Pollinator communities vary with vegetation structure and time since management within regenerating timber harvests of the Central Appalachian Mountains
Codey L. Mathis, Darin J. McNeil Jr., Monica R. Lee, Christina M. Grozinger, David I. King, Clint Otto, Jeffery A. Larkin
2021, Forest Ecology and Management (495)
Native pollinator populations across the United States are increasingly threatened by a multitude of ecological stressors. Although the drivers behind pollinator population declines are varied, habitat loss/degradation remains one of the most important threats. Forested landscapes, where the impacts of habitat loss/degradation are minimized, are known to support robust pollinator...
Large California wildfires: 2020 fires in historical context
Jon Keeley, Alexandra D. Syphard
2021, Fire Ecology (17)
BackgroundCalifornia in the year 2020 experienced a record breaking number of large fires. Here, we place this and other recent years in a historical context by examining records of large fire events in the state back to 1860. Since drought is commonly associated with large fire events, we...
Structured decision making and optimal bird monitoring in the northern Gulf of Mexico
Auriel Fournier, R. Randy Wilson, James E. Lyons, Jeffrey S. Gleason, Evan M. Adams, Laurel M. Barnhill, Janell M. Brush, Robert J. Cooper, Stephen J. DeMaso, Melanie J.L. Driscoll, Mitchell J. Eaton, Peter C. Frederick, Michael G. Just, Michael A. Seymour, John M. Tirpak, Mark S. Woodrey
2021, Open-File Report 2020-1122
The avian conservation community struggles to design and implement large scale, long-term coordinated bird monitoring programs within the northern Gulf of Mexico due to the complexity of the conservation enterprise in the region; this complexity arises from the diverse stakeholders, multiple jurisdictions, complex ecological processes, myriad habitats, and over 500...
Validation of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Land Change Monitoring, Assessment and Projection (LCMAP) collection 1.0 annual land cover products 1985–2017
Stephen V. Stehman, Bruce Pengra, Josephine Horton, Danika F. Wellington
2021, Remote Sensing of Environment (265)
The U.S. Geological Survey Land Change Monitoring, Assessment and Projection (USGS LCMAP) has released a suite of annual land cover and land cover change products for the conterminous United States (CONUS). The accuracy of these products was assessed using an independently collected land cover reference sample dataset produced by analysts...
Genetic diversity of immature Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) sea turtles from the northern Gulf of Mexico
Margaret Lamont, Nickolas Moreno, Fatima Y. Camacho-Sanchez, H. Hugo Acosta-Sanchez, Scott Glaberman, Miguel A. Reyes-Lopez, Ylenia Chiari
2021, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (31) 3003-3010
The Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) is the world’s most endangered sea turtle species. Predominately nesting at only one beach in Mexico, this species declined to an estimated 300 females in the mid-1980s. Conservation efforts in the United States and Mexico, including a head start programme in southern Texas in...
Characterization of water use and water balance for the croplands of Kansas using satellite, climate, and irrigation data
Lei Ji, Gabriel B. Senay, MacKenzie Friedrichs, Matthew Schauer, Olena Boiko
2021, Agricultural Water Management (256)
Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural states in the United States, where agricultural irrigation is a primary user of underground and surface water. Because of low precipitation and declining groundwater levels in western and central Kansas, sustainable management of irrigation water resources is a critical issue in the agricultural productivity...
Merging scientific silos: Integrating specialized approaches for thinking about and using spatial data that can provide new directions for persistent fisheries problems
Martha E. Mather, Joseph M. Smith, Kayla M. Boles, Ryland Taylor, Cristina Kennedy, Sean M. Hitchman, Jane S. Rogosch, Holly Frank
2021, Fisheries Magazine (46) 485-494
By merging our specialization silos, fisheries professionals can expand the options that are available to them to address difficult fisheries and aquatic conservation problems, which require an understanding of spatial patterns in geographically large systems. Our purpose is to start a profession-wide conversation about additional ways...
Diet composition of Fishers (Pekania pennanti) reintroduced on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington
Patricia J. Happe, Shelby H. Pace, Laura R. Prugh, Kurt Jenkins, Jeffrey C. Lewis, Joan Hagar
2021, Northwestern Naturalist (102) 97-108
Knowledge of diet composition can inform management strategies and efforts to recover endangered carnivore populations in vacant portions of their historic ranges. One such species, the Fisher (Pekania pennanti), was extirpated in Washington State prior to any formal documentation of its food habits in the coastal coniferous forests of western...
Registration and application of sea lamprey pheromones for sea lamprey control in the United States and Canada
Kim T. Fredricks, Nicholas S. Johnson, Terrance Hubert, Mike Siefkes
2021, Journal of Great Lakes Research (47) S448-S454
Since the identification of 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol as a lampricide in the 1950s, control of sea lamprey populations in the Great Lakes has largely relied on lampricides, barriers, and traps. Lampricide treatments target larval lampreys in tributaries of the Great Lakes. The Great...
A typology of drought decision making: Synthesizing across cases to understand drought preparedness and response actions
Amanda E. Cravens, Jennifer Henderson, Jack Friedman, Nina Burkardt, Ashley E. Cooper, Tonya Haigh, Michael Hayes, Jamie McEvoy, Stephanie Paladino, Adam Wilke, Hailey Wilmer
2021, Weather and Climate Extremes (33)
Drought is an inescapable reality in many regions, including much of the western United States. With climate change, droughts are predicted to intensify and occur more frequently, making the imperative for drought management even greater. Many diverse actors – including private landowners, business...
Establishing conservation units to promote recovery of two threatened freshwater mussel species (Bivalvia: Unionida: Potamilus)
Chase H. Smith, Nathan Johnson, Clinton R. Robertson, Robert D. Doyle, Charles R. Randklev
2021, Ecology and Evolution (11) 11102-11122
Population genomics has significantly increased our ability to make inferences about microevolutionary processes and demographic histories, which have the potential to improve protection and recovery of imperiled species. Freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionida) represent one of the most imperiled groups of organisms globally. Despite systemic decline of...
Land surface temperature differences between natural and artificial turf sports fields as estimated from satellite: Examples from the United States and Europe
Vasco M. Mantas, George Z. Xian
2021, Conference Paper
An increasing number of sports fields around the world are equipped with artificial turf. This solution has been endorsed by numerous sports federations, despite concerns about the potential for injuries and higher surface temperatures. In this work we analyzed land surface temperature in 4 pairs of...
Past abrupt changes, tipping points and cascading impacts in the Earth system
V. Brovkin, Edward J. Brook, J. Williams, S. Bathiany, T. Lenton, M. Barton, R. DeConto, J. Donges, A. Ganopolski, J. McManus, Summer K. Praetorius, A. de Vernal, A. Abe-Ouchi, H. Cheng, M Claussen, M. Crucifix, Virginia Iglesias, Darrell S. Kaufman, T. Kleinen, Fabrice Lambert, Sander van der Leeuw, Hannah Liddy, Marie-France Loutre, David McGee, Kira Rehfeld, Rachael H. Rhodes, Alistair W.R. Seddon, Lilian Vanderveken, Zicheng Yu
2021, Nature Geoscience (14) 550-558
The geological record shows that abrupt changes in the Earth system can occur on timescales short enough to challenge the capacity of human societies to adapt to environmental pressures. In many cases, abrupt changes arise from slow changes in one component of the Earth system that...
Pervasive changes in stream intermittency across the United States
Samuel Zipper, John C. Hammond, Margaret Shanafield, Margaret Zimmer, Thibault Datry, C. Nathan Jones, Kendra E. Kaiser, Sarah E. Godsey, Ryan Burrow, Joanna Blaszczak, Michelle Busch, Adam N. Price, Kate Boersma, Adam Ward, Katie Costigan, George H. Allen, Corey Krabbenhoft, Walter Dodds, Meryl C. Mims, Julian Olden, Stephanie K. Kampf, Amy J. Burgin, Daniel C. Allen
2021, Environmental Research Letters (16)
Non-perennial streams are widespread, critical to ecosystems and society, and the subject of ongoing policy debate. Prior large-scale research on stream intermittency has been based on long-term averages, generally using annually aggregated data to characterize a highly variable process. As a result, it is not well understood...
The influence of subcolony-scale nesting habitat on the reproductive success of Adélie penguins
Annie E. Schmidt, Grant Ballard, Amélie Lescroël, Katie M. Dugger, Dennis Jongsomjit, Megan L. Elrod, David G. Ainley
2021, Scientific Reports (11)
Group-size variation is common in colonially breeding species, including seabirds, whose breeding colonies can vary in size by several orders of magnitude. Seabirds are some of the most threatened marine taxa and understanding the drivers of colony size variation is more important than ever. Reproductive success is an important demographic...
Extent of impact of deep-sea nodule mining midwater plumes is influenced by sediment loading, turbulence and thresholds
Carlos Munoz-Royo, Thomas Peacock, Matthew Alford, Jerome Smith, Arnaud Le Boyer, Chinmay Kulkarni, Pierre Lermusiaux, Patrick Haley, C Mirabito, Dayang Wang, Eric Adams, Raphael Ouillon, Alexander Breugem, Boudewijn Decrop, Thijs Lanckreit, Rohit Supekar, Andrew Rzeznik, Amy Gartman, Se-Jong Ju
2021, Communications Earth & Environment (2)
Deep-sea polymetallic nodule mining research activity has substantially increased in recent years, but the expected level of environmental impact is still being established. One environmental concern is the discharge of a sediment plume into the midwater column. We performed a dedicated field study using sediment from...
Habitat selection by wolves and mountain lions during summer in western Montana
Michael S. Mitchell, Collin J. Peterson, Nicholas J. DeCesare, Chad J. Bishop, Sarah S. Sells
2021, PLoS ONE (16)
In the Northern Rockies of the United States, predators like wolves (Canis lupus) and mountain lions (Puma concolor) have been implicated in fluctuations or declines in populations of game species like elk (Cervus canadensis) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). In particular, local distributions of these predators...
Mycobiome traits associated with disease tolerance predict many western North American bat species will be susceptible to white-nose syndrome
Karen J Vanderwolf, Lewis J. Campbell, Daniel R. Taylor, Tony L. Goldberg, David S. Blehert, Jeffrey M. Lorch
2021, Microbilogy Spectrum (9)
White-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease that has caused catastrophic population declines of bats in eastern North America, is rapidly spreading across the continent and now threatens previously unexposed bat species in western North America. The causal agent of WNS, the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, can...
The influence of floral resources and microclimate on pollinator visitation in an agro-ecosystem
S.G. Prado, Jaime A. Collazo, M.H. Marand, R.E. Irwin
2021, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment (307)
As agriculture expands to meet the needs of a growing global population, natural ecosystems are threatened by deforestation and habitat fragmentation. Tropical agroforestry systems offer a sustainable alternative to traditional agriculture by providing food for production while also supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services. Previous studies have shown that these systems...
Eagles enter rotor-swept zones of wind turbines at rates that vary per turbine
Christopher J.W. McClure, Brian W. Rolek, Melissa A. Braham, Tricia A. Miller, Adam E. Duerr, Jennifer D. McCabe, Leah Dunn, Todd Eli Katzner
2021, Ecology and Evolution (11) 11267-11274
There is increasing pressure on wind energy facilities to manage or mitigate for wildlife collisions. However, little information exists regarding spatial and temporal variation in collision rates, meaning that mitigation is most often a blanket prescription. To address this knowledge gap, we evaluated variation among turbines...
Inter-source interferometry of seismic body waves: Required conditions and examples
P. Saengduean, Morgan P. Moschetti, R. Snieder
2021, Pure and Applied Geophysics (178) 3441-3460
Seismic interferometry is widely applied to retrieve wavefields propagating between receivers. Another version of seismic interferometry, called inter-source interferometry, uses the principles of seismic reciprocity and expands interferometric applications to retrieve waves that propagate between two seismic sources. Previous studies of inter-source interferometry usually involve surface-wave...
Belowground productivity varies by assessment technique, vegetation type, and nutrient availability in tidal freshwater forested wetlands transitioning to marsh
Andrew From, Ken Krauss, Gregory E. Noe, N. Cormier, Camille Stagg, Rebecca Moss, Julie L. Whitbeck
2021, PLoS ONE (16)
Wetlands along upper estuaries are characterized by dynamic transitions between forested and herbaceous communities (marsh) as salinity, hydroperiod, and nutrients change. The importance of belowground net primary productivity (BNPP) associated with fine and coarse root growth also changes but remains the dominant component of overall productivity in these important blue...
Down to Earth with nuclear electromagnetic pulse: Realistic surface impedance affects mapping of the E3 geoelectric hazard
Jeffrey J. Love, Greg M. Lucas, Benjamin Scott Murphy, Paul A. Bedrosian, E. Joshua Rigler, Anna Kelbert
2021, Earth and Space Sciences (8)
An analysis is made of Earth-surface geoelectric fields and voltages on electricity transmission power-grids induced by a late-phase E3 nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP). A hypothetical scenario is considered of an explosion of several hundred kilotons set several hundred kilometers above the eastern-midcontinental United States. Ground-level E3 geoelectric...
A case for multiscale habitat selection studies of small mammals
Brittany R. Schweiger, Jennifer K. Frey, James W. Cain III
2021, Journal of Mammalogy (102) 1249-1265
Habitat information for small mammals typically consists of anecdotal descriptions or infrequent analyses of habitat use, which often are reported erroneously as signifying habitat preference, requirements, or quality. Habitat preferences can be determined only by analysis of habitat selection, a behavioral process that results in the disproportionate use of...
Toward climate change refugia conservation at an ecoregion scale
Cathleen Balantic, Andrea Adams, Shana Gross, Rachel Mazur, Sarah Sawyer, Jody Tucker, Marian Vernon, Claudia Mengelt, Jennifer Morales, James Thorne, Timothy Brown, Nicole Athearn, Toni Lyn Morelli
2021, Conservation Science and Practice (3)
Climate change uncertainty poses serious challenges to conservation efforts. One emerging conservation strategy is to identify and conserve climate change refugia: areas relatively buffered from contemporary climate change that enable persistence of valued resources. This management paradigm may be pursued at broad scales by leveraging existing resources and placing them...
