Skip to main content

Person

Erica Fleishman

Over the past four decades, annual area burned has increased significantly in California and across the western USA. This trend reflects a confluence of intersecting factors that affect wildfire regimes. It is correlated with increasing temperatures and atmospheric vapour pressure deficit. Anthropogenic climate change is the driver behind much of this change, in addition to influencing other climate-related factors, such as compression of the winter wet season. These climatic trends and associated increases in fire activity are projected to continue into the future. Additionally, factors related to the suppression of the Indigenous use of fire, aggressive fire suppression and, in some cases, changes in logging practices...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
Bias in estimated breeding-bird abundance from closure-assumption violations
The closure assumption of many abundance models, that individual animals are present throughout the survey season, often is inconsistent with field data. The effects of closure-assumption violations on estimators of abundance and associations between abundance and covariates are not fully understood. Furthermore, one’s definition of abundance affects these estimates. We used simulated data on breeding birds to explore how permanent, non-random immigration and emigration that violate the closure assumption affect estimates from N-mixture abundance models and naïve models (models that do not account for imperfect detection). This is the first work to evaluate the effect of permanent immigration and emigration on estimates...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
thumbnail
Understanding the Effects of Seasonal Precipitation Changes on Hydrology and Ecosystems in the Colorado River Basin
The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people in the southwestern United States. Consistent water level declines in Colorado River Basin reservoirs have focused research attention on the long-term changes in winter precipitation and the timing of snowmelt and runoff. Research on how warming temperatures affect winter precipitation and spring snowmelt is ongoing, however, less attention has been given to changes in spring and summer precipitation which also affects water supply, plant growth, and competition between native and non-native plants, and, in turn affects wildfire dynamics and wildlife habitat. The amount and timing of summer precipitation is largely influenced by variation in the North American...
ScienceBase brings together the best information it can find about USGS researchers and offices to show connections to publications, projects, and data. We are still working to improve this process and information is by no means complete. If you don't see everything you know is associated with you, a colleague, or your office, please be patient while we work to connect the dots. Feel free to contact sciencebase@usgs.gov.