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.
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Introduction: Defining and interpreting ecological disturbances
Within the field of ecology, disturbance can be defined as a physical force, agent, or process, either abiotic or biotic, causing a perturbation or stress, to an ecological component or system, relative to a specified reference state and/or system. Disturbance drive ecosystems, and our understanding of how disturbances interact with biological diversity and scales of space, time, and ecological co
Authors
Erik A. Beever, Suresh Andrew Sethi, Suzanne Prange, Dominick DellaSala
Impacts on wildlife of annual crops for biofuel production
No abstract available.
Authors
Clint R.V. Otto
The Life of P: A biogeochemical and sociopolitical challenge in the Everglades
• Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for all life forms, yet to understand its life cycle and impact we need to grasp not only the biogeochemical life of P, but also how P intersects with human activities and values.
• Phosphorus is the limiting nutrient in the oligotrophic Everglades ecosystem. Thus, the anthropogenic addition of P to the landscape and its subsequent transport, transformation
Authors
Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Jessica Cattelino, Jeffrey R Wozniak, Katrina Schwartz, Gregory Noe, Edward Castaneda-Moya, Gregory R Koch
Applying the Watershed Approach to Urban Ecosystems in Baltimore
No abstract available.
Authors
Peter Groffman, Laurence Band, Kenneth Belt, Neil Bettez, Aditi Bhaskar, Edward Doheny, Jonathan Duncan, Sujay Kaushal, Emma Rosi-Marshall, Claire Welty
The contributions and influence of two Americans, Henry S. Washington and Frank A. Perret, to the study of Italian volcanism with emphasis on volcanoes in the Naples area
A century ago, two Americans, Henry Stephens Washington and Frank Alvord Perret, made significant contributions to the geology, petrology, and volcanology of Italy, in particular to those volcanoes in the Naples area, Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields), and the Island of Ischia. Both were from the eastern United States, both were born in 1867, and both studied physics as undergraduates. H
Authors
Harvey E. Belkin, Tom Gidwitz
Historic changes to floodplain systems in the Driftless Area
Floodplain systems in the Driftless Area have experienced widespread historical transformations in hydrologic and sediment characteristics as well as rates of hydrogeomorphic processes. These changes exceed natural variability experienced during the Holocene and are driven by nearly two centuries of major land-cover alterations coupled with shifting precipitation patterns. On the pre–Euro-American
Authors
Colin S. Belby, Lindsay J Spigel, Faith A. Fitzpatrick
Conservation of temporary wetlands
Temporary wetlands are characterized by frequent drying resulting in a unique, highly specialized assemblage of often rare or specialized plant and animal species. They are found on all continents and in a variety of landscape settings. Although accurate estimates of the abundance of temporary wetlands are available in only a few countries, global estimations identify a decline in number and quali
Authors
Dani Boix, Aram J.K. Calhoun, David M. Mushet, Kathleen P. Bell, James A. Fitzsimons, Francis Isselin-Nondedeu
International Organizations and Programs for Wildlife Conservation
Historically, private non-governmental entities in the developed world took interest in wildlife in developing nations. Nineteenth and early twentieth century explorers of Africa, Asia, and South America reported fascinating encounters with magnificent species that were previously cryptic or unknown (Robinson et al. 2017). Organizations such as the Royal Geographical Society in the United Kingdo
Authors
John F. Organ, Gonzalo Medina-Vogel, T. Yoshida
Restoration of Lake Trout in Lake Superior through Interagency Cooperative Management
The lake trout is a keystone species in the Laurentian Great Lakes that supported valuable fisheries throughout the basin. However, lake trout populations declined to near extirpation in nearly all of the lakes because of the combined effects of over-fishing, sea lamprey predation, and habitat degradation. To restore self-sustaining lake trout populations in Lake Superior, state, provincial, fed
Authors
Michael J. Hansen, Charles R. Bronte
Lake Ontario deepwater sculpin recovery: An unexpected outcome of ecosystem change
Fish population recoveries can result from ecosystem change in the absence of targeted restoration actions. In Lake Ontario, native Deepwater Sculpin Myoxecephalus thompsonii, were common in the late-1800s, but by the mid-1900s the species was possibly extirpated. During this period mineral nutrient inputs increased and piscivore abundance declined, which increased the abundance of the nonnative p
Authors
Brian C. Weidel, Michael J. Connerton, Maureen Walsh, Jeremy Holden, Kristen Holleck, Brian F. Lantry
Preface: Proceedings of the First International Snakehead Symposium
No abstract available.
Authors
John S. Odenkirk, Duane Chapman
Trout as native and non-native species: A management paradox
Native trout are threatened worldwide by introductions of non-native trout that in many cases are themselves threatened within their native range and historical habitats. This chapter focuses on this paradox and addresses how information gained to protect and restore a species in its native range can be used to suppress the same species outside its native range, where it may be invasive. We desc
Authors
Michael J. Hansen, Christopher S. Guy, Phaedra Budy, Thomas E. McMahon