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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: 3984

Bias correction of bounded location errors in presence-only data

Location error occurs when the true location is different than the reported location. Because habitat characteristics at the true location may be different than those at the reported location, ignoring location error may lead to unreliable inference concerning species–habitat relationships.We explain how a transformation known in the spatial statistics literature as a change of support (COS) can b
Authors
Trevor J. Hefley, Brian M. Brost, Mevin Hooten

Thermal adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in a warming world: Insights from common garden experiments on Alaskan sockeye salmon

An important unresolved question is how populations of coldwater-dependent fishes will respond to rapidly warming water temperatures. For example, the culturally and economically important group, Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), experience site-specific thermal regimes during early development that could be disrupted by warming. To test for thermal local adaptation and heritable phenotypic plas
Authors
Morgan M. Sparks, Peter A. H. Westley, Jeffrey A. Falke, Thomas P. Quinn

A Bayesian method for assessing multiscalespecies-habitat relationships

ContextScientists face several theoretical and methodological challenges in appropriately describing fundamental wildlife-habitat relationships in models. The spatial scales of habitat relationships are often unknown, and are expected to follow a multi-scale hierarchy. Typical frequentist or information theoretic approaches often suffer under collinearity in multi-scale studies, fail to converge w
Authors
Erica F. Stuber, Lutz F. Gruber, Joseph J. Fontaine

Conservation status of an imperiled crayfish, Faxonius marchandi Hobbs, 1948 (Decapoda: Cambaridae)

We summarize the distribution, ecology, threats, and conservation status of Faxonius marchandi (Hobbs, 1948), the Mammoth Spring crayfish, a limited-range endemic species to the Spring River drainage of Missouri and Arkansas, USA. The species is known from 51 locations on lower-order perennial and intermittent streams in only the eastern portion of the drainage. Faxonius marchandi is found in larg
Authors
Robert J. DiStefano, Daniel D. Magoulick, C.A. Flinders, Emily M. Imhoff

Efficacy of time-lapse photography and repeated counts abundance estimation for white-tailed deer populations

Automated cameras have become increasingly common for monitoring wildlife populations and estimating abundance. Most analytical methods, however, fail to account for incomplete and variable detection probabilities, which biases abundance estimates. Methods which do account for detection have not been thoroughly tested, and those that have been tested were compared to other methods of abundance est
Authors
Allison Keever, Conor P. McGowan, Stephen S. Ditchkoff, S.A. Acker, J. Barry Grand, Chad H. Newbolt

Evidence for density dependence in foraging and migratory behavior of a subtropical nearshore seabird

Density-dependent competition for food resources influences both foraging ecology and reproduction in a variety of animals. The relationship between colony size, local prey depletion, and reproductive output in colonial central-place foragers has been extensively studied in seabirds; however, most studies have focused on effects of intraspecific competition during the breeding season, while little
Authors
Juliet S. Lamb, Yvan G. Satgé, Patrick G.R. Jodice

Windows of susceptibility and consequences of early life exposures to 17β–estradiol on medaka (Oryzias latipes) reproductive success

Estrogens and estrogen mimics are commonly found in surface waters and are associated with deleterious effects in fish populations. Impaired fertility and fecundity in fish following chronic exposures to estrogens and estrogen mimics during critical windows in development are well documented. However, information regarding differential reproductive effects of exposure within defined developmental
Authors
Crystal S. D. Lee Pow, Kedamawit Tilahun, Kari Creech, J. Mac Law, W. Gregory Cope, Thomas J. Kwak, James A. Rice, D. Derek Aday, Seth W. Kullman

Fish Bioenergetics 4.0: An R-based modeling application

Bioenergetics modeling is a widely used tool in fisheries management and research. Although popular, currently available software (i.e., Fish Bioenergetics 3.0) has not been updated in over 20 years and is incompatible with newer operating systems (i.e., 64‐bit). Moreover, since the release of Fish Bioenergetics 3.0 in 1997, the number of published bioenergetics models has increased appreciably fr
Authors
David Deslauriers, Steven R. Chipps, James E. Breck, James A. Rice, Charles P. Madenjian

Evaluating trade-offs in bull trout reintroduction strategies using structured decision making

Structured decision making allows reintroduction decisions to be made despite uncertainty by linking reintroduction goals with alternative management actions through predictive models of ecological processes. We developed a decision model to evaluate the trade-offs between six bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) reintroduction decisions with the goal of maximizing the number of adults in the recip
Authors
William R. Brignon, James Peterson, Jason B. Dunham, Howard A. Schaller, Carl B. Schreck

Bipartite networks improve understanding of effects of waterbody size and angling method on angler–fish interactions

Networks used to study interactions could provide insights to fisheries. We compiled data from 27 297 interviews of anglers across waterbodies that ranged in size from 1 to 12 113 ha. Catch rates of fish species among anglers grouped by species targeted generally differed between angling methods (bank or boat). We constructed angler–catch bipartite networks (angling method specific) between angler
Authors
Christopher J. Chizinski, Dustin R. Martin, Daizaburo Shizuka, Kevin L. Pope

Fuel-reduction management alters plant composition, carbon and nitrogen pools, and soil thaw in Alaskan boreal forest

Increasing wildfire activity in Alaska's boreal forests has led to greater fuel-reduction management. Management has been implemented to reduce wildfire spread, but the ecological impacts of these practices are poorly known. We quantified the effects of hand-thinning and shearblading on above- and belowground stand characteristics, plant species composition, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools, and
Authors
April M. Melvin, Gerardo Celis, Jill F. Johnstone, A. David McGuire, Helene Genet, Edward A.G. Schuur, T. Scott Rupp, Michelle C. Mack

Free-ranging domestic cats (Felis catus) on public lands: estimating density, activity, and diet in the Florida Keys

Feral and free-ranging domestic cats (Felis catus) can have strong negative effects on small mammals and birds, particularly in island ecosystems. We deployed camera traps to study free-ranging cats in national wildlife refuges and state parks on Big Pine Key and Key Largo in the Florida Keys, USA, and used spatial capture–recapture models to estimate cat abundance, movement, and activities. We al
Authors
Michael V. Cove, Beth Gardner, Theodore R. Simons, Roland Kays, Allan F. O'Connell