Intersection of wildfire and legacy mining poses risk to water quality
Sheila F. Murphy, Johanna Blake, Brian A. Ebel, Deborah A. Martin
2025, Environmental Science and Technology (59) 35-44
Mining and wildfires are both landscape disturbances that pose elevated and substantial hazards to water supplies and ecosystems due to increased erosion and transport of sediment, metals, and debris to downstream waters. The risk to water supplies may be amplified when these disturbances occur in the same watershed. This work...
Evaluating approaches for integrating species distributions in spatial conservation planning
Jason M. Winiarski, Amy A. Shipley, Drew Nathan Fowler, Matthew D. Palumbo, Jacob N. Straub
2025, Conservation Science and Practice (7)
Map-based decision support tools (DSTs) that use species distributions are an important means of identifying priority areas for conservation. The 2020 Wisconsin Waterfowl Habitat Conservation Strategy (WWHCS) uses a DST to identify priority ecological landscapes and watersheds to guide waterfowl habitat projects. The WWHCS DST relies on waterfowl habitat suitability...
A case for occupancy as a state variable for wild bee monitoring
Clint Otto, S. Hollis Woodard, Larissa L. Bailey
2025, Biological Conservation (302)
Reports of widespread pollinator declines, data deficiencies, and inabilities to assess status and trends underscore the need for wild bee monitoring. Chief among the challenges with wild bee monitoring is identifying monitoring objectives and state variables. Here we make the case for considering occupancy, the proportion of area occupied, as...
Examining inter-regional and intra-seasonal differences in wintering waterfowl landscape associations among Pacific and Atlantic flyways
Matthew J. Hardy, Christopher K. Williams, Brian S. Ladman, Maurice E. Pitesky, Cory T. Overton, Michael L. Casazza, Elliott Matchett, Diann Prosser, Jeffrey J. Buler
2025, Journal of Avian Biology (2025)
The Central Valley of California (CVC) and Mid-Atlantic (MA) in the U.S. are both critical sites for nationwide food security, and many waterfowl species annually, especially during the winter, providing feeding and roosting locations for a variety of species. Mapping waterfowl distributions, using NEXRAD, may aid in the adaptive management...
SCEC/USGS Community Stress Drop Validation Study: How spectral fitting approaches influence measured source parameters
Elizabeth S. Cochran, Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom, Shanna Chu, Rachel E. Abercrombie, Dino Bindi, X. Chen, Grace Alexandra Parker, Colin Pennington, Peter M. Shearer, Daniel T. Trugman
2025, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (115) 760-776
Spectral source parameters used to estimate an earthquake’s stress drop (Δσ) can vary significantly across measurement approaches. The Statewide California Earthquake Center/U.S. Geological Survey Community Stress-Drop Validation Study was initiated to compare source parameter estimates, focusing initially on a dataset from the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence. As part of that...
Intra-urban variations in land surface phenology in a semi-arid environment
Ben Crawford, Kathy Kelsey, Peter Christian Ibsen, Amanda Rees, Amanda Charobee
2025, Environmental Research Letters (20)
Urban vegetation is growing in importance as cities use 'green infrastructure' to mitigate the impacts of climate change, reduce extreme heat, and improve human health and comfort. However, due to the heterogeneity of city landscapes, urban vegetation experiences a diverse range of environmental conditions, potentially leading to differences in growing...
Hypothetical CO2 leakage into, and hydrological plume management within, an underground source of drinking water at a proposed CO2 storage facility, Kemper County, Mississippi, USA
Michelle R. Plampin, Matthew D. Merrill
2025, Environmental Geosciences (84)
A large Geologic Carbon Sequestration (GCS) hub has been proposed in Kemper County, Mississippi. The target injection interval consists of numerous Cretaceous-aged deep saline aquifers overlain by a competent and extensive regional sealing layer. Above the seal, the deepest Underground Source of Drinking Water (USDW) at the site is the...
Deformation of Mauna Loa volcano before, during, and after its 2022 eruption
Andria P. Ellis, Ingrid A. Johanson, Michael P. Poland
2025, Bulletin of Volcanology (86)
Mauna Loa on the Island of Hawaiʻi erupted on 27 November 2022, the first eruption since 1984, which marked the culmination of decades-long period of non-eruptive unrest and relative quiescence. We briefly describe the evolution of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory’s geodetic monitoring network at Mauna Loa and show patterns...
First records distribution models to guide biosurveillance for non-native species
Helen Sofaer, Demetra A. Williams, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Keana S. Shadwell, Caroline Kittle, Ian S. Pearse, Lucas Fortini, Kelsey C. Brock
2025, Ecography (2025)
Quickly locating new populations of non-native species can reduce the ecological and economic costs of species invasions. However, the difficulty of predicting which new non-native species will establish, and where, has limited active post-border biosurveillance efforts. Because pathways of introduction underlie spatial patterns of establishment risk, an intuitive approach is...
Mountain sentinels in a changing world: Review and conservation implications of weather and climate effects on mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus)
Kevin White, Becky Cadsand, Steeve D. Cote, Tabitha A. Graves, Sandra Hamel, Richard B. Harris, Forest Hayes, Eran Hood, Kevin Hurley, Tyler Jessen, Bill Jex, Erich Peitzsch, Wesley Sarmento, Helen M. Schwantje, Joel Berger
2025, Global Ecology and Conservation (57)
Climate change is occurring at an accelerated rate in high-elevation alpine and mountain ecosystems. Cold-adapted, mountain species are at risk due to forecasted change and knowledge is needed to respond to current and future conservation challenges. Mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) are an iconic species of North American mountain cultures and...
Intrinsic and environmental drivers of pairwise cohesion in wild Canis social groups
John F. Benson, David A. Keiter, Peter J. Mahoney, Benjamin L. Allen, Lee R. Allen, Francisco Álvares, Morgan L. Anderson, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer, Adi Barocas, James C Beasley, Linda Behrendorff, Jerrold L. Belant, Dean Beyer Jr., Luigi Boitani, Bridget L Borg, Stan Boutin, Erin E. Boydston, Justin L. Brown, Joseph K. Bump, Jonathon D. Cepek, Michael J Chamberlain, Yvette M. Chenaux-Ibrahim, Seth G. Cherry, Duško Ćirović, Paolo Ciucci, H. Dean Cluff, Susan M Cooper, Kevin R. Crooks, Daniel L.J. Dupont, Robert N. Fisher, Daniel Fortin, Thomas D. Gable, Emilio Garcia, Eli Geffen, Stanley D. Gehrt, Michael Gillingham, Douglas C. Heard, Mark Hebblewhite, Joseph W Hinton, Austin T. Homkes, Chris G. Howden, Djuro Huber, Pat J. Jackson, Kyle Joly, Allicia P Kelly, Marcella J. Kelly, Katrien A. Kingdon, Abhijeet Kulkarni, Josip Kusak, Gerald W. Kuzyk, Bryce C. Lake, Luis Llaneza, Jose Vicente Lopez-Bao, Daniel R. MacNulty, Ashley A.D. McLaren, Philip D. McLoughlin, Evelyn H. Merrill, Kenneth J. Mills, Numi Mitchell, Seth A. Moore, Matthew Mumma, Maureen H. Murray, Marco Musiani, Mónia Nakamura, Eric W. Neilson, Lalenia M. Neufeld, Thomas M Newsome, John K. Oakleaf, Vincente Palacios, Marlo M. Perdicas, Thomas Perry, Tyler R. Petroelje, Cyrenea B. Piper, Christina M. Prokopenko, Laura R. Prugh, Seth P.D. Riley, Helena Rio-Maior, Gretchen H. Roffler, Dale Rollins, Håkan Sand, Fiona K A Schmiegelow, Dale R. Seip, Mathew S Sorum, Colleen C. St. Clair, Robin Steenweg, Michael W. Strohbach, Jack Tatler, Maria Thaker, Connor A. Thompson, Julia W. Turner, Abi Tamim Vanak, Eric Vander Wal, Petter Wabakken, Scott E Walter, Sarah C Webster, Tyler J. Wheeldon, Camilla Wikenros, Steve K. Windels, Julie K. Young, Sana Zabihi-Seissan, Barbara Zimmermann, Brent R. Patterson
2025, Ecology (106)
Animals within social groups respond to costs and benefits of sociality by adjusting the proportion of time they spend in close proximity to other individuals in the group (cohesion). Variation in cohesion between individuals, in turn, shapes important group-level processes such as subgroup formation and fission–fusion dynamics. Although critical to...
Late Amazonian ice near Athabasca Valles, Mars: Recent megaflood or climate change?
Colin M. Dundas, Laszlo P. Keszthelyi, Kaj E. Williams
2025, Icarus (429)
The Athabasca Valles outflow channel system is among the youngest such channels on Mars, with the Athabasca Valles flood lava (AVFL) covering the channel floor and reaching far beyond. Volcanic rootless cones on the AVFL indicate the presence of H2O in the shallow subsurface at the time of lava emplacement....
Great Lakes mallard population dynamics
Benjamin Z. Luukkonen, Scott R. Winterstein, Daniel B. Hayes, Drew Nathan Fowler, Gregory J. Soulliere, John M. Coluccy, Amy A. Shipley, John Simpson, Brendan Shirkey, Jason M. Winiarski, Benjamin J. O’Neal, Barbara A. Avers, Gerald R. Urquhart, Philip Lavretsky
2025, Journal of Wildlife Management (89)
Breeding mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) populations in the Great Lakes region (Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, USA) declined by >40% between 2000–2022 based on abundance data collected during spring aerial surveys. Mallards are an important waterfowl species in this region, where an estimated 60–80% of the mallard harvest is composed of locally banded...
Characterizing directivity in small (M 2.4-5) aftershocks of the Ridgecrest sequence
Shanna Chu, Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom, Rachel E. Abercrombie
2025, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (115) 1177-1188
Directivity, or the focusing of energy along the direction of an earthquake rupture, is a common property of earthquakes of all sizes and can cause increased hazard due to azimuthally dependent ground‐motion amplification. For small earthquakes, the effects of directivity are generally less pronounced due to reduced rupture size, yet...
Drought before fire increases tree mortality after fire
C. Alina Cansler, Micah C. Wright, Phillip J. van Mantgem, Timothy M. Shearman, J. Morgan Varner, Sharon M. Hood
2025, Ecosphere (15)
Fire and drought are expected to increase in frequency and severity in temperate forests due to climate change. To evaluate whether drought increases the likelihood of post-fire tree mortality, we used a large database of tree survival and mortality from 32 years of wildland fires covering four dominant western North American...
Global patterns of coseismic landslide runout mobility differ from aseismic landslide trends
Alex R. Grant, Natalie K. Culhane
2025, Engineering Geology (344)
Coseismic landslides significantly contribute to human and economic losses during and immediately following earthquakes, yet very little data on the runout of such landslides exist. While well-established behavior of aseismic (e.g., hydrologically triggered) landslide runout mobility suggests strong correlation between landslide size and mobility, limited studies of coseismic landslide runout...
Invisible hand of sampling for management: Underlying needs to survey a threatened seabird can bias aggregated data
Ryan Baumbusch, Adam Duarte, James Peterson
2025, Journal of Biogeography (52) 699-711
AimSurveying for a species of concern ahead of proposed activities that alter its habitat is routine practice in conservation and management. Such surveys may accumulate large datasets that could further elucidate trends in abundance and distribution. However, the as-needed surveying of proposed activities may impart a sample...
Applying mark-resight, count, and telemetry data to estimate effective sampling area and fish density with stationary underwater cameras
Viviane Zulian, Krishna Pacifici, Nathan M. Bacheler, Jeffrey A. Buckel, William F. Patterson III, Brian J. Reich, Kyle W. Shertzer, Nathan J. Hostetter
2025, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (82) 1-11
Accurate estimates of abundance and density for geographically open populations must account for the effective sampling area (ESA) of sampling gears. We describe a Marked N-Mixture model to estimate ESA and density (number of individuals/unit area) from repeated counts of unmarked and marked individuals, integrating mark-resight, camera counts, and telemetry...
Roles of host and environment in shift of primary anthrax host species in Kruger National Park
Sunday O. Ochai, Lourens Snyman, Amelie C. Dolfi, Abel Ramoelo, Brian K. Reilly, Judith M. Botha, Edgar H. Dekker, O. Louis van Schalkwyk, Pauline L. Kamath, Emma Archer, Wendy Christine Turner, Henriette van Heerden
2025, PLoS ONE (19)
Environmental and climatic factors, as well as host demographics and behaviour, significantly influence the exposure of herbivorous mammalian hosts to pathogens such as Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax. Until the early 1990s in Kruger National Park (KNP), kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) was the host species most affected by anthrax, with...
Bayesian networks facilitate updating of species distribution and habitat suitability models
Adam Duarte, Robert S. Spaan, James Peterson, Christopher Pearl, Michael J. Adams
2025, Ecological Modelling (501)
Managers often rely on predictions of species distributions and habitat suitability to inform conservation and management decisions. Although numerous approaches are available to develop models to make these predictions, few approaches exist to update existing models as new data accumulate. There is a need for updatable models to ensure good...
Sea level rise threatens Florida’s insular vertebrate biodiversity
Erin L. Koen, William J. Barichivich, Elizabeth Braun De Torrez, Susan Walls
2025, Biodiversity and Conservation (34) 513-530
Islands are some of the most biodiverse places on earth, but they are also hotspots of biodiversity loss. The coastline of Florida, U.S.A., is surrounded by thousands of islands, many of which are home to species that occur nowhere else. A rapidly emerging threat to these low-lying islands is inundation...
Hurricane wave energy dissipation and wave-driven currents over a fringing reef
Zoe Zimmerman, Ryan Mulligan, Curt D. Storlazzi
2025, Coral Reefs (44) 291-308
In 2018, two successive tropical cyclones, Hurricane Hector and Hurricane Lane, generated waves that impacted the Hawaiian Islands. This study investigates wave breaking over a broad fringing reef and aims to quantify the magnitudes and length scales of the corresponding wave-driven circulation using detailed field observations and numerical models corresponding...
Assessing the sustainability of Pacific walrus harvest in a changing environment
Devin L. Johnson, Joseph Michael Eisaguirre, Rebecca L. Taylor, Erik M. Andersen, Joel L. Garlich-Miller
2025, Journal of Wildlife Management (89)
Harvest sustainability is a primary goal of wildlife management and conservation, and in a changing world, it is increasingly important to consider environmental drivers of population dynamics alongside harvest in cohesive management plans. This is particularly pertinent for harvested species that acutely experience effects of climate change. The Pacific walrus...
The joint effect of changes in urbanization and climate on trends in floods: A comparison of panel and single-station quantile regression approaches
Thomas M. Over, Mackenzie K. Marti, Jaqueline Ortiz, Hannah Lee Podzorski
2025, Journal of Hydrology (648)
Estimates of annual maximum (peak) flow quantiles are needed for basins undergoing changes in both urbanization and climate. Most previous work on the effect of urbanization on peak flows has considered urbanization alone and only the spatial variation in flood quantiles...
Deterministic, dynamic model forecasts of storm-driven coastal erosion
Jessica Frances Gorski, Joel C. Dietrich, Davina Passeri, Rangley C. Mickey, Rick A. Luettich Jr.
2025, Natural Hazards (121) 6257-6283
The U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts are vulnerable to storms, which can cause significant erosion of beaches and dunes that protect coastal communities. Real-time forecasts of storm-driven erosion are useful for decision support, but they are limited due to demands for computational resources and uncertainties in dynamic coastal...
