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: 41764
Long-term biocrust responses to wildfires in Washington, USA
PremiseDryland ecosystems in the western United States are affected by invasive species, wildfires, livestock grazing, and climate change in ways that are difficult to distinguish. Biocrusts perform important ecological roles in these systems and are sensitive to all of these pressures.MethodsWe revisited a Washington, USA, site sampled for biocrusts in 1999 to focus on effects of exotic annual gr
Authors
Heather T. Root, Julian Chan, Jeanne M Ponzetti, David A. Pyke, Bruce McCune
Climate change impacts on bird migration and highly pathogenic avian influenza
The unprecedented extent of highly pathogenic avian influenza coincides with intensifying global climate changes that alter host ecology and physiology, and could impact virus evolution and dynamics.
Authors
Diann Prosser, Claire S. Teitelbaum, Shenglai Yin, Nichola J. Hill, Xiangming Xiao
Organic layers preserved in ice patches: A new record of Holocene environmental change on the Beartooth Plateau, USA
Growing season temperatures play a crucial role in controlling treeline elevation at regional to global scales. However, understanding of treeline dynamics in response to long-term changes in temperature is limited. In this study, we analyze pollen, plant macrofossils, and charcoal preserved in organic layers within a 10,400-year-old ice patch and in sediment from a 6000-year-old wetland located a
Authors
Mio Alt, Kathryn Puseman, Craig Lee, Gregory T. Pederson, Joseph R. McConnell, Nathan J. Chellman, David B. McWethy
Glacial vicariance and secondary contact shape demographic histories in a freshwater mussel species complex
Characterizing the mechanisms influencing the distribution of genetic variation in aquatic species can be difficult due to the dynamic nature of hydrological landscapes. In North America’s Central Highlands, a complex history of glacial dynamics, long-term isolation, and secondary contact have shaped genetic variation in aquatic species. Although the effects of glacial history have been demonstrat
Authors
Nathan Johnson, Andrew R. Henderson, Jess W. Jones, Caitlin Beaver, Steve A. Ahlstedt, Gerald R. Dinkins, Nathan L. Eckert, Mark J. Endries, Jeffrey T. Garner, John L. Harris, Paul D. Hartfield, Don W. Hubbs, Timothy W. Lane, Monte A. McGregor, Kendall R. Moles, Cheryl Morrison, Matthew D. Wagner, James D. Williams, Chase H. Smith
Practical guide to measuring wetland carbon pools and fluxes
Wetlands cover a small portion of the world, but have disproportionate influence on global carbon (C) sequestration, carbon dioxide and methane emissions, and aquatic C fluxes. However, the underlying biogeochemical processes that affect wetland C pools and fluxes are complex and dynamic, making measurements of wetland C challenging. Over decades of research, many observational, experimental, and
Authors
Sheel Bansal, Irena F. Creed, Brian Tangen, Scott D. Bridgham, Ankur R. Desai, Ken Krauss, Scott C Neubauer, Gregory Noe, Donald O. Rosenberry, Carl C. Trettin, Kimberly Wickland, Scott T. Allen, Ariane Arias-Ortiz, Anna R. Armitage, Dennis Baldocchi, Kakoli Banerjee, David Bastviken, Peter Berg, Matthew J. Bogard, Alex T. Chow, William H. Conner, Christopher Craft, Courtney Creamer, Tonya Delsontro, Jamie Duberstein, Meagan J. Eagle, M. Siobhan Fennessey, Sarah A. Finkelstein, Mathias Goeckede, Sabine Grunwald, Meghan Halibisky, Ellen R. Herbert, Mohammad Jahangir, Olivia Johnson, Miriam C. Jones, Jeffrey Kelleway, Sarah Knox, Kevin D. Kroeger, Kevin Kuehn, David Lobb, Amanda Loder, Shizhou Ma, Damien Maher, Gavin McNicol, Jacob Meier, Beth A. Middleton, Christopher T. Mills, Purbasha Mistry, Abhijith Mitra, Courtney Mobilian, Amanda M. Nahlik, Sue Newman, Jessica O'Connell, Patty Oikawa, Max Post van der Burg, Charles A Schutte, Chanchung Song, Camille Stagg, Jessica Turner, Rodrigo Vargas, Mark Waldrop, Markus Wallin, Zhaohui Aleck Wang, Eric Ward, Debra A. Willard, Stephanie A. Yarwood, Xiaoyan Zhu
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center , Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
Fire regime shapes butterfly communities through changes in nectar resources in an Australian tropical savanna
Fire-dependent savanna provides key habitat for butterflies globally, but we know little about how fire regimes, including fire frequency and season, affect them. These impacts are likely to be primarily indirect, through changes in overall habitat structure, the abundance of larval host plants, and/or the provision of nectar resources for adults. We examined the relationships among fire regime, b
Authors
Julia B. Leone, Diane L. Larson, Anna E. Richards, Jon Schatz, Alan N. Andersen
Characterizing the movement of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in an avian aquatic–terrestrial food web
The movement of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) through linked aquatic–terrestrial food webs is not well understood. Tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) in such systems may be exposed to PFAS from multiple abiotic and/or biotic compartments. We show from fatty acid signatures and carbon stable isotopes that tree swallow nestlings in southwestern Ontario fed on both terrestrial and aquat
Authors
Kailee E. Hopkins, Melissa A. McKinney, Amandeep Saini, Robert J. Letcher, Natalie K. Karouna-Renier, Kim J. Fernie
Deer management generally reduces densities of nymphal Ixodes scapularis, but not prevalence of infection with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto
Human Lyme disease–primarily caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto (s.s.) in North America–is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States. Research on risk mitigation strategies during the last three decades has emphasized methods to reduce densities of the primary vector in eastern North America, the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis). Controlling white-tailed
Authors
Alynn Martin, Danielle Buttke, Jordan Raphael, Kelsey Taylor, Sarah Maes, Christina M. Parise, Howard Ginsberg, Paul Cross
Landscape configuration alters movement behavior and space-use of a Hawaiian forest bird community
Habitat loss and fragmentation are considered the greatest threats to ecosystems worldwide. Movement reveals how individuals meet their habitat requirements and respond to environmental heterogeneity, and thus can provide a powerful tool for investigating how animals respond to changes in landscape configuration. In our study, we examined the effects of landscape configuration on the space use and
Authors
Kristina L. Paxton, Jennifer R Smetzer, Patrick J. Hart, Marti J Anderson, Eben H. Paxton
Conserved grasslands support similar pollinator diversity as pollinator-specific practice regardless of proximal cropland and pesticide exposure
Pollinator diversity and abundance are declining globally. Cropland agriculture and the corresponding use of agricultural pesticides may contribute to these declines, while increased pollinator habitat (flowering plants) can help mitigate them. Here we tested whether the relative effect of wildflower plantings on pollinator diversity and counts were modified by proportion of nearby agricultural la
Authors
Johanna M. Kraus, Kelly Smalling, Mark W. Vandever, Carrie E Givens, Cassandra Smith, Dana W. Kolpin, Michelle Hladik
Divergent community trajectories with climate change across a fine-scale gradient in snow depth
Fine-scale microclimate variation due to complex topography can shape both current vegetation distributional patterns and how vegetation responds to changing climate. Topographic heterogeneity in mountains is hypothesized to mediate responses to regional climate change at the scale of metres. For alpine vegetation especially, the interplay between changing temperatures and topographically mediated
Authors
Meagan Ford Oldfather, Sarah C. Elmendorf, Elisa Van Cleemput, Jonathan J. Henn, Jared D. Huxley, Caitlin T. White, Hope C. Humphries, Marko J. Spasojevic, Katharine N. Suding, Nancy C. Emery
Incorporating environmental heterogeneity and observation effort to predict host distribution and viral spillover from a bat reservoir
Predicting the spatial occurrence of wildlife is a major challenge for ecology and management. In Latin America, limited knowledge of the number and locations of vampire bat roosts precludes informed allocation of measures intended to prevent rabies spillover to humans and livestock. We inferred the spatial distribution of vampire bat roosts while accounting for observation effort and environmenta
Authors
Rita Ribeiro, Jason Matthiopoulos, Finn Lindgre, Carlos Tello, Carlos M. Zariquiey, William Valderrama, Tonie E. Rocke, Daniel G. Streicker