, Christine M. Mayer