Associations between Ornithodoros spp. ticks and Mojave Desert Tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) obtained from health assessment documents
Molly J. Bechtel, Jeffrey T. Foster, Todd Esque, Nathan C. Nieto, Kristina Drake, Mike B. Teglas
2024, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (60) 806-817
Soft ticks in the genus Ornithodoros occur throughout the Mojave Desert in southern Nevada, southeastern California, and parts of southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, USA, and are frequently observed parasitizing Mojave desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii). However, limited research exists examining the relationship between ticks and desert tortoises. Mojave desert tortoises are listed...
Perspectives on the future of ecology, evolution, and biodiversity from the Council on Microbial Sciences of the American Society for Microbiology
Denise M. Akob, A. Elizabeth Oates, Peter R. Girguis, Brian Badgley, Vaughn Cooper, Rachel Poretsky, Braden T. Tierney, Elena Litchman, Rachel J. Whitaker, Katrine L. Whiteson, C. Jessica E. Metcalf, Ecology Evolutionary and Biodiversity Retreat Participants
2024, mSphere (9)
The field of microbial ecology, evolution, and biodiversity (EEB) is at the leading edge of understanding how microbes shape our biosphere and influence the well-being of humankind. To that end, EEB is developing new tools to analyze the massive, complex, transdisciplinary datasets that result from such studies. The American Society...
Ten quick tips to get you started with Bayesian statistics
Olivier Gimenez, Andy Royle, Marc Kery, Chloe Nater
2024, Preprint
Bayesian statistics is a framework in which our knowledge about unknown quantities of interest (especially parameters) is updated with the information in observed data, though it can also be viewed as simply another method to fit a statistical model. It has become popular in many branches of biology. For context,...
Phenology forecasting models for detection and management of invasive annual grasses
Janet S. Prevey, Ian Pearse, Dana M. Blumenthal, Armin J. Howell, Julie A. Kray, Sasha C. Reed, Mitchell B. Stephenson, Catherine S. Jarnevich
2024, Ecosphere (10)
Non-native annual grasses can dramatically alter fire frequency and reduce forage quality and biodiversity in the ecosystems they invade. Effective management techniques are needed to reduce these undesirable invasive species and maintain ecosystem services. Well-timed management strategies, such as grazing, that are applied when...
Linking resource selection to population performance spatially to identify species' habitat across broad scales: An example of greater sage-grouse in a distinct population segment
Megan C. Milligan, Peter S. Coates, Brianne E. Brussee, Shawn T. O’Neil, Steven R. Mathews, Shawn P. Espinosa, Katherine Miller, Daniel A. Skalos, Lief A. Wiechman, Steve Abele, John Boone, Kristie Boatner, Heather Stone, Michael L. Casazza
2024, Ecology and Evolution (14)
Management decisions often focus on the habitat selection of marked individuals without considering the contribution to demographic performance in selected habitats. Because habitat selection is not always adaptive, understanding the spatial relationship between habitat selection and demographic performance is critical to management decisions. Mapping both habitat selection and demographic performance...
State of science, gap analysis, and prioritization for southeastern United States water-quality impacts from coastal storms—Fiscal year 2023 program report to the Water Resources Mission Area from the Water Availability Impacts of Extreme Events Program—Hurricanes
Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Tara L. Root, Matthew D. Petkewich, MaryLynn Musgrove, Amy C. Gill, J. Curtis Weaver, Christopher H. Conaway, Bruce D. Lindsey, Francis Parchaso, Noah Knowles, Elizabeth J. Tomaszewski
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1048
Tropical cyclones (coastal storm events that include tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes) cause landscape-scale disturbances that can lead to impaired water quality and thus reduce water availability for use. Stakeholders and scientists at local and national scales have illustrated a need for understanding these risks to water quality. A...
Hyperspectral Image Transects during Transient Events in Rivers (HITTER): Framework development and application to a tracer experiment on the Missouri River, USA
Carl J. Legleiter, Victoria Mary Scholl, Brandon James Sansom, Matthew Alexander Burgess
2024, Remote Sensing (19)
Rivers convey a broad range of materials, such as sediment, nutrients, and contaminants. Much of this transport can occur during or immediately after an episodic, pulsed event like a flood or an oil spill. Understanding the flow processes that influence the motion of these substances is important for managing water...
Quantification of threats to bats at localized spatial scales for conservation and management
Brian M. Myers, Drew Stokes, Kristine L. Preston, Robert N. Fisher, Amy G. Vandergast
2024, PLoSOne (19)
In a rapidly changing world, where species conservation needs vary by local habitat, concentrated conservation efforts at small spatial scales can be critical. Bats provide an array of value to the ecosystems they inhabit; many bat species are also of conservation concern. San Diego County, California,...
Discerning sediment provenance in the Outer Banks (USA) through detrital zircon geochronology
John W. Counts, Jared T. Gooley, Joshua Long, William H. Craddock, Paul O’Sullivan
2024, Marine Geology (477)
Detrital zircon data from modern barrier island and estuarine environments in the Outer Banks (Atlantic Coast, USA) were statistically compared to sands from nearby rivers to assist in determining source-to-sink pathways. Fluvial samples, collected from near the Fall Line contact...
Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE)
Jeff Clauson, Cody Anderson, Jim Vrabel
2024, Fact Sheet 2024-3038
The Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) was formed to leverage resources from several Federal agencies for the characterization of remote sensing data and to share those results across the remote sensing community (U.S. Geological Survey, 2024).Remote sensing data and the quality of that data are vital to (1) understanding...
Oxidation is a potentially significant methane sink in land-terminating glacial runoff
Kristin E. Strock, Rachel Krewson, Nicole M. Hayes, Bridget Deemer
2024, Scientific Reports (14)
Globally, aquatic ecosystems are one of the largest but most uncertain sources of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. It is unclear how climate change will affect methane emissions, but recent work suggests that glacial systems, which are melting faster with climate change, may be an important...
Challenges and future directions in quantifying terrestrial evapotranspiration
K. Yi, Gabriel B. Senay, Jousha B. Fisher, Lixin Wang, Kosana Suvocarev, Housen Chu, Georgianne W. Moore, Kimberly A. Novick, Mallory L. Barnes, Trevor F. Keenan, Kanishka Mallick, Xiangzhong Luo, Justine E.C. Missik, Kyle B. Delwiche, Jacob A. Nelson, Stephen P. Good, Xiangming Xiao, Steven A. Kannenberg, Arman Ahmadi, Tianxin Wang, Gil Bohrer, Marcy E. Litvak, David E. Reed, A. Christopher Oishi, Margaret S. Torn, Dennis Baldocchi
2024, Water Resources Research (60)
Terrestrial evapotranspiration is the second-largest component of the land water cycle, linking the water, energy, and carbon cycles and influencing the productivity and health of ecosystems. The dynamics of ET across a spectrum of spatiotemporal scales and their controls remain an active focus of research across different science disciplines. Here,...
Body size and early marine conditions drive changes in Chinook salmon productivity across northern latitude ecosystems
Megan L. Feddern, Rebecca Shaftel, Erik R. Schoen, Curry J. Cunningham, Brendan M. Connors, Benjamin A. Staton, Al von Finster, Zachary Liller, Vanessa R. von Biela, Katherine G. Howard
2024, Global Change Biology (30)
Disentangling the influences of climate change from other stressors affecting the population dynamics of aquatic species is particularly pressing for northern latitude ecosystems, where climate-driven warming is occurring faster than the global average. Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (YK) region occupy the...
Dynamic water-quality responses to wildfire in Colorado
David W. Clow, Garrett Alexander Akie, Sheila F. Murphy, Evan J. Gohring
2024, Hydrological Processes (38)
In 2020, Colorado experienced the most severe wildfire season in recorded history, with wildfires burning 625 357 acres across the state. Two of the largest fires burned parts of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), and a study was initiated to address concerns about potential effects...
Effects of initial vegetation heterogeneity on competition of submersed and floating macrophytes
Linhao Xu, Don DeAngelis
2024, Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering (21) 7194-7210
Non-spatial models of competition between floating aquatic vegetation (FAV) and submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV) predict a stable state of pure SAV at low total available limiting nutrient level, N, a stable state of only FAV for high N, and alternative stable states for intermediate N, as described by an S-shaped bifurcation curve....
Correlation analysis of groundwater and hydrologic data, Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park, Hawai‘i
Brytne K. Okuhata, Delwyn S. Oki
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5084
Designated in 1978, Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park is located on the west coast of the Island of Hawaiʻi. The Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park encompasses about 1,200 acres of coastal land and nearshore ecosystems, which include wetlands, anchialine pools (landlocked bodies of brackish water with hydrologic connections to the ocean), fishponds,...
One Health collaboration is more effective than single-sector actions at mitigating SARS-CoV-2 in deer
Jonathan D. Cook, Elias Rosenblatt, Graziella Vittoria DiRenzo, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Brittany A. Mosher, Fernando Arce, Sonja Christensen, Ria R. Ghai, Michael C. Runge
2024, Nature Communications (15)
One Health aims to achieve optimal health outcomes for people, animals, plants, and shared environments. We describe a multisector effort to understand and mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk to humans via the spread among and between captive and wild white-tailed deer. We first framed a One Health problem with three governance...
Historical insights, current challenges: Tracking marine biodiversity in an urban harbor ecosystem in the face of climate change
Alysha B. Putnam, Sarah C. Endyke, Ally Rose Jones, Lucy A.D. Lockwood, Justin Taylor, Marc Albert, Michelle Staudinger
2024, Marine Biodiversity (54)
The Boston Harbor Islands is the only coastal drumlin archipelago in the USA, featuring a distinctive and uncommon geological intertidal habitat known as mixed coarse substrate, which supports a range of coastal species and ecological processes. Recently designated as one of America’s 11 most endangered historic places due to climate...
Distribution and trends of endemic Hawaiian waterbirds, 1986–2023
P. Marcos Gorresen, Richard J. Camp, Eben H. Paxton
2024, Technical Report HCSU-113
This study updates the status assessment of four endemic endangered Hawaiian waterbird species—ae‘o (Hawaiian stilt, Himantopus mexicanus knudseni), ‘alae ke‘oke‘o (Hawaiian coot, Fulica alai), ‘alae ‘ula (Hawaiian gallinule, Gallinula galeata sandvicensis), and koloa maoli (Hawaiian duck, Anas wyvilliana)—from 1986 to 2016 by incorporating new data from 2017–2023. State-space models, which...
Temperature-driven convergence and divergence of ecohydrological dynamics in the ecosystems of a sky island mountain range
M.D. Petrie, John B. Bradford, Daniel Rodolphe Schlaepfer
2024, Ecohydrology (17)
Forest and woodland decline is predicted to be increasingly influenced by meteorological variation and climate change in the future. By determining how meteorological variation leads to similar versus differing ecohydrological dynamics of forest and woodland ecosystems, we can gain insight on how future climate-driven declines may be realized. We characterized...
Factors affecting the density of Metabetaeus lohena (Decapoda: Alpheidae) at a high-density anchialine pool environment on the Kona Coast of the Island of Hawai‘i
Robert W. Peck, Sarah Nash, Richard J. Camp
2024, Pacific Science (78) 31-50
Caridean shrimps (Caridea) are the dominant macroinvertebrates in most anchialine ecosystems. Hawaiian anchialine ecosystems, primarily composed of shallow surface pools connected to the ocean via hypogeal networks of cracks, tubes, and other voids, support 10 caridean shrimp species, including two federally listed as endangered. Little is known about most of...
One Health best practice case study: Advancing national One Health coordination in the United States through the One Health zoonotic disease prioritization process
Casey Barton Behravesh, Tracey Dutcher, Jonathan M. Sleeman, Jane Rooney, M. Camille Hopkins, Grace Goryoka, Rochelle Medford, Dominic Cristiano, Natalie M. Wendling
2024, One Health Cases (2024)
The U.S. government advances One Health coordination through the best practices of jointly developing shared priorities and utilizing formalized coordination platforms to connect partners from public health, agriculture, wildlife, environment, and other sectors at the national, subnational (e.g. state, tribal, local, and territorial), and non-governmental levels (e.g. academia, industry, non-governmental...
Multiple plant-community traits improve predictions of later-stage outcomes of restoration drill seedings: Implications for metrics of success
Chad Raymond Kluender, Matthew J. Germino, Cara Applestein
2024, Ecological Indicators (167)
Success of ecological restoration is often only knowable if treatments meet criteria defined by biotic thresholds, but analytical frameworks to determine metrics of success and their underlying thresholds are needed. Early indicators of longer-term recovery trajectories are particularly critical where re-treatments...
A "Region-Specific Model Adaptation (RSMA)" based training data method in large-scale land cover mapping
Congcong Li, George Z. Xian, Suming Jin
2024, Remote Sensing (16)
An accurate and historical land cover monitoring dataset for Alaska could provide fundamental information for a range of studies, such as conservation habitats, biogeochemical cycles, and climate systems, in this distinctive region. This research addresses challenges associated with the extraction of training data for timely and accurate land cover...
Applying portfolio theory to benefit endangered amphibians in coastal wetlands threatened by climate change, high uncertainty, and significant investment risk
Mitchell J. Eaton, Adam Terando, Jaime A. Collazo
2024, Frontiers in Conservation Science (5)
The challenge of selecting strategies to adapt to climate change is complicated by the presence of irreducible uncertainties regarding future conditions. Decisions regarding long-term investments in conservation actions contain significant risk of failure due to these inherent uncertainties. To address this challenge, decision makers need an arsenal of sophisticated...
