All Publications
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Mid-contract management alters conservation reserve program vegetation in the central and western United States
Disturbances such as grazing, fire, and burrowing are historically important in North American grasslands, and plans for restoring disturbance regimes are often required for successful restoration. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has become the dominant grassland restoration mechanism in many areas, and requires planned disturbances known as mid-contract man
Authors
Kenneth Elgersma, Mark W. Vandever, Ai Wen
Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus clade 2.3.4.4b infections in wild terrestrial mammals, United States, 2022
We describe the pathology of natural infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus of Eurasian lineage Goose/Guangdong clade 2.3.4.4b in 67 wild terrestrial mammals throughout the United States during April 1‒July 21, 2022. Affected mammals include 50 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), 6 striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), 4 raccoons (Procyon lotor), 2 bobcats (Lynx rufus), 2 Virginia opo
Authors
E. J. Elsmo, A. Wünschmann, Kimberlee B. Beckmen, L. B. Broughton-Neiswanger, E. L. Buckles, J. Hugh Ellis, S. D. Fitzgerald, Robert Gerlach, S. Hawkins, Hon S. Ip, Julia S. Lankton, E. M. Lemley, J. B. Lenoch, M. L. Killian, K. Lantz, L. Long, R. Maes, M. Mainenti, J. Melotti, M. E. Moriarty, S. Nakagun, R. M. Ruden, Valerie I. Shearn-Bochsler, D.A. Thompson, M. K. Torchetti, A. J. Van Wettere, A. G. Wise, A. L. Lim
Lactation performance in polar bears is associated with fasting time and energetic state
Females must continually make resource allocation decisions because of fitness trade-offs between self-maintenance and investment in current offspring, yet factors underpinning these decisions are unresolved. Polar bears Ursus maritimus face considerable allocation challenges when seasonal sea-ice melt precludes access to prey for several months, and females rely solely on energy stores to cover t
Authors
Louise C. Archer, Stephen N. Atkinson, Anthony M. Pagano, Stephanie R. Penk, Peter K. Molnár
Visitor use and activities detected using trail cameras at forest restoration sites
We used trail cameras to monitor human visits and activities at two sites in northeast Indiana being restored to bottomland hardwood forests. These sites, managed as nature preserves, are close to cities, where trails and parking lots have been added for ease of access. In this study, trail cameras were successfully used to capture visitation rates and activity types. The two sites had median visi
Authors
Janice L. Albers, Mark L. Wildhaber, Nicholas S. Green, Matthew Struckhoff, Michael J. Hooper
Prediction of the probability of elevated nitrate concentrations at groundwater depths used for drinking-water supply in the Puget Sound basin, Washington, 2004–19
The Puget Sound basin encompasses the 13,700-square-mile area that drains to the Puget Sound and the adjacent marine waters of Washington State. Well more than 4 million people live within the basin, with numbers continuing to increase, who rely on the basin’s natural resources including groundwater. The Puget Sound Partnership was created by a Washington State statute to implement a science-based
Authors
Robert W. Black, Elise E. Wright, Valerie A.L. Bright, Alex O. Headman
Changes in phosphorus and suspended solids loading in the Fox River, northeastern Wisconsin, 1989–2021
The entire Lower Fox River and inner bay of Green Bay, in northeastern Wisconsin, have been listed as impaired by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) for low dissolved oxygen and degraded habitat, with total phosphorus (TP) and total suspended solids (TSS) concentrations listed as the likely causes of these impairments. To restore the Fox River and Green Bay, total maximum daily l
Authors
Dale M. Robertson, Matthew W. Diebel, Sarah L. Bartlett, Kevin J. Fermanich
Cold-water corals of the world: Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a semi-enclosed sea that borders the USA and Mexico and covers approximately 1.5 million square kilometers. The northern Gulf is topographically complex and is a rich source of oil and gas deposits, which has led to a great deal of research on benthic ecosystems from the coastal zone to the deep sea. While not fully explored, the distribution of cold seeps and deep corals in
Authors
Sandra Brooke, Amanda Demopoulos, Harry Roberts, Jay J. Lunden, Tracey Sutton, Andrew Davies
Utilizing high-resolution genetic markers to track population-level exposure of migratory birds to renewable energy development
With new motivation to increase the proportion of energy demands met by zero-carbon sources, there is a greater focus on efforts to assess and mitigate the impacts of renewable energy development on sensitive ecosystems and wildlife, of which birds are of particular interest. One challenge for researchers, due in part to a lack of appropriate tools, has been estimating the effects from such develo
Authors
Ryan J. Harrigan, Jasmine Rajbhandary, Christen Bossu, Peter M. Sanzenbacher, Thomas Dietsch, Cristian Gruppi, Todd E. Katzner, Thomas J. Smith III, Kristen Ruegg
Water, water everywhere, but every drop unique: Emerging challenges in the science to understand the role of contaminants in management of drinking water supplies
The protection and management of water resources continues to be challenged by multiple and ongoing factors such as shifts in demographic, social, economic, and public health requirements. Physical limitations placed on access to potable supplies include natural and human-caused factors such as aquifer depletion, aging infrastructure, saltwater intrusion, floods, and drought. These factors, althou
Authors
S.T. Glassmeyer, E.E. Burns, Michael J. Focazio, Edward Furlong, Matthew O. Gribble, M.A. Jahne, S.P. Keely, A.R. Kenicutt, Dana W. Kolpin, E.K. Medlock Kakaley, S.L. Pfaller
Modular compositional learning improves 1D hydrodynamic lake model performance by merging process-based modeling with deep learning
Hybrid Knowledge-Guided Machine Learning (KGML) models, which are deep learning models that utilize scientific theory and process-based model simulations, have shown improved performance over their process-based counterparts for the simulation of water temperature and hydrodynamics. We highlight the modular compositional learning (MCL) methodology as a novel design choice for the development of hy
Authors
Robert Ladwig, Arka Daw, Elen A Albright, Cal Buelo, Anuj Karpatne, Michael Frederick Meyer, Abhilash Neog, Paul C. Hanson, Hilary A. Dugan
Creating an updated vegetation map for Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge: Final report
Although Big Oaks NWR encompasses much diversity in wildlife species, an up-to-date, detailed, and comprehensive map showing vegetation types was lacking. The creation of an updated vegetation map for Big Oaks NWR was approved in early 2019. Digital aerial imagery was collected on November 1, 2019 at a resolution of 0.15 meter per pixel using four spectral bands: red, green, blue, and near infrare
Authors
Erin E. Hoy
Ectoparasitism and energy infrastructure limit survival of preadult Golden Eagles in the Southern Great Plains
Much of the US Southern Great Plains (SGP) continues to undergo intensive energy development that could affect the region's Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), yet the species' population status there is unknown. During 2011–2020, we used satellite telemetry to assess annual survival rates and causes of mortality among 40 preadult (<3 yr of age) Golden Eagles in the SGP; 29 were monitored beginning
Authors
Robert K. Murphy, Brian A. Millsap, Dale W. Stahlecker, Clint W. Boal, Brian W. Smith, Shea D. Mullican, Corrie C. Borgman