Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

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: 4105

Estimating sturgeon abundance in the Carolinas using side-scan sonar

Sturgeons (Acipenseridae) are one of the most threatened taxa worldwide, including species in North Carolina and South Carolina. Populations of Atlantic Sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus in the Carolinas have been significantly reduced from historical levels by a combination of intense fishing and habitat loss. There is a need for estimates of current abundance, to describe status, and for estimates o
Authors
H. Jared Flowers, Joseph E. Hightower

Day-roost tree selection by northern long-eared bats - What do non-roost tree comparisons and one year of data really tell us?

Bat day-roost selection often is described through comparisons of day-roosts with randomly selected, and assumed unused, trees. Relatively few studies, however, look at patterns of multi-year selection or compare day-roosts used across years. We explored day-roost selection using 2 years of roost selection data for female northern long-eared bats (Myotis septentrionalis) on the Fort Knox Military
Authors
Alexander Silvis, W. Mark Ford, Eric R. Britzke

Conservation status of North American freshwater crayfish (Decapoda: Cambaridae) from the southern United States

A list is provided of all crayfishes (family Cambaridae) in the southern United States, which includes common names, global conservation status, an alternative review of the conservation status based on the IUCN red list criteria, and state distribution. This list includes 357 native crayfishes, of which 12 (3.4%) are critically endangered, 37 (10.4%) are endangered, 126 (35.3%) are vulnerable, 18
Authors
Zachary J. Loughman, Stuart A. Welsh, James W. Fetzner, Roger F. Thoma

Synopsis of the history of sea otter conservation in the United States

In the late 1860s, declining US sea otter populations elicited concern because of prior excessive harvests. Congress mandated protection of Alaskan sea otters in 1868, but hunting continued unrestrained. The Fur Seal Treaty of 1911 (abrogated in 1941) protected sea otters in international waters, but was not applicable to most sea otter habitats and failed to terminate all legal sea otter harvests
Authors
Glenn R. VanBlaricom

R for fledglings

We’ve been asked to provide a short introduction to R and its utility in natural resource management. In this short introduction, we can guarantee one thing: you won’t learn R in a few days. That would be like learning to speak French in a few days. To actually learn R, you need to practice….Bode Miller didn’t win his Olympic medals without hours and hours of practice. However, in this short intro
Authors
Therese Donovan, Michelle Brown, Jonathan Katz

Accounting for imperfect detection in Hill numbers for biodiversity studies

Hill numbers unify biodiversity metrics by combining several into one expression. For example, species richness, Shannon's diversity index and the Gini–Simpson index are a few of the most used diversity measures, and they can be expressed as Hill numbers. Traditionally, Hill numbers have been calculated from relative abundance data, but the expression has been modified to use incidence data as we
Authors
Kristin M. Broms, Mevin Hooten, Ryan M. Fitzpatrick

Dispersal, movements and site fidelity of post-fledging King Eiders Somateria spectabilis and their attendant females

Post-fledging dispersal and site fidelity are poorly understood, particularly for sea ducks that spend the majority of their annual cycle at sea. This is the first description of movements and their timing for first-year (juvenile) and second-year (subadult) King Eiders Somateria spectabilis in relation to their attendant females. We fitted satellite transmitters that operated for 2 years to 63 ha
Authors
Rebecca L. Bentzen, Abby N. Powell

Population structure and dynamics of northern pike and smallmouth bass in Coeur d’Alene Lake, Idaho.

Numerous species have been introduced to Coeur d'Alene Lake, Idaho over the last century, but minimal research has been completed to understand their population dynamics. The objective of this study was to describe the population demographics and dynamics of northern pike (Esox lucius) and smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu), two important nonnative sport fishes in the system to provide informa
Authors
John D. Walrath, Michael C. Quist, Jon A. Firehammer

Ecological effects of the harvest phase of geoduck clam (Panopea generosa Gould, 1850) aquaculture on infaunal communities in southern Puget Sound, Washington USA.

Intertidal aquaculture for geoducks (Panopea generosa Gould, 1850) is expanding in southern Puget Sound, Washington, where gently sloping sandy beaches are used for field culture. Geoduck aquaculture contributes significantly to the regional economy, but has become controversial because of a range of unresolved questions involving potential biological impacts on marine ecosystems. From 2008 throug
Authors
Glenn R. VanBlaricom, Jennifer L. Eccles, Julian D. Olden, P. Sean Mcdonald

Status of the Topeka shiner in west-central Iowa

The Topeka shiner Notropis topeka is a federally endangered fish species that is estimated to occupy only 20% of its historic range. In Iowa Topeka shiners have been in decline for decades. Our goal was to determine the present distribution of Topeka shiners in the west-central portion of their range in Iowa and to characterize the extent of its decline. We compared the current distribution to dis
Authors
Clay Pierce, Bryan D. Bakevich, Michael C. Quist

Restricted spatial regression in practice: Geostatistical models, confounding, and robustness under model misspecification

In spatial generalized linear mixed models (SGLMMs), covariates that are spatially smooth are often collinear with spatially smooth random effects. This phenomenon is known as spatial confounding and has been studied primarily in the case where the spatial support of the process being studied is discrete (e.g., areal spatial data). In this case, the most common approach suggested is restricted spa
Authors
Ephraim M. Hanks, Erin M. Schliep, Mevin Hooten, Jennifer A. Hoeting

Fatty-acid profiles of white muscle and liver in stream-maturing steelhead trout Oncorhynchus mykiss from early migration to kelt emigration

The profiles of specific fatty acids (FA) in white muscle and liver of fasting steelhead troutOncorhynchus mykiss were evaluated at three periods during their prespawning migration and at kelt emigration in the Snake–Columbia River of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, to improve the understanding of energy change. Twenty-seven FAs were identified; depletion of 10 of these was positively correlated in
Authors
Zachary L. Penney, Christine M. Moffitt