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Publications

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

Filter Total Items: 16663

Full-service hotels, convenience stores, or fire escapes? Evaluating the functional role of stopover sites for Neotropical migrants following passage across the Gulf of Mexico in autumn

Nearctic Neotropical migratory songbirds incur the highest mortality during migration. En-route, songbirds rely on a network of stopover sites to rest, refuel, and/or seek refuge during poor weather. Conservation strategies prioritize protection of sites that best meet these needs. However, the specific function of a stopover site is expected to vary in relation to factors, such as geographic loca
Authors
Lauren E. Solomon, Antonio Celis-Murillo, Michael P. Ward, Jill L. Deppe

Fecal metabarcoding of the endangered Pacific pocket mouse (Perognathus longimembris pacificus) reveals a diverse and forb rich diet that reflects local habitat availability

Information on diet breadth and preference can assist in understanding links between food resources and population growth and inform habitat restoration for rare herbivores. We assessed the diet of the endangered Pacific pocket mouse using metabarcoding of fecal samples and compared it to plant community composition in long-term study plots in two populations on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, S
Authors
A. G. Vandergast, Cheryl S. Brehme, Deborah D. Iwanowicz, Robert S. Cornman, Devin T. Adsit-Morris, Robert N. Fisher

Future marsh evolution due to tidal changes induced by human adaptation to sea level rise

With sea level rise threatening coastal development, decision-makers are beginning to act by modifying shorelines. Previous research has shown that hardening or softening shorelines may change the tidal range under future sea level rise. Tidal range can also be changed by natural factors. Coastal marshes, which humans increasingly depend on for shoreline protection, are ecologically sensitive to t
Authors
Celina Balderas-Guzman, Kevin Buffington, Karen M. Thorne, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Michelle A. Hummel, Mark T. Stacey

Spatial distribution of elevation change monitoring in coastal wetlands across protected lands of the lower 48 United States

IntroductionTidally influenced coastal wetlands, both saline and fresh, appear where terrestrial and marine environments meet and are considered important ecosystems for identifying the impacts of climate change. Coastal wetlands provide valuable benefits to society and the environment in the form of flood protection, water-quality improvements, and shoreline erosion reduction, making them one of
Authors
Justine Annaliese Neville, Glenn R. Guntenspergen

Strategic monitoring to minimize misclassification errors from conservation status assessments

Classifying species into risk categories is a ubiquitous process in conservation decision-making affecting regulatory procedures, conservation actions, and guiding resource allocation at global, national, and regional scales. However, monitoring programs often do not provide data required for accurate species classification decisions. Misclassification can lead to otherwise preventable species ext
Authors
Kylee Denise Dunham, Patrick K. Devers, Abigail Jean Lawson, James E. Lyons, Conor P. McGowan, Andy Royle

Canada Basin tectono-sedimentary element, Arctic Ocean

The Canada Basin (CB) formed during a short period of seafloor spreading inferred to be Early Cretaceous in age. Brookian strata of inferred Early Cretaceous–Holocene age comprise the sedimentary fill of the Canada Basin Tectono-Sedimentary Element (CB TSE). Although the CB has remained tectonically quiet since seafloor spreading ceased, both proximal and distal tectonism (Alpha Ridge magmatism, a
Authors
Deborah Hutchinson, David W. Houseknecht, David Mosher

Using geospatial analysis to guide marsh restoration in Chesapeake Bay and beyond

Coastal managers are facing imminent decisions regarding the fate of coastal wetlands, given ongoing threats to their persistence. There is a need for objective methods to identify which wetland parcels are candidates for restoration, monitoring, protection, or acquisition due to limited resources and restoration techniques. Here, we describe a new spatially comprehensive data set for Chesapeake B
Authors
Neil K. Ganju, Kate Ackerman, Zafer Defne

Approaches for assessing flows, concentrations, and loads of highway and urban runoff and receiving-stream stormwater in southern New England with the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM)

The Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM) was designed to help quantify the risk of adverse effects of runoff on receiving waters, the potential need for mitigation measures, and the potential effectiveness of such management measures for reducing these risks. SELDM is calibrated using representative hydrological and water-quality input statistics. This report by the U.S. Geologi
Authors
Gregory E. Granato, Alana B. Spaetzel, Lillian C. Jeznach

Characterization of peak streamflows and flooding in select areas of Pennsylvania from the remnants of Hurricane Ida, September 1–2, 2021

Pennsylvania experienced heavy rainfall on September 1 and 2, 2021, as the remnants of Hurricane Ida swept over parts of the State. Much of eastern and south-central Pennsylvania received 5 to 10 inches of rain, and most of the rainfall fell within little more than 6 hours. Southeastern Pennsylvania experienced widespread, substantial flooding, and the city of Philadelphia and surrounding areas we
Authors
Marla H. Stuckey, Matthew D. Conlon, Mitchell R. Weaver

Nonlinear patterns of surface elevation change in coastal wetlands: The value of generalized additive models for quantifying rates of change

In the face of accelerating climate change and rising sea levels, quantifying surface elevation change dynamics in coastal wetlands can help to develop a more complete understanding of the implications of sea-level rise on coastal wetland stability. The surface elevation table-marker horizon (SET-MH) approach has been widely used to quantify and characterize surface elevation change dynamics in co
Authors
Laura Feher, Michael Osland, Darren Johnson, James Grace, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, David R. Stewart, Carlos A. Coronado-Molina, Fred H. Sklar

The consequences of neglecting reservoir storage in national-scale hydrologic models: An appraisal of key streamflow statistics

A better understanding of modeled streamflow errors related to basin reservoir storage is needed for large regions, which normally have many ungaged basins with reservoirs. We quantified the difference between modeled and observed streamflows for one process-based and three statistical-transfer hydrologic models, none of which explicitly accounted for reservoir storage. Streamflow statistics repre
Authors
Glenn A. Hodgkins, Thomas M. Over, Robert W. Dudley, Amy M. Russell, Jacob H. LaFontaine

CGS: Coupled growth and survival model with cohort fairness

Fish modeling in complex environments is critical for understanding drivers of population dynamics in aquatic systems. This paper proposes a Bayesian network method for modeling fish survival and growth over multiple connected rivers. Traditional fish survival models capture the effect of multiple environmental drivers (e.g., stream temperature, stream flow) by adding different variables, which in
Authors
Erhu He, Yue Wan, Benjamin Letcher, Jennifer Burlingame Hoyle Fair, Yiquin Xie, Xiaowei Jia
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