Publications

Disease outbreaks, skin lesions, fish kill events, and reproductive abnormalities have been observed in wild populations of Centrarchids in watersheds throughout the United States. Occurrence of synthetic and natural hormones from wastewater treatment plants and livestock operations, pesticides from agricultural land use, and phytoestrogens have been implicated as potential causes of these adverse

Kazakhstan is a key area for the conservation of the steppe eagle, which is classified as an endangered species by the IUCN. Systematic work on monitoring changes in its number and reproductive success is carried out in protected areas. The remaining steppe spaces are explored sporadically. Our work partially fills this gap. Over 5 years of monitoring the nesting group in the north of the Aktobe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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