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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

Geographic distribution of genetic diversity in populations of Rio Grande Chub Gila pandora

In the southwestern United States (US), the Rio Grande chub (Gila pandora) is state-listed as a fish species of greatest conservation need and federally listed as sensitive due to habitat alterations and competition with non-native fishes. Characterizing genetic diversity, genetic population structure, and effective number of breeders will assist with conservation efforts by providing a baseline o
Authors
Rene Galindo, Wade Wilson, Colleen A. Caldwell

Jaguar taxonomy and genetic diversity for southern Arizona, United States, and Sonora, Mexico

Executive SummaryThe jaguar is the largest Neotropical felid and the only extant representative of the genus Panthera in the Americas. In recorded history, the jaguars range has extended from the Southern United States, throughout Mexico, to Central and South America, and they occupy a wide variety of habitats. A previous jaguar genetic study found high historical levels of gene flow among jaguar
Authors
Melanie Culver, Alexander Ochoa Hein

Estimating heterotrophic respiration at large scales: Challenges, approaches, and next steps

Heterotrophic respiration (HR), the aerobic and anaerobic processes mineralizing organic matter, is a key carbon flux but one impossible to measure at scales significantly larger than small experimental plots. This impedes our ability to understand carbon and nutrient cycles, benchmark models, or reliably upscale point measurements. Given that a new generation of highly mechanistic, genomic-specif
Authors
Ben Bond-Lamberty, Daniel Epron, Jennifer W. Harden, Mark E. Harmon, Forrest Hoffman, Jitendra Kumar, Anthony D. McGuire, Rodrigo Vargas

Book review: Large carnivore conservation: Integrating science and policy in the North American West

Dr. Klaver reviewed Large Carnivore Conservation as part of a graduate seminar and seminar participants represented the full range of readers who might be interested in the book: natural resource managers, citizen advocates, researchers, and students. Although we encountered a variety of opinions based on our different backgrounds and orientations, we discovered a surprising amount of consensus bo
Authors
A. J. Albertsen, M. M. Cox, E. E. Ernst, H. J. Haley, Robert W. Klaver, D. A. Loney, M. M. Mackert, A. L. McCombs, F. Piatscheck, V. M. Pocius, D. S. Stein

Disease epidemics: Lessons for resilience in an increasingly connected world

In public health, the term resilience often refers to the personality traits that individuals possess which help them endure and recover from stressors. However, resilience as a system characteristic, especially in regards to complex social-ecological systems, can be informative for public health at scales larger than the individual. Acute shocks to systems occur against a background of existing c
Authors
Craig R. Allen, S.N. DeWitte, M.H. Kurth, I. Linkov

Resource waves: phenological diversity enhances foraging opportunities for mobile consumers

Time can be a limiting constraint for consumers, particularly when resource phenology mediates foraging opportunity. Though a large body of research has explored how resource phenology influences trophic interactions, this work has focused on the topics of trophic mismatch or predator swamping, which typically occur over short periods, at small spatial extents or coarse resolutions. In contrast ma
Authors
Jonathan B. Armstrong, Gaku Takimoto, Daniel E. Schindler, Matthew M. Hayes, Matthew Kauffman

Surface water connectivity drives richness and composition of Arctic lake fish assemblages

Surface water connectivity can influence the richness and composition of fish assemblages, particularly in harsh environments where colonisation factors and access to seasonal refugia are required for species persistence. Studies regarding influence of connectivity on Arctic fish distributions are limited and are rarely applied to whole assemblage patterns. To increase our understanding of how su
Authors
Sarah M. Laske, Trevor B. Haynes, Amanda E. Rosenberger, Joshua C. Koch, Mark S. Wipfli, Matthew Whitman, Christian E. Zimmerman

Evaluating a strategy to deliver vaccine to white-tailed deer at a landscape level

Effective delivery of vaccines and other pharmaceuticals to wildlife populations is needed when zoonotic diseases pose a risk to public health and natural resources or have considerable economic consequences. The objective of our study was to develop a bait-distribution strategy for potential delivery of oral bovine tuberculosis (bTB) vaccine to white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) where dee
Authors
Justin W. Fischer, Chad R. Blass, W. David Walter, Charles W. Anderson, Michael J. Lavelle, Wayne H. Hall, Kurt C. VerCauterren

Models for ecological models: Ocean primary productivity

The ocean accounts for more than 70% of planet Earth's surface, and it processes are critically important to marine and terrestrial life.  Ocean ecosystems are strongly dependent on the physical state of the ocean (e.g., transports, mixing, upwelling, runoff, and ice dynamics(.  As an example, consider the Coastal Gulf of Alaska (CGOA) region.
Authors
Christopher K. Wikle, William B. Leeds, Mevin Hooten

Principles for urban stormwater management to protect stream ecosystems

Urban stormwater runoff is a critical source of degradation to stream ecosystems globally. Despite broad appreciation by stream ecologists of negative effects of stormwater runoff, stormwater management objectives still typically center on flood and pollution mitigation without an explicit focus on altered hydrology. Resulting management approaches are unlikely to protect the ecological structure
Authors
Christopher J. Walsh, Derek B. Booth, Matthew J. Burns, Tim D. Fletcher, Rebecca Hale, Lan N. Hoang, Grant Livingston, Megan A. Rippy, Allison H. Roy, Mateo Scoggins, Angela Wallace

Impacts of Northern Pike on stocked Rainbow Trout in Pactola Reservoir, South Dakota

Establishment of nonnative Northern Pike Esox lucius in Pactola Reservoir, South Dakota, has prompted concern among biologists about the influence of this species on the lake’s intensively managed salmonid fisheries. Ancedotal information suggests that catch rates of Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss have declined while mean size and abundance of Northern Pike has increased, although quantitative
Authors
Natalie C. Scheibel, Daniel J. Dembkowski, Jacob L. Davis, Steven R. Chipps

Habitat use and growth of the western painted crayfish Orconectes palmeri longimanus

Identifying ontogenetic shifts in habitat use by aquatic organisms is necessary for improving conservation strategies; however, our ability to designate life stages based on surrogate metrics (i.e., length) is questionable without validation. This study identified growth patterns of age-0 western painted crayfish Orconectes palmeri longimanus (Faxon, 1898) reared in the laboratory, provided suppor
Authors
Joseph J. Dyer, Joshua Mouser, Shannon K. Brewer