Decomposing the Tea Bag Index and finding slower organic matter loss rates at higher elevations and deeper soil horizons in a minerogenic salt marsh
Satyatejas G. Reddy, W. Reilly Farrell, Fengrun Wu, Steven C. Pennings, Jonathan Sanderman, Meagan J. Eagle, Christopher Craft, Amanda C. Spivak
2025, Biogeosciences (22) 435-453
Environmental gradients can affect organic matter decay within and across wetlands and contribute to spatial heterogeneity in soil carbon stocks. We tested the sensitivity of decay rates to tidal flooding and soil depth in a minerogenic salt marsh using the Tea Bag Index (TBI). Tea bags were buried at 10...
The transition from resistance to acceptance: Managing a marine invasive species in a changing world
Abigail G. Keller, Timothy D. Counihan, Edwin D. Grosholz, Carl Boettiger
2025, Journal of Applied Ecology (62) 715-725
Marine invasive species can transform coastal ecosystems, yet mitigating their effects can be difficult, and even impractical. Often, marine invasive species are managed at poorly matched spatial scales, and at the same time, rates of spread and establishment are increasing under climate change and can outpace resources available for...
Towards seamless global 30-meter terrestrial monitoring: Evaluating 2022 cloud free coverage of harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) V2.0
Qiang Zhou, Christopher Neigh, Junchang Ju, Philip Dabney, Bruce Cook, Zhe Zhu, Christopher J. Crawford, Ferran Gascon, Peter Strobl, Madhu Sridhar
2025, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters (22)
Global observations at 30-m ground sampling distance (GSD) are now possible at a cadence of 1-3 days by combining Landsat 8 and 9 with Sentinel-2A and -2B satellites. Previous studies characterizing pixel-level Landsat-class measurement frequency used data from different sources but offered little information on observation availability after rigorous quality...
Combining multisite tsunami and deformation modeling to constrain slip distributions for the 1700 C.E. Cascadia earthquake
David Small, Diego Melgar, SeanPaul La Selle, Andrew J Meigs
2025, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (115) 431-451
A major earthquake ruptured the Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ) on 26 January 1700. Key paleoseismic evidence associated with this event include tsunami deposits, stratigraphic evidence of coastal coseismic subsidence, written Japanese records of a tsunami unaccompanied by earthquake shaking, and margin‐wide turbidites found offshore and in lacustrine environments. Despite this...
Earthquake recurrence estimates for northern Caribbean faults from combinatorial optimization
Uri S. ten Brink, Eric L. Geist
2025, The Seismic Record (5) 44-54
We use combinatorial optimization to find the optimal spatial distribution of random samples of earthquakes (≥6.5) that minimize the misfit in target slip rates for all faults in the northeast Caribbean, and we derive magnitude-frequency relationships with uncertainties for these faults. Slip rates for many faults are derived from GPS...
Landslide-channel feedbacks amplify channel widening during floods
Georgina L. Bennett, Diego Panici, Francis K. Rengers, Jason W. Kean, Sara L. Rathburn
2025, Natural Hazards (2)
Channel widening is a major hazard during floods, particularly in confined mountainous catchments. However, channel widening during floods is not well understood and not always explained by hydraulic variables alone. Floods in mountainous regions often coincide with landslides triggered by heavy rainfall, yet landslide-channel interactions during a flood event are...
Groundwater flowpath characteristics drive variability in per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) loading across a stream-wetland system
David M. Rey, Martin A. Briggs, Andrea K. Tokranov, Hayley Gale Lind, Patrick Thomas Scordato, Ramona Iery, Henry Moore, L. Slater, Denis R. LeBlanc
2025, Science of the Total Environment (964)
Groundwater-dependent ecosystems in areas with industrial land use are at risk of exposure to a PFAS chemicals. We investigated one such system with several known PFAS source areas, where high and low permeability sediments (glacial) coupled with groundwater-lake and groundwater/surface-water interactions created complex ‘source to seep’ dynamics. Using heat-tracing and...
Biotic and abiotic drivers of ecosystem temporal stability in herbaceous wetlands in China
Guodong Wang, Nanlin Hu, Yann Hautier, Beth Middleton, Ming Wang, Meiling Zhao, Jingci Meng, Zijun Ma, Bo Liu, Yanjie Liu, Mingkai Jiang
2025, Global Change Biology (31)
Maintaining the stability of ecosystems is critical for supporting essential ecosystem services over time. However, our understanding of the contribution of the diverse biotic and abiotic factors to this stability in wetlands remains limited. Here, we combined data from a field vegetation survey of 725 herbaceous wetland sites in China...
Improving hydroacoustic methods for monitoring suspended-sand flux and grain size in sediment-laden rivers
Jessica Marggraf, Jerome Le Coz, Benoıt Camenen, Francois Lauters, Guillaume Dramais, Gilles Pierrefeu, David J. Topping
2025, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (50)
Suspended-sand concentration and grain-size data in rivers provide valuable information on the catchment's dynamics for scientists and river managers. Producing continuous measurements of suspended-sand concentrations remains a scientific challenge due to their high spatial and temporal variability. Traditional methods such as sediment-rating curves may be highly uncertain, and optical turbidity...
Long-lived partial melt beneath Cascade volcanoes
Guanning Pang, Geoffrey A. Abers, Seth C. Moran, Weston Thelen
2025, Nature Geoscience (18) 184-190
Quantitative estimates of magma storage are fundamental to evaluating volcanic dynamics and hazards. Yet our understanding of subvolcanic magmatic plumbing systems and their variability remains limited. There is ongoing debate regarding the ephemerality of shallow magma storage and its volume relative to eruptive output, and so whether an upper-crustal magma...
Flying fish habitat and co-occurrence with seabirds in the northern Gulf of Mexico
Pamela E. Michael, J. Christopher Haney, Jeffrey S. Gleason, Kathy M. Hixson, Yvan G. Satgé, Patrick G.R. Jodice
2025, Fisheries Oceanography (34)
Flying fish (family Exocoetidae) play an important role in marine food webs, linking sub-surface and aerial predators. The association of seabirds with sub-surface predators in subtropical and tropical regions through facilitated foraging events is a well-known phenomenon and is sometimes used to identify fishing grounds for flying fish, flying fish roe,...
3D viscoelastic models of slip-deficit rate along the Cascadia subduction zone
Frederick Pollitz
2025, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth (130)
Interseismic deformation in the Pacific Northwest is constrained by the horizontal crustal velocity field derived from the Global Positioning System (GPS) in addition to vertical rates derived from GPS, leveling, and tide gauge measurements. Such measurements were folded in to deformation models of fault slip rates as part of the...
Maintenance of genetic diversity despite population fluctuations in the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus)
Andrew J. Lawrence, Scott A. Carleton, Sara J. Oyler-McCance, Randy W. DeYoung, Clay T. Nichols, Timothy F. Wright
2025, Ecology and Evolution (15)
Assessments of genetic diversity, structure, history, and effective population size (N e) are critical for the conservation of imperiled populations. The lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) has experienced declines due to habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation in addition to substantial population fluctuations with unknown effects on genetic diversity. Our objectives were to:...
Bathymetric contour maps, surface area and capacity tables, and bathymetric change maps for selected water-supply lakes in Missouri, 2022–23
Benjamin C. Rivers, Richard J. Huizinga, Garett J. Waite
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5114
Bathymetric data were collected at 13 water-supply lakes around the periphery of Missouri by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and various local agencies, as part of a multiyear effort to establish or update the surface area and capacity tables for the surveyed...
Winter tick sharing between ungulates in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and implications for apparent competition
Troy Koser, Alynn Martin, Courtemanch, Laura Thompson, Benjamin Wise, Gary Fralick, Sarah Dewey, Amy Girard, BM Scurlock, Jared D. Rogerson, Kennan Oyen, Paul C. Cross
2025, Ecosphere (16)
Host species heterogeneity can drive parasite dynamics through variation in host competency as well as host abundance. We explored how elk (Cervus canadensis) with apparent subclinical infestations of winter tick (Dermacentor albipictus) may be a cryptic reservoir and drive winter tick dynamics, impacting moose (Alces alces) populations. We found that...
Using hydrogeologic context and water budgets to evaluate the potential for groundwater contributions to contaminants in Lake Superior
Martha G. Nielsen, Sherry Lynn Martin
2025, Journal of Great Lakes Research (51)
This study presents a synthesis of the hydrogeology in the U.S. Lake Superior watershed and the contribution of groundwater to the water budget of the U.S. Lake Superior basin. Much of the shoreline of Lake Superior in Minnesota and Michigan is composed of hydrogeologic units contributing very little direct groundwater...
Effects of river floods and sedimentation on a naturally dynamic Great Lakes estuary
Faith Fitzpatrick, Angus A. Vaughan, Eric D. Dantoin, Shelby P. Sterner, Paul Reneau, Collin Joseph Roland
2025, Journal of Great Lakes Research (51)
Some of the most biologically diverse coastal wetlands and estuaries are found along the Great Lakes, but the spatial extent and timing of river-related inundation and sedimentation vary greatly among natural and altered systems. We used hydrologic data, geomorphic change detection, and satellite imagery to study inundation and sedimentation patterns...
Dominant Dolichospermum and microcystin production in Detroit Lake (Oregon, USA)
Youchul Jeon, Ian Struewing, Kale Clausen, Nathan Reetz, Ned Fairchild, Lacey Goeres-Priest, Theo Dreher, Rochelle Labiosa, Kurt D. Carpenter, Barry Rosen, Eric Villegas, Jingrang Lu
2025, Harmful Algae (142)
The excessive growth of harmful cyanobacteria, including Dolichospermum (formerly known as Anabaena), in freshwater bodies has become a pressing global concern. However, detailed information about the role of Dolichospermum in shaping bloom dynamics and producing cyanotoxins is limited. In this study, a bloom event dominated by Dolichospermum spp. at Detroit Lake (Oregon, USA) was examined from 2019...
Metabolic interactions underpinning high methane fluxes across terrestrial freshwater wetlands
Emily Bechtold, Jared B. Ellenbogen, Jorge A. Villa, Djennyfer K. de Melo Ferreira, Angela M. Oliverio, Joel E. Kostka, Virginia I. Rich, Ruth K. Varner, Sheel Bansal, Eric J. Ward, Gil Bohrer, Mikayla A. Borton, Kelly C. Wrighton, Michael J. Wilkins
2025, Nature Communications (16)
Current estimates of wetland contributions to the global methane budget carry high uncertainty, particularly in accurately predicting emissions from high methane-emitting wetlands. Microorganisms drive methane cycling, but little is known about their conservation across wetlands. To address this, we integrate 16S rRNA amplicon datasets, metagenomes, metatranscriptomes, and annual methane flux...
Food web structure of the Lake Superior fish community in 2021–2022
Ariel N. Edwards, Shawn P. Sitar, Ashley H. Moerke, Jonathon P. Doubek, Daniel L. Yule, Dray D. Carl, Cory A. Goldsworthy, Ian C. Harding, S. Ben Michaels, Eric K. Berglund, Seth A. Moore, Brandon S. Gerig
2025, Journal of Great Lakes Research (51)
The trophic linkages and ecological requirements of the Lake Superior fish community have not been assessed on a whole lake scale in over a decade. Here, we investigated the trophic dynamics across multiple species and habitat zones of Lake Superior. From April to October of 2021 and 2022, a total...
Assessing the Feasibility of Reintroducing San Francisco Gartersnakes (Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia) to La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve, San Mateo County, California
Jonathan P. Rose, Elliot James Schoenig, Richard Kim, Allison M. Nguyen, Brian J. Halstead
2025, Open-File Report 2024-1073
Reintroductions are used worldwide to increase the viability of species and restore native ecological communities. The success of reintroductions is usually judged by the establishment of self-sustaining populations, restoration of naturally occurring ecological communities, and the species resuming its ecological function. Recovery for the endangered San Francisco gartersnake (SFGS,...
The relative influence of geographic and environmental factors on rare plant translocation outcomes
Joe Bellis, Matthew A. Albrecht, Joyce Maschinski, Sarah E. Dalrymple, Matthew J. Keir, Timothy Chambers, Jennifer Possley, Edith D. Adkins, Elliott W. Parsons, Michael Kunz, Carrie Radcliffe, Emily Coffey, Thomas N. Kaye, Cheryl L. Peterson, David Aaron, Sterling A. Herron, Eric Menges, Timothy J. Bell, Michelle Coppoletta, Caityn Elam, Mceachern A. Kathryn, Paula Williamson, Deanna Boensch, Megan Bontrager, Breeden Cooper, Noah Frade, Doria R. Gordon, Steven O. Link, Tara Littlefield, Shelia Murray, Ryan O’Dell, Noel B. Pavlovic, Charlotte M. Reemts, David D. Taylor, Jonathan H. Titus, Priscilla J. Titus, Tina A. Stanley, Katherine D. Heineman
2025, Journal of Applied Ecology (62) 638-650
Conservation translocations are an established method for reducing the extinction risk of plant species through intentional movement within or outside the indigenous range. Unsuitable environmental conditions at translocation recipient sites and a lack of understanding of species–environment relationships are often identified as critical barriers to translocation success. However, previous...
Predictive models are indeed useful for causal inference
James D. Nichols, Evan Cooch
2025, Ecology (106)
The subject of investigating causation in ecology has been widely discussed in recent years, especially by advocates of a structural causal model (SCM) approach. Some of these advocates have criticized the use of predictive models and model selection for drawing inferences about causation. We argue that the comparison of model-based...
Haunted Summerville: Ghostly lights or earthquake lights?
Susan E. Hough
2025, Seismological Research Letters
Among the colorful local lore in the Charleston, South Carolina, area, are a number of ghost stories, shared not only over campfires but also in published books. Among the most well-known of the stories is the tale of the Summerville Light. Local lore holds that a strange light...
Recovering the American horseshoe crab through a commitment to collaboration
David R. Smith, Mark Botton, Paul Shin
2025, Fisheries (50) 255-267
American horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus populations are recovering because of cooperation among diverse stakeholders and data-driven collective action. Limulus polyphemus is one of four extant species facing common threats, and conservation successes and limitations hold lessons applicable to all the species. We review the advancement in management and monitoring over recent decades, discuss the...
