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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: 4178

A test of the frost wave hypothesis in a temperate ungulate

Growing evidence supports the hypothesis that temperate herbivores surf the green wave of emerging plants during spring migration. Despite the importance of autumn migration, few studies have conceptualized resource tracking of temperate herbivores during this critical season. We adapted the frost wave hypothesis (FWH), which posits that animals pace their autumn migration to reduce exposure to sn
Authors
Anna C. Ortega, Jerod A. Merkle, Hall Sawyer, Kevin L. Monteith, Patrick Lionberger, Miguel Valdez, Matthew Kauffman

Stable isotopes reveal intertidal fish and crabs use bivalve farms as foraging habitat in Puget Sound, Washington

Bivalves such as oysters and clams have been farmed in intertidal zones across the Puget Sound region of the Salish Sea for thousands of years. The variety of gear types used on bivalve farms creates complex vertical structure and attachment points for aquatic epiphytes and invertebrates which increases habitat structural complexity, but may alter eelgrass cover in areas where bivalve farms and ee
Authors
Karl Veggerby, Mark David Scheuerell, Beth Sanderson, Peter Kiffney

Testing the effectiveness of interactive training on sexual harassment and assault in field science

Fieldwork is a critical tool for scientific research, particularly in applied disciplines. Yet fieldwork is often unsafe, especially for members of historically marginalized groups and people whose presence in scientific spaces threatens traditional hierarchies of power, authority, and legitimacy. Research is needed to identify interventions that prevent sexual harassment and assault from occurrin
Authors
Melissa R. Cronin, Erika S. Zavaleta, Roxanne S. Beltran, Melanie Esparza, Allison Payne, Valerie Termin, Joseph Thompson, Megan Siobhan Jones

Landscape-scale population trends in the occurrence and abundance of wildlife populations using long term camera-trapping data

Accurate estimation and monitoring of wildlife population trends is foundational to evidence-based conservation. Here, we use hierarchical modelling to estimate population trends for six species of management interest (coyotes; red foxes, white-tailed deer, gray foxes; eastern wild turkey, and bobcats) while accounting for observation error from a long-term camera trap survey conducted across the
Authors
Joshua P. Twining, David Kramer, Kelly A. Perkins, Angela K. Fuller

Hit snooze: An imperiled hibernator assesses spring snow conditions to decide whether to terminate hibernation or reenter torpor

Many animals follow annual cycles wherein physiology and behavior change seasonally. Hibernating mammals undergo one of the most drastic seasonal alterations of physiology and behavior, the timing of which can have significant fitness consequences. The environmental cues regulating these profound phenotypic changes will heavily influence whether hibernators acclimate and ultimately adapt to climat
Authors
Austin Z. T. Allison, Courtney J. Conway, Alice E Morris, Amanda R. Goldberg, Kristin Lohr, Russell Richards, Jon Almack

Offspring sex ratios are male-biased reflecting sex-biased dispersal in Idaho, USA, wolves.

Offspring sex ratios can vary widely across species, and the reasons for such variation have long intrigued ecologists. For group-living animals, predicting offspring sex ratios as a function of group and environmental characteristics can be challenging. Additionally, mortality of group members can upend traditional theory used to explain offspring sex ratios observed in populations. Gray wolves (
Authors
David Edward Ausband

A scaled Denil fishway for upstream passage of Arctic Grayling

Denil fishways have been used with varying success to help fish pass impediments to upstream passage such as low head dams or irrigation diversion structures. They have been tested for hydraulic and fish passage performance in laboratory and field settings, usually with only minor modifications to the fishway geometry or dimensions. We tested a reduced (0.6) scale prototype of the standard-sized D
Authors
Katey Plymesser, Matt Blank, Megan Conley, Kevin Kappenman, Joel Cahoon, David Dockery, Alexander V. Zale

Deltamethrin reduces survival of non-target small mammals

Context: Vector-borne diseases have caused global pandemics and were responsible for more human deaths than all other causes combined in prior centuries. In the past 60 years, prevention and control programs have helped reduce human mortality from vector-borne diseases, but impacts of those control programs on wildlife populations are not well documented. Insecticides are used to reduce vector-bor
Authors
Amanda R. Goldberg, Dean E. Biggins, Shantini Ramakrishnan, Jonathan W. Bowser, Courtney J. Conway, David A. Eads, Jeffrey Wimsatt

Occurrence, abundance, movement, and habitat associations of Bonneville Cutthroat Trout in tributaries to Bear Lake, Idaho-Utah

Bonneville Cutthroat Trout (BCT) Oncorhynchus clarkii utah in Bear Lake, Idaho–Utah, is an important endemic and recreational species and plays a vital ecological role in systems throughout the basin. Although the distribution and abundance of BCT have declined due to anthropogenic disturbances, production of wild BCT in Bear Lake has increased over the past decade as a result of extensive habitat
Authors
Megan Heller, Jeff Dillon, Michael Quist

Evaluating risks associated with capture and handling of mule deer for individual-based, long-term research

Capture and handling techniques for individual-based, long-term research that tracks the life history of animals by recapturing the same individuals for several years has vastly improved study inferences and our understanding of animal ecology. Yet there are corresponding risks to study animals associated with physical trauma or capture myopathy that can occur during or following capture events. R
Authors
Tayler N. LaSharr, Samantha P. H. Dwinnell, Brittany L. Wagler, Hall Sawyer, Rhiannon P. Jakopak, Anna C. Ortega, Luke R. Wilde, Matthew Kauffman, Katey S. Huggler, Patrick W. Burke, Miguel Valdez, Patrick Lionberger, Douglas G. Brimeyer, Brandon Scurlock, Jill Randall, Rusty C. Kaiser, Mark Thonhoff, Gary L. Fralick, Kevin L. Monteith

Prioritizing imperiled native aquatic species for conservation propagation

Native aquatic species are in decline, and hatcheries can play an important role in stemming these losses until larger ecological issues are addressed. However, as more federal and state agencies face budget uncertainty and the number of imperiled species increases, it is necessary to develop a tool to prioritize species for conservation propagation. Our objective was to create prioritized lists o
Authors
Molly A. H. Webb, Christopher S. Guy, Hilary B. Treanor, Krissy W. Wilson, Cassie D. Mellon, Paul Abate, Harry J. Crockett, Jordan Hofmeier, Chelsey Pasbrig, Patrick Isakson

Upper thermal tolerances of two native and one invasive crayfish in Missouri, USA

The spread of invasive crayfish requires invaded habitats to be thermally suitable, and differences in thermal tolerances among species could provide thermal refugia for native crayfish affected by the invader. We estimated upper thermal tolerances for the invasive Faxonius hylas and native F. peruncus and F. quadruncus in Missouri, USA, using critical thermal maxima (CTmax) methodology to determi
Authors
Jacob Thomas Westhoff, Hisham A. Abdelrahman, James A. Stoeckel