Characterization of the long-distance dispersal kernel of white-tailed deer and evaluating its impact on chronic wasting disease spread in Wisconsin
Gouda V. Mennatallah, Jim Powell, Jen McClure, Daniel P. Walsh, Daniel J. Storm
2025, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology (87)
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease infecting cervids. It is highly contagious and caused by misfolded prions that propagate via templated conformational conversion of the cervid’s normal prion protein. Prevalence of CWD in free-ranging deer in North America is mostly low, but in some regions local prevalence...
Genetic analysis of Missouri’s Topeka Shiners with implications for the propagation of understudied small-bodied freshwater fishes
Jessica Brooks, Leah K. Berkman, Meghan Zimmerschied, Douglas Novinger, Jerry Wiechman, Jacob Thomas Westhoff, Nathan L. Eckert, David D. Duvernell
2025, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (154) 372-384
ObjectiveBest practices for conservation hatcheries to conserve genetic diversity and minimize adaptation to captivity have been established for decades, but how to apply them is not clear in every circumstance. As a growing number of aquatic species are propagated in captive settings, addressing the fit of these practices to each...
Using peak geometry and shifts in the x-ray spectrum of carbon from electron probe microanalysis to determine thermal maturity of organic matter
Haolin Zhou, Gelu Costin, Justin E. Birdwell, Paul C. Hackley, Daniel Minisini, Tanguy Terlier, Mark A. Torres
2025, Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research (49) 591-605
During the burial of mudstones, the associated organic matter undergoes gradual thermal maturation, a key process that can influence the reactivity of organic matter during catagenesis, the formation of hydrocarbon deposits and the chemical weathering of mudstones. Conventional methods for assessing the thermal maturity of organic matter often fail to...
Rapid recovery of an arctic lake ecosystem from a pulse disturbance caused by thermokarst failure
Phaedra E. Budy, Casey A. Pennock, Sarah Messenger, Hunter Pehrson, Emily Adler, Gary P. Thiede, Natasha R. Christman, Byron C. Crump, Anne E. Giblin, George W. Kling
2025, Oecologia (207)
Due to rapid climate change, arctic ecosystems are experiencing an increase in disturbances including localized land-surface failures caused by melting ground ice (thermokarst failures). These failures result in the mass transport of sediment and organic materials into surface waters, with the potential to dramatically alter aquatic ecosystem function and biotic...
Using complementary biomarkers to unravel fish lifetime exposure to hypoxia and mercury
Hadis Miraly, N. Roxanna Razavi, Richard Kraus, Ann Marie Gorman, Elizabeth Duskey, Matthew Altenritter, Karin E. Limburg
2025, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (82) 1-12
Aquatic ecosystems are losing oxygen due to climate change. This deoxygenation can favor microbial methylation of mercury (Hg). To understand the dynamics of Hg under increasing deoxygenation, we simultaneously quantified both Hg and hypoxia (< 2 mg O2/L) lifetime chronologies in fishes. We used a novel combination of chemical biomarkers...
Biocrust mosses and cyanobacteria exhibit distinct carbon uptake responses to variations in precipitation amount and frequency
Kristina E. Young, Osvaldo E. Sala, Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi, Colin L Tucker, Rebecca A Finger-Higgens, Megan Elyse Starbuck, Sasha C. Reed
2025, Ecology Letters (28)
Dryland organisms exhibit varied responses to changes in precipitation, including event size, frequency, and soil moisture duration, influencing carbon uptake and reserve management strategies. This principle, central to the pulse-reserve paradigm, has not been thoroughly evaluated in biological soil crusts (biocrusts), essential primary producers on dryland surfaces. We conducted two...
Calibration of the Stream Salmonid Simulator (S3) model to estimate annual survival, movement, and food consumption by juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the restoration reach of the Trinity River, California, 2006–18
John M. Plumb, Russell W. Perry, Kyle De Juilio
2025, Open-File Report 2024-1070
Executive SummaryThe Trinity River is managed in two sections: (1) from the upper 64-kilometer “restoration reach” downstream from Lewiston Dam to the confluence with the North Fork Trinity River, and (2) the 120-kilometer lower Trinity River downstream from the restoration reach. The Stream Salmonid Simulator (S3) has been previously applied...
New technology for an ancient fish: A lamprey life cycle modeling tool with an R Shiny application
Dylan Gerald-Everett Gomes, Joseph R. Benjamin, Benjamin J. Clemens, Ralph Lampman, Jason B. Dunham
2025, PLoS ONE (20)
Lampreys (Petromyzontiformes) are an ancient group of fishes with complex life histories. We created a life cycle model that includes an R Shiny interactive web application interface to simulate abundance by life stage. This will allow scientists and managers to connect available demographic information in a framework that can be...
Regional analysis of the dependence of peak-flow quantiles on climate with application to adjustment to climate trends
Thomas M. Over, Mackenzie K. Marti, Hannah Lee Podzorski
2025, Hydrology (12)
Standard flood-frequency analysis methods rely on an assumption of stationarity, but because of growing understanding of climatic persistence and concern regarding the effects of climate change, the need for methods to detect and model nonstationary flood frequency has become widely recognized. In this study, a regional statistical method for estimating...
The Hardscrabble Creek complex: A newly discovered, mostly buried, Mesoproterozoic mafic-ultramafic pluton in the Wet Mountains, Colorado, USA
Benjamin Patrick Magnin, Sandra S. Brake, Yvette Kuiper, Michael T. Mohr, Richard E. Hanson
2025, GSA Bulletin (137) 4558-4574
The origin of prolific ca. 1.4 Ga ferroan magmatism between the southwestern USA and eastern Canada is enigmatic and has been explained by various models, including extensional, mantle plume, and convergent plate-margin models. Rare mafic plutons are associated with the ferroan plutons, which may help constrain their mantle source and...
Crustal to mantle melt storage during the evolution of Hawaiian volcanoes
Esteban Gazel, Kyle Dayton, Wenwei Liang, Junlin Hua, Kendra J. Lynn, Julia E. Hammer
2025, ScienceAdvances (11)
As the Pacific Plate migrates over the mantle plume below Hawaiʻi, magma flux decreases, resulting in changes in eruptive volume, style, and composition. It is thought that melt storage becomes deeper and ephemeral with the transition from highly voluminous tholeiitic (shield stage) to the less voluminous alkaline (post-shield and rejuvenation...
Genetic connectivity in a cooperatively breeding carnivore between two protected areas
Ariana L. Cerreta, Jennifer R. Adams, Bridget L. Borg, Mathew S. Sorum, Lisette P. Waits, David Edward Ausband
2025, Ecology and Evolution (15)
Wildlife populations are increasingly threatened by human activities. Most studies, however, are often short in duration or do not encompass the large spatial extent necessary to measure the potential effects of human activities on population vital rates. Furthermore, the life history features of species with high fecundity and excellent dispersal...
Controls on water quality below a reclaimed surface coal mine, southeastern Montana
Skye Keeshin, Stephanie A. Ewing, Elizabeth B Meredith, Robert A. Payne, W. Payton Gardner, Andrew Hunt
2025, Hydrogeology Journal (33) 715-737
Coal mining and reclamation can have a profound influence on hydrogeologic systems, with clear consequences for groundwater quality, yet their long-term influence on downgradient water quality over time following reclamation is less well documented. Geochemical trends were evaluated in water quality downgradient of a fully reclaimed landscape at the former...
Variations in road exposure and traffic volumes in the United States in areas susceptible to landslides
Nathan J. Wood, Jeanne M. Jones
2025, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (124)
There have been many efforts in the United States (U.S.) to identify landslide threats for specific roads, but we are unaware of any effort to examine the entire national road system. We use geospatial tools to estimate the lengths and percentages of total length of roads in landslide-susceptible areas and...
Flexible phenology of a C4 grass linked to resiliency to seasonal and multiyear drought events in the American southwest
Rebecca A Finger-Higgens, David L. Hoover, Anna C. Knight, Daniel Rodolphe Schlaepfer, Michael C. Duniway
2025, Ecology and Evolution (15)
Rising temperatures are predicted to further limit dryland water availability as droughts become more intense and frequent and seasonal precipitation patterns shift. Vegetation drought stress may increase mortality and cause declines and delays in phenological events, thereby impacting species' capacity to persist and recover from extreme drought conditions. We compare...
Paleo-scours within the layered sulfate-bearing unit at Gale crater, Mars: Evidence for intense wind erosion
A.L. Roberts, S. Gupta, S.G. Banhan, A. Cowart, Lauren A. Edgar, W. Rapin, W.E. Dietrich, E.S. Kite, J.M. Davis, G. Caravaca, C.A. Mondro, P.J. Gasda, J.R. Johnson, S. Le Mouelic, D.M. Fey, A.B. Bryk, G. Paar, R.A. Harris, A. Fraeman, A.R. Vasavada
2025, JGR Planets (130)
The surface of modern Mars is largely shaped by wind, but the influence of past wind activity is less well constrained. Sedimentary rocks exposed in the lower foothills of Aeolis Mons, the central mound within Gale crater, record a transition from predominantly lacustrine deposition in the Murray formation to aeolian...
Environmental persistence and toxicity of weathered wildland fire retardants to rainbow trout
Christina M. Mackey, Michael G. Iacchetta, Holly J. Puglis
2025, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (88) 397-406
Long-term fire retardants are employed to combat and control wildfires by altering the way fuels burn, and they continue to decrease fire intensity after water in the retardant solution has evaporated. After application, fire retardants may persist on dry stream beds or in riparian habitats before precipitation events flush the...
Distribution and abundance of Least Bell’s Vireos (Vireo bellii pusillus) and Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii extimus) at the Mojave River Dam, San Bernardino County, California—2024 data summary
Scarlett L. Howell, Barbara E. Kus
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1025
We surveyed for Least Bell’s Vireos (Vireo bellii pusillus; vireo) and Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii extimus; flycatcher) at the Mojave River Dam study area near Hesperia, California, in 2024. Four vireo surveys were completed between April 17 and July 2, 2024, and three flycatcher surveys were completed between May...
Using distance sampling with camera traps to estimate densities of ungulates on tropical oceanic islands
Richard J. Camp, Trevor M. Bak, Matthew D Burt, Scott Vogt
2025, Journal of Tropical Ecology (41)
Reliable population estimates are one of the most elementary needs for the management of wildlife, particularly for introduced ungulates on oceanic islands. We aimed to produce accurate and precise density estimates of Philippine deer (Rusa marianna) and wild pigs (Sus scrofa) on Guam using motion-triggered cameras combined with...
Fine-resolution satellite remote sensing improves spatially distributed snow modeling to near real time
Graham A. Sexstone, Garrett Alexander Akie, David J. Selkowitz, Theodore B. Barnhart, David M. Rey, Claudia León-Salazar, Emily Carbone, Lindsay A. Bearup
2025, Remote Sensing (17)
Given the highly variable distribution of seasonal snowpacks in complex mountainous environments, the accurate snow modeling of basin-wide snow water equivalent (SWE) requires a spatially distributed approach at a sufficiently fine grid resolution (<500 m) to account for the important processes in the seasonal evolution of a snowpack (e.g., wind...
Shifting baselines of coral-reef species composition from the Late Pleistocene to the present in the Florida Keys
Lauren Toth, Anastasios Stathakopoulos, Scarlette Shan-Hwei Hsia, David A. Weinstein
2025, The Depositional Record (11) 893-916
The ongoing global-scale reassembly of modern coral reefs is unprecedented compared with the observed stability of most late Quaternary reef assemblages. One notable exception is the marine isotope stage (MIS) 5e (ca 130–116 thousand years ago [ka]) reefs in the Florida Keys, where the ubiquitous shallow-water coral, Acropora palmata, was near absent....
Linking permafrost to the abundance, biomass, and energy density of fish in Arctic headwater streams
Michael P. Carey, Joshua C. Koch, Jonathan A. O’Donnell, Brett Poulin, Christian E. Zimmerman
2025, Ecosphere (16)
Permafrost thaw alters groundwater flow, river hydrology, stream-catchment interactions, and the availability of carbon and nutrients in headwater streams. The impact of permafrost on watershed hydrology and biogeochemistry of headwater streams has been demonstrated, but there is little understanding of how permafrost influences fish in these ecosystems. We examined relations...
Using the D-Claw software package to model lahars in the Middle Fork Nooksack River drainage and beyond, Mount Baker, Washington
Cynthia A. Gardner, Mary Catherine Benage, Charles M. Cannon, David L. George
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5133
Lahars, or volcanic mudflows, are the most hazardous eruption-related phenomena that will affect communities living along rivers that originate on Mount Baker. In the past 15,000 years, the largest lahars from Mount Baker have affected the Middle Fork Nooksack River drainage and beyond. Here we use the physics-based D-Claw software...
Social sensing a volcanic eruption: Application to Kīlauea, 2018
James Hickey, James Young, Michelle Spruce, Ravi Pandit, Hywel Williams, Rudy Arthur, Wendy K. Stovall, Matthew Head
2025, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (25) 1681-1696
Protecting lives and livelihoods during volcanic eruptions is the key challenge in volcanology, conducted primarily by volcano monitoring and emergency management organisations, but it is complicated by scarce knowledge of how communities respond in times of crisis. Social sensing is a rapidly developing practice that can be adapted for volcanology....
Assessing potential collateral effects on amphibians from insecticide applications for flea control and plague mitigation
David A. Eads, Susan A. Shriner, Jeremy W. Ellis, Paul M. Cryan, Michelle Hladik, Gregory P. Dooley, Erin L. Muths
2025, PLoS ONE (20)
Ideal disease mitigation measures for wildlife are safe and benign for target species, non-target organisms, the environment, and humans. Identifying collateral (i.e., unintended) effects is a key consideration in implementing such actions. Deltamethrin dust and fipronil-laced baits represent a group of insecticides that target fleas (pulicides) and are used to...
