First Occurrence of the nonindigenous Asian foraminifera Ammonia confertitesta in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean: Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
Mary McGann, Maria Holzmann
2024, Micropaleontology (70) 115-127
Observations in 2022 of intertidal and subtidal foraminiferal faunas at four localities along the central-eastern side of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, and molecular analyses have documented the first occurrence of the nonindigenous Asian species Ammonia confertitesta Zheng in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The species was present at three of...
Implementation of the CREED approach for environmental assessments
Carolina Di Paolo, Irene Bramke, Jenny Stauber, Caroline Whalley, Ryan R. Otter, Yves Verhaegen, Lisa H. Nowell, Adam C. Ryan
2024, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (20) 1019-1034
Environmental exposure data are a key component of chemical and ecological assessments, supporting and guiding environmental management decisions and regulations. Measures taken to protect the environment based on exposure data can have social and economic implications. Flawed information may lead to measures being taken...
River control points for algal productivity revealed by transport analysis
Noah Schmadel, Judson Harvey, Jay Choi, Sarah M. Stackpoole, Jennifer L. Graham, Jennifer C. Murphy
2024, Geophysical Research Letters (51)
Measurement of planktonic chlorophyll-a—a proxy for algal biomass—in rivers may represent local production or algae transported from upstream, confounding understanding of algal bloom development in flowing waters. We modeled 3 years of chlorophyll-a transport through a 394-km portion of the Illinois River and found that although algal biomass is...
Nerodia clarkii (Saltmarsh Watersnake). Predation
Bryna L. Daykin, Sidney T. Godfrey, Michael Cherkiss, Gareth Blakemore, Frank J. Mazzotti
2024, Herpetological Review (54) 492-493
Predators of Nerodia clarkii are suspected to include larger species of crabs, fish, wading birds, snakes, alligators, and crocodiles. To our knowledge, there have only been two published observations of predation on N. clarkii, including a predation attempt from a Callinectes sapidus (Blue Crab) in Mississippi, USA and a successful...
The incredible HALK: borrowing data for age assignment
Paul N. Frater, Zachary S. Feiner, Gretchen J.A. Hansen, Daniel A. Isermann, Alexander W. Latzka, Olaf P. Jensen
2024, Fisheries Magazine (49) 117-128
Understanding age and growth are important for fisheries science and management; however, age data are not routinely collected for many populations. We propose and test a method of borrowing age–length data across increasingly broader spatiotemporal levels to create a hierarchical age–length key (HALK). We assessed this method by comparing growth...
Water resources inventory of the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, southeastern Arizona
Jon P. Mason
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5131
The Las Cienegas National Conservation Area was established by the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area Establishment Act of 1999 (Public Law 106–538) and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Located in southeastern Arizona, the conservation area contains more than 45,000 acres of rolling grassland, wetlands, and woodlands surrounded...
Simulation of groundwater and surface-water interaction and lake resiliency at Crystal Lake, City of Crystal Lake, Illinois
Amy M. Gahala, Emilia L. Bristow, Jennifer B. Sharpe, Benjamin G Metcalf, Lisa A. Matson
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5007
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the City of Crystal Lake, Illinois, started a study to increase understanding of groundwater and surface-water interaction between the glacial aquifer and the city’s namesake lake, Crystal Lake, and the effect of higher and lower precipitation conditions on groundwater and lake levels. The...
Physics-based satellite-derived bathymetry (SDB) using Landsat OLI images
Minsu Kim, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Curt D. Storlazzi, Seonkyung Park
2024, Remote Sensing (16)
The estimation of depth in optically shallow waters using satellite imagery can be efficient and cost-effective. Active sensors measure the distance traveled by an emitted laser pulse propagating through the water with high precision and accuracy if the bottom peak intensity of the waveform is greater than the noise...
Status of water-level altitudes and long-term and short-term water-level changes in the Chicot and Evangeline (undifferentiated) and Jasper aquifers, greater Houston area, Texas, 2023
Jason K. Ramage
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5003
Since the early 1900s, groundwater withdrawn from the primary aquifers that compose the Gulf Coast aquifer system—the Chicot, Evangeline, and Jasper aquifers—has been an important source of water in the greater Houston area, Texas. This report, prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District, City...
The past, present, and a future for native charr in Japan
K.D. Fausch, Kentaro Morita, Jun-ichi Tsuboi, Yoichiro Kanno, Shoichiro Yamamoto, Daisuke Kishi, Jason Dunham, Itsuro Koizumi, Koh Hasegawa, Mikio Inoue, Takuya Sato, Satoshi Kitano
2024, Ichthyological Research (71) 461-485
Charrs (Salvelinus) reach their southernmost distribution in Japan, and are uniquely adapted to the short, steep streams of this island archipelago. Southern Asian Dolly Varden (Salvelinus curilus) occur only in Hokkaido Island, whereas white-spotted charr (Salvelinus leucomaenis) range to southern Honshu. Both species diverged from an ancestral lineage during the...
Trends in colony sizes for five colonial waterbird species in the Atlantic Flyway
Zachary G. Loman, Cynthia S. Loftin, Caleb S. Spiegel, Ruth Boettcher
2024, Cooperator Science Series 155-2024
Robust estimates of colonial waterbird (CWB) breeding population trends are deficient owing to a lack of range wide, standardized survey efforts. Evaluating conservation priorities and effectiveness of management requires reliable trend estimates across multiple spatial scales. One potential data source for CWB trend estimation is the Colonial Waterbird Database, created...
Geese migrating over the Pacific Ocean select altitudes coinciding with offshore wind turbine blades
Emily L. Weiser, Cory T. Overton, David C. Douglas, Michael L. Casazza, Paul L. Flint
2024, Journal of Applied Ecology (61) 951-962
Renewable energy facilities are a key part of mitigating climate change, but can pose threats to wild birds and bats, most often through collisions with infrastructure. Understanding collision risk and the factors affecting it can help minimize impacts on wild populations. For wind turbines, flight altitude is a major...
Development and calibration of HEC–RAS hydraulic, temperature, and nutrient models for the Mohawk River, New York
Thomas P. Suro, Michal J. Niemoczynski, Anna Boetsma
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5005
In support of a preliminary analysis performed by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that found elevated nutrient levels along selected reaches of the Mohawk River, a one-dimensional, unsteady hydraulic and water-quality model (Hydrologic Engineering Center River Analysis System Nutrient Simulation Module 1 [HEC–RAS NSM I]) was developed by...
What waterfowl hunters want: Exploring heterogeneity in hunting trip preferences
Katherine A. Sainsbury, Howard W. Harshaw, David C. Fulton, Nicholas W. Cole, Ashley A. Dayer, Jennie N. Duberstein, Andrew H. Raedeke, Rudy Schuster, Mark P. Vrtiska
2024, Wetlands (44)
Canadian and American waterfowl hunters were surveyed to identify their hunting trip preferences. Respondents were individuals that were now participating or had participated in waterfowl hunting, and most had hunted the majority of the last five years. We identified four latent classes of waterfowl hunters that varied in their preferences for...
Sediment budget of a Maumee River headwater tributary: How streambank erosion, streambed-sediment storage, and streambed-sediment source inform our understanding of legacy phosphorus
Tanja N. Williamson, Faith Fitzpatrick, Rebecca M. Kreiling, James D. Blount, Diana L. Karwan
2024, Journal of Soils and Sediments (24) 1447-1463
ObjectiveWe described source and phosphorus (P) retention potential of soft, fine-grained, streambed sediment and associated phosphorus (sed-P) during summer low-flow conditions. Combining in-channel, sed-P storage with relative age provided context on relevance to western Lake Erie Basin management goals.MethodsIn 2019, rapid geomorphic assessment (30 reaches) compared...
Immunomodulation in adult largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) exposed to a model estrogen or mixture of endocrine disrupting contaminants during early gonadal recrudescence
Jessica Kristin Leet, Catherine A. Richter, Rachel Claunch, Robert Gale, Donald E. Tillitt, Luke R. Iwanowicz
2024, Comparative Immunology Reports (6)
Disease outbreaks, skin lesions, fish kill events, and reproductive abnormalities have been observed in wild populations of Centrarchids in watersheds throughout the United States. Occurrence of synthetic and natural hormones from wastewater treatment plants and livestock operations, pesticides from agricultural land use, and phytoestrogens have been implicated as potential causes...
Metabarcoding is (usually) more cost effective than seining or qPCR for detecting tidewater gobies and other estuarine fishes
Kevin D. Lafferty
2024, PeerJ (12)
Many studies have shown that environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling can be more sensitive than traditional sampling. For instance, past studies found a specific qPCR probe of a water sample is better than a seine for detecting the endangered northern tidewater goby, Eucyclogobius newberryi. Furthermore, a metabarcoding sample often detects more...
Forest fire, thinning, and flood in wildland-urban interface: UAV and lidar-based estimate of natural disaster impacts
Temuulen Ts. Sankey, Lauren Tango, Julia Tatum, Joel B. Sankey
2024, Landscape Ecology (39)
ContextWildland-urban interface (WUI) areas are facing increased forest fire risks and extreme precipitation events due to climate change, which can lead to post-fire flood events. The city of Flagstaff in northern Arizona, USA experienced WUI forest thinning, fire, and record rainfall events, which collectively contributed to large floods...
The geochemistry of continental hydrothermal systems
Shaul Hurwitz, Andri Stefansson, Everett L. Shock, Barbara I. Kleine
2024, Book chapter, Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences
Hydrothermal systems on the continents are of great significance because they are primary sources of economically important metals and geothermal energy, they are tourist attractions, they support bathing and health resorts, and they host extreme life forms. Research on...
Flow cytometric assessments of metabolic activity in bacterial assemblages provide insight into ecosystem condition along the Buffalo National River, Arkansas
Jill Jenkins, Rassa Dale, Nina M. Hoffpauir, Brooke A Baudoin, Caroline Matkin, Lucas Driver, Shawn W Hodges, Bonnie L. Brown
2024, Science of the Total Environment (921)
The Buffalo National River (BNR), on karst terrain in Arkansas, is considered an extraordinary water resource. Water collected in Spring 2017 along BNR was metagenomically analyzed using 16S rDNA, and for 17 months (5/2017–11/2018), bacterial responses were measured in relation to nutrients sampled along a...
Prioritizing water availability study settings to address geogenic contaminants and related societal factors
Melinda L. Erickson, Craig J. Brown, Elizabeth J. Tomaszewski, Joseph D. Ayotte, Sharon L. Qi, Douglas B. Kent, J.K. Bohlke
2024, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (196)
Water availability for human and ecological uses depends on both water quantity and water quality. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is developing strategies for prioritizing regional-scale and watershed basin-scale studies of water availability across the nation. Previous USGS ranking processes for basin-scale studies incorporated primarily water quantity factors...
Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) roost site-selection criteria and locations east of the Appalachian Mountains, U.S.A.
Brandon M. Boxler, Cyndy Loftin, William B. Sutton
2024, Journal of Insect Behavior (37) 22-48
The monarch butterfly is a flagship species and pollinator whose populations have declined by 85% in the recent two decades. Their largest population overwinters in Mexico, then disperses across eastern North America during March to August. During September-December, they return south using two flyways, one that spans the central United...
Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) roost site-selection criteria and locations east of the Appalachian Mountains, U.S.A.
Brandon M. Boxler, Cyndy Loftin, William B. Sutton
2024, Journal of Insect Behavior (37) 22-48
The monarch butterfly is a flagship species and pollinator whose populations have declined by 85% in the recent two decades. Their largest population overwinters in Mexico, then disperses across eastern North America during March to August. During September-December, they return south using two flyways, one that spans the central United...
Urbanization and water management control stream water quality along a mountain to plains transition
Sheila F. Murphy, Robert L. Runkel, Edward G. Stets, Alex J Nolan, Deborah A. Repert
2024, Water Resources Research (60)
Urbanization can have substantial effects on water quality due to altered hydrology and introduction of constituents to water bodies. In arid and semi-arid environments, streams are further stressed by dewatering as a result of diversions. We conducted a high-resolution synoptic survey of two streams in Colorado, USA...
Assessing grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) occupancy and detection probability within Lake Erie from environmental DNA
Justin Bopp, Lucas R. Nathan, John D. Robinson, Jeanette Kanefsky, Kim T. Scribner, Seth Herbst, Kelly Filer Robinson
2024, Management of Biological Invasions (15) 51-72
Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), an invasive cyprinid within the Laurentian Great Lakes, is naturally reproducing in several Lake Erie tributaries, which has raised concerns of the species’ spread throughout Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes. Knowledge of the recent invasion extent outside of the western basin of Lake Erie,...
