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
The effects of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity
This chapter reports the findings of a Working Group on how atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition affects both terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity. Regional and global scale impacts on biodiversity are addressed, together with potential indicators. Key conclusions are that: the rates of loss in biodiversity are greatest at the lowest and initial stages of N deposition increase; changes in specie
Authors
Jill Baron, Mary C. Barber, Mark Adams, Julius I. Agboola, Edith B. Allen, William J. Bealey, Roland Bobbink, Maxim V. Bobrovsky, William D. Bowman, Cristina Branquinho, Mercedes M. C. Bustamente, Christopher L. Clark, Edward C. Cocking, Cristina Cruz, Eric A. Davidson, O. Tom Denmead, Teresa Dias, Nancy B. Dise, Alan Feest, James N. Galloway, Linda H. Geiser, Frank S. Gilliam, Ian J. Harrison, Larisa G. Khanina, Xiankai Lu, Esteban Manrique, Raul Ochoa-Hueso, Jean P. H. B. Ometto, Richard Payne, Thomas Scheuschner, Lucy J. Sheppard, Gavin L. Simpson, Y. V. Singh, Carly J. Stevens, Ian Strachan, Harald Sverdrup, Naoko Tokuchi, Hans van Dobben, Sarah Woodin
Status and trends of pelagic prey fish in Lake Huron, 2013
The USGS Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) conducted acoustic and midwater trawl surveys
of Lake Huron during 1997 and annually during 2004-2013. The 2013 survey was conducted
during September and October and included transects in Lake Huron’s main basin, Georgian
Bay, and North Channel. Pelagic fish density was 1,033 fish/ha in 2013 and increased 62% over
the 2012 estimate. Total biomass in 2
Authors
Timothy P. O'Brien, David M. Warner, Steve A. Farha, Darryl W. Hondorp, Lisa A. Kaulfersch, Nicole M. Watson
Making One Health a reality: Crossing bureaucratic boundaries
A One Health approach that achieves optimal outcomes requires that nontraditional partners come to a common table to identify solutions that transcend organization-specific mandates. This collaboration requires individuals to go beyond their accustomed comfort zones and function on teams with partners who very likely come from unfamiliar organizational, disciplinary, and even national cultures. Ea
Authors
Carol Rubin, Bernadette Dunham, Jonathan Sleeman
Vaccination against bacterial kidney disease
Bacterial kidney disease (BKD) of salmonid fishes, caused by Renibacterium salmoninarum, has been recognized as a serious disease in salmonid fishes since the 1930s. This chapter discusses the occurrence and significance, etiology, and pathogenesis of BKD. It then describes the different vaccination procedures and the effects and side-effects of vaccination. Despite years of research, however, onl
Authors
Diane G. Elliott, Gregory D. Wiens, K. Larry Hammell, Linda D. Rhodes
Uranium series, rates of basaltic melt generation and transport
No abstract available.
Authors
Aaron J. Pietruszka
Threshold concepts: implications for the management of natural resources
Threshold concepts can have broad relevance in natural resource management. However, the concept of ecological thresholds has not been widely incorporated or adopted in management goals. This largely stems from the uncertainty revolving around threshold levels and the post hoc analyses that have generally been used to identify them. Natural resource managers have a need for new tools and approache
Authors
Glenn R. Guntenspergen, John Gross
Getting the message across: using ecological integrity to communicate with resource managers
This chapter describes and illustrates how concepts of ecological integrity, thresholds, and reference conditions can be integrated into a research and monitoring framework for natural resource management. Ecological integrity has been defined as a measure of the composition, structure, and function of an ecosystem in relation to the system’s natural or historical range of variation, as well as pe
Authors
Brian R. Mitchell, Geraldine L. Tierney, E. William Schweiger, Kathryn M. Miller, Don Faber-Langendoen, James B. Grace
Melt inclusions
Melt inclusions are small droplets of silicate melt that are trapped in minerals during their growth in a magma. Once formed, they commonly retain much of their initial composition (with some exceptions) unless they are re-opened at some later stage. Melt inclusions thus offer several key advantages over whole rock samples: (i) they record pristine concentrations of volatiles and metals that are u
Authors
Jacob B. Lowenstern
Using natural range of variation to set decision thresholds: a case study for great plains grasslands
Natural range of variation (NRV) may be used to establish decision thresholds or action assessment points when ecological thresholds are either unknown or do not exist for attributes of interest in a managed ecosystem. The process for estimating NRV involves identifying spatial and temporal scales that adequately capture the heterogeneity of the ecosystem; compiling data for the attributes of inte
Authors
Amy J. Symstad, Jayne L. Jonas
Plants in alpine environments
Alpine and subalpine plant species are of special interest in ecology and ecophysiology because they represent life at the climate limit and changes in their relative abundances can be a bellwether for climate-change impacts.
Perennial life forms dominate alpine plant communities, and their form and function reflect various avoidance, tolerance, or resistance strategies to interactions of cold te
Authors
Matthew J. Germino
Application of threshold concepts to ecological management problems: Occupancy of Golden Eagles in Denali National Park, Alaska
In this chapter, we demonstrate the application of the various classes of thresholds, detailed in earlier chapters and elsewhere, via an actual but simplified natural resource management case study. We intend our example to provide the reader with the ability to recognize and apply the theoretical concepts of utility, ecological and decision thresholds to management problems through a formalized d
Authors
Mitchell J. Eaton, Julien Martin, James D. Nichols, Carol McIntyre, Maggie C. McCluskie, Joel A. Schmutz, Bruce L. Lubow, Michael C. Runge
Identifying objectives and alternative actions to frame a decision problem.
In this chapter, we discuss the role of objectives and alternative actions in framing a natural resource management decision problem, with particular attention to thresholds. We outline a number of considerations in developing objectives and measurable attributes, including when utility thresholds may be needed to express the decision-makers’ values.We also discuss the development of a set of alte
Authors
Michael C. Runge, Terry Walshe