Multiple plant-community traits improve predictions of later-stage outcomes of restoration drill seedings: Implications for metrics of success
Chad Raymond Kluender, Matthew J. Germino, Cara Applestein
2024, Ecological Indicators (167)
Success of ecological restoration is often only knowable if treatments meet criteria defined by biotic thresholds, but analytical frameworks to determine metrics of success and their underlying thresholds are needed. Early indicators of longer-term recovery trajectories are particularly critical where re-treatments...
Applying portfolio theory to benefit endangered amphibians in coastal wetlands threatened by climate change, high uncertainty, and significant investment risk
Mitchell J. Eaton, Adam Terando, Jaime A. Collazo
2024, Frontiers in Conservation Science (5)
The challenge of selecting strategies to adapt to climate change is complicated by the presence of irreducible uncertainties regarding future conditions. Decisions regarding long-term investments in conservation actions contain significant risk of failure due to these inherent uncertainties. To address this challenge, decision makers need an arsenal of sophisticated...
Predicting characteristic length scales of barrier island segmentation in microtidal environments
Rose Elizabeth Palermo, Andrew D. Ashton, Heidi M. Nepf, Mary Kule, Travis Swanson
2024, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface (129)
Segmented barrier islands can be found in regions with small tidal ranges. In contrast to tidally dominated barriers, where inlet dynamics are thought to control island length scales, the controls on barrier island length scales in wave-dominated environments have not been quantified. These microtidal barriers typically have...
Postrelease survival of Eleutherodactylus coqui: Advancing managed translocations as an adaptive tool for climate-vulnerable anurans
Rafael Chaparro, Ana C. Rivera-Burgos, Mitchell J. Eaton, Adam Terando, Eloy Martinez, Jaime A. Collazo
2024, Herpetologica (80) 314-320
Translocating amphibians to alternative, suitable habitat is a climate adaptation strategy aimed at minimizing the risk of extinction due to projected global warming and drying. Projected conditions could undermine their physiological performance, and thus survival and reproduction. Translocations minimize risks of extinction by increasing spatial redundancy across climate-resilient habitats, particularly...
Fish health altered by contaminants and low water temperatures compounded by prolonged regional drought in the Lower Colorado River Basin, USA
Steven L Goodbred, Reynaldo Patino, David A. Alvarez, Darren Johnson, Deena Hannoun, Kathy R. Echols, Jill Jenkins
2024, Toxics (12)
The goal of this study was to assess health of male Common Carp (carp, Cyprinus carpio) at four sites with a wide range in environmental organic contaminant (EOC) concentrations and water temperatures in Lake Mead National Recreation Area NV/AZ, US, and the potential influence of regional drought. Histological and reproductive...
The Khonkho tephra: A large-magnitude volcanic eruption coincided with the rise of Tiwanaku in the Andes
Erik J. Marsh, Christopher Harpel, David Damby
2024, The Holocene (34) 1865-1874
We report a tephra deposit in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin, Bolivia, which was deposited by a major, previously unrecognized eruption sometime between AD 400 and 720. Archaeological data suggest these centuries were characterized by a substantial community migration to Tiwanaku, where social interaction networks gave birth to one of...
An evaluation of fin ray microchemistry to describe movement of White Sturgeon in the Kootenai River basin: Insights and limitations
Courtnie L. Ghere, Michael C. Quist, Ryan S. Hardy, Malte Willmes, Levi Lewis, Sean Wilson, Troy Smith
2024, Frontiers in Freshwater Science (2)
Introduction: White Sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus in the Kootenai River basin is listed as endangered in the United States and Canada. Declines have been mainly attributed to poor recruitment exacerbated by the environmental effects of Libby Dam in Montana. Reduced primary production downstream of Libby Dam has been identified as one factor limiting...
Transdisciplinary research supports the sustainability of barrier island systems threatened by climate change
Patrick L. Barnard, Davina Passeri
2024, Earth's Future (12)
The management of developed barrier islands is often piece-meal and reactionary despite the complex, dynamic nature of these systems, and sustainable practices will become increasingly difficult due to heightened pressures of climate change. Adaptation actions, including nature-based solutions, need to be thoroughly evaluated prior to implementation to...
Trace organic contaminants in U.S. national park surface waters: Prevalence and ecological context☆
Sarah M. Elliott, Kerensa A. King, Aliesha L. Krall, David D. VanderMeulen
2024, Environmental Pollution (362) 125006
Surface water samples were collected from 264 sites across 46 U.S national parks during the period of 2009–2019. The number of sites within each park ranged from 1 to 31 and the number of samples collected within each park ranged from 1 to...
Spatial variation of eDNA detection across an invasion gradient for invasive species monitoring programs
Laura Lynne Peterman, Maren T. Tuttle-Lau, Patrick W. DeHaan, David P. Coulter, Stephen Frank Spear, Richard A. Erickson
2024, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (15) 350-360
Spatial and temporal distribution data provide critical information for invasive species management. For example, distribution data can help managers with early detections and guiding other response actions. Environmental DNA (eDNA)-based sampling exists as one tool for monitoring invasive species. As part of bigheaded carp Hypophthalmichthys spp. monitoring efforts in the Illinois River,...
Hormetic and transcriptomic responses of the toxic alga Prymnesium parvum to glyphosate
Ricardo A. Chávez Montesa, Mousumi A. Mary, Rakib H. Rashel, Mohamed Fokar, Luis Herrera-Estrella, Damar Lopez-Arredondo, Reynaldo Patino
2024, Science of the Total Environment (954)
Growth of the toxic alga Prymnesium parvum is hormetically stimulated with environmentally relevant concentrations of glyphosate. The mechanisms of glyphosate hormesis in this species, however, are unknown. We evaluated the transcriptomic response of P. parvum to glyphosate at concentrations that stimulate maximum growth and where growth is not different from control values, the zero-equivalent...
Agricultural tile drains increase the susceptibility of streams to longer and more intense streamflow droughts
Seth Adelsperger, Darren Ficklin, Scott Robeson, Margaret Ann Zimmer, John C. Hammond, Damon M. Hall, J.P. Gannon
2024, Environmental Research Letters (19)
Streamflow droughts are receiving increased attention worldwide due to their impact on the environment and economy. One region of concern is the Midwestern United States, whose agricultural productivity depends on subsurface pipes known as tile drains to improve trafficability and soil conditions for crop growth. Tile drains accomplish this by...
Adaptation and Response in Drylands (ARID): Community insights for scoping a NASA terrestrial ecology field campaign in drylands
Andrew F. Feldman, Sasha C. Reed, Cibele Amaral, Alicja Babst-Kostecka, Flurin Babst, Joel A. Biederman, Charles Devine, Zheng Fu, Julia K. Green, Jessica Guo, Niall P. Hanan, Raymond F. Kokaly, Marcy Litvak, Natasha MacBean, David Moore, Dennis S. Ojima, Benjamin Poulter, Russell L. Scott, William K. Smith, Robert Swap, Compton J. Tucker, Lixin Wang, Jennifer D. Watts, Konrad Wessels, Fangyue Zhang, Wen Zhang
2024, Earth's Future (12)
Dryland ecosystems cover 40% of our planet's land surface, support billions of people, and are responding rapidly to climate and land use change. These expansive systems also dominate core aspects of Earth's climate, storing and exchanging vast amounts of water, carbon, and energy with the atmosphere. Despite their indispensable ecosystem...
Evaluating a process-guided deep learning approach for predicting dissolved oxygen in streams
Jeffrey M Sadler, Lauren Elizabeth Koenig, Galen Gorski, Alice M. Carter, Robert O. Hall Jr.
2024, Hydrological Processes (38)
Dissolved oxygen (DO) is a critical water quality constituent that governs habitat suitability for aquatic biota, biogeochemical reactions and solubility of metals in streams. Recently introduced high-frequency sensors have increased our ability to measure DO, but we still lack the capacity to understand and predict DO concentrations at high spatial...
Survey effort and targeted landbird community metrics at Indiana lowland forest restoration sites
Benjamin M West, Mark L. Wildhaber, Nicholas S. Green, John P. Isanhart, M. Victoria McDonald, Michael J. Hooper
2024, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (20) 1954-1968
Many sampling and analytical methods can estimate the abundance, distributions, and diversity of birds and other wildlife. However, challenges with sample size and analytical capacity can make these methods difficult to implement for resource-limited monitoring programs. To apprise efficient and attainable sampling designs for landbird monitoring programs with limited observational...
Large eddy simulation of cross-shore hydrodynamics under random waves in the inner surf and swash zones
Benjamin Tsai, Tian-Jian Hsu, Seok-Bong Lee, Maria Pontiki, Jack A. Puleo, Meagan E. Wengrove
2024, JGR Oceans (129)
A 3D large eddy simulation coupled with a free surface tracking scheme was used to simulate cross-shore hydrodynamics as observed in a large wave flume experiment. The primary objective was to enhance the understanding of wave-backwash interactions and the implications for observed morphodynamics. Two simulation cases were carried out to...
Estimating ungulate migration corridors from sparse movement data
Jennifer L. McKee, Julien Fattebert, Ellen O. Aikens, Jodi Berg, Scott Bergen, Eric K. Cole, Holly E. Copeland, Alyson B. Courtemanch, Sarah Dewey, Mark Hurley, Blake Lowrey, Jerod A. Merkle, Arthur D. Middleton, Tristan A. Nuñez, Hall Sawyer, Matthew J. Kauffman
2024, Ecosphere (15)
Many ungulates migrate between distinct summer and winter ranges, and identifying, mapping, and conserving these migration corridors have become a focus of local, regional, and global conservation efforts. Brownian bridge movement models (BBMMs) are commonly used to empirically identify these seasonal migration corridors; however, they require location data sampled at...
Debris-flow monitoring on volcanoes via a novel usage of a laser rangefinder
Alexandra M. Iezzi, Emily H Bryant, Weston Thelen, Craig Gabrielson, Seth C. Moran, Matthew R. Patrick, Edward F. Younger, Maciej K. Obryk
2024, Journal of Applied Volcanology (13)
Mount Rainier has had at least 11 large lahars over the last 6,000 years, including one occurring without evidence of eruptive activity. This prompted the creation of a lahar detection system that uses a combination of seismic, infrasound, and tripwires. We test a laser rangefinder placed...
An integrative paradigm for building causal knowledge
James Grace
2024, Ecological Monographs (94)
A core aspiration of the ecological sciences is to determine how systems work, which implies the challenge of developing a causal understanding. Causal inference has long been approached from a statistical perspective, which can be limited and restrictive for a variety of reasons. Ecologists...
Genomic data characterize reproductive ecology patterns in Michigan invasive Red Swamp Crayfish (Procambarus clarkii)
Nicole E. Adams, Jared Joseph Homola, Nicholas M. Sard, Lucas R. Nathan, Brian M. Roth, John D. Robinson, Kim T. Scribner
2024, Evolutionary Applications (17)
The establishment and spread of invasive species are directly related to intersexual interactions as dispersal and reproductive success are related to distribution, effective population size, and population growth. Accordingly, populations established by r-selected species are particularly difficult to suppress or eradicate. One such species, the red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii)...
Mitigating disparate elevation differences between adjacent topobathymetric data models using binary code
William M. Cushing, Dean J. Tyler
2024, Remote Sensing (16)
Integrating coastal topographic and bathymetric data for creating regional seamless topobathymetric digital elevation models of the land/water interface presents a complex challenge due to the spatial and temporal gaps in data acquisitions. The Coastal National Elevation Database (CoNED) Applications Project develops topographic (land elevation) and bathymetric (water depth) regional...
Detecting stochasticity in population time series using a non-parametric test of intrinsic predictability
Bilgecan Sen, Christian Joseph Che-Castaldo, Heather J. Lynch, Francesco Ventura, Michelle A. LaRue, Stephanie Jenouvrier
2024, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (15) 1834-1846
1. Many ecological systems dominated by stochastic dynamics can produce complex time series that inherently limit forecast accuracy. The ‘intrinsic predictability’ of these systems can be approximated by a time series complexity metric called weighted permutation entropy (WPE). While WPE is a useful metric to gauge forecast performance prior to...
Identifying Pareto-efficient eradication strategies for invasive populations
Amy A. Yackel Adams, Nathan J. Hostetter, William A. Link, Sarah J. Converse
2024, Conservation Letters (17)
Invasive species are a major cause of biodiversity loss and are notoriously expensive and challenging to manage. We developed a decision-analytic framework for evaluating invasive species removal strategies, given objectives of maximizing eradication probability and minimizing costs. The framework uses an existing estimation model for spatially referenced removal data—one of...
Orthoptera-specific target enrichment (OR-TE) probes resolve relationships over broad phylogenetic scales
Seunggwan Shin, Austin J. Baker, Jacob Enk, Duane D. McKenna, Bert Foquet, Amy G. Vandergast, David B. Weissman, Hojun Song
2024, Scientific Reports (14)
Phylogenomic data are revolutionizing the field of insect phylogenetics. One of the most tenable and cost-effective methods of generating phylogenomic data is target enrichment, which has resulted in novel phylogenetic hypotheses and revealed new insights into insect evolution. Orthoptera is the most diverse insect order within...
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water in Southeast Los Angeles: Industrial legacy and environmental justice
Julie Von Behren, Peggy Reynolds, Paul M. Bradley, James L. Gray, Dana W. Kolpin, Kristin M. Romanok, Kelly Smalling, Catherine Carpenter, Wendy Avila, Paul B. English, Rena R. Jones, Gina Solomon
2024, Science of the Total Environment (953)
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent chemicals of increasing concern to human health. PFAS contamination in water systems has been linked to a variety of sources including hydrocarbon fire suppression activities, industrial and military land uses, agricultural applications of biosolids, and consumer products....
