Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

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

Effects of breeder turnover and harvest on group composition and recruitment in a social carnivore

Breeder turnover can influence population growth in social carnivores through changes to group size, composition and recruitment.Studies that possess detailed group composition data that can provide insights about the effects of breeder turnover on groups have generally been conducted on species that are not subject to recurrent annual human harvest. We wanted to know how breeder turnover affects

Authors
David E. Ausband, Michael S. Mitchell, Lisette P. Waits

A suite of standard post-tagging evaluation metrics can help assess tag retention for field-based fish telemetry research

Telemetry can inform many scientific and research questions if a context exists for integrating individual studies into the larger body of literature. Creating cumulative distributions of post-tagging evaluation metrics would allow individual researchers to relate their telemetry data to other studies. Widespread reporting of standard metrics is a precursor to the calculation of benchmarks for the
Authors
Kayla M. Gerber, Martha E. Mather, Joseph M. Smith

Imputation approaches for animal movement modeling

The analysis of telemetry data is common in animal ecological studies. While the collection of telemetry data for individual animals has improved dramatically, the methods to properly account for inherent uncertainties (e.g., measurement error, dependence, barriers to movement) have lagged behind. Still, many new statistical approaches have been developed to infer unknown quantities affecting anim
Authors
Henry Scharf, Mevin Hooten, Devin S. Johnson

Novel observations of larval fire survival, feeding behavior, and host plant use in the regal fritillary, Speyeria idalia (Drury) (Nymphalidae)

Speyeria idalia is a prairie specialist that has experienced dramatic population declines throughout its range. Speyeria idalia is nearly extirpated from the eastern portion of its former range; however, populations within Kansas are relatively stable. We made several previously undescribed field observations of late-instar larvae and post-diapause female S. idalia in northeastern Kansas during 20
Authors
Kelsey McCullough, Gene Albanese, David A. Haukos

Comparing efficiency of American Fisheries Society standard snorkeling techniques to environmental DNA sampling techniques

Analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA) is an emerging technique used to detect aquatic species through water sampling and the extraction of biological material for amplification. Our study compared the efficacy of eDNA methodology to American Fisheries Society (AFS) standard snorkeling surveys with regard to detecting the presence of rare fish species. Knowing which method is more efficient at detec
Authors
Roy M. Ulibarri, Scott A. Bonar, Christopher B. Rees, Jon J. Amberg, Bridget Ladell, Craig Jackson

It is the time for oceanic seabirds: Tracking year-round distribution of gadfly petrels across the Atlantic Ocean

AimAnthropogenic activities alter and constrain the structure of marine ecosystems with implications for wide-ranging marine vertebrates. In spite of the environmental importance of vast oceanic ecosystems, most conservation efforts mainly focus on neritic areas. To identify relevant oceanic areas for conservation, we assessed the year-round spatial distribution and spatio-temporal overlap of eigh
Authors
Raul Ramos, Nicholas Carlile, Jeremy Madeiros, Ivan Ramirez, Vitor H. Paiva, Herculano A. Dinis, Francis Zino, Manuel Biscoito, Gustavo R. Leal, Leandro Bugoni, Patrick G.R. Jodice, Peter G. Ryan, Jacob Gonzalez-Solis

Hydrologic regimes as potential drivers of morphologic divergence in fish

Fishes often exhibit phenotypic divergence across gradients of abiotic and biotic selective pressures. In streams, many of the known selective pressures driving phenotypic differentiation are largely influenced by hydrologic regimes. Because flow regimes drive so many attributes of lotic systems, we hypothesized fish exhibit phenotypic divergence among streams with different flow regimes. We used
Authors
Lindsey Bruckerhoff, Daniel D. Magoulick

A projection of lesser prairie chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) populations range-wide

We built a population viability analysis (PVA) model to predict future population status of the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus, LEPC) in four ecoregions across the species’ range. The model results will be used in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) Species Status Assessment (SSA) for the LEPC. Our stochastic projection model combined demographic rate estimates from prev
Authors
Jonathan W. Cummings, Sarah J. Converse, Clinton T. Moore, David R. Smith, Clay T. Nichols, Nathan L. Allan, Chris M. O'Meilia

Shorebird stopover habitat decisions in a changing landscape

To examine how habitat use by sandpipers (Calidris spp.; Baird's sandpipers, dunlin, least sandpipers, pectoral sandpipers, semipalmated sandpipers, stilt sandpipers, and white-rumped sandpipers) varies across a broad suite of environmental conditions, we conducted surveys at wetlands throughout the spring migratory period in 2013 and 2014 in 2 important stopover regions: the Rainwater Basin (RWB)
Authors
Caitlyn R. Gillespie, Joseph J. Fontaine

Identifying ecologically relevant scales of habitat selection: diel habitat selection in elk

Although organisms make resource selection decisions at multiple spatiotemporal scales, not all scales are ecologically relevant to any given organism. Ecological patterns and rhythms such as behavioral and climatic patterns may provide a consistent method for identifying ecologically relevant scales of habitat selection. Using elk (Cervus canadensis) as an example species, we sought to test the a
Authors
Caleb P. Roberts, James W. Cain, Robert D. Cox

Mapping tree density in forests of the southwestern USA using Landsat 8 data

The increase of tree density in forests of the American Southwest promotes extreme fire events, understory biodiversity losses, and degraded habitat conditions for many wildlife species. To ameliorate these changes, managers and scientists have begun planning treatments aimed at reducing fuels and increasing understory biodiversity. However, spatial variability in tree density across the landscape
Authors
Kamal Humagain, Carlos Portillo-Quintero, Robert D. Cox, James W. Cain

The skill we all need

No abstract available.
Authors
Scott A. Bonar, Jesse Trushenski