Publications
These publications showcase the significant science conducted in our Science Centers.
Filter Total Items: 16783
Observed and projected functional reorganization of riverine fish assemblages from global change
Climate and land-use/land-cover change (‘global change’) are restructuring biodiversity, globally. Broadly, environmental conditions are expected to become warmer, potentially drier (particularly in arid regions), and more anthropogenically developed in the future, with spatiotemporally complex effects on ecological communities. We used functional traits to inform Chesapeake Bay Watershed fish res
Authors
Taylor E Woods, Mary Freeman, Kevin P. Krause, Kelly O. Maloney
Does coat colour influence survival? A test in a cyclic population of snowshoe hares
Some mammal species inhabiting high-latitude biomes have evolved a seasonal moulting pattern that improves camouflage via white coats in winter and brown coats in summer. In many high-latitude and high-altitude areas, the duration and depth of snow cover has been substantially reduced in the last five decades. This reduction in depth and duration of snow cover may create a mismatch between coat co
Authors
Madan K. Oli, Alice J Kenny, Rudy Boonstra, Stan Boutin, Dennis L. Murray, Michael J.L. Peers, B. Scott Gilbert, Thomas S. Jung, Vratika Chaudhary, James E. Hines, Charles J Krebs
Energy-related wastewater contamination alters microbial communities of sediment, water, and amphibian skin
To inform responsible energy development, it is important to understand the ecological effects of contamination events. Wastewaters, a common byproduct of oil and gas extraction, often contain high concentrations of sodium chloride (NaCl) and heavy metals (e.g., strontium and vanadium). These constituents can negatively affect aquatic organisms, but there is scarce information for how wastewaters
Authors
Brian J. Tornabene, Kelly L. Smalling, Carrie E Givens, Emily Bea Oja, Blake R. Hossack
Population dynamics and harvest management of eastern mallards
Managing sustainable harvest of wildlife populations requires regular collection of demographic data and robust estimates of demographic parameters. Estimates can then be used to develop a harvest strategy to guide decision-making. Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) are an important species in the Atlantic Flyway for many users and they exhibited exponential growth in the eastern United States between
Authors
Anthony J. Roberts, Jeffrey A. Hostetler, Joshua C. Stiller, Patrick K. Devers, William Link
Low estradiol production of non-laying whooping cranes (Grus americana) is associated with the failure of small follicles to enter follicular hierarchy
For endangered species managed ex situ, production of offspring is a key factor to ensure healthy and self-sustaining populations. However, current breeding goals for the whooping crane (Grus americana) are impeded by poor reproduction. Our study sought to better understand mechanisms regulating ovarian function in ex situ managed whooping cranes and the regulatory function of the hypothalamic-pit
Authors
Megan E. Brown, Budhan Pukazhenthi, Glenn H. Olsen, Chris Crowe, Warren Lynch, David E Wildt, Nucharin Songsasen
Temporal variability of runup and total water level on Cape Cod sandy beaches
In the present study, we evaluate the temporal variability in runup and total water level for sandy beaches along Cape Cod (Massachusetts, USA), and their impact on dune and beach erosion. We use a 43-year hindcast of waves and water levels and calculate runup and total water level based on the Stockdon formulation using previously extracted beach slopes. The dominant components of the runup are i
Authors
Alfredo Aretxabaleta, Christopher R. Sherwood, B.O. Blanton, Jin-Si R. Over, Peter A. Traykovski, Erdinc Sogut
The pathogenesis of a 2022 North American highly pathogenic clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 avian influenza virus in mallards (Anas platyrhynchos)
Highly pathogenic (HP) avian influenza viruses (AIVs) of the clade 2.3.4.4 goose/Guangdong/1996 H5 lineage continue to be a problem in poultry and wild birds in much of the world. The recent incursion of a H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b HP AIV from this lineage into North America has resulted in widespread outbreaks in poultry and consistent detections of the virus across diverse families of birds and occasi
Authors
Erica Spackman, Mary J. Pantin-Jackwood, Scott A. Lee, Diann Prosser
Assessing arthropod diversity metrics derived from stream environmental DNA: Spatiotemporal variation and paired comparisons with manual sampling
BackgroundBenthic invertebrate (BI) surveys have been widely used to characterize freshwater environmental quality but can be challenging to implement at desired spatial scales and frequency. Environmental DNA (eDNA) allows an alternative BI survey approach, one that can potentially be implemented more rapidly and cheaply than traditional methods.MethodsWe evaluated eDNA analogs of BI metrics in t
Authors
Aaron Aunins, Sara J. Mueller, Jennifer A. Fike, Robert S. Cornman
Assessing tradeoffs between current and desired vegetation condition in a National Park using historical maps and high resolution lidar data
In the United States, National Park Service Civil War battlefield units are managed for both historical accuracy (i.e., to represent landscape conditions at the time of the conflict for historical interpretation), and for natural resource protection. However, managing for both goals can create conflicts as many battlefields were largely open or in second growth forests historically, but now harbor
Authors
John A. Young, Carolyn Mahan
Satellite remote sensing of river discharge: A framework for assessing the accuracy of discharge estimates made from satellite remote sensing observations
This research presents an evaluation of the accuracy and uncertainty of estimates of river discharge made using satellite observed data sources as input to a modified form of Manning’s equation. Conventional U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamflow gaging station data and in-situ measurements of width, depth, height, slope, discharge, and velocity from 30 USGS gage sites were used as ground-truth
Authors
David M. Bjerklie, Michael Durand, James M. LeNoir, Robert W. Dudley, Charon Birkett, John Jones, Merritt Elizabeth Harlan
A framework for estimating global river discharge from the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite mission
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will vastly expand measurements of global rivers, providing critical new data sets for both gaged and ungaged basins. SWOT discharge products (available approximately 1 year after launch) will provide discharge for all river that reaches wider than 100 m. In this paper, we describe how SWOT discharge produced and archived by the US and French s
Authors
Michael Durand, Colin Gleason, Tamlin Pavelsky, Renato Frasson, Michael Turmon, Cedric H. David, Elizabeth Altenau, Nikki Tebaldi, Kevin Larnier, Jerome Monnier, Pierre Olivier Malaterre, Hind Oubanas, George Allen, Brian Astifan, Craig Brinkerhoff, Paul Bates, David M. Bjerklie, Stephen Coss, Robert W. Dudley, Luciana Fengolio, Pierre-Andre Garambois, Augusto Getirana, Peirong Lin, Steven A. Margulis, Pascal Matte, J.Toby Minear, Aggrey Muhebwa, Ming Pan, Daniel L. Peters, Ryan Riggs, Md Safat Sikder, Travis Simmons, Cassie Stuurman, Jay Taneja, Angelica Tarpanelli, Kerstin Schulze, Mohammad Tourian, Jida Wang
Forage fish species prefer habitat within designated offshore wind energy areas on the US Northeast Shelf ecosystem
As the world develops sources of renewable energy, there is an intensifying interest in offshore wind energy production. The Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf (NES) ecosystem has favorable wind dynamics, with active development of wind energy. In this study, we present species distribution models that consider both occupancy and biomass responses for a broad spectrum of fish and macroinvertebrate t
Authors
Kevin Friedland, Evan M. Adams, Chandra Goetsch, Julia Gulka, Damien Brady, Everett Rzeszowski, Daniel Crear, Sarah Gaichas, Andrew Gill, M. Conor McManus, Elizabeth T. Methratta, Janelle L. Morano, Michelle Staudinger