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The 25,000 km of shoreline in southeast Alaska was surveyed for waterbirds by fixed-wing aircraft in summer and winter during the period 1997 to 2002. A ground/boat survey double sampled 20% of the summer habitat and 5% of the winter habitat to adjust and enhance the air survey. The most abundant species during the summer surveys, with visibility correction factors applied, were gulls (Larus spp.; 306,200, CV = 0.004), scoters (Melanitta spp.; 185,700, CV = 0.004), and Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus; 34,640, CV = 0.03). The most abundant species observed during the winter surveys were goldeneyes (Bucephala islandica and B. clangula; 121,920, CV = 0.01), gulls (105,000, CV = 0.01), Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos;...
Riparian ecosystems are vital components of aridlands within the southwestern United States. Historically, surface flows influenced population dynamics of native riparian trees. Many southwestern streams has been altered by regulation, however, and will be further affected by greenhouse warming. Our analysis of stream gage data revealed that decreases in volume of annual discharge and mean peak discharge and a shift to earlier peak discharge will occur in the Southern Rockies region of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. These changes will likely decrease rates of reproduction and survival of cottonwood (Populus fremontii and Populus deltoides ssp. wislizenii), Goodding’s willow (Salix gooddingii), and boxelder (Acer...
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Our goal was to predict road culvert passability, as defined by culvert outlet drop and outlet water velocity, for three fish swimming groups using remotely collected environmental variables that have been shown to influence the passability of road culverts.We generated four boosted regression tree models, one for road culvert outlet drop and one each for the three culvert outlet water velocities, and predicted the probability of impassable road culverts on low-order streams based on the models. Independent variables in the modelsincluded the upstream area draining to the culvert, slope at the culvert, stream segment gradient and stream reach gradient.Gradient of the stream segment was the most important predictor...
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Northern Great Lakes forests represent an ecotone in the boreal–temperate transition zone and are expected to change dramatically with climate change. Managers are increasingly seeking adaptation strategies to manage these forests. We explored the efficacy of two alternative management scenarios compared with business-as-usual (BAU) management: expanding forest reserves meant to preserve forest identity and increase resistance, and modified silviculture meant to preserve forest function and increase adaptive capacity. Our study landscapes encompassed northeastern Minnesota and northern Lower Michigan, which are predicted to experience significant changes in a future climate and represent a gradient of latitude,...
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Grassland ecosystems established under the conservation reserve program (CRP) in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) currently provide soil conservation and wildlife habitat services. We aimed to determine if these lands also sequester soil organic carbon (SOC), as compared with neighboring croplands across multiple farms in the North Dakota PPR. We sampled soil from small plots at 17 private farms in the central North Dakota PPR, where long-term (C15 years) grasslands managed under the CRP were paired with neighboring annual croplands. Cores were collected to 100 cm and split into 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, 30–40, 40–70, and 70–100 cm soil depth layers. We hypothesized the effect of land use on soil organic carbon (SOC),...
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Many waterbird species utilize a diversity of aquatic habitats; however, with increasing anthropogenic needs tomanage water regimes there is global concern over impacts to waterbird populations. The federally threatened pipingplover (Charadrius melodus; hereafter plovers) is a shorebird that breeds in three habitat types in the Prairie PotholeRegion of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Canada: riverine sandbars; reservoir shorelines; and prairie wetlands. Watersurface areas of these habitats fluctuate in response to wet–dry periods; decreasing water surface areas exposeshorelines that plovers utilize for nesting. Climate varies across the region so when other habitats are unavailable forplover nesting because of flooding,...
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Sediment accumulation threatens the viability and hydrologic functioning of many naturally formed depressional wetlands across the interior regions of North America. These wetlands provide many ecosystem services and vital habitats for diverse plant and animal communities. Climate change may further impact sediment accumulation rates in the context of current land use patterns. We estimated sediment accretion in wetlands within a region renowned for its large populations of breeding waterfowl and migrant shorebirds and examined the relative roles of precipitation and land use context in the sedimentation process. We modeled rates of sediment accumulation from 1971 through 2100 using the Revised Universal Soil Loss...
Worldwide, many species are responding to ongoing climate change with shifts in distribution, abundance, phenology, or behavior. Consequently, natural-resource managers face increasingly urgent conservation questions related to biodiversity loss, expansion of invasive species, and deteriorating ecosystem services. We argue that our ability to address these questions is hampered by the lack of explicit consideration of species’ adaptive capacity (AC). AC is the ability of a species or population to cope with climatic changes and is characterized by three fundamental components: phenotypic plasticity, dispersal ability, and genetic diversity. However, few studies simultaneously address all elements; often, AC is confused...
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Seamless DEM for the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem with a 50km buffer. This DEM was created using Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 1 Arc-Second Global data. The SRTM DEM had nodata values in several regions, particularly mountain tops. NoData holes were filled with ASTER Global DEM Version 2. Note: While the ASTER Global DEM does not have the NoData problems, the layers derived from the ASTER DEM (ex: slope, aspect) have sensor anomalies and artifacts, especially visible in the prairie regions. Data originally in WGS 1984 Vertical height in meters DEM created 2016-Feb-09
Understanding local and geographic factors influencing species distributions is a prerequisite for conservation planning. Our objective in this study was to model local and geographic variability in elevations occupied by native and nonnative trout in the northwestern Great Basin, USA. To this end, we analyzed a large existing data set of trout presence (5,156 observations) to evaluate two fundamental factors influencing occupied elevations: climate-related gradients in geography and local constraints imposed by topography. We applied quantile regression to model upstream and downstream distribution elevation limits for each trout species commonly found in the region (two native and two nonnative species). With...
Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is the most widespread tree species in North America, and it is found throughout much of the Mountain West (MW) across a broad range of bioclimatic regions. Aspen typically regenerates asexually and prolifically after fire, and due to its seral status in many western conifer forests, aspen is often considered dependent upon disturbance for persistence. In many landscapes, historical evidence for post-fire aspen establishment is clear, and following extended fire-free periods senescing or declining aspen overstories sometimes lack adequate regeneration and are succeeding to conifers. However, aspen also forms relatively stable stands that contain little or no evidence of...
This research highlights development and application of an integrated hydrologic model (GSFLOW) to a semiarid, snow-dominated watershed in the Great Basin to evaluate Pinyon-Juniper (PJ) and temperature controls on mountain meadow shallow groundwater. The work used Google Earth Engine Landsat satellite and gridded climate archives for model evaluation. Model simulations across three decades indicated that the watershed operates on a threshold response to precipitation (P) >400 mm/y to produce a positive yield (P-ET; 9%) resulting in stream discharge and a rebound in meadow groundwater levels during these wetter years. Observed and simulated meadow groundwater response to large P correlates with above average predicted...
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​Abstract: Climate change predictions include warming and drying trends, which are expected to be particularly pronounced in the southwestern United States. In this region, grassland dynamics are tightly linked to available moisture, yet it has proven difficult to resolve what aspects of climate drive vegetation change. In part, this is because it is unclear how heterogeneity in soils affects plant responses to climate. Here, we combine climate and soil properties with a mechanistic soil water model to explain temporal fluctuations in perennial grass cover, quantify where and the degree to which incorporating soil water dynamics enhances our ability to understand temporal patterns, and explore the potential consequences...
Categories: Data, Publication; Types: Citation, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2012, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, Academics & scientific researchers, All tags...
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Article Introduction: Efforts to define water needs for riparian and aquatic ecosystems in arid and semi-arid systems are critical because riparian areas are essential for the survival of desert life, with stream corridors providing a large proportion of ecosystem services in these landscapes (Poff, Koestner, Neary, & Henderson, 2011; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). To create a one-stop-shop for published ecological water needs information and illuminate critical knowledge gaps in the desert watersheds of the U.S. and Mexico, the University of Arizona’s Water Resources Research Center and the Northern Arizona University School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability created the Desert Flows Database....
Categories: Data, Publication; Types: Citation, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Aquascalientes, Arizona, Baja California, California, Chihuahua, All tags...
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Dispersal can strongly influence the demographic and evolutionary trajectory of populations. For many species, little is known about dispersal, despite its importance to conservation. The Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a species of conservation concern that ranges across 11 western U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces. To investigate dispersal patterns among spring breeding congregations, we examined a 21-locus microsatellite DNA dataset of 3,244 Greater Sage-Grouse sampled from 763 leks throughout Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota, USA, across 7 yr. We recaptured ~2% of individuals, documenting 41 instances of breeding dispersal, with 7 dispersal events of .50 km, including 1 of...
Globally, ecosystemsare subjected toprolonged droughts and extremeheat events, leading to forest die-offs and dominance shifts in vegetation. Some scientists and managers view soil as the main resource to be considered in monitoring ecosystem responses to aridification. As the mediumthroughwhich precipitation is received, stored, and redistributed for plant use, soil is an important factor in the sensitivity of ecosystems to a drying climate. This study presents a novel approach to evaluating where on a landscape soils may be most sensitive to drying, making them less resilient to disturbance, and where potential future vegetation changes could lead to such disturbance. The drying and devegetation of arid lands...
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Conant et al. (1991) describe swan survey methods used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska and present the results of surveys using these methods. Full citation: Conant, B., J.I. Hodges, and J. G. King. 1991. Continuity and advancement of trumpeter swan Cygnus buccinator and tundra swan Cygnus columbianus population monitoring in Alaska. Pages 125-136 in J. Sears and P.J. Bacon (Eds.) 1991. Proc. Third IWRB International Swan Symposium, Oxford 1989. Wildfowl Supplement No. 1.
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Emerging applications of ecosystem resilience and resistance concepts in sagebrush ecosystems allow managers to better predict and mitigate impacts of wildfire and invasive annual grasses. Soil temperature and moisture strongly influence the kind and amount of vegetation, and consequently, are closely tied to sagebrush ecosystem resilience and resistance (Chambers et al. 2014). Soil taxonomic temperature and moisture regimes can be used as indicators of resilience and resistance at landscape scales to depict environmental gradients in sagebrush ecosystems that range from cold/cool-moist sites to warm-dry sites. We aggregated soil survey spatial and tabular data to facilitate broad-scale analyses of resilience and...
Categories: Data, Publication; Types: Citation, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: California, Colorado, EARTH SCIENCE > LAND SURFACE > LANDSCAPE, Greater sage-grouse, Greater sage-grouse, All tags...
The exotic annual grass Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) dominates vast acreages of rangeland in the western USA, leading to increased fire frequency and ecosystem degradation that is often irreversible. Episodic regeneration failure (“die-off”) has been observed in cheatgrass monocultures and can have negative ecosystem consequences, but can also provide an opportunity for restoration of native species and ecological function within the imperiled sagebrush steppe ecosystem. Proximate causes of cheatgrass die-off are uncertain, although several taxa of fungal soil pathogens have been implicated. Die-off occurrence is stochastic and can occur in remote areas. Thus, developing remote sensing indicators that are repeatable...
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Amphibians and reptiles (herpetofauna) have been linked to specific microhabitat characteristics, microclimates, and water resources in riparian forests. Our objective was to relate variation in herpetofauna abundance to changes in habitat caused by a beetle used for Tamarix biocontrol (Diorhabda carinulata; Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and riparian restoration. During 2013 and 2014, we measured vegetation and monitored herpetofauna via trapping and visual encounter surveys (VES) at locations affected by biocontrol along the Virgin River in the Mojave Desert of the southwestern United States. Twenty-one sites were divided into four riparian stand types based on density and percent cover of dominant trees (Tamarix,...
Categories: Data, Publication; Types: Citation, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2012, AZ-01, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, All tags...


map background search result map search result map Journal Article: Soil Temperature and Moisture Regimes across Sage-Grouse Range Crown of the Continent DEM Genetic recapture identifies long-distance breeding dispersal in Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) Understanding Environmental Flows in Desert Rivers of the U.S. and Mexico through the Desert Flows Database Publication and Report: Ecosystem Water Balance in a Desert Grassland Publication: The effects of riparian restoration following saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) biocontrol on habitat and herpetofauna along a desert stream Publication: Predicting road culvert passability for migratory fishes Publication: Effects of alternative forest management on biomass and species diversity in the face of climate change in the northern Great Lakes region Sediment Accumulation in Prairie Wetlands under a Changing Climate: the Relative Roles of Landscape and Precipitation Soil Organic Carbon Beneath Croplands and Re-established Grasslands in the North Dakota Prairie Pothole Region Consolidation Drainage and Climate Change May Reduce Piping Plover Habitat in the Great Plains Distribution and abundance of waterbirds near shore in southeast Alaska 1997-2002 Continuity and advancement of trumpeter swan Cygnus buccinator and tundra swan (Cygnus columbianus) population monitoring in Alaska 1991 publication Publication: The effects of riparian restoration following saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) biocontrol on habitat and herpetofauna along a desert stream Genetic recapture identifies long-distance breeding dispersal in Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) Crown of the Continent DEM Distribution and abundance of waterbirds near shore in southeast Alaska 1997-2002 Publication: Effects of alternative forest management on biomass and species diversity in the face of climate change in the northern Great Lakes region Soil Organic Carbon Beneath Croplands and Re-established Grasslands in the North Dakota Prairie Pothole Region Consolidation Drainage and Climate Change May Reduce Piping Plover Habitat in the Great Plains Sediment Accumulation in Prairie Wetlands under a Changing Climate: the Relative Roles of Landscape and Precipitation Journal Article: Soil Temperature and Moisture Regimes across Sage-Grouse Range Publication: Predicting road culvert passability for migratory fishes Understanding Environmental Flows in Desert Rivers of the U.S. and Mexico through the Desert Flows Database Continuity and advancement of trumpeter swan Cygnus buccinator and tundra swan (Cygnus columbianus) population monitoring in Alaska 1991 publication Publication and Report: Ecosystem Water Balance in a Desert Grassland