Potomac Tributary Summary: A summary of trends in tidal water quality and associated factors, 1985 - 2022
Breck Maura Sullivan, Kaylyn Gootman, Alex Gunnerson, Sarah Betts, Gabriel Duran, Cindy Johnson, Christopher A. Mason, Elgin Perry, Gopal Bhatt, Jennifer L. Keisman, James S. Webber, Jon Harcum, Michael Lane, Olivia Devereux, Qian Zhang, Rebecca Murphy, Renee Karrh, Thomas Butler, Zhaoying Wei
2025, Report
The Potomac Tributary Summary outlines change over time for a suite of monitored tidal water quality parameters and associated potential drivers of those trends for the period of 1985 to 2022, and provides a brief description of the current state of knowledge explaining these observed changes. Water quality parameters described...
Shifts in suitability of pinyon-juniper communities: A climate adaptation framework for range-wide management of arid woodland resources
Adam Roy Noel, Daniel Rodolphe Schlaepfer, Ian P. Barrett, Michael C. Duniway, Jodi R. Norris, Chris T. Domschke, Brad J. Butterfield, Megan C. Swan, Kim Hartwig, Michelle R. Crist, John B. Bradford
2025, Forest Ecology & Management (596)
Pinyon-juniper (PJ) woodlands are a diverse ecosystem type providing a wealth of ecosystem services across western North America. Managing PJ woodlands in the 21st century entails balancing multiple conservation objectives, and resource managers and policy-makers working to sustain PJ woodlands need spatially explicit information about current PJ woodland conditions and...
Revisiting an enigma on California's north coast: The Mw6.5 Fickle Hill earthquake of 21 December 1954
Margaret Hellweg, Thomas A. Lee, Douglas S. Dreger, Anthony Lomax, Lijam Hagos, Hamid Haddabi, Robert C. McPherson, Lori Dengler, Susan E. Hough, Jason R. Patton
2025, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (115) 2623-2639
Many earthquakes occur along the North Coast of California in the vicinity of the Mendocino Triple Junction (MTJ), where the Pacific, Gorda, and North American (NA) plates meet, and on the adjacent plate boundaries. The MTJ marks the nexus of the Mendocino and San Andreas faults with the Cascadia subduction...
Evaluation of daily stream temperature predictions (1979-2021) across the contiguous United States using a spatiotemporal aware machine learning algorithm
Jeremy Alejandro Diaz, Samantha K. Oliver, Galen Gorski
2025, Environmental Modelling & Software (193)
Stream temperature controls a variety of physical and biological processes that affect ecosystems, human health, and economic activities. We used 42 years (1979–2021) of data to predict daily summary statistics of stream temperature across >50,000 stream reaches in the contiguous United States using a recurrent graph convolution network. We comprehensively...
Avian influenza spillover into poultry: Environmental influences and biosecurity protections
Matthew Brandon Gonnerman, Jennifer Mullinax, Andrew Fox, Kelly A. Patyk, Victoria Fields, Mary-Jane McCool, Mia K. Torchetti, Kristina Lantz, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Diann Prosser
2025, One Health (21)
With the continued spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), understanding the complex dynamics of virus transfer at the wild – agriculture interface is paramount. Spillover events (i.e., virus transfer from wild birds into poultry) are related to proximity to infected wild bird populations and environmental conditions. By accounting for...
Tracking status and trends in seven key indicators of river and stream condition in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
Lindsey J. Boyle, Samuel H. Austin, Matthew J. Cashman, Zachary J. Clifton, John W. Clune, James E. Colgin, Kaitlyn E.M. Elliott, Rosemary M. Fanelli, Ellie P. Foss, Nathaniel P. Hitt, Elizabeth A. Hittle, Coral M. Howe, Emily H. Majcher, Kelly O. Maloney, Christopher A. Mason, Marina J. Metes, Douglas L. Moyer, Trevor P. Needham, Karli M. Rogers, Joshua J. Thompson, Guoxiang Yang, Tammy M. Zimmerman
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5072
Freshwater streams and rivers are recognized as vital habitats within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which has been undergoing extensive restoration efforts for more than 30 years. Resource managers need to understand stream and river condition and how these conditions are changing over time to determine whether regional long-term restoration and...
Cryptic CAM photosynthesis in Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia, Y. jaegeriana)
Karolina Heyduk, Sara J. Scoles-Sciulla, Bridget Hennessy, Madeline Czymmek, Edward V. McAssey, Chase Kane, G. Young Kim, Ifeoluwa Sogunle, Lulu Heublein, Dhriti Sriram, Bryan MacNeill, Michael T. Hren, Todd C. Esque, Jeremy B. Yoder, Michael R. McKain, Christopher Irwin Smith, Lesley A. DeFalco
2025, New Phytologist (248) 2583-2598
Joshua trees are long-lived perennial monocots native to the Mojave Desert in North America. Composed of two species, Yucca brevifolia and Y. jaegeriana (Asparagaceae), Joshua trees are imperiled by climate change, with decreases in suitable habitat predicted under future climate change scenarios. Relatively little is understood about the ecophysiology of Joshua trees across...
Regional differentiation in somatic growth and maturation attributes for loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the Northwest Atlantic
Larisa Avens, Margaret Lamont, Allen M. Foley, Benjamin M. Higgins, Lyndsey N. Howell, Gretchen Lovewell, Donna J. Shaver, Brian A. Stacy, J. Shelby Walker, Jamie M. Clark, Amy A. Wallace, Hannah B. Vander Zanden
2025, Marine Biology (172)
The ages and sizes at which organisms mature have significant implications for lifetime reproductive success. For species at risk of extinction, such as sea turtles, these attributes can ultimately impact probability of population persistence. Within the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, the broader loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) population comprises management units...
Landscape changes elevate the risk of avian influenza virus diversification and emergence in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway
Shenglai Yin, Chenchen Zhang, Claire Stewart Teitelbaum, Yali Si, Geli Zhang, Xinxin Wang, Dehua Mao, Zheng Y.X. Huangh, Willem Frederik de Boer, John Takekawa, Diann Prosser, Xiangming Xiao
2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (122)
Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIV) persistently threaten wild waterfowl, domestic poultry, and public health. The East Asian–Australasian Flyway plays a crucial role in HPAIV dynamics due to its large populations of migratory waterfowl and poultry. Over recent decades, this flyway has undergone substantial landscape changes, including both losses and...
Integrating hunter dynamics and waterfowl dynamics to inform harvest management
Richard Eugene Waggaman Berl, Patrick K. Devers, G. Scott Boomer, Michael Runge
2025, Journal of Wildlife Management
The successful conservation and management of North American waterfowl relies upon an adaptive harvest management framework that accounts for changes in the system state and critical uncertainties related to the dynamics of waterfowl populations and habitats. Increasing recognition of the importance of the human dimensions of the harvest process, particularly...
Economic costs of invasive carps in the United States: Case study and management implications
Ellie Brown, Joseph W. Snapp, Christopher Huber, James Caudill, Peter E. Grigelis
2025, Biological Invasions (27)
Biological invasions can have far-reaching impacts and incur enormous monetary costs. Economic considerations play an important role in management decision-making. We used the invasion of U.S. waterways by silver (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) and bighead (H. nobilis) carp as a case study of the costs of aquatic invasive species. Although these carps...
Evaluating the performance of multiple precipitation datasets over the transboundary Ili River Basin between China and Kazakhstan
Baktybek Duisebek, Gabriel Senay, Dennis S. Ojima, Tibin Zhang, Janay Sagin, Xuejiao Wang
2025, Sustainability (17)
The Ili River Basin is characterized by complex topography and diverse climatic zones with limited in situ observations. This study evaluates the performance of six widely used precipitation datasets, CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data), ERA5_Land (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts—ECMWF Reanalysis 5_Land), GPCC (Global Precipitation...
RAD (Resist-Accept-Direct) switch points and triggers for adaptation planning
Abigail J. Lynch, Jaime Ashander, Anthony Ciocco, Amanda E. Cravens, Colin J. Dassow, Laura E. Dee, Jason B. Dunham, Mitchell J. Eaton, Holly Susan Embke, Joseph M. Hennessy, Alexander W. Latzka, David J Lawrence, Jeremy Littell, Brian W. Miller, Luca Palasti, Michael Runge, Gregory Sass, Aaron D. Shultz, Katherine Siegel, Leona Kay Svancara, Laura Thompson, Lindsey Thurman, Jackson Brear Valler, Sarah R. Weiskopf, Heather M. Yocum
2025, Journal of Environmental Management (392)
Climate change is transforming ecosystems globally. The Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework has gained traction within many natural resource management institutions to help consider the decision space in response to this transformation. Because RAD helps manage for directional change, RAD choices entail considering which RAD pathway to implement and for how long....
Relationships between water quality, stream metabolism, and water stargrass growth in the lower Yakima River, 2018 to 2020
Rich W. Sheibley, Marcella Appel, James R. Foreman
2025, Preprint
Since the early 2000s, water clarity on the lower Yakima River has improved. Changes in best management practices combined with a total maximum daily load for suspended sediment led to these improved conditions. As water clarity improved, so did conditions for aquatic plants; the clearer the water, the better the...
Evapotranspiration terminology and definitions
Kendall C. DeJonge, Richard Allen, Ayse Kilic, Kelly R. Thorp, Meetpal Kukal, Gary Marek, Jon Altenhofen, Devendra Amatya, Philip Blankenau, Sumon Datta, Garry Grabow, Ahmed Hashem, Isaya Kisekka, Jeppe Kjaersgaard, Thomas Marek, Troy Peters, Dana Porter, Michelle Reba, Daran Rudnick, Gabriel Senay, Vivek Sharma, Venkataramana Sridhar, Ge Sun, Saleh Taghvaeian, Ricardo Trezza, Thomas Trout
2025, Irrigation and Drainage Engineering (15)
Evapotranspiration (ET), the combined process of evaporation from soil and plant surfaces and transpiration from plant tissue, plays a pivotal role in the global water and energy balance. Accurately quantifying ET at various spatial scales is important for diverse applications, including irrigation and natural resource management. While efforts to standardize...
Decision framing overview and performance of management alternatives for bison and elk feedground management at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming
Jonathan D. Cook, Gavin G. Cotterill, Margaret C. McEachran, Tabitha A. Graves, Eric K. Cole, Paul C. Cross
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5076-A
This report was developed to evaluate the performance of a set of proposed alternatives for Cervus elaphus canadensis (elk) and Bison bison (bison) management at the National Elk Refuge in Wyoming, U.S.A., and to inform a National Environmental Policy Act Environmental Impact Statement focused on developing the next “Bison and Elk Management Plan” (BEMP)....
Bison population dynamics, harvest, and human conflict potential under feedground management alternatives at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming
Jonathan D. Cook, Margaret C. McEachran, Gavin G. Cotterill, Eric K. Cole
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5076-D
Bison bison were once abundant across North America but declined due to overharvesting in the late 1800s. The reintroduced population in and around Jackson, Wyoming has averaged 485 individuals between 2018–2023 and is the subject of a planning process to inform management strategies that will guide the U.S. Fish and...
Evaluating elk distribution and conflict under proposed management alternatives at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming
Gavin G. Cotterill, Paul C. Cross, Eric K. Cole, Jonathan D. Cook, Margaret C. McEachran, Tabitha A. Graves
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5076-C
We evaluated measurable attributes describing the current and future distribution of Cervus elaphus canadensis (elk) across a region surrounding Jackson, Wyoming, for five feedground management alternatives proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a revision to the 2007 “Bison and Elk Management Plan” of the National Elk Refuge....
Predictions of elk and chronic wasting disease dynamics at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming, and surrounding areas
Paul C. Cross, Jonathan D. Cook, Eric K. Cole
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5076-B
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Elk Refuge (NER) in Jackson, Wyoming, supplementally feeds Cervus elaphus canadensis (elk) and Bison bison (American bison) during winter months, but the costs and benefits of this management strategy are being reevaluated considering the potential effects of chronic wasting disease (CWD) on elk....
Predictions of elk, chronic wasting disease dynamics, and socioeconomics under alternative D at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming, and surrounding areas
Jonathan D. Cook, Gavin G. Cotterill, Eric K. Cole, Paul C. Cross
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5076-F
This chapter presents a description and quantitative evaluation of a collaborative alternative (alternative D) focused on near-term elk population reduction and chronic wasting disease (CWD) monitoring as part of winter elk and bison feedground operations on the National Elk Refuge adjacent to Jackson, Wyoming. Alternative D was developed by the...
Decision analysis in support of the National Elk Refuge bison and elk management plan
Jonathan D. Cook, Paul C. Cross, editor(s)
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5076
Preface This report was developed to evaluate the performance of a set of proposed alternatives for Cervus elaphus canadensis (elk) and Bison bison (bison) management at the National Elk Refuge (NER) in Wyoming, U.S.A., and to inform a National Environmental Policy Act Environmental Impact Statement focused on developing the next “Bison...
Estimating the social and economic consequences of proposed management alternatives at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming
Margaret C. McEachran, Andrew Don Carlos, Gavin G. Cotterill, Eric K. Cole, Jonathan D. Cook
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5076-E
The National Elk Refuge (Refuge) is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and includes habitats for bison and elk. Bison and elk provide opportunities for wildlife-related recreation and contribute to the tourism industry in and around Jackson, Wyoming. Over the last century, the Refuge has provisioned supplemental feed...
Assessing American eel (Anguilla rostrata) distribution in a heavily dammed watershed using eDNA : The Penobscot River watershed, Maine, USA
Shawn Snyder, Cody Dillingham, Lara S. Katz, Michael T. Kinnison, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2025, River Research and Applications (41) 1970-1981
Catadromous American eel ( Anguilla rostrata ) are native to Maine's Penobscot River watershed and historically have migrated through many of its tributaries prior to extensive damming. Recent restoration efforts, including dam removals, have improved connectivity in the lower reaches of the Penobscot River. Characterizing the extent of the American eel's distribution...
Bridging theory and practice to inform seed selection for restoration
Laura Cecilia Shriver, Samuel E. Jordan, Robert Massatti, Seth Munson
2025, Restoration Ecology (33)
Introduction Land managers often face the critical decision of what plant materials to select for ecological restoration. Selection depends on factors that span ecological conditions and human interventions in the restoration process, which can strongly influence the recovery of a degraded ecosystem. Objectives To improve the seed selection process, we...
Low genetic diversity in populations of a clonal invasive plant limits sexual reproduction
Ian S. Pearse, Zoe Becker, Paul J. Ode, John F. Gaskin, Natalie West
2025, American Journal of Botany (112)
PremiseClonality, a form of asexual reproduction and spread, is common among invasive plants, though sexual reproduction via seeds is often still important for their long-range dispersal. In small populations, clonality has been hypothesized to interfere with sexual reproduction by limiting outcrossing opportunities of a plant.MethodsWe developed a structural equation model...
