Publications
This list of publications includes peer-review journal articles, official USGS publications series, reports and more authored by scientists in the Ecosystems Mission Area. A database of all USGS publications, with advanced search features, can be accessed at the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Filter Total Items: 42157
Recent advances in applying decision science to managing national forests
Management of federal public forests to meet sustainability goals and multiple use regulations is an immense challenge. To succeed, we suggest use of formal decision science procedures and tools in the context of structured decision making (SDM). SDM entails four stages: problem structuring (framing the problem and defining objectives and evaluation criteria), problem analysis (defining...
Authors
Bruce G. Marcot, Matthew P. Thompson, Michael Runge, Frank R. Thompson, Steven McNulty, David A. Cleaves, Monica Tomosy, Larry A. Fisher, Bliss Andrew
Pathology in euthermic bats with white nose syndrome suggests a natural manifestation of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome
White nose syndrome, caused by Geomyces destructans, has killed more than 5 million cave hibernating bats in eastern North America. During hibernation, the lack of inflammatory cell recruitment at the site of fungal infection and erosion is consistent with a temperature-induced inhibition of immune cell trafficking. This immune suppression allows G. destructans to colonize and erode the...
Authors
Carol U. Meteyer, Daniel Barber, Judith N. Mandl
Compartment-based hydrodynamics and water quality modeling of a northern Everglades wetland, Florida, USA
The last remaining large remnant of softwater wetlands in the US Florida Everglades lies within the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. However, Refuge water quality today is impacted by pumped stormwater inflows to the eutrophic and mineral-enriched 100-km canal, which circumscribes the wetland. Optimal management is a challenge and requires scientifically based...
Authors
Hongqing Wang, Ehab A. Meselhe, Michael G. Waldon, Matthew C. Harwell, Chunfang Chen
Prevalence of a potentially lethal parasite of wading birds in natural and agricultural wetlands in south Louisiana
Gambusia affinis (Western Mosquitofish) were sampled from 18 sites representing marsh, forested wetlands, and agricultural wetlands in south Louisiana to determine distribution and infection parameters of Eustrongylides ignotus, a potentially lethal nematode parasite of wading birds, (n = 400 per site). Overall, prevalence of infection was 0.3%, with significantly higher prevalence in...
Authors
Margaret C. Luent, Melissa Collins, Clinton W. Jeske, Paul S Leberg
N2-fixing red alder indirectly accelerates ecosystem nitrogen cycling
Symbiotic N2-fixing tree species can accelerate ecosystem N dynamics through decomposition via direct pathways by producing readily decomposed leaf litter and increasing N supply to decomposers, as well as via indirect pathways by increasing tissue and detrital N in non-fixing vegetation. To evaluate the relative importance of these pathways, we compared three-year decomposition and N...
Authors
Steven Perakis, Joselin J. Matkins, David E. Hibbs
Radio telemetry equipment and applications for carnivores
Radio-telemetry was not included in the first comprehensive manual of wildlife research techniques (Mosby 1960) because the first published papers were about physiological wildlife telemetry (LeMunyan et al. 1959) and because research using telemetry in field ecology was just being initiated (Marshall et al. 1962; Cochran and Lord 1963). Among the first uses of telemetry to study...
Authors
Mark R. Fuller, Todd K. Fuller
A random biogeochemical walk into three soda lakes of the western USA: With an introduction to a few of their microbial denizens
No abstract available.
Authors
Ronald S. Oremland
Health assessment of captive and wild-caught West Indian manatees (Trichechus manatus)
No abstract available.
Authors
M. Andrew Stamper, Robert K. Bonde
Inoculation of bats with European Geomyces destructans supports the novel pathogen hypothesis for the origin of white-nose syndrome
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emerging disease of hibernating bats associated with cutaneous infection by the fungus Geomyces destructans (Gd), and responsible for devastating declines of bat populations in eastern North America. Affected bats appear emaciated and one hypothesis is that they spend too much time out of torpor during hibernation, depleting vital fat reserves required to...
Authors
Lisa Warnecke, James M. Turner, Trent Bollinger, Jeffrey M. Lorch, Vikram Misra, Paul M. Cryan, Gudrun Wibbelt, David S. Blehert, Craig K. R. Willis
Mapping plant species ranges in the Hawaiian Islands: developing a methodology and associated GIS layers
This report documents a methodology for projecting the geographic ranges of plant species in the Hawaiian Islands. The methodology consists primarily of the creation of several geographic information system (GIS) data layers depicting attributes related to the geographic ranges of plant species. The most important spatial-data layer generated here is an objectively defined classification...
Authors
Jonathan P. Price, James D. Jacobi, Samuel M. Gon, Dwight Matsuwaki, Loyal Mehrhoff, Warren Wagner, Matthew P Lucas, Barbara L. Rowe
Spring snow goose hunting influences body composition of waterfowl staging in Nebraska
A spring hunt was instituted in North America to reduce abundance of snow geese (Chen caerulescens) by increasing mortality of adults directly, yet disturbance from hunting activities can indirectly influence body condition and ultimately, reproductive success. We estimated effects of hunting disturbance by comparing body composition of snow geese and non-target species, greater white...
Authors
Aaron T. Pearse, Gary Krapu, Robert R. Cox
Sample design effects in landscape genetics
An important research gap in landscape genetics is the impact of different field sampling designs on the ability to detect the effects of landscape pattern on gene flow. We evaluated how five different sampling regimes (random, linear, systematic, cluster, and single study site) affected the probability of correctly identifying the generating landscape process of population structure...
Authors
Sara J. Oyler-McCance, Bradley C. Fedy, Erin L. Landguth