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Publications

These publications showcase the significant science conducted in our Science Centers.

Filter Total Items: 16780

Water salinity and inundation control soil carbon decomposition during salt marsh restoration: An incubation experiment

Coastal wetlands are a significant carbon (C) sink since they store carbon in anoxic soils. This ecosystem service is impacted by hydrologic alteration and management of these coastal habitats. Efforts to restore tidal flow to former salt marshes have increased in recent decades and are generally associated with alteration of water inundation levels and salinity. This study examined the effect of
Authors
Faming Wang, Kevin D. Kroeger, Meagan Gonneea Eagle, John W. Pohlman, Jianwu Tang

Size-specific apparent survival rate estimates of white sharks using mark-recapture models

For species that exist at low abundance or are otherwise difficult to study, it is challenging to estimate vital rates such as survival and fecundity and common to assume that survival rates are constant across ages and sexes. Population assessments based on overly simplistic vital rates can lead to erroneous conclusions. We estimated sex and length-based annual apparent survival rates for white s
Authors
Paul E. Kanive, Jay J. Rotella, S. J. Jorgensen, T. K. chapple, James E. Hines, S.D. Anderson, B. A. Block

Enhancement of primary production during drought in a temperate watershed is greater in larger rivers than headwater streams

Drought is common in rivers, yet how this disturbance regulates metabolic activity across network scales is largely unknown. Drought often lowers gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) in small headwaters but by contrast can enhance GPP and cause algal blooms in downstream estuaries. We estimated ecosystem metabolism across a nested network of 13 reaches from headwaters to t
Authors
Jacob D. Hosen, Kelly S. Aho, Alison P. Appling, E.C. Creech, Jennifer H Fair, Robert O Jr. Hall, Ethan Kyzivat, Rachel Lowenthal, Serena Matt, Jonathan Morrison, James E. Saiers, James B. Shanley, Lisa Weber, Bryan Yoon, Peter A. Raymond

Explaining harvests of wild-harvested herbaceous plants: American ginseng as a case study

Wild-harvested plants face increasing demand globally. As in many fisheries, monitoring the effect of harvesting on the size and trajectory of resource stocks presents many challenges given often limited data from disparate sources. Here we analyze American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.) harvests from 18 states in the eastern U.S. 1978–2014 to infer temporal patterns and evidence of population d
Authors
John Paul Schmidt, Jennifer Cruse-Sanders, James L. Chamberlain, Susana Ferreira, John A. Young

Identifying natural and anthropogenic variability of uranium at the well scale, Homestake Superfund site, near Milan, New Mexico, USA

The San Mateo Creek Basin in New Mexico, USA is located within the Grants Mineral Belt-an area with numerous uranium (U) ore deposits, mines, and milling operations. Six monitoring wells set in an alluvial aquifer near the Homestake Mining Co. Superfund site in the lower San Mateo Creek Basin were logged with a suite of borehole geophysical tools including spectral gamma-ray (SGR), vertically prof
Authors
Philip T. Harte, Johanna M. Blake, Jonathan V. Thomas, Kent Becher

A vision for documenting and sharing knowledge in conservation

As editors, we mark the launch of Conservation Science and Practice, a journal of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), with the following remarks framing the purpose and aspirations of the journal. Our aim is to share scholarship on and experiences of the practice of conservation. We define conservation practice as the application of conservation principles or theory across conservation iss
Authors
Mark W. Schwartz, Dyhia Belhabib, Duan Biggs, Carly N. Cook, James Fitzsimmons, Anthony J. Giordano, Louise Glew, Sara Gottlieb, Gustavo Kattan, Andrew T. Knight, Carolyn J. Lundquist, Antony J. Lynam, Yuta J. Masuda, Tuyeni H. Mwampamba, Ana Nuno, Andrew J. Plumptre, Justina C. Ray, Sheila M. Reddy, Michael C. Runge

Critical review: Grand challenges in assessing the adverse effects of contaminants of emerging concern on aquatic food webs

Much progress has been made in the past few decades in understanding the sources, transport, fate, and biological effects of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in aquatic ecosystems. Despite these advancements, significant obstacles still prevent comprehensive assessments of the environmental risks associated with the presence of CECs. Many of these obstacles center around the extrapolation o
Authors
Elena Nilsen, Kelly L. Smalling, Lutz Ahrens, Meritxell Gros, Karina S. B. Miglioranza, Yolanda Picó, Heiko L. Schoenfuss

The missing dead: The lost role of animal remains in nutrient cycling in North American Rivers

While leaf litter, wood, and other plant remnants are known to play a central role in lotic ecosystems, animal remains (carcasses, bones, shells) have received less attention. We propose a simple classification scheme for animal remains in rivers based on origin (authochthonous vs. allochthonous) and frequency (pulsed vs continuous). We then present case studies in which we estimate the former bio
Authors
Seth J. Wenger, Amanda L. Subalusky, Mary Freeman

The evolutionary consequences for seawater performance and its hormonal control when anadromous Atlantic salmon become landlocked

Populations of anadromous fish have become landlocked in relatively recent geological history (
Authors
Stephen D. McCormick, Amy M. Regish, William R. Ardren, Björn Thrandur Björnsson, Nicholas J. Bernier

Partitioning global change: Assessing the relative importance of changes in climate and land cover for changes in avian distribution

Understanding the relative impact of climate change and land cover change on changes in avian distribution has implications for the future course of avian distributions and appropriate management strategies. Due to the dynamic nature of climate change, our goal was to investigate the processes that shape species distributions, rather than the current distributional patterns. To this end, we analyz
Authors
Matthew J. Clement, James D. Nichols, Jaime A. Collazo, Adam Terando, James E. Hines, Steven G. Williams

Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum prolonged by fossil carbon oxidation

A hallmark of the rapid and massive release of carbon during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum is the global negative carbon isotope excursion. The delayed recovery of the carbon isotope excursion, however, indicates that CO2 inputs continued well after the initial rapid onset, although there is no consensus about the source of this secondary carbon. Here we suggest this secondary input might
Authors
Shelby L. Lyons, Allison A. Baczynski, Tali L. Babila, Timothy J. Bralower, Elizabeth A. Hajek, Lee R. Kump, Ellen G. Polites, Jean Self-Trail, Sheila M. Trampush, Jamie R. Vornlocher, James C. Zachos, Katherine H. Freeman

Evaluating response distances to develop buffer zones for staging terns

Buffer zones, calculated by flight‐initiation distance (FID), are often used to reduce anthropogenic disturbances to wildlife, but FID can vary significantly across life‐history stages. We examined the behavioral effect of potential natural (gulls and shorebirds) and anthropogenic (pedestrians) disturbance sources to staging roseate (Sterna dougallii) and common tern (S. hirundo) flocks from July
Authors
Melissa A. Althouse, Jonathan B. Cohen, Sarah M. Karpanty, Jeffrey A. Spendelow, Kayla L. Davis, Katherine C. Parsons, Cristin F. Luttazi