Discovery and genomic characterization of a novel hepadnavirus from asymptomatic anadromous alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus)
Clayton D Raines, Jan Lovy, Nicolas B.D. Phelps, Sunil Mor, Terry Ng, Luke Iwanowicz
2024, Viruses (16)
The alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) is an anadromous herring that inhabits waters of northeastern North America. This prey species is a critical forage for piscivorous birds, mammals, and fishes in estuarine and oceanic ecosystems. During a discovery project tailored to identify potentially emerging pathogens of this species, we obtained the...
Earthquake cycle mechanics during caldera collapse: Simulating the 2018 Kīlauea eruption
Joshua Allen Crozier, Kyle R. Anderson
2024, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth (129)
In multiple observed caldera-forming eruptions, the rock overlying a draining magma reservoir dropped downward along ring faults in sequences of discrete collapse earthquakes. These sequences are analogous to tectonic earthquake cycles and provide opportunities to examine fault mechanics and collapse eruption dynamics over multiple events. Collapse earthquake...
Evaluating the effectiveness of joint species distribution modeling for fresh water fish communities within large watersheds
Paul McLaughlin, Kevin Krause, Kelly O. Maloney, Taylor E Woods, Tyler Wagner
2024, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
Accurately predicting species’ distributions is critical for the management and conservation of fish and wildlife populations. Joint Species Distribution Models (JSDMs) account for dependencies between species often ignored by traditional species distribution models. We evaluated how a JSDM approach could improve predictive strength for stream fish communities within large watersheds...
Why do avian responses to change in Arctic green-up vary?
Eveling A. Tavera, David B. Lank, David C. Douglas, Brett K. Sandercock, Richard B. Lanctot, Niels M. Schmidt, Jeroen Reneerkens, David H. Ward, Joel Bety, Eunbi Kwon, Nicolas Lecomte, Cheri L Gratto-Trevor, Paul A. Smith, Willow B. English, Sarah T. Saalfeld, Stephen C. Brown, H. River Gates, Erica Nol, Joseph R. Liebezeit, Rebecca L. McGuire, Laura McKinnon, Steve Kendall, Martin D. Robards, Megan Boldenow, David C. Payer, Jennie Rausch, Mikhail Soloviev, Diana V. Solovyeva, Steve Zack, Jordyn Stalwick, Kirsty E. B. Gurney
2024, Article
Global climate change has altered the timing of seasonal events (i.e., phenology) for a diverse range of biota. Within and among species, however, the degree to which alterations in phenology match climate variability differ substantially. To better understand factors driving these differences, we evaluated...
Pockmarks offshore Big Sur, California provide evidence for recurrent, regional, and unconfined sediment gravity flows
E. Lundsten, Charles K. Paull, R. Gwiazda, S. Dobbs, D.W. Caress, Linda A. Kuhnz, M. Walton, N. Nieminski, Mary McGann, Thomas Lorenson, Guy R. Cochrane, Jason A. Addison
2024, Journal of Geophysical Research, Earth Surface (129)
Recent surface ship multibeam surveys of the Sur Pockmark Field, offshore Central California, reveal >5,000 pockmarks in an area that is slated to host a wind farm, between 500- and 1,500-m water depth. Extensive fieldwork was conducted to characterize the seafloor environment and its recent geologic history,...
Chronic wasting disease alters the movement behavior and habitat use of mule deer during clinical stages of infection
Gabriel M. Barrile, Paul Cross, Cheynne Stewart, Jennifer L. Malmberg, Rhiannon P. Jakopak, Justin Binfet, Kevin Montieth, Brandon Werner, Jessica Jennings-Gaines, JA Merkle
2024, Ecology and Evolution (14)
Integrating host movement and pathogen data is a central issue in wildlife disease ecology that will allow for a better understanding of disease transmission. We examined how adult female mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) responded behaviorally to infection with chronic wasting disease (CWD). We compared...
Development and validation of a GT-seq panel for genetic monitoring in a threatened species using minimally invasive sampling
Molly J. Garrett, Stacey A. Nerkowski, Shannon Kieran, Nathan R. Campbell, Soraia Barbosa, Courtney J. Conway, Paul A. Hohenlohe, Lisette P. Waits
2024, Ecology and Evolution (14)
Minimally invasive samples are often the best option for collecting genetic material from species of conservation concern, but they perform poorly in many genomic sequencing methods due to their tendency to yield low DNA quality and quantity. Genotyping-in-thousands by sequencing (GT-seq) is a powerful amplicon sequencing method that can genotype...
Resilience is not enough: Toward a more meaningful rangeland adaptation science
Hailey Wilmer, Daniel B. Ferguson, Maude Dinan, Eric Thacker, Peter B. Adler, Kathryn Bills Walsh, John B. Bradford, Mark Brunson, Justin D. Derner, Emile Elias, Andrew J Felton, Curtis A. Gray, Christina Greene, Mitchel P McClaran, Robert K. Shriver, Mitch Stephenson, Katharine Nash Suding
2024, Rangeland Ecology & Management (95) 56-67
Rangeland ecosystems, and their managers, face the growing urgency of climate change impacts. Researchers are therefore seeking integrative social-ecological frameworks that can enhance adaptation by managers to these climate change dynamics through tighter linkages among multiple scientific disciplines and manager contexts. Social-ecological framings, including resilience and vulnerability, are popular in...
Updated range map of an endangered salamander and congeneric competitor reveals different niche preferences
Jo Avital Werba, David A. W. Miller, Adrianne Brand, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2024, Ecology and Evolution (14)
Estimating distributions for cryptic and highly range-restricted species induces unique challenges for species distribution modeling. In particular, bioclimatic covariates that are typically used to model species ranges at regional and continental scales may not show strong variation at scales of 100s and 10s of meters. This limits both the likelihood...
Accuracy, accessibility, and institutional capacity shape the utility of habitat models for managing and conserving rare plants on western public lands
Ella M. Samuel, Jennifer K. Meineke, Laine E. McCall, Lea B. Selby, Alison C. Foster, Zoe M. Davidson, Carol A. Dawson, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Sarah K. Carter
2024, Conservation Science and Practice
Public lands are often managed for multiple uses ranging from energy development to rare plant conservation. Habitat models can help land managers assess and mitigate potential effects of projects on rare plants, but it is unclear how models are currently being used. Our goal was...
Effects of episodic stream dewatering on brook trout spatial population structure
Nathaniel Hitt, Karli M Rogers, Karmann G. Kessler, Martin Briggs, Jennifer Burlingame Hoyle Fair, Andrew C. Dolloff
2024, Freshwater Biology (69) 1027-1041
Stream dewatering is expected to become more prevalent due to climate change, and we explored the potential consequences for brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) within a temperate forest ecosystem in eastern North America.We estimated fish density within stream pools (n = 386) from electrofishing surveys over 10 years...
The dominance and growth of shallow groundwater resources in continuous permafrost environments
Joshua C. Koch, Craig T. Connolly, Carson Baughman, Marisa Repasch, Heather Best, Andrew Hunt
2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (121)
Water is a limited resource in Arctic watersheds with continuous permafrost because freezing conditions in winter and the impermeability of permafrost limit storage and connectivity between surface water and deep groundwater. However, groundwater can still be an important source of surface water in such settings, feeding springs...
Metal mobilization from thawing permafrost to aquatic ecosystems is driving rusting of Arctic streams
Jonathan A. O'Donnell, Michael P. Carey, Joshua C. Koch, Carson Baughman, Kenneth Hill, Christian E. Zimmerman, Patrick F. Sullivan, Roman J. Dial, Timothy J. Lyons, David J. Cooper, Brett A. Poulin
2024, Communications Earth and Environment (5)
Climate change in the Arctic is altering watershed hydrologic processes and biogeochemistry. Here, we present an emergent threat to Arctic watersheds based on observations from 75 streams in Alaska’s Brooks Range that recently turned orange, reflecting increased loading of iron and toxic metals. Using remote sensing,...
Geographic drivers of mercury entry into aquatic food webs revealed by mercury stable isotopes in dragonfly larvae
Sarah E. Janssen, Christopher James Kotalik, James Willacker, Michael T. Tate, Colleen M Flanagan-Pritz, Sarah Nelson, David P. Krabbenhoft, David Walters, Collin Eagles-Smith
2024, Environmental Science and Technology
Atmospheric mercury (Hg) emissions and subsequent transport and deposition are major concerns within protected lands, including national parks, where Hg can bioaccumulate to levels detrimental to human and wildlife health. Despite this risk to biological resources, there is limited understanding of the relative importance of different Hg sources and delivery...
To mix or not to mix: Details of magma storage, recharge, and remobilization during the Pacheco stage at Misti Volcano, Peru (≤21–2 ka)
Marie K. Takach, Frank J. III Tepley, Christopher Harpel, Rigoberto Aguilar, Marco Rivera
2024, Journal of Petrology (65)
We investigate ten of the most recent tephra-fall deposits emplaced between ≤21–2 ka from the Pacheco stage of Misti volcano, Peru, to elucidate magma dynamics and explosive eruption triggers related to magma storage, recharge, and remobilization. Whole-rock, glass, and mineral textures and compositions indicate the presence of broadly felsic, intermediate,...
Debris-flow entrainment modelling under climate change: Considering antecedent moisture conditions along the flow path
Anna Könz, Jacob Hirschberg, Brian McArdell, Benjamin B. Mirus, Tjalling de Haas, Perry Bartelt, Peter Molnar
2024, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms
Debris-flow volumes can increase along their flow path by entraining sediment stored in the channel bed and banks, thus also increasing hazard potential. Theoretical considerations, laboratory experiments and field investigations all indicate that the saturation conditions of the sediment along the flow path can...
Reservoir evolution, downstream sediment transport, downstream channel change, and synthesis of geomorphic responses of Fall Creek and Middle Fork Willamette River to water years 2012–18 streambed drawdowns at Fall Creek Lake, Oregon
Mackenzie K. Keith, J. Rose Wallick, Liam N. Schenk, Laurel E. Stratton Garvin, Gabriel W. Gordon, Heather M. Bragg
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5135
Executive SummaryChapter A. IntroductionFall Creek Dam impounds Fall Creek Lake, a 10-kilometer-long reservoir in western Oregon and is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) primarily for flood-risk management (or flood control) in late autumn through early spring months, as well as for water quality, irrigation, recreation, and...
Zebra and Quagga mussels in the United States—Dreissenid mussel research by the U.S. Geological Survey
Cayla R. Morningstar, Patrick M. Kočovský, Michael E. Colvin, Timothy D. Counihan, Wesley M. Daniel, Peter C. Esselman, Cathy A. Richter, Adam Sepulveda, Diane L. Waller
2024, Fact Sheet 2024-3009
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) delivers high-quality data, technologies, and decision-support tools to help managers both reduce existing populations and control the spread of dreissenid mussels. The USGS researches ecology, biology, risk assessment, and early detection and rapid response methods; provides decision support; and develops and tests control measures....
Restoring blue carbon ecosystems
Daniel A. Friess, Zoë I. Shribman, Milica Stankovic, Naima Iram, Melissa Millman Baustian, Carolyn J. Ewers Lewis
2024, Cambridge Prisms: Coastal Futures (2)
Mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses have experienced extensive historical reduction in extent due to direct and indirect effects of anthropogenic land use change. Habitat loss has contributed carbon emissions and led to foregone opportunities for carbon sequestration, which are disproportionately large due to high ‘blue carbon’ stocks and sequestration rates...
Distribution and abundance of Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii extimus) on the Upper San Luis Rey River, San Diego County, California—2023 data summary
Scarlett L. Howell, Barbara E. Kus
2024, Data Report 1194
Executive SummaryWe surveyed for Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii extimus; flycatcher) along the upper San Luis Rey River near Lake Henshaw in Santa Ysabel, California, in 2023. Surveys were completed at four locations: three downstream from Lake Henshaw, where surveys previously occurred from 2015 to 2022 (Rey River Ranch [RRR],...
Modeling coupled dynamics of an empirical predator-prey system to predict top predator recovery
Samantha N. M. Hamilton, M. T. Tinker, Joseph Jackson, Joseph A. Tomoleoni, Michael C. Kenner, Julie L. Yee, Tomoko Bell, Max C. N. Castorani, Benjamin H. Becker, Brent B. Hughes
2024, Biological Conservation (294) 110623
Limited data, time, and funding lead conservation managers to make difficult choices in managing species recovery. Coupled dynamical models are relied upon for decision support, but their application to empirical predator-prey systems has generally been restricted to small, tractable species. To broaden their use in conservation decision-making, we developed a...
Tool use increases mechanical foraging success and tooth health in southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis)
Chris J. Law, M. Tim Tinker, Jessica A. Fujii, Teri Nicholson, Michelle M. Staedler, Joseph A. Tomoleoni, Colleen Young, Rita S. Mehta
2024, Science (384) 798-802
Although tool use may enhance resource utilization, its fitness benefits are difficult to measure. By examining longitudinal data from 196 radio-tagged southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis), we found that tool-using individuals, particularly females, gained access to larger and/or harder-shelled prey. These mechanical advantages translated to reduced tooth damage during...
Considerations and challenges in support of science and communication of fish consumption advisories for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances
Jonathan M. Petali, Erin L. Pulster, Chris McCarthy, Heidi M. Pickard, lsie M. Sunderland, Jacqueline T. Bangma, Anna R. Robuck, Courtney Carignan, Kathryn A. Crawford, Megan E. Romano, Rainer Lohmann, Katherine E. von Stackelberg
2024, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management
Federal, state, tribal, or local entities in the United States issue fish consumption advisories (FCAs) as guidance for safer consumption of locally caught fish containing contaminants. Fish consumption advisories have been developed for commonly detected compounds such as mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls. The existing...
U.S. Geological Survey data strategy 2023–33
Vivian B. Hutchison, Thomas E. Burley, Kyle W. Blasch, Paul E. Exter, Gregory L. Gunther, Aaron J. Shipman, Courtney M. Kelley, Cheryl A. Morris
2024, Circular 1517
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has long recognized the strategic importance and value of well-managed data assets as an integral component of scientific integrity and foundational to the advancement of scientific research, decision making, and public safety. The USGS investment in the science lifecycle, including collection of unbiased data assets,...
Sight and blindness: The relationship between ostracod eyes, water depth, and light availability in the Arctic Ocean
Jingwen Zhang, Moriaki Yasuhara, Chih-Lin Wei, Skye Yunshu Tian, Kyawt K. T. Aye, Laura Gemery, Thomas M. Cronin, Peter Frenzel, David J. Horne
2024, Limnology and Oceanography (69) 1418-1428
Eye loss has been a long-standing interest in evolutionary biology. Many organisms that inhabit environments without light penetration, for example the deep sea, exhibit eye loss and thus become blind. However, water-depth distribution of eyes in marine organisms is poorly understood. Ostracods are widely distributed crustaceans, and many sighted marine...
