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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

Juvenile Sandhill Cranes exhibit wider ranging and more exploratory movements than adults during the breeding season

Sandhill Cranes Antigone canadensis exhibit delayed sexual maturity and breeding, and therefore juvenile Cranes searching for suitable territories to occupy have different ecological constraints on movements than adults, which must defend a territory and raise young. We used fine-scale GPS telemetry data to characterize and compare movements of adult and juvenile Cranes near the boundary between t
Authors
David W. Wolfson, John R. Fieberg, David Andersen

Abundance-occupancy patterns in a riverine fish assemblage

The interspecific relationships between abundance and site occupancy have been widely studied in plants and animals, but principally in terrestrial systems. With few exceptions, a positive abundance–occupancy relationship has been reported. Few publications have included freshwater fish, possibly suggesting a general lack of abundance–occupancy patterns for this taxonomic group.We examined the rel
Authors
Leandro E. Miranda, K. J. Kilgore

Biotic interactions are the dominant drivers of phylogenetic and functional structure in bird communities along a tropical elevational gradient

Understanding how biotic and abiotic interactions influence community assembly and composition is a fundamental goal in community ecology. Addressing this issue is particularly tractable along elevational gradients in tropical mountains that feature substantial abiotic gradients and rates of species turnover. We examined elevational patterns of avian community structure on 2 mountains in Malaysian
Authors
Andy J. Boyce, Subir Shakya, Frederick H. Sheldon, Robert G. Moyle, Thomas E. Martin

Predicting fish species richness and habitat relationships using Bayesian hierarchical multispecies occupancy models

Understanding how stream fishes respond to changes in habitat availability is complicated by low occurrence rates of many species, which in turn reduces the ability to quantify species–habitat relationships and account for imperfect detection in estimates of species richness. Multispecies occupancy models have been used sparingly in the analysis of fisheries data, but address the aforementioned de
Authors
Shannon White, Evan Faulk, Caleb Tzilkowski, Andrew Weber, Matt Marshall, Tyler Wagner

Landscape genetics reveals unique and shared effects of urbanization for two sympatric pool-breeding amphibians

Metapopulation-structured species can be negatively affected when landscape fragmentation impairs connectivity. We investigated the effects of urbanization on genetic diversity and gene flow for two sympatric amphibian species, spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) and wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus), across a large (>35,000 km2) landscape in Maine, USA, containing numerous natural and anth
Authors
Jared J. Homola, Cynthia S. Loftin, Michael T. Kinnison

International Organizations and Programs for Wildlife Conservation

Historically, private non-governmental entities in the developed world took interest in wildlife in developing nations. Nineteenth and early twentieth century explorers of Africa, Asia, and South America reported fascinating encounters with magnificent species that were previously cryptic or unknown (Robinson et al. 2017). Organizations such as the Royal Geographical Society in the United Kingdo
Authors
John F. Organ, Gonzalo Medina-Vogel, T. Yoshida

Hybridization and population genetics of Alligator Gar in Lake Texoma

The Alligator Gar Atractosteus spatula (AG) is a long-lived fish of growing management and conservation interest. Situated on the border of Texas and Oklahoma, Lake Texoma supports one of the last robust AG populations in Oklahoma; however, a genetic evaluation of this population is lacking. We genotyped AG individuals with 17 microsatellite loci, 7 of which also cross-amplified in three sympatric
Authors
Andrew T. Taylor, James M. Long, Raymond W. Snow, M. J. Porta

Climatic variation drives growth potential of juvenile Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) along a sub-Arctic boreal riverscape

Climatic variation is a key driver of freshwater physical processes that in turn control stream fish growth and population dynamics at fine spatial scales and species distributions across broad landscapes. A recent downturn in Chinook Salmon returns across the Yukon River basin, Alaska, USA, and Yukon Territories, Canada, has led to hardship among user groups and increased interest in understandin
Authors
Jeffrey A. Falke, Brock M. Huntsman, Erik R. Schoen

Migration routes, foraging behavior, and site fidelity of loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) satellite tracked from a globally important rookery

The Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, Florida, USA (27.946°N, − 80.494°W) represents one of the largest loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) nesting sites in the Western Hemisphere. Surprisingly, little work has been conducted to determine females’ post-nesting migratory behavior and characteristics of their foraging areas. Between 2008 and 2017, satellite telemetry was used to trace the locati
Authors
D.R. Evans, Raymond R. Carthy, S.A. Ceriani

Say what? Bivalent singing in Vermivora warblers

No abstract available.
Authors
Gunnar R. Kramer, R. Kyle Pagel, Kate Maley, Cassandra Ziegler, Sean M. . Peterson, David Andersen, David A. Buehler, Henry M. Streby

Energy intake rate influences survival of Black Oystercatcher Haematopus bachmani broods

Black Oystercatchers Haematopus bachmani, a species of conservation concern, depend on marine intertidal prey resources. We examined diet, feeding rates, growth, and survival of Black Oystercatcher broods in southcentral Alaska, 2013-2014. To determine the importance of diet on brood survival, we modeled daily survival rates of broods as a function of energy intake rate and other ecological factor
Authors
B.H. Robinson, L.M. Phillips, Abby Powell

Growth response of the ichthyotoxic haptophyte, Prymnesium parvum Carter, to changes in sulfate and fluoride concentrations

Golden alga Prymnesium parvum Carter is a euryhaline, ichthyotoxic haptophyte (Chromista). Because of its presumed coastal/marine origin where SO42- levels are high, the relatively high SO42- concentration of its brackish inland habitats, and the sensitivity of marine chromists to sulfur deficiency, this study examined whether golden alga growth is sensitive to SO42- concentration. Fluoride is a u
Authors
Rakib B. Rashel, Reynaldo Patiño