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Publications

These publications showcase the significant science conducted in our Science Centers.

Filter Total Items: 16783

Toxicokinetics of imidacloprid-coated wheat seeds in Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) and an evaluation of hazard

Birds are potentially exposed to neonicotinoid insecticides by ingestion of coated seeds during crop planting. Adult male Japanese quail were orally dosed with wheat seeds coated with an imidacloprid (IMI) formulation at either 0.9 mg/kg body weight (BW) or 2.7 mg/kg BW (~3 and 9% of IMI LD50 for Japanese quail, respectively) for 1 or 10 days. Quail were euthanized between 1 and 24 h post-exposure
Authors
Thomas G. Bean, Michael S. Gross, Natalie K. Karouna-Renier, Paula F. P. Henry, Sandra L. Schultz, Michelle Hladik, Kathryn Kuivila, Barnett A. Rattner

Estimation of base flow on ungaged, periodically measured streams in small watersheds in western Pennsylvania

A 2.5-year data collection program was undertaken by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP), to quantify and estimate base flow in small watersheds in western Pennsylvania where only periodic streamflow measurements had been obtained. Twelve streamgages with watershed areas of less than 10 square miles were established in wes
Authors
Elizabeth Hittle, Dennis W. Risser

Factors affecting species richness and distribution spatially and temporally within a protected area using multi-season occupancy models

Exploring trends in species richness and the distribution of individual species over time as well as the factors affecting these trends informs conservation priorities in protecting species and ecosystems as a whole. We used data from 41 park-wide line transect surveys in 2009 and 2014 and multi-season occupancy models with multi-species data to explore trends in species richness and distribution
Authors
Jennifer F. Moore, James E. Hines, Michel K. Masozera

Associations between environmental pollutants and larval amphibians in wetlands contaminated by energy-related brines are potentially mediated by feeding traits

Energy production in the Williston Basin, located in the Prairie Pothole Region of central North America, has increased rapidly over the last several decades. Advances in recycling and disposal practices of saline wastewaters (brines) co-produced during energy production have reduced ecological risks, but spills still occur often and legacy practices of releasing brines into the environment caused
Authors
Kelly L. Smalling, Chauncey W. Anderson, R. Ken Honeycutt, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Todd M. Preston, Blake R. Hossack

Dynamic N-mixture models with temporal variability in detection probability

In theory parameters of dynamic N-mixture models can be estimated with multiple years of data without the robust design under the assumption of constant detection probability. However, such an assumption can rarely be met in long-term studies, and the consequences of violating this assumption in the inferences of dynamic N-mixture models have not been assessed. In this study we used simulation stu
Authors
Qing Zhao, J. Andrew Royle

Resource selection and wintering phenology of White-winged Scoters in southern New England: Implications for offshore wind energy development

Southern New England provides key wintering habitat for White-winged Scoters (Melanitta fusca). This area has also pioneered the development of offshore wind energy in North America and the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has established nine Wind Energy Area (WEA) lease blocks along the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf in areas that may provide important staging and wintering habita
Authors
Dustin E. Meattey, Scott R. McWilliams, Peter W.C. Paton, Christine Lepage, Scott G. Gilliland, Lucas Savoy, Glenn H. Olsen, Jason E. Osenkowski

User’s guide for Assessment Tract Aggregation GUI (ATA GUI)—A graphical user interface for the AggtEx.fn R script

The U.S. Geological Survey three-part method for mineral resource assessments estimates numbers of undiscovered mineral deposits as probability distributions in geologically defined regions termed “permissive tracts.” This report describes a graphical user interface (GUI) script developed in open-source statistical software (R) that aggregates estimated undiscovered deposits of a given type from t
Authors
Jason L. Shapiro, Gilpin R. Robinson,

Occupancy models for citizen-science data

Large‐scale citizen‐science projects, such as atlases of species distribution, are an important source of data for macroecological research, for understanding the effects of climate change and other drivers on biodiversity, and for more applied conservation tasks, such as early‐warning systems for biodiversity loss.However, citizen‐science data are challenging to analyse because the observation pr
Authors
Res Altwegg, James D. Nichols

The mighty Susquehanna—extreme floods in Eastern North America during the past two millennia

The hazards posed by infrequent major floods to communities along the Susquehanna River and the ecological health of Chesapeake Bay remain largely unconstrained due to the short length of streamgage records. Here we develop a history of high‐flow events on the Susquehanna River during the late Holocene from flood deposits contained in MD99‐2209, a sediment core recovered in 26 m of water from Ches
Authors
Michael Toomey, Meagan Cantwell, Steven Colman, Thomas M. Cronin, Jeffrey P. Donnelly, Liviu Giosan, Clifford Heil, Robert L. Korty, Marci E. Marot, Debra A. Willard

Impact of prey occupancy and other ecological and anthropogenic factors on Tiger distribution in Thailand’s Western Forest Complex

Despite conservation efforts, large mammals such as tigers (Panthera tigris) and their main prey, gaur (Bos gaurus), banteng (Bos javanicus), and sambar (Rusa unicolor), are highly threatened and declining across their entire range. The only large viable source population of tigers in mainland Southeast Asia occurs in Thailand's Western Forest Complex (WEFCOM), an approximately 19,000 km 2 landsca
Authors
Somphot Duangchatrasiri, Pornkamol Jornburom, Sitthichai Jinamoy, Anak Pattanvibool, James E. Hines, Todd W. Arnold, John Fieberg, James L D Smith

Description of disparate responses of two indoor feral bee colonies

As is sometimes the case, field research does not always go according to plan. This is especially true when the research involves free-ranging animals. We recently conducted a preliminary field study that involved placing a beehive in a tent and individually releasing marked honey bees (Apis mellifera) outdoors to study their ability to locate sugar water rewards by following olfactory cues. Herei
Authors
Nimish B. Vyas, Amanda D. Plunkett

Design and methods of the U.S. Geological Survey Northeast Stream Quality Assessment (NESQA), 2016

During 2016, as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Project (NAWQA), the U.S. Geological Survey conducted the Northeast Stream Quality Assessment (NESQA) to investigate stream quality in the northeastern United States. The goal of the NESQA was to assess the health of wadeable streams in the region by characterizing multiple water-quality factors that are stressors to aquatic life and by
Authors
James F. Coles, Karen Riva-Murray, Peter C. Van Metre, Daniel T. Button, Amanda H. Bell, Sharon L. Qi, Celeste A. Journey, Rich W. Sheibley