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Linking dissolved organic matter composition to landscape properties in wetlands across the United States of America
Wetlands are integral to the global carbon cycle, serving as both a source and a sink for organic carbon. Their potential for carbon storage will likely change in the coming decades in response to higher temperatures and variable precipitation patterns. We characterized the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition from 12 different wetland sites across the USA
Authors
Martin R. Kurek, Kimberly Wickland, Natalie A. Nichols, Amy M. McKenna, Steven M. Anderson, Mark M. Dornblaser, Nikaan Koupaie-Abyazani, Brett A. Poulin, Sheel Bansal, Jason B. Fellman, Gregory K. Druschel, Emily S. Bernhardt, Robert G.M. Spencer
Stony coral tissue loss disease indirectly alters reef communities
Many Caribbean coral reefs are near collapse due to various threats. An emerging threat, stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), is spreading across the Western Atlantic and Caribbean. Data from the U.S. Virgin Islands reveal how SCTLD spread has reduced the abundance of susceptible coral and crustose coralline algae and increased cyanobacteria, fire coral, and macroalgae. A Caribbean-wide struct
Authors
Sara D. Swaminathan, Kevin D. Lafferty, Nicole S. Knight, Andrew H. Altieri
Season of grazing interacts with soil texture, selecting for associations of biocrust morphogroups
Livestock grazing, a widespread land use in semi-arid systems, is often placed in opposition to the perpetuation of biological soil crusts (“biocrusts”: lichens, mosses, and algal crusts including cyanobacteria) that live on the soil surface and provide ecosystem functions. The composition of biocrusts and vascular plants varies with climate, soils, and disturbance. In general, ruderal mosses and
Authors
Lea A. Condon, Roger Rosentreter, Kari E. Veblen, Peter S. Coates
Fluviomorphic trajectories for dryland ephemeral stream channels following extreme flash floods
Ephemeral alluvial streams pose globally significant flood hazards to human habitation in drylands, but sparse data for these regions limit understanding of the character and impacts of extreme flooding. In this study, we document decadal changes in dryland ephemeral channel patterns at two sites in the lower Colorado River Basin (southwestern United States) that were ravaged by extraordinary flas
Authors
Eliisa Lotsari, Kyle House, Petteri Alho, Victor R. Baker
Deep-water first occurrences of Ediacara biota prior to the Shuram carbon isotope excursion in the Wernecke Mountains, Yukon, Canada
Ediacara-type macrofossils appear as early as ~575 Ma in deep-water facies of the Drook Formation of the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland, and the Nadaleen Formation of Yukon and Northwest Territories, Canada. Our ability to assess whether a deep-water origination of the Ediacara biota is a genuine reflection of evolutionary succession, an artifact of an incomplete stratigraphic record, or a bathyme
Authors
Thomas H. Boag, James F. Busch, Jared T. Gooley, Justin Strauss, Erik A Sperling
Integrated science for the study of microplastics in the environment—A strategic science vision for the U.S. Geological Survey
Executive SummaryEvidence of the widespread occurrence of microplastics throughout our environment and exposure to humans and other organisms over the past decade has led to questions about the possibility of health hazards and mitigation of exposures. This document discusses nanoplastics as well as microplastics (referred to solely as microplastics); the microplastics have a range from 1 micromet
Authors
Deborah D. Iwanowicz, Austin K. Baldwin, Larry B. Barber, Vicki S. Blazer, Steven R. Corsi, Joseph W. Duris, Shawn C. Fisher, Michael Focazio, Sarah E. Janssen, Jeramy Roland Jasmann, Dana W. Kolpin, Johanna M. Kraus, Rachael F. Lane, Mari E. Lee, Kristen B. McSwain, Timothy D. Oden, Timothy J. Reilly, Andrew R. Spanjer
Prototyping structured decision making for water resource management in the San Francisco Bay-Delta
A structured decision making (SDM) approach can help evaluate tradeoffs between conservation and human-benefit objectives by fostering communication and knowledge transfer among stakeholders, decision makers, and the public. However, the process is iterative and completing the full process may take years. It can be difficult to initiate an SDM effort when problems seem insurmountable. Occasionally
Authors
James Peterson, Erin McCreless, Adam Duarte, Patti Wohner, Scott Hamilton, Josue Medellín-Azuara, Alvar Escriva-Boue
A new era of genetic diversity conservation through novel tools and accessible data
As the foundation of biodiversity, genetic diversity is necessary for species to adapt to ecological changes, such as impacts from disease, invasive species, and climate change. Genetic diversity also supports ecosystem resilience and societal innovations. Unfortunately, declines in genetic diversity have been frequently observed in populations of wild and domestic species. Yet the field of popula
Authors
Margaret Hunter, Jessica M. da Silva, Alicia Mastretta-Yanes, Sean M. Hoban
Lead poisoning of raptors: State of the science and cross-discipline mitigation options for a global problem
Lead poisoning is an important global conservation problem for many species of wildlife, especially raptors. Despite the increasing number of individual studies and regional reviews of lead poisoning of raptors, it has been over a decade since this information has been compiled into a comprehensive global review. Here, we summarize the state of knowledge of lead poisoning of raptors, we review dev
Authors
Todd E. Katzner, Deborah J. Pain, Michael McTee, Leland Brown, Sandra Cuadros, Mark Pokras, Vince Slabe., Rick Watson, Guillermo Wiemeyer, Bryan Bedrosian, Jordan O Hampton, Chris N. Parish, James M. Pay, Keisuke Saito, John Schulz
Basin effects from 3D simulated ground motions in the Greater Los Angeles region for use in seismic-hazard analyses
We develop basin-depth-scaling models (i.e. “basin terms”) from the long-period (T≥2s) simulated ground motions of the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) CyberShake project for use in seismic hazard analyses at sites within the sedimentary basins of southern California. Basin terms use the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA)-West-2 ground-motion models (GMMs) as reference models and use
Authors
Morgan P. Moschetti, Eric M. Thompson, Kyle Withers
Living with wildfire in Stemilt Basin, Chelan County, Washington: 2022 Data report
Homeowner wildfire risk mitigation and preparedness are important components of community wildfire readiness. This report presents data collected via rapid wildfire risk assessments to describe the parcel-level wildfire risk of properties within the Stemilt basin, Chelan County, Washington study area. The report also describes household survey data collected from homeowners in the study area, incl
Authors
Julia Goolsby, Patricia A. Champ, Suzanne Wittenbrink, Colleen Donovan, Hilary Heard, Hannah Brenkert-Smith, James Meldrum, Christopher M. Barth, Carolyn Wagner, Chiara Forrester