Articles

Seasonal snow is an important source of drinking water and recreation, and for agriculture in the Rocky Mountain region. Monitoring snow-water quality can inform on the effects to the albedo and energy balance of the snowpack, and the sources of natural and anthropogenic aerosol and gases. This study analyzed metals in the seasonal snowpack from water year (WY) 2018 for 49 sites. Calcium

We use the deterministic earthquake simulator RSQSim to generate complex sequences of ruptures on fault systems used for hazard assessment. We show that the source motions combined with a wave propagation code create surface ground motions that fall within the range of epistemic uncertainties for the Next Generation Attenuation‐West2 set of empirical models. We show the model is well...

The American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) is an invasive species globally significant for its role as a generalist predator in freshwater systems. Native turtles are among the species eaten by bullfrogs, and turtle populations are slow to recover from this impact. We examined the effects of bullfrogs and their removal on Northwestern pond turtles (Actinemys marmorata) at four sites in...

The importance of connectivity for freshwater organisms is widely recognised, yet in-stream barriers associated with population declines and increased risk of extinction remain globally ubiquitous. Despite their negative consequences, these barriers can protect aquatic communities by limiting the spread of invasive species, leading to conflicting management goals in some regions...

Objective Although conserving fish biodiversity in lotic systems is challenging, protected areas can provide refuge from certain environmental stressors. In the Appalachian region, USA, the National Park Service manages Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (DEWA) and New River Gorge National Park & Preserve (NERI), which contain abundant and diverse freshwater resources. To assess...

Many species have a variety of adaptations to winter weather, but these adaptations could become maladaptive if winter snowfall and temperatures are more variable. Snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) molt from a brown summer coat to a white winter coat, but reductions in snow cover could result in phenotypic mismatch, which in turn could reduce survival. Hare populations near the southern...

Historical and ongoing anthropogenic activities coupled with advancements in analytical techniques have led to the detection of large numbers of contaminants in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Consequently, identifying and prioritizing chemicals likely to cause ecological harm represents a challenge for natural resource managers. Previous prioritization efforts have focused on contaminants...

The impacts of white-nose syndrome (WNS) on many bat species in eastern North America have been well documented because of the length of time that the causative agent, Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), has been present and the ability to monitor bat hibernacula in that region. However, the disease outcomes for bat species in western North America are less known because of the more...

Population monitoring is essential to document recovery efforts for threatened and endangered species. Mexican wolves (Canis lupus baileyi) are an endangered subspecies of gray wolves that historically occupied large portions of the American Southwest and Mexico. Recently, the Mexican wolf population in the United States has been growing rapidly and traditional approaches for population...

Great Aleutian underthrusting earthquakes produced destructive tsunamis impacting Hawaiʻi in 1946 and 1957. Prior modeling of the 1957 tsunami deposit and runup records on eastern Aleutian and Hawaiian Islands jointly with tide-gauge observations across the Pacific Ocean constrained a rupture model with shallow slip up to 26 m along 600 km of the plate boundary. Here we implement this...

Describing future habitat for sensitive species can be helpful in planning conservation efforts to ensure species persistence under new climatic conditions. The Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum) is an iconic lizard of the southwestern United States. The northernmost range of Gila monsters is the Mojave Desert, an area experiencing rapid human population growth and urban sprawl. To...

The Perseverance rover is exploring Jezero crater on Mars, one of its goals being to collect samples to be returned to Earth to search for organic remains of ancient Martian life. However, the organic content of these rocks has likely suffered from the radiation environment on the surface of Mars to an extent yet to be quantified. For the first time, a 1000 sols long ageing experiment...