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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: 4348

Aging, climate, and invasions threaten reservoirs in the Mississippi basin

Reservoirs in the Mississippi River basin are facing three momentous threats. The first two, aging and climate change, are relatively slow moving and their signal can be hard to discern given their stretched temporal scales. The third, species invasions, is faster paced and discernable within shorter temporal scales and restricted spatial scales. Aging and climate directly affect reservoir environ
Authors
Leandro E. Miranda

A continuous classification of the 476,697 lakes of the conterminous US based on geographic archetypes

A variety of classification approaches are used to facilitate understanding, prediction, monitoring, and the management of lakes. However, broad-scale applicability of current approaches is limited by either the need for in situ lake data, incompatibilities among approaches, or a lack of empirical testing of approaches based on ex situ data. We developed a new geographic classification approach fo
Authors
Jean-Francois Lapierre, Katherine E. Webster, Ephraim Hanks, Tyler Wagner, Patricia A. Soranno, Ian M. McCullough, Kaitlin L. Reinl, Marcella Domka, Noah R. Lotting

Book review of America’s public lands: From Yellowstone to Smokey Bear and beyond (2nd edition)

Since the creation of the first public lands in the United States, they have been a source of turmoil, admiration, and prolonged political debate Nevertheless, our public lands have become an intrinsic part of our national identity and economic progress, exemplifying our divergent attitudes towards nature preservation and resource development. With this in mind, Randall K. Wilson makes a case for
Authors
Ambar A. Melendez Perez, Denisse Camarena, Johanna M. H. Ford, Lindsey A. W. Gapinski, Anne M. Hatch, Brier E. Klossing, Aaron A. Yappert, Robert W. Klaver

Accounting for spatiotemporal sampling variation in joint species distribution models

Estimating relative abundance is critical for informing conservation and management efforts and for making inferences about the effects of environmental change on populations. Freshwater fisheries span large geographic regions, occupy diverse habitats and consist of varying species assemblages. Monitoring schemes used to sample these diverse populations often result in populations being sampled at
Authors
Joshua S. North, Erin M. Schliep, Gretchen J.A. Hansen, Holly Kundel, Christopher A. Custer, Paul McLaughlin, Tyler Wagner

The smaller, the better? First evaluation of growth and mortality in crayfish internally tagged with p-Chips

Small-bodied aquatic animals present a challenge to researchers seeking to uniquely mark individuals for scientific study. Microtransponder tags, such as p-Chips, represent the smallest electronic animal tags available to meet this need. The use of p-Chips to tag freshwater crayfishes, however, has not been explored. The goal of this study, therefore, was to determine the effects of p-Chip tagging
Authors
Augusto F. Huber, Wesley A. Fitzsimmons, Jacob Thomas Westhoff

Imperfect detection and misidentification affect inferences from data informing water operation decisions

ObjectiveManagers can modify river flow regimes using fish monitoring data to minimize impacts from water management infrastructure. For example, operation of the gate-controlled Delta Cross Channel (DCC) in California can negatively affect the endangered Sacramento River winter-run Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha. Although guidelines have been developed for DCC operations by using real-ti
Authors
Joseph E. Kirsch, James Peterson, Adam Duarte, Denise Goodman, Andrew Goodman, Sara Hugentobler, Mariah Meek, Russell Perry, Lori Smith, Jeffrey Stuart

Cisco population characteristics in Wisconsin lakes in relation to lake- and landscape-level factors

ObjectiveDeclines in Cisco Coregonus artedi populations in some inland lakes have prompted assessments of Cisco occurrence and extirpation risk in relation to various stressors to identify refuge lakes and factors that promote Cisco persistence. However, most previous assessments have focused on presence–absence of Cisco rather than examining how population characteristics, such as relative abunda
Authors
Daniel J. Dembkowski, Jeremiah S. Shrovnal, Timothy P. Parks, Greg G. Sass, John Lyons, Daniel A. Isermann

Coyotes in the Great Basin desert do not exhibit a spatial response following the removal of anthropogenic water sources

Coyote (Canis latrans) range expansion into desert ecosystems has highlighted the role of anthropogenic water sources in arid ecosystems. Despite hypotheses that additional water facilitated this expansion, previous studies reported that coyotes did not exhibit a spatial or dietary response to removal of anthropogenic water. We used GPS data to examine if coyotes responded to water removal at a fi
Authors
Nadine Pershyn, Eric Gese, Erica Francis Stuber, Brian Kluever

Dams facilitate predation during Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) smolt migration

Diadromous fish populations have incurred precipitous declines across the globe. Among many stressors, these species are threatened by anthropogenic barriers that impede movement, alter riverine habitat, and augment predator communities. In this study, we used acoustic transmitters (n = 220) with predation and temperature sensors to characterize Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) smolt predation risk i
Authors
Matthew A. Mensinger, James P. Hawkes, Graham S. Goulette, Alessio Mortelliti, Erik Blomberg, Joseph D. Zydlewski

Effects of landcover on mesocarnivore density and detection rate along an urban to rural gradient

Human development has major implications for wildlife populations. Urban-exploiter species can benefit from human subsidized resources, whereas urban-avoider species can vanish from wildlife communities in highly developed areas. Therefore, understanding how the density of different species varies in response to landcover changes associated with human development can provide important insight into
Authors
Leah McTigue, Brett Alexander DeGregorio

Sea ice concentration decline in an important Adélie penguin molt area

Unlike in many polar regions, the spatial extent and duration of the sea ice season have increased in the Ross Sea sector of the Southern Ocean during the satellite era. Simultaneously, populations of Adélie penguins, a sea ice obligate, have been stable or increasing in the region. Relationships between Adélie penguin population growth and sea ice concentration are complex, with sea ice driving
Authors
Annie E. Schmidt, Amélie Lescroël, Simeon Lisovski, Megan Elrod, Dennis Jongsomjit, Katie Dugger, Grant Ballard

Reach-scale associations between introduced Brook Trout and juvenile and stream-resident Bull Trout in Idaho

ObjectiveNative Bull Trout Salvelinus confluentus populations can be influenced by a variety of stressors operating at multiple spatial scales, making the relative importance of biotic versus abiotic controls difficult to discern at small scales where monitoring and management typically occur. Nonnative Brook Trout S. fontinalis were widely introduced throughout western North America and negativel
Authors
Nicholas S. Voss, Brett J. Bowersox, Michael Quist
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