Publications

Coastal habitats can play an important role in climate change mitigation. As Louisiana implements its climate action plan and the restoration and risk-reduction projects outlined in its 2017 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan, it is critical to consider potential greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in coastal habitats. This study estimated the potential climate mitigation role of existing, converted...

Objective

The Big River in southeast Missouri drains the largest historical lead mining area in the United States. Ongoing releases of metal contaminated sediments into this river are well documented and are suspected of suppressing freshwater mussel populations. We characterized the spatial extent of metal contaminated sediments and evaluated its relationship with mussel populations in the Big...

Wildfire affects many types of communities and is a particular concern for communities in the wildland urban interface (WUI), such as those of Park County, Colorado. The core intent of this project was to provide evidence to support the Platte Canyon Fire Protection District (PCFPD) and Fire Adapted Bailey in their wildfire mitigation and education programming. This report describes...

Forest removal for livestock grazing is a striking example of human-caused state change leading to a stable, undesirable invasive grass system that is resistant to restoration efforts. Understanding which factors lead to resilience to the alternative grass state can greatly benefit managers when planning forest restoration. We address how thresholds of grass cover and seed rain might...

Contamination of aquatic ecosystems can have cascading effects on terrestrial consumers by altering the availability and quality of aquatic insect prey. Comprehensive assessment of these indirect food-web effects of contaminants on natural resources and their associated services necessitates using both ecological and economic tools. In the present study we present an aquatic-terrestrial...

Global dryland vegetation communities will likely change as ongoing drought conditions shift regional climates towards a more arid future. Additional aridification of drylands can impact plant and ground cover, biogeochemical cycles, and plant-soil feedbacks, yet how and when these crucial ecosystem components will respond to drought intensification requires further investigation. Using...

Small and/or artificially reduced populations can suffer genetic erosion with long-term consequences to population fitness and persistence. However, managers must periodically remove free-roaming horses from the landscape to reduce the risk of habitat degradation. We developed an individual-based population simulation model to evaluate the expected change in genetic diversity after 100...

Aims

Plant strategies for coping with water limitation are likely to mediate restoration outcomes in degraded dryland ecosystems. Trade-offs in traits related to water acquisition and use can intensify in more arid environments, making their effects on dryland restoration success even more salient. However, isolating the effects of drought responses from those of other environmental factors...

Context

Invasive carp can negatively affect waterbirds through habitat degradation, including removal of submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV). At a freshwater coastal marsh of great ecological and cultural significance, we excluded invasive common carp (Cyprinus carpio) with the goal of restoring the marsh to historical conditions to support fall-migrating waterfowl. We used a multi-pronged...