Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Home
Our Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center's priority is to continue the important work of the Department of the Interior and the USGS, while also maintaining the health and safety of our employees and community. Based on guidance from the White House, the CDC, and state and local authorities, we are shifting our operations to a virtual mode and have minimal staffing within our offices. If you need additional assistance, please contact the UMESC Director Mark Gaikowski, (mgaikowski@usgs.gov), or Randy Hines (rkhines@usgs.gov).
News
Friday's Findings - November 20 2020
Imperilment and Recovery of the Monarch Butterfly
Date: November 20, 2020 from 2-2:30 p.m. eastern time
Speaker: Wayne Thogmartin, USGS-Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
...
Use of Robotic DNA Samplers That Can Rapidly Detect Invasive Aquatic Species
USGS researchers and their collaborators demonstrated the efficacy of using robotic environmental DNA samplers for bio surveillance in freshwater systems, showing that samples collected, processed, and preserved by robotic sampler detect organism DNA in the environment at rates comparable to those collected traditionally by human technicians.
USGS Responds to Spring Flooding
U.S. Geological Survey field crews are measuring flooding across the country as spring weather is in full swing. Warming temperatures, increased precipitation and snowmelt have caused moderate to major flooding in the upper Midwest, East Coast, Central Plains and the Southeast portions of the country.
Publications
Mussel community assessment tool for the Upper Mississippi River system
Upper Mississippi River (UMR) resource managers need a quantitative means of evaluating the health of mussel assemblages to measure effects of management and regulatory actions, assess restoration techniques, and inform regulatory tasks. Our objective was to create a mussel community assessment tool (MCAT), consisting of a suite of metrics and...
Dunn, Heidi L.; Zigler, Steven J.; Newton, Teresa Using environmental DNA (eDNA) to detect the endangered Spectaclecase Mussel (Margaritifera monodonta)
Margaritifera monodonta, or the Spectaclecase Mussel, is a federally endangered freshwater mussel species that has experienced a 55% reduction in range and is currently concentrated in 3 rivers in the Midwest region of the United States (Gasconade and Meramec rivers, Missouri, and St Croix River, Wisconsin). The detection of new populations by...
Lor, Yer; Schreier, Theresa M.; Waller, Diane L.; Merkes, Christopher M. Using Markov chains to quantitatively assess movement patterns of invasive fishes impacted by a carbon dioxide barrier in outdoor ponds
Natural resource managers use barriers to deter the movement of aquatic invasive species. Research and development of new invasive species barriers is often evaluated in pond and field scales using high‐resolution telemetry data. Telemetry data sets can be a rich source of data about fish movement and behavior but can be difficult to analyze due...
Borland, Lauren K; Mulcahy, Collin J; Bennie, Barb; Baumann, Douglas D; Haro, Roger J.; Van Appledorn, Molly; Jankowski, Kathi Jo; Cupp, Aaron R.; Erickson, Richard A.