UAV-derived estimates of forest structure to inform ponderosa pine forest restoration
Adam Belmonte, Temuulen T. Sankey, Joel A. Biederman, John B. Bradford, Scott J. Goetz, Thomas Kolb, Travis Woolley
2020, Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation (6) 181-197
Restoring forest ecosystems has become an increasingly high priority for land managers across the American West. Millions of hectares of forest are in need of drastic yet strategic reductions in density (e.g., basal area). Meeting the restoration and management goals requires quantifying metrics of vertical and horizontal forest structure, which...
Traveling to thermal refuges during stressful temperatures leads to foraging constraints in a central-place forager
Catherine G. Haase, Robert J. Fletcher Jr., Daniel H. Slone, James P. Reid, Susan M. Butler
2020, Journal of Mammalogy (101) 271-280
Central-place foragers can be constrained by the distance between habitats. When an organism relies on a central place for thermal refuge, the distance to food resources can potentially constrain foraging behavior. We investigated the effect of distance between thermal refuges and forage patches of the cold-intolerant marine mammal, the Florida...
A comparison of the Trojan Y Chromosome strategy to harvesting models for eradication of nonnative species
Jingjing Lyu, Pamela J. Schofield, Kristen Reaver, Matthew Beauregard, Rana D. Parshad
2020, Natural Resource Modeling (33)
The Trojan Y Chromosome strategy (TYC) is a promising eradication method for biological control of nonnative species. The strategy works by manipulating the sex ratio of a population through the introduction of supermales that guarantee male offspring. In the current study, we compare the TYC method with a pure harvesting strategy. We...
Evaluation of ground‐motion models for U.S. Geological Survey seismic hazard models: 2018 Anchorage, Alaska, Mw 7.1 subduction zone earthquake sequence
Daniel E. McNamara, Emily Wolin, Peter M. Powers, Allison Shumway, Morgan P. Moschetti, John Rekoske, Eric M. Thompson, Charles Mueller, Mark D. Petersen
2020, Seismological Research Letters (91) 183-194
Instrumental ground‐motion recordings from the 2018 Anchorage, Alaska (Mw">Mw 7.1), earthquake sequence provide an independent data set allowing us to evaluate the predictive power of ground‐motion models (GMMs) for...
Seasonal variation in environmental and behavioural drivers of annual-cycle habitat selection in a nearshore seabird
J. S. Lamb, Y. G. Satgé, Patrick G.R. Jodice
2020, Diversity and Distributions (26) 254-266
AimConservation of highly mobile species often requires identifying locations or time periods of elevated vulnerability. Since both extrinsic habitat conditions and intrinsic behavioural and energetic requirements contribute to habitat use at the landscape scale, identifying spatial or temporal foci for conservation intervention requires understanding how habitat needs...
Successful molecular detection studies require clear communication among diverse research partners
B. A. Mosher, R. F. Bernard, Jeffrey M. Lorch, D. A. W. Miller, Katherine L. D. Richgels, C. LeAnn White, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2020, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (18) 43-51
Molecular detection techniques are powerful tools used in ecological applications ranging from diet analyses to pathogen surveillance. Research partnerships that use these tools often involve collaboration among professionals with expertise in field biology, laboratory techniques, quantitative modeling, wildlife disease, and natural resource management. However, in many cases, each of these...
Dimensional effects of inter-phase mass transfer on attenuation of structurally trapped gaseous carbon dioxide in shallow aquifers
Jakub Solovsky, Radek Fucik, Michelle R. Plampin, Tissa H. Illangasekare, Jiri Mikyska
2020, Journal of Computational Physics (405)
Based on experimental evidence and using mathematical modeling, inter-phase mass transfer processes of CO2 exsolving from and dissolving into water in heterogeneous porous media are investigated under two fundamentally different flow conditions: in a quasi one dimensional vertical column and in a two-dimensional tank with a lateral background water flow, both...
Declining aluminum toxicity and the role of exposure duration on brook trout mortality in acidified streams of the Adirondack Mountains, New York, USA
Barry P. Baldigo, Scott George, Gregory B. Lawrence, Eric A. Paul
2020, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (39) 623-636
Mortality of brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis and water chemistry were characterized in 6 headwater streams in the western Adirondacks of New York during spring 2015, 2016, and 2017 and compared with results from analogous tests done between 1980 and 2003 in many of the same streams, to assess temporal changes in toxicity...
Toward ecosystem accounts for Rwanda: Tracking 25 years of change in potential supply and flows of ecosystem services
Kenneth J. Bagstad, Jane Carter Ingram, Glenn-Marie Lange, Michel K. Masozera, Zachary H. Ancona, Mediatrice Bana, Desire Kabogo, Bernard Musana, Nsharwasi Leon Nabahungu, Emmanuel Rukundo, Evariste Rutebuka, Stephen Polasky, Denis Rugege, Claudine Uwera
2020, People and Nature (1) 163-188
1. Rwanda, a small but rapidly developing central African nation, has undertaken development of natural capital accounts to better inform its economic development through the World Bank’s Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) Partnership. In this paper, we develop ecosystem service (ES) models to quantify the physical supply...
Parsing the effects of demography, climate, and management on recurrent brucellosis outbreaks in elk
Gavin G. Cotterill, Paul C. Cross, Jerod Merkle, JD Rogerson, BM Scurlock, Johan T. Du Toit
2020, Journal of Applied Ecology (2) 379-389
1. Zoonotic pathogens can harm human health and well-being directly or by impacting livestock. Pathogens that spillover from wildlife can also impair conservation efforts if humans perceive wildlife as pests. Brucellosis, caused by the bacterium Brucella abortus, circulates in elk and bison herds of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and poses...
Drivers of landscape change in the northwest boreal region
Carl Markon, Amanda Sesser, Aimee P. Rockhill, Dawn R Magness, Don Reid, John DeLapp, Phil Burton, Eric Schroff, Valerie Barber, editor(s)
2020, Book
The northwest boreal region (NWB) of North America is a land of extremes. Extending more than 1.3 million square kilometers (330 million acres), it encompasses the entire spectrum between inundated wetlands below sea level to the tallest peak in North America. Permafrost gradients span from nearly continuous to absent. Boreal...
Predicting wildlife distribution patterns in New England USA with expert elicitation techniques
Schuyler B. Pearman-Gillman, Jonathan E. Katz, Ruth M. Mickey, James D. Murdoch, Therese M. Donovan
2020, Global Ecology and Conservation (21)
Understanding the impacts of landscape change on species distributions can help inform decision-making and conservation planning. Unfortunately, empirical data that span large spatial extents across multiple taxa are limited. In this study, we used expert elicitation techniques to develop species distribution models (SDMs) for harvested wildlife species (n = 10) in the New England region...
Energetic status of Alaskan Chinook Salmon: Interpopulation comparisons and predictive modeling using bioelectrical impedance analysis
Kristin R. Courtney, Jeffrey A. Falke, M. Keith Cox, Jeff Nichols
2020, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (40) 209-224
Adult Pacific Salmon Oncorhynchus spp. undertake energetically demanding migrations wherein they must have adequate energy reserves to survive to spawning locations and reproduce. Proximate analysis provides insight into available energy stores (e.g., lipids), but the ability to non-lethally monitor energetic status may be useful for managers to better understand how...
Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) movement and survival after removal of two dams on the West Branch of the Wolf River, Wisconsin
Emma G. Easterly, Daniel A. Isermann, Joshua K. Raabe, Joshua W. Pyatskowit
2020, Ecology of Freshwater Fish (29) 311-324
Dam removals allow fish to access habitats that may provide ecological benefits and risks, but the extent of fish movements through former dam sites has not been thoroughly evaluated for many species. We installed stationary PIT antennas in 2016 and 2017 to evaluate movements and survival of brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis in...
Cost-effective fuel treatment planning: A theoretical justification and case-study
Jason R. Kreitler, Matthew Thompson, Nicole Vaillant, Todd Hawbaker
2020, International Journal of Wildland Fire (29) 42-56
Modelling the spatial prioritisation of fuel treatments and their net effect on values at risk is an important area for applied work as economic damages from wildfire continue to grow. We model and demonstrate a cost-effective fuel treatment planning algorithm using two ecosystem services as benefits for which fuel treatments...
Spatially explicit models of seasonal habitat for greater sage‐grouse at broad spatial scales: Informing areas for management in Nevada and northeastern California
Peter S. Coates, Brianne E. Brussee, Mark A. Ricca, John Severson, Michael L. Casazza, K. Benjamin Gustafson, Shawn P. Espinosa, Scott C. Gardner, David J Delahunty
2020, Ecology and Evolution (10) 104-118
Defining boundaries of species' habitat across broad spatial scales is often necessary for management decisions, and yet challenging for species that demonstrate differential variation in seasonal habitat use. Spatially explicit indices that incorporate temporal shifts in selection can help overcome such challenges, especially for species of high conservation concern. Greater...
Dispersal asymmetry in a two-patch system with source–sink populations
Hong Wu, Yuanshi Wang, Yufeng Li, Donald L. DeAngelis
2020, Theoretical Population Biology (131) 54-65
This paper analyzes source–sink systems with asymmetric dispersal between two patches. Complete analysis on the models demonstrates a mechanism by which the dispersal asymmetry can lead to either an increased total size of the species population in two patches, a decreased total size with persistence in the patches, or even...
The future of barriers and trapping methods in the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) control program in the Laurentian Great Lakes
Scott M. Miehls, Paul Sullivan, Michael Twohey, Jessica Barber, Rodney McDonald
2020, Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries (30) 1-24
A major duty of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC), created in 1955, was the development a program of eradication or management of sea lamprey populations in the Great Lakes for the protection of the Great Lakes fishery. Beginning in the 1980s the GLFC shifted sea lamprey control to an...
History and sources of co-occurring pesticides in an abstraction well unravelled by age distributions of depth specific groundwater samples
Rasmus Jakobsen, Klaus Hinsby, Jens Aamand, Peter van der Keur, Jacob Kidmose, Roland Purtschert, Bryant C. Jurgens, Jurgen Sultenfuss, Christian N. Albers
2020, Environmental Science & Technology (54) 158-165
When groundwater-based drinking water supply becomes contaminated, the timing and source of contamination are obvious questions. However, contaminants often have diffuse sources and different contaminants may have different sources even in a single groundwater well, making these questions complicated to answer. Age dating of groundwater has been used to reconstruct...
Interactive range‐limit theory (iRLT): An extension for predicting range shifts
Alexej P. K. Siren, Toni Lyn Morelli
2020, Journal of Animal Ecology (89) 940-954
A central theme of range‐limit theory (RLT) posits that abiotic factors form high‐latitude/altitude limits, whereas biotic interactions create lower limits. This hypothesis, often credited to Charles Darwin, is a pattern widely assumed to occur in nature. However, abiotic factors can impose constraints on both limits and there is scant...
Deposition potential and flow-response dynamics of emergent sandbars in a braided river
Jason S. Alexander, Brandon McElroy, Snehalata Huzurbazar, Caroline M. Elliott, Marissa L. Murr
2020, Water Resources Research (56)
Sandbars are ubiquitous in sandy‐braided rivers throughout the world. In the Great Plains of the United States, recovery and expansion of emergent sandbar habitat (ESH) has been a priority in lowland rivers where the natural extent of sandbars has been degraded. Recovery efforts are aimed at protection of populations of...
Nitrogen budgets of the Long Island Sound estuary
Penny Vlahos, Michael Whitney, Christina Menniti, John R. Mullaney, Jonathan Morrison, Yan Jia
2020, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (232)
Nitrogen (N) inputs to coastal ecosystems have significant impacts on coastal community structure. In N limited systems, increases in N inputs may lead to excess productivity and hypoxia. Like many temperate estuaries, Long Island Sound (LIS), a major eastern U.S. estuary, is a N limited system which has experienced seasonal...
Agricultural cropland extent and areas of South Asia derived using Landsat satellite 30-m time-series big-data using random forest machine learning algorithms on the Google Earth Engine cloud
Murali Krishna Gumma, Prasad Thenkabail, Pardhasaradhi Teluguntla, Adam Oliphant
2020, GIScience and Remote Sensing (57) 302-322
The South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan) has a staggering 900 million people (~43% of the population) who face food insecurity or severe food insecurity as per United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). The existing coarse-resolution (>250-m) cropland maps...
Pleistocene lakes and paleohydrologic environments of the Tecopa basin, California: Constraints on the drainage integration of the Amargosa River
Marith C. Reheis, John Caskey, Jordon Bright, James B. Paces, Shannon A. Mahan, Elmira Wan
2020, GSA Bulletin (132) 1537-1565
The Tecopa basin in eastern California was a terminal basin that episodically held lakes during most of the Quaternary until the basin and its modern stream, the Amargosa River, became tributary to Death Valley. Although long studied for its sedimentology, diagenesis, and paleomagnetism, the basin’s lacustrine and paleoclimate history has...
The ecology of chronic wasting disease in wildlife
Luis E. Escobar, Sandra Pritzkow, Steven N Winter, Daniel A. Grear, Megan S. Kirchgessner, Ernesto Dominguez-Villegas, Gustavo Machado, A Townsend Peterson, Claudio Soto
2020, Biological Reviews (95) 393-408
Prions are misfolded infectious proteins responsible for a group of fatal neurodegenerative diseases termed transmissible spongiform encephalopathy or prion diseases. Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is the prion disease with the highest spillover potential, affecting at least seven Cervidae (deer) species. The zoonotic potential of CWD is inconclusive and cannot be...
