Bark beetle-affected forests provide elk only a marginal refuge from hunters
Bryan G. Lamont, Matthew Kauffman, Jerod A. Merkle, Tony W. Mong, Matthew M. Hayes, Kevin L. Monteith
2020, Journal of Wildlife Management (84) 413-424
For nearly 2 decades, the forests of the Rocky Mountains in the United States experienced a bark-beetle (Dendoctronus ponderosae) epidemic. The number of dead and falling trees from this epidemic likely will affect how elk (Cervus canadensis) and hunters use the forest and their interactions. Downed trees potentially create a...
Plasticity of Least Tern and Piping Plover nesting behaviors in response to sand temperature
Alicia K. Andes, Mark H. Sherfy, Terry L. Shaffer, Susan N. Ellis-Felege
2020, Thermal Biology (91)
Birds that nest on the ground in open areas, such as Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus) and Interior Least Terns (Sternula antillarum athalassos), are exposed to high temperatures in thermally stressful environments. As a result, some ground-nesting avian species have adapted behavioral strategies to maintain thermal regulation of eggs and themselves. We assessed the impact of sand...
Appendix C: Patterns of bull trout Salvelinus confluentus demography, life history and abundance in the North Fork Lewis River — 2019 Annual Report
Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Jeremiah Doyle
2020, Report, Lewis River Bull Trout (Salvelinus confluentus) annual operations report
No abstract available....
Hydrogeology and shallow groundwater quality in the tidal Anacostia River watershed, Washington, D.C.
Scott W. Ator, Judith M. Denver, Cheryl A. Dieter
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5128
Groundwater hydrology and geochemistry within the tidal Anacostia River watershed of Washington, D.C. are related to natural and human influences. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the District Department of Energy & Environment, began investigating the hydrogeology and groundwater quality of the watershed in 2002. Lithologic coring, groundwater-level and...
Mercury bioaccumulation in freshwater fishes of the Chesapeake Bay watershed
James Willacker, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Vicki S. Blazer
2020, Ecotoxicology (29) 459-484
Chemical contaminants are a threat to the Chesapeake Bay watershed, with mercury (Hg) among the most prevalent causes of impairment. Despite this, large-scale patterns of Hg concentrations, and the potential risks to fish, wildlife, and humans across the watershed, are poorly understood. We compiled fish Hg data from state monitoring...
Trait integration and functional differentiation among co-existing plant species
Julia I. Burton, Steven Perakis, J. Renee Brooks, Klaus J. Puettmann
2020, American Journal of Botany (107) 628-638
PremiseDetermining which traits characterize strategies of coexisting species is important to developing trait‐based models of plant communities. First, global dimensions may not exist locally. Second, the degree to which traits and trait spectra constitute independent dimensions of functional variation at various scales continues to be refined. Finally,...
Cooperatively improving tallgrass prairie with adaptive management
Marissa Ahlering, Daren Carlson, Sara Vacek, Sarah Jacobi, Vicky Hunt, Jessica C. Stanton, Melinda G. Knutson, Eric V. Lonsdorf
2020, Ecosphere (11)
Adaptive management (AM) is widely recommended as an approach for learning to improve resource management, but successful AM projects remain relatively uncommon, with few documented examples applied by natural resource management agencies. We used AM to make recommendations for the management of native tallgrass prairie plant communities in western Minnesota...
Through thick and thin: Sexing Bristle-thighed Curlews Numenius tahitiensis using measures of bill depth
Daniel R. Ruthrauff, Colleen M. Handel, T. Lee Tibbitts, Robert E. Gill Jr.
2020, Wader Study (127) 31-36
Birds often exhibit diagnostic traits that differ among individuals of the same species with regard to factors like sex, age, or breeding status. Shorebirds exhibit a wide diversity of colors, shapes, and sizes of their bills, and these traits are commonly used to determine the sex of individuals. In curlews...
Tracking the migration of Pacific Golden-Plovers from nonbreeding grounds at Moorea, French Polynesia, using Pinpoint GPS-Argos tags
Oscar W. Johnson, T. Lee Tibbitts, Michael F. Weber, David R. Bybee, Roger H. Goodwill, Andrea Bruner, Errika J. Smith, Emmalee L. Buss, Trinity Q.A. Waddell, Daxton Brooks, Carolyn Smith, Jean-Yves Meyer
2020, Wader Study (127) 53-59
We used Pinpoint GPS-Argos tags to track migration of Pacific Golden-Plovers Pluvialis fulva in 2017 and 2018 from Moorea Island, at the extreme southeastern edge of the species’ winter range. Of 20 tagged birds, 13 uploaded locations during all or part of their northward migration. The birds departed in mid-April traveling a...
Climate and local environment structure asynchrony and the stability of primary production in grasslands
B. Gilbert, A.S. MacDougall, T. Kadoya, M. Akasaka, J. R. Bennett, E.M. Lind, H. Flores-Moreno, J. Firn, Y. Hautier, E.T. Borer, E.W. Seabloom, P.B. Adler, E.E. Cleland, James Grace, W.S. Harpole, E.H. Esch, J.L. Moore, J. Knops, R. McCulley, B. Mortensen, J. Bakker, P.A. Fay
2020, Global Ecology and Biogeography (29) 1177-1188
Aim Climate variability threatens to destabilize production in many ecosystems. Asynchronous species dynamics may buffer against such variability when a decrease in performance by some species is offset by an increase in performance of others. However, high climatic variability can eliminate species through stochastic extinctions or cause similar stress responses among...
Metabolic rate is negatively linked to adult survival but does not explain latitudinal differences in songbirds
Andy J. Boyce, James C. Mouton, Penn Lloyd, Blair O. Wolf, Thomas E. Martin
2020, Ecology Letters (23) 642-652
Survival rates vary dramatically among species and predictably across latitudes, but causes of this variation are unclear. The rate of living hypothesis posits that physiological damage from metabolism causes species with faster metabolic rates to exhibit lower survival rates. However, whether increased survival commonly observed in tropical and south temperate...
Mapping the thermal landscape of the Upper Mississippi River
Kathi Jo Jankowski, Larry R. Robinson, John Kalas, Alicia Carhart, Brian R. Lubinski, Janis Ruhser
2020, Long Term Resource Monitoring Technical Report LTRMP-2017TL2
Temperature has a fundamental influence on physical, chemical and biological processing in aquatic ecosystems. River temperatures respond to a diverse array of drivers including air temperature, streamflow, and thermal inputs, but the physical template has been shown to play a significant role in structuring spatial and temporal variation in water...
Subalpine sentinels: Understanding & managing whitebark pine in California
Michèle Slaton, Marc Mayer, Shana Gross, Johathan Nesmith, Joan Dudney, Phillip J. van Mantgem, Ramona J. Butz
2020, Fremontia (47) 34-42
A hardy inhabitant of the subalpine zone of western North America, whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a keystone tree species in California’s subalpine forests, where it regularly defines the upper treeline in the Sierra Nevada, Cascade, Warner, and Klamath Mountains. Walking portions of the John Muir Trail in the southern...
Learning from real-world experience to understand renewable energy impacts to wildlife
Tara J Conkling, Hannah B. Vander Zanden, Sharon A. Poessel, Scott R. Loss, Taber D Allison, James E. Diffendorfer, Adam E. Duerr, David M. Nelson, Julie L Yee, Todd E. Katzner
2020, Energy Research ad Development Division Final Research Report CEC-500-2020-012
The project team sought to use real-world data to understand adverse effects to wildlife of renewable energy production that is critical to meeting California’s climate and clean energy goals. The project had three main components. First, a systematic literature review studied 20 peer-reviewed publications and 612 reports from other nonreviewed sources from 231 wind...
Geophysical surveys, hydrogeologic characterization, and groundwater flow model for the Truxton basin and Hualapai Plateau, northwestern Arizona
Jon P. Mason, editor(s)
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5017
This is the third and final report in a series that describe the groundwater resources of the Hualapai Indian Reservation. These reports document the findings of a comprehensive groundwater study conducted on the reservation and adjacent areas from 2015 through 2018 by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the...
Gene transcript profiling in desert bighorn sheep
Lizabeth Bowen, Kathleen Longshore, Peregrine Wolff, Robert C. Klinger, Mike Cox, Sarah Bullock, Shannon C. Waters-Dynes, A. Keith Miles
2020, Wildlife Society Bulletin (44) 323-332
Respiratory disease is a key factor affecting the conservation and recovery of bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis ) populations. Innovative, minimally invasive tools such as gene transcription–based diagnostics have the potential to improve our understanding of the broad range of factors that can affect the health of wild sheep. Evaluation of transcript...
Groundwater quality in the Biscayne aquifer, Florida
James A. Kingsbury
2020, Fact Sheet 2019-3056
Groundwater provides nearly 50 percent of the Nation’s drinking water. To help protect this vital resource, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project assesses groundwater quality in aquifers that are important sources of drinking water (Burow and Belitz, 2014). The Biscayne aquifer constitutes one of the important...
Groundwater quality in the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system, central United States
James A. Kingsbury
2020, Fact Sheet 2019-3057
Groundwater provides nearly 50 percent of the Nation’s drinking water. To help protect this vital resource, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project assesses groundwater quality in aquifers that are important sources of drinking water (Burow and Belitz, 2014). The Ozark Plateaus aquifer system constitutes one of...
Groundwater quality in the Columbia Plateau basaltic-rock aquifers, northwestern United States
MaryLynn Musgrove
2020, Fact Sheet 2019-3058
Groundwater provides nearly 50 percent of the Nation’s drinking water. To help protect this vital resource, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project assesses groundwater quality in aquifers that are important sources of drinking water. The Columbia Plateau basaltic-rock aquifers constitute one of the important resources being...
Groundwater quality in the High Plains aquifer
MaryLynn Musgrove
2020, Fact Sheet 2019-3055
Groundwater provides nearly 50 percent of the Nation’s drinking water. To help protect this vital resource, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project assesses groundwater quality in aquifers that are important sources of drinking water. The High Plains aquifer constitutes one of the important aquifers being evaluated....
Environmental DNA: An emerging tool for understanding aquatic biodiversity
Trey Simmons, Damian M. Menning, Sandra L. Talbot
2020, Alaska Park Science (19)
Field surveys for aquatic organisms provide critical information that is important for robust resource management. However, such surveys are expensive and labor intensive, particularly in large, remote landscapes like those that characterize much of Alaska. Traditionally, characterizing aquatic biodiversity necessitated the physical capture and identification of individual organisms, which required...
Evaluation of water temperature effects on adult sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) behavior in the Yakima River, Washington, 2019
Tobias J. Kock, Scott D. Evans, Amy C. Hansen, Brian K. Ekstrom, Richard Visser, Brian Saluskin, Paul Hoffarth
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1033
A study was conducted in the lower Yakima River, Washington, during June–October 2019 to evaluate water temperature effects on adult sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) behavior. A total of 60 sockeye salmon adults were tagged with radio transmitters and monitored during the study. Fourteen of the fish were collected and...
Evaluation of restoration alternatives using hydraulic models of lake outflow at Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge, northwestern Oregon
Stewart A. Rounds, Stephen L. Pilson, Annett B. Sullivan, Adam J. Stonewall
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5014
Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge near the city of Gaston in northwestern Oregon was established in 2013, and planning is underway to restore a more natural lake and wetland system after more than 100 years of agricultural activity on the lakebed. Several water-management and restoration alternatives are under consideration, one...
Evaluation of restoration alternatives using water-budget tools for the Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge, northwestern Oregon
Stewart A. Rounds, T. Zach Freed, Daniel T. Snyder, Cassandra D. Smith, Micelis C. Doyle, Erin Holmes, Curt Mykut, Tim Mayer, Erin Stockenberg, Stephen L. Pilson
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5013
The lakebed in Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in northwestern Oregon was farmed for decades prior to the establishment of the refuge in 2013. Planning for restoration of these lands required extensive data collection and construction of a water budget and tools to design and evaluate potential restoration...
Coming to terms with the new normal: Forest health in the Sierra Nevada
Jodi Axelson, John J. Battles, Adrian J. Das, Phillip J. van Mantgem
2020, Fremontia (47) 50-56
The vast conifer forests of California’s Sierra Nevada range inspire awe and create lasting memories. The size and longevity of these trees make them seem both otherworldly and everlasting. Indeed, their grandeur is such that visitors may not appreciate how these forests are connected to the larger landscape, and so...
