Unobserved individual and population level impacts of fishing gear entanglements on North Atlantic right whales
Nathan J. Crum, Timothy A. Gowan, Jeffrey A. Hostetler, Robert S. Schick, Amy R. Knowlton, Heather M. Pettis, Philip K. Hamilton, Rosalind M. Rolland
2025, Animal Conservation
Fishing gear entanglements can compromise health and lower survival and reproductive output of wildlife, which can slow population growth or cause population declines. However, entanglements may go unobserved, making it difficult to quantify their effects on individuals' vital rates and a population's trajectory. Fishing gear entanglements are a leading cause...
An unexplained tsunami: Was there megathrust slip during the 2020 Mw7.6 Sand Point, Alaska, earthquake?
Sean R. Santellanes, Dara Elyse Goldberg, Pablo Koch, Diego Melgar, William L. Yeck, Brendan W. Crowell, Jiun-Ting Lin
2025, Seismica (4) 1-13
On October 19, 2020, the Mw7.6 Sand Point earthquake struck south of the Shumagin Islands in Alaska. Moment tensors indicate the earthquake was primarily strike-slip, yet the event produced an enigmatic tsunami that was larger and more widespread than expected for an earthquake of that magnitude and mechanism. Using a...
Characterizing sedimentary organic carbon in a hydrothermal spreading center, the Escanaba Trough
Hope Lee Ianiri, Pamela L. Campbell‐Swarzenski, Amy Gartman, Nancy G. Prouty
2025, Chemical Geology
Sediments in critical marine mineral environments are of wide importance due to their preservation of both marine minerals and organic carbon (OC) stocks. However, OC storage and cycling is often overlooked in mineral system studies. This work characterizes sedimentary OC within the Escanaba Trough, a hydrothermal sulfide system off the...
Crater detection dependence on resolution, incidence angle, emission angle, and phase angle
Stuart J. Robbins, Michelle R. Kirchoff, Lillian R. Ostrach
2025, Geophysical Research Letters (52)
Impact crater population detection and measurement is critical to understanding solar system bodies and dynamics. However, the ability to detect all possible craters under different lighting and camera geometries has not been systematically studied except in a few limited cases. This work presents the first systematic study examining crater detection...
Terrebonne Basin, Gulf of Mexico gas hydrate resource evaluation and 3-D modeling of basin-scale sedimentation, salt tectonics, and hydrate system evolution since the early Miocene
Laura Dafov, Zachary FM Burton, Seth S. Haines, Allegra Hosford Scheirer, Nicole Masurek, Ray Boswell, Matthew Frye, Yongkoo Seol, Stephan A. Graham
2025, Marine and Petroleum Geology (176)
In assessing methane hydrate as a potential transitional energy source, quantification of in-place volumes of gas is a first step—and yet, global, regional, and even local estimates of gas volumes contained within hydrate are highly variable, including within the extensively-studied Gulf of Mexico (GoM) gas hydrate province. Here, we construct...
Direct effects of pesticides and other grassland management practices on the North American Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus plexippus): A systematic review
Elyssa C. McCulloch, Alex Morphew, Elisabeth B. Webb
2025, Cooperator Science Series CSS-165-2025
This review synthesizes recent scientific literature on the effects of grassland management practices and pesticide applications on monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus), focusing on studies published since the 2020 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Species Status Assessment (SSA). While the SSA highlighted habitat conservation efforts to enhance monarch populations, there has...
Road salt collection and redistribution at an urban rain garden on sandy soil, Gary, Indiana
E. Randall Bayless, Shawn Naylor, David C. Lampe, Amy A Story, Caleb Colyer Artz
2025, Water (17)
Rain gardens installed as green infrastructure to divert storm runoff from entering combined sewers also collect dissolved constituents and particulates. An urban rain garden in northwestern Indiana, USA, was continuously monitored from November 2019 to May 2021 to evaluate the fate of dissolved constituents entering the rain garden in runoff....
Examining the role of elevated and sustained strain in dynamically triggering earthquakes on the Anza section of the San Jacinto fault
Nicolas DeSalvio, Andrew J. Barbour, Wenyuan Fan
2025, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (115) 452-468
Microearthquakes can be dynamically triggered in southern California by remote earthquakes. However, directly connecting dynamic triggering mechanisms with observational data remains challenging. One proposed failure mechanism suggests that both the amplitude and duration of cyclic fatigue caused by the passing seismic wave contribute to triggering occurrence. Here, we measure dynamic...
Developing research tools for demographic study of Rhynchophanes mccownii (thick-billed longspurs)
Megan M. Ring, Rose J. Swift, Michael J. Anteau, Lawrence D. Igl, Mark E Seamans, Scott G. Somershoe, Jay Alan VonBank, John M. Yeiser, Garrett J. MacDonald
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1002
Like numerous other North American grassland bird species, Rhynchophanes mccownii (thick-billed longspur) has experienced severe population declines in the last 50 years. Little is known about population-limiting factors, and knowledge gaps limit conservation efforts on the species; however, before research studies aimed at improving conservation and management actions can be...
Weather, habitat area, connectivity, and number of patches influence breeding ecology of ring-necked pheasants
Sprih Harsh, Robert Charles Lonsinger, Hilary R. Kauth, Andrew J. Gregory
2025, Journal of Wildlife Management (89)
Understanding habitat selection is critical in habitat prioritization for species of conservation and management concern. Information on habitat selection is particularly important for grassland bird species whose populations have suffered steep declines over the last few decades. We assessed ring-necked pheasants' (Phasianus colchicus) habitat selection in a dynamic agricultural landscape....
Exploring the science and data foundation for Federal public lands decisions
Alison C. Foster, Andrew T. Canchola, Travis S. Haby, Sarah K. Carter
2025, PLoS ONE (20)
Public lands provide diverse resources, values, and services worldwide. Laws and policies typically require consideration of science in public lands decisions, and resource managers are committed to science-informed decision-making. However, it can be challenging for managers to use, and document the use of, science and data in their decisions. To...
The accuracy of capture per unit effort in predicting density of a cryptic snake was more sensitive to reductions in spatial than temporal coverage
Melia Gail Nafus, Emma B. Hanslowe, Scott Michael Goetz
2025, PLoS ONE (20)
A critical component of monitoring wildlife populations is understanding changes in population size or abundance. However, for most populations a complete census is not possible; thus, trends or abundance need to be estimated through alternative means, such as indexes. An important aspect of using indexes, such as capture per unit...
A fire deficit persists across diverse North American forests despite recent increases in area burned
Sean Parks, Chris Guiterman, Ellis Margolis, Maggie Lonergan, Ellen Whitman, John T. Abatzoglou, Donald A. Falk, James B. Johnston , Lori D. Daniels, Charles W. Lafon, Rachel A. Loehman, Kurt F. Kipfmueller, Cameron E. Naficy, Marc-Andre Parisien, Jeanne Portier, Michael C. Stambaugh, A. Park Williams, Andreas Paul Wion, Larissa Yocom
2025, Nature Communications (16)
Rapid increases in wildfire area burned across North American forests pose novel challenges for managers and society. Increasing area burned raises questions about whether, and to what degree, contemporary fire regimes (1984–2022) are still departed from historical fire regimes (pre-1880). We use the North American tree-ring fire-scar network (NAFSN), a...
Long-term trends in microseismicity during operational shut-ins at the Coso Geothermal Field, California
Joanna Holmgren, J. Ole Kaven, Volker Oye
2025, The Seismic Record (5) 73-82
Pausing injection and production can lead to induced seismicity in a variety of settings, with some of the largest events occurring during these so-called shut-ins. In geothermal fields, shut-ins are periodically conducted for maintenance on wells and surface infrastructure, thereby offering recurring means of estimating stress changes in the subsurface...
Filling the gaps: A Bayesian mixture model for imputing missing soil water content data
Kiona Ogle, Emma Reich, Kimberly Samuels-Crow, Marcy Litvak, John B. Bradford, Daniel Rodolphe Schlaepfer, Megan Devan
2025, Ecohydrology (18)
Soil water content (SWC) data are central to evaluating how soil moisture varies over time and space and influences critical plant and ecosystem functions, especially in water-limited drylands. However, sensors that record SWC at high frequencies often malfunction, leading to incomplete timeseries and limiting our understanding of dryland ecosystem dynamics....
Climate change effects on ecosystem services: Disentangling drivers of mixed responses
Marcy C. Delos, Ciara G. Johnson, Sarah R. Weiskopf, Janet Alice Cushing
2025, PLoS (20)
Climate change is a pervasive hazard that impacts the supply and demand of ecosystem goods and services (EGS) that maintain human well-being. A recent review found that the impacts of climate change on EGS are sometimes mixed, posing challenges for managers who need to adapt to these changes. We expand...
A real-time fish detection system for partially dewatered fish to support selective fish passage
Jonathan Gregory, Scott M. Miehls, Jesse Eickholt, Daniel Zielinski
2025, Sensors (25)
Recent advances in fish transportation technologies and deep machine learning-based fish classification have created an opportunity for real-time, autonomous fish sorting through a selective passage mechanism. This research presents a case study of a novel application that utilizes deep machine learning to detect partially dewatered fish exiting an Archimedes Screw...
Applications of unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) in landscape ecology: A review of recent research, challenges and emerging opportunities
Miguel L. Villarreal, Tara B.B. Bishop, Temuulen Ts. Sankey, William K. Smith, Matthew Alexander Burgess, Trevor Caughlin, Jeffrey K. Gillan, Caroline Havrilla, Tao Huang, Raymond LeBeau, Cindy L. Norton, Joel B. Sankey, Victoria Mary Scholl, Joshua W. Von Nonn, Erika Yao
2025, Landscape Ecology (40)
ContextUnoccupied aerial systems/vehicles (UAS/UAV, a.k.a. drones) have become an increasingly popular tool for ecological research. But much of the recent research is concerned with developing mapping and detection approaches, with few studies attempting to link UAS data to ecosystem processes and function. Landscape ecologists have long used high...
Using GPS tracking data to validate the conservation value of bird migration counts
Ron Efrat, Yael Lehnardt, Daniel Berkowic, Yossi Leshem, Roi Dor, Alexander E. Bragin, Evgeny Bragin, Todd E. Katzner, Nir Sapir
2025, Biological Conservation (302)
Effective conservation of migratory birds requires gathering of information about their population trends, often acquired using migratory bird counts. These schemes ideally operate at migratory bottlenecks, through which a significant portion of the counted migratory populations is funneled. Yet it is rare to validate the conservation value of the data...
Triangulating habitat suitability for the locally extirpated California grizzly bear
Michael C Mcinturff, Peter S. Alagona, Scott D. Cooper, Kaitlyn M. Gaynor, Sarah E. Anderson, Elizabeth S. Forbes, Robert Heilmayr, Elizabeth H.T. Hiroyasu, Bruce E. Kendall, Alexis M. Mychajliw, Molly Hardesty-Moore
2025, Biological Conservation (303)
Reintroducing locally extirpated wildlife species is often necessary to meet recovery goals. However, because current field data cannot be gathered about these species, efforts to identify suitable habitat are often complicated and controversial. Here we present a case study examining a novel approach for identifying suitable habitat for the locally...
Ungulate migrations of the Western United States, volume 5
Matthew Kauffman, Blake Lowrey, Jennifer L. McKee, Travis Allen, Chloe Beaupre, Jeffrey L. Beck, Scott Bergen, Justin Binfet, Shelly Blair, James W. Cain III, Peyton Carl, Todd Cornish, Michelle Cowardin, Rachel Curtis, Melia DeVivo, Jennifer Diamond, Katie Dugger, Orrin Duvuvuei, C.J. Ellingwood, Darby Finely, Jessica Fort, Eric Freeman, Ian Freeman, Jeff Gagnon, Emily Gelzer, Jacob Gray, Evan Greenspan, Curtis Hendricks, Valerie Hinojoza-Rood, Matthew Jeffress, Carolyn A. Kyle, Zack Lockyer, Cody McKee, Jerod Merkle, Jerrod Merrell, Matthew Mumma, Jake Powell, Craig Reddell, Adele K. Reinking, Robert Ritson, Sierra Robatcek, Benjamin S. Robb, Brianna M. Russo, Hall Sawyer, Cody Schroeder, Elissa Slezak, Scott Sprague, Erik Steiner, Alethea Steingisser, Tom Stephenson, Nicole Tatman, Kaitlyn L. Taylor, Don Whittaker, Travis Zaffarano
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5111
Many ungulates migrate between distinct summer and winter ranges to take advantage of spatially and temporally variable food sources and avoid threats such as predators and deep snow. In 2018, the U.S. Department of the Interior established Secretarial Order 3362, which provided Federal support to expand existing research efforts to...
Possible influence of water level management on nutrient flux in nearshore sediments of Kabetogama Lake, Minnesota, USA
James H. Larson, Sean Bailey, Ryan P. Maki, Victoria Christensen, Erin A. Stelzer, James C. Smith, Jamie F. LeDuc, Seth McWhorter
2025, Ecosphere (16)
Lake water level fluctuations are an important factor driving variation in many ecosystem processes. The nearshore sediments that are periodically exposed and re-inundated can develop distinct physical and chemical characteristics, especially in relationship to the organic matter content of the sediments and the particle size distribution. These sediment characteristics in...
Climate-related drivers of migratory bird health in the south-central USA
Renee A. McPherson, Katrina E. Alger, Erik K. Hofmeister
2025, Biological Reviews (100) 1272-1293
Migratory birds are species of concern that play important ecological roles while also supporting recreational opportunities for the hunting and birdwatching public. Direct and indirect effects of climate variability, extremes, and change on migratory bird health manifest at the individual, population, species, and community levels. This review focuses on the...
ShakeAlert® version 3: Expected performance in large earthquakes
Jeffrey J. McGuire, Carl W. Ulberg, Angela I. Lux, Maren Bose, J.R. Andrews, Deborah Smith, B. Crowell, Jessica R. Murray, I. Henson, R. Hartog, C. Felizardo, Minh Huynh, M. Aranha, Grace Alexandra Parker, Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom, Mark Hunter Murray, Glenn Biasi, Stephen Guiwits, Jessie K. Saunders, Andrew D. Good, V. Marcelo Santillan, C.W. Scrivener, Walter M. Szeliga, Timothy I. Melbourne, Victor Kress, Robert M. de Groot, Sara K. McBride, Douglas D. Given, Richard Allen, Thomas H. Heaton, Allen L. Husker, Valerie Thomas, Harold Tobin, Sumant Jha, Julian Bunn
2025, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (115) 533-561
The ShakeAlert earthquake early warning (EEW) system partners along with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) licensed operators deliver EEW alerts to the public and trigger automated systems when a significant earthquake is expected to impact California, Oregon, or Washington. ShakeAlert’s primary goal is to provide usable warning times before the arrival...
Comparative assessment of a restored and natural wetland using 13C-DNA SIP reveals a higher potential for methane production in the restored wetland
Nora Hamovit, Taniya RoyChowdhury, Denise M. Akob, Xuesong Zhang, Gregory T. McCarty, Stephanie A. Yarwood
2025, Applied and Environmental Microbiology (91)
Wetlands are the largest natural source of methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas produced by methanogens. Methanogenesis rates are controlled by environmental factors such as redox potential, temperature, and carbon and electron acceptor availability and are presumably dependent on the composition of the active methanogen community. We collected intact soil...
