WERC research roundups are in a biweekly format, complete with PDF version. Check back every two weeks for a run down of new research and events from the USGS Western Ecological Research Center. To add your name to the email distribution list for the PDF newsletter, please contact blandis@usgs.gov.

Download the current issue (1.09)

HEADLINE

Families Discover Furs, Feathers and Scales
The 10th USGS Open House was a smashing success. Science enthusiasts from the San Francisco area and beyond converged on the USGS Menlo Park campus on May 19 and May 20 to sample the wide variety of scientific research that USGS provides to the Nation. WERC staff were on hand, explaining the research process of the South Bay salt pond restoration. USGS, Monterey Bay Aquarium and UC Santa Cruz scientists taught kids about sea otters and marine ecosystem studies. The desert tortoise documentary “The Heat Is On” was also shown. It was a weekend that could only be eclipsed by an actual solar eclipse! Check out the photos and tweets here:
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/outreach.aspx?RecordID=138
http://storify.com/younglandis/2012-usgs-open-house-top-tweets


NEW JOURNAL ARTICLES

van Wagtendonk, JW, KA van Wagtendonk, AE Thode. 2012. Factors associated with the severity of interacting fires in Yosemite National Park. Fire Ecology 8(1): 11-31. doi: 10.4996/fireecology.0801011
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=4725

van Riper II, C, R Powell, G Machlis, JW van Wagtendonk, CJ van Riper, E von Ruschkowski, SE Schwarzbach, RE Galipeau. 2012. Using integrated research and interdisciplinary science: potential benefits to managers of parks and protected areas. George Wright Forum 29(2): 216-226.
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=4726

Roderick, G, P Croucher, A Vandergast, R Gillespie. 2012. Species differentiation on a dynamic landscape: shifts in metapopulation genetic structure using the chronology of the Hawaiian Archipelago. Evolutionary Biology 39(2): 192-206. doi: 10.1007/s11692-012-9184-5
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=4722

Drake, KK, KE Nussear, TC Esque, AM Barber, KM Vittum, PA Medica, CR Tracy, KW Hunter Jr. 2012. Does translocation influence physiological stress in the desert tortoise? Animal Conservation. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-1795.2012.00549.x
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=4720

DeFalco, LA, TC Esque, MB Nicklas, JM Kane. 2012. Supplementing seed banks to rehabilitate disturbed Mojave Desert shrublands: where do all the seeds go? Restoration Ecology 20(1): 85-94. doi: 10.1111/j.1526-100X.2010.00739.x
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=4723


NEW BOOK CHAPTERS

Hechinger, RF, KD Lafferty, AM Kuris. 2011. Parasites. in Sibley RM, JH Brown, A Brown (eds.) Metabolic Ecology: A Scaling Approach. Hoboken, NJ: Wilely-Blackwell. 234-247.
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=4721


NEW FACTSHEETS

WERC Outreach Facthsheet: South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project
Restoring over 15,000 acres of wetlands and ponds requires a tremendous amount of research and management, and USGS science is informing the adaptive management plan for this massive Silicon Valley project. Learn about the role of USGS scientists involved in the project, including Josh Ackerman, John Takekawa and Laura Valoppi.
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/ProductDetails.aspx?ID=4724


EVENTS

May 31, 2012 (Menlo Park, CA) Laura Valoppi presented the lecture Restoring the Wild Heart of South San Francisco Bay at this month’s USGS Evening Public Lecture. The talk, which profiled USGS research supporting the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, was filmed and the video is now available for download.
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/Event.aspx?ID=107
http://online.wr.usgs.gov/calendar/2012/may12.html

June 05, 2012 (Webinar) WERC scientist Karen Thorne will give the June webinar for the California Landscape Conservation Cooperative. Thorne will discuss research by John Takekawa and colleagues on fine-scale mapping and forecasting of sea level rise impacts on marshes.
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/Event.aspx?ID=109

July 15-18, 2012 (Oakland, CA) The Society for Conservation Biology will host its 2012 North America Congress for Conservation Biology. Interior Assistant Secretary Anne Castle will be the July 18 plenary speaker, while WERC scientist Laura Valoppi will co-host a tour of salt pond restoration sites on July 19.
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/Event.aspx?ID=85


IN THE NEWS

Mountain Lion Living in Griffith Park, Wildlife Study Finds (KCET) reprints the announcement discussing research by WERC scientist Erin Boydston, whose collaborative research photographed a mountain lion via remote cameras near Griffith Park, Los Angeles, home of the famed Hollywood Sign.
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/the_back_forty/wildlife/griffith-park-mountain-lion.html

“Islands in the Sky”: Conserving the Cloud Forests of Samoa (SPREP) is a feature article from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, the international consortium on sustainable development of Pacific Islands. The article explains the BIORAP survey taking place currently, on which WERC scientist Robert Fisher is leading the reptile survey component.
http://www.sprep.org/biodiversity-ecosystems-management/islands-in-the-sky-conserving-the-cloud-forests-of-samoa


OUTREACH NEWS

On May 16, WERC scientist Nathan Stephenson visited the Arrowhead Hotshots interagency firefighting crew and presented on climate change and its implications


This Biweekly Update is produced as a service to USGS/WERC staff, colleagues, partners and the interested public. To add your email address to the mailing list or to report errors/suggestions, please contact blandis@usgs.gov. Download the current issue (1.09)