Environmental factors predicting the orientation of sea turtle hatchlings on a naturally lighted beach: A baseline for light-management goals
S. Hirama, B. Witherington, K. Kneifl, A. Sylvai, M. Wideroff, Raymond Carthy
2021, Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology (541)
On sea turtle nesting beaches, artificial lighting associated with human development interferes with hatchling orientation from nest to sea. Although hatchling disorientation has been documented for many beaches, data that managers can use in understanding, predicting, and managing the issue are of limited detail. The present study provides baseline hatchling...
Water quality associations and spatiotemporal distribution of the harmful alga Prymnesium parvum in an impounded urban stream system
J. B. Clayton, Reynaldo Patino, R. H. Rashel, S. Tábora-Sarmiento
2021, Journal of Urban Ecology (7)
The Jim Bertram Lake System consists of several stream impoundments within the City of Lubbock, Texas (USA). Baseflow in the upstream reach is dominated by nitrogen-rich-treated wastewater. While toxic blooms of Prymnesium parvum have occurred in this system for ∼2 decades during fall or winter-spring, little is known about water quality variables...
Structure and Qp-Qs relations in the Seattle and Tualatin basins from converted seismic phases
Ian Stone, Erin A. Wirth, Arthur D. Frankel
2021, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (111) 1221-1233
We use converted body‐wave phases from local earthquakes to constrain depth to basement and average attenuation relations for the Seattle basin in Washington and the Tualatin basin in Oregon. P‐, P‐to‐S‐(Ps), S‐to‐P‐(Sp), and S‐wave arrivals are present in three‐component recordings of magnitude 2.5–4.0 earthquakes at seismic stations located in these basins. Based on their...
Long-term monitoring reveals convergent patterns of recovery from mining contamination across 4 western US watersheds
William H. Clements, David B. Herbst, Michelle I. Hornberger, Christopher A. Mebane, Terry M. Short
2021, Freshwater Science (40) 407-426
Long-term studies of stream ecosystems are essential for assessing restoration success because they allow researchers to quantify recovery trajectories, gauge the relative influence of episodic events, and determine the time required to achieve clean-up objectives. To quantify responses of benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages to stream remediation, we integrated...
Adaptive management to improve eagle conservation at terrestrial wind facilities
Leslie New, Juniper L Simonis, Mark C Otto, Emily R. Bjerre, Michael C. Runge, Brian A. Millsap
2021, Conservation Science and Practice (3)
The development and installation of renewable energy comes with environmental cost, including the death of wildlife. These costs occur locally, and seem small compared to the global loss of biodiversity. However, failure to acknowledge uncertainties around these costs affects local conservation, and may lead to the...
Comparisons among three diet analyses demonstrate multiple patterns in the estimated adult diet of a freshwater piscivore, Salvelinus namaycush
Matthew H. Futia, Scott F. Colborne, Aaron T. Fisk, Dimitry Gorsky, Timothy B. Johnson, Brian F. Lantry, Jana Lantry, Jacques Rinchard
2021, Ecological Indicators (127)
Understanding trophic interactions is critical for successful resource management. However, studying diet patterns (e.g., spatial and seasonal changes) can require extensive effort. Using individual analyses to interpret patterns may be further complicated by assumptions and limitations of the analytical approach. We investigated and compared predicted adult lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush)...
Rapid metal pollutant deposition from the volcanic plume of Kīlauea, Hawai’i
E. Ilyinskaya, E. Mason, P.E. Wieser, Lacey Holland, E. J. Liu, T.A. Mather, M. Edmonds, R.C.W. Whitty, Tamar Elias, Patricia A. Nadeau, James Ciszewski, David J. Schneider, Jim McQuaid, Sarah Allen, C. Oppenheimer, Christoph Kern, David Damby
2021, Nature Communications Earth & Environment (2)
Long-lived basaltic volcanic eruptions are a globally important source of environmentally reactive, volatile metal pollutant elements such as selenium, cadmium and lead. The 2018 eruption of Kīlauea, Hawai’i produced exceptionally high discharge of metal pollutants, and was an unprecedented opportunity to track them from vent to...
Volatile metal emissions from volcanic degassing and lava–seawater interactions at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai’i
E. Mason, P.E. Wieser, E. J. Liu, M. Edmonds, E. Ilyinskaya, R.C.W. Whitty, T.A. Mather, Tamar Elias, Patricia A. Nadeau, C. Wilkes, A.J.S. McGonigle, T.D. Pering, F.M. Mims, Christoph Kern, David J. Schneider, C. Oppenheimer
2021, Communications Earth and Environment (2)
Volcanoes represent one of the largest natural sources of metals to the Earth’s surface. Emissions of these metals can have important impacts on the biosphere as pollutants or nutrients. Here we use ground- and drone-based direct measurements to compare the gas and particulate chemistry of the...
U.S. Geological Survey—Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center 2019–20 research activity report
Mark H. Sherfy, editor(s)
2021, Circular 1481
The mission of Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center is to provide scientific information needed to conserve and manage the Nation’s natural capital for current and future generations, with an emphasis on migratory birds, Department of the Interior trust resources, and ecosystems of the Nation’s interior. This report provides an...
Wetland conservation: Challenges related to water law and farm policy
Sammy L. King, M. Laubbhan, P. Tashjian, J. Vradenburg, L. Fredrickson
2021, Wetlands (41) 1-17
Water is essential for wetland function and sustaining migratory networks for wetland wildlife across broad landscapes. Groundwater declines and surface flow reductions that impact aquatic and wetland organisms are common in the western U.S. and increasingly in the eastern U.S. Agriculture is the largest consumptive water user in the U.S....
Biodiversity effects on grape quality depend on variety and management intensity
Magdalena Steiner, James Grace, Sven Bacher
2021, Journal of Applied Ecology (58) 1442-1454
Interactions between plants can be beneficial, detrimental or neutral. In agricultural systems, competition between crop and spontaneous vegetation is a major concern. We evaluated the relative support for three non-exclusive ecological hypotheses about interactions between crop and spontaneous plants based on competition, complementarity or facilitation.The study was conducted in...
Postwildfire soil‐hydraulic recovery and the persistence of debris flow hazards
Matthew A. Thomas, Francis K. Rengers, Jason W. Kean, Luke A. McGuire, Dennis M. Staley, Katherine R. Barnhart, Brian A. Ebel
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface (126)
Deadly and destructive debris flows often follow wildfire, but understanding of changes in the hazard potential with time since fire is poor. We develop a simulation‐based framework to quantify changes in the hydrologic triggering conditions for debris flows as postwildfire infiltration properties evolve through time. Our approach produces time‐varying rainfall...
Late Pleistocene baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) forest deposit on the continental shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico
Kristine L. DeLong, Suyapa Gonzalez, Jeffrey B. Obelcz, Jonathan T. Truong, Samuel J. Bentley Sr., Kehui Xu, Carl A. Reese, Grant L. Harley, Alicia Caporaso, Zhixiong Shen, Beth Middleton
2021, Boreas (50) 871-892
Approximately 13 km south of Gulf Shores, Alabama (United States), divers found in situ baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) stumps 18 m below the ocean surface. These trees could have only lived when sea level fell during the Pleistocene subaerially exposing the tectonically stable continental shelf. Here we investigate the geophysical properties along with microfossil and...
Refining the coarse filter approach: Using habitat-based species models to identify rarity and vulnerabilities in the protection of U.S. biodiversity
Anne Davidson, Leah Dunn, Kevin Gergely, Alexa McKerrow, Steven G. Williams, Mackenzie Case
2021, Global Ecology and Conservation (28)
Preserving biodiversity and its many components is a priority of conservation science and how to efficiently allocate resources to preserve healthy populations of as many species, habitats, and ecosystems as possible. We used the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gap Analysis Project (GAP) species models released in 2018, which identify predicted habitats for...
Lipidomics reveals specific lipid molecules associated with cold stress syndrome in the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris)
Emily K. Griffin, Kaylie Anne Costa, Juan J. Aristizabal-Henao, Michael P. Napolitano, Margaret Hunter, Jason Ferrante, John A. Bowden
2021, Marine Biology (168)
Cold stress syndrome (CSS) in the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) results in perturbations to many physiological pathways, often leading to further illness or death. In this study, we applied a non-targeted lipidomics approach with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography and high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry to characterize changes...
Horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios from California sites: Open-source database and data interpretation to establish site parameters
Pengfei Wang, Paolo Zimmaro, Tatiana Gospe, Sean Kamran Ahdi, Alan Yong, Jonathan P. Stewart
2021, Report, GIRS 2021-06
Frequency-dependent horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios (HVSR) of Fourier amplitudes from three-component recordings can provide information on one or more site resonant frequencies and relative levels of amplification at those frequencies. Such information is potentially useful for predicting site amplification but is not present in site databases that have been developed...
Relating Tmax and hydrogen index to vitrinite and solid bitumen reflectance in hydrous pyrolysis residues: Comparisons to natural thermal indices
Celeste D. Lohr, Paul C. Hackley
2021, International Journal of Coal Geology (242)
Vitrinite reflectance (VRo; %) generally is considered the most reliable technique to determine the thermal maturity of sedimentary rocks. However, it is a time-consuming process to collect reflectance (Ro; %) measurements and is subjective to the interpretation of each trained technician, who must be...
Anthropogenic edge effects in habitat selection by sun bears in a protected area
T. L Tee, Frank T. van Manen, P. Kretzschmar, S. P. Sharp, S. T. Wong, S. Gadas, S. Ratnayeke
2021, Wildlife Biology (2)
Wildlife populations in southeast Asia are increasingly experiencing a broad array of anthropogenic threats, and mammalian carnivores are particularly vulnerable. Populations of the Malayan sun bear Helarctos malayanus are estimated to have declined by 30% over the last 30 years from forest conversion to industrial plantations and...
Understanding sea lamprey populations in the Great Lakes prior to broad implementation of sea lamprey control
Kelly F. Robinson, Scott M. Miehls, Michael J. Siefkes
2021, Journal of Great Lakes Research (47) S328-S334
Control of invasive sea lamprey in the Great Lakes with a selective pesticide (lampricide) that targeted larval sea lamprey began in the late 1950's and continues to be one of the main methods for control. Although the Great Lakes Fishery Commission,...
Effects of prescribed fire timing on vigor of the invasive forb sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata), total forage biomass accumulation, plant-community composition, and native fauna on tallgrass prairie in the Kansas Flint Hills
Jonathan Alexander, Walter H. Fick, Sarah Ogden, David A. Haukos, Jack Lemmon, Garth A. Gatson, K. C. Olson
2021, Translational Animal Science (5)
The predominant grazing-management practice of the Kansas Flint Hills involves annual prescribed burning in March or April with postfire grazing by yearling beef cattle at a high stocking density from April to August. There has been a dramatic increase in sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata [Dumont] G. Don) coincident with this temporally...
Intact landscape promotes gene flow and low genetic structuring in the threatened Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake
Nathan Kudla, Eric M. McCluskey, Vijay Lulla, Ralph Grundel, Jennifer A. Moore
2021, Ecology and Evolution (11) 6276-6288
Genetic structuring of wild populations is dependent on environmental, ecological, and life-history factors. The specific role environmental context plays in genetic structuring is important to conservation practitioners working with rare species across areas with varying degrees of fragmentation. We investigated fine-scale genetic patterns of the federally threatened Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake...
Polar bear foraging behavior
Anthony M. Pagano
2021, Book chapter, Ethology and behavioral ecology of sea otters and polar bears
Polar bears forage in the marine environment, primarily on the sea ice over the shallow waters of the continental shelf. They are solitary, ambush hunters that catch ringed and bearded seals when they surface to breathe in ice holes or haul out on the ice to rest and molt. In...
Sea otter predator avoidance behavior
Daniel Monson
2021, Book chapter, Ethology and behavioral ecology of sea otters and polar bears
Predators directly affect their prey as a source of mortality, and prey respond by employing antipredator strategies. Sea otters are a keystone predator within the nearshore community, but higher trophic level avian, terrestrial, and pelagic predators (e.g., bald eagles, brown bears, wolves, white sharks, and killer whales) prey on them....
2020 National Park Visitor Spending Effects Economic Contributions to Local Communities, States,and the Nation
Catherine Cullinane Thomas, Lynne Koontz
2021, Natural Resource Report NPS/NRSS/EQD/NRR--2021/2259
The National Park Service (NPS) manages the Nation’s most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors from across the Nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports economic activity within park gateway communities. This report summarizes the annual economic contribution analysis that measures how NPS...
Measuring coastal acidification using in situ sensors in the National Estuary Program
Holly Galavotti, James Vasslides, Matthew Poach, Curtis Bohlen, Christopher W. Hunt, Matthew Liebman, Xinping Hu, Melissa McCutcheon, Jim O’Donnell, Kay Howard-Strobel, Prassede Vella, John Lehrter, Karina Nielsen, John Largier, Tom Ford, Alex Steele, Kimberly K. Yates, York Johnson, Cheryl Brown, Stephen R. Pacella
2021, EPA Report EPA-842-R-21001
Estuaries and coastal areas are highly vulnerable to the impacts of acidification on shellfish, coral reefs, fisheries, and the commercial and recreational industries that they support. Yet, little is known about the extent of this vulnerability and the estuary-specific drivers that contribute to acidification, such as nutrient enrichment from stormwater,...
