High-precision 40Ar/39Ar dating of Quaternary basalts from Auckland Volcanic Field, New Zealand, with implications for eruption rates and paleomagnetic correlations
Graham S. Leonard, Andrew T. Calvert, Jenni L Hopkins, Colin J.N. Wilson, Elaine R. Smid, Jan Lindsay, Duane E. Champion
2025, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Resources (343) 60-74
The Auckland Volcanic Field (AVF), which last erupted ca. 550 years ago, is a late Quaternary monogenetic basaltic volcanic field (ca. 500 km2) in the northern North Island of New Zealand. Prior to this study only 12 out of the 53 identified eruptive centres of the AVF had been reliably dated. Careful...
Autonomous samplers and environmental DNA metabarcoding: Sampling day and primer choice have greatest impact on fish detection probabilities
Devin Nicole Jones-Slobodian, Ben Augustine, Patrick Ross Hutchins, James M. Birch, Kevan Yamahara, Scott L. Jensen, Rodney T. Richardson, Regina Trott, James Campbell, Elliott Barnhart, Adam Sepulveda
2024, Metabarcoding & Metagenomics (8)
Unprecedented rates of biodiversity loss and ecosystem function necessitate the use of rapid, efficacious, and cost-effective biomonitoring tools. The combination of autonomous samplers and high throughput sequencing (i.e., “metabarcoding”) of environmental DNA (eDNA) samples enables characterization of entire communities at high frequency and can be an important...
Estimating occupancy of focal bee species
Clint Otto, Larissa L. Bailey, Brianne Du Clos, Tamara Smith, Elaine Evans, Ian S. Pearse, Saff Killingsworth, Sarina Jepsen, Hollis Woodard
2024, Journal of Melittology
Current bee monitoring efforts have a limited capacity for understanding factors affecting wild bee population changes, including the effects of management. To improve the effectiveness of wild bee monitoring, we first discuss principles of biological monitoring and provide a framework to design monitoring projects to estimate species occupancy, where occupancy...
The effects of human-caused mortality on mammalian cooperative breeders: A synthesis
David Edward Ausband, Peter F. Rebholz, Lindsay Petrillo
2024, Biological Reviews (100) 149-157
Human-caused mortality can be pervasive and even highly selective for individuals in groups of cooperative breeders. Many studies of cooperative breeders, however, do not address human-caused mortality. Similarly, studies focused on the effects of human-caused mortality on wildlife populations often do not consider the ecology of cooperative breeders. We searched...
Mesocarnivores in residential yards: Influence of yard features on the occupancy, relative abundance, and overlap of coyotes, grey fox, and red fox
Emily P. Johansson, Brett Alexander DeGregorio
2024, Wildlife Research (51)
ContextAs conversion of natural areas to human development continues, there is a lack of information about how developed areas can sustainably support wildlife. While large predators are often extirpated from areas of human development, some medium-bodied mammalian predators (hereafter, mesocarnivores) have adapted to co-exist in human-dominated areas.Aims<p...
Groundwater/surface-water interaction
Howard W. Reeves, Serban Danielescu, Elizabeth Priebe, Helen Zhang
2024, Report, Groundwater science relevant to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement: An updated status report
No abstract available....
Foreword
Julio L. Betancourt
2024, Book chapter, Phenology: An integrative environmental science
No abstract available....
Immediate effect of floating solar energy deployment on greenhouse gas dynamics in ponds
Nicholas E. Ray, Meredith A. Holgerson, Steven Mark Grodsky
2024, Environmental Science and Technology (58) 22104-22113
Floating photovoltaic (FPV) solar energy offers promise for renewable electricity production that spares land for other societal benefits. FPV deployment may alter greenhouse gas (GHG) production and emissions from waterbodies by changing physical, chemical, and biological processes, which can have implications for the carbon cost of energy production with FPV....
Developing a decision tree model to forecast runup and assess uncertainty in empirical formulations
Michael Itzkin, Margaret L. Palmsten, Mark L. Buckley, Justin J. Birchler, Legna M. Torres-Garcia
2024, Coastal Engineering (195)
The coastal zone is a dynamic region that can change rapidly and significantly with respect to the morphology of the beach and incoming wave conditions. Runup forecasts may be improved by adapting a dynamic approach that allows for different runup models to be implemented in response to changes in beach...
Rainfall as a driver of post-wildfire flooding and debris flows: A review and synthesis
Natalie M. Collar, John A. Moody, Brian A. Ebel
2024, Earth-Science Reviews (260)
The increasing threat of post-wildfire hazards creates an imperative for improved post-wildfire flooding and debris flow prediction capabilities. Because rainfall is a primary driver of predictive hydrology and debris flow initiation and inundation models, recent efforts have emphasized the need for interdisciplinary collaboration between meteorology and post-wildfire hazard science that...
Evaluating the suitability of large-scale datasets to estimate nitrogen loads and yields across different spatial scales
Andres Felipe Suarez-Castro, Dale M. Robertson, Bernhard Lehner, Marcelo L. de Souza, Michael Kittridge, David A. Saad, Simon Linke, Rich W. McDowell, Mohammad H. Ranjbar, Olivier Ausseil, David P. Hamilton
2024, Water Research (268)
Decision makers are often confronted with inadequate information to predict nutrient loads and yields in freshwater ecosystems at large spatial scales. We evaluate the potential of using data mapped at large spatial scales (regional to global) and often coarse resolution to predict nitrogen yields at varying smaller scales (e.g., at...
Simulating present and future groundwater/surface-water interactions and stream temperatures in Beaver Creek, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Andrew T. Leaf, Megan J. Haserodt, Benjamin E. Meyer, Stephen, M. Westenbroek, Joshua C. Koch
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5126
In many places, coldwater ecosystems are facing increasing pressure from anthropogenic warming. This study examined stream temperatures and the water balance in the Beaver Creek watershed on the Kenai Peninsula in south-central Alaska—an area that is experiencing rapid warming. Low-gradient streams near the Kenai coast provide important spawning and rearing...
Wolf harvest management strategy evaluation: Annual Report, 2024
Hannah A. Sipe, Sarah Nelson Sells, Justin A. Gude, Kevin M. Podruzny, Molly Parks
2024, Report
Wolf harvest season setting is complicated and controversial. State law requires Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP) to both reduce the wolf population and avoid federal relisting under the Endangered Species Act (Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, 2002). Disparate stakeholder groups each have different objectives for wolf management. For instance,...
Large differences in herbivore performance emerge from simple herbivore behaviors and fine-scale spatial heterogeneity in phytochemistry
Vincent S. Pan, Enakshi Ghosh, Paul J. Ode, William C. Wetzel, Kadeem J. Gilbert, Ian S. Pearse
2024, Ecology Letters (28)
Patterns of phytochemistry localisation in plant tissues are diverse within and across leaves. These spatial heterogeneities are important to the fitness of herbivores, but their effects on herbivore foraging and dietary experience remain elusive. We manipulated the spatial variance and clusteredness of a plant toxin in a...
Environmental DNA reveals invasion of Puerto Rican waterways by non-native Clarias catfish
Robert T. Paine, Mark W. Rogers, Amanda E. Rosenberger
2024, Cooperator Science Series CSS-164-2024
The Sharptooth walking catfish (Clarias gariepinus) is native to parts of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa but is one of the world's most invasive freshwater fish species. The species’ ability to invade is partly due to its ability to breathe atmospheric oxygen, thereby avoiding hypoxia or poor water quality...
Preliminary ground and airborne-based geophysical mapping and modelling of an active hydrothermal system at Mammoth Lakes, California
Jacob Elliott Anderson, Jonathan M.G. Glen, Claire Bouligand, Grant Harold Rea-Downing, Tait E. Earney
2024, Conference Paper, Using the Earth to Save the Earth
Mammoth Lakes, California hosts a productive hydrothermal system within the seismically active south moat of Long Valley Caldera. Surficial evidence of the shallow hydrothermal system includes discrete zones of tree-kill dispersed between Shady Rest Park and the Casa Diablo Geothermal Power Plant (40 MW), as well as east of the...
Don’t move a mussel: The role of key environmental drivers and management scale in assessing spatial variation in dreissenid spread risk in the Missouri River Basin
Joseph Raymond, Lucas Bair, Timothy D. Counihan, Wesley Daniel, Sofie Duntugan, Matthew Neilson, Michael R. Springborn
2024, Ecological Indicators (170)
The spread of non-native freshwater mussels in North America is a growing threat that has already resulted in substantial ecological and economic damage to infested areas. A primary vector by which invasive mussels spread is watercraft that are transported over land from an infested waterbody to an uninfested waterbody. Management...
The endangered Caney Mountain cave crayfish: A preliminary study of its habitat with brief life history notes
Emila A. Ellingsworth, R.J. DiStefano, Jacob Thomas Westhoff, B.M. O'Brian
2024, Freshwater Crayfish (29) 121-132
The stygobitic Caney Mountain cave crayfish, Orconectes stygocaneyi, is among the rarest crayfish species in North America. It is known only from Mud Cave, a small linear cave on the 3,200 ha Caney Mountain Conservation Area in Ozark County, Missouri. The species is listed as “Endangered” by the state of...
Hydrologic investigations and a preliminary conceptual model of the groundwater system at North Penn Area 1 Superfund Site, Souderton, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Lisa A. Senior, Dennis W. Risser, Daniel J. Goode, Philip H. Bird
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1080
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted hydrogeologic investigations, reviewed existing data, and developed a preliminary conceptual model of the groundwater system as part of technical support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the North Penn Area 1 Superfund Site (hereafter, the NP1 Site) located within the Borough of...
Geologic map of Scoggins Dam, Henry Hagg Lake, and Scoggins Valley, Washington County, Oregon
Ray E. Wells, Scott E.K. Bennett, Joanna R. Redwine, Lydia M. Staisch, Christopher S. Holm-Denoma, Shannon A. Mahan
2024, Scientific Investigations Map 3528
New geologic mapping (Wells and others, 2020b) and geophysical mapping (Blakely and others, 2000; McPhee and others, 2014; Wells and others, 2020a) document kilometers of Cenozoic right-lateral offset along the Gales Creek Fault Zone, a major, northwest-striking fault zone forming the boundary between the Tualatin Valley and the Coast Range....
Dynamic treeline and cryosphere response to pronounced mid-Holocene climatic variability in the US Rocky Mountains
Gregory T. Pederson, Daniel Stahle, David B McWethy, Matthew Toohey, Johann Jungclaus, Craig Lee, Justin Martin, Mio Alt, Nickolas E. Kichas, Nathan J. Chellman, Joseph R. McConnell, Cathy Whitlock
2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (122)
Climate-driven changes in high-elevation forest distribution and reductions in snow and ice cover have major implications for ecosystems and global water security. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem of the Rocky Mountains (United States), recent melting of a high-elevation (3,091 m asl) ice patch exposed a mature stand of whitebark pine...
The MIEM guidelines: Minimum information for reporting of environmental metabarcoding data
Katy E. Klymus, Jacoby D. Baker, Cathryn L. Abbott, Rachel J. Brown, Joseph M. Craine, Zachary Gold, Margaret Hunter, Mark D. Johnson, Devin Nicole Jones-Slobodian, Michelle J. Jungbluth, Sean P. Jungbluth, Yer Lor, Aaron P. Maloy, Christopher M. Merkes, Rachel T. Noble, Nastassia V. Patin, Adam Sepulveda, Stephen Frank Spear, Joshua A. Steele, Miwa Takahashi, Alison W. Watts, Susanna Theroux
2024, Metabarcoding and Metagenomics (8)
Environmental DNA (eDNA) and RNA (eRNA) metabarcoding has become a popular tool for assessing biodiversity from environmental samples, but inconsistent documentation of methods, data and metadata makes results difficult to reproduce and synthesise. A working group of scientists have collaborated to produce a set...
Unburned habitat essential for amphibian breeding persistence following wildfire
Larissa L. Bailey, Rick Henderson, Wendy A. Estes-Zumpf, Charles C. Rhoades, Ellie Miller, Dominique R. Lujan, Erin L. Muths
2024, Global Ecology and Conservation (57)
Wildfire regimes are changing rapidly with widespread increase in the intensity, frequency, and duration of fire activity, especially in the western United States. Limited studies explore the impacts of wildfires on aquatic taxa and few focus on lentic habitats that are essential for amphibians, many of which are of conservation...
Investigation of land cover within wetland complexes at Dixie Meadows, Churchill County, Nevada, from October 2015 to January 2022
Joel B. Sankey, Nathaniel Bransky, Joshua Caster
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1029
The U.S. Geological Survey investigated land cover at subannual time steps within six wetland areas in Dixie Valley, Churchill County, Nevada, from October 2015 to January 2022. As requested by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, we used aerial photography and satellite remote sensing data to map surface water and...
Counting the chorus: A bioacoustic indicator of population density
Amanda K Navine, Richard J. Camp, Matthew J Weldy, Tom Denton, Patrick J. Hart
2024, Ecology Indicators (169)
Passive acoustic monitoring has grown in utility for tracking wildlife populations, although challenges remain when using acoustic detections to monitor population size and density. Distance sampling is considered the ‘gold standard’ for estimating animal densities but has several important limitations, especially for rare, cryptic, and high-density species. Here, we test...
