Status and trends of the Lake Huron prey fish community, 1976-2022
Darryl W. Hondorp, Timothy P. O’Brien, Edward F. Roseman, Peter C. Esselman
2023, Report
The United States Geological Survey-Great Lakes Science Center has monitored annual changes in the offshore prey fish community of Lake Huron since 1973. Monitoring of prey fish populations in Lake Huron is based on a bottom trawl survey that targets demersal (benthic) species and an acoustic-midwater trawl survey that targets...
Environmental, morphological, and molecular data reveal a new species of freshwater mussel, Strophitus howellsi, endemic to the Edwards Plateau in Texas
Chase H. Smith, Alexander H. Kiser, Nathan Johnson, Charles R. Randklev
2023, Conservation Genetics (24) 629-647
Freshwater mussels are considered the most imperiled group of organisms in North America and systematics research has played an integral role in the development and implementation of their conservation. Despite the importance of systematics in conservation planning, the evolutionary relationships between many mussel taxa remain poorly...
Network analysis of a northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) maternity colony in a suburban forest patch
Katherine M. Gorman, Elaine L. Barr, Tomás Nocera, W. Mark Ford
2023, Journal of Urban Ecology (9)
Many bat species are highly social, forming groups of conspecifics, particularly during the maternity season. In temperate North America, these social groups are typically comprised of closely related individuals or individuals that share some common trait (i.e. reproductive state or shared hibernacula from the previous winter). In the summer, when...
Bottom trawl assessment of Lake Ontario's benthic preyfish community, 2022
Brian O’Malley, Scott P. Minihkeim, James McKenna, Jessica A. Goretzke, Jeremy P. Holden
2023, Report
Since 1978, surveys of Lake Ontario preyfish communities have provided information on the status and trends of the benthic preyfish community related to Fish Community Objectives that includes understanding preyfish population dynamics and community diversity. Beginning in 2015, the benthic preyfish survey expanded from US-only to incorporate Canadian sites, increasing...
Discovery of a rare pillar coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus) death assemblage off southeast Florida reveals multi-century persistence during the late Holocene
Alexander B. Modys, Lauren Toth, Richard A. Mortlock, Anton E. Olenik, William F. Precht
2023, Coral Reefs (42) 801-807
In recent years, coral populations in the western Atlantic have undergone widespread declines from climate change, anthropogenic stressors, and infectious disease outbreaks. The pillar coral, Dendrogyra cylindrus, has been one of the most affected species, prompting its listing as threatened under the United States Endangered Species Act...
Chemical characterization of San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) Phase 3 core
Diane E. Moore, Kelly K. Bradbury
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1019
We present new X-ray fluorescence compositions of 27 core samples from Phase 3, Hole G of the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth, nearly doubling the published dataset for the core. The new analyses consist of major and trace element compositions and the first published data for rare earth elements...
Geographic distribution of the Puerto Rican Harlequin Butterfly (Atlantea tulita): An ensemble modeling approach
Carlos Ramirez-Reyes, Francisco Vilella, Kristine O. Evans, Garrett Street, Carlos Pacheco, Omar Monzon, Alcides L. Morales Perez
2023, Caribbean Journal of Science (53) 37-44
Species distribution models have become increasingly important tools for species conservation. This modeling approach can help guide conservation practitioners and inform decisions. Distribution models are particularly relevant for rare species, whose habitat associations are often not well understood. Using species occurrence data, and a variety of predictor variables, we developed...
Environment affects sucker catch rate, size structure, species composition, and precision in boat electrofishing samples
Douglas L. Zentner, Shannon K. Brewer, D. E. Shoup
2023, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (14) 135-152
Catostomidae (catostomids) are suckers of the order Cypriniformes, and the majority of species are native to North America; however, species in this group are understudied and rarely managed. The popularity in bowfishing and gigging for suckers in the United States has increased concerns related to overfishing. Little information exists about...
Modeling fluvial sediment plumes: Impacts to coral reefs
Curt D. Storlazzi, Luuk van der Heijden, Olivia M. Cheriton, Robert T. McCall, Gundula Winter
2023, Conference Paper, The proceedings of the coastal sediments 2023
To help guide watershed restoration to reduce the impacts to adjacent coral reefs, the United States Geological Survey and Deltares acquired and analyzed oceanographic and sedimentologic data off 5 West Maui watersheds to calibrate and validate physics-based, numerical hydrodynamic and sediment transport models of the study area. The results indicated...
Secondary forest within a timber plantation concession in Borneo contributes to a diverse mammal assemblage
Wilvia Olivia William, Frank T. van Manen, Stuart P. Sharp, Shyamala Ratnayeke
2023, Global Ecology and Conservation (43)
Commercial tree plantations of fast-growing species have become increasingly important in Southeast Asia to meet global demand for wood and wood fiber products. There is a growing need to understand more about their value for wildlife and how they can be managed for...
Vital rates of a burgeoning population of Humpback Chub in western Grand Canyon
Maria C. Dzul, Charles Yackulic, Mariah Aurelia Giardina, David R. Van Haverbeke, Michael D. Yard
2023, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (152) 443-459
The Colorado River ecosystem has experienced habitat alterations and non-native species invasions, and as a result, many of its native species have experienced extirpations, abundance declines, and range constrictions. Despite these pitfalls, Humpback Chub, Gila cypha, have...
Strontium isotope chronostratigraphic age of a sirenian fossil site on Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park, California
James B. Paces, Scott A. Minor, Kevin M. Schmidt, Jonathan Hoffman
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5026
Fossils in the order Sirenia (family Dugongidae) from Santa Rosa Island, part of Channel Islands National Park in southern California, provide rare temporal and spatial links between earlier and later evolutionary forms of dugongids, and add information about their dispersal into the northeastern Pacific region. Marine sedimentary rocks containing these...
Coupling large-spatial scale larval dispersal modelling with barcoding to refine the amphi-Atlantic connectivity hypothesis in deep-sea seep mussels
Elodie Portanier, A. Nicolle, W. Rath, L. Monnet, G. Le Goff, A.-S. Le Port, C. Daguin-Thiebaut, Cheryl Morrison, M.R. Cunha, M. Betters, Craig M. Young, Cindy L. Van Dover, A. Biastoch, E. Thiebaut, Didier Jollivet
2023, Frontiers in Marine Science (10)
In highly fragmented and relatively stable cold-seep ecosystems, species are expected to exhibit high migration rates and long-distance dispersal of long-lived pelagic larvae to maintain genetic integrity over their range. Accordingly, several species inhabiting cold seeps are widely distributed across the whole Atlantic Ocean, with low genetic divergence between...
Inferring pathogen presence when sample misclassification and partial observation occur
Evan H. Campbell Grant, Riley O. Mummah, Brittany A. Mosher, Jonah Evans, Graziella Vittoria DiRenzo
2023, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (14) 1299-1311
Surveillance programmes are essential for detecting emerging pathogens and often rely on molecular methods to make inference about the presence of a target disease agent. However, molecular methods rarely detect target DNA perfectly. For example, molecular pathogen detection methods can result in misclassification (i.e. false positives and false negatives)...
Lake Ontario August gillnet survey and Lake Trout assessment, 2022
Brian O’Malley, Brian F. Lantry, Scott P. Minihkeim, James Duncan Mckenna, Jessica A. Goretzke, Alexander J. Gatch, Dimitry Gorsky
2023, Report
Lake Ontario Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush) rehabilitation has been annually assessed with fishery independent surveys since 1983, in an effort to evaluate program benchmarks and compare observations with management objectives. These surveys provide information on the abundance, strain composition, and condition of the adult Lake Trout stock, as well as...
Status and trends of pelagic and benthic prey fish populations in Lake Michigan, 2022
Ralph W. Tingley III, David Warner, Charles P. Madenjian, Patricia Dieter, Ben Turschak, Dale Hanson, Kristy Phillips, Caleb Geister
2023, Report
Fall bottom trawl (fall BT) and lakewide acoustic (AC) surveys are conducted annually to generate indices of pelagic and benthic prey fish densities in Lake Michigan. The fall BT survey has been conducted each fall since 1973 using 12-m trawls at depths ranging from 9 to 110 m at fixed...
Using decision analysis to determine the feasibility of a conservation translocation
Laura Keating, Lea Randall, Rebecca Stanton, Casey McCormack, Michael Lucid, Travis Seaborn, Sarah J. Converse, Stefano Canessa, Axel Moehrenschlager
2023, Decision Analysis (20) 295-310
Conservation translocations, intentional movements of species to protect against extinction, have become widespread in recent decades and are projected to increase further as biodiversity loss continues worldwide. The literature abounds with analyses to inform translocations and assess whether they are successful, but the fundamental question of whether they should be...
Soil medium and watering frequency alter growth and allocation for Blue Diamond cholla (Cylindropuntia multigeniculata), a rare cactus of the northeast Mojave Desert, USA
Sara J. Scoles-Sciulla, Alexander Stosich, Lesley A. DeFalco
2023, Native Plants Journal (24) 4-17
Blue Diamond cholla (Cylindropuntia multigeniculata (Clokey) Blackb. [Cactaceae]) is a rare cactus of the Mojave Desert. We explored whether cultivation from joint cuttings is a viable method for supporting threatened populations. Terminal joints were collected from adult plants at the type locality and grown in a shade house: We tested...
Ediacaran-Ordovician magmatism and REE mineralization in the Wet Mountains, Colorado, USA: Implications for failed continental rifting
Benjamin Patrick Magnin, Yvette Kuiper, Eric D. Anderson
2023, Tectonics (42)
Structures associated with Ediacaran-Ordovician alkaline magmatism and the timing of rare earth element (REE) mineralization in the Wet Mountains, CO, were analyzed using field, geophysical, and U-Th-Pb isotope methods to interpret their tectonic setting in the context of previously proposed rift models. The Wet Mountains are known...
Land cover differentially affects abundance of common and rare birds
Kristin P. Davis, Paul C. Banko, Liba Pejchar
2023, Global Change Biology (29) 2999-3009
While rare species are vulnerable to global change, large declines in common species (i.e., those with large population sizes, large geographic distributions, and/or that are habitat generalists) also are of conservation concern. Understanding if and how commonness mediates species' responses to global change, including...
Rock-to-metal ratios of the rare earth elements
Nedal T. Nassar, Graham W. Lederer, Abraham J. Padilla, Joseph Gambogi, Daniel James Cordier, Jamie L. Brainard, Joseph D. Lessard, Ryan Charab
2023, Journal of Cleaner Production (405)
The relative quantities of ore mined and waste rock (i.e., overburden) removed to produce the rare earth elements—their rock-to-metal ratios—were calculated for 21 individual operations or regions covering nearly all mine production in 2018. The results indicate that the rock-to-metal ratios for the total...
A plea for Red Wolf conservation throughout Its recent distribution
L. David Mech, Ronald M. Nowak
2023, Southesatern Naturalist (22) N23-N27
Canis rufus (Red Wolf) is one of the most endangered mammals in North America. However, genes of the Red Wolf persist across much of the species' original range, carried predominantly within C. latrans (Coyote) populations. It is now known that such genes are distributed from extreme north-central Texas...
Sex-biased infections scale to population impacts for an emerging wildlife disease
Macy J. Kailing, Joseph R. Hoyt, J. Paul White, Heather M. Kaarakka, Jennifer A. Redell, Ariel Elizabeth Leon, Tonie E. Rocke, John E. DePue, William H. Scullon, Katy L. Parise, Jeffrey T. Foster, A. Marm Kilpatrick, Kate E. Langwig
2023, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (290)
Demographic factors are fundamental in shaping infectious disease dynamics. Aspects of populations that create structure, like age and sex, can affect patterns of transmission, infection intensity and population outcomes. However, studies rarely link these processes from individual to population-scale effects. Moreover, the mechanisms underlying demographic differences in...
Exploring effects of vessels on walrus behaviors using telemetry, automatic identification system data and matching
Rebecca L. Taylor, Chadwick V. Jay, William S. Beatty, Anthony S. Fischbach, Lori T. Quakenbush, Justin A. Crawford
2023, Ecosphere (14)
Arctic marine mammals have had little exposure to vessel traffic and potential associated disturbance, but sea ice loss has increased accessibility of Arctic waters to vessels. Vessel disturbance could influence marine mammal population dynamics by altering behavioral activity budgets that affect energy balance, which in turn can affect birth and...
Symbiotic nitrogen fixation does not stimulate soil phosphatase activity under temperate and tropical trees
Emily Jager, Andrew Quebbeman, Amelia A. Wolf, Steven Perakis, Jennifer L. Funk, Duncan N.L. Menge
2023, Oecologia (201) 827-840
Symbiotic nitrogen (N)-fixing plants can enrich ecosystems with N, which can alter the cycling and demand for other nutrients. Researchers have hypothesized that fixed N could be used by plants and soil microbes to produce extracellular phosphatase enzymes, which release P from organic matter. Consistent...
