Paleomagnetism and geochronology of the Gwalior Sills, Bundelkhand craton, Northern India Block: New constraints on Greater India assembly
Joseph Meert, Scott W. Miller, Anthony Francis Pivarunas, Manoj K. Pandit, Paul A. Mueller, Anup K. Sinha, George Kamenov, Samuel Kwafo, Ananya Singha
2024, Gondwana Research (125) 29-48
We present an updated paleomagnetic pole from the Gwalior Sills in the Bundelkhand craton within the Northern India Block (NIB). Geochronological results from baddeleyite grains from one of the sills yielded an age of 1719 ± 7 Ma which together with a previously published age indicates the emplacement of sills between 1712 and...
Managing conflict between nesting common terns and herring gulls
Jeffery D. Sullivan, Amy O’Donnell, Lauren Marie-Therese Lescure, Andrew Rapp, Carl C. Callahan, Peter C. McGowan, Tim Carney, Diann Prosser
2024, Wildlife Research (51)
Context: Due to the frequent depredation of eggs and chicks by herring gulls (Larus argentatus), numerous approaches to reduce their impact on tern colonies have been tested by wildlife managers. Previous studies have shown that the use of overhead lines presents a promising method to prevent gull nesting in tern colonies,...
Global status of non-native Largemouth Bass (Micropterus Salmoides, Centrachidae) and Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus Dolomieu, Centrarchidae): Disparate views as beloved sportfish and feared invader
James M. Long, L. Seguy
2024, Reviews in Fisheries Science & Aquaculture (32) 81-98
Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides, LMB) and Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu, SMB) are among the most highly invasive species across the globe, but are simultaneously among the most highly sought-after game fish. To explain these disparate views, data on invasive status and angling participation of these two species were compiled at...
Twenty-year record of salt marsh elevation dynamics in response to sea-level rise and storm-driven barrier island geomorphic processes: Fire Island, New York, USA
Charles T. Roman, James C. Lynch, Donald R. Cahoon
2024, Estuaries and Coasts (47) 1903-1917
Twenty years of surface elevation table and marker horizon monitoring at three sites along the Fire Island (New York, USA) barrier island indicates that rates of marsh surface elevation change (Watch Hill, 4.4 mm year−1; Hospital Point, 3.5 mm year−1; Great Gun, − 0.3 mm year−1) were lower than the rate of monthly mean...
Considering pollinators' ecosystem services in the remediation and restoration of contaminated lands: Overview of research and its gaps
James R. Meldrum, Diane L. Larson, Timothy B. Hoelzle, Jo Ellen Hinck
2024, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (20) 322-336
The concept of ecosystem services provides a useful framework for understanding how people are affected by changes to the natural environment, such as when a contaminant is introduced (e.g., oil spills, hazardous substance releases) or, conversely, when contaminated lands are remediated and restored. Pollination...
Obtaining and applying public data for training students in technical statistical writing: Case studies with data from U.S. Geological Survey and general ecological literature
Barb Bennie, Richard A. Erickson
2024, Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education (32) 217-226
Effective undergraduate statistical education requires training using real-world data. Textbook datasets seldom match the complexities and messiness of real-world data and finding these datasets can be challenging for educators. Consulting and industrial datasets often have nondisclosure agreements. Academic datasets often require subject area expertise beyond those of a general education...
Diversity, distribution, and methodological considerations of haemosporidian infections among Galliformes in Alaska
Faith De Amaral, Robert E. Wilson, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Ravinder Sehgal
2024, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife (20) 122-132
Using samples spanning 10-degrees of latitude in Alaska, we provide the first comparative assessment of avian haemosporidia distribution of Arctic Alaska with subarctic host populations for four species of grouse and three species of ptarmigan (Galliformes). We found a high overall prevalence for at least one haemospordian genus (88%; N = 351/400), with spruce grouse (Canachites...
Diet composition and resource overlap of sympatric native and introduced salmonids across neighboring streams during a peak discharge event
Tanner L. Cox, Michael J. Lance, Lindsey K. Albertson, Michelle A. Briggs, Adeline J. Dutton, Alexander V. Zale
2024, PLoS ONE (18)
Species assemblages composed of non-native and native fishes are found in freshwater systems throughout the world, and interactions such as interspecific competition that may negatively affect native species are expected when non-native species are present. In the Smith River watershed, Montana, rainbow trout were introduced by 1930. Native mountain whitefish...
A review of the ecology and conservation biology of Sali (Micronesian Starling, Aplonis opaca guami) on Guam
Andre Van Nguyen, Martin Kastner, Gary Wiles, Christopher Wagner, Henry S. Pollock, Haldre S. Rogers, Laura Duenas, Evan C. Fricke, Evan M. Rehm, Robert M. McElderry, Shane R. Siers, Eben H. Paxton
2023, Micronesica (2023) 1-18
The accidental introduction of the Brown Treesnake (BTS, Boiga irregularis) to Guam following World War II led to the extinction, extirpation, or severe decline of most of Guam’s native avifauna. One forest bird species that managed to persist is the cavity-nesting Såli (Micronesian Starling, Aplonis opaca guami), a once-ubiquitous native omnivore whose...
Prioritizing imperiled native aquatic species for conservation propagation
Molly A. H. Webb, Christopher S. Guy, Hilary B. Treanor, Krissy W. Wilson, Cassie D. Mellon, Paul Abate, Harry J. Crockett, Jordan Hofmeier, Chelsey Pasbrig, Patrick Isakson
2023, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (14) 337-353
Native aquatic species are in decline, and hatcheries can play an important role in stemming these losses until larger ecological issues are addressed. However, as more federal and state agencies face budget uncertainty and the number of imperiled species increases, it is necessary to develop a tool to prioritize species...
Upper thermal tolerances of two native and one invasive crayfish in Missouri, USA
Jacob Thomas Westhoff, Hisham A. Abdelrahman, James A. Stoeckel
2023, Freshwater Crayfish (28) 27-36
The spread of invasive crayfish requires invaded habitats to be thermally suitable, and differences in thermal tolerances among species could provide thermal refugia for native crayfish affected by the invader. We estimated upper thermal tolerances for the invasive Faxonius hylas and native F. peruncus and F. quadruncus in Missouri, USA, using critical thermal maxima (CTmax) methodology...
Cursed? Why one does not simply add new data sets to supervised geothermal machine learning models
Stanley Paul Mordensky, Erick R. Burns, John Lipor, Jacob DeAngelo
2023, Geothermal Resources Council Transactions (47) 1288-1313
Recent advances in machine learning (ML) identifying areas favorable to hydrothermal systems indicate that the resolution of feature data remains a subject of necessary improvement before ML can reliably produce better models. Herein, we consider the value of adding new features or replacing other, low-value features with new input features...
Magnetotelluric investigation of northern Harrat Rahat, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Jared R. Peacock, Paul A. Bedrosian, Maher K. Al-Dhahry, Adel Shareef, Daniel W. Feucht, Cliff D. Taylor, Benjamin Bloss, Hani M. Zahran
2023, Professional Paper 1862-L
Volcanism within the harrats (Arabic for “volcanic field”) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia includes at least one historical eruption occurring close to the holy city of Al Madīnah in 1256 C.E. As part of a volcanic- and seismic-hazard assessment of northern Harrat Rahat, magnetotelluric (MT) data were collected to...
Mid-contract management alters conservation reserve program vegetation in the central and western United States
Kenneth Elgersma, Mark W. Vandever, Ai Wen
2023, Ecological Restoration (41) 169-179
Disturbances such as grazing, fire, and burrowing are historically important in North American grasslands, and plans for restoring disturbance regimes are often required for successful restoration. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has become the dominant grassland restoration mechanism in many areas, and...
Utilizing high-resolution genetic markers to track population-level exposure of migratory birds to renewable energy development
Ryan J. Harrigan, Jasmine Rajbhandary, Christen Bossu, Peter M. Sanzenbacher, Thomas Dietsch, Cristian Gruppi, Todd E. Katzner, Thomas J. Smith III, Kristen Ruegg
2023, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation (2)
With new motivation to increase the proportion of energy demands met by zero-carbon sources, there is a greater focus on efforts to assess and mitigate the impacts of renewable energy development on sensitive ecosystems and wildlife, of which birds are of particular interest. One challenge for...
Water, water everywhere, but every drop unique: Emerging challenges in the science to understand the role of contaminants in management of drinking water supplies
S.T. Glassmeyer, E.E. Burns, Michael J. Focazio, Edward Furlong, Matthew O. Gribble, M.A. Jahne, S.P. Keely, A.R. Kenicutt, Dana W. Kolpin, E.K. Medlock Kakaley, S.L. Pfaller
2023, GeoHealth (7)
The protection and management of water resources continues to be challenged by multiple and ongoing factors such as shifts in demographic, social, economic, and public health requirements. Physical limitations placed on access to potable supplies include natural and human-caused factors such as aquifer depletion, aging infrastructure, saltwater...
Identifying structural priors in a hybrid differentiable model for stream water temperature modeling
Farshid Rahmani, Alison P. Appling, Dapeng Feng, Kathryn Lawson, Chaopeng Shen
2023, Water Resources Research (59)
Although deep learning models for stream temperature (Ts) have recently shown exceptional accuracy, they have limited interpretability and cannot output untrained variables. With hybrid differentiable models, neural networks (NNs) can be connected to physically based equations (called structural priors) to output intermediate variables such...
Artisanal mining river dredge detection using SAR: A method comparison
Marissa Ann Alessi, Peter G. Chirico, Marco Millones
2023, Remote Sensing (15)
Challenges exist in monitoring artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) activities, given their dynamic and often informal nature. ASM takes form through various techniques and scales, including riverine dredging, which often targets the abundant alluvial gold deposits in South America. Remote sensing offers a solution to improve data collection, regulation, and...
Comprehensive assessment of macroinvertebrate community condition and sediment toxicity in the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern, New York, 2021
Scott D. George, Barry P. Baldigo, Scott M. Collins, David B. Clarke, Brian T. Duffy
2023, Journal of Great Lakes Research (49)
The degradation of benthic communities (benthos) is one of four remaining beneficial use impairments (BUIs) in the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern (AOC), located on the south shore of Lake Ontario in New York. The historical rationale for listing this BUI as impaired relied heavily on inferred or expected impact...
America's most wanted fishes: Cataloging risk assessments to prioritize invasive species for management action
Emily M. Dean, Audrey Jordon, Aimee Christine Agnew, Nicole D Hernandez, Cayla R. Morningstar, Matthew Neilson, Sara Elizabeth Piccolomini, Brian E. Reichert, Amy Kristine Wray, Wesley M. Daniel
2023, Management of Biological Invasions (15) 1-20
Hundreds of fish species enter the United States through human intervention (e.g., importation) and some of these fishes pose a substantial risk to the nation’s assets and ecosystems. Prevention, early detection, and rapid response (EDRR) are vital to stop species invasions, but time and resources to manage the large suite...
Understanding fatality patterns and sex ratios of Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) at wind energy facilities in western California and Texas
Sarah Licari, Amanda Hale, Sara Weaver, Sarah R. Fritts, Todd E. Katzner, David H. Nelson, Dean Williams
2023, PeerJ Life & Environment (11)
BackgroundOperation of wind turbines has resulted in collision fatalities for several bat species, and one proven method to reduce these fatalities is to limit wind turbine blade rotation (i.e., curtail turbines) when fatalities are expected to be highest. Implementation of curtailment can potentially be optimized by targeting times when...
Paranannizziopsis spp. infections in wild snakes and a qPCR assay for detection of the fungus
Jeffrey M. Lorch, Megan Winzeler, Julia S. Lankton, Stephen Raverty, Heindrich N Snyman, Helen M. Schwantje, Caeley Thacker, Susan Knowles, Hugh Y Cai, Daniel A. Grear
2023, Frontiers in Microbiology (14)
The emergence of ophidiomycosis (or snake fungal disease) in snakes has prompted increased awareness of the potential effects of fungal infections on wild reptile populations. Yet, aside from Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, little is known about other mycoses affecting wild reptiles. The closely related genus Paranannizziopsis has been associated with dermatomycosis in snakes...
A management-focused population viability analysis for North Atlantic right whales
Michael C. Runge, Daniel W. Linden, J. A. Hostetler, Diane L Borggaard, Lance P. Garrison, Amy R. Knowlton, Véronique Lesage, Robert A. Williams, Richard M Pace III
2023, NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-NEFSC 307
The North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is among the most endangered whale species in the world and has been in decline since 2010. Considerable effort is directed toward its recovery by striving to remove threats. In this report, we describe the development of a population viability analysis for right...
Mapping closed depressions in the karst region of northwest Puerto Rico using lidar-derived elevation data obtained in 2018 after Hurricane Maria
Lillian G. Smith, Daniel H. Doctor, Cheyenne L. Cox
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 17th multidisciplinary conference on sinkholes and the engineering and environmental impacts of karst
Identifying and analyzing closed depressions in karst areas is important for sinkhole hazard evaluation and land management. We created a sinkhole inventory in the karst region of northwest Puerto Rico using a lidar-derived elevation model acquired in 2018 approximately eleven months after Hurricane Maria. The goal of this project is...
Examining current bias and future projection consistency of globally downscaled climate projections commonly used in climate impact studies
Lucas Berio Fortini, Lauren R. Kaiser, Abby G. Frazier, Thomas W Giambelluca
2023, Climatic Change (176) 169
The associated uncertainties of future climate projections are one of the biggest obstacles to overcome in studies exploring the potential regional impacts of future climate shifts. In remote and climatically complex regions, the limited number of available downscaled projections may not provide an accurate representation of...
