Mission Areas
Ecosystems
The USGS Ecosystems Mission Area, the biological research arm of the Department of the Interior (DOI), provides science to help America achieve sustainable management and conservation of its biological resources. This work is done within the broader mission of the USGS to serve the Nation with science that advances understanding of our natural resources and inform land and water stewardship.
Newsletter - EcoNews
This quarterly newsletter highlights ecosystems science and activities coming out of our Science Centers and Cooperative Research Units across the Nation.
EcoNews IssuesWebinar - Friday's Findings
A public webinar series meant to offer our audience an opportunity to discover the Ecosystems science capacity within the USGS.
Upcoming WebinarsWhere's our Science?
Find out where Ecosystems Science Centers, Field Stations, Climate Adaptation Science Centers, and Cooperative Research Units are located.
Browse by LocationNews
Research Spotlight: New Models Demonstrate the Role of Climate and Seed Production in Post-fire Forest Regeneration
A new publication from USGS scientists and collaborators assessed how post-fire climate and seed production influence conifer regeneration following severe wildfire. The results allow researchers and managers to predict where forests will recover from future fires and where management action may be appropriate.
Annotated Bibliography of Scientific Research on Greater Sage-Grouse Published
The U.S. Geological Survey has reviewed and summarized the substantial body of literature related to the conservation, management, monitoring, and assessement of the greater sage-grouse, creating an annotated bibliography that provides easy access to sage-grouse science developed since 2015.
Fort Collins Science Center Ecologist Interviewed for National Geographic, NPR
Research ecologist Dr. Amy Yackel Adams was recently interviewed on the invasive tegu lizard for National Geographic and NPR’s Here & Now.
Publications
Modeling areal measures of campsite impacts on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail to enhance ecological sustainability
Campsite impacts in protected natural areas are most effectively minimized by a containment strategy that focuses use on a limited number of sustainable campsites that spatially concentrate camping activities. This research employs spatial autoregressive (SAR) modeling to evaluate the relative influence of use-related, environmental, and...
Arredondo, Johanna R.; Marion, Jeffrey L.; Meadema, Fletcher P.; Wimpey, Jeremy F. Quantifying plant-soil-nutrient dynamics in rangelands: Fusion of UAV hyperspectral-LiDAR, UAV multispectral-photogrammetry, and ground-based LiDAR-digital photography in a shrub-encroached desert grassland
Rangelands cover 70% of the world's land surface, and provide critical ecosystem services of primary production, soil carbon storage, and nutrient cycling. These ecosystem services are governed by very fine-scale spatial patterning of soil carbon, nutrients, and plant species at the centimeter-to-meter scales, a phenomenon known as “islands of...
Sankey, Joel B.; Sankey, Temuulen T.; Li, Junran; Ravi, Sujith; Wang, Guan; Caster, Joshua; Kasprak, Alan The snag’s the limit: Habitat selection modeling for the western purple martin in a managed forest landscape
The western purple martin (Progne subis arboricola), an avian insectivore, is a species of conservation concern throughout the Pacific Northwest. Compared to the well-studied eastern subspecies (Progne subis subis), little is known of the life history and biology of the western subspecies. Availability of breeding habitat is believed to be a major...
Sherman, Lorelle M.; Hagar, Joan