Refining capture-recapture recruitment estimation methods for Atlantic sturgeon
M.A. Baker, E.C. Ingram, D.L. Higginbotham, Brian J. Irwin, A.G. Fox
2023, Endangered Species Research (51) 203-214
The Atlantic sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus was once of great commercial importance in many coastal rivers of the eastern USA. Over the 19th and 20th centuries, most historical stocks of Atlantic sturgeon were depleted by human activities. Estimating recruitment for the remaining populations is challenging due to sampling constraints, limited age...
The Factors Affecting Female Black Bear Harvest Rates in Pennsylvania
Brandon M. Snavely, Robert Charles Lonsinger
2023, Cooperator Science Series FWS/CSS-150-2023
Pennsylvania’s black bear (Ursus americanus) population increased in abundance and distribution during the latter third of the 20th century, leading to an increase in human-bear conflicts. Increases in harvest opportunities from 2002–2018 aimed to stabilize black bear population growth but did not substantially increase harvest, and annual harvest was often...
Evolution of a minimal cell
Roy Z. Moger-Reischer, John I. Glass, Kim S. Wise, Lijie Sun, Daniela Bittencourt, Brent K. Lehmkuhl, Donald Schoolmaster, Michael Lynch, Jay T. Lennon
2023, Nature (620) 122-127
Possessing only essential genes, a minimal cell can reveal mechanisms and processes that are critical for the persistence and stability of life1,2. Here we report on how an engineered minimal cell3,4 contends with the forces of evolution compared with the Mycoplasma mycoides non-minimal cell from which it was synthetically...
SARS-CoV-2 utilization of ACE2 from different bat species allows for virus entry and replication in vitro
Kelsey Briggs, Ryan Sweeney, David S. Blehert, Erica Spackman, David L. Suarez, Darrel Kapczynski
2023, Virology (586) 122-129
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is believed to have a zoonotic origin with bats suspected as a natural host. In this work, we individually express the ACE2 of seven bat species including, little brown, great roundleaf, Pearson's horseshoe,...
Identifying invertebrate indicators for streamflow duration assessments in forested headwater streams
Ken M. Fritz, Roxolana O. Kashuba, Gregory J. Pond, Jay R. Christensen, Laurie C. Alexander, Benjamin J. Washington, Brent R. Johnson, David Walters, William T. Thoeny, Paul C. Weaver
2023, Freshwater Science (42) 247-267
Streamflow-duration assessment methods (SDAMs) are rapid, indicator-based tools for classifying streamflow duration (e.g., intermittent vs perennial flow) at the reach scale. Indicators are easily assessed stream properties used as surrogates of flow duration, which is too resource intensive to measure directly for many reaches. Invertebrates are commonly...
Estimating proximity effects to wildfire fuels treatments on house prices in Cibola National Forest, New Mexico, USA
Ryan A. Fitch, Julie M. Mueller, James Meldrum, Christopher Huber
2023, Landscape and Urban Planning (238)
Forested landscapes in the Western United States are subject to growing size and severity of wildfires, in part due to historical management strategies focusing on wildfire suppression. Forest restoration treatments and fuels reductions, including thinning and prescribed burning, can reduce the frequency and intensity of wildfires. Extensive restoration and fuels...
Global assessment of marine plastic exposure for oceanic birds
Bethany L. Clark, Ana P. B. Carneiro, Elizabeth J. Pearmin, Marie-Morgane Rouyer, Thomas A Clay, Win Cowger, Richard A. Phillips, Andrea Manica, Carolina Hazin, Marcus Eriksen, Jacob Gonzalez-Solis, Josh Adams, Yuri V. Albores-Barajas, Joanna Alfaro-Shigueto, Maria Saldhanha Alho, Deusa Teixeira Araujo, Jose Manuel Arcos, John P. Y. Arnould, Nadito J. P. Barbosa, Christophe Barbraud, Annalea M. Beard, Jessie Beck, Elizabeth Bell, Della G. Bennet, Maud Berlincourt, Manuel Biscoito, Oskar K. Bjornstad, Mark Bolton, Katherine A. Booth Jones, John J. Borg, Karen Bourgeois, Vincent Bretagnolle, Joel Bried, James V. Briskie, M. de L. Brooke, Katherine C. Brownlie, Leandro Bugoni, Licia Calabrese, Letizia Campioni, Mark J. Carey, Ryan D. Carle, Nicholas Carlile, Ana R. Carreiro, Paulo Catry, Teresa Catry, Jacopo G. Cecere, Filipe R. Ceia, Yves Cherel, Chang-Yong Choi, Marco Cianchetti-Benedetti, Rohan H. Clarke, Jaimie Cleeland, Valentina Colodro, Bradley C. Congdon, Johannis Danielsen, Federico De Pascalis, Zoe Deakin, Nina Dehnhard, Giacomo Dell’Omo, Karine Delord, Sebastien Descamps, Ben J. Dilley, Herculano A. Dinis, Jerome Dubos, Brendon J. Dunphy, Louise M. Emmerson, Ana Isabel Fagundes, Annette L. Fayet, Jonathan J. Felis, Johannes H. Fischer, Amanda Freeman, Aymeric Fromant, Giorgia Gaibani, David Garcia, Carina Gjerdrum, Ivandra Soeli Goncalves Correia Gomes, Manuela G. Forero, Jose Pedro Granadeiro, W. James Grecian, David Gremillet, Tim Guilford, Gunnar Thor Hallgrimsson, Luke R. Halpin, Erpur Snaer Hansen, April Hedd, Morten Helberg, Halfdan H. Helgason, Leeann M. Henry, Hannah F. R. Hereward, Marcos Hernandez-Montero, Mark A. Hindell, Peter J. Hodum, Simona Imperio, Audrey Jaeger, Mark Jessopp, Patrick G.R. Jodice, Carl G. Jones, Christopher W. Jones, Jon Einar Jonsson, Adam Kane, Sven Kapelj, Yuna Kim, Holly Kirk, Yann Kolbeinsson, Philipp L. Kraemer, Lucas Kruger, Paulo Lago, Todd J. Landers, Jennifer L. Lavers, Matthieu Le Corre, Andreia Leal, Maite Louzao, Jeremy Madeiros, Maria Magalhaes, Mark L. Mallory, Juan F. Masello, Bruno Massa, Sakiko Matsumoto, Fiona McDuie, Laura McFarlane Tranquilla, Fernando Medrano, Benjamin J. Metzger, Teresa Militao, William A. Montevecchi, Rosalinda C. Montone, Leia Navarro-Herrero, Veronica C. Neves, David G. Nicholls, Malcolm A. C. Nicoll, Ken Norris, Steffen Oppel, Daniel Oro, Ellie Owen, Oliver Padget, Vitor H. Paiva, David Pala, Jorge M. Pereira, Clara Peron, Maria V. Petry, Admilton de Pina, Ariete T. Moreira Pina, Patrick Pinet, Pierre A. Pistorius, Ingrid L. Pollet, Benjamin J. Porter, Timothee A. Poupart, Christopher D. L. Powell, Carolina B. Proano, Julia Pujol-Casado, Petra Quillfeldt, John L. Quinn, Andre F. Raine, Helen Raine, Iván Ramírez, Jaime A. Ramos, Raul Ramos, Andreas Ravache, Matt J. Rayner, Timothy A. Reid, Gregory J. Robertson, Gerard J. Rocamora, Dominic P. Rollinson, Robert A. Ronconi, Andreu Rotger, Diego Rubolini, Kevin Ruhomaun, Asuncion Ruiz, James C. Russell, Peter G. Ryan, Sarah Saldanha, Ana Sanz-Aguilar, Mariona Sarda-Serra, Yvan G. Satge, Katsufumi Sato, Wiebke C. Schafer, Stefan Schoombie, Scott A. Shaffer, Nirmal Jivan Shah, Akiko Shoji, Dave Shutler, Ingvar A. Sigurdsson, Monica C. Silva, Alison E. Small, Cecilia Soldatini, Hallvard Strom, Christopher A. Surman, Akinori Takahashi, Vikash R. V. Tatayah, Graeme A. Taylor, Robert J. Thomas, David R. Thompson, Paul M. Thompson, Thorkell L. Thorarinsson, Diego Vicente-Sastre, Eric Vidal, Ewan D. Wakefield, Susan M. Waugh, Henri Weimerskirch, Heiko U. Wittmer, Takashi Yamamoto, Ken Yoda, Carlos B. Zavalaga, Francis J. Zino, Maria P. Dias
2023, Nature Communications (14)
Plastic pollution is distributed patchily around the world’s oceans. Likewise, marine organisms that are vulnerable to plastic ingestion or entanglement have uneven distributions. Understanding where wildlife encounters plastic is crucial for targeting research and mitigation. Oceanic seabirds, particularly petrels, frequently ingest plastic, are highly threatened, and cover vast distances during...
Seasonal habitat utilization provides evidence for site fidelity during both spawn and non-spawning seasons in Lake Ontario cisco Coregonus artedi
Alexander J. Gatch, Dimitry Gorsky, Brian Weidel, Zy F. Biesinger, Michael J. Connerton, Cameron Davis, Hannah Lachance, Brian O’Malley
2023, Journal of Great Lakes Research (49) 1045-1058
The Lake Ontario cisco Coregonus artedi population declined in the 20th century, and restoration of this species is a management objective. Management tools to restore cisco are limited because little is known about cisco spawning behavior and habitat use. We tagged 76 cisco from a remnant population in Chaumont Bay, Lake Ontario...
Structure of breeding calls in three closely related bird species (Calidris Merrem, 1804; Scolopacidae)
Edward H. Miller, Pavel S. Tomkovich, Vladimir Yu. Arkhipov, Colleen M. Handel
2023, Canadian Journal of Zoology (101) 869-885
We studied calls of three sandpiper species to document species’ similarities and differences. We hypothesized that functionally different calls would differ in degree of divergence. We studied two nuptial calls (complex “Song” and rhythmically repeated aerial call, RRC) of males, and a general-purpose call (“alarm” trill, AT)...
The scale-dependent role of submerged macrophytes as drift-feeding lotic fish habitat
John S. McLaren, Robert W. Van Kirk, Phaedra E. Budy, Soren Brothers
2023, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (80)
Although submerged macrophyte (hereafter, “macrophyte”) communities are globally prevalent in low-gradient rivers, the net reach-scale effect of macrophytes on drift-feeding fish microhabitat preference is poorly understood. We used snorkeling and bioenergetics to study fish habitat selection for rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in the Henrys Fork, ID, USA,...
Riparian vegetation response amid variable climate conditions across the Upper Gila River watershed: Informing Tribal restoration priorities
Roy Petrakis, Laura M. Norman, Barry R. Middleton
2023, Frontiers in Environmental Science (11)
Riparian systems across the Southwest United States are extremely valuable for the human and ecological communities that engage with them. However, they have experienced substantial changes and stresses over the past century, including non-native vegetation expansion, vegetation die-offs, and increased fire activity. Vegetation management approaches, such as ecological...
A novel suspended-sediment sampling method: Depth-Integrated Grab (DIG)
Joel T. Groten, Sara B. Levin, Erin N. Coenen, J. William Lund, Gregory D. Johnson
2023, Applied Sciences (13)
Measuring suspended sediment in fluvial systems is critical to understanding and managing water resources. Sampling suspended sediment has been the primary means of understanding fluvial suspended sediment. Specialized samplers, sampling methods, and laboratory methods developed by select U.S. Federal Agencies are more representative of river and stream conditions than commonly...
Frequently asked questions about water quality in the Coeur d’Alene Basin area
Lauren M. Zinsser
2023, Report
No abstract available....
Validation of a species-specific probe-based qPCR assay for the threatened meltwater stonefly, Lednia tumana, in environmental samples
Patrick Ross Hutchins, Jonathan Giersch, Adam Sepulveda, Clint C. Muhlfeld
2023, Conservation Genetics Resources (15) 105-107
A probe-based quantitative real-time PCR assay was developed to detect meltwater stonefly (Lednia tumana) environmental (e)DNA in water samples. The limits of detection and quantification, respectively, were 12.1 and 58.4 gene copies for calibration standards and these values were similarly low in a relevant environmental sample...
Triple oxygen isotope compositions of globally distributed soil carbonates record widespread evaporation of soil waters
Julia Kelson, Tyler E. Huth, Benjamin H. Passey, Naomi E. Levin, Sierra V. Petersen, Paolo Ballato, Emily J. Beverly, Daniel O. Breecker, Gregory D. Hoke, Adam M. Hudson, Ji Haoyuan, Alexis Licht, Jay Quade
2023, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (355) 138-160
The stable isotopic composition of pedogenic carbonates is central to many studies of past climate and topography, providing a basis for our understanding of Earth's terrestrial history. A core assumption of many applications of oxygen isotope values (δ18O) of pedogenic carbonate is that they reflect the δ18O value of precipitation...
Development of a quantitative PCR assay for detecting northwest salamander (ambystoma gracile) in environmental DNA samples
Marshal Hoy, Carl Ostberg
2023, Conservation Genetics Resources (15) 109-112
We developed a primer and probe based quantitative PCR assay for use with environmental DNA to detect Northwest salamander (Ambystoma gracile), a species endemic to the temperate Pacific coastal region of North America. The assay targets a region in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop gene. Tests...
Human and infrastructure exposure to large wildfires in the United States
Arash Modaresi Rad, John T. Abatzoglou, Jason R. Kreitler, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, Amir AghaKouchak, Nicholas Hudyma, NIcholas Nauslar, Mojtaba Sadegh
2023, Nature Sustainability (6) 1351
An increasing number of wildfire disasters have occurred in recent years in the United States. Here we demonstrate that cumulative primary human exposure—the population residing within the perimeters of large wildfires—was 594,850 people from 2000 to 2019 across the contiguous United States (CONUS), 82% of which...
Earthquake scenarios for Quito, Ecuador; Cali, Colombia; and Santiago De Los Caballeros, Dominican Republic
Robert Edward Chase, Kishor S. Jaiswal, Alejandro Calderon, Hugo Yepes, Loren Goddard, Catalina Yepes-Estrada
2023, Seismological Research Letters (94) 2360-2372
Earthquake risk associated with Quito, Ecuador; Cali, Colombia; and Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic is examined by generating a set of hypothetical earthquake scenarios considering seismic sources, recent seismicity, and major historical earthquakes recorded in the vicinity. In this study, particular focus...
Biotic and abiotic factors shaping bat activity in Maryland soybean fields
Lauren D. Maynard, W. Mark Ford, John D. Parker, Susan R. Whitehead
2023, Ecosphere (14)
Bats are important pest control agents in agriculture. Yet, the underlying fine-scale biotic and abiotic mechanisms that drive their foraging behaviors and responses to insect outbreaks are unclear. Herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) can attract both invertebrate and vertebrate natural enemies that use the chemical plant cues to locate insect prey....
Validation and standardization of SPE and HPLC-UV methods for simultaneous determination of legacy and insensitive munitions
Austin Scircle, Ashley Kimble, Jared C. Smith, Bobbi Stromer, Samuel Beal, Jay Clausen, Thomas Georgian, Adam Mumford, Geoffrey Giarmo, Martin Peterson, Hart Hedgpeth, Rebecca Crouch, Anthony J. Bednar
2023, Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management (20)
There have been few attempts to consolidate legacy and insensitive munitions analyses. Furthermore, there are no standard methods for insensitive munitions (IM) in tissues, resulting in overlapping methods and supplementary analyses. The goal of the present study was to validate extraction and instrumental methods previously developed and address analytical methodology...
Managing an ongoing threat: Bats and white-nose syndrome
Tricia Lynn Fry, Amy Haeseler, Anne Ballmann, Tonie E. Rocke
2023, Newsletter
No abstract available....
2023 Coastal master plan: ICM-wetlands – Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) updates
Kristin DeMarco, Donald Schoolmaster, Brady Couvillion
2023, Report, 2023 Louisiana’s comprehensive master plan for a sustainable coast
Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) provides critical structural habitat for valuable nekton and wildlife species across coastal ecosystems and can buffer the negative effects of land loss. Landscape change and restoration efforts across coastal Louisiana can impact the occurrence, coverage, and species assemblages of SAV, and changes to these foundational species...
2023 Coastal master plan: Landscape input data
Brady Couvillion
2023, Report, 2023 Louisiana’s comprehensive master plan for a sustainable coast
Coastal Louisiana is a complex landscape. The composition of the landscape, as well as the processes which influence said landscape, vary in both space and time. The models used in the 2023 Coastal Master Plan must attempt to reflect that spatial and temporal variability. It is therefore of the utmost...
Vortex trapping of sand grains over ripples under oscillatory flow
Donya P. Frank-Gilchrist, Allison Penko, Margaret L. Palmsten, Joseph Calantoni
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings of MARID VII
Sand ripples significantly impact morphodynamics in the nearshore by generating coherent vortices, which can transport suspended sediment to greater heights in the water column than above flat beds. Coherent vortices can trap sediment grains if the settling velocity of the grain is smaller than the maximum vertical fluid velocity in...
Automated georeferencing and feature extraction of geologic maps and mineral sites
Graham W. Lederer, Joshua Mark Rosera, Margaret A. Goldman, Garth E. Graham, Asitang Mishra, Amanda Towler, Brian Wilson, Dustin Graf, Michael Milano, Elizabeth Roberts, Gabrielle Hedrick, Carsten Oertel, Anastassios Dardas, Thomas McEntee
2023, Conference Paper, Abstract proceedings: MinProXT 2022
The predictive power of mineral prospectivity analysis depends on high quality, spatially accurate, analysis-ready datasets. Of paramount importance are geologic maps and mineral site data, but the state of readiness for utilizing these datasets remains sub-optimal for advanced computational techniques. As the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) fulfils its mission to...
