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Fewer bowl traps and more hand netting can increase effective number of bee species and reduce excessive captures
Reports increasingly point to substantial declines in wild bee abundance and diversity, yet there is uncertainty about how best to measure these attributes in wild bee populations. Two commonly used methods are passive trapping with bee bowls or active netting of bees on flowers, but each of these has drawbacks. Comparing the outcomes of the two methods is complicated by their uncomparable units o
Authors
Diane L. Larson, Nora P. Pennarola, Julia B. Leone, Jennifer L. Larson
Evaluating ecosystem protection and fragmentation of the world's major mountain regions
Conserving mountains is important for protecting biodiversity because they have high beta diversity and endemicity, facilitate species movement, and provide numerous ecosystem benefits for people. Mountains are often thought to have lower levels of human modification and contain more protected area than surrounding lowlands. To examine this, we compared biogeographic attributes of the largest, con
Authors
David M. Theobald, Aerin Jacobs, Paul R. Elsen, Erik A. Beever, Libby Ehlers, Jodi Hilty
Foraging behavior and age affect maternal transfer of mercury to northern elephant seal pups
Deep ocean foraging northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) consume fish and squid in remote depths of the North Pacific Ocean. Contaminants bioaccumulated from prey are subsequently transferred by adult females to pups during gestation and lactation, linking pups to mercury contamination in mesopelagic food webs (200–1000 m depths). Maternal transfer of mercury to developing seal pups w
Authors
Sarah H. Peterson, Michael G. Peterson, Josh T. Ackerman, Cathy Debier, Chandra Goetsch, Rachel R. Holser, Luis A. Hückstädt, Jennifer C. Johnson, Theresa R. Keates, Birgitte I. McDonald, Elizabeth A. McHuron, Daniel P. Costa
Metabarcoding is (usually) more cost effective than seining or qPCR for detecting tidewater gobies and other estuarine fishes
Many studies have shown that environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling can be more sensitive than traditional sampling. For instance, past studies found a specific qPCR probe of a water sample is better than a seine for detecting the endangered northern tidewater goby, Eucyclogobius newberryi. Furthermore, a metabarcoding sample often detects more fish species than a seine detects. Less consideration has
Authors
Kevin D. Lafferty
High inter-population connectivity and occasional gene flow between subspecies improves recovery potential for the endangered Least Bell’s Vireo
Increasingly, genomic data are being used to supplement field-based ecological studies to help evaluate recovery status and trends in endangered species. We collected genomic data to address two related questions regarding the Least Bell’s Vireo (Vireo bellii), an endangered migratory songbird restricted to southern California riparian habitat for breeding. First, we sought to delineate the range
Authors
A. G. Vandergast, Barbara E. Kus, Dustin A. Wood, Anna Mitelberg, Julia G. Smith, Elizabeth R. Milano
Joint spatial modeling bridges the gap between disparate disease surveillance and population monitoring efforts informing conservation of at-risk bat species
White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a wildlife disease that has decimated hibernating bats since its introduction in North America in 2006. As the disease spreads westward, assessing the potentially differential impact of the disease on western bat species is an urgent conservation need. The statistical challenge is that the disease surveillance and species response monitoring data are not co-located, av
Authors
Christian Stratton, Kathryn Irvine, Katharine M. Banner, Emily S. Almberg, Daniel Bachen, Kristina Smucker
Forest fire, thinning, and flood in wildland-urban interface: UAV and lidar-based estimate of natural disaster impacts
ContextWildland-urban interface (WUI) areas are facing increased forest fire risks and extreme precipitation events due to climate change, which can lead to post-fire flood events. The city of Flagstaff in northern Arizona, USA experienced WUI forest thinning, fire, and record rainfall events, which collectively contributed to large floods and damages to the urban neighborhoods and city infrastruc
Authors
Temuulen Ts. Sankey, Lauren Tango, Julia Tatum, Joel B. Sankey
The geochemistry of continental hydrothermal systems
Hydrothermal systems on the continents are of great significance because they are primary sources of economically important metals and geothermal energy, they are tourist attractions, they support bathing and health resorts, and they host extreme life forms. Research on hot springs and their deposits provide clues to early life on Earth and possibly on Mars and have led to major breakthroughs in b
Authors
Shaul Hurwitz, Andri Stefánsson, Everett L. Shock, Barbara I. Kleine
Flow cytometric assessments of metabolic activity in bacterial assemblages provide insight into ecosystem condition along the Buffalo National River, Arkansas
The Buffalo National River (BNR), on karst terrain in Arkansas, is considered an extraordinary water resource. Water collected in Spring 2017 along BNR was metagenomically analyzed using 16S rDNA, and for 17 months (5/2017–11/2018), bacterial responses were measured in relation to nutrients sampled along a stretch of BNR near a concentrated animal feed operation (CAFO) on Big Creek. Because cell c
Authors
Jill Jenkins, Rassa Dale, Nina M. Hoffpauir, Brooke A Baudoin, Caroline Matkin, Lucas Driver, Shawn W Hodges, Bonnie L. Brown
Prioritizing water availability study settings to address geogenic contaminants and related societal factors
Water availability for human and ecological uses depends on both water quantity and water quality. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is developing strategies for prioritizing regional-scale and watershed basin-scale studies of water availability across the nation. Previous USGS ranking processes for basin-scale studies incorporated primarily water quantity factors but are now considering additiona
Authors
Melinda L. Erickson, Craig J. Brown, Elizabeth J. Tomaszewski, Joseph D. Ayotte, Sharon L. Qi, Douglas B. Kent, John K. Böhlke
Range-wide population trend analysis for greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus)—Updated 1960–2023
Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) are at the center of state and national land-use policies largely because of their unique life-history traits as an ecological indicator for health of sagebrush ecosystems. This updated population trend analysis provides state and federal land and wildlife managers with best-available science to help guide management and conservation plans aimed at b
Authors
Brian G. Prochazka, Peter S. Coates, Cameron L. Aldridge, Michael S. O'Donnell, David R. Edmunds, Adrian P. Monroe, Steve E. Hanser, Lief A. Wiechman, Michael P. Chenaille
Non-mercury methylating microbial taxa are integral to understanding links between mercury methylation and elemental cycles in marine and freshwater sediments
The goal of this study was to explore the role of non-mercury (Hg) methylating taxa in mercury methylation and to identify potential links between elemental cycles and Hg methylation. Statistical approaches were utilized to investigate the microbial community and biochemical functions in relation to methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in marine and freshwater sediments. Sediments were collected fr
Authors
Yong-Li Wang, Kaoru Ikuma, Scott C. Brooks, Matthew S. Varonka, Amrika Deonarine