Refining capture-recapture recruitment estimation methods for Atlantic sturgeon
M.A. Baker, E.C. Ingram, D.L. Higginbotham, Brian J. Irwin, A.G. Fox
2023, Endangered Species Research (51) 203-214
The Atlantic sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus was once of great commercial importance in many coastal rivers of the eastern USA. Over the 19th and 20th centuries, most historical stocks of Atlantic sturgeon were depleted by human activities. Estimating recruitment for the remaining populations is challenging due to sampling constraints, limited age...
The Factors Affecting Female Black Bear Harvest Rates in Pennsylvania
Brandon M. Snavely, Robert Charles Lonsinger
2023, Cooperator Science Series FWS/CSS-150-2023
Pennsylvania’s black bear (Ursus americanus) population increased in abundance and distribution during the latter third of the 20th century, leading to an increase in human-bear conflicts. Increases in harvest opportunities from 2002–2018 aimed to stabilize black bear population growth but did not substantially increase harvest, and annual harvest was often...
Identifying invertebrate indicators for streamflow duration assessments in forested headwater streams
Ken M. Fritz, Roxolana O. Kashuba, Gregory J. Pond, Jay R. Christensen, Laurie C. Alexander, Benjamin J. Washington, Brent R. Johnson, David Walters, William T. Thoeny, Paul C. Weaver
2023, Freshwater Science (42) 247-267
Streamflow-duration assessment methods (SDAMs) are rapid, indicator-based tools for classifying streamflow duration (e.g., intermittent vs perennial flow) at the reach scale. Indicators are easily assessed stream properties used as surrogates of flow duration, which is too resource intensive to measure directly for many reaches. Invertebrates are commonly...
Estimating proximity effects to wildfire fuels treatments on house prices in Cibola National Forest, New Mexico, USA
Ryan A. Fitch, Julie M. Mueller, James R. Meldrum, Christopher Huber
2023, Landscape and Urban Planning (238)
Forested landscapes in the Western United States are subject to growing size and severity of wildfires, in part due to historical management strategies focusing on wildfire suppression. Forest restoration treatments and fuels reductions, including thinning and prescribed burning, can reduce the frequency and intensity of wildfires. Extensive restoration and fuels...
The scale-dependent role of submerged macrophytes as drift-feeding lotic fish habitat
John S. McLaren, Robert W. Van Kirk, Phaedra E. Budy, Soren Brothers
2023, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (80)
Although submerged macrophyte (hereafter, “macrophyte”) communities are globally prevalent in low-gradient rivers, the net reach-scale effect of macrophytes on drift-feeding fish microhabitat preference is poorly understood. We used snorkeling and bioenergetics to study fish habitat selection for rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in the Henrys Fork, ID, USA,...
Triple oxygen isotope compositions of globally distributed soil carbonates record widespread evaporation of soil waters
Julia Kelson, Tyler E. Huth, Benjamin H. Passey, Naomi E. Levin, Sierra V. Petersen, Paolo Ballato, Emily J. Beverly, Daniel O. Breecker, Gregory D. Hoke, Adam M. Hudson, Ji Haoyuan, Alexis Licht, Jay Quade
2023, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (355) 138-160
The stable isotopic composition of pedogenic carbonates is central to many studies of past climate and topography, providing a basis for our understanding of Earth's terrestrial history. A core assumption of many applications of oxygen isotope values (δ18O) of pedogenic carbonate is that they reflect the δ18O value of precipitation...
Human and infrastructure exposure to large wildfires in the United States
Arash Modaresi Rad, John T. Abatzoglou, Jason R. Kreitler, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, Amir AghaKouchak, Nicholas Hudyma, NIcholas Nauslar, Mojtaba Sadegh
2023, Nature Sustainability (6) 1351
An increasing number of wildfire disasters have occurred in recent years in the United States. Here we demonstrate that cumulative primary human exposure—the population residing within the perimeters of large wildfires—was 594,850 people from 2000 to 2019 across the contiguous United States (CONUS), 82% of which...
Earthquake scenarios for Quito, Ecuador; Cali, Colombia; and Santiago De Los Caballeros, Dominican Republic
Robert Edward Chase, Kishor S. Jaiswal, Alejandro Calderon, Hugo Yepes, Loren Goddard, Catalina Yepes-Estrada
2023, Seismological Research Letters (94) 2360-2372
Earthquake risk associated with Quito, Ecuador; Cali, Colombia; and Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic is examined by generating a set of hypothetical earthquake scenarios considering seismic sources, recent seismicity, and major historical earthquakes recorded in the vicinity. In this study, particular focus...
Biotic and abiotic factors shaping bat activity in Maryland soybean fields
Lauren D. Maynard, W. Mark Ford, John D. Parker, Susan R. Whitehead
2023, Ecosphere (14)
Bats are important pest control agents in agriculture. Yet, the underlying fine-scale biotic and abiotic mechanisms that drive their foraging behaviors and responses to insect outbreaks are unclear. Herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) can attract both invertebrate and vertebrate natural enemies that use the chemical plant cues to locate insect prey....
2023 Coastal master plan: ICM-wetlands – Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) updates
Kristin DeMarco, Donald Schoolmaster, Brady Couvillion
2023, Report, 2023 Louisiana’s comprehensive master plan for a sustainable coast
Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) provides critical structural habitat for valuable nekton and wildlife species across coastal ecosystems and can buffer the negative effects of land loss. Landscape change and restoration efforts across coastal Louisiana can impact the occurrence, coverage, and species assemblages of SAV, and changes to these foundational species...
2023 Coastal master plan: Landscape input data
Brady Couvillion
2023, Report, 2023 Louisiana’s comprehensive master plan for a sustainable coast
Coastal Louisiana is a complex landscape. The composition of the landscape, as well as the processes which influence said landscape, vary in both space and time. The models used in the 2023 Coastal Master Plan must attempt to reflect that spatial and temporal variability. It is therefore of the utmost...
Vortex trapping of sand grains over ripples under oscillatory flow
Donya P. Frank-Gilchrist, Allison Penko, Margaret L. Palmsten, Joseph Calantoni
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings of MARID VII
Sand ripples significantly impact morphodynamics in the nearshore by generating coherent vortices, which can transport suspended sediment to greater heights in the water column than above flat beds. Coherent vortices can trap sediment grains if the settling velocity of the grain is smaller than the maximum vertical fluid velocity in...
2023 PyLith Hackathon report
Brad T. Aagaard
2023, Report
The 3rd Pylith Hackathon was held June 12–17, 2023, at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado with funding from the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG). The hackathon involved 17 participants working on 5 different projects to implement new features and create new examples for the PyLith crustal deformation...
Winners and losers over a ½ century of change in crayfish assemblages of Wyoming, USA
Braxton Newkirk, Eric R. Larson, Andrew D. Walker, Annika W. Walters
2023, Freshwater Science (42) 146-160
Crayfish have experienced extensive assemblage reorganization as a result of global change, with some species becoming globally invasive and others becoming rare or extinct. We combined historical and contemporary sampling data to determine temporal trends of crayfish assemblages of Wyoming, USA, identifying winners and losers over a ½ century of...
Modeling habitat suitability across different levels of invasive plant abundance
Evelyn M. Beaury, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Ian S. Pearse, Annette E. Evans, Nathan Teich, Peder Engelstad, Jillian LaRoe, Bethany A. Bradley
2023, Biological Invasions (25) 3471-3483
Predicting where invasive plants are likely to spread and become abundant is critical for informing invasive plant management. Species distribution models are a key tool for informing the geography of invasion risk, but most distribution models are limited by their use of presence data, including no information on invader population...
A new deglacial climate and sea-level record from 20 to 8 ka from IODP381 site M0080, Alkyonides Gulf, eastern Mediterranean
Ilaria Mazzini, Thomas M. Cronin, Robert Gawthorpe, Richard S. Collier, Gino De Gelder, Anna Golub, Michael Toomey, Robert Poirier, Huai-Hsuan May Huang, Marcie Turkey, Lisa McNeill, Donna J. Shillington
2023, Quaternary Science Reviews (313)
Records of relative sea-level rise for the last deglaciation are mostly limited to coral reef records and geophysical model estimates, but observational data from regions with temperate climates is sparse. We present a new relative climatic and regional sea-level rise record for glacial Termination 1 (Marine Isotope Stages [MIS] 2–1) based on ostracode paleoecology from the...
Using state-and-transition simulation models to scope post-fire success in restoring greater sage-grouse habitat
Elizabeth Kari Orning, Julie A. Heinrichs, David A. Pyke, Peter S. Coates, Cameron L. Aldridge
2023, Ecological Modelling (483)
Wildfires are increasingly modifying wildlife habitat in the western United States and managers need ways to scope the pace and degree to which post-fire restoration actions can re-create habitat in dynamic landscapes. We developed a spatially explicit state-transition simulation model (STSM) to project post-fire revegetation and the potential for sage-grouse...
Constraints on near-ridge magmatism using 40Ar/39Ar geochronology of enriched MORB from the 8°20' N seamount chain
Molly Anderson, Michael Perfit, Leah E. Morgan, Daniel Fornari, Michael A. Cosca, V. Dorsey Wanless
2023, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (618)
Our understanding of the spatial-temporal-compositional relationships between off-axis magmatism and mid-ocean ridge spreading centers is limited. Determining the 40Ar/39Ar ages of mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) lavas erupting near mid-ocean ridges (MOR) has been a challenge due to the characteristically low K2O contents in incompatible element-depleted normal MORB (NMORB). High-precision 40Ar/39Ar geochronology is used here to determine...
Assessing impacts of human stressors on stream fish habitats across the Mississippi River basin
Jared Ross, Dana M. Infante, Arthur R. Cooper, Joanna B. Whittier, Wesley Daniel
2023, Water (15)
Effective conservation of stream fishes and their habitats is complicated by the fact that human stressors alter the way in which natural factors such as stream size, catchment geology, and regional climate influence stream ecosystems. Consequently, efforts to assess the condition of stream fishes and their habitats must not only...
Least Bell's Vireos and Southwestern Willow Flycatchers at the San Luis Rey Flood Risk Management Project Area in San Diego County, California—Breeding activities and habitat use—2022 annual report
Alexandra Houston, Lisa D. Allen, Shannon M. Mendia, Barbara E. Kus
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1040
Executive SummaryWe completed four protocol surveys for Least Bell’s Vireos (Vireo bellii pusillus; vireo) during the breeding season, supplemented by weekly territory monitoring visits. We identified a total of 133 territorial male vireos; 114 were confirmed as paired, and 3 were confirmed as single males. For the remaining 16 territories,...
Using recovered radio transmitters to estimate positioning error and a generalized Monte Carlo simulation to incorporate error into animal telemetry analysis
Kurt C. Heim, W.C. Ardren, Theodore Castro-Santos
2023, Animal Biotelemetry (11)
BackgroundMobile radio tracking is an important tool in fisheries research and management. Yet, the accuracy of location estimates can be highly variable across studies and within a given dataset. While some methods are available to deal with error, they generally assume a static value...
Plant traits poorly predict winner and loser shrub species in a warming tundra biome
Mariana Garcia Criado, Isla H. Myers-Smith, Anne Bjorkman, Signe Normand, Anne Blach-Overgaard, Haydn J. D. Thomas, Anu Eskelinen, Konsta Happonen, Juha Alatalo, Alba Anadon-Rosell, Isabelle Aubin, Mariska te Beest, Katlyn R. Betway-May, Daan Blok, Allan Buras, Bruno E. L. Cerabolini, Katherine S. Christie, J. Hans C. Cornelissen, Bruce C. Forbes, Esther R. Frei, Paul Grogan, Luise Hermanutz, Robert D. Hollister, James Hudson, Maitane Iturrate-Garcia, Elina Kaarlejarvi, Michael Kleyer, Laurent J. Lamarque, Jonas J. Lembrechts, Esther Levesque, Miska Luoto, Petr Macek, Jeremy May, Janet S. Prevey, Gabriela Schaepman-Strub, Serge N. Sheremetiev, Laura Siegwart Collier, Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia, Andrew Trant, Susanna E. Venn, Anna-Maria Virkkala
2023, Nature Communications (14)
Climate change is leading to species redistributions. In the tundra biome, shrubs are generally expanding, but not all tundra shrub species will benefit from warming. Winner and loser species, and the characteristics that may determine success or failure, have not yet been fully identified. Here, we investigate whether past abundance...
Tourism-supported working lands sustain a growing jaguar population in the Colombian Llanos
Matthew Hyde, Esteban Payan, Jorge Barragan, Diana Stasiukynas, William L. Kendall, Samantha Rincon, Jeronimo Rodriguez, Kevin R. Crooks, Stewart W. Breck, Valeria Boron
2023, Scientific Reports (13)
Understanding large carnivore demography on human-dominated lands is a priority to inform conservation strategies, yet few studies examine long-term trends. Jaguars (Panthera onca) are one such species whose population trends and survival rates remain unknown across working lands. We integrated nine years of camera trap data and tourist photos to...
Integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan completion assessment— Climate and weather topic, 2015–20
Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew J Holloran, Mark A. Ricca, Steven E. Hanser, Sue L. Phillips, Paul F. Steblein, Lief A. Wiechman
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1035
Loss and degradation of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) rangelands due to an accelerated invasive annual grass-wildfire cycle and other stressors are significant management, conservation, and economic issues in the western U.S. These sagebrush rangelands comprise a unique biome spanning 11 states, support over 350 wildlife species, and provide important ecosystem services...
Modeling surface wave dynamics in upper Delaware Bay with living shorelines
Ling Zhu, Q. Chen, Hongqing Wang, Nan Wang, Kelin Hu, William D. Capurso, Lukasz M. Niemoczynski, Gregg Snedden
2023, Ocean Engineering (284)
Living shorelines gain increasing attention because they stabilize shorelines and reduce erosion. This study leverages physics-based models and bagged regression tree (BRT) machine learning algorithm to simulate wave dynamics at a living shoreline composed of constructed oyster reefs (CORs) in upper Delaware Bay. The physics-based models consist of coupled Delft3D-FLOW and SWAN in four-level...
