Publications

After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific interest in coronaviruses endemic in animal populations has increased dramatically. However, investigating the prevalence of disease in animal populations across the landscape, which requires finding and capturing animals can be difficult. Spatial random sampling over a grid could be extremely inefficient because animals can be hard to...

Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to provide the Marine Corps with an annual summary of the distribution, abundance, and breeding activity of the endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus; flycatcher) at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton (MCBCP or “Base”). Surveys for the flycatcher were conducted on Base between May 8 and July 24, 2024. All of...

Global change is expected to expand and shrink species' distributions in complex ways beyond just retraction at warm edges and expansion at cool ones. Detecting these changes is complicated by the need for robust baseline data for comparison. For instance, gaps in species' distributions may reflect long-standing patterns, recent shifts, or merely insufficient sampling effort. We...

Since 1985, the Hakalau Forest Unit of the Big Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex (hereafter, Hakalau) has protected the largest endemic forest bird diversity in the State of Hawaii. This includes three endangered and one threatened species and their habitats. Hakalau’s vast area (155 km2), mostly high elevation (>1500 m) montane forest, provides refuge from avian malaria...

In recent decades, substantial evidence has accumulated regarding the effects of climate change on the establishment, spread, and impact of invasive species. While the importance of incorporating climate change into invasive species management and policy is increasingly recognized, practitioner experiences and perspectives are often overlooked. Consequently, invasive species research may...

Although perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) has been voluntarily phased out, it remains the most abundant and frequently detected PFAS compound in biota worldwide. A deeper understanding of how PFOS enters the aquatic food web at the energetic base is needed to better characterize and predict the general patterns of PFAS trophic transfer. Research on bioaccumulation by primary producers...

A citizen’s right to comment on, and criticize, government decisions makes a difference. The U.S. National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) institutionalized public engagement in environmental review in the belief it would lead to better decisions and more sustainable outcomes. But, 50 years later, NEPA’s public comment process has been criticized as costly and slow, while doing...

Objective Lake Sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens have experienced large population declines due to overfishing, habitat degradation, and pollution. Due to these factors, Lake Sturgeon were extirpated from the Maumee River watershed (Ohio, United States). In 2018, a 20-year reintroduction program began that aims to establish a self-sustaining population in the Maumee River. To understand the...

Wetlands are significant carbon (C) sinks and are expected to promote greater C assimilation as atmospheric CO2 concentrations rise. However, the fate of C with environmental change along fresh-to-oligohaline wetland transitions is not well understood. We established an ex-situ mesocosm experiment to mimic future elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations (eCO2, 720 ppm) versus current (380...

Hybridization and interspecific gene flow play a substantial role in the evolution of plant taxa. The eastern North American white oak syngameon, a group of approximately 15 ecologically, morphologically and genomically distinguishable species, has long been recognised as a model system for studying introgressive hybridization in temperate trees. However, the prevalence, genomic context...

Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia and Yucca jaegeriana) are iconic, foundational species of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts in North America. Due to their ecosystem importance, long generation times, and low resilience to disturbance, these hybridizing sister species are increasingly the focus of conservation efforts. Predicting Joshua tree responses to impending climate variability, along...

Native Hawaiian forest birds are experiencing an unprecedented extinction crisis. In particular, the iconic Hawaiian honeycreeper radiation has declined to just 17 out of ∼60 species remaining, most threatened with extinction due to avian malaria. Here, we investigate the genomic signatures of these declines in three honeycreeper species: the critically endangered ʻakikiki (Oreomystis...