Environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring fish biodiversity in remote lakes
Nicholas J. Iacaruso, Jared Thomas Myers, Michael J. Seider, Mark A. Davis
2025, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (46) 84-100
ObjectiveEnvironmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding provides an attractive option for monitoring biodiversity in remote freshwater ecosystems, where the deployment of conventional gears encounters major logistical constraints. We evaluated eDNA metabarcoding for monitoring fish communities and early detection of nonnative species in three remote lakes on Isle Royale, Michigan, USA.MethodsAt each of...
Range-wide population trend analysis for greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus)—Updated 1960–2024
Brian G. Prochazka, Peter S. Coates, Cameron L. Aldridge, Michael S. O’Donnell, David R. Edmunds, Adrian P. Monroe, Steve E. Hanser, Lief A. Wiechman, Michael P. Chenaille
2025, Data Report 1217
Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter sage-grouse) are at the center of State and national land-use policies largely because of their unique life-history traits as an ecological indicator for the health of sagebrush ecosystems. This updated population trend analysis provides State and Federal land and wildlife managers with the best available...
Adult and hatch-year survival and fidelity of Piping Plovers Charadrius melodus in the lower Platte River system, Nebraska, USA
Elsa M. Forsberg, Larkin A. Powell, Rose J. Swift, Joel G. Jorgensen, Mark P. Vrtiska
2025, Wader Study (132) 210-222
Knowledge of vital rates informs the conservation and management of threatened and endangered species. In the northern Great Plains, USA, the federally threatened Piping Plover Charadrius melodus uses a variety of nesting habitats including natural river sandbars and human-created sites in the lower Platte River system, Nebraska. In this...
A framework for analyzing wild turkey summer sighting data.
Duane R. Diefenbach, Frances E. Buderman, Mary Jo Casalena, Michael Dye, Robert Gates, Laura Christine Gigliotti, C. Robert Long, Katherine Martin, Michael Muthersbaugh, Michael L. Peters, James Sloan, Joshua Stiller, Mark Wiley
2025, Wildlife Society Bulletin (49)
Wildlife agencies collect data on productivity (e.g., proportion of hens with poults and number of poults per hen) of wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) to monitor population status and trends. However, sampling protocols to collect productivity data rely on opportunistic observations reported by wildlife agency personnel and the...
Predicted fish vulnerability to stream drying in the western U.S.A.
Elizabeth A. Rieger, Niall G. Clancy, Ryan R. McShane, Roy Sando, Annika W. Walters
2025, Ecology of Freshwater Fish (35)
The frequency, magnitude and extent of stream drying is increasing due to climate change and human water demand. Fish vulnerability to increased stream drying is a combination of sensitivity (innate tolerance to low streamflow) and exposure to stream drying. To understand fish tolerance to low flow and...
The Hawaiian Volcanoes Supersite: Open data for the benefit of science and society
Michael Poland, Stefano Salvi, Falk Amelung, Marco Bagnardi, Tyler Grant Paladino, Ingrid A. Johanson, Megan McLay
2025, Bulletin of Volcanology (87)
The Hawaiian Volcanoes Supersite was established in 2008 with the goal of making large amounts of volcano monitoring data, especially satellite measurements, freely available at a site of international interest, scientific importance, and impactful natural hazards. The location was chosen because of the long history of volcanological research and innovation...
Sentinel-2 based estimates of rangeland fractional cover and canopy gap class for the western United States
Brady W. Allred, Sarah E. McCord, Timothy J. Assal, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Chad S. Boyd, Alexander C. Brooks, Samantha M. Cady, Michael C. Duniway, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf, Shane A. Green, Georgia R. Harrison, Eric R. Jensen, Emily J. Kachergis, Anna C. Knight, Chloe M. Mattilio, Brian A. Mealor, David E. Naugle, Dylan O’Leary, Peter J. Olsoy, Erika S. Peirce, Jason R. Reinhardt, Robert K. Shriver, Joseph T. Smith, Jason D. Tack, Ashley M. Tanner, Evan P. Tanner, Dirac Twidwell, Nicholas P. Webb, Scott L. Morford
2025, Scientific Data (12)
Rangelands are extensive ecosystems, providing important ecosystem services while undergoing continuous change. As a result, improved monitoring technologies can help better characterize vegetation change. Satellite remote sensing has proven effective in this regard, tracking vegetation dynamics at broad and fine scales. We leveraged the spatial, spectral, and...
Disentangling geomorphic equifinality in sediment and hydrologic connectivity through the analyses of landscape drivers of hysteresis
Jong Cho, J. William Lund, Grady Ball, Jeb E. Brown, Allen C. Gellis, Laura N. Gurley, Scott Douglas Hamshaw, Jeffrey Stephen Kwang, Andrew Roy Laws, Gregory E. Noe, Gretchen P. Oelsner, Francis Parchaso, Cara L. Peterman-Phipps, Katherine Skalak, Nicholas A. Sutfin
2025, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (50)
Sources, transport mechanisms and pathways of fine sediment in river systems are dependent on a multitude of climatic, geomorphic and anthropogenic factors, resulting in geomorphic equifinality, in which it is difficult to parse how different landscape processes affect sediment transport across different spatiotemporal scales. The objectives of this study are...
Interspecific interactions moderate direct effects of vegetation change resulting from prescribed fires
Varsha Shastry, L. Mike Conner, Gail Morris, J. Andrew Royle, Lora Smith, Dana Morin
2025, Scientific Reports (15)
Savannas depend on frequent, low-intensity fires that shape animal and plant communities. These fires alter animal populations, movement, and habitat use. Here, we report on how fires in a longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) savanna affected small mammal microhabitat use via changes in competition and predation. We monitored small mammal populations...
Rare milkvetch (Astragalus) persistence at a utility-scale solar energy facility in the Mojave Desert
Tiffany J. Pereira, Claire C Karban, Lara A. Kobelt, Seth M. Munson
2025, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (13)
Utility-scale solar energy (USSE) development is driving the projected growth in global renewable energy capacity but comes with environmental tradeoffs. New, alternative construction methods are promoted to minimize impacts to soils, vegetation, and hydrology; however, the disturbance created by these methods requires further investigation. We evaluated the population of a...
The effects of carnivory and herbivory on the energy balance of Arctic grizzly bears
Anthony M. Pagano, Karyn D. Rode, Kerry L. Nicholson, William B. Leacock, Craig A. Stricker, Charles T. Robbins
2025, Oecologia (208)
Omnivores often face tradeoffs between selecting for spatially dispersed energy-dense vertebrate prey versus densely distributed herbivorous resources that have limited energetic value per unit intake. Arctic grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) are large omnivores within a resource-limited ecosystem that are known to exhibit smaller body masses and occur at lower densities...
Sentinel-1 SAR estimates of snowmelt onset coincide with SNOTEL soil moisture pulses across the western U.S.
Ally Detre, Daniel McGrath, Eric Gagliano, Randall Ray Bonnell, Ryan Webb, Hans-Peter Marshall, David Shean
2025, Hydrological Processes (39)
While there have been recent advancements in synthetic aperture radar (SAR)-based snow water equivalent (SWE) retrievals, obtaining accurate estimates of SWE requires knowledge of the amount of liquid water content (LWC) in the snowpack given its strong impact on radar velocity. Recent studies have utilised Sentinel-1 SAR...
From fences to roads: Changes in barrier behaviour of Mongolian gazelle across different types of linear infrastructure in Mongolia
Anthony Sévêque, Philipp Mendgen, Ian Freeman, Buuveibaatar Bayarbaatar, Matthew J. Kauffman, Kirk Olsen, Dorj Usukhjargal, Ganbold Uuganbayar, Wenjing Xu, Thomas Mueller, Nandintsetseg Dejid
2025, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (292)
Poorly designed linear infrastructure can reduce habitat connectivity and be major barriers for migratory wildlife. An important start at effective mitigation is understanding how individuals respond when barriers are encountered. This can be done via comparison of fine- and broad-scale behavioural responses to various anthropogenic barrier types....
Comparisons of shoreline positions from satellite-derived and traditional field- and remote-sensing techniques
Andrea C. O'Neill, Sharon F. Batiste, Daniel D. Buscombe, Joseph Burgess, Kara S. Doran, Ann E. Gibbs, Rachel E. Henderson, Julia L. Heslin, Catherine N. Janda, Mark A. Lundine, Joseph F. Terrano, Jonathan A. Warrick, Kathryn M. Weber
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1054
Satellite-derived shorelines (SDS) have the potential to help researchers answer critical coastal science questions and support work to predict coastal change by filling in the spatial and temporal gaps present in current field-based and remote-sensing data collection methods. The U.S. Geological Survey conducted comparison analyses of traditionally sourced shorelines and...
Density as a mechanism linking habitat disturbance to increased pathogen prevalence: Evidence from a natural experiment
Gabriel M. Barrile, Anna D. Chalfoun, Annika W. Walters, Jerod A. Merkle
2025, Ecology (106)
Sudden habitat loss associated with environmental disturbance can trigger animals to move from affected to undisturbed areas, where increases in local density may occur. Although pathogen transmission is strongly related to local density, how crowding after habitat loss affects infection dynamics in wild populations remains unclear. Here...
The acoustic-Doppler current profiler (ADCP): A comprehensive tool for river-reach hydromorphodynamics
Gábor Fleit, Marian Muste, Sándor Baranya, Dongsu Kim, Amanda Whaling, Tate McAlpin, Hojun You
2025, Advances in Water Resources (206)
This paper introduces the use of acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) measurements as input for the Acoustic Mapping Velocimetry (AMV) method, a technique for characterizing the dynamics of riverine bedforms. The performance of this new approach, ADCP-AMV, is compared with input from a multibeam echosounder through a...
Potential thiamine deficiency of phytoplankton across a productivity gradient and seasons in Ohio lakes
Freya Elizabeth Rowland, Michael J. Vanni, Nicole M. Hayes, Clifford E. Kraft
2025, Freshwater Biology (70)
Although nitrogen and phosphorus deficiency of algal blooms have been the focus of substantial attention, organic nutrients can limit algal growth in aquatic systems. Growing evidence indicates thiamine (vitamin B1) can influence the community of primary producers in marine systems, but comparatively little is known about the effect of...
Depth of magma crystallization and fluid exsolution beneath the porphyry-skarn Cu deposits at Santa Rita and Hanover-Fierro, New Mexico, USA
Andreas Audétat, Jia Chang, Sean Patrick Gaynor
2025, Economic Geology (120) 1679-1699
The depth level at which porphyry Cu–forming magmas fractionated and exsolved mineralizing fluids is actively debated. In the classic model, extensive magma fractionation occurs in large, upper crustal magma chambers, and concomitant fluid exsolution leads to forceful expulsion of residual magmas in the form of porphyry dikes, stocks, and breccia...
Temporal changes in nutrient concentrations in the Lower Grand River and selected drainage basins, Missouri and Iowa, during the Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative (2010–23)
Brock J.W. Kamrath, Courtney N. Lauderback, Jennifer C. Murphy
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5099
This report describes a cooperative study by the U.S. Geological Survey and Missouri Department of Natural Resources that evaluated temporal changes in total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations in the Lower Grand River hydrologic unit. The study focused on trends since 2010, when the basin was designated as...
An evaluation of the effects of different deicing salt application rates on three watersheds in Essex County, New York
Kristina Gutchess, Natasha Scavotto, Amanda Dondero, Joshua C. Woda, Neil C. Terry, Kirk Smith, John H. Williams
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5062
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New York State Department of Transportation, evaluated the effects of different deicing salt application rates on surface water, groundwater, and highway runoff quality near State highways in northern New York. Three reaches of State highways were tested with different deicing treatments between...
Grass-Cast Southwest: A seasonal rangeland productivity forecast for the southwestern United States
Emilio Aguilar-Cubilla, Malannie D. Hartman, William J. Parton, Sasha C. Reed, Justin D. Derner, Darin K. Schulte, Elise S. Gornish, David J.P. Moore, Emile Elias, Dannele E. Peck, Brian A. Fuchs, William K. Smith
2025, Cambridge Prisms: Drylands (2)
Here, we present a first assessment of the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) “Grass-Cast Southwest,” which is a forecasting tool for rangeland aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) for the southwest region of the United States. Our results show that ANPP forecasts in early April were relatively close to the observation-based...
Evaluating the central–marginal hypothesis: Introgression and genetic variation at the trailing edge of Quercus bicolor
Jesse B. Parker, Sean Hoban, Laura Thompson, Scott E. Schlarbaum
2025, Molecular Ecology (34)
The central–marginal hypothesis (CMH) predicts reduced genetic diversity and increased differentiation in range-edge populations due to ecological marginality and limited gene flow. Deviations from this pattern, however, can result from historical demographic processes, variation in reproductive strategies or interspecific hybridization. The genus Quercus, known for hybridization and long-distance pollination, offers an...
Spatial occupancy patterns of the endangered northern long‐eared bat in New England
Jesse L De La Cruz, Sabrina M. Deeley, Elizabeth Ann Hunter, W. Mark Ford
2025, Diversity and Distributions (31)
AimWhite-nose syndrome has caused severe declines in eastern North American cave bats, leading to the federal listing of the northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) as endangered in the United States and Canada. This has heightened the importance of long-term monitoring to inform species status assessments. We employed a combination of...
Detection of viral, bacterial, and protozoan pathogens and microbial source tracking markers in paired large- and small-volume water samples
Joe Heffron, Joel P. Stokdyk, Aaron D. Firnstahl, Rachel M. Cook, Claire E. Hruby, Mark A. Borchardt
2025, ES&T Water
When sampling for waterborne microbes, researchers may need to diverge from recommended sample volumes due to logistical constraints, novel targets, or challenging matrices, with little guidance about the potential impact on results. In field studies, we measured bacteria, viruses, and protozoa (15 quantitative polymerase chain reaction assays)...
Estimating flood discharges at selected annual exceedance probabilities for unregulated, rural streams in Vermont, 2023
Scott A. Olson
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5088
This report provides estimates of flood discharge at selected annual exceedance probabilities (AEPs) for streamgages in and adjacent to Vermont and equations for estimating flood discharges at AEPs of 50-, 20-, 10-, 4-, 2-, 1-, 0.5-, and 0.2-percent (recurrence intervals of 2-, 5-, 10-, 25-, 50-, 100-, and 500-years, respectively)...
