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Elevated concentrations and loads of nutrients in the South Platte River and Cherry Creek in Denver, Colorado, may have adverse effects on those streams and downstream water bodies, including increased production of algae, eutrophication, and decreased recreational opportunities. This article describes streamflow and concentrations and loads of nutrients for the...

Disturbances to aquatic habitats are not uniformly distributed within the Great Lakes and acute effects can be strongest in nearshore areas where both landscape and within lake effects can have strong influence. Furthermore, different fish species respond to disturbances in different ways. A means to identify...

Neonicotinoid insecticide use has increased over the last decade, including as agricultural seed treatments (application of chemical in a coating to the seed prior to planting). In California, multiple crops, including lettuce, can be grown using neonicotinoid treated seeds or receive a direct neonicotinoid soil application (drenching) at planting. Using...

A unique drone-based system for underwater mapping (bathymetry) was developed at the University of Florida. The system, called the “Bathy-drone”, comprises a drone that drags, via a tether, a small vessel on the water surface in a raster pattern. The vessel is equipped with a recreational commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) sonar...

In April 2022, a seismic swarm near Mt. Edgecumbe in southeast Alaska suggested renewed activity at this transform fault volcano, which was last active ≈800 years ago. Previously, thin rhyolitic tephras were deposited 5 and 4 ka. Satellite radar data from 2014 to 2022 resolves line-of-sight rapid inflation up...

The phylogeography of the American black bear (Ursus americanus) is characterized by isolation into glacial refugia, followed by population expansion and genetic admixture. Anthropogenic activities, including overharvest, habitat loss, and transportation infrastructure, have also influenced their landscape genetic structure. We describe the genetic structure...

Accurate evaluations of habitat preference are key to understanding optimal conditions for wildlife survival and reproduction. Habitat selection, however, usually is evaluated using a single index of preference, and congruence among multiple, relevant indices of preference is examined rarely.We assessed the concordance between...

Bird migrations are impressive behavioral phenomena, representing complex spatiotemporal strategies to balance costs of living while maximizing fitness. The field of bird migration research has made great strides over the past decades, yet fundamental gaps remain. Technologies have sparked a transformation in the study of bird migration research by revealing...

Wave breaking on the steep fore-reef slopes of shallow fringing reefs is effective at dissipating incident sea-swell waves prior to reaching reef shorelines. However, wave setup and free infragravity waves generated during the sea-swell breaking process are often the largest contributors to wave-driven water levels at the shoreline. Laboratory flume...

Invasive species can have negative effects on native biodiversity and ecosystem function, and suppression is often required to minimize the effects. However, management actions to suppress invasive species may cause negative, unintended effects on non-target taxa. Across the United States, lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) are invasive in many freshwater ecosystems,...

Offshore geological sequestration of CO2 offers a viable approach for reducing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Strategies include injection of CO2 into the deep-ocean or ocean-floor sediments, whereby depending on pressure–temperature conditions, CO2 can be trapped physically, gravitationally, or converted to CO2 hydrate. Energy-driven research continues to also advance CO2-for-CH4 replacement strategies in the...

Bathymetric and topographic data were collected from May 2013 to February 2016 along the 15.84-mile reach of the Colorado River spanning from Glen Canyon Dam to Lees Ferry in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona. Channel bathymetry was mapped using multibeam and singlebeam echo sounders; subaerial topography was mapped using...

Ecosystem modeling is a critical process for understanding complex systems at spatiotemporal scales needed to conserve, manage, and restore ecosystem services (ESs). Although mangrove wetlands are sources of ESs worth billions of dollars, there is a lack of modeling tools. This is reflected in our lack of understanding of mangroves’...

Habitat loss, flood control infrastructure, and drought have left most of southern California and northern Baja California's native freshwater fish near extinction, including the endangered unarmoured threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus williamsoni). This subspecies, an unusual morph lacking the typical lateral bony plates of the G. aculeatus complex, occurs at arid southern latitudes...

Biological communities in freshwater streams are often impaired by multiple stressors (e.g., flow or water quality) originating from anthropogenic activities such as urbanization, agriculture, or energy extraction. Restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, USA seek to improve biological conditions in 10% of freshwater tributaries and...

Trap-and-haul programs can maintain connection among habitats for migratory salmonids in fragmented systems. To conserve diversity within and among life history strategies, downstream trap and transport of juvenile salmonids could ideally mimic the natural, underlying out-migration dynamics of the population. A two-way trap-and-haul program is implemented in the lower Clark...

The ability to freely move across the landscape to track the emergence of nutritious spring green-up (termed ‘green-wave surfing’) is key to the foraging strategy of migratory ungulates. Across the vast landscapes traversed by many migratory herds, habitats are being altered by development with unknown consequences for surfing. Using a...

A preliminary vaccination trial against the emergent pathogen, SARS-CoV-2, was completed in captive black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes; BFF) to assess safety, immunogenicity, and anti-viral efficacy. Vaccination and boosting of 15 BFF with purified SARS-CoV-2 S1 subunit protein produced a nearly 150-fold increase in mean antibody titers compared to pre-vaccination titers....

The accuracy assessment of airborne lidar point cloud typically estimates vertical accuracy by computing RMSEz (root mean square error of the z coordinate) from ground check points (GCPs). Due to the low point density of the airborne lidar point cloud, there is often not enough accurate semantic context to find...

Reliable quantitative information on sediment sources to rivers is critical to mitigate contamination and target conservation and restoration actions. However, the determination of the relative importance of sediment sources is complicated at the scale of large river basins by immense variability in erosional processes and sediment sources over space and...

Time-series data offer wide-ranging opportunities to test hypotheses about the physical and biological factors that influence species abundances. Although sophisticated models have been developed and applied to analyze abundance time series, they require information about species detectability that is often unavailable. We propose that in many cases, simpler models are...

Northern Red-Bellied Cooters (Pseudemys rubriventris) have a disjunct distribution with a relictual population in southeastern Massachusetts and a larger range across the mid-Atlantic United States. The relictual population is currently listed with protections under the U.S. Endangered Species Act but the status of the population in the remainder of the...

Plant-population recovery across large disturbance areas is often seed-limited. An understanding of seed dispersal patterns is fundamental for determining natural-regeneration potential. However, forecasting seed dispersal rates across heterogeneous landscapes remains a challenge. Our objectives were to determine (i) the landscape patterning of post-disturbance seed dispersal, and underlying sources of variation...

Ecological processes are complex, often exhibiting non-linear, interactive, or hierarchical relationships. Furthermore, models identifying drivers of phenology are constrained by uncertainty regarding predictors, interactions across scales, and legacy impacts of prior climate conditions. Nonetheless, measuring and modeling ecosystem processes such as phenology remains critical for management of ecological...

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) and particulate organic matter (POM) can influence biogeochemical processes in aquatic systems. An understanding, however, of the source, composition, and processes driving inland reservoir organic matter (OM) cycling at a regional scale over the long term is currently unexplored. Here, we quantify...