Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Publications

These publications showcase the significant science conducted in our Science Centers.

Filter Total Items: 16780

Structural geometry of the Valley and Ridge and Plateaus provinces

The Valley and Ridge physiographic province comprises the area between the Blue Ridge province on the east and the Appalachian Plateau province on the west. The province consists of Paleozoic carbonate and clastic rocks that were folded and thrust faulted during the Alleghanian orogeny. The Appalachian Plateau province consists of mostly flat lying to gently dipping upper Paleozoic rocks, with the
Authors
Mark A. Evans, Randall C. Orndorff, William S. Henika

Estimating abundance: Chapter 27

This chapter provides a non-technical overview of ‘closed population capture–recapture’ models, a class of well-established models that are widely applied in ecology, such as removal sampling, covariate models, and distance sampling. These methods are regularly adopted for studies of reptiles, in order to estimate abundance from counts of marked individuals while accounting for imperfect detection
Authors
J. Andrew Royle

Comparative mitogenomic analyses of three North American stygobiont amphipods of the genus Stygobromus (Crustacea: Amphipoda)

The mitochondrial genomes of three North American stygobiont amphipods Stygobromus tenuis potomacus, S. foliatus and S. indentatus collected from Caroline County, VA, were sequenced using a shotgun sequencing approach on an Illumina NextSeq500 (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA). All three mitogenomes displayed 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs and two rRNAs typical of metazoans. While S. tenuis and S.
Authors
Aaron Aunins, David L. Nelms, Christopher S. Hobson, Tim L. King

Northeast and Midwest regional species and habitats at greatest risk and most vulnerable to climate impacts

The objectives of this Chapter are to describe climate change vulnerability, it’s components, the range of assessment methods being implemented regionally, and examples of training resources and tools. Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments (CCVAs) have already been conducted for numerous Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need and their dependent 5 habitats across the Northeast and Midwe
Authors
Michelle D. Staudinger, Laura Hilberg, Maria Janowiak, C.O. Swanton

Paleogeographic implications of Late Miocene lacustrine and nonmarine evaporite deposits in the Lake Mead region: Immediate precursors to the Colorado River

Thick late Miocene nonmarine evaporite (mainly halite and gypsum) and related lacustrine limestone deposits compose the upper basin fill in half grabens within the Lake Mead region of the Basin and Range Province directly west of the Colorado Plateau in southern Nevada and northwestern Arizona. Regional relations and geochronologic data indicate that these deposits are late synextensional to poste
Authors
James E. Faulds, Charlotte Schreiber, Victoria E. Langenheim, Nicholas H. Hinz, Tom Shaw, Matthew T. Heizler, Michael E Perkins, Mohammed El Tabakh, Michael J. Kunk

Elevated bladder cancer in northern New England: The role of drinking water and arsenic

Background: Bladder cancer mortality rates have been elevated in northern New England for at least five decades. Incidence rates in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont are about 20% higher than the United States overall. We explored reasons for this excess, focusing on arsenic in drinking water from private wells, which are particularly prevalent in the region.Methods: In a population-based case-con
Authors
Dalsu Baris, Richard Wadell, Laura Freeman, Molly Schwenn, Joanne Colt, Joseph D. Ayotte, Mary Ward, John Nuckols, Alan Schned, Brian Jackson, Castine Clerkin, Nathanial Rothman, Lee Moore, Anne Taylor, Gilpin Robinson, Monawar G. Hosain, Carla Armenti, Richard McCoy, Claudine Samanic, Robert Hoover, Joseph Fraumeni, Alison Johnson, Margaret Karagas, Debra Silverman

Effects of 2 fungicide formulations on microbial and macroinvertebrate leaf decomposition under laboratory conditions

Aquatic fungi contribute significantly to the decomposition of leaves in streams, a key ecosystem service. However, little is known about the effects of fungicides on aquatic fungi and macroinvertebrates involved with leaf decomposition. Red maple (Acer rubrum) leaves were conditioned in a stream to acquire microbes (bacteria and fungi), or leached in tap water (unconditioned) to simulate potenti
Authors
Adria Elskus, Kelly L. Smalling, Michelle Hladik, Kathryn Kuivila

Reply Zalasiewicz et al. comment

No abstract available.
Authors
Stanley C. Finney, Lucy E. Edwards

A new species of Myotis (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from Suriname

We describe a new species of bat in the genus Myotis (Vespertilionidae: Myotinae) from the district of Sipaliwini, Suriname. The new species (Myotis clydejonesi sp. nov.), known from a single specimen, is sister to a clade of M. nigricans (Schinz) from southern South America, but differs from all Neotropical species of Myotis in qualitative and quantitative morphological characters and in its cyto
Authors
Ricardo Moratelli, Don E. Wilson, Alfred Gardner, Robert D. Fisher, Eliécer E. Gutiérrez

Widespread episodic thiamine deficiency in Northern Hemisphere wildlife

Many wildlife populations are declining at rates higher than can be explained by known threats to biodiversity. Recently, thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency has emerged as a possible contributing cause. Here, thiamine status was systematically investigated in three animal classes: bivalves, ray-finned fishes, and birds. Thiamine diphosphate is required as a cofactor in at least five life-sustaining
Authors
Lennart Balk, Per-Åke Hägerroth, Hanna Gustavsson, Lisa Sigg, Gun Akerman, Yolanda Ruiz Muñoz, Dale C. Honeyfield, Ulla Tjarnlund, Kenneth Oliveira, Karin Strom, Stephen D. McCormick, Simon Karlsson, Marika Strom, Mathijs van Manen, Anna-Lena Berg, Halldór P. Halldórsson, Jennie Stromquist, Tracy K. Collier, Hans Borjeson, Torsten Morner, Tomas Hansson

The history of Patuxent: America’s wildlife research story

This report, based on a symposium held on October 13, 2011, at the National Wildlife Visitor Center at the Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel, MD, documents the history of the Patuxent Research Refuge and the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, collectively known as Patuxent. The symposium was one of the many activities occurring at that time to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the creation of the

Using spatial capture–recapture to elucidate population processes and space-use in herpetological studies

The cryptic behavior and ecology of herpetofauna make estimating the impacts of environmental change on demography difficult; yet, the ability to measure demographic relationships is essential for elucidating mechanisms leading to the population declines reported for herpetofauna worldwide. Recently developed spatial capture–recapture (SCR) methods are well suited to standard herpetofauna monitori
Authors
David J. Muñoz, David A.W. Miller, Chris Sutherland, Evan H. Campbell Grant