Expression and mechanisms of behavioral plasticity in large mammals
Rebecca R. Thomas-Kuzilik, Justine A. Becker, Jeffrey L. Beck, Justin G. Clapp, Alyson B. Courtemanch, Gary L. Fralick, Chris Geremia, L. Embere Hall, Matthew Kauffman, Blake Lowrey, Matthew C. Metz, Hollie M. Miyasaki, Kevin L. Monteith, Anna C. Ortega, Hall Sawyer, Douglas W. Smith, Erin E. Stahler, Daniel R. Stahler, Tana L. Verzuh, Jerod A. Merkle
2025, Ecosphere (16)
Behavioral plasticity, the alteration of behavior in response to stimuli, is becoming increasingly important in the context of human-induced rapid environmental change. Theoretical and empirical studies suggest that the expression and magnitude of behavioral plasticity are likely facilitated or constrained primarily by two factors: environmental variation and endogenous traits such...
GlASS - Global Aggregation of Stream Silica
Kathi Jo Jankowski, Keira Johnson, Nicholas Lyon, Sidney A. Bush, Paul Julian, Lienne R. Sethna, Diane M. McKnight, William H. McDowell, Adam S. Wymore, Pirkko Kortelainen, Hjalmar Laudon, Ruth C. Heindel, Amanda Poste, Arial J. Shogren, Fred Worrall, Luke Mosley, Pamela L. Sullivan, Joanna C. Carey
2025, Scientific Data (12)
Riverine silicon (Si) plays a vital role in governing primary production, water quality, and carbon cycling. Climate and land cover change have altered how dissolved Si (DSi) is processed on land, transported to rivers, and cycled through aquatic ecosystems. The Global Aggregation of Stream Silica (GlASS) database was constructed to...
Land application of biosolid, livestock, and drilling wastes to US farmland: A potential pathway for the redistribution of contaminants in the environment
Jason R. Masoner, Dana W. Kolpin, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Denise M. Akob, Christopher H. Conaway, Carrie E. Givens, Michelle L. Hladik, Laura E. Hubbard, Rachael F. Lane, R. Blaine McCleskey, Todd M. Preston, Clayton D. Raines, Matthew S. Varonka, Michaelah C. Wilson
2025, Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts (27) 3372-3402
In the United States (U.S.), waste byproducts generated from the treatment of municipal waste (biosolids), production of livestock (livestock waste), and drilling of oil and gas wells (drilling waste) are commonly applied to agricultural lands. Although this can be a cost-effective reuse/disposal practice, there is limited research on the potential...
Weather drivers of reproductive variability in perennial plants and their implications for climate change risks
Valentin Journé, Dave Kelly, Andrew Hacket-Pain, Ian S. Pearse, Jakob Szymkiowak, Jessie Foest, Katarzyna Kondrat, Iris Oberklammer, Mario B. Pesendorfer, Akiko Satake, Michal Bogdziewicz
2025, Nature Communications (16)
Seed production in perennial plants often shows strong year-to-year variation, a phenomenon known as masting. Masting is typically adaptive and driven by weather cues that synchronize reproduction by promoting or suppressing flowering and seed set. These cues, involving temperature, precipitation, and drought, differ across species and regions, yet a global...
Rare earth element-mineralized carbonatite in the Bear Lodge Alkaline Complex, USA—Ore genesis implications from fluid inclusion characterization
Allen K. Andersen, Danielle A. Olinger, Mitchell M. Bennett
2025, American Journal of Science (325)
Rare earth element (REE) resources of the Bear Lodge Alkaline Complex, Wyoming, are hosted in variably leached carbonatite spatially related to diatreme breccia pipes. We investigated the genesis of REE and lesser-known gold resources through fluid inclusion analysis of carbonatite, fluorite breccia, and smoky quartz vein samples. Physicochemical characteristics of...
Advancing climate adaptation for inland fish and fisheries
Abigail J. Lynch, T. Douglas Beard Jr., Craig P. Paukert
2025, Fisheries
Climate change was barely a blip on the radar for inland fisheries management 20 years ago. Today, it's a central focus. A 2016 paper helped shift conversations, sparked adaptation efforts across fisheries management. The future is still uncertain, but adaptation is key to sustaining these important resources....
Do bighorn sheep use desert tortoise burrow spoil piles as mineral licks in southern California?
Jeffrey E. Lovich, Danielle M. Cleveland, Charles Yackulic, Kristy L. Cummings, Michele R. Puffer, Molly J. Bechtel, Christopher R. Tracy, William J. Hoese, Gerardo Avila, Megan Peukert, Samantha Hubbard
2025, Bulletin, Southern California Academy of Sciences (124) 55-66
In a previous study, bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) were periodically photographed by trail cameras when they visited desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) burrows in the San Bernardino Mountains near Palm Springs, California, USA. The authors suggested that bighorn sheep may utilize the excavated spoil material from burrows as a mineral lick....
Tracing invasion routes of Cuban treefrogs into Louisiana using mitochondrial DNA
Erin B. Brosnan, Karen A. Paniagua Torres, Katerine R. Martin, Matthew S. Atkinson, Brad Glorioso, Hardin Waddle, Robert W. Mendyk, Anna E. Savage
2025, Frontiers in Amphibian and Reptile Science (3)
Understanding the origin and spread of invasive species is critical for predicting when and where new introductions will establish, and impact native species. However, due to the complexity of contributing factors such as multiple introductions, dispersal method, genetic admixture in founding populations, and variable propagule pressure, genetic patterns observed in...
Quantifying benthic flux of Mysis biomass through diel vertical migration at the ecosystem scale
Brian O’Malley, Georgia Wende Hoffman, Rosaura J. Chapina, Jason D. Stockwell, Collin J. Farrell
2025, Ecosystems (28)
Mysis diluviana is a macroinvertebrate that couples benthic and pelagic habitats on a daily timescale through diel vertical migration (DVM). However, quantifying how much Mysis biomass is exchanged between benthic and pelagic habitats at an ecosystem scale is difficult because of sampling limitations and variability in Mysis DVM behavior related to light and depth. Although Mysis are...
Emerging investigator series: Post-wildfire sediment geochemical characterization reveals manganese reactivity and a potential link to water quality impairment in the Gallinas Creek watershed, New Mexico
Elizabeth Jean Tomaszewski, Sheila F. Murphy, Johanna Blake, Michelle I. Hornberger, Gregory D. Clark
2025, Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts (27) 3551-3571
Water quality post-wildfire is often impaired by increased turbidity and elevated concentrations of elements such as manganese (Mn) and iron (Fe). Precipitation events exacerbate these issues, due in part to increased erosion and transport of sediment from hillslopes to surface water. Both Mn and Fe are major redox-active elements in...
The Southwestern Pond Turtle (Actinemys pallida) in Baja California, Mexico: New localities and persistent threats
Jorge H. Valdez-Villavicencio, Anny Peralta-García, Bradford D. Hollingsworth, Patricia Galina-Tessaro, Robert D. Fisher, Jeff A. Alvarez, R. A. Lara-Resendiz
2025, Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences (124) 67-79
The Southwestern Pond Turtle (Actinemys pallida), the only native freshwater turtle in Baja California, is experiencing alarming population declines, echoing global patterns observed in freshwater turtles. We conducted comprehensive field surveys across the major drainages of northwestern Baja California to delineate the species' current distribution, identify critical threats to its...
Drought intensity and duration interact to magnify losses in primary productivity
Timothy Ohlert, Melinda D. Smith, Scott L. Collins, Alan K. Knapp, Jeffrey S. Dukes, Osvaldo E. Sala, Kate D Wilkins, Seth Munson, Maggie I. Anderson, Meghan L. Avolio, Anping Chen, Meghan T. Hayden, Martin C. Holdrege, Ingrid J. Slette, Peter A. Wilfahrt, Claus Beier, Lauchlan H. Fraser, Anke Jentsch, Michael E. Loik, Yiqi Luo, Fernando T. Maestre, Richard P. Phillips, Sally A. Power, Laura Yahdjian, Qiang Yu, Angel Chen, Andrew J. Felton, Laureano A. Gherardi, Nicholas J. Lyon, Hamed Abdoli, Mehdi Abedi, Juan Alberti, Antonio I. Arroyo, Heidi Asbjornsen, Harald Auge, Seton Bachle, Michael Bahn, David C. Bartholomew, Amgaa Batbaatar, Taryn L. Bauerle, Karen H. Beard, Kai Behn, Ilka Beil, Lucio Biancari, Irmgard Blindow, Viviana Florencia Bondaruk, Elizabeth T. Borer, Edward W. Bork, Carlos Martin Bruschetti, Kerry M. Byrne, James F. Cahill Jr., Dianela A. Calvo, Michele Carbognani, Cameron N. Carlyle, Karen Castillioni, Miguel Castillo-Garcia, Manjunatha H. Chandregowda, Scott X. Chang, Jeff Chieppa, Amber C. Churchill, Marcus Vinicius Cianciaruso, Amanda L. Cordeiro, Sara Cousins, Daniela F. Cusack, Sven Dahlke, Pedro Daleo, Lee H. Dietterich, Maren Dubbert, Nico Eisenhauer, T'ai G. Forte, Flavia A. Funk, Darcy Galiano, Aaron C. Greenville, Liebao Han, Siri Vatsø Haugum, Yann Hautier, Andy Hector, Hugh A. Henry, Daniela Hoss, Forest Isbell, Samuel E. Jordan, Yuguang Ke, Eugene F. Kelly, Sally E. Koerner, Juergen Kreyling, Gyorgy Kroel-Dulay, Alicia I. Kröpfl, Angelika Kübert, Andrew Kulmatiski, Eric G. Lamb, Klaus Steenberg Larsen, Steven R. Lee, Smriti Pehim Limbu, Anja Linstädter, Shirong Liu, Grisel Longo, Alejandro Loydi, Junwei Luan, F. Curtis Lubbe, Andrey V. Malyshev, Cameron D. McIntire, Daniel B. Metcalfe, Malesela Vincent Mokoka, Akira S. Mori, Edwin Mudongo, Gregory S. Newman, Uffe N. Nielsen, Raúl Ochoa-Hueso, Rory C. O'Connor, Romà Ogaya, Gastón R. Oñatibia, Ildiko Orban, Brooke B. Osborne, Rafael Otfinowski, Meelis Pärtel, Jesús Pascual, Josep Peñuelas, Pablo L. Peri, David S. Pescador, Guadalupe Peter, Alessandro Petraglia, Catherine Picon-Cochard, Valério D. Pillar, Juan M. Piñeiro-Guerra, Laura Weber Ploughe, Robert M. Plowes, Cristy Portales-Reyes, Suzanne M. Prober, Yolanda Pueyo, Golsa Rahmati, Sasha Reed, Dana Aylén Rodríguez, William E. Rogers, Christiane Roscher, David W. Rowley, Ana M. Sánchez, Bráulio A. Santos, Michael P. Schellenberg, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Eric W. Seabloom, Ruonan Shen, Baoku Shi, Lara Souza, Andreas Stampfli, Rachel J. Standish, Marcelo Sternberg, Wei Sun, Marie Sünnemann, Michelle Tedder, Tyson J. Terry, Pål Thorvaldsen, Katja Tielbörger, Maud Tissink, Matthew A. Vadeboncoeur, Alejandro Valdecantos, Liesbeth van den Brink, Vigdis Vandvik, Liv Guri Velle, Svenja Wanke, Glenda M. Wardle, Cunzheng Wei, Christiane Werner, Georg Wiehl, Jennifer L. Williams, Amelia A. Wolf, Honghui Wu, Chong Xu, Xuechen Yang, Jenifer L. Yost, Alyssa L. Young, Ping Yue, Juan M. Zeberio, Michaela Zeiter, Haiyang Zhang, Juntao Zhu, Xiaoan Zuo
2025, Science (390) 284-289
As droughts become longer and more intense, impacts on terrestrial primary productivity are expected to increase progressively. Yet, some ecosystems appear to acclimate to multiyear drought, with constant or diminishing reductions in productivity as drought duration increases. We quantified the combined effects of drought duration and intensity on aboveground productivity...
Museum records provide unique information about the distribution of the Yellow Lampmussel Lampsilis cariosa (Unionidae)
Jillian Fedarick, Christina Amy Murphy, Sydne Record, Allison H. Roy
2025, Freshwater Science (44) 434-442
Natural history museum records may provide unique information on the distribution of species that can supplement survey data collected by resource managers. However, there can be challenges to using museum data for analyses, such as spurious geographic information, misidentifications, and incorrect labeling. Museum records have been centralized...
Impact of warming and suspended terrigenous sediment on the Hawaiian reef coral Montipora capitata
Alexandra M. Good, Ashleigh Epps, Maile Coberly, Kuʻulei S Rodgers, Nancy G. Prouty, Curt D. Storlazzi, Keisha D. Bahr
2025, Coral Reefs (44) 2065-2081
Coral reefs near high human population areas suffer from sedimentation and increased turbidity due to coastal development. However, there is limited research on how key species respond to turbidity caused by terrigenous sediment and how this response may change with increased water temperatures. This study investigated the effects of ambient...
S/P amplitude ratios with Distributed Acoustic Sensing and application to earthquake focal mechanisms
Robert J. Skoumal, James William Atterholt, Andrew J. Barbour, Jeanne L. Hardebeck
2025, Geophysical Research Letters (52)
Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), which transforms a fiber optic cable into an array of high frequency strainmeters, has the potential to help us characterize earthquakes with a dense sampling of measurements. While earthquake focal mechanisms are frequently determined using P-wave polarities and S/P amplitude ratios with inertial seismometers, the dense sampling of DAS...
Re-oligotrophy in the Upper Mississippi River, USA, occurred in just a few years
Killian Davis, Wako Bungula, Danelle M. Larson
2025, Freshwater Science (44) 409-421
Ecological systems can undergo large changes and regime shifts that are either catastrophic, neutral, or desirable. Rivers worldwide have recently undergone desirable regime shifts related to re-oligotrophy, which is a notable and ongoing reduction in concentrations of total suspended solids (TSS), total N, total P, or phytoplankton. For example, the...
Subduction zone earthquake catalog separation tool: Implementation in the USGS 2025 Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands National Seismic Hazard Model
Kirstie Lafon Haynie, Eric M. Thompson, Mike Hearne, Gavin P. Hayes, David R. Shelly, Allison Shumway, Andrea L. Llenos, Andrew J. Michael, Peter M. Powers
2025, Seismological Research Letters
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) periodically releases updates to National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) for the United States and its territories leveraging current scientific knowledge and methodologies to guide public policy, building codes, and risk assessments regarding potential ground shaking due to earthquakes...
Variation in detection distance of Eastern Black Rail (Laterallus jamaicensis jamaicensis) vocalizations by autonomous recording units
Blake D. Lamb, Heather E. Levy, Elizabeth A. Beilke, Chelsea S. Kross, Peter J. Kappes, Matt J. Sukiennik, James A. Cox, Jennifer K. Wilson, Jarrett O. Woodrow, Matthew J. Butler, Theodore J. Zenzal Jr., Auriel M.V. Fournier, Mark S. Woodrey
2025, Waterbirds (48) 1-12
Autonomous recording units (ARUs) are an emerging technology that allows for passive monitoring of soniferous animals and soundscapes. Over the past decade, ARUs have become a popular tool for monitoring birds for their potential to reduce the labor and costs of traditional in-person sampling procedures. However, uncertainty surrounding factors affecting...
Lake depth and light conditions alter Mysis vertical distributions
Rosaura J. Chapina, Brian O’Malley, Kelly L. Bowen, Martta L.M. Viljanen, Zachary A. Bess, Daniel L. Yule, Jens C. Nejstgaard, Stella A. Berger, Michael D. Rennie, Michael J. Paterson, Steven A. Pothoven, James M. Watkins, Lars G. Rudstam, Sudeep Chandra, Jason D. Stockwell
2025, Journal of Great Lakes Research (51)
Light regulates the vertical migration of many aquatic organisms. Mysis species couple pelagic and benthic habitats in lakes by diel vertical migrations (DVM), transporting energy and nutrients through the water column and food web. Although Mysis are generally assumed to remain on the bottom during the day, some have been observed in the pelagic...
Summer roost site suitability analyses for 4 special status bat species in the Eastern United States
Richard D. Inman, Andrea Nichole Schuhmann, Sarah Sawyer, Sarah Mccrimmon Gaulke, Frank Charles Tousley, Helen Trice Davis, Bradley James Udell, Bethany Straw, Jonathan D. Reichard, Brian Reichert
2025, Journal of Mammalogy (106) 1399-1411
Data describing habitat suitability are crucial for implementing effective conservation planning but are often lacking at regional and continental scales. We address this gap for 4 bat species that are listed, proposed for listing, or under Endangered Species Act listing review by highlighting a framework for estimating summer roost suitability...
Evaluating effectiveness of flocculation and wave-reduction barriers for restoration of a turbid, terminal lake
Cassandra Smith, Randy Joe Brannan
2025, Wetlands Ecology and Management (33)
Malheur Lake is a freshwater, shallow lake that provides key habitat for birds along the Pacific Flyway in North America. The lake shifted to a turbid state in the 1990s with suspended-sediment concentrations sometimes exceeding 1000 mg/L and minimal light available in the water column for submerged aquatic vegetation. Resource...
A short-term sublethal oral exposure to microcystin-LR disrupts cecal microbiome homeostasis in mallard
Serguei Vyacheslavovich Drovetski, Valerie I. Shearn-Bochsler, Erik K. Hofmeister, Natalie K. Karouna-Reiner, Robert J. Dusek
2025, Frontiers in Toxicology (7)
Introduction: The frequency of cyanobacterial blooms seems to have increased globally in recent decades due to human induced eutrophication and climate change. Cyanobacterial blooms can produce several groups of toxins, among which microcystin-LR (MC-LR) is one of the most abundant. Effects of MC-LR on avian microbiome have not been studied...
Rallus elegans (King Rail) occupancy is stable, but habitat is in short supply in the Arkansas Delta
Caleb P. Roberts, Jessica Novobilsky, Paul Akpejeluh, Lauren L. Berry, Michael J. Budd, Michael C. Ferrara, Lindsey A. LaBrie, Lauren Luther, Vinita Karki, David Krementz, Karen Rowe, Michael Shaw, Kenneth Wilson, Auriel M.V. Fournier
2025, Ornithological Applications
Secretive marsh birds experienced precipitous declines due to losses in wetland habitat across North America. However, from 1998 to 2004, wetland area increased, and between 2009 and 2019, the extent of emergent wetlands did not significantly decrease. This raises the question: how did secretive marsh birds, which...
Does tidal marsh restoration lead to the recovery of trophic pathways that support estuarine fishes?
Megan D. Pagliaro, Susan E.W. De La Cruz, Isa Woo, Jake Sousa, Natalie Rich, Lenny Grimaldo, Denise Colombano, Albert Ruhí
2025, Ecological Applications (35)
Evaluation of tidal marsh restoration success is typically based on the recovery of habitat size and target species. However, food-web structure may provide valuable insight into ecosystem functioning trajectories. Here, we studied restored tidal marshes of different ages (new, young, old; spanning 1–150 years) in comparison with nearby reference sites along the San...
Non-native prey availability and over-compensatory density dependence drive population dynamics of a native fish predator
Madaline Cochrane, Timothy Cline, Travis S. Schmidt, James Dunnigan, Will Warnock, Clint C. Muhlfeld
2025, Ecological Applications (35)
Understanding the factors that regulate population dynamics is crucial for conserving imperiled species. Bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus), a piscivorous salmonid and one of North America's most threatened cold-water species, has declined significantly due to habitat loss, overfishing, invasive species, and climate change. While recovery efforts have primarily targeted these threats,...