All Publications

Grassland bird monitoring efforts continue to document population declines in the Great Plains, USA and there is limited understanding of how declines are associated with landscape changes over broad scales. Within Kansas, USA, surveys indicate the resident grassland obligate greater prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus cupido) declined during the past 30 years. Grassland loss has been cited as...

The Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) is a globally distributed nonnative species that threatens native salmonids in coldwater streams. Understanding the factors regulating Brook Trout densities in coldwater refugia is critical to effective management, so we investigated (a) fine-scale drivers of Brook Trout abundance and (b) factors affecting their thermal sensitivity in 49 coldwater...

Rivers draining continuous permafrost landscapes on the North Slope of Alaska span from the mountains to the coast, integrating gradients in vegetation, soil organic matter, and hydrologic flow. We investigated how these landscape transitions influence dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations, radiocarbon ages, and export along the river continuum over seasonal timeframes in...

A wide selection of linear and non-linear dimensionality reduction techniques is evaluated on synthetic tsunami data that is the basis for tsunami hazard assessment and computational forecasting. The data were computed from earthquake rupture forecasts (ERFs) supplying initial generation conditions and a linear long-wave Green's function approach to efficiently calculate tsunami...

Diadromous fish species occupy freshwater habitats (rearing, spawning, migration) for a substantial part of their lives. The quality and quantity of these habitats is mainly driven by thermal and streamflow regimes; therefore, understanding trends in streamflow allows better management of diadromous species and their habitats. We investigated seasonal flows for many basins in two U.S...

Objective

No abstract available.

Biodiversity is structured on the landscape through a combination of spatial, environmental, and stochastic factors. In freshwater river networks, the interaction of the linear river network and the three-dimensional terrestrial landscape creates multiple pathways for ecological connectivity that affect aquatic community structure through habitat filtering and dispersal dynamics. Here...

Recent reports of decadal-scale structural changes in the lowermost mantle and transport of strong heterogeneity in the outer core may offer important insights into core-mantle structure and dynamics. These reports are derived from waveform comparisons of earthquake pairs or repeating earthquakes, particularly using differential travel-time measurements made with cross-correlation...

Ornithodoros ticks, a genus of soft ticks in the family Argasidae, occur worldwide including throughout deserts in the Southwestern United States. In the Mojave Desert, Ornithodoros parkeri and O. turicata are common ectoparasites of Mojave desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii). These two tick species are vectors of Borrelia spp. that cause tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) in people...

Landscapes in humid climates often experience rapid chemical and mechanical weathering that can change groundwater fluxes, drainage pathways, and frictional strength via alterations in subsurface mineral composition and matrix porosity. These changes to hillslope critical zone structure and strength should control landslide susceptibility, size, and failure style. Here we test the impact...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of over 15,000 xenobiotic compounds that have permeated across the globe and are largely resistant to natural forms of degradation, resulting in their long-term environmental persistence. These compounds can bioaccumulate and cause toxicological effects in organisms living within PFAS contaminated ecosystems. Grasses and feedstocks...