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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: 3984

Age and growth of Freshwater Drum and Gizzard Shad occupying two reservoir-river complexes with different groundwater contributions

Restoring groundwater flow is a management option that improves water temperature regimes and benefits fishes. Although this strategy applies more readily to river systems, the thermal character of reservoirs is heavily influenced by inflowing rivers. We examined differences in age, structure, and growth of both Freshwater Drum Aplodinotus grunniens and Gizzard Shad Dorosoma cepedianum that occupy
Authors
J Dattilo, D. E. Shoup, Shannon K. Brewer

Reduced species richness of native bees in field margins associated with neonicotinoid concentrations in non-target soils

Native bees are in decline as many species are sensitive to habitat loss, climate change, and non-target exposure to synthetic pesticides. Recent laboratory and semi-field assessments of pesticide impacts on bees have focused on neonicotinoid insecticides. However, field studies evaluating influences of neonicotinoid seed treatments on native bee communities of North America are absent from the li
Authors
A.R. Main, Elisabeth B. Webb, K. W. Goyne, D. Mengel

Population ecology and evaluation of suppression scenarios for an introduced Utah Chub population

Introduced Utah Chub Gila atraria were first sampled in Henrys Lake, Idaho, in 1993, and their presence in the system is a concern given possible interactions with sport fishes. Our objective was to describe the population dynamics of Utah Chub in Henrys Lake. A total of 362 Utah Chub was sampled via gill nets, with an average catch rate of 20.5 fish/net-night (SE = 6.0) during May 2016. Average T
Authors
Curtis J. Roth, Zachary S. Beard, Jonathan M Flinders, Michael Quist

Tropical cyclones alter short-term activity patterns of a coastal seabird

BackgroundMobile organisms in marine environments are expected to modify their behavior in response to external stressors. Among environmental drivers of animal movement are long-term climatic indices influencing organism distribution and short-term meteorological events anticipated to alter acute movement behavior. However, few studies exist documenting the response of vagile species to meteorolo
Authors
B. P. Wilkinson, Y. G. Satgé, J. S. Lamb, Patrick Jodice

Coastal armoring and sea turtles: Beachfront homeowners’ opinions and intent

Florida’s dynamic beach-dune ecosystem and the structures built along the shore face threats from coastal (or shoreline) erosion, sea level rise, and inadequate regulatory protection efforts. In light of these threats, private property owners are choosing to install coastal armoring on their property to protect upland structures which can negatively impact sea turtles and their nesting habitat. Co
Authors
Melissa K. Hill, Martha C. Monroe, Raymond Carthy, Thomas T. Ankersen, Tom A. Kay

Confluences function as ecological hotspots: Geomorphic and regional drivers can help identify patterns of fish distribution within a seascape

Quantifying heterogeneity in animal distributions through space and time is a precursor to addressing many important research and management issues. Obtaining these distributional data is especially difficult for mobile organisms that use broader geographic extents. Here, we asked if the merger between 2 research directions—(1) quantifying spatial linkages between fish and geomorphic features (e.g
Authors
Ryland Taylor, Martha E. Mather, Joseph Smith, Kayla Gerber

Exit here: Strategies for dealing with aging dams and reservoirs

Aging infrastructure is prevalent throughout the world but water control management structures, specifically dams are of growing concern. Dams and their corresponding reservoirs have inherent, but separate, lifespans. The proportion of dams around the world that continue operation beyond their intended lifespans is growing at an alarming rate. Society will not only have to navigate the tradeoffs a
Authors
Henry H. Hansen, Emily Forzono, Alisha Grams, Lindsay Ohlman, Christine Ruskcamp, Mark A. Pegg, Kevin L. Pope

Predictive multi-scale occupancy models at range-wide extents: Effects of habitat and human disturbance on distributions of wetland birds

AimPredicting distributions is fundamental to ecology, yet hindered by spatially restricted sampling, scale-dependent relationships and detection error associated with field surveys. Predictive species distribution models (SDMs) are nonetheless vital for conservation of many species. We developed a framework for building predictive SDMs with multi-scale data and used it to develop range-wide breed
Authors
Bryan S. Stevens, Courtney J. Conway

Anthropogenic land‐use change intensifies the effect of low flows on stream fishes

As ecosystems experience simultaneous disturbances, it is critical to understand how multiple stressors interact to affect ecological change. Land‐use change and extreme flow events are two important stressors that could interact to affect fish populations.We evaluated the individual and interactive effects of discharge and land‐use change associated with oil and natural gas development on populat
Authors
Richard H. Walker, Carlin Girard, Samantha L. Alford, Annika W. Walters

Ecosystem size predicts social dynamics in recreational fisheries

Recreational fisheries are complex adaptive systems that are inherently difficult to manage due to a heterogeneous user group (consumptive vs. non-consumptive) that utilize patchily distributed resources on the landscape (lakes, rivers, coastlines). There is a need to identify which system components can effectively predict and be used to manage nonlinear and cross-scale dynamics within these sys
Authors
M. A. Kaemingk, C. J. Chizinski, Craig R. Allen, Kevin L. Pope

Comparing and improving methods for reconstructing peatland water-table depth from testate amoebae

Proxies that use changes in the composition of ecological communities to reconstruct temporal changes in an environmental covariate are commonly used in paleoclimatology and paleolimnology. Existing methods, such as weighted averaging and modern analog technique, relate compositional data to the covariate in very simple ways, and different methods are seldom compared systematically. We present a n
Authors
Connor Nolan, John Tipton, Robert K. Booth, Mevin Hooten, Stephen Jackson

Differential effects of temperature and salinity on growth and mortality of oysters (Crassostrea virginica) in Barataria Bay and Breton Sound, Louisiana

Temperature and salinity and their interaction exert a major control on the life cycle of the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica), affecting reproduction, development, growth, and mortality. Quantifying specific temperature and salinity relationships on oyster growth and mortality has however proven difficult, with data suggesting potentially region-specific responses. Legacy and recent data fr
Authors
T. Sehlinger, M.R. Lowe, Megan K. LaPeyre, T.M. Soniat