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USGS1988

Eutrophication of lakes and reservoirs: A framework for making management decisions

The development of management strategies for the protection of environmental quality usually involves consideration both of technical and nontechnical issues. A logical, step-by-step framework for development of such strategies is provided. Its application to the control of cultured eutrophication of lakes and reservoirs illustrates its potential usefulness. From the perspective of the policymaker, the main consideration is that the eutrophication-related water quality of a lake or reservoir can be managed for given water uses. The approach presented here allows the rational assessment of relevant water-quality parameters and establishment of water-quality goals, consideration of social and other nontechnical issues, the possibilities of public involvement in the decision-making process, and a reasonable economic analysis within a management framework.

Ambio↗

USGS2011

An analytical framework to assist decision makers in the use of forest ecosystem model predictions

The predictions from most forest ecosystem models originate from deterministic simulations. However, few evaluation exercises for model outputs are performed by either model developers or users. This issue has important consequences for decision makers using these models to develop natural resource management policies, as they cannot evaluate the extent to which predictions stemming from the simulation of alternative management scenarios may result in significant environmental or economic differences. Various numerical methods, such as sensitivity/uncertainty analyses, or bootstrap methods, may be used to evaluate models and the errors associated with their outputs. However, the application of each of these methods carries unique challenges which decision makers do not necessarily understand; guidance is required when interpreting the output generated from each model. This paper proposes a decision flow chart in the form of an analytical framework to help decision makers apply, in an orderly fashion, different steps involved in examining the model outputs. The analytical framework is discussed with regard to the definition of problems and objectives and includes the following topics: model selection, identification of alternatives, modelling tasks and selecting alternatives for developing policy or implementing management scenarios. Its application is illustrated using an on-going exercise in developing silvicultural guidelines for a forest management enterprise in Ontario, Canada.

Environmental Modelling and Software↗

USGS2020

Water quality and ecological risk assessment of intermittent streamflow through mining and urban areas of San Marcos River sub-basin, Mexico

Intermittent rivers are becoming more ecologically stressed worldwide. Flow cessation occurs naturally and spatiotemporally in these systems and anthropogenic activities such as wastewater discharges can have considerable impacts. Public entities mostly monitor water quality in permanent streams, leading to insufficient monitoring of intermittent streams and consequently to their potentially inadequate management.. This study analyzed spatiotemporal patterns of water quality and associated ecological risk through the quantification of physicochemical and microbiological pollutants in the intermittent river system of El Novillo and San Marcos in Northeast Mexico. Results showed that water quality varied geographically and seasonally. Based on national and international criteria, annual averages of water quality parameters analyzed suggested that streamflow in these river systems is of poor quality and poses high ecological risk to aquatic life. In the urban area, annual mean concentrations of Cd and Pb (0.14 and 0.4 mg/L) were 77- and 10-fold higher than their respective water quality criteria (<0.0018 and 0.04 mg/L). Statistically significant (q < 0.05) correlations were identified in concentrations of cyanide, Cd, Cu and Pb between wastewater seeping into the river and streamflow within the urban area. These observations highlight the unique sensitivity of intermittent urban streams to anthropogenic activities and may provide useful information to enhance current water management plans for the El Novillo-San Marcos River system for the protection of ecosystem integrity and human health.

El Novillo Canyon↗

USGS2006

Multiphase, multicomponent parameter estimation for liquid and vapor fluxes in deep arid systems using hydrologic data and natural environmental tracers

Multiphase, multicomponent numerical models of long-term unsaturated-zone liquid and vapor movement were created for a thick alluvial basin at the Nevada Test Site to predict present-day liquid and vapor fluxes. The numerical models are based on recently developed conceptual models of unsaturated-zone moisture movement in thick alluvium that explain present-day water potential and tracer profiles in terms of major climate and vegetation transitions that have occurred during the past 10 000 yr or more. The numerical models were calibrated using borehole hydrologic and environmental tracer data available from a low-level radioactive waste management site located in a former nuclear weapons testing area. The environmental tracer data used in the model calibration includes tracers that migrate in both the liquid and vapor phases (δD, δ 18 O) and tracers that migrate solely as dissolved solutes (Cl), thus enabling the estimation of some gas-phase as well as liquid-phase transport parameters. Parameter uncertainties and correlations identified during model calibration were used to generate parameter combinations for a set of Monte Carlo simulations to more fully characterize the uncertainty in liquid and vapor fluxes. The calculated background liquid and vapor fluxes decrease as the estimated time since the transition to the present-day arid climate increases. However, on the whole, the estimated fluxes display relatively little variability because correlations among parameters tend to create parameter sets for which changes in some parameters offset the effects of others in the set. Independent estimates on the timing since the climate transition established from packrat midden data were essential for constraining the model calibration results. The study demonstrates the utility of environmental tracer data in developing numerical models of liquid- and gas-phase moisture movement and the importance of considering parameter correlations when using Monte Carlo analysis to characterize the uncertainty in moisture fluxes.

Vadose Zone Journal↗

USGS2003

USGS Alaska Tissue Archival Projects: An update on FY02 activities

The banking of environmental specimens under cryogenic conditions for future retrospective analysis has been recognized for many years as an important part of environmental monitoring programs. Since 1987, the Alaska Marine Mammal Tissue Archival Project (AMMTAP) has been collecting tissue samples from marine mammals for archival in the National Biomonitoring Specimen Bank (NBSB) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. The USGS, Alaska Biological Science Center (ABSC), the NOAA Fisheries, Office of Protected Resources (NMFS), and the NIST conduct this partnership project, which began under the Mineral Management Service (MMS) Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program. MMS remains the primary client agency for the AMMTAP providing programmatic guidance and review. The purpose of the project is to collect tissue samples from Alaska marine mammals and to store these specimens under the best conditions so that they can be analyzed for environmental contaminants and other constituents. A substantial part of the sample collection is from Arctic species and, since most of the animals sampled are from Alaska Native subsistence harvests, the project relies on cooperation and collaboration with several Alaska Native organizations and local governmental agencies. Although a substantial amount of recent research has been conducted on contaminants in Alaskan marine mammals, few data exists on colonial seabirds nesting in Alaska. Like marine mammals, seabirds are an important group of upper trophic level marine organisms with a potential for accumulating lipophilic contaminants and are identified by MMS as species of interest for monitoring activities. More than 95% of the seabirds breeding in the continental United States nest at colonies in the Bering and Chukchi seas and Gulf of Alaska (see USFWS 1992). Realizing the value of colonial seabirds in environmental monitoring and the lack of recent data from Alaskan seabird colonies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (USFWS-AMNWR), the U.S. Geological Survey Biological Resources Division (USGS-BRD), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated the Seabird Tissue Archival and Monitoring Project (STAMP) in 1998. The project was designed as a 100-year-long program to monitor long-term trends in environmental quality by collecting eggs at nesting colonies using standardized protocols, banking the egg contents under conditions that ensure chemical stability during long-term (decadal) storage, and analyzing subsamples of the stored material to establish baseline levels for persistent bioaccumulative contaminants (e.g., chlorinated pesticides, PCBs, mercury).

Conference Paper↗

USGS2016

When environmentally persistent pathogens transform good habitat into ecological traps

Habitat quality plays an important role in the dynamics and stability of wildlife metapopulations. However, the benefits of high-quality habitat may be modulated by the presence of an environmentally persistent pathogen. In some cases, the presence of environmental pathogen reservoirs on high-quality habitat may lead to the creation of ecological traps, wherein host individuals preferentially colonize high-quality habitat, but are then exposed to increased infection risk and disease-induced mortality. We explored this possibility through the development of a stochastic patch occupancy model, where we varied the pathogen’s virulence, transmission rate and environmental persistence as well as the distribution of habitat quality in the host metapopulation. This model suggests that for pathogens with intermediate levels of spread, high-quality habitat can serve as an ecological trap, and can be detrimental to host persistence relative to low-quality habitat. This inversion of the relative roles of high- and low-quality habitat highlights the importance of considering the interaction between spatial structure and pathogen transmission when managing wildlife populations exposed to an environmentally persistent pathogen.

Royal Society Open Science↗

USGS2003

Seabird tissue archival and monitoring project: Egg collections and analytical results 1999-2002

In 1998, the U.S. Geological Survey Biological Resources Division (USGS-BRD), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (AMNWR), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) began the Seabird Tissue Archival and Monitoring Project (STAMP) to collect and cryogenically bank tissues from seabirds in Alaska for future retrospective analysis of anthropogenic contaminants. The approach of STAMP was similar to that of the Alaska Marine Mammal Tissue Archival Project (AMMTAP). AMMTAP was started in 1987 by NIST and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as part of the Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program sponsored by the Minerals Management Service. Presently sponsored by the USGS-BRD, AMMTAP continues its work as part of a larger national program, the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program. AMMTAP developed carefully designed sampling and specimen banking protocols. Since 1987, AMMTAP has collected tissues from marine mammals taken in Alaska Native subsistence hunts and has cryogenically banked these tissues at the NIST National Biomonitoring Specimen Bank (NBSB). Through its own analytical work and working in partnership with other researchers both within and outside Alaska, AMMTAP has helped to develop a substantial database on contaminants in Alaska marine mammals. In contrast, data and information is limited on contaminants in Alaska seabirds, which are similar to marine mammals in that they feed near the top of the food chain and have the potential for accumulating anthropogenic contaminants. During its early planning stages, STAMP managers identified the seabird egg as the first tissue of choice for study by the project. There is a relatively long history of using bird eggs for environmental monitoring and for investigating the health status of bird populations. Since 1998, protocols for collecting and processing eggs, and cryogenically banking egg samples have been developed by STAMP (see York et al. 2001). Eggs are being collected on an annual basis for several species at nesting colonies throughout Alaska. Aliquots of these egg samples are being analyzed on a regular basis for persistent organic pollutants and mercury. Results of this work have been published in scientific journals (Christopher et al. 2002) and in conference proceedings (Kucklick et al. 2002; Vander Pol et al. 2002a, 2002b). The intent of this report is to provide an up-to-date description of STAMP. The report contains the most recent egg collection inventory, analytical data, preliminary interpretations based on these data, and a discussion of possible future directions of the project.

Report↗

USGS2012

U.S. Department of the Interior Southeast Climate Science Center Science and Operational Plan

Climate change challenges many of the basic assumptions routinely used by conservation planners and managers, including the identification and prioritization of areas for conservation based on current environmental conditions and the assumption those conditions could be controlled by management actions. Climate change will likely alter important ecosystem drivers (temperature, precipitation, and sea-level rise) and make it difficult, if not impossible, to maintain current environmental conditions into the future. Additionally, the potential for future conservation of non-conservation lands may be affected by climate change, which further complicates resource planning. Potential changes to ecosystem drivers, as a result of climate change, highlight the need to develop and adapt effective conservation strategies to cope with the effects of climate and landscape change. The U.S. Congress, recognized the potential effects of climate change and authorized the creation of the U.S. Geological Survey National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center (NCCWSC) in 2008. The directive of the NCCWSC is to produce science that supports resource-management agencies as they anticipate and adapt to the effects of climate change on fish, wildlife, and their habitats. On September 14, 2009, U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar signed Secretarial Order 3289 (amended February 22, 2010), which expanded the mandate of the NCCWSC to address climate-change-related impacts on all DOI resources. Secretarial Order 3289 "Addressing the Impacts of Climate Change on America's Water, Land, and Other Natural and Cultural Resources," established the foundation of two partner-based conservation science entities: Climate Science Centers (CSC) and their primary partners, Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCC). CSCs and LCCs are the Department-wide approach for applying scientific tools to increase the understanding of climate change, and to coordinate an effective response to its impacts on tribes and the land, water, ocean, fish and wildlife, and cultural-heritage resources that DOI manages. The NCCWSC is establishing a network of eight DOI CSCs (Alaska, Southeast, Northwest, North Central, Pacific Islands, Southwest, Northeast, and South Central) that will work with a variety of partners and stakeholders to provide resource managers the tools and information they need to help them anticipate and adapt conservation planning and design for projected climate change. The Southeast CSC, a federally led research collaboration hosted by North Carolina State University, was established in 2010. The Southeast CSC brings together the expertise of federal and university scientists to address climate-change priority needs of federal, state, non-governmental, and tribal resource managers. This document is the first draft of a science and operational plan for the Southeast CSC. The document describes operational considerations, provides the context for climate-change impacts in the Southeastern United States, and establishes six major science themes the Southeast CSC will address in collaboration with partners. This document is intended to be reevaluated and modified as partner needs change.

Open-File Report↗

USGS2014

Controls of vegetation structure and net primary production in restored grasslands

1. Vegetation structure and net primary production (NPP) are fundamental properties of ecosystems. Understanding how restoration practices following disturbance interact with environmental factors to control these properties can provide insight on how ecosystems recover and guide management efforts. 2. We assessed the relative contribution of environmental and restoration factors in controlling vegetation structure, above- and below-ground investment in production across a chronosequence of semiarid Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) fields recovering from dryland wheat cropping relative to undisturbed grassland. Importantly, we determined the role of plant diversity and how seeding either native or introduced perennial grasses influenced the recovery of vegetation properties. 3. Plant basal cover increased with field age and was highest in CRP fields seeded with native perennial grasses. In contrast, fields seeded with introduced perennial grasses had tall-growing plants with relatively low basal cover. These vegetation structural characteristics interacted with precipitation, but not soil characteristics, to influence above-ground NPP (ANPP). Fields enrolled in the CRP program for >7 years supported twice as much ANPP as undisturbed shortgrass steppe in the first wet year of the study, but all CRP fields converged on a common low amount of ANPP in the following dry year and invested less than half as much as the shortgrass steppe in below-ground biomass. 4. ANPP in CRP fields seeded with native perennial grasses for more than 7 years was positively related to species richness, whereas ANPP in CRP fields seeded with introduced perennial grasses were controlled more by dominant species. 5. Synthesis and applications. Seeding with introduced, instead of native, perennial grasses had a strong direct influence on vegetation structure, including species richness, which indirectly affected NPP through time. However, the effects of restoring either native or introduced grasses on NPP were secondary to low water availability. Therefore, restoration strategies that maximize basal cover and below-ground biomass, which promote water acquisition, may lead to high resilience in semiarid and arid regions.

Colorado↗

USGS2023

Water and endangered fish in the Klamath River Basin: Do Upper Klamath Lake surface elevation and water quality affect adult Lost River and Shortnose Sucker survival?

In the western United States, water allocation decisions often incorporate the needs of endangered fish. In the Klamath River basin, an understanding of temporal variation in annual survival rates of Shortnose Suckers Chasmistes brevirostris and Lost River Suckers Deltistes luxatus and their relation to environmental drivers is critical to water management and sucker recovery. Extinction risk is high for these fish because most individuals in the populations are approaching their maximum life span and recruitment of new fish into the adult populations has never exceeded mortality losses in the past 22 years. We used a time series of mark–recapture data from the years 1999–2021 to analyze the relationship between lake level, water quality covariates, and survival of adult Shortnose Suckers and two spawning populations of Lost River Suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. We compared competing model hypotheses in a maximum likelihood framework using Akaike's information criterion and then ran the top environmental covariates in a Bayesian framework to estimate how much of the variation in survival was explained by these covariates as compared to random variation. The complementary analyses found almost unequivocal support for our base model without environmental covariates. Estimated adult sucker survival was high across the time series and consistent with sucker life history (mean annual survival = 0.82–0.91). This suggests that adult suckers were generally robust to interannual variation in lake levels as well as consistently poor water quality within the years of our data set. Recovery time is limited, as a declining survival trend for adult suckers in recent years may be due to the onset of senescence. The successful recovery of suckers in Upper Klamath Lake may rely on shifting research from the causes of adult mortality and its relationship with lake surface elevation to the causes of poor recruitment into adult populations.

California, Oregon↗

USGS2011

Context-specific parasitism in Tubifex tubifex in geothermally influenced stream reaches in Yellowstone National Park

Parasites can regulate host abundance and influence the composition and structure of communities. However, host-parasite interactions might be context-specific if environmental conditions can alter the outcome of parasitism and disease. An understanding of how host-parasite interactions might change in different contexts will be useful for predicting and managing disease against a background of anthropogenic environmental change. We examined the ecology of Myxobolus cerebralis , the parasite that causes whirling disease in salmonids, and its obligate host, Tubifex tubifex , in geothermally variable stream reaches in Yellowstone National Park. We identified reaches in 4 categories of geothermal influence, which were characterized by variable substrates, temperatures, specific conductivities, and pH. In each reach, we measured aspects of host ecology (abundance, relative abundance, size, and genotype of T. tubifex ), parasite ecology (infection prevalence in T. tubifex and abundance of M. cerebralis -infected T. tubifex ), and risk to fish of contracting whirling disease. Tubifex tubifex abundance was high all in reaches characterized by geothermal influence, whereas abundance of M. cerebralis -infected T. tubifex was high only in reaches characterized by intermediate geothermal influence. We suggest that habitat had a contextual effect on parasitism in the oligochaete host. Abundance of infected hosts appeared to depend on host abundance in all reach types except those with high geothermal influence, where abundance of infected hosts depended on environmental factors.

Journal of the North American Benthological Societ↗

USGS2025

Apportionment of oxygen demand contributions from aircraft and pavement deicer freezing point depressants in airport runoff, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2005–2022

Aircraft anti-icers and pavement deicers improve the safety of airport operations during winter precipitation events. Runoff containing these products can contribute elevated biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) to receiving streams. We monitored runoff from Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport at one upstream site, three outfall sites, and one downstream site from 2005 to 2022 for BOD, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and freezing point depressants used in deicing and anti-icing fluids to determine the primary sources of BOD and COD in the receiving stream. The greatest concentrations of BOD, COD, and freezing point depressants occurred at the primary outfall, which drains the main terminal area, and the secondary outfall, which drains cargo operations. The greatest loadings occurred at the primary outfall; loadings were an order of magnitude less at the secondary outfall due to a small drainage area with relatively low flow volumes. At the three outfalls, median concentrations of five-day BOD (BOD 5 ) and COD were 100–1,300 mg L −1 and 200–2,100 mg L −1 respectively. Apportionment computations indicated that propylene glycol from aircraft deicers and anti-icers was responsible for at least half of the BOD 5 and COD concentrations and loadings. Acetate from pavement deicers contributed another 7%–15% at each site. These findings suggest that management actions in the primary outfall drainage area that target propylene glycol–containing deicers have the greatest potential to decrease BOD 5 in airport runoff. This work demonstrates the usefulness of BOD and COD apportionment for identifying the deicing products and locations within an airport to prioritize for reduction or recovery and treatment.

Wisconsin↗

USGS2009

Population and habitat restoration - Preamble to section 5

Diadromous fish populations are particularly difficult to understand, model and manage because they traverse multiple habitats that present not only environmental, ecological, reproductive, and physiological challenges, but also frequently convey them across multiple management jurisdictions. Our knowledge of population-level effects is also dependent on the quality and extent of biological, population, and demographic data. For some species, such as Pacific salmon, populations are routinely monitored, life cycles are fairly well understood, and population trends are, in general, well documented. However, for other species such as anguillid eels, our understanding of life history is incomplete, population-level data are meager, and the trends in abundance are less clear.

Book chapter↗

USGS2019

Contemporary environmental assessment using a viability analysis in a large river system to inform restoration and adaptive management decisions

As large-scale restoration plans for degraded aquatic habitats evolve, it is essential that multiorganizational collaborations have a common vision to achieve consensus on restoration goals. Development of restoration targets and postrestoration monitoring strategies can be focused using a viability analysis framework that supports an adaptive management process. Viability analysis is a robust and accommodating framework, adaptable to any restoration monitoring program and, through the determination of common desired endpoints, can aid consensus building and collaboration across jurisdictional boundaries. In the St. Clair-Detroit River System, which is the Great Lakes connecting channel between southern Lake Huron and western Lake Erie, a viability analysis framework was used to evaluate environmental parameters associated with fisheries and aquatic restoration efforts and to gauge the overall health of the aquatic environment. Steps to derive the viability analysis were as follows: (1) establishing meaningful baseline metrics, (2) identifying information deficiencies, and (3) placing the context of current conditions into a usable format for managers and practitioners. Most geographic segments were designated in overall fair condition, and the conservation targets were designated in either good or fair condition, based on available assessed indicators. Many indicators were unable to be assessed or assigned condition status, which identified research and monitoring data gaps. Metrics associated with native migratory fishes, Lake St. Clair, and islands are generally in better condition than metrics associated with the coastal terrestrial systems, aerial migrants, and coastal wetlands. These results were not unexpected given the highly urbanized landscape of the St. Clair-Detroit River System. Resource managers in the corridor can use these results to identify knowledge gaps, research and restoration priorities, and to assess progress towards meeting restoration goals.

Michigan, Ontario↗

USGS2025

Microbiome data management in action workshop: Atlanta, GA, USA, June 12–13, 2024

Microbiome research is revolutionizing human and environmental health, but the value and reuse of microbiome data are significantly hampered by the limited development and adoption of data standards. While several ongoing efforts are aimed at improving microbiome data management, significant gaps still remain in terms of defining and promoting adoption of consensus standards for these datasets. The Strengthening the Organization and Reporting of Microbiome Studies (STORMS) guidelines for human microbiome research have been endorsed and successfully utilized by many research organizations, publishers, and funding agencies, and have been recognized as a consensus community standard. No equivalent effort has occurred for environmental, synthetic, and non-human host-associated microbiomes. To address this growing need within the microbiome research community, we convened the Microbiome Data Management in Action Workshop (June 12–13, 2024, in Atlanta, GA, USA), to bring together key decision makers in microbiome science including researchers, publishers, funders, and data repositories. The 50 attendees, representing the diverse and interdisciplinary nature of microbiome research, discussed recent progress and challenges, and brainstormed actionable recommendations and paths forward for coordinated environmental microbiome data management and the modifications necessary for the STORMS guidelines to be applied to environmental, non-human host, and synthetic microbiomes. The outcomes of this workshop will form the basis of a formalized data management roadmap to be implemented across the field. These best practices will drive scientific innovation now and in years to come as these data continue to be used not only in targeted reanalyses but in large-scale models and machine learning efforts.

Environmental Microbiome↗

USGS2023

A regionally varying habitat model to inform management for greater sage-grouse persistence across their range

Identifying habitat needs for species with large distributions is challenging because species-habitat associations may vary across scales and regions (spatial nonstationarity). Furthermore, management efforts often cross jurisdictional boundaries, complicating the development of cohesive conservation strategies among management entities. The greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus ) is a rapidly declining species that spans 11 U.S. states and responds to habitat conditions across a wide range of spatial scales and regions. Allowing for regional variance in species-habitat associations and suitability predictions could systematically identify important habitats at levels relevant to management. We collaboratively developed a model with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) biologists that: (1) evaluated the scale of effect for different environmental covariates; (2) accounted for regional differences in population-level responses; and (3) predicted probabilities of persistence across the U.S. occupied range. We modeled range-wide lek persistence data (6615 communal breeding sites classified as active or inactive) as a function of environmental covariates. Environmental covariates included sagebrush cover, pinyon-juniper cover, topography, precipitation, point and line disturbance densities, and landscape configuration metrics. Our model treated habitat assessment areas – regionally delineated by BLM biologists – as random intercepts and slopes that allowed for geographic variation in species-habitat associations and predicted probabilities of lek persistence. Our final model indicated support for 12 environmental covariates predicting lek persistence at scales extending between 1- to 15-km radii from lek centers, and a covariate measuring distance to the occupied range boundary. Five of these covariates showed significant regionally varying responses: sagebrush clumpiness (a measure of habitat aggregation), pinyon-juniper cover, point disturbance of anthropogenic features such as energy infrastructure and communication towers, elevation, and a topographic index associated with mesic habitats. This spatial nonstationarity indicates unitary range-wide recommendations, or rules-of-thumb with respect to their effects on lek persistence, may be problematic for these environmental conditions. For covariates that did not include random slopes, and which were potentially amenable to management actions, we found that leks were predicted to become extirpated when sagebrush cover fell below 9.6 % (summarized at the 3.2-km radius extent), and the proportion of classified sagebrush habitat fell below 0.7 (1-km). We produced a continuous predictive probability surface of lek persistence which we binned based on model sensitivity thresholds to produce habitat quality categories. The highest quality habitat (capturing 50 % of active leks) covered 25.5 % of the occupied range, while the combined lowest through highest quality habitats (capturing 95 % of active leks) covered 65.0 %. Accommodating regional environmental differences in models that are relevant to habitat management planning will help ensure their applicability to targeted goals. Continuous collaboration between modelers and land managers early in the modeling process increases the likelihood of this outcome.

Global Ecology and Conservation↗

USGS2020

Editorial: Contributions of behavior and physiology to conservation biology

Conservation biology is a rapidly evolving discipline, with its synthetic, multidisciplinary framework expanding extensively in recent years. Seemingly disparate disciplines, such as behavior and physiology, are being integrated into this discipline's growing portfolio, resulting in diverse tools that can help develop conservation solutions. Behavior and physiology have traditionally been considered separate fields, yet their integration can provide a more comprehensive approach to developing solutions to conservation and management problems. However, demonstrations are needed of how behavior and physiology—either separately or combined—have contributed to conservation success. Examining species' vulnerabilities to extinction through the lenses of behavior and physiology can provide insight into the mechanisms that drive population declines and extirpations. Our goal is to increase awareness of the benefit of combining behavioral and physiological tools to improve conservation management decisions. Such studies can also help strengthen the basis for evidence-based conservation which, in some cases, has been previously lacking. The diverse studies in our Research Topic illustrate key examples of ways that behavior and physiology can be incorporated into conservation biology. Three main themes emerged from the invited papers with respect to their relevance to conservation: (1) Stress physiology, (2) indicators of health and disease dynamics, (3) and movement ecology. But these themes were also intertwined, thus showing the importance of integrating multiple fields of research to successfully address questions about conservation biology. Two mini reviews discuss the importance of examining how stress physiology may affect individual fitness and capacity to cope with change which, ultimately, affects the resiliency of populations. Walls and Gabor, in their mini review, promoted combining studies of behavior and physiology to aid in developing conservation strategies for amphibians, which could provide conservation managers with workable solutions to global environmental change. Walls and Gabor also pointed out that studies of behavior are useful to understand how native amphibian species respond to invasive predators. This is supported by Roznik et al. who combined physiology and behavior for a more holistic understanding of the impacts of competition between native and invasive frogs. These authors found that invasive Cuban tree frogs outperformed two native species in jump length and speed, offsetting the costs of dehydration. This work also ties in well to a review by Joly, who indicated the importance of exploring movement ecology (on multiple spatial scales) of invasive species to provide insights for invasive species management. Walls and Gabor also emphasized that more studies on phenological shifts of species in response to recent climate change are needed, as explored by Bókony et al. with birds. These authors found that bird species varied their migratory behaviors in response to contemporary climate change which, in turn, influenced subsequent trends in population size.

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution↗

USGS2000

Population and habitat viability assessments for Golden-cheeked Warblers and Black-capped Vireos: Usefulness to Partners in Flight Conservation Planning

Golden-cheeked Warblers and Black-capped Vireos are Neotropical migratory birds that are federally listed as endangered. Recovery plans for both species advise the use of viability modeling as a tool for setting specific recovery and management targets. Population and Habitat Viability Assessment workshops were conducted to develop population targets and conservation recommendations for these species. Results of the workshops were based on modeling demographic and environmental factors, as well as discussions of management issues, management options, and public outreach strategies. The approach is intended to be iterative, and to be tracked by research and monitoring efforts. This paper discusses the consensus-building workshop process and how the approach could be useful to Partners in Flight. Population and Habitat Viability Assessments (PHVA) were used to develop population targets and conservation recommendations for Golden-cheeked Warblers (Dendroica chrysoparia) and Black-capped Vireos (Vireo atricapillus). This paper explains what PHVAs are, discusses how they are conducted, describes the general results that are produced, and suggests how Partners in Flight (PIF) might use a similar process for bird conservation planning. Detailed results of the assessments are not discussed here; however they can be found elsewhere (U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1996a, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1996b). PHVAs were considered for Golden-cheeked Warblers and Black-capped Vireos because they are controversial, endangered species, and the species? recovery plans list PHVAs as tools to develop recovery recommendations. The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) realized that the data needed to perform PHVAs for these species is limited, but that various conservation efforts, such as the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan and other endeavors, were proceeding without benefit of the biological summarization and guidance that a PHVA could provide.

Book chapter↗