Leading the charge: A qualitative case-study of leadership conditions in collaborative environmental governance structures
Melissa. E. Flye, Carly. C. Sponarski, Bridie McGreavy, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2023, Journal of Environmental Management (348)
Collaborative governance structures are increasingly common among natural resource managers. While studies have assessed the conditions under which collaborative action occurs, little emphasis has been placed on the role leadership may play in joint-jurisdictional systems. Management of species under the Endangered Species Act offers an opportunity to assess the collaboration of federal, state, and tribal...
Comparing methods to estimate feral burro abundance
Jacob D. Hennig, Kathryn A. Schoenecker
2023, Wildlife Society Bulletin (47)
Obtaining precise and unbiased estimates of feral burro (Equus asinus) abundance in the western United States is challenging due to their cryptic pelage and the rugged terrain they inhabit. Management agencies employ helicopter-based, simultaneous double-observer sightability surveys (hereafter denoted as DOS) to estimate abundance of burros; but the DOS method...
Alternative measures of trait–niche relationships: A test on dispersal traits in saproxylic beetles
Ryan C. Burner, Jörg G. Stephan, Lukas Drag, Mária Potterf, Tone Birkemoe, Juha Siitonen, Jörg Müller, Otso Ovaskainen, Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, Tord Snäll
2023, Ecology and Evolution (13)
Functional trait approaches are common in ecology, but a lack of clear hypotheses on how traits relate to environmental gradients (i.e., trait–niche relationships) often makes uncovering mechanisms difficult. Furthermore, measures of community functional structure differ in their implications, yet inferences are seldom compared among...
Ecological associations of non-native ungulates on the Hawaiian Island of Lāna‘i
Steven C. Hess, Kevin W. Brinck, Christina R Leopold, Jacob Muise, Jonathan Sprague
2023, Human-Wildlife Interactions (17)
Sustained-yield hunting of introduced ungulates in the Hawaiian Islands often conflicts with the conservation of native species, but there is little reliable data to guide effective management. European mouflon sheep (Ovis musimon; mouflon) and axis deer (Axis axis; deer) were introduced on the island of Lāna‘i to provide additional...
Leaf litter decomposition and detrital communities following the removal of two large dams on the Elwha River (Washington, USA)
Carri J. LeRoy, Sarah A. Morley, Jeffrey J. Duda, Alex A. Zinck, Paris J. Lamoureux, Cameron Pennell, Ali Bailey, Caitlyn Oswell, Mary Silva, Brandy K. Kamakawiwo’ole, Sorrel Hartford, Jacqueline Van Der Hout, Roger Peters, Rebecca Mahan, Justin Stapleton, Rachelle Carina Johnson, Melissa M. Foley
2023, Frontiers of Ecology and Evolution (11)
Large-scale dam removals provide opportunities to restore river function in the long-term and are massive disturbances to riverine ecosystems in the short-term. The removal of two dams on the Elwha River (WA, USA) between 2011 and 2014 was the largest dam removal project to be completed by that time and...
Use of physical blockers to control invasive red swamp crayfish in burrows
Benjamin Lee Bates, Ann Allert, Mark L. Wildhaber, Jim Stoeckel
2023, Management of Biological Invasions (14) 709-729
The red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii is native to the southeast United States but has successfully invaded nearly every continent around the world. Although physical, biological, and chemical controls are employed to reduce or eliminate populations in open-water systems, terrestrial burrows provide a potential refuge from aquatic control treatments. We conducted burrow trials to...
Hydrologic investigations of green infrastructure by the Central Midwest Water Science Center
Allison A. Atkinson, David C. Heimann, Clinton R. Bailey
2023, Fact Sheet 2023-3043
The water management system within developed communities includes stormwater, wastewater, and drinking-water sources and sinks. Each water management system component provides critical services that support public health in these areas. Stormwater can be quite variable and difficult to manage in developed communities because the amount of stormwater that must...
Landslide initiation thresholds in data-sparse regions: Application to landslide early warning criteria in Sitka, Alaska, USA
Annette Patton, Lisa Luna, Josh J. Roering, Aaron Jacobs, Oliver Korup, Benjamin B. Mirus
2023, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (23) 3261-3284
Probabilistic models to inform landslide early warning systems often rely on rainfall totals observed during past events with landslides. However, these models are generally developed for broad regions using large catalogs, with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of landslide occurrences. This study evaluates strategies for training landslide forecasting models with...
Assessing potential spawning locations of Silver Chub in Lake Erie
Jorden R. McKenna, Anjanette Bowen, John R. Farver, James M. Long, Jeffrey G. Miner, Nathan D. Stott, Patrick M. Kocovsky
2023, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (43) 1166-1179
ObjectiveSilver Chub Macrhybopsis storeriana, a predominately riverine species throughout its native range, exists within Lake Erie as the only known lake population. Its population declined in the 1950s and never fully recovered. Canada has listed Silver Chub in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River as endangered and has initiated...
Inter-comparison of measurements of inorganic chemical components in precipitation from NADP and CAPMoN at collocated sites in the USA and Canada during 1986–2019
Jian Feng, Amanda Cole, Gregory A. Wetherbee, Kulbir Banwait
2023, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (195)
Wet deposition monitoring is a critical part of the long-term monitoring of acid deposition, which aims to assess the ecological impact of anthropogenic emissions of SO2 and NOx. In North America, long-term wet deposition has been monitored through two national networks: the Canadian Air and Precipitation Monitoring Network (CAPMoN) and the...
Florida Kingsnake (Lampropeltis floridana) consumes a juvenile Burmese Python (Python molurus bivitattus) in southern Florida
Peter F. Crawford, Jose A. Torres, Jacquelyn C. Guzy, Andrea Faye Currylow, Lisa Marie McBride, Gretchen Erika Anderson, Matthew F. McCollister, Christina M. Romagosa, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Kristen Hart
2023, Reptiles & Amphibians (30)
The Burmese python (Python molurus bivittatus) is an invasive constrictor established across southern Florida. These snakes are dietary generalists with large home ranges and broad habitat requirements and their introduction has had severe impacts on native species and ecosystems in the region. We describe the first observation of a Florida...
Variability in terrestrial characteristics and erosion rates on the Alaskan Beaufort Sea coast
Anastasia Piliouras, Benjamin M. Jones, Tabatha Clevenger, Ann E. Gibbs, Joel C. Rowland
2023, Environmental Research Letters (18)
Arctic coastal environments are eroding and rapidly changing. A lack of pan-Arctic observations limits our ability to understand controls on coastal erosion rates across the entire Arctic region. Here, we capitalize on an abundance of geospatial and remotely sensed data, in addition to model output, from the...
Advances in wildlife abundance estimation using pedigree reconstruction
Elias Rosenblatt, Scott Creel, Katherina Gieder, James Murdoch, Therese M. Donovan
2023, Ecology and Evolution (13)
The conservation and management of wildlife populations, particularly for threatened and endangered species are greatly aided with abundance, growth rate, and density measures. Traditional methods of estimating abundance and related metrics represent trade-offs in effort and precision of estimates. Pedigree reconstruction is an emerging,...
High potential but low achievement: Frequent disturbance constrains the light use efficiency of river ecosystems
Audrey Thellman, Philip Savoy, Emily S. Bernhardt
2023, Ecosphere (14)
We rarely consider light limitation in ecosystem productivity, yet light limitation is a major constraint on river autotrophy. Because the light that reaches benthic autotrophs must first pass through terrestrial vegetation and an overlying water column that can be loaded with sediments or colored organic material, there is strong selection...
Fish life-history traits predict abundance-occupancy patterns in artificial lakes
Leandro E. Miranda
2023, Frontiers in Freshwater Science (1)
Life-history traits of a species have been postulated as a factor in abundance and occupancy patterns. Understanding how traits contribute to the ubiquity and rarity of taxa can facilitate the development of effective conservation policy by establishing a connection between species requirements and resource. The goal was to evaluate fish...
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center—2022 annual report
Sara Ernst
2023, Circular 1513
The 2022 annual report of the U.S. Geological Survey Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center highlights accomplishments of 2022, includes a list of 2022 publications, and summarizes the work of the center, as well as the work of each of its science groups. This product allows readers to gain...
Respiratory acclimation of tropical forest roots in response to in situ experimental warming and hurricane disturbance
Rob Tunison, Tana E. Wood, Sasha C. Reed, Molly A. Cavaleri
2023, Ecosystems (27) 168-184
Climate projections predict higher temperatures and more frequent hurricanes in the tropics. Tropical plants subjected to these stresses may respond by acclimating their physiology. We investigated tropical forest root respiration in response to in situ experimental warming and hurricane disturbance in eastern Puerto Rico. We measured...
The Mojave section of the San Andreas fault (California), 1: Shaping the terrace stratigraphy of Littlerock Creek through the competition between rapid strike-slip faulting and lateral stream erosion over the last 40ka.
Adrien Moulin, Eric Cowgill, Katherine M. Scharer, Devin McPhillips, Arjun Heimsath
2023, Geochemistry, Geophysics, and Geosystems (24)
To determine the post-40 ka slip-rate along the Mojave section of the San Andreas Fault (MSAF) we re-analyze the sedimentary record preserved where Little Rock (LR) Creek flows across the fault. At this location, interaction between the northeast-flowing stream and right-lateral fault has resulted in the abandonment and...
Arsenic, chromium, uranium, and vanadium in rock, alluvium, and groundwater, Mojave River and Morongo Areas, western Mojave Desert, southern California
John A. Izbicki, Krishangi D. Groover, Whitney A. Seymour
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5089
Trace elements within groundwater that originate from aquifer materials and pose potential public-health hazards if consumed are known as geogenic contaminants. The geogenic contaminants arsenic, chromium, and vanadium can form negatively charged ions with oxygen known as oxyanions. Uranium complexes with bicarbonate and carbonate to form negatively charged ions having...
The 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, Earthquake: Relic railroad offset reveals rupture
Roger Bilham, Susan E. Hough
2023, The Seismic Record (3) 278-288
In the absence of documented surface rupture during the 1 September 1886 Charleston earthquake, there has been considerable speculation about the location and mechanism of the causative fault. We use an inferred coseismic offset of the South Carolina Railroad and additional numerical constraints to develop an elastic deformation model—a west‐dipping...
BatTool: Projecting bat populations facing multiple stressors using a demographic model
Ashton M. Wiens, Amber Schorg, Jennifer Szymanski, Wayne E. Thogmartin
2023, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (23)
Bats provide ecologically and agriculturally important ecosystem services but are currently experiencing population declines caused by multiple environmental stressors, including mortality from white-nose syndrome and wind energy development. Analyses of the current and future health and viability of these species may support conservation management decision making....
Snowpack relative permittivity and density derived from near-coincident lidar and ground-penetrating radar
Randall Bonnell, Daniel McGrath, Andrew Hedrick, Ernesto Trujillo, Tate Meehan, Keith Williams, Hans-Peter Marshall, Graham A. Sexstone, John W, Fulton, Michael Ronayne, Steven R. Fassnacht, Ryan Webb, Katherine Hale
2023, Hydrological Processes (37)
Depth-based and radar-based remote sensing methods (e.g., lidar, synthetic aperture radar) are promising approaches for remotely measuring snow water equivalent (SWE) at high spatial resolution. These approaches require snow density estimates, obtained from in-situ measurements or density models, to calculate SWE. However, in-situ measurements...
Cultivating resilience in dryland soils: An assisted migration approach to biological soil crust restoration
Sierra Jech, Natalie K. Day, Nichole Barger, Anita Antoninka, Matthew A. Bowker, Sasha C. Reed, Colin L Tucker
2023, Microorganisms (11)
Land use practices and climate change have driven substantial soil degradation across global drylands, impacting ecosystem functions and human livelihoods. Biological soil crusts, a common feature of dryland ecosystems, are under extensive exploration for their potential to restore the stability and fertility of degraded soils through the development of inoculants....
Seven dam challenges for migratory fish: Insights from the Penobscot River
Joseph D. Zydlewski, Stephen M. Coghlan, Cody Dillingham, Guillermo Figueroa-Munoz, Carolyn Merriam, Sean Smith, Rylee Smith, Daniel S. Stich, Sarah K. Vogel, Karen Wilson, Gayle B. Zydlewski
2023, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (11)
More than a century of impoundments in the Penobscot River, Maine, USA, has contributed to population declines in migratory fish in the system. A decade of change, research, and monitoring has revealed direct and indirect ways that dams have influenced the river habitat, connectivity for migratory fish, and the food...
Evaluation of breeding distribution and chronology of North American scoters
Kristin Bianchini, Scott G. Gilliland, Alicia Berlin, Timothy D. Bowman, W. Sean Boyd, Susan E.W. De La Cruz, Daniel Esler, Joseph R. Evenson, Paul L. Flint, Christine Lepage, Scott R. McWilliams, Dustin E. Meattey, Jason E. Osenkowski, Matthew Perry, Jean-Francois Poulin, Eric T. Reed, Christian Roy, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Lucas Savoy, Jason L Schamber, Caleb S. Spiegel, John Takekawa, David H. Ward, Mark L. Mallory
2023, Wildlife Biology (2023)
North America's scoter species are poorly monitored relative to other waterfowl. Black Melanitta americana, surf M. perspicillata, and white-winged M. deglandi scoter abundance and trend estimates are thus uncertain in many parts of these species' ranges. The most extensive source of waterfowl abundance and distribution data in North...
