FY 1997 Annual Financial Report: Biological Resources

Biological Resources

Goal: Conserve and manage the Nation's biological resources for present and future generations.

The USGS role is to provide reliable, impartial and timely data on the status and trends of the Nation's biological resources, to provide an understanding of biological systems, and to assess natural and human induced changes to those systems.

FY 1997 Accomplishments

Wetlands Restoration

USGS scientists are coordinating a multiagency evaluation of restored wetlands in the U.S. portion of the prairie pothole region. This region includes portions of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. In 1997, the USGS completed an extensive survey of 204 restored and reference wetlands to assess the ecological outcome of wetlands restoration. Data will be made available to agencies conducting studies on a subset of these wetlands and will allow them to extrapolate their results to the prairie pothole region.

Studies at the Delta National Wildlife Refuge, located at the mouth of the Mississippi River, have demonstrated that vegetated wetlands that have degraded to shallow open-water habitats can be restored to vegetated marsh by use of artificial, uncontrolled, sediment diversions. Sediment deposition through artificial crevasses constructed along tributaries of the Bird's Foot delta have been successful at restoring elevations to the height needed to sustain vegetated marsh.

Location of wetland sample area (dark circles) in the Missouri Coteau, Prairie Glaciated Plains.

Genetic Used to Identify Goose Populations

The USGS, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Pacific Flyway Council, employed genetic markers to characterize breeding populations of the dusky Canada goose subspecies in Alaska and throughout the Pacific Flyway. Numbers of breeding birds have declined precipitously on the only known nesting area, the Copper River delta in south-central Alaska. Comparison of genetic samples shows that these populations are distinct and should be managed accordingly and that genetic markers can estimate mixed flock composition accurately and precisely.

Grassland Bird Use of Conservation Reserve Program Lands

In cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency, the USGS has evaluated the importance to breeding birds of Northern Great Plains grassland fields enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). For 8 consecutive years beginning in 1990, researchers have surveyed breeding birds in about 400 CRP fields in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. Results from this ongoing study showed that CRP grasslands provide critical breeding habitat for many grassland birds and upland nesting waterfowl, including several species that have shown precipitous population declines during the last quarter century. These findings were instrumental in demonstrating the wildlife benefits of the program, which led to its renewal in the 1995 Farm Bill and in designating most of the prairie pothole region as a priority conservation area for the CRP.

Breedings birds grasslands

Breeding birds grasslands.

Scientist surveys breeding birds

USGS scientist surveying breeding birds in grasslands.

Barrier for Sea Lamprey Control

USGS scientists estimated the efficiency of a modified electrical barrier and found that it completely blocked the sea lamprey spawning migration on the Jordan River, a tributary to Lake Michigan. Study methods allowed rapid verification of escapement and timely modification of barrier operations. This technology will allow the Great Lakes Fishery Commission to extend the sea lamprey barrier program to other streams where even low-head barriers would create unacceptably large impoundments. Expansion of the barrier program will help maintain sea lamprey control while significantly reducing chemical lampricide treatments. Sea lamprey control is an essential component of Great Lakes lake trout restoration.

Exotic Plants in National Park

Exotic plants in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

USGS scientists found that of 847 transects surveyed in the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park , only 108 (13%) were free of exotic plants. Many exotic species have become dominant members of formerly native communities. A collaborative effort with National Park Service managers is underway to incorporate information from these studies into a computerized ranking system that will assist resource managers trying to prioritize their weed management efforts and make the best use of limited funds.

Banded Bird Reporting System

The USGS has implemented a toll-free telephone system at its Bird Banding Laboratory in Patuxent, Maryland, for reporting recoveries of banded waterfowl. The new system greatly reduces processing time and speeds up reporting results to State and Federal wildlife agencies who need this information to set frameworks for hunting regulations. The laboratory processed a record 76,000 band reports in the 1996-97 season.

Decision Support for the Upper Mississippi River Corridor

Leading a multiagency initiative, USGS scientists developed a computerized management information system containing physical attributes, land cover, biological, and social themes for the Upper Mississippi River corridor. This system provides information to meet many of the needs of resource managers, including computer-generation of maps of land and biological resources, a common digital database for information, and spatial analysis tools. This information allows integrated ecological analysis of Mississippi River habitats used by migratory birds and will enable resource management of these habitats in the context of other biological and sociological components.

Cooperative Forest Ecosystem Research Program

In support of the President's Northwest Forest Plan, USGS scientists have implemented the Cooperative Forest Ecosystem Research Program, a long-term cooperative research program involving the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Oregon State University. In FY 1997, a detailed research problem analysis was developed that will guide the development and implementation of this program. Initial focus is on meeting BLM's needs for ecosystem-based management of young forest stands, riparian buffer widths, and the biological diversity found in these habitats.

Forest ecosystem endangered species

Florida Manatee Studies Aid Recovery

Florida female manatee and pup.

USGS scientists measured the effects on the Florida manatee of shutdown or conversion of powerplants that provide warm water discharges that were winter refuges for manatees. Research was also conducted on how the South Florida restoration project, which will ultimately redistribute freshwater in many coastal wetlands, will affect manatees. This information is important in the recovery of manatees, which are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Pacific Salmon Immune Function

Working in collaboration with scientists from the National Marine Fisheries Service and the University of Washington in a multiagency study partially funded by the Bonneville Power Administration, the USGS developed assays for immune function in Pacific salmon during captive rearing. This information is critically important because some stocks of Pacific salmon species are now listed under the Endangered Species Act, and captive broodstock programs are being used as a means to accelerate recovery of these populations.

National Biological Information Infrastructure

In FY 1997 the USGS continued to work cooperatively with many other government agencies and non-government organizations to provide increased access (over the Internet) to many existing sources of biological data and information as part of the expansion of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII). The NBII Metadata Clearinghouse now provides online, searchable access to biological data and information produced by USGS scientists, as well as databases from State agencies, natural history museums, university scientists, and others. The USGS also worked with its Federal agency partners and other cooperators in expanding and enhancing the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), which was highlighted in Vice President Gore's report entitled "Access America‹Reengineering Through Information Technology," as the first comprehensive reference on standardized scientific names of all U.S. plants and animals. The ITIS system was also enhanced by linking it to a new online source of expertise-related information about North American taxonomic scientists; this link allows interested users to identify experts on various taxonomic groups or areas of the country.

Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units

Largemouth bass,
photo by F. Eugene Hester

In FY 1997, USGS continued its partnership with States and universities to operate 40 Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units in 38 States. These units performed research on over 1,200 topics, addressing a diversity of issues in response to management information needs expressed by State and university cooperators and collaboratively conducted with funding from Department of Interior agencies as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USEPA, Department of Defense, NOAA, and other Federal and State agencies. Research products delivered to management agencies included detailed scientific reports that are being used to establish management policy and actions for resource management on issues related to biodiversity, environmental toxicology, animal population assessment and management, habitat management and restoration ecology, fishery resource management, and numerous others as identified by Unit cooperators. Results from these studies were made available to the scientific and management community at large via more than 600 published papers, books, and presentations made before scientific conferences. As university faculty members at host universities, USGS scientists participated in the training of graduate students in several fields of natural resource science and management.

Water Availability and Quality || Natural Hazards || Geographic and Cartographic Information || Contaminated Environments || Land and Water Use || Nonrenewable Resources || Environmental Effects on Human Health || Biological Resources
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Last updated June 19, 1998