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At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
USGS2018

Quantifying uncertainty and tradeoffs in resilience assessments

Several frameworks have been developed to assess the resilience of social-ecological systems, but most require substantial data inputs, time, and technical expertise. Stakeholders and practitioners often lack the resources for such intensive efforts. Furthermore, most end with problem framing and fail to explicitly address trade-offs and uncertainty. To remedy this gap, we developed a rapid survey assessment that compares the relative resilience of social-ecological systems with respect to a number of resilience properties. This approach generates large amounts of information relative to stakeholder inputs. We targeted four stakeholder categories: government (policy, regulation, management), end users (farmers, ranchers, landowners, industry), agency/public science (research, university, extension), and NGOs (environmental, citizen, social justice) in four North American watersheds, to assess social-ecological resilience through surveys. Conceptually, social-ecological systems are comprised of components ranging from strictly human to strictly ecological, but that relate directly or indirectly to one another. They have soft boundaries and several important dimensions or axes that together describe the nature of social-ecological interactions, e.g., variability, diversity, modularity, slow variables, feedbacks, capital, innovation, redundancy, and ecosystem services. There is no absolute measure of resilience, so our design takes advantage of cross-watershed comparisons and therefore focuses on relative resilience. Our approach quantifies and compares the relative resilience across watershed systems and potential trade-offs among different aspects of the social-ecological system, e.g., between social, economic, and ecological contributions. This approach permits explicit assessment of several types of uncertainty (e.g., self-assigned uncertainty for stakeholders; uncertainty across respondents, watersheds, and subsystems), and subjectivity in perceptions of resilience among key actors and decision makers and provides an efficient way to develop the mental models that inform our stakeholders and stakeholder categories.

Ecology and Society↗
USGS2019

Seed bank community and soil texture relationships in a cold desert

Sustainable dryland management depends on understanding environmental factors driving composition of current and future ecological communities. While there has been extensive research on aboveground plant communities, less is known about belowground soil seed bank communities, which can reflect both past and potential future communities. In the Colorado Plateau of the western United States, we explored aboveground and belowground plant communities and how they varied across sites with similar climate but contrasting soil textures. We found that aboveground vegetation and belowground seed bank community composition each varied significantly among sites. However, we also observed marked aboveground-belowground compositional dissimilarity across sites, suggesting that the two spatially-associated communities may respond differently to the same environmental gradient. Lastly, we found that cheatgrass seed prevalence (Bromus tectorum) – one of the region’s major exotic invasive plants – varied strongly by soil texture, a finding with potential implications for invasive species management. From our research findings, we highlight two general patterns for dryland managers. Firstly, we show aboveground and belowground plant communities will not always respond to the same environmental changes in a coordinated manner. Secondly, the data underscore a large potential role for soil texture in mediating the plant community responses to other environmental factors.

Utah↗
USGS2012

A high-resolution bioclimate map of the world: a unifying framework for global biodiversity research and monitoring

Aim: To develop a novel global spatial framework for the integration and analysis of ecological and environmental data. Location: The global land surface excluding Antarctica. Methods: A broad set of climate-related variables were considered for inclusion in a quantitative model, which partitions geographic space into bioclimate regions. Statistical screening produced a subset of relevant bioclimate variables, which were further compacted into fewer independent dimensions using principal components analysis (PCA). An ISODATA clustering routine was then used to classify the principal components into relatively homogeneous environmental strata. The strata were aggregated into global environmental zones based on the attribute distances between strata to provide structure and support a consistent nomenclature. Results: The global environmental stratification (GEnS) consists of 125 strata, which have been aggregated into 18 global environmental zones. The stratification has a 30 arcsec resolution (equivalent to 0.86 km2 at the equator). Aggregations of the strata were compared with nine existing global, continental and national bioclimate and ecosystem classifications using the Kappa statistic. Values range between 0.54 and 0.72, indicating good agreement in bioclimate and ecosystem patterns between existing maps and the GEnS. Main conclusions: The GEnS provides a robust spatial analytical framework for the aggregation of local observations, identification of gaps in current monitoring efforts and systematic design of complementary and new monitoring and research. The dataset is available for non-commercial use through the GEO portal (http://www.geoportal.org).

Global Ecology and Biogeography↗
USGS2021

Solutions in microbiome engineering: Prioritizing barriers to organism establishment

Microbiome engineering is increasingly being employed as a solution to challenges in health, agriculture, and climate. Often manipulation involves inoculation of new microbes designed to improve function into a preexisting microbial community. Despite, increased efforts in microbiome engineering inoculants frequently fail to establish and/or confer long-lasting modifications on ecosystem function. We posit that one underlying cause of these shortfalls is the failure to consider barriers to organism establishment. This is a key challenge and focus of macroecology research, specifically invasion biology and restoration ecology. We adopt a framework from invasion biology that summarizes establishment barriers in three categories: (1) propagule pressure, (2) environmental filtering, and (3) biotic interactions factors. We suggest that biotic interactions is the most neglected factor in microbiome engineering research, and we recommend a number of actions to accelerate engineering solutions.

The ISME Journal: Multidisciplinary Journal of Mic↗
USGS2023

The Landscape Data Commons: A system for standardizing, accessing, and applying large environmental datasets for agroecosystem research and management

Understanding where, when, and why agroecosystems are changing requires quality information about ecosystems that span land tenure, ecological processes, and spatial scales. Over the past two decades, land management agencies and research groups have adopted a suite of standardized methods for monitoring rangelands, which have been implemented at over 85,000 monitoring locations globally. However, the ability to use these data to understand agroecosystem dynamics and change across scales and across land ownership has been limited because, until now, these data have not been available in a harmonized, accessible format for analyses, modeling, and decision-support tools. We present the Landscape Data Commons, a cyberinfrastructure platform that harmonizes and aggregates standardized agroecosystem data, enables linkages to models, and facilitates analysis and interpretation of data within decision-support tools. The Landscape Data Commons provides a community platform for users to contribute data and develop next-generation tools to support agroecosystem management through the 21st century.

Agricultural & Environmental Letters↗
USGS2006

Eco-informatics and natural resource management

This project highlight reports on the 2004 workshop [1], as well as follow-up activities in 2005 and 2006, regarding how informatics tools can help manage natural resources and decide policy. The workshop was sponsored jointly by sponsored by the NSF, NBII, NASA, and EPA, and attended by practitioners from government and non-government agencies, and university researchers from the computer, social, and ecological sciences. The workshop presented the significant information technology (IT) problems that resource managers face when integrating ecological or environmental information to make decisions. These IT problems fall into five categories: data presentation, data gaps, tools, indicators, and policy making and implementation. To alleviate such problems, we recommend informatics research in four IT areas, as defined in this abstract and our final report: modeling and simulation, data quality, information integration and ontologies, and social and human aspects. Additionally, we recommend that funding agencies provide infrastructure and some changes in funding habits to assure cycles of innovation in the domain were addressed. Follow-on activities to the workshop subsequent to dg.o 2005 included: an invited talk presenting workshop results at DILS 2005, publication of the workshop final report by the NBII [1], and a poster at the NBII All Hands Meeting (Oct. 2005). We also expect a special issue of the JIIS to appear in 2006 that addresses some of these questions. As we go to press, no solicitation by funding agencies has as yet been published, but various NASA and NBII, and NSF cyber-infrastructure and DG research efforts now underway address the above issues.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2000

The land cover trends project: A strategy for monitoring land cover change at a national scale

Policy-makers and scientists often require comprehensive data on the types and rates of land use and land cover change at a variety of scales. However, there is generally a lack of local, regional, and national land use and land cover data of sufficient reliability and temporal and geographic detail for providing accurate estimates of landscape change. The U.S. Geological Survey's EROS Data Center and the Landscape Ecology Branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are collaborating on a four-year research project to document the types, distributions, rates, drivers, and consequences of land cover change for the conterminous United States over the past 30 years. The project is using an ecoregion framework as a geographic stratifier. Both regional and national characteristics of change are determined by sampling land cover change for each of 84 ecoregions using five selected epochs of data from the nearly 30-year record of Landsat 1-7 data. Three types of land cover variables are being mapped or derived: (1) general land cover type; (2) landscape biophysical properties; and (3) landscape pattern. Assessments of the drivers and consequences of change within each ecoregion are then prepared. A pilot phase focusing on the analysis of five selected ecoregions is well underway and will be completed by the end of 2000. Methodologies established during the pilot phase will then be applied to the remaining ecoregions.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2024

The potential of remote sensing for improved infectious disease ecology research and practice

Outbreaks of Covid-19 in humans, Dutch elm disease in forests, and highly pathogenic avian influenza in wild birds and poultry highlight the disruptive impacts of emerging infectious diseases on public health, ecosystems, and economies. Infectious disease dynamics often depend on environmental conditions that drive occurrence, transmission, and outbreaks. Remote sensing can contribute to infectious disease research and management by providing standardized environmental data across broad spatial and temporal extents, often at no cost to the user. Here, we 1) conduct a systematic review of primary literature to quantify current uses of remote sensing in disease ecology and 2) synthesize qualitative information to identify opportunities for further integration of remote sensing into disease ecology. We identify that modern advances in airborne remote sensing are promoting early detection of forest pathogens and that satellite data is contributing to the study of geographically widespread human diseases. We discuss opportunities for increased use of data products that characterize vegetation, surface water, and soil; provide data at high spatio-temporal and spectral resolutions; and quantify uncertainty in measurements. Additionally, combining remote sensing with animal movement telemetry can provide novel insights into wildlife disease. Integrating these opportunities will advance research and management of infectious diseases.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sci↗
USGS2014

Reflections on a vision for integrated research and monitoring after 15 years

In May of 1998, Owen Bricker and his co-author Michael Ruggiero introduced a conceptual design for integrating the Nation’s environmental research and monitoring programs. The Framework for Integrated Monitoring and Related Research was an organizing strategy for relating data collected by various programs, at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and by multiple science disciplines to solve complex ecological issues that individual research or monitoring programs were not designed to address. The concept nested existing intensive monitoring and research stations within national and regional surveys, remotely sensed data, and inventories to produce a collaborative program for multi-scale, multi-network integrated environmental monitoring and research. Analyses of gaps in data needed for specific issues would drive decisions on network improvements or enhancements. Data contributions to the Framework from existing networks would help indicate critical research and monitoring programs to protect during budget reductions. Significant progress has been made since 1998 on refining the Framework strategy. Methods and models for projecting scientific information across spatial and temporal scales have been improved, and a few regional pilots of multi-scale data-integration concepts have been attempted. The links between science and decision-making are also slowly improving and being incorporated into science practice. Experiments with the Framework strategy since 1998 have revealed the foundational elements essential to its successful implementation, such as defining core measurements, establishing standards of data collection and management, integrating research and long-term monitoring, and describing baseline ecological conditions. They have also shown us the remaining challenges to establishing the Framework concept: protecting and enhancing critical long-term monitoring, filling gaps in measurement methods, improving science for decision support, and integrating the disparate integrated science efforts now underway. In the 15 years since the Bricker and Ruggiero (Ecol Appl 8(2):326–329, 1998) paper challenged us with a new paradigm for bringing sound and comprehensive science to environmental decisions, the scientific community can take pride in the progress that has been made, while also taking stock of the challenges ahead for completing the Framework vision.

Aquatic Geochemistry↗
USGS2016

Toward an integrated understanding of perceived biodiversity values and environmental conditions in a national park

In spatial planning and management of protected areas, increased priority is being given to research that integrates social and ecological data. However, public viewpoints of the benefits provided by ecosystems are not easily quantified and often implicitly folded into natural resource management decisions. Drawing on a spatially explicit participatory mapping exercise and a Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) analysis tool, the present study empirically examined and integrated social values for ecosystem services and environmental conditions within Channel Islands National Park, California. Specifically, a social value indicator of perceived biodiversity was examined using on-site survey data collected from a sample of people who visited the park. This information was modeled alongside eight environmental conditions including faunal species richness for six taxa, vegetation density, categories of marine and terrestrial land cover, and distance to features relevant for decision-makers. Results showed that biodiversity value points assigned to places by the pooled sample of respondents were widely and unevenly mapped, which reflected the belief that biodiversity was embodied to varying degrees by multiple locations in the park. Models generated for two survey subgroups defined by their self-reported knowledge of the Channels Islands revealed distinct spatial patterns of these perceived values. Specifically, respondents with high knowledge valued large spaces that were publicly inaccessible and unlikely to contain on-ground biodiversity, whereas respondents with low knowledge valued places that were experienced first-hand. Accessibility and infrastructure were also important considerations for anticipating how and where people valued the protected land and seascapes of Channel Islands National Park.

California↗
USGS2025

Introducing disciplinary perspectives and interdisciplinary possibilities for studying recreational fishers and fisheries

Individuals from many disciplines conduct research to understand the social dimension of recreational fisheries. This diverse inquiry has produced a comprehensive understanding of the behaviours of recreational fishers, the outcomes from fishing, and the relationships among fishers, others, and the natural and human environment. The associated body of research, however, is largely disconnected across disciplines. Our goals here are to help readers understand the similarities and differences among disciplines and to identify opportunities for interdisciplinary-based research on recreational fishers. Before addressing these goals, we begin by answering basic questions: What is a discipline? What are the primary disciplines used to study recreational fishers? And what is the genealogy of research on recreational fishers? Seven key disciplines are then classified by multi-criteria related to both focus and epistemological and methodological approaches. This classification reveals clear connections among: (i) ecological science and resource economics, and to a lesser extent historical ecology; (ii) environmental history and political ecology; and (iii) behavioural economics and social psychology. We next describe and provide possible remedies for barriers that inhibit interdisciplinary research, including different epistemologies, nomenclature, and reward bias. Finally, we highlight opportunities to conduct interdisciplinary research by describing the types of benefits that each discipline can provide when conducting interdisciplinary research on recreational fisheries.

Book chapter↗
USGS2021

eDNA metabarcoding outperforms traditional fisheries sampling and reveals fine-scale heterogeneity in a temperate freshwater lake

Understanding biodiversity in aquatic systems is critical to ecological research and conservation efforts, but accurately measuring species richness using traditional methods can be challenging. Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding, which uses high-throughput sequencing and universal primers to amplify DNA from multiple species present in an environmental sample, has shown great promise for augmenting results from traditional sampling to characterize fish communities in aquatic systems. Few studies, however, have compared exhaustive traditional sampling with eDNA metabarcoding of corresponding water samples at a small spatial scale. We intensively sampled Boardman Lake (1.4 km 2 ) in Michigan, USA, from May to June in 2019 using gill and fyke nets and paired each net set with lake water samples collected in triplicate. We analyzed water samples using eDNA metabarcoding with 12S and 16S fish-specific primers and compared estimates of fish diversity among methods. In total, we set 60 nets and analyzed 180 1 L lake water samples. We captured a total of 12 fish species in our traditional gear and detected 40 taxa in the eDNA water samples, which included all the species observed in nets. The 12S and 16S assays detected a comparable number of taxa, but taxonomic resolution varied between the two genes. In our traditional gear, there was a clear difference in the species selectivity between the two net types, and there were several species commonly detected in the eDNA samples that were not captured in nets. Finally, we detected spatial heterogeneity in fish community composition across relatively small scales in Boardman Lake with eDNA metabarcoding, but not with traditional sampling. Our results demonstrated that eDNA metabarcoding was substantially more efficient than traditional gear for estimating community composition, highlighting the utility of eDNA metabarcoding for assessing species diversity and informing management and conservation.

Michigan↗
USGS2005

Decision making with environmental indices

Since Ott's seminal book on environmental indices (1978), the use of indices has expanded into several natural resource disciplines, including ecological studies, environmental policymaking, and agricultural economics. However, despite their increasing use in natural resource disciplines, researchers and public decision makers continue to express concern about validity of these instruments to capture and communicate multidimensional, and sometimes disparate, characteristics of research data and stakeholder interests. Our purpose is to demonstrate how useful indices can be for communicating environmental information to decision makers. We discuss how environmental indices have evolved over four stages: 1) simple; 2) compound multicriteria; 3) the impact matrix and 4) disparate stakeholder management. We provide examples of simple and compound indices that were used by policy decision makers. We then build a framework, called an Impact Matrix (IM), that comprehensively accounts for multiple indices but lets the user decide how to integrate them. The IM was shaped from the concept of a financial risk payoff matrix and applied to ecosystem risk. While the IM offers flexibility, it does not address stakeholder preferences about which index to use. Therefore, the last phase in our evolutionary ladder includes stakeholder indices to specifically address disparate stakeholder preferences. Finally, we assert that an environmental index has the potential to increase resource efficiency, since the number of decision making resources may be reduced, and hence improve upon resource productivity

Book chapter↗
USGS2026

A 2.5 km movement by a potentially ill white-tailed deer along Nantasket Beach in suburban Massachusetts, USA

White-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) ecology has received significant research attention, yet there is a need for further synthetic work on the species across environmental contexts and research areas. Opportunistic natural history accounts can help identify new conceptual links and research directions by offering new observations and ideas, synthesizing context from the literature, and highlighting gaps in understanding. We provide an opportunistic account of a 2.5 km movement of a white-tailed deer walking, wading, and swimming along Nantasket Beach in a suburban context in Massachusetts, USA. The deer displayed behaviors that could potentially be reflective of trauma, disorientation, or illness, including possibly symptomatic head movements and crouching behavior. The behavior of the deer may also have been influenced by the coastal and suburban context in which the observation took place. Our account explores swimming, deer behavior, and possible illness in a coastal, suburban context. We highlight the need for additional research on the ecology and management of white-tailed deer, including swimming and disease in coastal, marine, and developed contexts, and intersections across these areas.

Massachusetts↗
USGS2020

Integrating airborne remote sensing and field campaigns for ecology and Earth system science

In recent years, the availability of airborne imaging spectroscopy (hyperspectral) data has expanded dramatically. The high spatial and spectral resolution of these data uniquely enable spatially explicit ecological studies including species mapping, assessment of drought mortality and foliar trait distributions. However, we have barely begun to unlock the potential of these data to use direct mapping of vegetation characteristics to infer subsurface properties of the critical zone. To assess their utility for Earth systems research, imaging spectroscopy data acquisitions require integration with large, coincident ground‐based datasets collected by experts in ecology and environmental and Earth science. Without coordinated, well‐planned field campaigns, potential knowledge leveraged from advanced airborne data collections could be lost. Despite the growing importance of this field, documented methods to couple such a wide variety of disciplines remain sparse. We coordinated the first National Ecological Observatory Network Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) survey performed outside of their core sites, which took place in the Upper East River watershed, Colorado. Extensive planning for sample tracking and organization allowed field and flight teams to update the ground‐based sampling strategy daily. This enabled collection of an extensive set of physical samples to support a wide range of ecological, microbiological, biogeochemical and hydrological studies. We present a framework for integrating airborne and field campaigns to obtain high‐quality data for foliar trait prediction and document an archive of coincident physical samples collected to support a systems approach to ecological research in the critical zone. This detailed methodological account provides an example of how a multi‐disciplinary and multi‐institutional team can coordinate to maximize knowledge gained from an airborne survey, an approach that could be extended to other studies. The coordination of imaging spectroscopy surveys with appropriately timed and extensive field surveys, along with high‐quality processing of these data, presents a unique opportunity to reveal new insights into the structure and dynamics of the critical zone. To our knowledge, this level of co‐aligned sampling has never been undertaken in tandem with AOP surveys and subsequent studies utilizing this archive will shed considerable light on the breadth of applications for which imaging spectroscopy data can be leveraged.

Colorado↗
USGS2022

Perspectives on challenges and opportunities at the restoration-policy interface in the U.S.A.

As we advance into the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, understanding the relationship between science, management, and policy is increasingly important given the paucity of research evaluating the ability of existing policy to address contemporary environmental challenges. Despite their inherent interdependence, restoration ecology as a scientific discipline, ecological restoration as a practice, and the policies driving restoration efforts do not always represent a unified force. Accenting the policies and practices within the United States, we present our perspective on challenges associated with this disunion, including those linked to social dimensions of restoration and limitations associated with existing policy. We provide a review of existing federal policy in the United States and synthesize suggestions that have emerged in the literature to fortify connections between restoration science and policy. We also describe social challenges to meeting restoration goals, including barriers surrounding power dynamics, trust, and communication, as well as divergent incentives, perspectives, and values. We propose potential solutions that exist in transdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge sharing, and evidence-based, balanced decision-making that equally considers varying perspectives. With the understanding that current conservation practices are not enough to mitigate environmental degradation, we focus on streamlining problem-solving strategies to support restoration and face the widespread ecological issues of today.

Restoration Ecology↗
USGS2024

Climate change

Amphibian ecology and distribution are strongly correlated with climate. Regional patterns of amphibian biodiversity are intimately linked to temperature, evapotranspiration rate, and clines in humidity. While amphibians are and will continue to be adversely affected by recent and projected changes in climate, research suggests that adaptation may happen more slowly than the expected rate of environmental shifts. Here, we review conservation-relevant aspects of both realised and potential impacts of climate change, and outline options for amphibian conservation planning and management. Recent advances in our understanding of climate change impacts on amphibians have primarily stemmed from ecological modelling and direct assessment of climatic tolerances and dispersal capacities through physiological assays, landscape genetics, and dispersal tracking. Anthropogenic climate change has already altered amphibian assemblages and their impacts on ecosystem functioning and services. Because of known and hypothesised ecological tolerances, many amphibians might have reached or exceeded most limits in their ability to adapt to or tolerate further climate change, however the uncertainties are substantial. Implementation of conservation planning and action can help to forestall severe impacts of environmental shifts. Scientific research and science-based decision-making and policy development have already lagged; the current pace of conservation planning and action may not allow for effective identification of threats and mitigation. An increased response rate could help to avert further loss of amphibian biodiversity and decay of ecosystem services. The lack of basic field research in natural habitats continues to be an underlying challenge. We suggest priority areas of research to include the development of biologically realistic predictive models of amphibian response to climate change, field verification of model estimates and key parameters, population monitoring across multiple sites and taxa, and a combination of efforts within and across ecosystems to understand how impacts of climate change can be better mitigated.

Book chapter↗