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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.

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Blooming wildflowers in Pinnacles National Park.

The circular highlights how our research efforts fulfill larger USGS strategic goals.

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Our History

Tricolored Heron at Ding Darling National Park

This book is dedicated to those who are or have been associated with the unit program. 

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Yellow-billed Loon on a lake in the northern area of Alaska.

This report provides abstracts of most of the ongoing and recently completed research.

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Filter Total Items: 3984

Nonbreeding isolation and population-specific migration patterns among three populations of Golden-winged Warblers

Golden-winged Warblers (Vermivora chrysoptera) are Nearctic–Neotropical migrants experiencing varied regional population trends not fully explained by breeding-grounds factors such as nest success. A lack of detailed information on the nonbreeding distributions, migration routes, or timing of migration among populations hampers our ability to identify population processes outside the breeding peri
Authors
Gunnar R. Kramer, Henry M. Streby, Sean M. Peterson, Justin A. Lehman, David A. Buehler, Petra B. Wood, Darin J. McNeil, Jeffrey L. Larkin, David E. Andersen
By
Cooperative Research Units

Size and age structure of anadromous and landlocked populations of Rainbow Smelt

Rainbow Smelt Osmerus mordax are widely distributed in both anadromous and landlocked populations throughout northeastern North America; abundance, size at age, and maximum size vary widely among populations and life histories. In the present study, size at age, von Bertalanffy growth parameters, population age distributions, and precision and bias in age assessment based on scales and sectioned o
Authors
Andrew O'Malley, Claire Enterline, Joseph D. Zydlewski
By
Cooperative Research Units

Factors influencing detection of the federally endangered Diamond Darter Crystallaria cincotta: Implications for long-term monitoring strategies

Population monitoring is an essential component of endangered species recovery programs. The federally endangered Diamond Darter Crystallaria cincotta is in need of an effective monitoring design to improve our understanding of its distribution and track population trends. Because of their small size, cryptic coloration, and nocturnal behavior, along with limitations associated with current sampli
Authors
Austin A. Rizzo, Donald J. Brown, Stuart A. Welsh, Patricia A. Thompson
By
Cooperative Research Units

Annual changes in seasonal river water temperatures in the eastern and western United States

Changes in river water temperatures are anticipated to have direct effects on thermal habitat and fish population vital rates, and therefore, understanding temporal trends in water temperatures may be necessary for predicting changes in thermal habitat and how species might respond to such changes. However, many investigations into trends in water temperatures use regression methods that assume lo
Authors
Tyler Wagner, Stephen R. Midway, Joanna B. Whittier, Jefferson T. DeWeber, Craig P. Paukert
By
Cooperative Research Units

Evolutionary and functional mitogenomics associated with the genetic restoration of the Florida panther

Florida panthers are endangered pumas that currently persist in reduced patches of habitat in South Florida, USA. We performed mitogenome reference-based assemblies for most parental lines of the admixed Florida panthers that resulted from the introduction of female Texas pumas into South Florida in 1995. With the addition of 2 puma mitogenomes, we characterized 174 single nucleotide polymorphisms
Authors
Alexander Ochoa, David P. Onorato, Robert R. Fitak, Melody Roelke-Parker, Melanie Culver
By
Cooperative Research Units

Terrestrial ecosystem model performance in simulating productivity and its vulnerability to climate change in the northern permafrost region

Realistic projection of future climate-carbon (C) cycle feedbacks requires better understanding and an improved representation of the C cycle in permafrost regions in the current generation of Earth system models. Here we evaluated 10 terrestrial ecosystem models for their estimates of net primary productivity (NPP) and responses to historical climate change in permafrost regions in the Northern H
Authors
Jianyang Xia, A. David McGuire, David Lawrence, Eleanor J. Burke, Guangsheng Chen, Xiaodong Chen, Christine Delire, Charles Koven, Andrew MacDougall, Shushi Peng, Annette Rinke, Kazuyuki Saito, Wenxin Zhang, Ramdane Alkama, Theodore J. Bohn, Philippe Ciais, Bertrand Decharme, Isabelle Gouttevin, Tomohiro Hajima, Daniel J. Hayes, Kun Huang, Duoying Ji, Gerhard Krinner, Dennis P. Lettenmaier, Paul A. Miller, John C. Moore, Benjamin Smith, Tetsuo Sueyoshi, Zheng Shi, Liming Yan, Junyi Liang, Lifen Jiang, Qian Zhang, Yiqi Luo
By
Cooperative Research Units

An integrated data model to estimate spatiotemporal occupancy, abundance, and colonization dynamics

Ecological invasions and colonizations occur dynamically through space and time. Estimating the distribution and abundance of colonizing species is critical for efficient management or conservation. We describe a statistical framework for simultaneously estimating spatiotemporal occupancy and abundance dynamics of a colonizing species. Our method accounts for several issues that are common when mo
Authors
Perry J. Williams, Mevin Hooten, Jamie N. Womble, George G. Esslinger, Michael R. Bower, Trevor J. Hefley
By
Cooperative Research Units

Assessing conditions influencing the longitudinal distribution of exotic brown trout (Salmo trutta) in a mountain stream: a spatially-explicit modeling approach

Trout species often segregate along elevational gradients, yet the mechanisms driving this pattern are not fully understood. On the Logan River, Utah, USA, exotic brown trout (Salmo trutta) dominate at low elevations but are near-absent from high elevations with native Bonneville cutthroat trout (Onchorhynchus clarkii utah). We used a spatially-explicit Bayesian modeling approach to evaluate how a
Authors
Christy S. Meredith, Phaedra Budy, Mevin Hooten, Marcos Oliveira Prates
By
Cooperative Research Units

The invasive ant, Solenopsis invicta, reduces herpetofauna richness and abundance

Amphibians and reptiles are declining globally. One potential cause of this decline includes impacts resulting from co-occurrence with non-native red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. Although a growing body of anecdotal and observational evidence from laboratory experiments supports this hypothesis, there remains a lack of field scale manipulations testing the effect of fire ants on reptile
Authors
Craig R. Allen, Hannah E. Birge, J. Slater, E. Wiggers
By
Cooperative Research Units

Hard choices in assessing survival past dams — a comparison of single- and paired-release strategies

Mark–recapture models are widely used to estimate survival of salmon smolts migrating past dams. Paired releases have been used to improve estimate accuracy by removing components of mortality not attributable to the dam. This method is accompanied by reduced precision because (i) sample size is reduced relative to a single, large release; and (ii) variance calculations inflate error. We modeled a
Authors
Joseph D. Zydlewski, Daniel S. Stich, Douglas B. Sigourney
By
Cooperative Research Units

Managing American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) population qrowth by targeting nesting season vital rates

In populations of long-lived species, adult survival typically has a relatively high influence on population growth. From a management perspective, however, adult survival can be difficult to increase in some instances, so other component rates must be considered to reverse population declines. In North Carolina, USA, management to conserve the American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) targets
Authors
Shilo K. Felton, Nathan J. Hostetter, Kenneth H. Pollock, Theodore R. Simons
By
Cooperative Research Units

The American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) Working Group: 15 years of collaborative focal species research and management

The American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) Working Group formed spontaneously in 2001 as coastal waterbird biologists recognized the potential for American Oystercatchers to serve as focal species for collaborative research and management. Accomplishments over the past 15 years include the establishment of rangewide surveys, color-banding protocols, mark-resight studies, a revision of the B
Authors
Theodore R. Simons
By
Cooperative Research Units, Bird Banding Laboratory