U.S. Department of the Interior
The Yukon River basin encompasses 832,000 square-kilometers and is one of Earth's largest boreal-Arctic rivers. Characterized by a long, frozen winter season, the river demonstrates an abrupt ice breakup and spring snowmelt-driven flood pulse.
The potential for large changes in the amount and distribution of surface water in arctic landscapes is high given climate-induced changes in permafrost. Because changes in surface water have broadscale implications in the structure and function of ecosystems, understanding and tracking surface water change is a high priority for some Alaskan refuges.
The New Mexico meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius luteus), which was listed as endangered in 2014, historically ranged throughout the Middle Rio Grande River Valley in New Mexico and along perennial high-elevation streams in New Mexico, southern Colorado, and eastern Arizona. After years of drought, river modifications, and changes to habitat, many previously occupied jumping mouse populations are believed to be extirpated.
Mixed composition and bottomland hardwood forests are essential habitat for imperiled songbird populations on Texas and Oklahoma National Wildlife Refuges (NWR). Point-count data were collected for focal songbird species on five refuges together with remotely sensed data to estimate densities and model habitat relationships.
Accelerating declines and geographic shifts of salt marshes and species of conservation concern in the northeastern United States have prompted land managers to revise management objectives and monitoring methods to inform decision making.
Nearly 1 million Attwater’s greater prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus cupido attwateri) once occupied 6 million acres of coastal prairie grasslands in Texas and Louisiana. Loss and fragmentation of habitat nearly drove this species to extinction, and it was listed as endangered in 1967. Today, two populations have been established in the wild through release of captive-reared birds.
Preserving avian flyway connectivity has long been challenged by our capacity to meaningfully quantify continental habitat dynamics and bird movements at the temporal and spatial scales underlying long-distance migrations. Waterbirds migrating hundreds or thousands of kilometers depend on networks of wetland stopover sites to rest and refuel.
The Colorado River is the principal source of water for agriculture and riparian vegetation in Arizona, southern California, and southern Nevada. In the Lower Colorado River Basin, the BOR accounts for water use in each State, verifies water conservation programs, and fulfills other water management information needs.
Monitoring whales and seals is of broad interest to BOEM, academic institutions, commercial operations and other Federal entities. Advancements in very high resolution (VHR) satellite imagery, cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) have tremendous potential for developing an operational system to detect marine mammals worldwide.
BOEM is required to analyze the air quality impacts from Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas activities as mandated by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).