Penguin colony georegistration using camera pose estimation and phototourism
Haoyu Wu, Clare Flynn, Carole Hall, Christian Joseph Che-Castaldo, Dimitris Samaras, Mathew Schwaller, Heather J. Lynch
2024, PLoS ONE (19)
Satellite-based remote sensing and uncrewed aerial imagery play increasingly important roles in the mapping of wildlife populations and wildlife habitat, but the availability of imagery has been limited in remote areas. At the same time, ecotourism is a rapidly growing industry and can yield a vast catalog of photographs that...
Identifying and filling critical knowledge gaps can optimize financial viability of blue carbon projects in tidal wetlands
Tim J.B. Carruthers, S. Beaux Jones, Megan K. Terrell, Jonathan F. Scheibly, Brendan J. Player, Valerie A. Black, Justin R. Ehrenwerth, Patrick D. Biber, Rod M. Connolly, Steve Crooks, Jason P. Curole, Kelly M. Darnell, Alyssa M. Dausman, Allison L. DeJong, Shawn M. Doyle, Christopher R. Esposito, Daniel A. Friess, James W. Fourqurean, Ioannis Y. Georgiou, Gabriel D. Grimsditch, Songjie He, Eva R. Hillmann, Guerry O. Holm Jr., Jennifer Howard, Hoonshin Jung, Stacy D. Jupiter, Erin P. Kiskaddon, Ken Krauss, Paul S. Lavery, Bingqing Liu, Catherine E. Lovelock, Sarah K. Mack, Peter I. Macreadie, Karen J. McGlathery, J. Patrick Megonigal, Brian J. Roberts, Scott Settelmyer, Lorie W. Staver, Hilary J. Stevens, Ariana Eileen Sutton-Grier, Jorge A. Villa, John R. White, Michelle Waycott
2024, Frontiers in Environmental Science (12)
One of the world’s largest “blue carbon” ecosystems, Louisiana’s tidal wetlands on the US Gulf of Mexico coast, is rapidly being lost. Louisiana’s strong legal, regulatory, and monitoring framework, developed for one of the world’s largest tidal wetland systems, provides an opportunity for a programmatic approach to blue carbon accreditation...
The influence of grazing on the spatiotemporal activity patterns of a primary sage-grouse nest predator
Nolan A. Helmstetter, Courtney J. Conway, Shane Roberts, Paul D. Makela, Lisette P. Waits
2024, Rangeland Ecology and Management (98) 316-323
Perturbations in ecological processes can occur when wildlife alter their spatiotemporal activity patterns to avoid human activities that they perceive as a risk. Such perturbations can have cascading effects throughout wildlife communities. For greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter sage-grouse), nest predation plays an important role in population dynamics. Domestic cattle...
The projected exposure and response of a natural barrier island system to climate-driven coastal hazards
Jennifer Anne Thomas, Patrick L. Barnard, Sean Vitousek, Li H. Erikson, Kai Alexander Parker, Kees Nederhoff, Kevin M. Befus, Manoochehr Shirzaei
2024, Scientific Reports (14)
Accelerating sea level rise (SLR) and changing storm patterns will increasingly expose barrier islands to coastal hazards, including flooding, erosion, and rising groundwater tables. We assess the exposure of Cape Lookout National Seashore, a barrier island system in North Carolina (USA), to projected SLR and storm hazards over the twenty-first...
Predator-specific mortality of sage-grouse nests based on predator DNA on eggshells
Nolan A. Helmstetter, Courtney J. Conway, Shane Roberts, Jennifer R. Adams, Paul D. Makela, Lisette P. Waits
2024, Ecology and Evolution (14)
Greater sage-grouse (hereafter sage-grouse; Centrocercus urophasianus) populations have declined across their range. Increased nest predation as a result of anthropogenic land use is one mechanism proposed to explain these declines. However, sage-grouse contend with a diverse suite of nest predators that vary in functional traits (e.g., search tactics or hunting mode)...
Tissue distribution and temporal and spatial assessment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) in the mid-Atlantic United States
Vicki S. Blazer, Heather L. Walsh, Cheyenne R. Smith, Stephanie E. Gordon, Brandon J. Keplinger, Timothy Wertz
2024, Environmental Science and Pollution Research (p.) 59302-59319
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have become an environmental issue worldwide. A first step to assessing potential adverse effects on fish populations is to determine if concentrations of concern are present in a region and if so, in which watersheds. Hence, plasma from adult smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu collected at 10 sites...
A multi-objective approach for timber harvest scheduling to include management of at-risk species and spatial configuration objectives
Max D. Jones, Angela Larsen-Gray, Stephen P. Prisley, Holly L. Munro, Elizabeth Ann Hunter
2024, PLoS ONE (19)
Sustainable forestry typically involves integration of several economic and ecological objectives which, at times, may not be compatible with one another. Multi-objective prioritization via harvest scheduling programs can be used to elucidate these relationships and explore solutions. One such program is a spatially explicit harvest scheduler that adopts the Metropolis-Hastings...
Silver carp experience metabolic and behavioral changes when exposed to water from the Chicago Area Waterway
Amy E. Schneider, Andrew J. Esbaugh, Aaron R. Cupp, C. D. Suski
2024, Scientific Reports (14)
One of the hallmarks of invasive species is their propensity to spread. Removing an invasive species after establishment is virtually impossible, and so considerable effort is invested in preventing the range expansion of invaders. Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) were discovered in the Mississippi River in 1981 and have spread throughout...
Paddlefish movement and dam passage in the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers, West Virginia
Stuart A. Welsh, Katherine J. Zipfel, Andrew W. Peters, David C. Hoffman, Cameron M. Layne
2024, Proceedings of the West Virginia Academy of Science (96) 12-19
The Paddlefish (Polyodon spathula), a large-bodied and highly migratory species of large river systems, has experienced population declines or extirpation in parts of its native range. As an effort to reestablish a Paddlefish population in the Ohio River of West Virginia, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources has stocked...
Testing spatial out-of-sample area of influence for grain forecasting models
Frank Davenport, Donghoon Lee, Shraddhanand Shukla, Greg Husak, W. Chris Funk, Michael Budde, James Rowland
2024, Enivronmental Research Letters (19)
We examine the factors that determine if a grain forecasting model fit to one region can be transferred to another region. Prior research has proposed examining the area of applicability (AoA) of a model based on structurally similar characteristics in the Earth Observation predictors and weights based...
Vortex trapping of suspended sand grains over ripples
Donya P. Frank-Gilchrist, Allison M. Penko, Margaret L. Palmsten, Joseph Calantoni
2024, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface (129)
Coastal hydrodynamics and morphodynamics integrate the effects of small-scale fluid-sediment interactions; yet, these small-scale processes are not well understood. To investigate sediment trapping by turbulent coherent structures or vortices, the transport of coarse sand over ripples was analyzed in a small-oscillatory flow...
Detection and transport of environmental DNA from two federally endangered mussels
Brandon James Sansom, Dannise Vannesa Ruiz-Ramos, Nathan Thompson, Maura O Roberts, Zachary Taylor, Katie Ortiz, Jess W. Jones, Catherine A. Richter, Katy E. Klymus
2024, PLoS ONE (19)
Environmental DNA (eDNA) offers a novel approach to supplement traditional surveys and provide increased spatial and temporal information on species detection, and it can be especially beneficial for detecting at risk or threatened species with minimal impact on the target species. The transport of eDNA in lotic environments is an...
Reproductive ecology and egg parasitism of the Samoan swallowtail butterfly
Paul C. Banko, Mark A. Schmaedick, Robert W. Peck, Adam C. Miles, Niela Leifi
2024, Ecosphere (15)
We investigated the reproductive ecology and effects of egg parasitism on the Samoan swallowtail butterfly (Papilio godeffroyi), which survives only on Tutuila Island, American Samoa, after having disappeared from the much larger islands of Upolu and Savai‘i in independent Samoa. During monthly surveys of its only known host plant, Micromelum minutum,...
The interplay of future solar energy, land cover change, and their projected impacts on natural lands and croplands in the US
James E. Diffendorfer, Brian Sergi, Anthony Lopez, Travis Williams, Michael Gleason, Zachary H. Ancona, Wesely Cole
2024, Science of the Total Environment (947)
Projections for deep decarbonization require large amounts of solar energy, which may compete with other land uses such as agriculture, urbanization, and conservation of natural lands. Existing capacity expansion models do not integrate land use land cover change (LULC) dynamics into projections. We explored the interaction between projected LULC, solar...
Tracking mangrove condition changes using dense Landsat time series
Xiucheng Yang, Zhe Zhu, Kevin D. Kroeger, Shi Qiu, Scott Covington, Jeremy R. Conrad, Zhiliang Zhu
2024, Remote Sensing of Environment (315)
Mangroves in tropical and subtropical coasts are subject to episodic disturbances, notably from severe storms, leading to potential widespread vegetation mortality. The ability of vegetation to recover varies, and with disturbances becoming more frequent and severe, it is vital to track and project vegetation responses to support management and policy...
A meta-analysis of mercury biomagnification in freshwater predatory invertebrates: Community diversity and dietary exposure drive variability
Cailin A Sinclair, Tiffany S. Garcia, Collin A. Eagles-Smith
2024, Environmental Science & Technology (58) 19429-19439
Accurate estimates of methylmercury (MeHg) exposure are valuable to actionably assess risk and protect wildlife and human health. MeHg trophic transfer is a critical driver of risk: MeHg is generally biomagnified by a factor of 8.3 ± 7.5 from one trophic level to the next, averaged...
A dataset of two-dimensional XBeach model set-up files for northern California
Andrea C. O'Neill, Cornelis M. Nederhoff, Li H. Erikson, Jennifer Anne Thomas, Patrick L. Barnard
2024, Data (9)
Here, we describe a dataset of two-dimensional (2D) XBeach model files that were developed for the Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) in northern California as an update to an earlier CoSMoS implementation that relied on one-dimensional (1D) modeling methods. We provide details on the data and their application, such that...
Quantification of threats to bats at localized spatial scales for conservation and management
Brian M. Myers, Drew Stokes, Kristine L. Preston, Robert N. Fisher, Amy G. Vandergast
2024, PLoSOne (19)
In a rapidly changing world, where species conservation needs vary by local habitat, concentrated conservation efforts at small spatial scales can be critical. Bats provide an array of value to the ecosystems they inhabit; many bat species are also of conservation concern. San Diego County, California,...
Discerning sediment provenance in the Outer Banks (USA) through detrital zircon geochronology
John W. Counts, Jared T. Gooley, Joshua Long, William H. Craddock, Paul O’Sullivan
2024, Marine Geology (477)
Detrital zircon data from modern barrier island and estuarine environments in the Outer Banks (Atlantic Coast, USA) were statistically compared to sands from nearby rivers to assist in determining source-to-sink pathways. Fluvial samples, collected from near the Fall Line contact...
Oxidation is a potentially significant methane sink in land-terminating glacial runoff
Kristin E. Strock, Rachel Krewson, Nicole M. Hayes, Bridget R. Deemer
2024, Scientific Reports (14)
Globally, aquatic ecosystems are one of the largest but most uncertain sources of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. It is unclear how climate change will affect methane emissions, but recent work suggests that glacial systems, which are melting faster with climate change, may be an important...
Challenges and future directions in quantifying terrestrial evapotranspiration
K. Yi, Gabriel B. Senay, Jousha B. Fisher, Lixin Wang, Kosana Suvocarev, Housen Chu, Georgianne W. Moore, Kimberly A. Novick, Mallory L. Barnes, Trevor F. Keenan, Kanishka Mallick, Xiangzhong Luo, Justine E.C. Missik, Kyle B. Delwiche, Jacob A. Nelson, Stephen P. Good, Xiangming Xiao, Steven A. Kannenberg, Arman Ahmadi, Tianxin Wang, Gil Bohrer, Marcy E. Litvak, David E. Reed, A. Christopher Oishi, Margaret S. Torn, Dennis Baldocchi
2024, Water Resources Research (60)
Terrestrial evapotranspiration is the second-largest component of the land water cycle, linking the water, energy, and carbon cycles and influencing the productivity and health of ecosystems. The dynamics of ET across a spectrum of spatiotemporal scales and their controls remain an active focus of research across different science disciplines. Here,...
Dynamic water-quality responses to wildfire in Colorado
David W. Clow, Garrett Alexander Akie, Sheila F. Murphy, Evan J. Gohring
2024, Hydrological Processes (38)
In 2020, Colorado experienced the most severe wildfire season in recorded history, with wildfires burning 625 357 acres across the state. Two of the largest fires burned parts of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), and a study was initiated to address concerns about potential effects...
One Health collaboration is more effective than single-sector actions at mitigating SARS-CoV-2 in deer
Jonathan D. Cook, Elias Rosenblatt, Graziella Vittoria DiRenzo, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Brittany A. Mosher, Fernando Arce, Sonja Christensen, Ria R. Ghai, Michael C. Runge
2024, Nature Communications (15)
One Health aims to achieve optimal health outcomes for people, animals, plants, and shared environments. We describe a multisector effort to understand and mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk to humans via the spread among and between captive and wild white-tailed deer. We first framed a One Health problem with three governance...
Historical insights, current challenges: Tracking marine biodiversity in an urban harbor ecosystem in the face of climate change
Alysha B. Putnam, Sarah C. Endyke, Ally Rose Jones, Lucy A.D. Lockwood, Justin Taylor, Marc Albert, Michelle Staudinger
2024, Marine Biodiversity (54)
The Boston Harbor Islands is the only coastal drumlin archipelago in the USA, featuring a distinctive and uncommon geological intertidal habitat known as mixed coarse substrate, which supports a range of coastal species and ecological processes. Recently designated as one of America’s 11 most endangered historic places due to climate...
One Health best practice case study: Advancing national One Health coordination in the United States through the One Health zoonotic disease prioritization process
Casey Barton Behravesh, Tracey Dutcher, Jonathan M. Sleeman, Jane Rooney, M. Camille Hopkins, Grace Goryoka, Rochelle Medford, Dominic Cristiano, Natalie M. Wendling
2024, One Health Cases (2024)
The U.S. government advances One Health coordination through the best practices of jointly developing shared priorities and utilizing formalized coordination platforms to connect partners from public health, agriculture, wildlife, environment, and other sectors at the national, subnational (e.g. state, tribal, local, and territorial), and non-governmental levels (e.g. academia, industry, non-governmental...
