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

Distribution and exploitation of Nile perch Lates niloticus in relation to stratification in Lake Victoria, East Africa

Stratification restricts habitable areas forcing fish to balance between favourable temperature and minimum dissolved oxygen requirements. Acoustic surveys conducted during the stratified and isothermal periods on tropical Lake Victoria indicated that stratification of temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) affected vertical distribution of Nile perch. There was higher mean temperature (25.6 ± 0.5
Authors
A. Taabu-Munyaho, Robert J. Kayanda, Inigo Everson, Timothy B. Grabowski, Gudrún Marteinsdóttir

Environmental and physical controls on northern terrestrial methane emissions across permafrost zones

Methane (CH4) emissions from the northern high-latitude region represent potentially significant biogeochemical feedbacks to the climate system. We compiled a database of growing-season CH4 emissions from terrestrial ecosystems located across permafrost zones, including 303 sites described in 65 studies. Data on environmental and physical variables, including permafrost conditions, were used to as
Authors
David Olefeldt, Merritt R. Turetsky, Patrick M. Crill, A. David McGuire

Power to detect trends in abundance of secretive marsh birds: effects of species traits and sampling effort

Standardized protocols for surveying secretive marsh birds have been implemented across North America, but the efficacy of surveys to detect population trends has not been evaluated. We used survey data collected from populations of marsh birds across North America and simulations to explore how characteristics of bird populations (proportion of survey stations occupied, abundance at occupied stat
Authors
Robert J. Steidl, Courtney J. Conway, Andrea R. Litt

Estimating occupancy and predicting numbers of gray wolf packs in Montana using hunter surveys

Reliable knowledge of the status and trend of carnivore populations is critical to their conservation and management. Methods for monitoring carnivores, however, are challenging to conduct across large spatial scales. In the Northern Rocky Mountains, wildlife managers need a time- and cost-efficient method for monitoring gray wolf (Canis lupus) populations. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP)
Authors
Lindsey N. Rich, Robin E. Russell, Elizabeth M. Glenn, Michael S. Mitchell, Justin A. Gude, Kevin M. Podruzny, Carolyn A. Sime, Kent Laudon, David E. Ausband, James D. Nichols

Modeling prey consumption by native and non-native piscivorous fishes: implications for competition and impacts on shared prey in an ultraoligotrophic lake in Patagonia

We examined trophic interactions of the nonnative salmonids Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, Brown Trout Salmo trutta, and Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalisand the main native predator Creole Perch Percichthys trucha in Lake Nahuel Huapi (Patagonia, Argentina) to determine the relative impact of each predator on their forage base and to evaluate the potential vulnerability of each predator to co
Authors
Romina Juncos, David A. Beauchamp, Pablo H. Viglianoc

Plasticity of parental care under the risk of predation: how much should parents reduce care?

Predation can be an important agent of natural selection shaping parental care behaviours, and can also favour behavioural plasticity. Parent birds often decrease the rate that they visit the nest to provision offspring when perceived risk is high. Yet, the plasticity of such responses may differ among species as a function of either their relative risk of predation, or the mean rate of provisioni
Authors
Thomas E. Martin

Response of walleye and yellow perch to water-level fluctuations in glacial lakes

The influence of water levels on population characteristics of yellow perch, Perca flavescens (Mitchill), and walleye, Sander vitreus (Mitchill), was evaluated across a range of glacial lakes in north-eastern South Dakota, USA. Results showed that natural variation in water levels had an important influence on frequently measured fish population characteristics. Yellow perch abundance was signific
Authors
D.J. Dembkowski, Steven R. Chipps, B. G. Blackwell

The predicted influence of climate change on lesser prairie-chicken reproductive parameters

The Southern High Plains is anticipated to experience significant changes in temperature and precipitation due to climate change. These changes may influence the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) in positive or negative ways. We assessed the potential changes in clutch size, incubation start date, and nest survival for lesser prairie-chickens for the years 2050 and 2080 based on
Authors
Blake A. Grisham, Clint W. Boal, David A. Haukos, D. Davis, Kathy K. Boydston, Charles Dixon, Willard R. Heck

Can law foster social-ecological resilience?

Law plays an essential role in shaping natural resource and environmental policy, but unfortunately, many environmental laws were developed around the prevailing scientific understanding that there was a “balance of nature” that could be managed and sustained. This view assumes that natural resource managers have the capacity to predict the behavior of ecological systems, know what its important f
Authors
Ahjond S. Garmestani, Craig R. Allen, Melinda H. Benson

Spawning related movement of shovelnose sturgeon in the Missouri River above Fort Peck Reservoir, Montana

The hypotheses of this study were (i) that shovelnose sturgeon would make upstream movements to spawn, (ii) movement of spawning fish would be greater in a year with higher discharge, and (iii) that spawning fish would have greater movements than reproductively inactive fish. Shovelnose sturgeon Scaphirhynchus platorynchus (Rafinesque, 1820) in five reproductive categories (e.g. males, confirmed s
Authors
Ryan R. Richards, Christopher S. Guy, Molly A. Webb, William M. Gardner, C.B. Jensen

Phenology monitoring protocol: Northeast Temperate Network

Phenology is critical to many aspects of human life and nearly all ecological relationships and processes. Recent climate change has already led to widespread changes in phenological patterns across the globe, and more change is inevitable. This protocol has been developed to provide standardized methods for monitoring phenology within the National Park Service (NPS) Northeast Temperate Network (N
Authors
Geri Tierney, Brian Mitchell, Abraham J. Miller-Rushing, Jonathan Katz, Ellen Denny, Corinne Brauer, Therese Donovan, Andrew D. Richardson, Michael Toomey, Adam Kozlowski, Jake F. Weltzin, Kathy Gerst, Ed Sharron, Oliver Sonnentag, Fred Dieffenbach

Relationships between river discharge and abundance of age 0 redhorses (Moxostoma spp.) in the Oconee River, Georgia, USA, with implications for robust redhorse

Robust redhorse (Moxostoma robustum) and notchlip redhorse (M. collapsum) are two species of redhorses that reside in the lower Oconee River, Georgia. Robust redhorse is listed as a state endangered species in Georgia and North Carolina, and attempts to investigate factors affecting its reproductive success have met with limited success. Therefore, catch of robust redhorse young were combined with
Authors
R. Peterson, Cecil A. Jennings, J.T. Peterson