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Invasive species can dramatically alter ecosystems, but eradication is difficult, and suppression is expensive once they are established. Uncertainties in the potential for expansion and impacts by an invader can lead to delayed and inadequate suppression, allowing for establishment. Metapopulation viability models can aid in planning...

Humans have exaggerated natural habitat fragmentation, negatively impacting species dispersal and reducing population connectivity. Habitat fragmentation can be especially detrimental in freshwater populations, whose dispersal is already constrained by the river network structure. Aquatic insects, for instance, are generally limited to two primary modes...

Substantial work has been conducted to estimate the river length required for recruitment of invasive Grass Carp Ctenopharyngodon idella and bigheaded carps (Bighead Carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis and Silver Carp H. molitrix); however, the distance upstream and size of stream required for spawning remain...

Non-physical barriers, such as bubble screens (or curtains), are promising low-impact strategies to deter the spread of Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) in streams. Bubble screens have been successfully implemented to redirect and/or deter adult fish and to capture plastics in some rivers, but their efficacy on invasive fish at multiple...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the city of Harrisonville, Missouri, assessed flooding of Muddy Creek resulting from varying precipitation magnitudes and durations, antecedent runoff conditions, and channel modifications (cleaned culverts and added detention storage). The precipitation scenarios were used to develop a library of flood-inundation maps that included...

A cascading set of hazards to coastal environments is intimately tied to sediment transport and includes the flooding and erosion of shorelines and habitats that support communities, industry, infrastructure, and ecosystem functions (for example, habitats critical to fisheries). This report summarizes modeling and measurement data used to evaluate...

Transgression and regression of water levels (stages) have impacted the evolution of aeolian landforms and sedimentary deposits throughout geologic history. We studied this phenomenon over a five-day period of reduced flow on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, AZ, USA, in March 2021. These transient low flows exposed...

The St. Croix National Scenic Riverway (SACN) has been the site of propagation and restoration efforts for two federally endangered unionid mussels: Higgins’ Eye, Lampsilis higginsii and Winged Mapleleaf (WML), Quadrula fragosa. Since about 2000, government agencies have collaboratively developed techniques to successfully propagate Higgins’ Eye and reintroduce the captive-reared...

Understanding habitat use and nursery areas of larval fish is a key component to managing and conserving riverine fishes. Yet, freshwater researchers often focus only on adult fishes, resulting in a limited understanding of the habitat requirements for the early life stages of freshwater fishes. The goal of this study...

The daily nest-survival rates of Red-billed Tropicbirds (Phaethon aethereus) were estimated over six breeding seasons on St. Eustatius in the Caribbean. We analyzed 338 nesting attempts between 2013 and 2020. The daily survival rate (DSR) of tropicbird nests was modeled as a function of...

Evaluation of intramolecular isotope distributions within organic compounds can provide important insights into gas formation processes and structural properties of gas-generating precursors, such as kerogen, bitumen, and oil, in natural reservoirs. Until recently, little has been known about the intramolecular isotope...

Early life stages of pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus are rarely collected, and thus information on their biology and ecology is extremely limited. We sampled 75 larval pallid sturgeon (25-110 mm) and 148 larval shovelnose sturgeon S. platorynchus (15-95 mm) by trawl from the upper Missouri River (USA) in 2019. Stomach contents were identified...

In this report, we apply the stream salmonid simulator (S3) to coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) in the Klamath River Basin by extending the original model to account for life history and disease dynamics specific to coho salmon. This version of S3 includes tracking of three separate life-history strategies representing...

Digital water-surface profile maps for a 14-mile reach of the Mississippi River near Prairie Island, Minnesota, from the confluence of the St. Croix River at Prescott, Wisconsin, to upstream from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lock and Dam No. 3 (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers National Inventory of Dams...

Large dams and their removal can profoundly affect riparian ecosystems by altering flow and sediment regimes, hydrochory, and landform dynamics, yet few studies have documented these effects on downstream plant communities. Ecological theory and empirical results suggest that by altering disturbance regimes, reducing hydrochory, and shifting communities to later successional...

Relations between stage (water level) and discharge of streamflow through a natural channel are the result of time-varying processes, which are commonly described by time-varying stage-discharge ratings. Hydrographers with the U.S. Geological Survey successfully maintain the accuracy of streamflow data by manually applying time-tested approaches to adapt ratings to temporal...

Sandbars are an important resource in the Colorado River corridor in Marble and Grand Canyons, Arizona, downstream from Glen Canyon Dam. Sandbars provide aquatic and riparian habitat and are used as campsites by river runners and hikers. The study area is the Colorado River between Glen Canyon Dam and Diamond...

Managers charged with recovering endangered species in regulated river segments often have limited flexibility to alter flow regimes and want estimates of the expected population benefits associated with both flow and nonflow management actions. Disentangling impacts on different life stages from concurrently applied actions is essential for determining the effectiveness...

Little is known about water movement, volume, or residence time (RT), and how those characteristics affect sediment trapping efficiency (TE) and dissolved oxygen concentrations (DO) in the United States' largest remaining bottomland hardwood swamp, the Atchafalaya River Basin. To better understand these dynamics, this study used bathymetry, lidar, and stage...

Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was applied to a geochemical dataset representing the Eocene Green River Formation in the Piceance Basin of Colorado to identify chemofacies in core and outcrop samples from the basin margin and the basin center. The input dataset consisted of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy and...

We released nearly 1.0 million 1-day post-hatch (dph) and 5-dph pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) free embryos in the Missouri River on 1 July 2019 and sequentially captured survivors at multiple sites through a 240-km river reach to quantify daily growth and survival rates during the early life stages. Genetic analysis...

Widespread stream network fragmentation from dams and culverts has altered habitat connectivity in river ecosystems and presents an acute threat to migratory fish. To support watershed management for an iconic migratory fish group, we assessed juvenile salmon growth outcomes across habitat use strategies and characterized how these life histories may...

Current south Florida ecosystem restoration efforts are focused on restoring more natural freshwater flow through the wetlands and into the estuaries to reestablish natural salinity gradients, particularly in the nearshore zones. Indicator taxa are used to monitor and assess restoration progress and the current...

Satellite and GPS tracking technology continues to reveal new migration patterns of birds which enables comparative studies of migration strategies and distributional information useful in conservation. Bar-tailed godwits in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway Limosa lapponica baueri and L. l. menzbieri are known for their long non-stop flights, however these populations are in steep decline....

Ratings are used for a variety of reasons in water-resources investigations. The simplest rating relates discharge to the stage of the river. From a pure hydrodynamics perspective, all rivers and streams have some form of hysteresis in the relation between stage and discharge because of unsteady flow as a flood...