Invasive Species

Mountain goat and bighorn sheep are iconic symbols of many national lands in the West. Both species have limited distributions that can be difficult to observe and face multiple stressors including disease, increasing recreation in remote areas, and shifting weather regimes that influence their forage and thermoregulation. As species with relatively small population sizes, understanding...

There are more than 92,000 dams in the United States, of which at least 3% of these produce hydropower. Hydropower projects create renewable energy but also can alter habitats, restrict upstream and downstream movements of fishes and other aquatic organisms, and may stress, injure or kill migrant fishes and other aquatic organisms. In addition, there are more than 5 million culverts and other road...

This project involves development of tools for the detection and control of invasive reptiles in Florida, with an emphasis on pythons and tegu lizards. The goals are to reduce the risk of reptile invasions, investigate early detection methods, maintain rapid response capacity, and understand invasive reptile population biology and ecology to inform management options.

Research on Guam has led to development and validation of numerous effective control tools, including the advancement of reptile control to support native species recovery.

In response to growing public concerns about this loss of biodiversity, the U.S. Congress funded the Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI), a national program coordinated by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Assessing Impacts of Emerging and Established Diseases to Aquatic Ecosystems The decline of native freshwater mussels has the potential to devastate aquatic communities. Although factors such as habitat degradation, pollution, and invasive species have been linked to this decline, these potential causes cannot fully explain the large-scale mussel die-offs that have occurred in the past 20 years...

USGS researchers assessed trends in non-native mammalian predator trapping methods designed to protect endangered ʻuaʻu and nēnē at Haleakalā National Park, Hawaiʻi.

Southern Arizona’s semi-desert grasslands provides habitat for flora and fauna, regulates rainfall infiltration and overland flow, mitigates surface erosion and dust production, and sequesters carbon. Sustainable management is important to maintain these ecological services and is of concern for the managers, ranchers, and other people associated with the grassland. The Buenos Aires National...

Swimming ability determines how well fish are able to access habitat, and is a fundamental design consideration for passing fish at dams, road crossings, etc.

The Round Goby, Neogobius melanostomus , is a small benthic fish native to the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.

Joint Ecosystem Modeling (JEM) provides real-time habitat suitability models for species of interest in Everglades restoration planning, including the federally endangered Everglades snail kite.

Molecular characterization of unknown virus isolated from the introduced species, the Northern snake head ( Channa argus ), present in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed