Publications
Click below for access to more than 170,000 publications written by USGS scientists over the century-plus history of the bureau.
Filter Total Items: 756
Changes in Mauna Kea Dry Forest Structure 2000-2014
Changes in the structure of the subalpine vegetation of Palila Critical Habitat on the southwestern slope of Mauna Kea Volcano, Hawai‘i, were analyzed using 12 metrics of change in māmane (Sophora chrysophylla) and naio (Myoporum sandwicense) trees surveyed on plots in 2000 and 2014. These two dominant species were analyzed separately, and changes in their structure indicated changes in the forest
Authors
Paul C. Banko, Kevin W. Brinck
The economic viability of smallholder timber production under expanding açaí palm production in the Amazon Estuary
Relatively little attention has been paid to the economic potentials and limitations of tropical timber production and management at smallholder scales, with the most relevant research focusing on community forestry efforts. As a rare tropical example of long-lasting small-scale timber production, in this study we explore the economics of smallholder vertically integrated timber use to better unde
Authors
Lucas B. Fortini, Douglas R. Carter
Trends in conservation research and management in Hawai‘i over the past 20 years
Hawaiʻi, an archipelago of the most isolated inhabited islands on the planet, faces unique and extreme challenges to its biodiversity. We examined how the conservation community has responded to these challenges and how the responses have changed over time, using twenty years of abstracts from the Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference, a yearly gathering of the majority of scientists, managers and the p
Authors
Daniela Dutra Elliott, Lucas B. Fortini, David Cameron Duffy
Low-flow characteristics of streams in the Lahaina District, West Maui, Hawai'i
The purpose of this study was to characterize streamflow availability under natural low-flow conditions for streams in the Lahaina District, west Maui, Hawaiʻi. The study-area streams included Honolua Stream and tributary Pāpua Gulch, Honokahua Stream and tributary Mokupeʻa Gulch, Kahana Stream, Honokōwai Stream and tributaries Amalu and Kapāloa Streams, Wahikuli Gulch and tributary Hāhākea Gulch,
Authors
Chui Ling Cheng
Modeling Hawaiian ecosystem degradation due to invasive plants under current and future climates
Occupation of native ecosystems by invasive plant species alters their structure and/or function. In Hawaii, a subset of introduced plants is regarded as extremely harmful due to competitive ability, ecosystem modification, and biogeochemical habitat degradation. By controlling this subset of highly invasive ecosystem modifiers, conservation managers could significantly reduce native ecosystem deg
Authors
Adam E. Vorsino, Lucas B. Fortini, Fred A. Amidon, Stephen E. Miller, James D. Jacobi, Jonathan P. Price, Sam `Ohukani`ohi`a Gon, Gregory A. Koob
Hawaiian forest bird trends: using log-linear models to assess long-term trends is supported by model diagnostics and assumptions (reply to Freed and Cann 2013)
Freed and Cann (2013) criticized our use of linear models to assess trends in the status of Hawaiian forest birds through time (Camp et al. 2009a, 2009b, 2010) by questioning our sampling scheme, whether we met model assumptions, and whether we ignored short-term changes in the population time series. In the present paper, we address these concerns and reiterate that our results do not support the
Authors
Richard J. Camp, Thane K. Pratt, P. Marcos Gorresen, Bethany L. Woodworth, John J. Jeffrey
Competitive impacts of an invasive nectar thief on plant-pollinator mutualisms
Plant–pollinator mutualisms are disrupted by a variety of competitive interactions between introduced and native floral visitors. The invasive western yellowjacket wasp, Vespula pensylvanica, is an aggressive nectar thief of the dominant endemic Hawaiian tree species, Metrosideros polymorpha. We conducted a large-scale, multiyear manipulative experiment to investigate the impacts of V. pensylvanic
Authors
Cause Hanna, David Foote, Claire Kremen
Developing tools to eradicate ecologically destructive ants on Rose Atoll: effectiveness and attractiveness of formicidal baits
A key factor contributing to the decline in the population of Pisonia grandis on Rose Atoll is an infestation of the non-native scale, Pulvinaria urbicola (Homoptera: Coccidae). Ants, in facultative relationships with scale insects, may facilitate scale population growth and increase their effect on plant hosts. Three ant species found on Rose Atoll, Tetramorium bicarinatum, T. simillimum, and Phe
Authors
Robert Peck, Paul Banko, Frank Pendleton
Arthropod community structure on bark of koa (Acacia koa) and ʻōhiʻā (Metrosideros polymorpha) at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, Hawaiʻi Island, Hawaiʻi
The arthropod community associated with tree bark contains a wide variety of taxa but is poorly described, particularly in Hawaiʽi. Our overall goals were to evaluate the abundance of arthropods available to foraging birds and how variation in bark substrates may contribute to arthropod distributions in native forests. Our study aimed to identify this fauna on the dominant canopy-forming trees koa
Authors
Robert W. Peck, Paul C. Banko, Matt Stelmach
El Niño-Southern Oscillation is linked to decreased energetic condition in long-distance migrants
Predicting how migratory animals respond to changing climatic conditions requires knowledge of how climatic events affect each phase of the annual cycle and how those effects carry-over to subsequent phases. We utilized a 17-year migration dataset to examine how El Niño-Southern Oscillation climatic events in geographically different regions of the Western hemisphere carry-over to impact the stopo
Authors
Kristina L. Paxton, Emily B. Cohen, Eben H. Paxton, Zoltan Németh, Frank R. Moore
The Pacific Islands Climate Science Center five-year science agenda, 2014-2018
From the heights of Mauna Kea on Hawaiʻi Island to the depths of the Mariana Trench, from densely populated cities to sparse rural indigenous communities and uninhabited sandy atolls, the Pacific region encompasses diverse associations of peoples and places that are directly affected by changes to the atmosphere, ocean, and land. The peoples of the Pacific are among the first to observe and experi
Authors
David Helweg, Sarah A.B. Nash, Dan A. Polhemus
Hawaiian hoary bat occupancy at Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park
Hawaiian hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus semotus) vocalizations were recorded using Anabat SD1 and Song Meter SM2Bat ultrasonic recorders at four monitoring stations in Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park on the island of Hawai‘i. We hypothesize that echolocation call events are more numerous during the reproductive season of this bat. Bat detectors recorded from 1700 to 0730 hrs on a total of
Authors
Frank J. Bonaccorso, Corina Pinzari, Kristina Montoya-Aiona