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Publications

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

Filter Total Items: 16780

Brook trout passage performance through culverts

Culverts can restrict access to habitat for stream-dwelling fishes. We used passive integrated transponder telemetry to quantify passage performance of >1000 wild brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) attempting to pass 13 culverts in Quebec under a range of hydraulic and environmental conditions. Several variables influenced passage success, including complex interactions between physiology and beh
Authors
Elsa Goerig, Theodore R. Castro-Santos, Normand Bergeron

Quantifying the residence time and flushing characteristics of a shallow, back-barrier estuary: Application of hydrodynamic and particle tracking models

Estuarine residence time is a major driver of eutrophication and water quality. Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor (BB-LEH), New Jersey, is a lagoonal back-barrier estuary that is subject to anthropogenic pressures including nutrient loading, eutrophication, and subsequent declines in water quality. A combination of hydrodynamic and particle tracking modeling was used to identify the mechanisms contro
Authors
Zafer Defne, Neil K. Ganju

Estimating the risks for adverse effects of total phosphorus in receiving streams with the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM)

Studies from North Carolina (NC) indicate that increasing concentrations of total phosphorus (TP) and other constituents are correlated to adverse effects on stream ecosystems as evidenced by differences in benthic macroinvertebrate populations in streams across the state. As a result, stringent in-stream criteria based on the Water Quality Assessed by Benthic macroinvertebrate health ratings (WQA
Authors
Gregory E. Granato, Susan C. Jones

Shoal basses: A clade of cryptic identity

Shoal basses are a cryptic clade composed of Micropterus spp. restricted to the Apalachicola River system and three southeastern Atlantic slope river drainages in the southeastern United States. This reciprocally monophyletic clade includes the Shoal Bass M. cataractae (endemic to the Apalachicola River system), the Chattahoochee Bass M. chattahoochae, and two undescribed forms from the Altamaha,
Authors
Byron J. Freeman, Andrew T. Taylor, Kenneth J. Oswald, John Wares, Mary Freeman, Joseph M. Quattro, Jean K. Leitner

Developing a conservation strategy to maximize persistence of an endangered freshwater mussel species while considering management effectiveness and cost

We used a structured decision-making process to develop conservation strategies to increase persistence of Dwarf Wedgemussel (Alasmidonta heterodon) in North Carolina, USA, while accounting for uncertainty in management effectiveness and considering costs. Alternative conservation strategies were portfolios of management actions that differed by location of management actions on the landscape. Obj
Authors
David R. Smith, Sarah E. McRae, Tom Augspurger, Judith A. Ratcliffe, Robert B. Nichols, Chris B. Eads, Tim Savidge, Arthur E. Bogan

Conodont faunas from a complete basinal succession of the upper part of the Wordian (Middle Permian, Guadalupian, West Texas)

In the southern part of the Patterson Hills just to the west of the Guadalupe Mountains escarpment ofWest Texas, a 29m outcrop of alternating calcareous siltstone and silty limestone with a few thin fine sandstone interbeds displays the overlap occurrence of a narrowmorphotype of Jinogondolella nankingensis (herein named J. nankingensis behnkeni) with J. aserrata near its base. The transition of J
Authors
Bruce R. Wardlaw, Merlynd K. Nestell

Conodont biostratigraphy of the Permian-Triassic boundary sequence at Lung Cam, Vietnam

The occurrences of a few specimens of Clarkina and many specimens of Hindeodus at the Permian-Triassic boundary section at Lung Cam, Vietnam allow accurate graphic correlation to the P-T boundary stratotype at Meishan, China. One species of Clarkina, ten species and two subspecies of Hindeodus, and the apparatuses of Hindeodus latidentatus and Merrillina ultima are described and illustrated.
Authors
Bruce R. Wardlaw, Merlynd K. Nestell, Galina P. Nestell, Brooks B. Ellwood, Luu Thi Phuong Lan

Mineral Resource of the Month: Lime

Lime is the common term for several chemicals in three major categories: quicklime, hydrated lime and refractory dead-burned dolomite. Lime is almost never found naturally. It is primarily manufactured by burning limestone in kilns, followed by hydration when necessary. 
Authors
Lisa A. Corathers

What is the Anthropocene?

Since Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer introduced the word “Anthropocene” in 2000, scientists and nonscientists alike have used the word to highlight the concept that we are now living in a time when the global environment, at some level, is shaped by humankind rather than vice versa. Humans have significantly altered Earth’s land surface, oceans, rivers, atmosphere, flora, and fauna.  By its emph
Authors
Lucy E. Edwards

Deferrisoma paleochoriense sp. nov., a thermophilic, iron(III)-reducing bacterium from a shallow-water hydrothermal vent in the Mediterranean Sea

A novel thermophilic, anaerobic, mixotrophic bacterium, designated strain MAG-PB1T, was isolated from a shallow-water hydrothermal vent system in Palaeochori Bay off the coast of the island of Milos, Greece. The cells were Gram-negative, rugose, short rods, approximately 1.0 μm long and 0.5 μm wide. Strain MAG-PB1T grew at 30–70 °C (optimum 60 °C), 0–50 g NaCl l− 1 (optimum 15–20 g l− 1) and pH 
Authors
Ileana M. Perez-Rodriguez, Matthew Rawls, D. Katharine Coykendall, Dionysis I. Foustoukos

Disparity between state fish consumption advisory systems for methylmercury and US Environmental Protection Agency recommendations: A case study of the South Central United States

Fish consumption advisories are used to inform citizens in the United States about noncommercial game fish with hazardous levels of methylmercury (MeHg). The US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) suggests issuing a fish consumption advisory when concentrations of MeHg in fish exceed a human health screening value of 300 ng/g. However, states have authority to develop their own systems for iss
Authors
Kimberly Adams, Ray W. Drenner, Matthew M. Chumchal, David I. Donato

Estimating occupancy dynamics for large-scale monitoring networks: amphibian breeding occupancy across protected areas in the northeast United States

Regional monitoring strategies frequently employ a nested sampling design where a finite set of study areas from throughout a region are selected within which intensive sub-sampling occurs. This sampling protocol naturally lends itself to a hierarchical analysis to account for dependence among sub-samples. Implementing such an analysis within a classic likelihood framework is computationally prohi
Authors
David A.W. Miller, Evan H. Campbell Grant