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Publications

Browse publications authored by our scientists.  Publications available are: USGS-authored journal articles, series reports, book chapters, other government publications, and more. **Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.

Filter Total Items: 4116

The relative influence of road characteristics and habitat on adjacent lizard populations in arid shrublands

As road networks continue to expand globally, indirect impacts to adjacent wildlife populations remain largely unknown. Simultaneously, reptile populations are declining worldwide and anthropogenic habitat loss and fragmentation are frequently cited causes. We evaluated the relative influence of three different road characteristics (surface treatment, width, and traffic volume) and habitat feature
Authors
Kaylan A. Hubbard, Anna D. Chalfoun, Kenneth G. Gerow

Urbanization and stream ecology: Diverse mechanisms of change

The field of urban stream ecology has evolved rapidly in the last 3 decades, and it now includes natural scientists from numerous disciplines working with social scientists, landscape planners and designers, and land and water managers to address complex, socioecological problems that have manifested in urban landscapes. Over the last decade, stream ecologists have met 3 times at the Symposium on
Authors
Allison H. Roy, Krista A. Capps, Rana W. El-Sabaawi, Krista L. Jones, Thomas B. Parr, Alonso Ramirez, Robert F. Smith, Christopher J. Walsh, Seth J. Wenger

Northern long-eared bat day-roosting and prescribed fire in the Central Appalachians, USA

The northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis Trovessart) is a cavity-roosting species that forages in cluttered upland and riparian forests throughout the oak-dominated Appalachian and Central Hardwoods regions. Common prior to white-nose syndrome, the population of this bat species has declined to functional extirpation in some regions in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, including portions
Authors
W. Mark Ford, Alexander Silvis, Joshua B. Johnson, John W. Edwards, Milu Karp

Characterizing seasonal and diel vertical movement and habitat use of lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) in Clear Lake, Maine

Seasonal and daily vertical activity of lake whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis was studied in Clear Lake, Maine (253 ha), using acoustic telemetry from November 2004 to June 2009. Twenty adult lake whitefish were tagged with acoustic tags that had either a depth sensor or both depth and temperature sensors to assess vertical habitat use at a seasonal and daily resolution. Vertical habitat selection
Authors
Joseph D. Zydlewski, Dimitry Gorsky, David Balsey

Toward more realistic projections of soil carbon dynamics by Earth system models

Soil carbon (C) is a critical component of Earth system models (ESMs), and its diverse representations are a major source of the large spread across models in the terrestrial C sink from the third to fifth assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Improving soil C projections is of a high priority for Earth system modeling in the future IPCC and other assessments.
Authors
Y. Luo, Anders Ahlström, Steven D. Allison, Niels H. Batjes, V. Brovkin, Nuno Carvalhais, Adrian Chappell, Philippe Ciais, Eric A. Davidson, Adien Finzi, Katerina Georgiou, Bertrand Guenet, Oleksandra Hararuk, Jennifer Harden, Yujie He, Francesca Hopkins, L. Jiang, Charles Koven, Robert B. Jackson, Chris D. Jones, M. Lara, J. Liang, A. David McGuire, William Parton, Changhui Peng, J. Randerson, Alejandro Salazar, Carlos A. Sierra, Matthew J. Smith, Hanqin Tian, Katherine E. O Todd-Brown, Margaret S. Torn, Kees Jan van Groenigen, Ying Wang, Tristram O. West, Yaxing Wei, William R. Wieder, Jianyang Xia, Xia Xu, Xiaofeng Xu, T. Zhou

Distributions of small nongame fishes in the lower Yellowstone River

The Yellowstone River is the longest unimpounded river in the conterminous United States. It has a relatively natural flow regime, which helps maintain diverse habitats and fish assemblages uncommon in large rivers elsewhere. The lower Yellowstone River was thought to support a diverse nongame fish assemblage including several species of special concern. However, comprehensive data on the small no
Authors
Michael B. Duncan, Robert G. Bramblett, Alexander V. Zale

First record of the bigeye shiner (Notropis boops) from West Virginia

We report a population of Bigeye Shiner Notropis boops in the South Fork Hughes River drainage of the Little Kanawha River, West Virginia. A total of 27 individuals of N. boops were collected during five sampling efforts from 1999 to 2005. These specimens represent an addition to the state fauna, a distributional record for the Little Kanawha River, and an eastern range extension for this species
Authors
Stuart A. Welsh, Daniel A. Cincotta, Richard L. Raesly

Reproductive success and habitat characteristics of Golden-winged Warblers in high-elevation pasturelands

The Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) is one of the most rapidly declining vertebrate species in the Appalachian Mountains. It is the subject of extensive range-wide research and conservation action. However, little is known about this species' breeding ecology in high-elevation pasturelands, a breeding habitat with conservation potential considering the U.S. Natural Resource Conservat
Authors
Petra Wood, Kyle R. Aldinger

Detecting temporal change in freshwater fisheries surveys: statistical power and the important linkages between management questions and monitoring objectives

Monitoring to detect temporal trends in biological and habitat indices is a critical component of fisheries management. Thus, it is important that management objectives are linked to monitoring objectives. This linkage requires a definition of what constitutes a management-relevant “temporal trend.” It is also important to develop expectations for the amount of time required to detect a trend (i.e
Authors
Tyler Wagner, Brian J. Irwin, James R. Bence, Daniel B. Hayes

Impact of carbon dioxide level, water velocity, and feeding regimen on growth and fillet attributes of cultured rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Production and management variables such as carbon dioxide (CO2) level, water velocity, and feeding frequency influence the growth and fillet attributes of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), as well as cost of production. More information is needed to determine the contributions of these variables to growth and fillet attributes to find the right balance between input costs and fish performance.
Authors
Patricia M. Mazik, P. M. Mazik, P. B. Kenney, J.T Silverstein

Ecological resilience

Resilience is the capacity of complex systems of people and nature to withstand disturbance without shifting into an alternate regime, or a different type of system organized around different processes and structures (Holling, 1973). Resilience theory was developed to explain the non-linear dynamics of complex adaptive systems, like social-ecological systems (SES) (Walker & Salt, 2006). It is ofte
Authors
Craig R. Allen, Ahjond S. Garmestiani, Shana Sundstrom, David G. Angeler

A GIS model of habitat suitability for Solanum conocarpum (Solanaceae) in St. John, US Virgin Islands

Solanum conocarpum (Solanaceae) (Marron Bacora) is a rare, dry-forest shrub endemic to the island of St. John, US Virgin Islands, considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Given its status as a species of conservation concern, we incorporated environmental characteristics of 3 observed populations and 5 additional known locations into a geographic information system (GIS) analysis t
Authors
Matthew D. Palumbo, Jonathan P. Fleming, Omar A. Monsegur, Francisco Vilella