Search Results

To better understand evolution of oil-prone sedimentary organic matter to petroleum and expulsion from source rock, we evaluated organic petrographic features of Leonardian Wolfcamp A repetitive siliceous and calcareous mudrock and fine-grained carbonate lithofacies cycles occurring in the R. Ricker #1...

Synchronous pulses of seed masting and natural disturbance have positive feedbacks on the reproduction of masting species in disturbance‐prone ecosystems. We test the hypotheses that disturbances and proximate causes of masting are correlated, and that their large‐scale synchrony is driven by similar climate teleconnection patterns at both inter‐annual and...

Degradation of wetland ecosystems has negatively impacted many species, perhaps none more so than marsh birds that breed in vegetative emergent wetlands throughout North America. The U.S. Department of Defense manages approximately 29 million acres of land within the continental U.S., and many military installations contain wetland complexes that may...

Runoff increases after wildfires that burn vegetation and create a condition of soil-water repellence (SWR). A new post-fire watershed hydrological model, PFHydro, was created to explicitly simulate vegetation interception and SWR effects for four burn severity categories: high, medium, low severity...

The recovery of natural ecological processes after disturbance is poorly understood. Some disturbances may be so severe as to set ecosystems onto a new trajectory. The Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge in West Virginia protects a unique high-altitude wetland that was heavily disturbed by logging 100 years BP and...

Green stormwater infrastructure implementation in urban watersheds has outpaced our understanding of practice effectiveness on streamflow response to precipitation events. Long‐term monitoring of experimental urban watersheds in Clarksburg, Maryland, USA, provided an opportunity to examine changes in event‐based streamflow metrics in two treatment watersheds that transitioned from agriculture to suburban...

Functional responses describe how changing resource availability affects consumer resource use, thus providing a mechanistic approach to prediction of the invasibility and potential damage of invasive alien species (IAS). However, functional responses can be context dependent, varying with resource characteristics and availability, consumer attributes, and environmental variables. Identifying context dependencies...

The New Madrid seismic zone of the central United States is an intraplate seismic zone with blind structures that are not seismically active but may pose seismic hazards. The Joiner Ridge fault is the 35 km long east-bounding fault of the Joiner Ridge blind horst located in eastern Arkansas approximately...

Land use/land cover (LULC) change has significant impacts on nutrient loading to aquatic systems and has been linked to deteriorating water quality globally. While many relationships between LULC and nutrient loading have been identified, characterization of the interaction between LULC, climate (specifically variable hydrologic forcing) and solute export across seasonal...

More data are being collected about the world around us than ever before, but effectively using this information requires different data stores to be integrated in such a way that they can be seamlessly queried and analyzed. Automated alignment algorithms exist to facilitate this data integration challenge. In this paper...

Sandhill Cranes Antigone canadensis exhibit delayed sexual maturity and breeding, and therefore juvenile Cranes searching for suitable territories to occupy have different ecological constraints on movements than adults, which must defend a territory and raise young. We used fine-scale GPS telemetry data to characterize and compare movements of adult and juvenile Cranes...

Methods to reduce soil loss and associated loss of ecosystem functions due to land degradation are of particular importance in dryland ecosystems. Biocrusts are communities of cyanobacteria, lichens, and bryophytes that are vulnerable to soil disturbance, but provide vital ecosystem functions when present. Biocrusts stabilize soil, improve hydrologic function, and...

Methylmercury (MeHg) is a globally pervasive contaminant with known toxicity to humans and wildlife. Several sources of variation can lead to spatial differences in MeHg bioaccumulation within a species including: biogeochemical processes that influence MeHg production and availability within an organism’s home range; trophic...

The Clear Lake Hitch is an imperiled minnow endemic to Clear Lake, Lake County, California, USA that is listed as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act (ESA) and is a candidate for listing under the United States ESA. It exhibits a potamodromous life cycle whereby adults, which reach...

Inland capture fisheries provide food for nearly a billion people and are important in the livelihoods of millions of households worldwide. Although there are limitations to evaluating many of the contributions made by inland capture fisheries, there is growing recognition by the international community that these services make critical contributions,...

Shrublands in Mediterranean‐type ecosystems worldwide support important ecosystem services including high levels of biodiversity and are threatened by multiple factors in heavily used landscapes. Use, conservation, and management of these landscapes involve diverse stakeholders, making decision processes complex. To be effective, management and land use decisions should be informed by...

Fish population recoveries can result from ecosystem change in the absence of targeted restoration actions. In Lake Ontario, native Deepwater Sculpin Myoxecephalus thompsonii, were common in the late-1800s, but by the mid-1900s the species was possibly extirpated. During this period mineral nutrient inputs increased and piscivore abundance declined, which increased...

The Alligator Gar Atractosteus spatula (AG) is a long-lived fish of growing management and conservation interest. Situated on the border of Texas and Oklahoma, Lake Texoma supports one of the last robust AG populations in Oklahoma; however, a genetic evaluation of this population is lacking. We genotyped AG individuals with 17 microsatellite...

Freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened ecosystems in the world (Richter et al. 1997; Strayer and Dudgeon 2010), and freshwater fishes may now be the most threatened group of vertebrates (Ricciardi and Rasmussen 1999; Vorosmarty et al. 2010; Darwall and Freyhof 2016). Of the 7,300 freshwater fish species globally...

Mangrove forests in the Florida Everglades (USA) are frequently affected by hurricanes that produce high-velocity winds, storm surge, and extreme rainfall, but also provide sediment subsidies that help mangroves adjust to sea-level rise. The long-term influence of hurricane sediment inputs on soil elevation dynamics in mangrove forests are not well...

An outbreak of rabies occurred in a captive colony of wild-caught big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus). Five of 27 bats exhibited signs of rabies virus infection 22–51 d after capture or 18–22 d after contact with the index case. Rabid bats showed weight loss, aggression, increased vocalization, hypersalivation, and refusal...

An estimated 2.7 million septic systems in Florida, USA are potential ground and surface water contaminant sources that may affect environmental and human health. This study examined the spatial distribution of septic systems, coastal surface water contamination, and related environmental factors of coastal Florida watersheds at the 8-digit hydrologic unit...

The clupeid gizzard shad Dorosoma cepedianum is often the most abundant fish species in North American reservoirs, and this dominance can have cascading trophic effects on entire fish assemblages. Accordingly, a key aspect of managing reservoir fish assemblages involves controlling gizzard shad densities. We used a...

More than a century of dam construction and water development in the western United States has led to extensive ecological alteration of rivers. Growing interest in improving river function is compelling practitioners to consider ecological restoration when managing dams and water extraction. We developed an Ecological Response Model (ERM) for...

Background and AimsCoastal wetlands have evolved to withstand stressful abiotic conditions through the maintenance of hydrologic feedbacks among vegetation production and flooding. However, disruption of these feedbacks can lead to ecosystem collapse, or a regime shift from vegetated wetland to open water. To prevent the loss of critical coastal...