Divergent gene expression profiles in Alaskan sea otters: An indicator of chronic domoic acid exposure?
Lizabeth Bowen, Susan Knowles, Kathi Lefebvre, Michelle St Martin, Michael Murray, Kimberly A. Kloecker, Daniel Monson, Ben Weitzman, Brenda Ballachey, Heather Coletti, Shannon C. Waters, C Cummings
2022, Oceans (3) 401-418
An opportunistic investigation into ecosystem instability in Kachemak Bay (KBay), Alaska, has led us to investigate exposure to toxic algae in sea otters. We used gene expression to explore the physiological health of sea otters sampled in KBay in May 2019. We found altered levels of gene transcripts in comparison...
Reference genome of the California glossy snake, Arizona elegans occidentalis: A declining California Species of Special Concern
Dustin A. Wood, Jonathan Q. Richmond, Merly Escalona, Mohan P. A. Marimuthu, Oanh Nguyen, Samuel Sacco, Eric Beraut, Michael F. Westphal, Robert N. Fisher, A. G. Vandergast, Erin Toffelmier, Ian J Wang, H. Bradley Shaffer
2022, Journal of Heredity (113) 632-640
The glossy snake (Arizona elegans) is a polytypic species broadly distributed across southwestern North America. The species occupies habitats ranging from California’s coastal chaparral to the shortgrass prairies of Texas and southeastern Nebraska, to the extensive arid scrublands of central México. Three subspecies are currently recognized in California, one of...
RNA-seq reveals potential gene biomarkers in fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) for exposure to treated wastewater effluent
Peter Schumann, E. Meade, H. Zhi, G. H. LeFevre, Dana W. Kolpin, Shannon M. Meppelink, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Rachael F. Lane, A. Schmoldt, O. Mueller, R. D. Klaper
2022, Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts (24) 1708-1724
Discharged wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent greatly contributes to the generation of complex mixtures of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in aquatic environments which often contain neuropharmaceuticals and other emerging contaminants that may impact neurological function. However, there is a paucity of knowledge on the neurological impacts of these...
Multi-decadal simulation of marsh topography evolution under sea level rise and episodic sediment loads
M W Brand, Kevin J. Buffington, J B Rogers, Karen M. Thorne, E D Stein, B F Sanders
2022, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface (127)
Coastal marsh within Mediterranean climate zones is exposed to episodic watershed runoff and sediment loads that occur during storm events. Simulating future marsh accretion under sea level rise calls for attention to: (a) physical processes acting over the time scale of storm events and (b) biophysical processes...
Diverse tsunamigenesis triggered by the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption
Patrick Lynett, Maile McCann, Zili Zhou, Willington Renteria, Jose Borrero, Dougal Greer, 'Ofa Fa'anunu, Cyprien Bosserelle, Bruce E. Jaffe, SeanPaul La Selle, Andrew C. Ritchie, Alexander G. Snyder, Brandon Nasr, Jaqueline Bott, Nicholas A Graehl, Costas Synolakis, Behzad Ebrahimi, Ezgi Cinar
2022, Nature (609) 728-733
On the evening of 15 January 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano<a id="ref-link-section-d2495956e554" title="Cronin, S. J. et al. New volcanic island unveils explosive past. Eos https://doi.org/10.1029/2017EO076589...
Numbers and presence of guarding dogs affect wolf and leopard predation on livestock in northeastern Iran
Mahmood Soofi, Mobin Soufi, Andy Royle, Matthias Waltert, Igor Khorozyan
2022, Basic and Applied Ecology (64) 147-156
Livestock predation can pose socio-economic impacts on rural livelihoods and is the main cause of retaliatory killings of carnivores in many countries. Therefore, appropriate interventions to reduce livestock predation, lower conflict and promote coexistence are needed. Livestock guarding dogs have been traditionally used to reduce predation, yet details regarding the...
New projections of 21st century climate and hydrology for Alaska and Hawaiʻi
Naoki Mizukami, Andrew J. Newman, Jeremy Littell, Thomas W. Giambelluca, Andrew W. Wood, Ethan D. Gutmann, Joseph J. Hamman, Diana R. Gergel, Bart Nijssen, Martyn . Clark, Jeffrey R. Arnold
2022, Climate Services (27)
In the United States, high-resolution, century-long, hydroclimate projection datasets have been developed for water resources planning, focusing on the contiguous United States (CONUS) domain. However, there are few statewide hydroclimate projection datasets available for Alaska and Hawaiʻi. The limited information on...
Root hemiparasitic plants are associated with more even communities across North America
Jasna Hodzic, Ian Pearse, Evelyn M. Beaury, Jeff Corbin, Jonathan D. Bakker
2022, Ecology (103)
Root hemiparasitic plants both compete with and extract resources from host plants. By reducing the abundance of dominant plants and releasing subordinates from competitive exclusion, they can have an outsized impact on plant communities. Most research on the ecological role of hemiparasites is manipulative and focuses...
Temperature variations in the northern Gulf of Alaska across synoptic to century-long time scales
Seth L. Danielson, Tyler D. Hennon, Daniel Monson, Robert M. Suryan, Rob W. Cambell, Steven J. Baird, Kristine Holderied, Thomas J. Weingartner
2022, Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography (203)
Surface and subsurface moored buoy, ship-based, remotely sensed, and reanalysis datasets are used to investigate thermal variability of northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA) nearshore, coastal, and offshore waters over synoptic to century-long time scales. NGA sea surface temperature (SST) showed a...
Trends of lesser prairie-chicken habitat extent and distribution on the Southern High Plains
Carlos Portillo-Quintero, Blake Grisham, David A. Haukos, Clint W. Boal, Christian A. Hagen, Zhanming Wan, Mukti Subedi, Nwasinachi Menkiti
2022, Remote Sensing (14)
The lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is a species of prairie grouse that occupies grassland ecosystems in the Southern and Central High Plains of the Great Plains. Reduced abundance and occupied ranges have led to increased conservation efforts throughout the species’ range. Habitat loss is considered the predominant cause of these...
Landsat 9 geometric characteristics using underfly data
Michael J. Choate, Rajagopalan Rengarajan, James C. Storey, Mark Lubke
2022, Remote Sensing (14)
The Landsat program has a long history of providing remotely sensed data to the user community. This history is being extended with the addition of the Landsat 9 satellite, which closely mimics the Landsat 8 satellite and its instruments. These satellites contain two instruments, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and...
A geospatial knowledge graph prototype for national topographic mapping
Dalia E. Varanka
2022, International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences (XLVIII-4/W1-2022) 511-516
Knowledge graphs are a form of database representation and handling that show the potential to better meet the challenges of data interoperability, semi-automated information reasoning, and information retrieval. Geospatial knowledge graphs (GKG) have at their core specialized forms of applied ontology that provide coherent spatial context to a domain of...
Soil carbon consequences of historic hydrologic impairment and recent restoration in coastal wetlands
Meagan J. Eagle, Kevin D. Kroeger, Amanda C. Spivak, Faming Wang, Jianwu Tang, Omar I. Abdul-Aziz, Khandker S. Ishtiaq, Jennifer A. O'Keefe Suttles, Adrian G. Mann
2022, Science of the Total Environment (848)
Coastal wetlands provide key ecosystem services, including substantial long-term storage of atmospheric CO2 in soil organic carbon pools. This accumulation of soil organic matter is a vital component of elevation gain in coastal wetlands responding to sea-level rise. Anthropogenic activities that alter coastal wetland function through disruption of tidal exchange...
Recent declines in genetic diversity with limited dispersal among coastal cactus wren populations in San Diego County, California
A. G. Vandergast, Barbara E. Kus, Julia G. Smith, Anna Mitelberg
2022, Conservation Science and Practice (4)
Habitat loss and fragmentation can lead to smaller and more isolated populations and reduce genetic diversity and evolutionary potential. Conservation programs can benefit from including monitoring of genetic factors in fragmented populations to help inform restoration and management. We assessed genetic diversity and structure among four...
Give and take: Effects of genetic admixture on mutation load in endangered Florida panthers
Alexander Ochoa, David P. Onorato, Melody E. Roelke-Parker, Melanie Culver, Robert R. Fitak
2022, Journal of Heredity (113) 491-499
Genetic admixture is a biological event inherent to genetic rescue programs aimed at the long-term conservation of endangered wildlife. Although the success of such programs can be measured by the increase in genetic diversity and fitness of subsequent admixed individuals, predictions supporting admixture costs to fitness due to the introduction...
Trends analysis of Rangeland Condition Monitoring Assessment and Projection (RCMAP) fractional component time series (1985–2020)
Hua Shi, Matthew B. Rigge, Kory Postma, Brett Bunde
2022, GIScience & Remote Sensing (59) 1243-1265
Rangelands have a dynamic response to climate change, fire, and other anthropogenic disturbances. The Rangeland Condition, Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (RCMAP) product aims to capture this response by quantifying the percent cover of eight rangeland components, associated error, and trends across the western United States using Landsat from 1985 to...
Understanding impacts of sea-level rise and land management on critical coastal marsh habitat
Camille Stagg
2022, Report
Coastal wetlands in the Louisiana Mississippi River Deltaic Plain (MRDP) experience some of the highest rates of relative sea-level rise (SLR) in the world, leading to elevated surface water salinity and prolonged flooding. Elevated salinity causes a shift toward more salt-tolerant vegetation communities, associated with changes in ecosystem function and...
Microbial community response to a bioaugmentation test to degrade trichloroethylene in a fractured rock aquifer, Trenton, N.J
Jennifer C. Underwood, Denise M. Akob, Michelle Lorah, Thomas E. Imbrigiotta, Ronald W. Harvey, Claire R. Tiedeman
2022, Microbial Ecology (98)
Bioaugmentation is a promising strategy for enhancing trichloroethylene (TCE) degradation in fractured rock. However, slow or incomplete biodegradation can lead to stalling at degradation byproducts such as 1,2-dichloroethene (cis-DCE) and vinyl chloride (VC). Over the course of 7 years, we examined the response of groundwater microbial populations in a...
Bedrock depth influences spatial patterns of summer baseflow, temperature and flow disconnection for mountainous headwater streams
Martin Briggs, Phillip J. Goodling, Zachary Johnson, Karli M. Rogers, Nathaniel Hitt, Jennifer Burlingame Hoyle Fair, Craig D. Snyder
2022, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (26) 3989-4011
In mountain headwater streams, the quality and resilience of summer cold-water habitat is generally regulated by stream discharge, longitudinal stream channel connectivity and groundwater exchange. These critical hydrologic processes are thought to be influenced by the stream corridor bedrock contact depth (sediment thickness), a parameter often inferred from sparse hillslope...
Status of water-level altitudes and long-term water-level changes in the Chicot and Evangeline (undifferentiated) and Jasper aquifers, greater Houston area, Texas, 2021
Christopher L. Braun, Jason K. Ramage
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5065
Since the early 1900s, groundwater withdrawn from the primary aquifers that compose the Gulf Coast aquifer system—the Chicot and Evangeline (undifferentiated) and Jasper aquifers—has been the primary source of water in the greater Houston area, Texas. This report, prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Harris-Galveston Subsidence...
Treatment of the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers as a single hydrogeologic unit and use of geostatistical interpolation methods to develop gridded surfaces of water-level altitudes and water-level changes in the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers (undifferentiated) and Jasper aquifer, greater Houston area, Texas, 2021
Jason K. Ramage, Christopher L. Braun, John H. Ellis
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5064
The greater Houston area of Texas includes approximately 11,000 square miles and encompasses all or part of 11 counties (Harris, Galveston, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria, Chambers, Grimes, Liberty, San Jacinto, Walker, and Waller). From the early 1900s until the mid-1970s, groundwater withdrawn from the three primary aquifers that compose the...
Development, structure, and behavior of a perched lava channel at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi, during 2007
T. Orr, Edward W. Llewellin, Matthew R. Patrick
2022, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (430) 18 p.
Channelized lava flows are commonly produced during the early stages of basaltic eruptions. These channels usually maintain their morphology until the eruption ends or discharge is diverted. In some instances, narrower channels can roof over, developing into lava tubes. We report here on...
Science facilitation: Navigating the intersection of intellectual and interpersonal expertise in scientific collaboration
Amanda E. Cravens, Megan Siobhan Jones, Courtney Ngai, Jill Zarestky, Hannah B. Love
2022, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (9)
Today’s societal challenges, such as climate change and global pandemics, are increasingly complex and require collaboration across scientific disciplines to address. Scientific teams bring together individuals of varying backgrounds and expertise to work collaboratively on creating new knowledge to address these challenges. Within a scientific team,...
Distribution and trends of endemic Hawaiian waterbirds
Eben H. Paxton, Kevin W. Brinck, Adonia Henry, Afsheen Siddiqi, Rachel A. Rounds, Jennifer Chutz
2022, Waterbirds (44) 425-437
Four endemic species of wetland-dependent waterbirds occur on the main Hawaiian Islands, all of which have experienced sharp population declines and are listed as endangered species. Twice per year, state-wide surveys are conducted to count waterbirds, but these surveys are evaluated only infrequently. We used a state-space approach...
Understory plant communities show resistance to drought, hurricanes, and experimental warming in a wet tropical forest
Aura M. Alonso-Rodríguez, Tana E. Wood, Jamarys Torres-Díaz, Molly A. Cavaleri, Sasha C. Reed, Benedicte Bachelot
2022, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (5)
Global climate change has led to rising temperatures and to more frequent and intense climatic events, such as storms and droughts. Changes in climate and disturbance regimes can have non-additive effects on plant communities and result in complicated legacies we have yet to understand. This is especially true for...
