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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Anticoagulant rodenticides and wildlife: Introduction
Rodents have interacted with people since the beginning of systematic food storage by humans in the early Neolithic era. Such interactions have had adverse outcomes such as threats to human health, spoiling and consumption of food sources, damage to human infrastructure and detrimental effects on indigenous island wildlife (through inadvertent anthropogenic assisted introductions). These socio/eco
Authors
Nico W. van den Brink, John E. Elliott, Richard F. Shore, Barnett A. Rattner
Concepts and practices: Estimating abundance of prey species using hierarchical model-based approaches
Tigers predominantly prey on large ungulate species, such as sambar (Cervus unicolor), red deer (Cervus elaphus), gaur (Bos gaurus), banteng (Bos javanicus), chital (Axis axis), muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak), wild pig (Sus scrofa), and bearded pig (Sus barbatus). The density of a tiger population is strongly correlated with the density of such prey species (Karanth et al. 2004). In the absence of di
Authors
Robert Dorazio, N. Samba Kumar, Andy Royle, Arjun M. Gopalaswamy
Field practices: Assessing tiger population dynamics using photographic captures
From these histories, capture frequency statistics and estimates of capture probabilities can be derived.
Authors
K. Ullas Karanth, James D. Nichols, Abishek Harihar, Dale Miquelle, N. Samba Kumar, Robert Dorazio
Human-polar bear interactions in a changing Arctic: Existing and emerging concerns
The behavior and sociality of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) have been shaped by evolved preferences for sea ice habitat and preying on marine mammals. However, human behavior is causing changes to the Arctic marine ecosystem through the influence of greenhouse gas emissions that drive long-term change in ecosystem processes and via the presence of in situ stressors associated with increasing human
Authors
Todd C. Atwood, Kristin S. Simac, Stewart Breck, Geoff York, James Wilder
Implications of rapid environmental change for polar bear behavior and sociality
Historically, the Arctic sea ice has functioned as a structural barrier that has limited the nature and extent of interactions between humans and polar bears (Ursus maritimus). However, declining sea ice extent, brought about by global climate change, is increasing the potential for human-polar bear interactions. Loss of sea ice habitat is driving changes to both human and polar bear behavior—it i
Authors
Todd C. Atwood
Monitoring the welfare of polar bear populations in a rapidly changing Arctic
Most programs for monitoring the welfare of wildlife populations support efforts aimed at reaching discrete management objectives, like mitigating conflict with humans. While such programs can be effective, their limited scope may preclude systemic evaluations needed for large-scale conservation initiatives, like the recovery of at-risk species. We discuss select categories of metrics that can be
Authors
Todd C. Atwood, Colleen G. Duncan, Kelly A. Patyk, Sarah A. Sonsthagen
Polar bears, Ursus maritimus
Polar bears are the largest of the eight species of bears found worldwide and are covered in a pigment-free fur giving them the appearance of being white. They are the most carnivorous of bear species consuming a high-fat diet, primarily of ice-associated seals and other marine mammals. They range throughout the circumpolar Arctic to the southernmost extent of seasonal pack ice.
Authors
Karyn D. Rode, Ian Stirling
Progress and lessons learned from water-quality monitoring networks
Stream-quality monitoring networks in the United States were initiated and expanded after passage of successive federal water-pollution control laws from 1948 to 1972. The first networks addressed information gaps on the extent and severity of stream pollution and served as early warning systems for spills. From 1965 to 1972, monitoring networks expanded to evaluate compliance with stream standard
Authors
Donna N. Myers, Amy S. Ludtke
Role of social media and networking in volcanic crises and communication
The growth of social media as a primary and often preferred news source has contributed to the rapid dissemination of information about volcanic eruptions and potential volcanic crises as an eruption begins. Information about volcanic activity comes from a variety of sources: news organisations, emergency management personnel, individuals (both public and official) and volcano monitoring agencies.
Authors
Sally K. Sennert, Erik W. Klemetti, Deanne Bird
Urban raptor communities: Why some raptors and not others occupy urban environments
No abstract available.
Authors
Clint W. Boal
Volcanic ash and aviation–The challenges of real-time, global communication of a natural hazard
More than 30 years after the first major aircraft encounters with volcanic ash over Indonesia in 1982, it remains challenging to inform aircraft in flight of the exact location of potentially dangerous ash clouds on their flight path, particularly shortly after the eruption has occurred. The difficulties include reliably forecasting and detecting the onset of significant explosive eruptions on a g
Authors
Peter Lechner, Andrew C. Tupper, Marianne C. Guffanti, Sue Loughlin, Thomas Casadevall
Advancing mangrove macroecology
Mangrove forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services to society, yet they are among the most anthropogenically impacted coastal ecosystems in the world. In this chapter, we discuss and provide examples for how macroecology can advance our understanding of mangrove ecosystems. Macroecology is broadly defined as a discipline that uses statistical analyses to investigate large-scale, universal
Authors
Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Michael J. Osland, John W. Day, Santanu Ray, Andre S. Rovai, Richard H. Day, Joyita Mukherjee