Publications
Listed here are publications, reports and articles by the Land Change Science Program in the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area.
Filter Total Items: 1136
An open source database for the synthesis of soil radiocarbon data: ISRaD version 1.0
Radiocarbon is a critical constraint on our estimates of the timescales of soil carbon cycling that can aid in identifying mechanisms of carbon stabilization and destabilization and improve the forecast of soil carbon response to management or environmental change. Despite the wealth of soil radiocarbon data that have been reported over the past 75 years, the ability to apply these data...
Authors
Corey R. Lawrence, Jeffery Beem-Miller, Alison Hoyt, Grey Monroe, Carlos Sierra, Shane Stoner, Katherine Heckman, Joseph Blankinship, Susan E. Crow, Gavin McNichol, Susan Trumbore, Paul Levine, Olga Vinduśková, Katherine E. O Todd-Brown, Craig Rasmussen, Caitlin E. Hicks Pries, Christina Schadel, Karis McFarlane, Sebastian Doetterl, Christine Hatté, Yujie He, Claire C. Treat, Jennifer W. Harden, Margaret S. Torn, Cristian Estop-Aragones, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Marco Keiluweit, Agatha Della Rosa Kuhnen, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Alain F. Plante, Aaron F Thompson, Zheng Shi, Joshua P. Schimel, Lydia Smith Vaughn, Sophie F. von Fromm, Rota Wagai
Patterns of denitrification potential in tidal freshwater forested wetlands
Limited evidence for spatial patterns of denitrification in tidal freshwater forested wetlands (TFFWs), seemingly due to high spatial variability in the process, is surprising considering the various spatial gradients of its biogeochemical and hydrogeomorphic controls in these ecosystems. Because certain physical environmental gradients may be useful for the prediction of denitrification...
Authors
Alicia R. Korol, Gregory Noe
Soil microbial communities and global change
Soils and soil microbial communities mediate the biogeochemical processes that underly ecosystem-level changes. This chapter examines why soils and soil microbial communities are important for understanding impacts and feedbacks to global change. It discusses the technological approaches and challenges that are at the frontiers of this research area. Global change impacts on microbial...
Authors
Mark P. Waldrop, Courtney Creamer
Holocene sedimentary architecture and paleoclimate variability at Mono Lake, California
Mono Lake occupies an internally drained basin on the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada, and it is sensitive to climatic changes affecting precipitation in the mountains (largely delivered in the form of snowpack). Efforts to recover cores from the lake have been impeded by coarse tephra erupted from the Mono Craters, and by disruption of the lake floor due to the uplift of Paoha Island...
Authors
Susan Zimmerman, Sidney R. Hemming, Scott W. Starratt
Scientist’s guide to developing explanatory statistical models using causal analysis principles
Recent discussions of model selection and multimodel inference highlight a general challenge for researchers, which is how to clearly convey the explanatory content of a hypothesized model or set of competing models. The advice from statisticians for scientists employing multimodel inference is to develop a well‐thought‐out set of candidate models for comparison, though precise...
Authors
James B. Grace, Kathryn M. Irvine
Invertebrate communities of Prairie-Pothole wetlands in the age of the aquatic Homogenocene
Simplification of communities is a common consequence of anthropogenic modification. However, the prevalence and mechanisms of biotic homogenization among wetland systems require further examination. Biota of wetlands in the North American Prairie Pothole Region are adapted to high spatial and temporal variability in ponded-water duration and salinity. Recent climate change, however, has...
Authors
Kyle McLean, David M. Mushet, Jon N. Sweetman, Michael J. Anteau, Mark T. Wiltermuth
Alternative stable states in inherently unstable systems
Alternative stable states are nontransitory states within which communities can exist. However, even highly dynamic communities can be viewed within the framework of stable‐state theory if an appropriate “ecologically relevant” time scale is identified. The ecologically relevant time scale for dynamic systems needs to conform to the amount of time needed for a system's community to...
Authors
David M. Mushet, Owen P. McKenna, Kyle McLean
Traversing the wasteland: A framework for assessing ecological threats to drylands
Drylands cover 41% of the Earth's terrestrial surface, play a critical role in global ecosystem function, and are home to over two billion people. Like other biomes, drylands face increasing pressure from global change, but many of these ecosystems are close to tipping points, which, if crossed, can lead to abrupt transitions and persistent degraded states. Their limited but variable...
Authors
David L. Hoover, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Nancy B. Grimm, Travis E. Huxman, Sasha Reed, Osvaldo E. Sala, Timothy Seastedt, Hailey Wilmer, Scott Ferrenberg
Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) growth and defense in response to mountain pine beetle outbreaks
Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a critical forest species of Northern Rocky Mountain upper subalpine ecosystems, yet little is known about the physiological response of whitebark pine to disturbance (e.g. fire, bark beetles, and pathogens) across a range of diverse environmental gradients. Resin–based defenses have long been recognized as the primary mechanism by which conifers...
Authors
Nickolas Kichas, Sharon M. Hood, Gregory T. Pederson, Richard G. Everett, David B. McWethy
Glacier retreat in Glacier National Park, Montana
Currently, the volume of land ice on Earth is decreasing, driving consequential changes to global sea level and local stream habitat. Glacier retreat in Glacier National Park, Montana, U.S.A., is one example of land ice loss and glacier change. The U.S. Geological Survey Benchmark Glacier Project conducts glaciological research and collects field measurements across select North American...
Authors
Caitlyn Florentine
Low O2 level enhances CH4-derived carbon flow into microbial communities in landfill cover soils
CH4 oxidation in landfill cover soils plays a significant role in mitigating CH4 release to the atmosphere. Oxygen availability and the presence of co-contaminants are potentially important factors affecting CH4 oxidation rate and the fate of CH4-derived carbon. In this study, microbial populations that oxidize CH4 and the subsequent conversion of CH4-derived carbon into CO2, soil...
Authors
Ruo He, Yao Su, Mary-Cathrine Leewis, Yi-Xuan Chu, Jing Wang, Ruo-Chan Ma, Donglei Wu, Liang-Tong Zhan, Ian Charold Herriott, Mary Beth Leigh
Phenology patterns indicate recovery trajectories of ponderosa pine forests after high-severity fires
Post-fire recovery trajectories in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Laws.) forests of the US Southwest are increasingly shifting away from pre-burn vegetation communities. This study investigated whether phenological metrics derived from a multi-decade remotely sensed imagery time-series could differentiate among grass, evergreen shrub, deciduous, or conifer-dominated replacement pathways...
Authors
Jessica J. Walker, Christopher Soulard