Science to support conservation action in a large river system: The Willamette River, Oregon, USA
Rebecca L. Flitcroft, Luke Whitman, James White, J. Rose Wallick, Laurel E. Stratton Garvin, Cassandra Smith, Robert Plotnikoff, Michael Mulvey, Tobias J. Kock, Krista Jones, Peter Gruendike, Carolyn Gombert, Guillermo Giannico, Andrew Dutterer, Daniel G. Brown, Hannah Barrett, Robert M. Hughes
2023, Water Biology and Security (2)
Management and conservation efforts that support the recovery and protection of large rivers are daunting, reflecting the complexity of the challenge and extent of effort (in terms of policy, economic investment, and spatial extent) needed to afford measurable change. These...
Development of a Surface-Water Index of Permanence to assess surface-water availability for ecohydrological refugia
Alynn Martin, Roy Sando, Lindsey Thurman, Kyle McLean, Patrick Wurster, John Jones, Anteneh Sarbanes
2023, Fact Sheet 2023-3045
Surface-water availability has major implications for the environment and society in the 21st century. With climate change, increased drought severity, and altered water and land use, future water availability is predicted to continue to decline in many areas, including much of the western United States. An understanding of where and...
Unraveling mechnisms underlying effects of wetting–drying cycles on soil respiration in a dryland
Guopeng Liang, Sasha C. Reed, John M. Stark, Bonnie G. Waring
2023, Biogeochemistry (166) 23-37
Rewetting of dry soils usually stimulates soil carbon (C) emission, a phenomenon known as the Birch effect. Soil C cycling in drylands, which store approximately one third of terrestrial soil organic C (SOC), is strongly affected by wetting–drying cycles. However, the physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms...
Linking water use efficiency with water use strategy from leaves to communities
Jie Liang, Ken Krauss, John Finnigan, Hilary Stuart-Williams, Graham D. Farquhar, Marilyn C. Ball
2023, New Phytologist (240) 1735-1742
Limitations and utility of three measures of water use characteristics were evaluated: water use efficiency (WUE), intrinsic WUE and marginal water cost of carbon gain (aE/aA) estimated, respectively, as ratios of assimilation (A) to transpiration (E), of A to stomatal conductance (gs) and of sensitivities of E and A with variation in gs. Only the measure aE/aA estimates...
Mortality thresholds of juvenile trees to drought and heatwaves: Implications for forest regeneration across a landscape gradient
Alexadra Lalor, Darin J. Law, David D. Breshears, Donald A. Falk, Jason P. Field, Rachel A. Loehman, Jack Triepke, Greg A. Barron-Gafford
2023, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (6)
Tree loss is increasing rapidly due to drought- and heat-related mortality and intensifying fire activity. Consequently, the fate of many forests depends on the ability of juvenile trees to withstand heightened climate and disturbance anomalies. Extreme climatic events, such as droughts and heatwaves, are increasing in frequency and severity, and...
Geomorphic classification framework for assessing reproductive ecology of Scaphirhynchus albus (pallid sturgeon), Fort Peck segment, Upper Missouri River, Montana and North Dakota
Robert B. Jacobson, Caroline M. Elliott, Edward Bulliner
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5109
The segment of the Upper Missouri River between Fort Peck Dam and the headwaters of Lake Sakakawea is home to a population of the endangered Scaphirhynchus albus (pallid sturgeon). Lack of population growth (recruitment failure) has been attributed to inadequate dispersal distance of larvae between spawning locations and the headwaters...
Application of the Stream Salmonid Simulator (S3) model to assess fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) production in the American River, California
John M. Plumb, Russell W. Perry, Tyson W. Hatton, Collin D. Smith, John M. Hannon
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1060
Executive SummaryAnadromous fish returning to the lower American River are restricted to 36 kilometers of free-flowing river between Nimbus Dam and American River’s confluence with the Sacramento River, California. Salmon in the American River provide an important freshwater recreational fishery. However, annual salmon production in the American River in recent...
Bioavailability and toxicity models of copper to freshwater life: The state of regulatory science
Christopher A. Mebane
2023, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (42) 2529-2563
Efforts to incorporate bioavailability adjustments into regulatory water quality criteria in the United States have included four major procedures: hardness-based single-linear regression equations, water-effect ratios (WERs), biotic ligand models (BLMs), and multiple-linear regression models (MLRs) that use dissolved organic carbon, hardness, and pH. The...
Assay validation of saliva glucocorticoids in Columbia spotted frogs and effects of handling and marking
Brian J. Tornabene, Blake R. Hossack, Creagh W. Breuner
2023, Conservation Physiology Toolbox (11)
Non-invasive methods are important to the field of conservation physiology to reduce negative effects on organisms being studied. Glucocorticoid (GC) hormones are often used to assess health of individuals, but collection methods can be invasive. Many amphibians are imperiled worldwide, and saliva is a non- or semi-invasive matrix to measure...
Combining resilience and resistance with threat-based approaches for prioritizing management actions in sagebrush ecosystems
Jeanne C. Chambers, Jessi L. Brown, John B. Bradford, Kevin Doherty, Michele R. Crist, Daniel Rodolphe Schlaepfer, Alexandra K. Urza, Karen Short
2023, Conservation Science and Practice (5)
The sagebrush biome is a dryland region in the western United States experiencing rapid transformations to novel ecological states. Threat-based approaches for managing anthropogenic and ecosystem threats have recently become prominent, but successfully mitigating threats depends on the ecological resilience of ecosystems. We used a...
Does release size into net-pens affect survival of captively reared juvenile endangered suckers in Upper Klamath Lake?
John Michael Caldwell, Summer M. Burdick, Jacob Richard Krause, Alta C. Harris
2023, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (43) 1322-1336
ObjectiveHigh juvenile mortality prevents recruitment into the adult populations of endangered Shortnose Sucker Chasmistes brevirostris and Lost River Sucker Deltistes luxatus in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. To address the lack of recruitment, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service implemented the Sucker Assisted Rearing Program (SARP). Managers developing the rearing program lack...
Influences of landscape composition on hunter-harvested mallard body mass and condition in eastern Arkansas
John T. Veon, David G. Krementz, Luke W. Naylor, Brett Alexander DeGregorio
2023, The Journal of Wildlife Management (88)
Waterfowl with more body mass and a greater body condition during the non-breeding season are thought to be more likely to survive and have increased productivity during the following breeding season. Body mass and body condition in waterfowl should reflect the resources available to them locally. We analyzed the relationship...
Comparing snowpack meteorological inputs to support regional wet snow avalanche forecasting
Zachary Miller, Simon Horton, Christoph Mitterer, Erich H. Peitzsch
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings, International Snow Science Workshop 2023
Wet snow avalanches are predicted to increase in frequency with climate change and are often difficult to forecast. Improving our understanding of wet snow avalanche timing will help with current forecasting challenges. The onset of wet snow avalanching is closely tied to the temporal progression of liquid water flow through...
Temporal evolution of slab and weak layer properties during the transition from dry to wet snowpack conditions
Josh Lipkowitz, Erich H. Peitzsch, Jean Dixon, Marcus Kalb, Douglas McCabe, Griffin Ditmar, Christoph Mitterer
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings, International Snow Science Workshop 2023
Wet-snow slab avalanches are destructive and may become more prevalent in a warming climate. This type of avalanche remains challenging to forecast because the underlying processes leading to wet-snow slab avalanche release are poorly understood. In this study, we examine the temporal evolution of weak layer and slab liquid water...
The effects of landscape and yard features on mammal diversity in residential yards within Northwest Arkansas, USA
Emily P. Johansson, Brett Alexander DeGregorio
2023, Urban Ecosystems (27) 275-287
The human footprint is rapidly expanding, and wildlife habitat is continuously being converted to human residential properties. Surviving wildlife that reside in developing areas are displaced to nearby undeveloped areas. However, some animals can co-exist with humans and acquire the necessary resources (food, water, shelter) within the human environment. This...
Long-term changes in concentrations and yield of riverine dissolved silicon from the poles to the tropics
Kathi Jo Jankowski, Keira Johnson, Lienne R. Sethna, Paul Julian, Adam S. Wymore, Arial J. Shogren, Patrick Thomas, Pamela L. Sullivan, Diane M. McKnight, William H. McDowell, Ruth C. Heindel, Jeremy B. Jones, Wilfred M. Wollheim, Benjamin Abbott, Linda A. Deegan, Joanna C. Carey
2023, Global Biogeochemical Cycles (37)
Riverine exports of silicon (Si) influence global carbon cycling through the growth of marine diatoms, which account for ∼25% of global primary production. Climate change will likely alter river Si exports in biome-specific ways due to interacting shifts in chemical weathering rates, hydrologic connectivity, and metabolic processes in aquatic and...
High-frequency variability of carbon dioxide fluxes in tidal water over a temperate salt marsh
Shuzhen Song, Zhaohui Aleck Wang, Kevin D. Kroeger, Meagan J. Eagle, Sophie N. Chu, Jianzhong Ge
2023, Limnology & Oceanography (68) 2108-2125
Existing analyses of salt marsh carbon budgets rarely quantify carbon loss as CO2 through the air–water interface in inundated marshes. This study estimates the variability of partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) and air–water CO2 fluxes over summer and fall of 2014 and 2015 using high-frequency measurements of tidal water pCO2 in a salt marsh of...
Bathymetric contour maps, surface area and capacity tables, and bathymetric change maps for selected water-supply lakes in northeastern Missouri, 2021
Benjamin C. Rivers, Richard J. Huizinga, Joseph M. Richards, Garett J. Waite
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5108
Bathymetric data were collected at 12 water-supply lakes in northeastern Missouri by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MoDNR) and various local agencies, as part of a multiyear effort to establish or update the surface area and capacity tables for the surveyed...
Long-term trends in Arctic riverine chemistry signal multi-faceted northern change
Suzanne E. Tank, James W. McClelland, Robert G. M. Spencer, Alexander I. Shiklomanov, Anya Suslova, Florentina Moatar, Rainer Amon, Lee W. Cooper, Greg Elias, Vyacheslav Gordeev, Christopher Guay, Tatiana Gurtovaya, Lyudmila Kosmenko, Edda A. Mutter, Bruce Peterson, Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink, Peter Raymond, Paul Schuster, Lindsay Scott, Robin Staples, Robert G. Striegl, Mikhail Tretiakov, Alexander V. Zhulidov, Nikita Zimov, Sergey Zimov, Robert M. Holmes
2023, Nature Geoscience (16) 789-796
Rivers integrate processes occurring throughout their watersheds and are therefore sentinels of change across broad spatial scales. River chemistry also regulates ecosystem function across Earth’s land–ocean continuum, exerting control from the micro- (for example, local food web) to the macro- (for example, global carbon cycle) scale. In the rapidly warming...
Predation of invasive silver carp by native largemouth bass is size-selective in the Illinois River
Eli G. Lampo, Jonathan M. Vallazza, Cory A. Anderson, Levi E. Solomon, Richard M. Pendleton, Toby J. Holda, James T. Lamer
2023, Scientific Reports (13)
Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) are a nonnative, planktivorous, and highly invasive species of cyprinid located throughout the Mississippi River Basin. Although they co-occur with largemouth bass (Micropterus nigricans), an abundant native predatory fish, their predator–prey relationship is poorly understood. This potential relationship warrants investigation as largemouth...
Wide-area debris field and seabed characterization of a deep ocean dump site surveyed by autonomous underwater vehicles
Sophia T. Merrifield, Sean Celona, Ryan A. McCarthy, Andrew Pietruszka, Heidi Batchelor, Robert Hess, Andrew Nager, Raymond Young, Kurt Sadorf, Lisa A. Levin, David L. Valentine, James E. Conrad, Eric J. Terrill
2023, Environmental Science and Technology (57) 18162-18171
Disposal of industrial and hazardous waste in the deep ocean was a pervasive global practice near coastlines in the 20th century. Uncertainty in the quantity, location, and contents of dumped materials at historical disposal sites underscores ongoing risks to marine ecosystems and human health. This study presents analysis of a...
HABs and HAB nots: Dynamics of phytoplankton blooms across similar oligotrophic reservoirs
Christina Amy Murphy, Amanda M.M. Pollock, Ivan Arismendi, Sherri L. Johnson
2023, Limnologica - Ecology and Management of Inland Waters (103)
Increasing frequency and intensity of cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) threaten human and aquatic ecosystem health. Improving our understanding of HABs across a range of systems will be critical to understanding and potentially minimizing risk, especially where HABs are occurring in less productive and less studied waterbodies. Here, the characteristics and annual dynamics of phytoplankton communities...
Reimagining large river management using the Resist–Accept–Direct (RAD) framework in the Upper Mississippi River
Nicole K. Ward, Abigail Lynch, Erik A. Beever, Joshua Booker, Kristen L. Bouska, Holly Susan Embke, John F. Kocik, Joshua Kocik, Mary Grace T. Lemon, David J. Lawrence, Douglas Limpinsel, Madeline Magee, Bryan M. Maitland, Owen P. McKenna, Andrew R. Meier, John M. Morton, Jeffrey Muehlbauer, Robert Newman, Devon C. Oliver, Heidi M. Rantala, Greg G. Sass, Aaron D. Shultz, Laura Thompson, Jennifer L. Wilkening
2023, Ecological Processes (12)
BackgroundLarge-river decision-makers are charged with maintaining diverse ecosystem services through unprecedented social-ecological transformations as climate change and other global stressors intensify. The interconnected, dendritic habitats of rivers, which often demarcate jurisdictional boundaries, generate complex management challenges. Here, we explore how the Resist–Accept–Direct (RAD) framework may enhance large-river management...
Monitoring sediment transport pathways from an artificial nearshore berm, South Padre Island, Texas, USA, August 2018 to November 2019: Implications for coastal management
Darwin Ockerman, Douglas James Schnoebelen, Jack Poleykett, Patrick L. Friend, Coraggio K. Maglio, Kristina Boburka
2023, Journal of Sea Research (196)
During August 2018 – November 2019, the transport pathways of dredge material from a specially constructed nearshore feeder berm were investigated as part of a collaborative study by the City of South Padre Island, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers–Galveston District, U.S. Geological Survey, Partrac GeoMarine Inc., and Texas A&M University, into...
One byte at a time: Gathering best practices, guidelines, and resources for data standards to support ocean exploration and characterization
Kasey Cantwell, Amanda Demopoulos, Mitchell G. Hebner, Rachel Medley, Mark Mueller, Amanda N. Netburn
2023, Frontiers in Marine Science (10)
Initiated through Presidential direction and now codified, the National Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization (NOMEC) Council comprises leaders from U.S. federal agencies with a shared goal of mapping all waters of the United States and exploring and characterizing priority areas. The NOMEC Council’s two Interagency Working Groups, Ocean and...
