All Publications

Environmental DNA (eDNA) and RNA (eRNA) metabarcoding has become a popular tool for assessing biodiversity from environmental samples, but inconsistent documentation of methods, data and metadata makes results difficult to reproduce and synthesise. A working group of scientists have collaborated to produce a set of minimum reporting guidelines for the constituent steps of metabarcoding...

Recent approaches to fisheries research emphasize the importance of the coproduction of knowledge in building resilient and culturally mindful fisheries management frameworks. Despite widespread recognition of the need for Indigenous knowledge and historical reference points as baseline data, archaeological data are rarely included in conservation biology research designs. Here we...

Coastal wetlands are economically important ecosystems, but are at risk to erosion from waves, storms, and sea level rise. However, marshes can persist under rising sea level through vertical accretion and migration into adjacent higher-elevation habitats. We measured rates of marsh shoreline change and migration and compared the results for historical and modern periods in a largely...

Wildfire regimes are changing rapidly with widespread increase in the intensity, frequency, and duration of fire activity, especially in the western United States. Limited studies explore the impacts of wildfires on aquatic taxa and few focus on lentic habitats that are essential for amphibians, many of which are of conservation concern. We capitalized on existing pre-fire surveys for...

The ubiquitous occurrence and persistence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in all environmental matrices and biota poses significant health risks to humans. Fish consumption is one of the main pathways humans are exposed to PFAS, yet general patterns in factors influencing PFAS content in fish fillets remain unknown. We assembled information on PFAS content (total quantified...

The U.S. Geological Survey investigated land cover at subannual time steps within six wetland areas in Dixie Valley, Churchill County, Nevada, from October 2015 to January 2022. As requested by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, we used aerial photography and satellite remote sensing data to map surface water and other land cover types within the wetland complexes. We identified five...

Passive acoustic monitoring has grown in utility for tracking wildlife populations, although challenges remain when using acoustic detections to monitor population size and density. Distance sampling is considered the ‘gold standard’ for estimating animal densities but has several important limitations, especially for rare, cryptic, and high-density species. Here, we test the performance...

Introduction The topography of New Hampshire ranges from the Coastal Lowlands to the Eastern New England Upland to the White Mountains region. High-quality statewide elevation data are useful in managing this very diverse landscape. For example, the short coastline, including the Great Bay estuary and the Hampton-Seabrook marshes, is of disproportionately high value to New Hampshire’s...

Conventional detection technologies for environmental contaminants have primarily focused on providing accurate qualitative and quantitative evaluations for single pollutant types, leading to increased costs and an inability to satisfy the growing demand for detecting a broader spectrum of pollutants. Here, we introduced a novel analytical method to simultaneously measure the...

Prevention and early detection of invasive species are championed as the most cost-effective and efficient strategies for reducing or preventing negative impacts on ecosystems. Spotted lanternfly (SLF), Lycorma delicatula, is a recently introduced invasive insect whose range in the United States has been expanding rapidly since it was first discovered in Pennsylvania in 2014. Feeding by...

Anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition is unequally distributed across space and time, with inputs to terrestrial ecosystems impacted by industry regulations and variations in human activity. Soil carbon (C) content normally controls the fraction of mineralized N that is nitrified (ƒnitrified), affecting N bioavailability for plants and microbes. However, it is unknown whether N...

Mauna Loa’s short-lived eruption from late November to early December 2022 marked the culmination of nearly a decade of elevated seismic activity and geodetic inflation. The volcano has been monitored by a network of permanent, short period and broadband seismometers. I used the continuous waveform data from that network starting in 2012 to generate a catalog of seismicity that enhances...