Genetic structure of an expanding population of Humpback Chub in Grand Canyon
Maria C. Dzul, Robert Massatti, Charles B. Yackulic, Emily Omana-Smith, Kirk Young
2025, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (45) 929-940
ObjectiveHumpback Chub (HBC) Gila cypha in Grand Canyon declined in abundance and distribution over the latter part of the 20th century but have substantially increased in abundance and distribution over the past two decades. Although previous genetic work suggested that HBC in Grand Canyon belong to one genetic...
Occurrence and tissue distribution of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in fishes from waterbodies with point and non-point sources in Massachusetts, USA
Heather L. Walsh, Vicki S. Blazer, Emma Lord, Stephen T. Hurley, Denis R. LeBlanc
2025, Aquatic Toxicology (287)
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent environmental contaminants with known bioaccumulative and toxic effects in aquatic ecosystems. This study assessed site-specific differences in PFAS contamination in fish from Ashumet Pond, Sudbury River, and Great Herring Pond (reference site) in Massachusetts. Fish from Ashumet Pond exhibited the highest PFAS concentrations,...
Hydrologic variability and groundwater age of springs in eastern Oregon and northern Nevada, USA
Henry M. Johnson
2025, Journal of Hydrology (662)
The ecological importance of springs in semiarid regions is far greater than their small size and sparse distribution, yet little is known about the hydrologic functioning of these systems. During 2016–22, 261 springs were visited in the volcanic terrane of eastern Oregon and northern Nevada. When conditions were suitable, measurements...
Hydrogeologic framework and conceptual model of the Red River alluvial aquifer east of Lake Texoma, southeastern Oklahoma, 1980–2022
Chloe Codner, Nicole C. Gammill, Isaac A. Dale, Amy S. Morris, Ethan A. Kirby, Grant M. Graves, Evin J. Fetkovich, Derrick L. Wagner, Jon E. Sanford, Colin A. Baciocco
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5054
The 1973 Oklahoma Groundwater Law (Oklahoma Statutes §82-1020.5) requires that the Oklahoma Water Resources Board conduct hydrologic investigations of the State’s groundwater basins to support a determination of the maximum annual yield for each groundwater basin. At present (2025), the Oklahoma Water Resources Board has not established a maximum annual...
Spatiotemporal risk avoidance varies seasonally, relative to risk intensity, in a reestablishing predator–prey system
Cara J. Thompson, Nicole M. Tatman, Zachary J. Farley, Scott T. Boyle, Allison R. Greenleaf, James W. Cain III
2025, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (13)
Predation establishes risk, which can indirectly influence prey behavior and ecology. We evaluated the influence of Mexican gray wolves (Canis lupus baileyi) on habitat selection and spatiotemporal predator avoidance strategies of elk (Cervus canadensis). We fit 866 adult female elk with GPS collars across areas of varying wolf densities within...
Using community-reported data to understand how boat speed affects marine wildlife: An example with the Florida manatee
Bea Combs-Hintze, J. A. Hostetler, C.S. Calleson, B. Basset, C. Ainsworth, Julien Martin
2025, Ecological Solutions and Evidence (6)
Boat collisions are a known and increasing threat to many marine wildlife populations. The Florida manatee Trichechus manatus latirostris is a key example of a species with high boat-related mortality, whose long-term viability and population are limited by human activities in shared habitats. The goal of this work was to quantify...
Observability of eastern massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus) during visual encounter surveys in Michigan, USA
Jillian Rajewski, Steven Michael Gray, Jeffrey Grabarkiewicz, Henry Campa III, Gary J. Roloff
2025, Wildlife Society Bulletin (49)
Visual encounter surveys are commonly used to document site occupancy for the eastern massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus; EMR). Efficacy of surveys depends on visual and auditory cues, with basking behavior and burrow use strongly affecting detection. Our goal was to predict body exposure and probability of burrow use from telemetered EMR...
Ten more years of the golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus) on Maui, Hawaiian Islands
Thane K Pratt, Christopher C Warren, Erika K Kekiwi, Kerri Fay, Richard J. Camp
2025, Pacific Science (78) 355-371
Since the introduction of the Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus) to Haleakalā volcano, Maui, three decades ago, subsequent reports have hinted at an expansion of this nascent population. We draw from a variety of data sources to learn about this pheasant's present status on Maui. First, forest bird surveys conducted every...
Contaminated stormwater sediment source tracking for polychlorinated biphenyls in an urban watershed of the Chesapeake Bay, United States
Ellie P. Foss, Zachary J. Clifton, Emily H. Majcher, Trevor P. Needham, Andrew W. Psoras
2025, Journal of Contaminant Hydrology (274)
Fine-grained sediment in stormwater acts as a vector for persistent organic pollutants, like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), through mobilization from sources within drainage areas of impacted urban watersheds. This study implemented a novel approach to identify the relative contributions of various landscape and stream sources of sediment from the Back River watershed in...
Differential habitat use of wintering Whooping Cranes throughout the range of the Eastern Migratory Population
Hillary L. Thompson, Anne E Lacy, Robert F Baldwin, Patrick G.R. Jodice
2025, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 16th North American Crane Workshop
In 2001, a reintroduced population of whooping cranes (Grus americana), the Eastern Migratory Population (EMP), was established in the eastern United States. There has been no assessment of habitat use of the EMP across the current winter distribution. During 2 winters, we used radio-telemetry to track groups of cranes each...
Over, under, and through: Hydrologic connectivity and the future of coastal landscape salinization
Ashley Helton, James Dennedy-Frank, Ryan Emanuel, Scott C Neubauer, Kyra Adams, Marcelo Ardon, Lawrence Band, Kevin A. Befus, Hanne Borstlap, Jamie Duberstein, Adam Gold, Kominoski John, Alex Manda, Holly A. Michael, Stephen Moysey, Allison Myers-Pigg, Justine Annaliese Neville, Gregory E. Noe, Jeeban Panthi, Elnaz Pezeshki, Matthew Sirianni, Ward.Nicolas
2025, Water Resources Research (61)
Seawater intrusion (SWI) affects coastal landscapes worldwide. Here we describe the hydrologic pathways through which SWI occurs - over land via storm surge or tidal flooding, under land via groundwater transport, and through watersheds via natural and artificial surface water channels—and how human modifications to those pathways alter patterns of...
A wavier polar jet stream contributed to the mid-20th century winter warming hole in the United States
Jacob I. Chalif, Erich C. Osterberg, Trevor Fuess Partridge
2025, AGU Advances (6)
Winter waves in the polar jet stream are associated with extreme cold outbreaks and can modulate longer-term winter temperature trends in the mid-latitudes. Recent research has highlighted a positive trend in jet stream waviness from 1990 to 2010, with a hypothesized connection to Arctic amplification of anthropogenic warming. However, an...
A northeast-dipping zone of low frequency earthquakes at the southern edge of Cascadia subduction
David R. Shelly, Dara Elyse Goldberg, Aaron Wech, Amanda Thomas
2025, Geophysical Research Letters (52)
Tectonic tremor monitoring occasionally detects events in an anomalous zone in southern Cascadia, 50–100 km west of the main tremor band, near the expected southern edge of the subducting Gorda slab at the Mendocino triple junction. To investigate the geometry and temporal behavior of this tremor, we examine its constituent low-frequency...
Estimated hydrogeologic, spatial, and temporal distribution of self-supplied domestic groundwater withdrawals for aquifers of the Virginia Coastal Plain
Matthew R. Kearns, Jason P. Pope
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5051
Water use from private-domestic wells accounts for nearly 40 percent of total groundwater withdrawals in the Virginia Coastal Plain Physiographic Province (henceforth called the Virginia Coastal Plain). However, because self-supplied domestic water use generally falls below the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) reporting and management threshold of 300,000 gallons...
The stratigraphic record of the mid-Piacenzian warm period on the Atlantic Coastal Plain
Harry J. Dowsett, Whittney Spivey
2025, Stratigraphy (22) 81-97
Anthropogenic climate change is an existential threat to our planet, impacting everything from the delicate balance of ecosystems to the availability of vital resources. Coastal regions, particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to rising sea levels and changing weather patterns, are experiencing increased erosion, flooding, and habitat...
Combining ecological and genomic diversity surveys to inform conservation and restoration of an endangered wetland plant, soft salty bird’s-beak (Chloropyron molle ssp. molle)
Amy G. Vandergast, Scott F. Jones, Lyndsay L. Rankin, McKenna Leigh Bristow, Dustin Wood, Karen M. Thorne
2025, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (23)
Emergent tidal wetlands are declining globally as a result of sea level rise and land use change. This habitat loss can keenly affect rare plant species within wetlands, and may require restoration to meet species recovery goals related to retaining populations throughout species' ranges. Soft salty bird’s-beak (Chloropyron molle ssp....
The nonpoint source challenge: Obstacles and opportunities for meeting nutrient reduction goals in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
Zachary M. Easton, Kurt Stephenson, Brian Benhem, J.K. Bohlke, Anthony R Buda, Amy S. Collick, Lara Fowler, Ellen Gilinsky, Andrew Miller, Gregory E. Noe, Leah Palm-Forster, Leonard Shabman, Tess Wynn-Thompson
2025, JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association (61)
This document examines the Chesapeake Bay watershed response to nutrient and sediment reduction efforts under the Clean Water Act's total maximum daily load (TMDL) regulation. As the 2025 Chesapeake Bay TMDL deadline approaches, water quality goals remain unmet, primarily because of nonpoint source pollution, the largest remaining source of nutrients...
Timescales of surface faulting preservation in low-strain intraplate regions from landscape evolution modeling and the geomorphic and historical record
Jessica Ann Thompson Jobe, Nadine G. Reitman
2025, Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth (130)
Large surface-rupturing intraplate earthquakes in stable continental regions (SCRs) are uncommon globally and have recurrence intervals of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years based on the paleoseismic and geomorphic record, challenging accurate active fault identification in these regions. To constrain the timescales of preservation for scarps created by surface...
An Eastern Ribbonsnake, Thamnophis sauritus (Linnaeus, 1766), scavenging on a roadkilled Cuban Treefrog, Osteopilus septentrionalis, (Duméril & Bibron, 1841), in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA
Sarah Payne, Eleanor Lane, Faith Dunlap, Madison Vasquez, Matthew Fox Metcalf, Lisa Marie McBride, Sarah Rae Sherburne, Christina Romagosa, Amanda Marie Kissel, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Mark Robert Sandfoss
2025, Herpetology Notes (18) 387-388
No abstract available....
Multi-model comparison of salt marsh longevity under relative sea-level rise
Melinda Martinez, Kevin J. Buffington, Neil K. Ganju, Zafer Defne, Kate Ackerman, Karen M. Thorne, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Joel A. Carr
2025, Estuaries and Coasts (48)
Understanding salt marsh resilience under increasing sea levels can inform for management decisions. We compared temporal projections from various wetland process-based models and a geospatially derived metric (i.e., marsh lifespan) to understand key considerations and uncertainties about salt marsh resilience when using these products for decision-making. The influences of lidar...
U.S. Geological Survey Pollinator Science Strategy, 2025–35—A Review and Look Forward
Clint Otto, Tabitha A. Graves, Desi Robertson-Thompson, Ian S. Pearse, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Caroline E. Murphy, Elisabeth B. Webb, Sam Droege, Melanie J. Steinkamp, Ralph Grundel
2025, Circular 1556
This “U.S. Geological Survey Pollinator Science Strategy, 2025–35—A Review and Look Forward” (“Pollinator Science Strategy”) describes the science vision of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to support management, conservation, and policy decisions on animal pollinators and their habitats. As the science arm of the Department of the Interior, the USGS has...
Hydraulic connectivity and hydrochemistry influence microbial community structure in agriculturally-affected alluvial aquifers in the Midwestern United States
Hunter Schroer, Kendra M. Markland, Fangqiong Ling, Craig L. Just
2025, Environmental Science and Technology (59) 12279-12291
Alluvial aquifers can provide ecosystem services and drinking water, but much remains unknown about human effects on aquifer microbiomes. Therefore, we used amplicon sequencing and hydrochemical characterization to pair microbial communities with environmental conditions across 37 alluvial aquifer wells. The study region spanned eastern Iowa and southern Minnesota (USA) and...
Introgression, phylogeography, and genomic species cohesion in the eastern North American white oak syngameon
Gabe Ribicoff, Mira Garner, Kasey Pham, Kieren Althaus, Jeannine Cavendar-Bares, Andy Crowl, Samantha Gray, Paul F. Gugger, Marlene Hahn, S Liao, Paul Manos, Rebekah Mohn, Ian S. Pearse, Nicholas Steichmann, Ashley Tuffin, Alan T. Whittemore, Andrew Hipp
2025, Molecular Ecology (34)
Hybridization and interspecific gene flow play a substantial role in the evolution of plant taxa. The eastern North American white oak syngameon, a group of approximately 15 ecologically, morphologically and genomically distinguishable species, has long been recognised as a model system for studying introgressive hybridization in temperate trees. However, the...
Novel adomaviruses associated with blotchy bass syndrome in black basses (Micropterus spp.)
Luke R. Iwanowicz, Clayton D. Raines, Kelsey E. Young, Vicki S. Blazer, Heather L. Walsh, Geoff Smith, Cynthia Holt, John Odenkirk, Tom Jones, Jan-Michael Hessenauer, Morgan Alexandra Biggs, Christopher B. Buck, Justin Blaine Greer, Robert S. Cornman
2025, Preprint, BioRXiv
Black bass (Micropterus spp.) are the most important warmwater game fishes in the United States. They have high socioeconomic and recreational value and support an important aquaculture industry. Since 2008, fisheries managers have been reporting the observation of hyperpigmented melanistic lesions (HPMLs) on smallmouth bass (M. dolomieu) in different ecoregions...
Fomites could determine severity of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in low-density white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations
Elias Rosenblatt, Jonathan D. Cook, Graziella Vittoria DiRenzo, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Michael C. Runge, Brittany Mosher
2025, Transboundary and Emerging Diseases (2025)
The establishment of a reservoir species for zoonotic diseases is concerning for both animal and human health. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2, the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, has been detected in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the United States. Since its initial detection, various studies have documented...
