Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Publications

Filter Total Items: 218

Seven recommendations to make your invasive alien species data more useful

Science-based strategies to tackle biological invasions depend on recent, accurate, well-documented, standardized and openly accessible information on alien species. Currently and historically, biodiversity data are scattered in numerous disconnected data silos that lack interoperability. The situation is no different for alien species data, and this obstructs efficient retrieval, combination, and
Authors
Quentin J. Groom, Tim Adriaens, Peter Desmet, Annie Simpson, Aaike De Wever, Ioannis Bazos, Ana Cristina Cardoso, Lucinda Charles, Anastasia Christopoulou, Anna Gazda, Harry Helmisaari, Donald Hobern, Melanie Josefsson, Frances Lucy, Dragana Marisavljevic, Tomasz Oszako, Jan Pergl, Olivera Petrovic-Obradovic, Céline Prévot, Hans Peter Ravn, Gareth Richards, Alain Roques, Helen Roy, Marie-Anne A. Rozenberg, Riccardo Scalera, Elena Tricarico, Teodora Trichkova, Diemer Vercayie, Argyro Zenetos, Sonia Vanderhoeven

Grand challenges for integrated USGS science — A workshop report

Executive SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a long history of advancing the traditional Earth science disciplines and identifying opportunities to integrate USGS science across disciplines to address complex societal problems. The USGS science strategy for 2007–2017 laid out key challenges in disciplinary and interdisciplinary arenas, culminating in a call for increased focus on a numbe
Authors
Karen E. Jenni, Martin B. Goldhaber, Julio L. Betancourt, Jill S. Baron, Sky Bristol, Mary Cantrill, Paul E. Exter, Michael J. Focazio, John W. Haines, Lauren E. Hay, Leslie Hsu, Victor F. Labson, Kevin D. Lafferty, K. A. Ludwig, Paul C. D. Milly, Toni L. Morelli, Suzette A. Morman, Nedal T. Nassar, Timothy R. Newman, Andrea C. Ostroff, Jordan S. Read, Sasha C. Reed, Carl D. Shapiro, Richard A. Smith, Ward E. Sanford, Terry L. Sohl, Edward G. Stets, Adam J. Terando, Donald E. Tillitt, Michael A. Tischler, Patricia L. Toccalino, David J. Wald, Mark P. Waldrop, Anne Wein, Jake F. Weltzin, Christian E. Zimmerman

Relationships between gas field development and the presence and abundance of pygmy rabbits in southwestern Wyoming

More than 5957 km2 in southwestern Wyoming is currently covered by operational gas fields, and further development is projected through 2030. Gas fields fragment landscapes through conversion of native vegetation to roads, well pads, pipeline corridors, and other infrastructure elements. The sagebrush steppe landscape where most of this development is occurring harbors 24 sagebrush-associated spec
Authors
Stephen S. Germaine, Sarah K. Carter, Drew A. Ignizio, Aaron T. Freeman

Community for Data Integration 2016 annual report

The Community for Data Integration (CDI) represents a dynamic community of practice focused on advancing science data and information management and integration capabilities across the U.S. Geological Survey and the CDI community. This annual report describes the various presentations, activities, and outcomes of the CDI monthly forums, working groups, virtual training series, and other CDI-sponso
Authors
Madison L. Langseth, Leslie Hsu, Jon Amberg, Norman Bliss, Andrew R. Bock, Rachel T. Bolus, R. Sky Bristol, Katherine J. Chase, Theresa M. Crimmins, Paul S. Earle, Richard Erickson, A. Lance Everette, Jeff T. Falgout, John Faundeen, Michael N. Fienen, Rusty Griffin, Michelle R. Guy, Kevin D. Henry, Nancy J. Hoebelheinrich, Randall J. Hunt, Vivian B. Hutchison, Drew A. Ignizio, Dana M. Infante, Catherine Jarnevich, Jeanne M. Jones, Tim Kern, Scott Leibowitz, Francis L. Lightsom, R. Lee Marsh, S. Grace McCalla, Marcia McNiff, Jeffrey T. Morisette, John C. Nelson, Tamar Norkin, Todd M. Preston, Alyssa Rosemartin, Roy Sando, Jason T. Sherba, Richard P. Signell, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Eric T. Sundquist, Colin B. Talbert, Roland J. Viger, Jake F. Weltzin, Sharon Waltman, Marc Weber, Daniel J. Wieferich, Brad Williams, Lisamarie Windham-Myers

Integrating multiple data sources in species distribution modeling: A framework for data fusion

The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the use of species distribution models (SDMs) to characterize patterns of species’ occurrence and abundance. Efforts to parameterize SDMs often create a tension between the quality and quantity of data available to fit models. Estimation methods that integrate both standardized and non-standardized data types offer a potential solution to the tradeof
Authors
Krishna Pacifici, Brian J. Reich, David A.W. Miller, Beth Gardner, Glenn E. Stauffer, Susheela Singh, Alexa McKerrow, Jaime A. Collazo

Long-term fish monitoring in large rivers: Utility of “benchmarking” across basins

In business, benchmarking is a widely used practice of comparing your own business processes to those of other comparable companies and incorporating identified best practices to improve performance. Biologists and resource managers designing and conducting monitoring programs for fish in large river systems tend to focus on single river basins or segments of large rivers, missing opportunities to
Authors
David L. Ward, Andrew F. Casper, Timothy D. Counihan, Jennifer M. Bayer, Ian R. Waite, John J. Kosovich, Colin Chapman, Elise R. Irwin, Jennifer S. Sauer, Brian Ickes, Alexa McKerrow

Estimated historical distribution of grassland communities of the Southern Great Plains

The purpose of this project was to map the estimated distribution of grassland communities of the Southern Great Plains prior to Euro-American settlement. The Southern Great Plains Rapid Ecoregional Assessment (REA), under the direction of the Bureau of Land Management and the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative, includes four ecoregions: the High Plains, Central Great Plains, Southwes
Authors
Gordon C. Reese, Daniel J. Manier, Natasha B. Carr, Ramana Callan, Ian I.F. Leinwand, Timothy J. Assal, Lucy Burris, Drew A. Ignizio

Powell Center Newsletter, Volume 3, Issue 1

Newsletter for the John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, covering news from most of FY2016.
Authors
Marcia McNiff

Uncertainty quantification and propagation for projections of extremes in monthly area burned under climate change: A case study in the coastal plain of Georgia, USA

Human‐caused climate change is predicted to affect the frequency of hazard‐linked extremes. Unusually large wildfires are a type of extreme event that is constrained by climate and can be a hazard to society but also an important ecological disturbance. This chapter focuses on changes in the frequency of extreme monthly area burned by wildfires for the end of the 21st century for a wildfire‐prone
Authors
Adam J. Terando, Brian J. Reich, Krishna Pacifici, Jennifer Costanza, Alexa McKerrow, Jaime A. Collazo

Informing watershed connectivity barrier prioritization decisions: A synthesis

Water resources and transportation infrastructure such as dams and culverts provide countless socio-economic benefits; however, this infrastructure can also disconnect the movement of organisms, sediment, and water through river ecosystems. Trade-offs associated with these competing costs and benefits occur globally, with applications in barrier addition (e.g. dam and road construction), reenginee
Authors
S. K. McKay, A. R. Cooper, M.W. Diebel, D. Elkins, G. Oldford, C. Roghair, Daniel J. Wieferich

Projected gains and losses of wildlife habitat from bioenergy-induced landscape change

Domestic and foreign renewable energy targets and financial incentives have increased demand for woody biomass and bioenergy in the southeastern United States. This demand is expected to be met through purpose-grown agricultural bioenergy crops, short-rotation tree plantations, thinning and harvest of planted and natural forests, and forest harvest residues. With results from a forest economics mo
Authors
Nathan M. Tarr, Matthew J. Rubino, Jennifer K. Costanza, Alexa McKerrow, Jaime A. Collazo, Robert C. Abt

Bioenergy production and forest landscape change in the southeastern United States

Production of woody biomass for bioenergy, whether wood pellets or liquid biofuels, has the potential to cause substantial landscape change and concomitant effects on forest ecosystems, but the landscape effects of alternative production scenarios have not been fully assessed. We simulated landscape change from 2010 to 2050 under five scenarios of woody biomass production for wood pellets and liqu
Authors
Jennifer K. Costanza, Robert C. Abt, Alexa McKerrow, Jaime A. Collazo