2004 annual progress report: Stratton Sagebrush Hydrology Study Area: Establishment of a long-term research site in a high-elevation sagebrush steppe
Kate Schoenecker, Bob Lange, Mike Calton
2005, Open-File Report 2005-1426
In 2004 the U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center (FORT) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Rawlins Field Office (RFO), began a cooperative effort to reestablish the Stratton Sagebrush Hydrology Study Area (Stratton) as a research location, with the goal of making it a site for long-term research...
Statistical analysis of long-term hydrologic records for selection of drought-monitoring sites on Long Island, New York
Ronald J. Busciolano
2005, Scientific Investigations Report 2004-5152
Ground water is the sole source of water supply for more than 3 million people on Long Island, New York. Large-scale ground-water pumpage, sewering systems, and prolonged periods of below-normal precipitation have lowered ground-water levels and decreased stream-discharge in western and central Long Island. No method is currently (2004) available...
The Conservation Reserve Program: Planting for the future. Proceedings of a National Conference, Fort Collins, Colorado, June 6-9, 2004
Arthur W. Allen, Mark W. Vandever, editor(s)
2005, Scientific Investigations Report 2005-5145
In June 2004 the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), with support from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), held a three-day symposium on the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in Fort Collins, Colorado. These proceedings contain papers by most of those who made presentations at the symposium, but some...
USGS: providing scientific understanding of the sagebrush biome
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2005, Fact Sheet 2005-3091
Early explorers wrote about the vast sea of sagebrush that stretched in front of them. Today, the consequences of land-use practices, invasion by exotic plants, and altered disturbance regimes have touched virtually all of these seemingly endless expanses. Increasing human populations in the western United States, the infrastructure necessary to...
Managing vegetation in surface-flow wastewater-treatment wetlands for optimal treatment performance
J.S. Thullen, J.J. Sartoris, S. M. Nelson
2005, Ecological Engineering (25) 583-593
Constructed wetlands that mimic natural marshes have been used as low-cost alternatives to conventional secondary or tertiary wastewater treatment in the U.S. for at least 30 years. However, the general level of understanding of internal treatment processes and their relation to vegetation and habitat quality has not grown in proportion...
Patterns of plant species richness, rarity, endemism, and uniqueness in an arid landscape
T.J. Stohlgren, D.A. Guenther, P.H. Evangelista, N. Alley
2005, Ecological Applications (15) 715-725
Most current conservation literature focuses on the preservation of hotspots of species diversity and endemism, as if the two were geographically synonymous. At landscape scales this may not be the case. We collected data from 367 1000-m2 plots in the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA, to show that: (1)...
Life-history habitat matching in invading non-native plant species
T.J. Stohlgren, C. Crosier, G.W. Chong, D. Guenther, P. Evangelista
2005, Plant and Soil (277) 7-18
We briefly reviewed the literature on habitat matching in invading non-native plant species. Then we hypothesized that the richness and cover of native annual and perennial plant species integrate complex local information of vegetation and soils that would help to predict invasion success by similarly adapted non-native plant species. We...
Wildlife health and disease investigations
T.J. Roffe, Thierry M. Work
C.E. Braun, editor(s)
2005, Book chapter, Techniques for wildlife investigations and management
Wildlife population management requires knowledge of factors that affect population sustainability. Mortality is one of the most important of those factors. Without a clear understanding of the causes of mortality, decisions by managers of whether or how to intercede may be inappropriate. Wildlife biologists are usually the first to discover,...
Anesthesia and blood sampling of wild big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) with an assessment of impacts on survival
J. Wimsatt, T. J. O'Shea, L.E. Ellison, R.D. Pearce, V.R. Price
2005, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (41) 87-95
We anesthetized and blood sampled wild big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) in Fort Collins, Colorado (USA) in 2001 and 2002 and assessed effects on survival. Inhalant anesthesia was delivered into a specially designed restraint and inhalation capsule that minimized handling and bite exposures. Bats were immobilized an average of 9.1±5.1...
Control of Tamarix in the western United States: Implications for water salvage, wildlife use, and riparian restoration
P.B. Shafroth, J.R. Cleverly, T.L. Dudley, J.P. Taylor, Charles van Riper III, E.P. Weeks, J.N. Stuart
2005, Environmental Management (35) 231-246
Non-native shrub species in the genus Tamarix (saltcedar, tamarisk) have colonized hundreds of thousands of hectares of floodplains, reservoir margins, and other wetlands in western North America. Many resource managers seek to reduce saltcedar abundance and control its spread to increase the flow of water in streams that...
Use of individualistic streamflow-vegetation relations along the Fremont River, Utah, USA to assess impacts of flow alteration on wetland and riparian area
G.T. Auble, M. L. Scott, Jonathan M. Friedman
2005, Wetlands (25) 143-154
We analyzed the transverse pattern of vegetation along a reach of the Fremont River in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, USA using models that support both delineation of wetland extent and projection of the changes in wetland area resulting from upstream hydrologic alteration. We linked stage-discharge relations developed by a...
A test of geographic assignment using isotope tracers in feathers of known origin
Michael B. Wunder, C.L. Kester, F.L. Knopf, R. O. Rye
2005, Oecologia (144) 607-617
We used feathers of known origin collected from across the breeding range of a migratory shorebird to test the use of isotope tracers for assigning breeding origins. We analyzed δD, δ13C, and δ15N in feathers from 75 mountain plover (Charadrius montanus) chicks sampled in 2001 and from 119...
Paleomagnetic quantification of upper-plate deformation during Miocene detachment faulting in the Mohave Mountains, Arizona
V. Pease, John W. Hillhouse, R.E. Wells
2005, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (6)
Paleomagnetic data from Miocene (???20 Ma) volcanic rocks and dikes of west central Arizona reveal the tilt history of Proterozoic crystalline rocks in the hanging wall of the Chemehuevi-Whipple Mountains detachment fault. We obtained magnetization data from dikes and flows in two structural blocks encompassing Crossman Peak and Standard Wash...
Interaction of beaver and elk herbivory reduces standing crop of willow
B.W. Baker, D.C.S. Mitchell, H.C. Ducharme, T.R. Stanley, H.R. Peinetti
2005, Ecological Applications (15) 110-118
Populations of beaver and willow have not thrived in riparian environments that are heavily browsed by livestock or ungulates, such as elk. The interaction of beaver and elk herbivory may be an important mechanism underlying beaver and willow declines in this competitive environment. We conducted a field experiment that compared...
Resilience of willow stems after release from intense elk browsing
B.W. Baker, H.R. Peinetti, M.B. Coughenour
2005, Rangeland Ecology and Management (58) 575-581
The resilience of willow (Salix monticola Bebb, Salix geyeriana Anderss., Salix planifolia Pursh) stems released from intense elk (Cervus elaphus) browsing in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, was quantified in 1998 with a retrospective study that compared biomass, number, and length of segments on willow stems located inside (protected) and...
Recent water temperature trends in the Lower Klamath River, California
John M. Bartholow
2005, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (25) 152-162
Elevated water temperatures have been implicated as a factor limiting the recovery of anadromous salmonids in the Klamath River basin. This article reviews evidence of a multidecade trend of increasing temperatures in the lower main-stem Klamath River above the ocean and, based on model simulations, finds a high probability that...
Biological science in the Great Basin
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2005, Fact Sheet 2005-3004
The Great Basin is an expanse of desert and high moun-tains situated between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada of the western United States. The most explicit description of the Great Basin is that area in the West where surface waters drain inland. In other words, the Great Basin...
Quaternary geomorphology and modern coastal development in response to an inherent geologic framework: An example from Charleston, South Carolina
M.S. Harris, P. T. Gayes, J. L. Kindinger, J. G. Flocks, D.E. Krantz, P. Donovan
2005, Journal of Coastal Research (21) 49-64
Coastal landscapes evolve over wide-ranging spatial and temporal scales in response to physical and biological processes that interact with a wide range of variables. To develop better predictive models for these dynamic areas, we must understand the influence of these variables on coastal morphologies and ultimately how they...
Effects of biodiversity on ecosystem processes: Implications for ecosystem management
D.U. Hooper, F. S. Chapin III, J.J. Ewel, A. Hector, P. Inchausti, W.K. Lauenroth, S. Lavorel, D.M. Lodge, M. Loreau, S. Naeem, B. Schmid, H. Setala, A.J. Symstad, J. Vandermeer, D.A. Wardle
2005, Report
No abstract available....
The Nature Conservancy's approach to conserving and rehabilitating biological diversity in the Upper Mississippi River system
M. Reuter, K. Lubinski, P. West, D. Blodgett, M. Khoury
2005, Archiv fur Hydrobiologie (15 Suppl.) 549-560
Abstract has not been submitted...
A synthesis of ecological and fish-community changes in Lake Ontario, 1970-2000
E.L. Mills, J.M. Casselman, R. Dermott, J.D. Fitzsimons, G. Gal, K. T. Holeck, J.A. Hoyle, O. E. Johannsson, B.F. Lantry, J.C. Makarewicz, E.S. Millard, I.F. Munawar, M. Munawar, R. O'Gorman, R.W. Owens, L. G. Rudstam, T. Schaner, T.J. Stewart
2005, Technical Report 67
We assessed stressors associated with ecological and fishcommunity changes in Lake Ontario since 1970, when the first symposium on Salmonid Communities in Oligotrophic Lakes (SCOL I) was held (J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 29: 613-616). Phosphorus controls implemented in the early 1970s were undeniably successful; lower food-web studies showed declines...
Coastal iron fluxes to surface waters of the NE Pacific: A driver of the marine ecosystem and carbon cycle
John Crusius, J.L. Nielsen
2005, Report
Stakeholder survey results for Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge: Completion report
Natalie R. Sexton, Susan C. Stewart, Lynne Koontz, Katherine D. Wundrock
2005, Open-File Report 2005-1378
Lake Umbagog is a newly established Refuge (in 1993) with an increasing visitation. Current visitation numbers are around 55,000 visits/year. Though limited visitor services are currently offered, additional services will be proposed in the CCP. The purpose of this survey is to assess interested publics' and stakeholders' satisfaction with existing...
Bufo exsul (Myers, 1942): Black toad
Gary M. Fellers
Michael Lannoo, editor(s)
2005, Book chapter, Amphibian declines: The conservation status of United States species
No abstract available....
Prey vulnerability to peacock cichlids and largemouth bass based on predator gape and prey body depth
Jeffrey E. Hill, Leo G. Nico, Charles E. Cichra, Carter R. Gilbert
2005, Proceedings of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (58) 47-56
The interaction of prey fish body depth and predator gape size may produce prey assemblages dominated by invulnerable prey and excessive prey-to-predator biomass ratios. Peacock cichlids (Cichla ocellaris) were stocked into southeast Florida canals to consume excess prey fish biomass, particularly spotted tilapia (Tilapia mariae). The ecomorphologically similar largemouth bass...
