Genetic structure of restored Brook Trout populations in the Southern Appalachian Mountains indicates successful reintroductions
Rebecca J. Smith, David C. Kazyak, Matt A. Kulp, Barbara A. Lubinski, Benjamin M. Fitzpatrick
2024, Conservation Genetics (25) 1007-1020
Wildlife reintroduction is an important conservation tool for threatened species, yet identifying appropriate source populations poses a challenge. In particular, the possibility of outbreeding depression is cited as a constraint limiting the range of candidate source populations for translocation. When multiple source lineages are mixed during reintroduction, genetic monitoring is...
Environmental DNA dynamics of three species of unionid freshwater mussels
Dannise Ruiz-Ramos, Nathan Thompson, Catherine A. Richter, Megan C. Voshage, Theresa M. Schreier, Christopher M. Merkes, Katy E. Klymus
2024, Environmental DNA (6)
North American freshwater mussels are of special conservation concern due to their high endemism and the multiple anthropogenic stressors affecting them. Of the over 300 species in North America, nearly one third of these species are federally listed as threatened or endangered. Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis has been successful in...
Characteristics of debris-flow-prone watersheds and debris-flow-triggering rainstorms following the Tadpole Fire, New Mexico, USA
Luke A. McGuire, Francis K. Rengers, Ann Youberg, Alexander Gorr, Olivia J. Hoch, Rebecca Beers, Ryan Porter
2024, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (24) 1357-1379
Moderate- or high-severity fires promote increases in runoff and erosion, leading to a greater likelihood of extreme geomorphic responses, including debris flows. In the first several years following fire, the majority of debris flows initiate when runoff rapidly entrains sediment on steep slopes. From...
Carotenoid skin ornaments as flexible indicators of male foraging behavior in a marine predator: Variation among Mexican colonies of brown booby (Sula leucogaster)
Nathan P. Michael, Roxana Torres, Andreanna J. Welch, Jonathan J. Felis, Mario Erandi Bonillas-Monge, Josh Adams, Samantha Hodgson, Laura Lopez-Marques, Alejadro Martínez-Flores, Gala Enidh Castro-Mejias, Anne E. Wiley
2024, Marine Biology (171)
Carotenoid-dependent ornaments can reflect animals’ diet and foraging behaviors. However, this association should be spatially flexible and variable among populations to account for geographic variation in optimal foraging behaviors. We tested this hypothesis using populations of a marine predator (the brown booby, Sula leucogaster) that forage across...
Eggshell membrane thickness and its contribution to total eggshell thickness for 13 waterbird species
Gary M. Santolo, Sarah H. Peterson, Breanne Cooney, C. Alex Hartman, Mark P. Herzog, Joshua T. Ackerman
2024, The Wilson Journal of Ornithology (136) 62-76
Eggshell thickness can be an indicator of environmental pollution in wild birds and shell quality in wild and domestic birds, but it is difficult to measure calcite eggshell thickness due to the presence of the adherent outer eggshell membrane. Eggshells of 13 waterbird species were divided in half...
Wetland creation and reforestation of legacy surface mines in the Central Appalachian Region (USA): A potential climate-adaptation approach for pond-breeding amphibians?
Lauren Sherman, Christopher D. Barton, Jacquelyn C. Guzy, Rebecca N. Davenport, John J. Cox, Jeffery L. Larkin, Todd Fearer, Jillian C. Newman, Steven J. Price
2024, Water (16)
Habitat restoration and creation within human-altered landscapes can buffer the impacts of climate change on wildlife. The Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) is a coal surface mine reclamation practice that enhances reforestation through soil decompaction and the planting of native trees. Recently, wetland creation has been coupled with FRA to...
Reproduction of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) in the Maumee River, Ohio: Part 2—Optimal river conditions for egg and larval drift
Jessica Z. LeRoy, Henry F. Doyle, P. Ryan Jackson, Charles V. Cigrand
2024, Journal of Great Lakes Research (50)
This study uses a one-dimensional steady-state hydraulic model and the Fluvial Egg Drift Simulator (FluEgg) to model the drift and dispersion of grass carp eggs and larvae in the Maumee River, Ohio, for 180 scenarios representing different combinations of 10 river flows, 6 water temperatures, and 3 spawning locations. The...
Calculation of a suspended-sediment concentration-turbidity regression model and flood-ebb suspended-sediment concentration differentials from marshes near Stone Harbor and Thompsons Beach, New Jersey, 2018–19 and 2022–23
Olivia A. De Meo, Robert D. Bales, Neil K. Ganju, Eric D. Marsjanik, Steven E. Suttles
2024, Data Report 1193
The U.S. Geological Survey collected water velocity and water quality data from salt marshes in Great Channel, southwest of Stone Harbor, New Jersey, and near Thompsons Beach, New Jersey, to evaluate restoration effectiveness after Hurricane Sandy and monitor postrestoration marsh health. Time series data of turbidity and water velocity were...
First documentation of grass carp spawning in Lake Erie’s Central Basin
Corbin David Hilling, Adam J. Landry, James Roberts, Nathan Thompson, Cathy A. Richter, Ryan E. Brown, Christine M. Mayer, Song S. Qian
2024, Journal of Great Lakes Research (50)
Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) are non-indigenous to North America having been translocated to the United States in the 1960s as a potential non-chemical solution for nuisance aquatic vegetation. Reproductively viable grass carp now exist in many watersheds in the United States. In the Great Lakes basin, grass carp were first...
Groundwater sustainability and land subsidence in California’s Central Valley
Claudia C. Faunt, Jonathan A. Traum, Scott E. Boyce, Whitney A. Seymour, Elizabeth Rae Jachens, Justin T. Brandt, Michelle Sneed, Sandra Bond, Marina Marcelli
2024, Water (16)
The Central Valley of California is one of the most prolific agricultural regions in the world. Agriculture is reliant on the conjunctive use of surface-water and groundwater. The lack of available surface-water and land-use changes have led to pumping-induced groundwater-level and storage declines, land subsidence, changes to streamflow and...
The influence of channel morphology and hydraulic complexity on larval pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) drift and dispersal dynamics in the Fort Peck Segment, Upper Missouri River: Insights from particle tracking simulations
Bruce Call, Richard R. McDonald, Susannah Erwin, R. B. Jacobson
2024, Journal of Ecohydraulics
Longitudinal dispersal of migratory fish species can be interrupted by factors that fragment rivers, such as dams and reservoirs with incompatible habitats, and indirect alterations to variables, such as water temperature or turbidity. The endangered pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) population in the Upper Missouri River Basin in North...
Limiting downstream dispersal of invasive carp egg surrogates using a laboratory-scale oblique bubble screen
Vindhyawasani Prasad, C. D. Suski, P. Ryan Jackson, Amy E. George, Duane Chapman, Jesse Robert Fischer, Rafael O. Tinoco
2024, Journal of Ecohydraulics (9) 288-307
We conceptualize and test a non-intrusive barrier, comprised of an oblique bubble screen (OBS) oriented at an angle to the mean flow, to prevent the downstream dispersal of invasive carp egg surrogates. Three surrogates of different densities and diameters were tested. Secondary flows created by the OBS were...
Habitat use of anadromous and amphidromous sturgeons in North America: A systematic review
Erin K. Gilligan-Lunda, Adam Duarte, James T. Peterson
2024, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (81) 508-524
Sturgeons are among the most endangered fishes in the world. Identifying habitat use characteristics to inform restoration projects is crucial for recovery. However, small sample sizes, inadequate replication of studies, and limited spatial extents complicate our ability to effectively apply the findings of single studies to endangered species conservation across...
Evaluation of streamflow predictions from LSTM models in water- and energy-limited regions in the United States
Kul Bikram Khand, Gabriel B. Senay
2024, Machine Learning with Applications (16)
The application of Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models for streamflow predictions has been an area of rapid development, supported by advancements in computing technology, increasing availability of spatiotemporal data, and availability of historical data that allows for training data-driven LSTM models....
Prey supply and predation as potential limitations to feasibility of anadromous salmonid introductions in a reservoir
Rachelle Carina Johnson, Benjamin Lorenz Jensen, Tessa Julianne Code, Jeffrey J. Duda, David Beauchamp
2024, Water (16)
Introducing anadromous fish upstream of migration barriers has frequently been proposed as a conservation strategy, but existing conditions and future changes to the ecosystems above barriers such as invasive species, climate change, and varying water operations influence the capacity to support such introductions. In the Upper Skagit River, Washington,...
Neonicotinoids made easy
Shipra Shukla, Elias Tejeda
2024, Fact Sheet 2024-3014
No abstract...
Evaluating seawater intrusion forecast uncertainty under climate change in the Pajaro Valley, California
Marisa M. Earll, Wesley R. Henson, Brian Lockwood, Scott E. Boyce
2024, Journal of Hydrology (636)
Climate change and climate variability impacts such as rising sea levels have the potential to exacerbate seawater intrusion and the strain on coastal freshwater resources in already stressed groundwater basins such as those in the Pajaro Valley groundwater basin, California. Regional hydrologic models are often coupled with climate projections to...
Updates to the Flow Photo Explorer tool
Jennifer H. Fair, Benjamin Letcher, Phillip J. Goodling
2024, Newsletter
No abstract available....
Reproduction of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) in the Maumee River, Ohio: Part 1—Spawning area identification using bidirectional drift modeling
P. Ryan Jackson, Charles V. Cigrand, Patrick M. Kocovsky, Nicole R. King, Alan Kasprak, Evan M. Lindroth, Henry F. Doyle, Song S. Qian, Christine M. Mayer
2024, Journal of Great Lakes Research (50)
Control of invasive grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) populations in the Western Lake Erie Basin merits adaptive management guided by the best available science. Presently (2024), capture of mature grass carp in rivers during spawning season is most efficient, so knowing when and where grass carp are spawning is essential information...
Network connectivity contributes to native small-bodied fish assemblages in the upper Mississippi River system
Shaley A Valentine, Kristen L. Bouska, Gregory W. Whitledge
2024, Journal of Freshwater Biology (69) 859-878
Effective management and conservation of fishes requires understanding habitat use across multiple life stages while ensuring necessary habitats are both available and accessible. Tributary habitats may play an important role in recruitment and dispersal of fishes in anthropogenically modified rivers such as the...
Key breeding habitats of threatened golden eagles across Eastern Canada identified using a multi-level, multi-scale habitat selection approach
Laurie D Maynard, Jerome Lemaitre, Jean-Francois Therrien, Tricia A. Miller, Todd E. Katzner, Scott G. Somershoe, Cooper. Jeff, Robert Sargent, Nicolas Lecomte
2024, Landscape Ecology (39)
ContextIn a conservation context, identifying key habitats suitable for reproduction, foraging, or survival is a useful tool, yet challenging for species with large geographic distributions and/or living in remote regions.ObjectivesThe objective of this study is to identify selected habitats at multiple levels...
The influence of time, tide, and place on fine scale nekton distribution: Insights from the San Francisco Estuary
Matthew J. Young, Frederick V. Feyrer, Jason L. Hassrick, Shawn Acuna, David E. Ayers, John M. Donovan, Lenny Grimaldo
2024, Estuaries and Coasts (47) 1101-1118
The location of estuarine organisms varies based on geophysical cycles and environmental conditions, which can strongly bias understanding of organism abundance and distribution. In the San Francisco Estuary, California, extensive monitoring surveys have provided insight into the life history and ecology of certain commercially important or...
Nutrient chemistry in the Elizabeth Lake subwatershed—Effects of onsite wastewater treatment systems on groundwater and lake water quality, Los Angeles County, California
Adelia M McGregor, Joseph L. Domagalski, Krishangi D. Groover, Angela M. Hansen, Anthony A. Brown
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5012
Nutrient (nitrogen [N] and phosphorus [P] chemistry) downgradient from onsite wastewater treatment system (OWTS) was evaluated with a groundwater study in the area surrounding Elizabeth Lake, the largest of three sag lakes within the Santa Clara River watershed of Los Angeles County, California.Elizabeth Lake is listed on the “303 (d)...
A prioritization plan for coastal wetland restoration on Molokaʻi
Judith Z. Drexler
2024, Report
No abstract available....
Hydrologic study of green infrastructure in poorly drained urbanized soils at RecoveryPark, Detroit, Michigan, 2014–21
Ralph J. Haefner, Christopher J. Hoard, William Shuster
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5018
Uncontrolled stormwater runoff volume is a legacy stressor on sewer-system capacity that is further compromised by the effects of aging infrastructure. Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) has been used in a variety of designs and configurations (for example, bioretention) with the goal of increasing evapotranspiration and infiltration in the local water...
