Nutrient limitation of phytoplankton in Chesapeake Bay: Development of an empirical approach for water-quality management
Qian Zhang, Thomas R. Fisher, Emily M. Trentacoste, Claire Buchanan, Anne B. Gustafson, Renee Karrh, Rebecca R. Murphy, Jennifer L. Keisman, Cuiyin Wu, Richard Tian, Jeremy M. Testa, Peter J. Tango
2021, Water Research (188)
Understanding the temporal and spatial roles of nutrient limitation on phytoplankton growth is necessary for developing successful management strategies. Chesapeake Bay has well-documented seasonal and spatial variations in nutrient limitation, but it remains unknown whether these patterns of nutrient limitation have changed in response to nutrient management...
Groundwater discharges as a source of phytoestrogens and other agriculturally derived contaminants to streams
Tyler J. Thompson, Martin A. Briggs, Patrick J. Phillips, Vicki S. Blazer, Kelly L. Smalling, Dana W. Kolpin, Tyler Wagner
2021, Science of the Total Environment (755)
Groundwater discharge zones in streams are important habitats for aquatic organisms. The use of discharge zones for thermal refuge and spawning by fish and other biota renders them susceptible to potential focused discharge of groundwater contamination. Currently, there is a paucity of information about discharge zones as a potential exposure...
More than one way to kill a spruce forest: The role of fire and climate in the late-glacial termination of spruce woodlands across the southern Great Lakes
Allison Jensen, David Fastovich, Jacquelyn L. Gill, Stephen Jackson, James M. Russell, Joseph Bevington, Katherine Hayes
2021, Journal of Ecology (109) 459-477
In the southern Great Lakes Region, North America, between 19,000 and 8,000 years ago, temperatures rose by 2.5–6.5°C and spruce Picea forests/woodlands were replaced by mixed-deciduous or pine Pinus forests. The demise of Picea forests/woodlands during the last deglaciation offers a model system for studying how changing climate and disturbance regimes interact to trigger declines of...
Landslide monitoring and runout hazard assessment by integrating multi-source remote sensing and numerical models: An application to the Gold Basin landslide complex, northern Washington
Yuankun Xu, David L. George, Jin-Woo Kim, Zhong Lu, Mark Riley, Todd Griffin, Juan de la Fuente
2021, Landslides (18) 1131-1141
The landslide complex at Gold Basin, Washington, has been drawing considerable attention after a catastrophic runout of the nearby landslide at Oso, Washington, in 2014. To evaluate potential threats of the Gold Basin landslide to the campground down the slope, remote sensing and numerical modeling were integrated to monitor recent landslide...
Dendritic reidite from the Chesapeake Bay impact horizon, Ocean Drilling Program Site 1073 (offshore northeastern USA): A fingerprint of distal ejecta?
Aaron J. Cavosie, Marc C Biren, Kip V. Hodges, Jo-Anne Wartho, J. Wright Horton, Jr., Christian Koeberl
2021, Geology (49) 201-205
High-pressure minerals provide records of processes not normally preserved in Earth’s crust. Reidite, a quenchable polymorph of zircon, forms at pressures >20 GPa during shock compression. However, there is no broad consensus among empirical, experimental, and theoretical studies on the nature of the polymorphic transformation. Here we decipher a multistage...
Evaluating the dynamics of groundwater, lakebed transport, nutrient inflow and algal blooms in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, USA
Hedeff I. Essaid, James S. Kuwabara, Nicholas Corson-Dosch, James L. Carter, Brent R. Topping
2021, Science of the Total Environment (765)
Transport of nutrients to lakes can occur via surface-water inflow, atmospheric deposition, groundwater (GW) inflow and benthic processes. Identifying and quantifying within-lake nutrient sources and recycling processes is challenging. Prior studies in hypereutrophic Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, USA, indicated that ~60% of the early summer phosphorus (P) load to the...
Free-roaming horses disrupt greater sage-grouse lekking activity in the Great Basin
Diana A. Munoz, Peter S. Coates, Mark A. Ricca
2021, Journal of Arid Environments (184)
Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter, sage-grouse) and free-roaming horses (Equus caballus) co-occur within large portions of sagebrush ecosystems within the Great Basin of western North America. In recent decades, sage-grouse populations have declined substantially while concomitant free-roaming horse populations have increased drastically....
Simulating strategic implementation of the CRP to increase Greater prairie-chicken abundance
Kalysta Adkins, Charlotte L. Roy, Robert G. Wright, David E. Andersen
2021, Journal of Wildlife Management (85) 27-40
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has the potential to influence the distribution and abundance of grasslands in many agricultural landscapes, and thereby provide habitat for grassland-dependent wildlife. Greater prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) are a grassland-dependent species with large area requirements and have been used as an indicator of grassland ecosystem...
Volcano geodesy: A critical tool for assessing the state of volcanoes and their potential for hazardous eruptive activity
Michael Poland, Elske de Zeeuw-van Dalfsen
2021, Book chapter, Forecasting and planning for volcanic hazards, risks, and disasters
Since the beginning of the 20th century, volcano geodesy has evolved from time- and personnel-intensive methods for collecting discrete measurements to automated and/or remote tools that provide data with exceptional spatiotemporal resolution. By acknowledging and overcoming limitations related to data collection and interpretation, geodesy becomes a powerful tool for forecasting...
Harnessing landscape genomics to identify future climate resilient genotypes in a desert annual
Daniel F. Shryock, Loraine K Washburn, Lesley A. DeFalco, Todd Esque
2021, Molecular Ecology (30) 698-717
Local adaptation features critically in shaping species responses to changing environments, complicating efforts to revegetate degraded areas. Rapid climate change poses an additional challenge that could reduce fitness of even locally sourced seeds in restoration. Predictive restoration strategies that apply seeds with favourable adaptations to future climate may promote long‐term...
Evaluating the effects of downscaled climate projections on groundwater storage and simulated base-flow contribution to the North Fork Red River and Lake Altus, southwest Oklahoma (USA)
L.G. Labriola, J.H. Ellis, Subhrendu Gangopadhyay, Tom Pruitt, Pierre Kirstetter, Yang Hong
2021, Hydrogeology Journal (28) 2903-2916
Potential effects of projected climate variability on base flow and groundwater storage in the North Fork Red River aquifer, Oklahoma (USA), were estimated using downscaled climate model data coupled with a numerical groundwater-flow model. The North Fork Red River aquifer discharges groundwater to the North Fork Red River, which provides...
Direct and indirect effects of a keystone engineer on a shrubland-prairie food web
Courtney J. Duchardt, Lauren M. Porensky, Ian S. Pearse
2021, Ecology (102)
Keystone engineers are critical drivers of biodiversity throughout ecosystems worldwide. Within the North American Great Plains, the black‐tailed prairie dog is an imperiled ecosystem engineer and keystone species with well‐documented impacts on the flora and fauna of rangeland systems. However, because this species affects ecosystem structure and function in myriad...
Select techniques for detecting and quantifying seepage from unlined canals
Evan J. Lindenbach, Jong Beom Kang, Justin B. Rittgers, Ramon C. Naranjo
2021, Final Report ST-2020-19144-01
Canal seepage losses affect the ability of water conveyance structures to maximize efficiency and can be a precursor to canal failure. Identification and quantification of canal seepage out of unlined canals is a complex interaction affected by geology, canal stage, operations, embankment geometry, siltation, animal burrows, structures, and other physical...
Moderate susceptibility to subcutaneous plague (Yersinia pestis) challenge in vaccine-treated and untreated Sonoran deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus sonoriensis) and northern grasshopper mice (Onychomys leucogaster)
Gebbiena Bron, Susan Smith, Judy L. Williamson, Daniel W. Tripp, Tonie E. Rocke
2021, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (57) 632-636
The variable response of wild mice to Yersinia pestis infection, the causative agent of plague, has generated much speculation concerning their role in the ecology of this potentially lethal disease. Researchers have questioned the means by which Y. pestis is maintained in nature and also sought methods for managing the disease. Here we assessed...
Elucidating controls on cyanobacteria bloom timing and intensity via Bayesian mechanistic modeling
Dario Del Giudice, Shiqi Fang, Donald Scavia, Timothy W. Davis, Mary Anne Evans, Daniel R Obenour
2021, Science of the Total Environment (755)
The adverse impacts of harmful algal blooms (HABs) are increasing worldwide. Lake Erie is a North American Great Lake highly affected by cultural eutrophication and summer cyanobacterial HABs. While phosphorus loading is a known driver of bloom size, more nuanced yet crucial questions remain. For...
Negative effects of an allelopathic invader on AM fungal plant species drive community‐level responses
Morgan Roche, Ian S. Pearse, Lalasia Bialic-Murphy, Stephanie N Kivlin, Helen Sofaer, Susan Kalisz
2021, Ecology (102)
The mechanisms causing invasive species impact are rarely empirically tested, limiting our ability to understand and predict subsequent changes in invaded plant communities. Invader disruption of native mutualistic interactions is a mechanism expected to have negative effects on native plant species. Specifically, disruption of native plant‐fungal mutualisms may provide non‐mycorrhizal...
Leveraging deep learning in global 24/7 real-time earthquake monitoring at the National Earthquake Information Center
William L. Yeck, John Patton, Zachary E. Ross, Gavin P. Hayes, Michelle M. Guy, Nicholas Ambruz, David R. Shelly, Harley M. Benz, Paul S. Earle
2021, Seismological Research Letters (92) 4469-480
Machine‐learning algorithms continue to show promise in their application to seismic processing. The U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) is exploring the adoption of these tools to aid in simultaneous local, regional, and global real‐time earthquake monitoring. As a first step, we describe a simple framework to incorporate...
Net-spinning caddisfly distribution in large regulated rivers
Anya Metcalfe, Jeffrey Muehlbauer, Theodore Kennedy, Charles B. Yackulic, Kimberly L. Dibble, Jane C. Marks
2021, Freshwater Biology (66) 89-101
Most of the world's large rivers are dammed for the purposes of water storage, flood control, and power production. Damming rivers fundamentally alters water temperature and flows in tailwater ecosystems, which in turn affects the presence and abundance of downstream biota.We collaborated with more than 200 citizen scientists to...
Trends in nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment concentrations and loads in streams draining to Lake Tahoe, California, Nevada, USA
Joseph L. Domagalski, Eric D. Morway, Nancy L. Alvarez, Juliet Hutchins, Michael R. Rosen, Robert Coats
2021, Science of the Total Environment (STOTEN) (752)
Lake Tahoe, a large freshwater lake of the eastern Sierra Nevada in California and Nevada, has 63 tributaries that are sources of nutrients and sediment to the lake. The Tahoe watershed is relatively small, and the surface area of the lake occupies about 38% of the watershed area (1313 km2). Only...
Hydrocarbons to carboxyl-rich alicyclic molecules: A continuum model to describe biodegradation of petroleum-derived dissolved organic matter in contaminated groundwater plumes
David C. Podgorski, Phoebe Zito, Anne M. Kellerman, Barbara A. Bekins, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Donald F. Smith, Xiaoyan Cao, Klaus Schmidt-Rohr, Sasha Wagner, Aron Stubbins, Robert G. M. Spencer
2021, Journal of Hazardous Materials (402)
Relationships between dissolved organic matter (DOM) reactivity and chemical composition in a groundwater plume containing petroleum-derived DOM (DOMHC) were examined by quantitative and qualitative measurements to determine the source and chemical composition of the compounds that persist downgradient. Samples were collected from a transect down...
Environmental DNA is an effective tool to track recolonizing migratory fish following large‐scale dam removal
Jeffrey J. Duda, Marshal S. Hoy, Dorothy M. Chase, George R. Pess, Samuel J. Brenkman, Michael M McHenry, Carl O. Ostberg
2021, Environmental DNA (3) 121-141
Environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a potentially powerful tool for use in conservation and resource management, including for tracking the recolonization dynamics of fish populations. We used eDNA to assess the effectiveness of dam removal to restore fish passage on the Elwha River in Washington State (USA). Using a...
Genetic diversity, population structure, and historical demography of a highly vagile and human‐impacted seabird in the Pacific Ocean: The red‐tailed tropicbird, Phaethon rubricauda
Andrea I Varela, Katherina Brokordt, Stefanie M.H. Ismar‐Rebitz, Chris P Gaskin, Nicholas Carlile, Terence O’Dwyer, Josh Adams, Eric A. Vanderwerf, Guillermo Luna‐Jorquera
2021, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (31) 367-377
Many seabird breeding colonies have recovered from heavy anthropogenic disturbance after conservation actions. The widely distributed red‐tailed tropicbird, Phaethon rubricauda, was used as a model species to assess potential anthropogenic impacts on the genetic diversity of breeding colonies in the Pacific Ocean.Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and control region sequences analyses were...
How plants influence resilience of salt marsh and mangrove wetlands to sea-level rise
Donald R. Cahoon, Karen L. McKee, James Morris
2021, Estuaries and Coasts (44) 883-898
This review evaluates the importance of plants and associated biological processes in determining the vulnerability of coastal wetlands to sea-level rise. Coastal wetlands occur across a broad sedimentary continuum from minerogenic to biogenic, providing an opportunity to examine the relative importance of biological processes in wetland resilience to sea-level rise....
Latitudinal patterns of alien plant invasions
Qinfeng Guo, Brian S. Cade, Wayne Dawson, Franz Essl, Holger Kreft, Jan Pergl, Mark van Kleunen, Patrick Weigelt, Marten Winter, Petr Pyšek
2021, Journal of Biogeography (48) 253-262
Latitudinal patterns of biodiversity have long been a central topic in ecology and evolutionary biology. However, while most previous studies have focused on native species, little effort has been devoted to latitudinal patterns of plant invasions (with a few exceptions based on data from sparse locations). Using the most up‐to‐date...
Assessing the ecological risks of per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances: Current state‐of‐the science and a proposed path forward
Gerald T. Ankley, Philippa Cureton, Robert A. Hoke, Magali Houde, Anupama Kumar, Jessy Kurias, Roman P. Lanno, Chris McCarthy, John L. Newsted, Christopher J. Salice, Bradley E. Sample, Maria S. Sepúlveda, Jeffery A. Steevens, Sara Valsecchi
2021, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (40) 564-605
Per‐ and poly‐fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) encompass a large, heterogenous group of chemicals of potential concern to human health and the environment. Based on information for a few relatively well‐understood PFAS such as perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoate, there is ample basis to suspect that at least a subset can be considered...
