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Background: Numerous studies have shown that bacteria form stable associations with host corals and have focused on identifying conserved “core microbiomes” of bacterial associates inferred to be serving key roles in the coral holobiont. Because studies tend to focus on only stony corals (order Scleractinia) or soft corals (order Alcyonacea),...

Shortly before the beginning of the winter rainy season, one of the largest fires in California history (Thomas Fire) substantially increased the susceptibility of steep slopes in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties to debris flows. On January 9, 2018, before the fire was fully contained, an intense burst of rain...

Over the last half century, climate change, coral disease, and other anthropogenic disturbances have restructured coral-reef ecosystems on a global scale. The disproportionate loss of once-dominant, reef-building taxa has facilitated relative increases in the abundance of “weedy” or stress-tolerant coral species. Although the recent transformation of coral-reef assemblages is unprecedented...

Coastal development and climate change are dramatically increasing the risks of flooding, erosion, and extreme weather events. Coral reefs and other coastal ecosystems act as natural defenses against coastal hazards, but their degradation increases risk to people and property. Environmental degradation, however, has rarely been quantified as a driver of...

Numerous papers have highlighted the need to integrate amphibian research and conservation across multiple scales. Despite this, most amphibian movement studies focus on a single level of organization (e.g., local population) and a single life stage (e.g., adults) and many suggest potential conservation actions or imply that the information is...

Miocene calc-alkaline volcanic rocks, part of the southern segment of the ancestral Cascades magmatic arc, are spatially, temporally, and likely genetically associated with precious metal epithermal deposits in the Tonopah, Divide, and Goldfield Districts of west-central Nevada. In the Tonopah mining district, volcanic rocks include the Mizpah Trachyte, Fraction Tuff,...

For decades, botanists have recognized that rare plants are clustered into ecological “islands”: small and isolated habitat patches produced by landscape features such as sinkholes and bedrock outcrops. Insular ecosystems often provide unusually stressful microhabitats for plant growth (eg because of thin soils, high temperatures, extreme pH, or limited nutrients)...

Forage availability and predation risk interact to affect habitat use of ungulates across many biomes. Within sky‐island habitats of the Mojave Desert, increased availability of diverse forage and cover may provide ungulates with unique opportunities to extend nutrient uptake and/or to mitigate predation risk. We addressed whether habitat use and...

In the past decades, many different approaches have been developed in the literature to quantify the load-carrying capacity and geotechnical stability (or the Factor of Safety, F_s) of variably saturated hillslopes. Much of this work has focused on a deterministic characterization of hillslope stability. Yet, simulated F_s values are subject...

1. Resource selection is widely appreciated to be context‐dependent and shaped by both biological and abiotic factors. However, few studies have empirically assessed the extent to which selective foraging behaviour is dynamic and varies in response to environmental conditions for free‐ranging animal populations. 2. Here, we assessed the extent that forage...

The coccidium Goussia bayae infects the gallbladder and bile ducts of white perch Morone americana from Chesapeake Bay, USA. Seasonal changes in coccidian infections were analyzed from bile specimens of 1588 fish from the Choptank River during 2016-2018 using wet mount preparations with a Sedgwick-Rafter counting chamber. Histopathology of the gallbladder and liver...

For many people, a visit to a cave is a wondrous event directing our minds to ponder the mysteries presented by these unique places and inspiring questions: How old is the cave? What was the role of water in forming the cave and where did the water come from? How is the...

Anthropogenic activities are changing landscapes and the context in which predator–prey dynamics evolved, thereby altering key ecological processes and community structure. Yet, the specific mechanisms underlying such changes are rarely understood. We tested whether a mesopredator release explained increased rodent density and concomitant predation of songbird...

Because natural ecosystems are complex, it is difficult to predict how their variability scales across space and levels of organization. The species‐insurance hypothesis predicts that asynchronous dynamics among species should reduce variability when biomass is aggregated either from local species populations to local multispecies communities, or from metapopulations to metacommunities....

Human activity has altered 33–50% of Earth's surface, including temperate grasslands and sagebrush rangelands, resulting in a loss of biodiversity. By promoting habitat for sensitive or wide‐ranging species, less exigent species may be protected in an umbrella effect. The greater sage‐grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage‐grouse) has been proposed as an umbrella...

Tecate cypress (Hesperocyparis forbesii) is a rare species restricted to four metapopulations in southern California, USA and a few isolated stands in northern Baja California, Mexico. It is a closed-cone, fire-dependent tree of conservation concern due to an increase in human-caused wildfires that have shortened the interval between fires in...

Restoration of tropical forests can lead to enhanced ecosystem services and increases in native biodiversity. Bryophytes may be an integral part of the forest restoration process and can serve a critical role in forest functioning. However, the recovery of bryophytes and their ability to facilitate woody plant establishment during restoration...

The U.S. Geological Survey monitors water level (water surface elevation relative to an arbitrary datum) and measures streamflow in Alaska rivers to compute and compile river flow records for use by water resource planners, engineers, and land managers to design infrastructure, manage floodplains, and protect life, property, and aquatic resources....

In the presence of a predator, prey may alter their temporal activity patterns to reduce the risk of an encounter that may induce injury or death. Prey perception of predation risk and antipredator responses may increase in the presence of dependent offspring. We conducted a camera trap study during summer...

The Gulf of Mexico is home to a large proportion of the wintering population of the threatened piping plover (Charadrius melodus), but little is known about the bird's ecology in this region. In Louisiana, the majority of nonbreeding piping plovers are found on the state's rapidly eroding barrier islands. Between...

Multiple-use public lands require balancing diverse resource uses and values across landscapes. In the California desert, there is strong interest in renewable energy development and important conservation concerns. The Bureau of Land Management recently completed a land-use plan for the area that provides protection for modeled suitable habitat for multiple...

Identification of habitats responsible for the successful production and recruitment of rare migratory species is a challenge in conservation biology. Here, a tool was developed to assess life stage linkages for the threatened potamodromous cyprinid Clear Lake hitch Lavinia exilicauda chi. Clear Lake hitch undertake migrations from Clear Lake...

Transportation industries can negatively impact wildlife populations, including through increased risk of mortality. To mitigate this risk successfully, managers and conservationists must estimate risk across space, time, and alternative management policies. Evaluating this risk at fine spatial and temporal scales can be challenging, especially in systems where wildlife–vehicle collisions are...

Because of their unique special chemical properties, many of the metals in the group of rare earth elements (REEs) have essential applications in 21st century technologies. Examples of products that use REEs are cell phones, computers, fluorescent and light-emitting-diode lights, flat-screen television and computer monitors, and in high-strength magnets used...

Nonearthquake seismic events from sources such as landslides, debris flows, dam collapses, floods, glaciers, and avalanches are rarely included in traditional earthquake catalogs. The new Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Management Center Exotic Seismic Events Catalog data product provides information on such events to help accelerate research...