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Executive SummaryWe surveyed for Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii extimus; flycatcher) along the upper San Luis Rey River near Lake Henshaw in Santa Ysabel, California, in 2022. Surveys were completed at four locations: three downstream from Lake Henshaw, where surveys occurred from 2015 to 2021 (Rey River Ranch [RRR], Cleveland...

The ecologically and culturally vital tree species, ʻōhiʻa lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha), is threatened by the fungal pathogens Ceratocystis lukuohia and Ceratocystis huliohia, the causal agents of the disease complex called Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death (ROD). Four invasive ambrosia beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) species in the Xyleborini tribe colonize ROD Ceratocystis-infested ‘ōhiʻa and produce inoculum through...

The proliferation of genomic sequencing approaches has significantly impacted the field of phylogenetics. Target capture approaches provide a cost-effective, fast and easily applied strategy for phylogenetic inference of non-model organisms. However, several existing target capture processing pipelines are incapable of incorporating whole genome sequencing (WGS)....

The rate of fault zone restrengthening between earthquakes can be influenced by both frictional and cohesive healing processes. Friction is dependent on effective normal stress while cohesion is independent of normal stress, potentially explaining—in part—the lack of depth dependence of earthquake stress drops. Although amenable to laboratory...

Understanding how species are responding to environmental change is a central challenge for stewards and managers of fish and wildlife who seek to maintain harvest opportunities for communities and Indigenous peoples. This is a particularly daunting but increasingly important task in remote, high-latitude regions where...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) provides operational forecasts of total water levels (TWL) and coastal change. Uncertainties around forecast TWL are based on the temporal and spatial range of observed beach slopes near the forecast site. This paper investigates other sources of uncertainty that are not accounted for, focusing on...

Wildlife recreationists' participation in conservation behaviors could provide key support to the conservation efforts of state fish and wildlife agencies. However, little is known about how identifying with multiple forms of wildlife recreation (i.e., hunters, anglers, birders, wildlife viewers) may influence participation in conservation behaviors,...

In Hawai’i, ecosystem conservation practitioners are increasingly considering the potential ecohydrological benefits from applied conservation action to mitigate the degrading impacts of runoff on native and restored ecosystems. One determinant of runoff is excess rainfall events where rainfall rates exceed the infiltration capacity of soils. To help understand runoff...

Predicted increases in extreme droughts will likely cause major shifts in carbon sequestration and forest composition. Although growth declines during drought are widely documented, an increasing number of studies have reported both positive and negative responses to the same drought. These divergent growth patterns...

Understanding the intermittent hydraulic connectivity between ephemeral streams and alluvial aquifers is a key challenge for managing water resources in arid environments. The lower Rio Grande flows for short, discontinuous periods during the irrigation season through the Mesilla Basin in southeastern New Mexico and southwestern Texas. Hydraulic connections between...

Pressing environmental research questions demand the integration of increasingly diverse and large-scale ecological datasets as well as complex analytical methods, which require specialized tools and resources.Computational training for ecological and evolutionary sciences has become more abundant and accessible over the past decade, but tool development has outpaced the availability...

Salinity regimes in coastal ecosystems are highly dynamic and driven by complex geomorphic and hydrological processes. Estuarine biota are generally adapted to salinity fluctuation, but are vulnerable to salinity extremes. Characterizing coastal salinity regime for ecological studies therefore requires representing extremes of salinity ranges...

Keys to Dickcissel (Spiza americana) management include providing dense, moderate-to-tall vegetation, particularly with a well-developed forb component, and moderately deep litter. Dickcissels have been reported to use grassland habitats with 4–166 centimeters (cm) average vegetation height, 6–85 cm visual obstruction reading, 11–68 percent grass cover, 1–86 percent forb cover, less...

The ability of reefs to protect coastlines from storm-driven flooding hinges on their capacity to keep pace with sea-level rise. Here, we show how and whether coral restoration could achieve the often-cited goal of reversing the impacts of coral-reef degradation to preserve this essential function. We...

Eco-evolutionary interactions following ecosystem change provide critical insight into the ability of organisms to adapt to shifting resource landscapes. Here we explore evidence for the rapid parallel evolution of trout feeding morphology following eco-evolutionary interactions with zooplankton in alpine lakes stocked at different points in time in the Wind...

Emissions of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) from soils to the atmosphere can offset the benefits of carbon sequestration for climate change mitigation. While past study has suggested that both CH4 and N2O emissions from tidal freshwater forested wetlands (TFFW) are generally low, the...

South Manitou Island, part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in northern Lake Michigan, is a post-glacial lacustrine landscape with substantial geomorphic changes including landslides, shoreline and bluff retreat, and sand dune movement. These changes involve interrelated processes, and are influenced to different extents by lake level, climate change, and...

Keys to Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) management in western North America’s grasslands, particularly those of the Great Plains region, include maintaining open, mostly undeveloped landscapes that sustain at least modest population levels of suitable prey (most typically rabbits [Leporidae] and prairie dogs or ground squirrels [Sciuridae]); safeguarding nesting territories (that...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources, established the Long-Term Trend Monitoring program in 1996 to monitor and analyze the hydrologic and water-quality conditions in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Gwinnett County is a suburban to urban area northeast of the city of Atlanta in north-central...

Researchers routinely study streamflow data to understand the effects of natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change, and to develop methods for estimating streamflow at ungaged locations. These studies require streamflow data that are not modified or largely altered by other anthropogenic activities, such as reservoirs or diversions. This report...

The groundwater and surface-water supply of the Central Platte Natural Resources District supports a large agricultural economy from the High Plains aquifer and Platte River, respectively. This study provided the Central Platte Natural Resources District with an advanced numerical modeling tool to assist with the update of their Groundwater Management...

Field relations as well as geochemical and petrologic studies of metaigneous rocks assigned to the Pennsylvanian–Permian Petersburg batholith identify at least two distinct rock types: foliated metagranitoid gneiss and massive to porphyritic granite. Foliated metagranitoid gneiss of mostly granodioritic composition is geochemically distinct from associated massive and porphyritic granitic rocks....

Sea otters are apex predators that can exert considerable influence over the nearshore communities they occupy. Since facing near extinction in the early 1900s, sea otters are making a remarkable recovery in Southeast Alaska, particularly in Glacier Bay, the largest protected tidewater glacier fjord in the world. The expansion...

The U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center measured environmental contaminants in Haliaeetus leucocephalus (bald eagles) and Aquila chrysaetos (golden eagles) to evaluate dietary exposure to lead, mercury, and anticoagulant rodenticides (AR), all of which were identified by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a priority issue of concern for...

Infectious hematopoietic necrosis (IHN) is a significant viral disease affecting salmonids, whereas Flavobacterium psychrophilum (Fp), the causative agent of bacterial coldwater disease (BCWD), remains one of the most significant bacterial pathogens of salmonids. We explored maternal immunity in the context of IHN and BCWD management in rainbow...