Projections of multiple climate-related coastal hazards for the US Southeast Atlantic
Patrick L. Barnard, Kevin M. Befus, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Anita C Engelstad, Li H. Erikson, Amy C. Foxgrover, Maya Kumari Hayden, Daniel J. Hoover, Tim Leijnse, Chris Massey, Robert T. McCall, Norberto Nadal-Caraballo, Kees Nederhoff, Andrea C. O'Neill, Kai Alexander Parker, Manoochehr Shirzaei, Leonard O. Ohenhen, Peter W Swarzenski, Jennifer Anne Thomas, Maarten van Ormondt, Sean Vitousek, Killian Vos, Nathan J. Wood, Jeanne M. Jones, Jamie Jones
2025, Nature Climate Change (15) 101-109
Faced with accelerating sea level rise and changing ocean storm conditions, coastal communities require comprehensive assessments of climate-driven hazard impacts to inform adaptation measures. Previous studies have focused on flooding but rarely on other climate-related coastal hazards, such as subsidence, beach erosion and groundwater. Here, we project societal exposure to...
A transferable approach for quantifying benthic fish sizes and densities in annotated underwater images
Peter C. Esselman, Shadi Moradi, Joseph K. Geisz, Christopher Roussi
2025, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (16) 145-159
1. Benthic fishes are a common target of scientific monitoring but are difficult to quantify because of their close association to bottom habitats that are hard to access. Advances in image-acquisition technologies, machine vision, and deep learning have made capturing and quantifying fishes with cameras increasingly feasible. We present a...
Resource selection of the southern fox squirrel (Sciurus niger niger) in the coastal plain of Virginia
Marissa H. Guill, Jesse L. De La Cruz, K. Marc Puckett, W. Mark Ford
2025, Virginia Journal of Science (75)
The southern fox squirrel (Sciurus niger niger) is a subspecies of fox squirrel that ranges from southeastern Virginia to northern Florida. Throughout its Southeastern range, southern fox squirrel habitat of natural mixed pine-hardwood forests has been fragmented by agriculture and short-rotation pine plantations. In Virginia, remaining habitat has been transformed...
Evaluation of a carbon dioxide fish barrier through numerical modelling
Marcela Politano, Aaron R. Cupp, David Smith, Avery Schemmel, P. Ryan Jackson, Jeff Zuercher
2025, Meccanica (60) 1545-1560
The Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS) is a potential route for the migration of aquatic invasive species from the Mississippi River Basin into the Great Lakes. Electric dispersal barriers were installed in the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal, within CAWS, to prevent invasive fish from reaching the Great Lakes. Despite the...
A ‘how-to’ guide for estimating animal diel activity using hierarchical models
Fabiola Iannarilli, Brian Daniel Gerber, John Erb, John R. Fieberg
2025, Journal of Animal Ecology (94) 182-194
Animal diel activity patterns can aid understanding of (a) how species behaviourally adapt to anthropogenic and natural disturbances, (b) mechanisms of species co-existence through temporal partitioning, and (c) community or ecosystem effects of diel activity shifts.Activity patterns often vary spatially, a feature ignored by the kernel density estimators (KDEs)...
The role of spring-neap phasing of intermittent lateral exchange in the ecosystem of a channel-shoal estuary
Lilian Engel, Lisa Lucas, Mark T. Stacey
2025, Estuaries and Coasts (48)
Lateral variability is a fundamental feature of channel-shoal estuaries, and exchanges between the channel and shoal can play an important role in the dynamics of the ecosystem in each region. This lateral exchange of biomass interacts with vertical structure and variability, particularly in the channel, to define algal biomass accumulation...
Advancing at-risk species recovery planning in an era of rapid ecological change with a transparent, flexible, and expert-engaged approach
Lucas Fortini, Christina Leopold, Fred Amidon, Devin Leopold, Scott Fretz, James D. Jacobi, Loyal Mehrhoff, Jonathan Price, Fern Duval, Matthew Kier, Hank Oppenheimer, Lauren Weisenburger, Robert Sutter
2025, Conservation Biology (39)
In the face of unprecedented ecological changes, the conservation community needs strategies to recover species at risk of extinction. On the Island of Maui, we collaborated with species experts and managers to assist with climate-resilient recovery planning for 36 at-risk native plant species by identifying priority areas for the management...
Species diversity links land consolidation to rodent disease
Claire Stewart Teitelbaum
2025, Nature Ecology & Evolution (9) 17-18
Four decades of data on rodent species composition and hantavirus prevalence across a changing urban–agricultural landscape demonstrate that long-term data are key for understanding links between biodiversity loss and disease dynamics...
On algorithmically determined versus traditional macroseismic intensity assignments
Susan E. Hough
2025, Seismological Research Letters (96) 1875-1885
The utility of macroseismic data, defined as the effects of earthquakes on humans and the built environment, has been increasingly recognized following the advent of online systems that now produce unprecedented volumes of macroseismic intensity information. Contributed reports from the U.S. Geological Survey “Did You Feel It?” (DYFI) system (<a...
Pathology of lesions in corals from the US Virgin Islands after emergence of stony coral tissue loss disease
Thierry M. Work, Jeff Miller, Thomas Kelley, Aine C. Hawthorn, Tina Weatherby, Caroline Rogers
2025, Coral Reefs (44) 179-192
Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) was first documented in Florida in 2014 and has since spread through the Caribbean causing unprecedented mortality in more than 20 species of corals. The cause of SCTLD is unknown, but bacteria are suspected based on regression of gross lesions in some corals treated...
Estimation of contact time among animals from telemetry data
Andrew B. Whetten, Trevor J. Hefley, David A. Haukos
2025, The American Statistician (79) 265-274
Continuous processes in most applications are measured discretely with error. This complicates the task of detecting intersections and the number of intersections between two continuous processes (i.e., when the processes have the same value). Intersections of continuous processes are scientifically important but challenging to estimate from data. For example, in...
Balancing the scales: Including under-represented herptile species in a One Health approach
M. Camille Hopkins, David Lesbarrères, Natalie Claunch, Eveline J. Emmenegger, Bennett Hardy, María Torres-Sánchez, Tariq Stark, Angela Julian, Sarah McGrath-Blaser, Christine Parker-Graham, Katie Haman, Ashley Morgan, Debra C. Miller
2025, Research Directions: One Health (2)
The One Health High-Level Expert Panel’s definition of One Health includes optimizing the health of people, animals (wild and domestic) and ecosystems. For many One Health practitioners, wildlife that can spread zoonoses are the focus, particularly if they can come in contact with people. However, ecosystem health is often best-indicated...
Scalable, data-assimilated models predict large-scale shoreline response to waves and sea-level rise
Sean Vitousek, Kilian Vos, Kristen D. Splinter, Kai Alexander Parker, Andrea C. O'Neill, Amy C. Foxgrover, Maya Kumari Hayden, Jennifer Anne Thomas, Li H. Erikson, Patrick L. Barnard
2025, Scientific Reports (14)
Coastal change is a complex combination of multi-scale processes (e.g., wave-driven cross-shore and longshore transport; dune, bluff, and cliff erosion; overwash; fluvial and inlet sediment supply; and sea-level-driven recession). Historical sea-level-driven coastal recession on open ocean coasts is often outpaced by wave-driven change. However, future sea-level-driven coastal recession is expected...
Secondary contact erodes Pleistocene diversification in a wide-ranging freshwater mussel (Quadrula)
Sean M. Keogh, Nathan Johnson, Chase H. Smith, Bernard E. Sietman, Jeffrey T. Garner, Charles R. Randklev, Andrew M. Simons
2025, Molecular Ecology (34)
The isolated river drainages of eastern North America serve as a natural laboratory to investigate the roles of allopatry and secondary contact in the evolutionary trajectories of recently diverged lineages. Drainage divides facilitate allopatric speciation, but due to their sensitivity to climatic and geomorphological changes, neighboring rivers frequently coalesce, creating...
Patchy response of cheatgrass and nontarget vegetation to indaziflam and imazapic applied after wildfire in sagebrush steppe
Chad Raymond Kluender, Matthew J. Germino, Brynne E. Lazarus, Ty Matthews
2025, Rangeland Ecology & Management (98) 432-440
Control of nonnative grasses is needed where they are altering fire regimes and degrading rangelands, such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) invasion of perennial sagebrush-steppe communities. Aerial broadcast of the pre-emergent and postemergent herbicide imazapic has been used for decades over vast areas to control cheatgrass after fire. Recent small-scale studies...
Predicting the response of fish populations to changes in river connectivity using individual-based models
Shane Flinn, Travis Brenden, Kelly Filer Robinson
2025, Journal of Great Lakes Research (51)
Barrier removal restores physical stream processes and improves accessibility of critical habitats to migratory fishes. Although increasing connectivity benefits stream systems and migratory fishes, barrier removals may also lead to increased production of undesirable or invasive migratory species, as well as myriad other concerns (e.g., reduced recreational opportunities). Few studies...
Evidence for low effective stress within the crust of the subducted Gorda plate from the 2022 December Mw 6.4 Ferndale earthquake sequence
Hao Guo, James W. Atterholt, Jeffrey J. McGuire, Clifford Thurber
2025, Seismological Research Letters (96) 1504-1520
Stress levels on and adjacent to megathrust faults at seismogenic depths remain a key but difficult to constrain parameter for assessing seismic hazard in subduction zones. Although strong ground motions have been observed to be generated from distinct, high-stress regions on the downdip end of the megathrust rupture areas in...
The underlying causes of differential migration: Assumptions, hypotheses, and predictions
N Paprocki, Courtney J. Conway
2025, Biological Reviews (100) 764-789
Mechanisms governing the migratory decisions of birds have long fascinated ecologists and sparked considerable debate. Identifying factors responsible for variation in migration distance, also known as differential migration, has been a popular approach to understanding the mechanisms underlying migratory behaviour more generally. However, research progress has been slowed by the...
Phytoplankton assemblage structure, drivers, and thresholds with a focus on harmful algal bloom ecology in the Lake Okeechobee system, Florida, USA
Viviana Mazzei, Kristy Lee Sullivan, Keith A. Loftin
2025, Harmful Algae (142)
Untangling the complexities of harmful algal bloom (HAB) dynamics is an ongoing effort that requires a fundamental understanding of spatiotemporal phytoplankton patterns and the environmental filters through which assemblages are structured. To this aim, monthly field surveys were conducted from 2019 to 2021 at 21 sites in Lake Okeechobee, Florida...
Phenotypic homogenization and potential fitness constraints following non-native introgression in an endemic sportfish
Joe C. Gunn, Sarah J. Clements, Grant Adams, Edward M. Sterling, Michael J. Moore, Taylor N. Volkers, Lori S. Eggert
2025, Journal of Evolutionary Biology (38) 94-110
Introgressive hybridization may lead to contrasting evolutionary outcomes that are difficult to predict since they depend on the fitness effects of endogenous genomic interactions and environmental factors. Conservation of endemic biodiversity may be more effective with require direct measurement of introgressed ancestry and fitness in wild populations, especially for keystone...
Forest bird population status on Saipan, a small oceanic island
Trevor Bak, Steve Mullin, Emilie Kohler, Bradley A. Eichelberger, Richard J. Camp
2025, Global Ecology and Conservation (56)
Tropical oceanic islands are critical biodiversity hotspots where population monitoring can help to determine the status and trends of rare and endangered species. Saipan is the second largest island in the Mariana Islands and contains many endemic and range-restricted bird species. Surveys of forest birds were conducted on Saipan using...
Density estimation using spatial capture-recapture analyses: Application to vaccination of prairie dogs against sylvatic plague
Robin E. Russell, Dan W. Tripp, Katherine Richgels, Tonie E. Rocke
2025, The Journal of Wildlife Management (89)
Prairie dogs are notoriously difficult to enumerate, with previously methods including visual counts, mark-resight, burrow counts, and catch per unit effort. Unlike those methods, spatial capture-recapture (SCR) analyses allow for formal estimation of density along with associated estimates of uncertainty, detection probability, and the size of the average area over...
Twentieth century extreme precipitation detected in a high-resolution, coastal lake-sediment record from California
Clarke Alexandra Knight, David Wahl, Jason A. Addison, Mark Baskaran, R. Scott Anderson, Marie Rhondelle Champagne, Lysanna Anderson, Liubov S. Presnetsova, Beth Elaine Caissie, Scott W. Starratt
2025, Journal of Paleolimnology (73) 35-51
California faces increasing economic and societal risks from extreme precipitation and flooding associated with atmospheric rivers (ARs) under projected twenty-first century climate warming. Lake sediments can retain signals of past extreme precipitation events, allowing reconstructions beyond the period of instrumental records. Here, we calibrate AR-related extreme precipitation from the last...
Timing and geometry of the Chemehuevi Formation reveal a late Pleistocene sediment pulse into the Lower Colorado River
Harrison J. Gray, Kyle House, Adam M. Hudson, Jorge A. Vazquez, Ryan S. Crow, Miriam Primus, Shannon A. Mahan, Tammy M. Rittenour, Keith A. Howard
2025, GSA Bulletin (137) 1582-1606
The Chemehuevi Formation is a distinctive 50−150-m-thick wedge-shaped Pleistocene sedimentary unit deposited by the Colorado River. It lines the perimeters of the river’s floodplains and bedrock canyons for more than 600 km between the mouth of the Grand Canyon and the delta region in the Gulf of California. The formation...
Mangrove freeze resistance and resilience across a tropical-temperate transitional zone
Yiyang Kang, David A. Kaplan, Michael Osland
2025, Journal of Ecology (113) 94-111
Freeze events govern the distribution and structure of mangrove ecosystems, especially in tropical-temperate transitional zones. Understanding mangrove responses to freezing is crucial for predicting their poleward expansion under climate change. However, there is a need for field-based measurements of mangrove freeze resistance and resilience.After an extreme winter storm in...
