U-Pb and fission-track data from zircon and apatite resolve latest- and post-Alleghanian thermal histories along the Fall Line of the Atlantic margin of the southeastern United States
William H. Craddock, Paul O'Sullivan, Ryan J. McAleer
2022, Geosphere (18) 1330-1353
Although the Atlantic continental margin of the eastern United States is an archetypal passive margin, episodes of rejuvenation following continental breakup are increasingly well documented. To better constrain this history of rejuvenation along the southern portion of this continental margin, we present zircon...
Targeting sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) restoration following wildfire with Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) nest selection and survival models
Cali L. Roth, Shawn T. O’Neil, Peter S. Coates, Mark A. Ricca, David A. Pyke, Cameron L. Aldridge, Julie A. Heinrichs, Shawn P. Espinosa, David J. Delehanty
2022, Environmental Management (70) 288-306
Unprecedented conservation efforts for sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems across the western United States have been catalyzed by risks from escalated wildfire activity that reduces habitat for sagebrush-obligate species such as Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). However, post-fire restoration is challenged by spatial variation in ecosystem processes influencing resilience...
The occupancy-abundance relationship and sampling designs using occupancy to monitor populations of Asian bears
Angela K. Fuller, Ben C. Augustine, Dana J. Morin, Karine Pigeon, John Boulanger, David C. Lee, Francesco Bisi, David L. Garshelis
2022, Global Ecology and Conservation (35)
Designing a population monitoring program for Asian bears presents challenges associated with their low densities and detectability, generally large home ranges, and logistical or resource constraints. The use of an occupancy-based method to monitor bear populations can be appropriate under certain conditions given the mechanistic relationship between occupancy and abundance....
Turbidity and estimated phosphorus retention in a reconnected Lake Erie coastal wetland
Glenn Carter, Kurt P. Kowalski, Michael Eggleston
2022, Water (14)
Nearly all of the wetlands in the coastal zone of Lake Erie have been degraded or destroyed since the 1860s, and most of those that remain are separated from their watersheds by earthen dikes. Hydrologic isolation of these wetlands disrupts ecosystem benefits typical to Great Lakes coastal wetlands, particularly the...
Tree rings reveal unmatched 2nd century drought in the Colorado River Basin
Subhrendu Gangopadhyay, Connie Woodhouse, Gregory J. McCabe, Cody C. Routson, David Meko
2022, Geophysical Research Letters (49)
The ongoing 22 year drought in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) has been extremely severe, even in the context of the longest available tree-ring reconstruction of annual flow at Lees Ferry, Arizona, dating back to 762 CE. While many southwestern drought assessments have been limited to the past 1200...
Biodiversity underpins fisheries resilience to exploitation in the Amazon River basin.
Sebastian A. Heilpern, Suresh Sethi, Ronaldo B. Barthem, Vandick da Silva Batista, Carolina RC Doria, Fabrice Duponchelle, Aurea Garcia Vasquez, Michael Goulding, Victoria Isaac, Shahid Naeem, Alexander S. Flecker
2022, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences (289)
Inland fisheries feed greater than 150 million people globally, yet their status is rarely assessed due to their socio-ecological complexity and pervasive lack of data. Here, we leverage an unprecedented landings time series from the Amazon, Earth's largest river basin, together with theoretical food web models to examine (i) taxonomic...
Assessment of mercury in sediments and waters of Grubers Grove Bay, Wisconsin
Evan J. Routhier, Sarah E. Janssen, Michael T. Tate, Jacob M. Ogorek, John F. DeWild, David P. Krabbenhoft
2022, Open-File Report 2022-1051
Mercury is a global contaminant that can be detrimental to wildlife and human health. Anthropogenic emissions and point sources are primarily responsible for elevated mercury concentrations in sediments and waters. Mercury can physically move and chemically transform in the environment, resulting in biomagnification of mercury, in the form of methylmercury,...
Decadal-scale phenology and seasonal climate drivers of migratory baleen whales in a rapidly warming marine ecosystem
Dan Pendleton, Morgan Tingley, Laura Ganley, Kevin Friedland, Charlie Mayo, Moria Brown, Brigid McKenna, Adrian Jordaan, Michelle Staudinger
2022, Global Change Biology (28) 4989-5005
Species' response to rapid climate change can be measured through shifts in timing of recurring biological events, known as phenology. The Gulf of Maine is one of the most rapidly warming regions of the ocean, and thus an ideal system to study phenological and biological responses to climate change. A...
The Pliocene-to-present course of the Tennessee River
William Elijah Odom, Darryl E. Granger
2022, Journal of Geology (130) 325-333
The Tennessee River, a primary drainage of the southern Appalachians and significant sediment source for the Gulf of Mexico, is generally considered to be the product of captures that rerouted the river from a more direct gulfward course. Sedimentary and genetic evidence indicates that a paleo-Tennessee flowed...
Grassy–herbaceous land moderates regional climate effects on honey bee colonies in the Northcentral US
Gabriela Quinlan, Douglas B. Sponsler, Hannah Gaines-Day, Harper McMinn-Sauder, Clint Otto, Autumn Smart, Theotime Colin, Claudio Gratton, Rufus Isaacs, Reed Johnson, Meghan O. Milbrath, Christina M. Grozinger
2022, Environmental Research Letters (17)
The lack of seasonally sustained floral resources (i.e. pollen and nectar) is considered a primary global threat to pollinator health. However, the ability to predict the abundance of flowering resources for pollinators based upon climate, weather, and land cover is difficult due to insufficient monitoring over adequate...
Ephemeral stream network extraction from lidar-derived elevation and topographic attributes in urban and forested landscapes
Marina J. Metes, Daniel K. Jones, Matthew E. Baker, Andrew J. Miller, Dianna M. Hogan, J.V. Loperfido, Kristina G. Hopkins
2022, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (58) 547-565
Under-representations of headwater channels in digital stream networks can result in uncertainty in the magnitude of headwater habitat loss, stream burial, and watershed function. Increased availability of high-resolution (<2 m) elevation data makes the delineation of headwater channels more attainable. In this study, elevation data derived from...
Tracking heat in the Willamette River system, Oregon
Stewart A. Rounds, Laurel E. Stratton Garvin
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5006
The Willamette River Basin in northwestern Oregon is home to several cold-water fish species whose habitat has been altered by the Willamette Valley Project, a system of 13 dams and reservoirs operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Water-resource managers use a variety of flow- and temperature-management strategies...
The thermal landscape of the Willamette River—Patterns and controls on stream temperature and implications for flow management and cold-water salmonids
Laurel E. Stratton Garvin, Stewart A. Rounds
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5035
Water temperature is a primary control on the health, diversity, abundance, and distribution of aquatic species, but thermal degradation resulting from anthropogenic influences on rivers is a challenge to threatened species worldwide. In the Willamette River Basin, northwestern Oregon, spring-run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and winter-run steelhead (O. mykiss)...
Assessment of habitat availability for juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead (O. mykiss) in the Willamette River, Oregon
James S. White, James T. Peterson, Laurel E. Stratton Garvin, Tobias J. Kock, J. Rose Wallick
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5034
The Willamette River, Oregon, is home to two salmonid species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, Upper WIllamette River spring Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and Upper Willamette River winter steelhead (O. mykiss). Streamflow in the Willamette River is regulated by upstream dams, 13 of which are operated...
Updates to models of streamflow and water temperature for 2011, 2015, and 2016 in rivers of the Willamette River Basin, Oregon
Laurel E. Stratton Garvin, Stewart A. Rounds, Norman L. Buccola
2022, Open-File Report 2022-1017
Mechanistic river models capable of simulating hydrodynamics and stream temperature are valuable tools for investigating thermal conditions and their relation to streamflow in river basins where upstream water storage and management decisions have an important influence on river reaches with threatened fish populations. In the Willamette River Basin in...
Maize yield forecasts for Sub-Saharan Africa using Earth Observation data and machine learning
Donghoon Lee, Frank Davenport, Shraddhanand Shukla, Gregory Husak, W. Chris Funk, Laura Harrison, Amy McNally, Michael Budde, James Rowland, James Verdin
2022, Global Food Security (33)
Food insecurity continues to grow in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In 2019, chronically malnourished people numbered nearly 240 million, or 20% of the population in SSA. Globally, numerous efforts have been made to anticipate potential droughts, crop conditions, and food shortages in order to improve...
Movement of Canada geese in urban and rural areas of Iowa, USA
Benjamin Z. Luukkonen, Robert W. Klaver, Orrin E. Jones III
2022, Avian Conservation and Ecology (17)
Temperate-breeding Canada Goose (Branta canadensis maxima) abundance has increased to previously unrecorded levels, providing social, ecological, and economic value. However, there are also costs associated with abundant Canada Geese. Although hunter harvest is a valued, sustainable use of Canada Geese, the adaptability of geese to urban areas may result in...
Evidence of alternative trophic pathways for fish consumers in a large river system in the face of invasion
John V. Gatto, Brian Ickes, John H. Chick
2022, River Research and Applications (38) 1321-1332
Large rivers are susceptible to anthropogenic alteration, which can result in drastic changes to their functional ecology. We evaluated spatial–temporal changes in the functional fish communities of the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) using data from six study reaches. Species were classified into one of 14...
A three-dimensional Lagrangian particle tracking model for predicting transport of eggs of rheophilic-spawning carps in turbulent rivers
Geng Li, Bin Wang, Caroline M. Elliott, Bruce Call, Duane Chapman, R. B. Jacobson
2022, Ecological Modelling (470) 110035
Grass carp, bighead carp, and silver carp spawn in flowing water. Their eggs, and then larvae, develop while drifting. Hydraulic conditions and water temperature control spawning locations, egg survival, and the downstream distance traveled before the hatched larvae can swim for low velocity...
Multi-stage soil-hydraulic recovery and limited ravel accumulations following the 2017 Nuns and Tubbs wildfires in Northern California
Jonathan P. Perkins, Carlos Diaz, Skye C. Corbett, Corina Cerovski-Darriau, Jonathan D. Stock, Jeffrey Paul Prancevic, Lisa Micheli, Jay Jasperse
2022, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface (127)
Wildfire can impact soil-hydraulic properties by reducing saturated hydraulic conductivity and sorptivity, making recently burned landscapes prone to debris flows and flash floods. The post-fire hazard window can range from years to decades. In Northern California, where wildfire frequency is steadily increasing, the impact and soil-hydraulic recovery...
Petrogenesis and rare earth element mineralization of the Elk Creek carbonatite, Nebraska, USA
Philip Verplanck, G. Lang Farmer, Richard M. Kettler, Heather A. Lowers, Craig A. Johnson, Alan E. Koenig, Michael J. Blessington
2022, Ore Geology Reviews (146)
Although carbonatites are the primary source of the world’s rare earth elements (REEs), the processes responsible for ore-grade REE enrichment in carbonatites are still poorly understood. In this study, we present a petrologic, geochemical, and isotopic evaluation of the Elk Creek carbonatite in southeast Nebraska...
Breeding dynamics of gopher frog metapopulations over 10 years
Brian A. Crawford, Anna L. Farmer, Kevin M Enge, Aubrey Heupel Greene, Lauren Diaz, John C. Maerz, Clinton T. Moore
2022, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (13) 422-436
Populations of amphibians that breed in isolated, ephemeral wetlands may be particularly sensitive to breeding and recruitment rates, which can be influenced by dynamic and difficult-to-predict extrinsic factors. The gopher frog Rana capito is a declining species currently proposed for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, as well as one of...
Biogeography of freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionida) in Texas and implications on conservation biology
Michael de Moulpied, Chase H. Smith, Clint R. Robertson, Nathan Johnson, Roel Lopez, Charles R. Randklev
2022, Diversity and Distributions (28) 1458-1474
AimBiogeography seeks to identify and explain the spatial distributions of species and has become an important tool used by conservationists to protect and manage aquatic organisms. Texas, located in the southwestern United States, is home to 52 species of freshwater mussels, 9 of which are endemic to Texas and 7...
Structured decision making to rank North American Wetland Conservation Act proposals within joint venture regions
Anastasia Krainyk, James E. Lyons, Gregory J. Soulliere, John M. Coluccy, Barry C. Wilson, Michael G. Brasher, Mohammed A Al-Saffar, Dale D. Humburg
2022, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (13) 375-395
The North American Wetlands Conservation Act (16 U.S.C. 4401-4412) provided funding and administration for wetland management and conservation projects. The North American Wetland Conservation Fund, enabled in 1989 with the Act, provides financial resources. Resource allocation decisions are based, in part, on regional experts, particularly migratory bird Joint Ventures (JVs)...
Can coastal habitats rise to the challenge? Resilience of estuarine habitats, carbon accumulation, and economic value to sea-level rise in a Puget Sound estuary
Monica Mei Jeen Moritsch, Kristin B. Byrd, Melanie J. Davis, Anthony J. Good, Judith Z. Drexler, James T. Morris, Isa Woo, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Eric E. Grossman, Glynnis Nakai, Katrina L. Poppe, John M. Rybczyk
2022, Estuaries and Coasts (45) 2293-2309
Sea-level rise (SLR) and obstructions to sediment delivery pose challenges to the persistence of estuarine habitats and the ecosystem services they provide. Restoration actions and sediment management strategies may help mitigate such challenges by encouraging the vertical accretion of sediment in and horizontal migration of tidal forests and marshes. We...
