Coupling of Indo-Pacific climate variability over the last millennium
Nerilie J. Abram, Nicky M. Wright, Bethany Ellis, Bronwyn C. Dixon, Jennifer B. Wurtzel, Matthew H. England, Caroline C. Ummenhofer, Belle E. Philibosian, Sri Yudawati Cahyarini, Tsai-Luen Yu, Chuan-Chou Shen, Hai Cheng, R. Lawrence Edwards, David Heslop
2020, Nature (579) 385-392
The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) impacts climate and rainfall across the world, and most severely in nations surrounding the Indian Ocean1-4. The frequency and intensity of positive IOD events increased during the 20th Century5 and may continue to intensify in a warming world6; however, confidence in future IOD changes is limited by known...
A modeling workflow that balances automation and human intervention to inform invasive plant management decisions at multiple spatial scales
Nicholas E. Young, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Helen Sofaer, Ian S. Pearse, Julia Sullivan, Peder Engelstad, Thomas J. Stohlgren
2020, PLoS ONE (15)
Predictions of habitat suitability for invasive plant species can guide risk assessments at regional and national scales and inform early detection and rapid-response strategies at local scales. We present a general approach to invasive species modeling and mapping that meets objectives at multiple scales. Our methodology is designed...
Removal of chronic Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae carrier ewes eliminates pneumonia in a bighorn sheep population
Tyler Garwood, Chadwick P. Lehman, Daniel P. Walsh, E. Frances Cassirer, Thomas E. Besser, Jonathan A. Jenks
2020, Ecology and Evolution (10) 3491-3502
Chronic pathogen carriage is one mechanism that allows diseases to persist in populations. We hypothesized that persistent or recurrent pneumonia in bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis ) populations may be caused by chronic carriers of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (Mo ). Our experimental approach allowed us to address a conservation need while investigating the role of...
The changing sociocultural context of wildlife conservation
Michael J. Manfredo, Tara L. Teel, Andrew W. Don Carlos, Leeann Sullivan, Alan D. Bright, Alia M. Dietsch, Jeremy Bruskotter, David C. Fulton
2020, Conservation Biology (34) 1549-1559
We introduced a multilevel model of value shift to describe the changing social context of wildlife conservation. Our model depicts how cultural-level processes driven by modernization (e.g., increased wealth, education, and urbanization) affect changes in individual-level cognition that prompt a shift from domination to mutualism wildlife...
Legacy and current‐use contaminants in sediments alter macroinvertebrate communities in southeastern US Streams
Patrick W. Moran, Nile E. Kemble, Ian R. Waite, Barbara Mahler, Lisa H. Nowell, Peter C. Van Metre
2020, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (39) 1219-1232
Sediment contamination of freshwater streams in urban areas is a recognized and growing concern. As a part of a comprehensive regional stream‐quality assessment, stream‐bed sediment was sampled from streams spanning a gradient of urban intensity in the Piedmont ecoregion of the southeastern United States. We evaluated...
Assessing water-quality changes in agricultural drainages: Examples from oxbow lake tributaries in Mississippi, USA and simulation-based power analyses
Jennifer C. Murphy, Matthew B. Hicks, Shane J. Stocks
2020, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation (75) 218-230
Hydrology and water quality (suspended sediment, total nitrogen, ammonia, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, nitrate plus nitrite, and total phosphorus (TP)) were monitored in two small agricultural drainages in northwestern Mississippi to document changes in water quality that coincided with the implementation of BMPs in upstream drainages. Using an event-based dataset and...
Testing prediction accuracy in short-term ecological studies
Connor M. Wood, Zachary G. Loman, Shawn T. McKinney, Cynthia S. Loftin
2020, Basic and Applied Ecology (43) 77-85
Applied ecology is based on an assumption that a management action will result in a predicted outcome. Testing the prediction accuracy of ecological models is the most powerful way of evaluating the knowledge implicit in this cause-effect relationship, however, the prevalence of predictive modeling...
Causal factors for pesticide trends in streams of the United States: Atrazine and deethylatrazine
Karen R. Ryberg, Wesley W. Stone, Nancy T. Baker
2020, Journal of Environmental Quality (49) 152-162
Pesticides are important for agriculture in the United States, and atrazine is one of the most widely used and widely detected pesticides in surface water. A better understanding of the mechanisms by which atrazine and its degradation product, deethylatrazine, increase and decrease in surface waters can help inform future decisions...
Machine learning identifies a strong association between warming and reduced primary productivity in an oligotrophic ocean gyre
Domenico D’Alelio, Salvatore Rampone, Luigi Maria Cusano, Valerio Morfino, Luca Russo, Nadia Sanseverino, James E. Cloern, Michael W. Lomas
2020, Scientific Reports (10)
Phytoplankton play key roles in the oceans by regulating global biogeochemical cycles and production in marine food webs. Global warming is thought to affect phytoplankton production both directly, by impacting their photosynthetic metabolism, and indirectly by modifying the physical environment in which they grow. In this respect, the Bermuda Atlantic...
Amphibian responses in the aftermath of extreme climate events
Gary M. Bucciarelli, Morgan Clark, Katy S. Delaney, Seth P.D. Riley, H. Bradley Shaffer, Robert N. Fisher, Rodney L Honeycutt, Lee B. Kats
2020, Scientific Reports (10)
Climate change-induced extinctions are estimated to eliminate one in six known species by the end of the century. One major factor that will contribute to these extinctions is extreme climatic events. Here, we show the ecological impacts of recent record warm air temperatures and simultaneous peak drought conditions in California....
Spatial and temporal variations in SO2 and PM2.5 levels around Kīlauea volcano, Hawai'i during 2007–2018
R.C.W. Whitty, E. Ilyinskaya, E. Mason, P.E. Wieser, E. J. Liu, A. Schmidt, T.J. Roberts, M.A. Pfeffer, Barbara Brooks, T.A. Mather, M. Edmonds, Tamar Elias, David J. Schneider, C. Oppenheimer, A. Dybwad, Patricia A. Nadeau, Christoph Kern
2020, Frontiers in Earth Science (8)
Among the hazards posed by volcanoes are the emissions of gases and particles that can affect air quality and damage agriculture and infrastructure. A recent intense episode of volcanic degassing associated with severe impacts on air quality accompanied the 2018 lower East Rift Zone (LERZ) eruption of Kīlauea volcano,...
An experimental study of longitudinal incisional grooves in a mixed bedrock-alluvial channel
Takuya Inoue, Jonathan M. Nelson
2020, Water Resources Research (56)
Natural bedrock rivers have various bedforms created by erosion. Flow‐parallel incisional grooves formed longitudinally in bedrock are one common example of such bedforms. Although several studies have been conducted regarding these grooves, their formation processes are not well understood. In this study, we conducted a flume experiment to investigate the...
The NASA hydrological forecast system for food and water security applications
Kristi Arsenault, Shraddhanand Shukla, Abheera Hazra, Agusto Getirana, Amy McNally, Sujay Kumar, Randal Koster, Christa Peters-Lidard, Ben Zaitchik, Hamada Badr, Hahn Chul Jung, Bala Narapusetty, Navari, Shugong Wang, David M. Mocko, Chris Funk, Laura Harrison, Gregory J. Husak, Alkhalil Adoum, Gideon Galu, Tamuka Magadzire, Jeanne Roningen, Michael J. Shaw, John Eylander, Karim Bergaoui, Rachael A. McDonnell, James Verdin
2020, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (101) E1007-E1025
Many regions in Africa and the Middle East are vulnerable to drought and to water and food insecurity, motivating agency efforts such as the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) to provide early warning of drought events in the region. Each year these...
Bending the curve of global freshwater biodiversity loss: An emergency recovery plan
David Tickner, Jeff Opperman, Robin Abell, Mike Acreman, Angela Arthington, Stuart E. Bunn, Steven J. Cooke, Will Darwall, Gavin Edwards, Ian Harrison, Kathy Hughes, Tim Jones, David Leclere, Abigail J. Lynch, Philip Leonard, Mike McClain, Pete McIntyre, Dean Muruven, Julian D. Olden, Steve Ormerod, James Robinson, Rebecca Tharme, Michele Thieme, Klement Tockner, Mark Wright, Lucy Young
2020, BioScience (4) 330-342
Despite their limited spatial extent, freshwater ecosystems host remarkable biodiversity, including one-third of all vertebrate species. This biodiversity is declining dramatically: Globally, wetlands are vanishing three times faster than forests, and freshwater vertebrate populations have fallen more than twice as steeply as terrestrial or marine populations. Threats to freshwater biodiversity...
Formation criteria for hyporheic anoxic microzones: Assessing interactions of hydraulics, nutrients and biofilms
S. R. Chowdhury, J. Zarnetske, M.S. Phanikumar, Martin A. Briggs, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, K. Singha
2020, Water Resources Research (56)
Recent experimental studies have detected the presence of anoxic microzones in hyporheic sediments. These microzones are small‐scale anoxic pores, embedded within oxygen‐rich porous media and can act as anaerobic reaction sites producing reduction compounds such as nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas. Microbes are a key control on nutrient transformation...
Does Lake Erie still have sufficient oxythermal habitat for cisco Coregonus artedi?
Joseph Schmitt, Christoper S. Vandergoot, Brian P. O’Malley, Richard Kraus
2020, Journal of Great Lakes Research (46) 330-338
In Lake Erie, cisco Coregonus artedi once supported one of the most valuable freshwater fisheries on earth, yet overfishing caused their eventual extirpation from the lake. With warming lake temperatures, some have questioned whether Lake Erie still contains suitable oxythermal conditions for cisco. Using published oxythermal thresholds for cisco...
Mapping metabolic activity at single cell resolution in intact volcanic fumarole soil
Jeffrey J. Marlow, Isabella Colocci, Sean Jungbluth, Nils Moritz Weber, Amy Gartman, Jens Kallmeyer
2020, FEMS Microbiology Letters (367)
Interactions among microorganisms and their mineralogical substrates govern the structure, function, and emergent properties of microbial communities. These interactions are predicated on spatial relationships, which dictate metabolite exchange and access to key substrates. To quantitatively assess links between spatial relationships and metabolic activity, this study presents a novel approach to...
Spatial and temporal trends in Potomac River fish abundance linked to species traits
Nathaniel P. Hitt, Karli Rogers, Zachary A. Kelly, Josh Henesy, John E. Mullican
2020, Ecosphere (11)
Analysis of species abundance trends can inform an understanding of the underlying mechanisms. We evaluated spatial and temporal trends in fish species abundance in the non-tidal Potomac River (USA) from a dataset comprising 2841 seine-hauls with > 250,000 individual fish records across 10 sites and 43 years (1975-2017). The dataset...
Timing, frequency, and duration of incubation recesses in dabbling ducks
Rebecca Croston, C. Alex Hartman, Mark P. Herzog, Michael L. Casazza, Cliff L. Feldheim, Joshua T. Ackerman
2020, Ecology and Evolution (10) 2513-2529
Nest attendance is an important determinant of avian reproductive success, and identifying factors that influence the frequency and duration of incubation recesses furthers our understanding of how incubating birds balance their needs with those of their offspring. We characterized the frequency and timing (start time, end time, and duration) of...
Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus specialization in a multihost salmonid system
David Paez, Shannon L. LaDeau, Rachel Breyta, Gael Kurath, Kerry A. Naish, Paige Ferguson
2020, Evolutionary Applications (13) 1841-1853
Many pathogens interact and evolve in communities where more than one host species is present, yet our understanding of host–pathogen specialization is mostly informed by laboratory studies with single species. Managing diseases in the wild, however, requires understanding how host–pathogen specialization affects hosts in diverse communities....
Forest vegetation change and its impacts on soil water following 47 years of managed wildfire
Jens Stevens, Gabrielle F. S. Boisrame, Ekaterina Rakhmatulina, Sally E. Thompson, Brandon M. Collins, Scott L. Stephens
2020, Ecosystems (23) 1547-1565
Managed wildfire is an increasingly relevant management option to restore variability in vegetation structure within fire-suppressed montane forests in western North America. Managed wildfire often reduces tree cover and density, potentially leading to increases in soil moisture availability, water storage in soils and groundwater, and streamflow. However, the potential hydrologic...
Ratcheting up rigor in wildlife management decision making
Angela K. Fuller, Daniel J. Decker, Michael V. Schiavone, Ann Forstchen
2020, Wildlife Society Bulletin (44) 29-41
The wildlife management institution has been transforming to ensure relevance and positive conservation outcomes into the future. Continuous improvement of decision making is one aspect of this transformation, but many obstacles hinder systematic approaches to decision making. One can point to examples of formal decision science applications by state and...
Linking monitoring and data analysis to predictions and decisions for the range-wide eastern black rail status assessment
Conor P. McGowan, N. Angeli, W. Beisler, C.W. Snyder, N.M. Rankin, J. Woodrow, J. Wilson, E. Rivenbark, A. Schwarzer, C. Hand, R.M. Anthony, R. Griffin, K. Barrett, A. Haverland, N. Roach, T. Schneider, A. J. Smith, F. Smith, J. Tolliver, Bryan D Watts
2020, Endangered Species Research (43) 209-222
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has initiated a re-envisioned approach for providing decision makers with the best available science and synthesis of that information, called the Species Status Assessment (SSA), for endangered species decision making. The SSA report is a descriptive document that provides decision makers with an assessment...
Basin amplification effects in the Puget Lowland, Washington from strong motion recordings and 3D simulations
Mika Thompson, Erin A. Wirth, Arthur D. Frankel, J. Renate Hartog, John E. Vidale
2020, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (110) 534-555
Sedimentary basins in the Puget Sound region, Washington State, increase ground‐motion intensity and duration of shaking during local earthquakes. We analyze Pacific Northwest Seismic Network and U.S. Geological Survey strong‐motion recordings of five local earthquakes (M 3.9–6.8), including the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, to characterize sedimentary basin...
Identification of factors affecting predation risk for juvenile turtles using 3D printed models
S.J. Tetzlaff, A. Estrada, Brett Alexander DeGregorio, J. H. Sperry
2020, Animals (10)
Although it is widely accepted that juvenile turtles experience high levels of predation, such events are rarely observed, providing limited evidence regarding predator identities and how juvenile habitat selection and availability of sensory cues to predators affects predation risk. We placed three-dimensional printed models resembling juvenile box...
