Articles

Long-lived Atlantic coral species like Orbicella faveolata are important archives of oceanographic change in shallow, marine environments like the Florida Keys. Not only can coral-based records extend for multiple centuries beyond the limits of the instrumental record, but they can also provide a more accurate representation of in situ conditions than gridded interpolated sea-surface...

Urbanization can have substantial effects on water quality due to altered hydrology and introduction of constituents to water bodies. In arid and semi-arid environments, streams are further stressed by dewatering as a result of diversions. We conducted a high-resolution synoptic survey of two streams in Colorado, USA that transition abruptly from granitic/metamorphic forested mountains...

Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), an invasive cyprinid within the Laurentian Great Lakes, is naturally reproducing in several Lake Erie tributaries, which has raised concerns of the species’ spread throughout Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes. Knowledge of the recent invasion extent outside of the western basin of Lake Erie, particularly in eastern tributaries and nearshore waters...

Responsive and empathic communication by scientists is critical for building trust and engagement with communities, which, in turn, promotes receptiveness toward authoritative hazard information during times of crisis. The 2018 eruption of Hawai‘i's Kīlauea Volcano was the first volcanic crisis event in which communication via the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) social media group, “USGS...

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, scenario modeling played a crucial role in shaping the decision-making process of public health policies. Unlike forecasts, scenario projections rely on specific assumptions about the future that consider different plausible states-of-the-world that may or may not be realized and that depend on policy interventions, unpredictable changes in the epidemic...

Numerous factors influence the timing of spring migration in birds, yet the relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic variables on migration initiation remains unclear. To test for interactions among weather, migration distance, parasitism, and physiology in determining spring departure date, we used the Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) as a model migratory species known to harbor...

Climate-induced expansion of invasive hybridization (breeding between invasive and native species) poses a significant threat to the persistence of many native species worldwide. In the northern U.S. Rocky Mountains, hybridization between native cutthroat trout and non-native rainbow trout has increased in recent decades due, in part, to climate-driven increases in water temperature. It...

Climate warming has facilitated the expansion of black mangrove Avicennia germinans (hereafter ‘Avicennia’) into smooth cordgrass Spartina alterniflora (hereafter ‘Spartina’) salt marshes in southeastern Louisiana (USA). As macrophytes contribute to soil organic matter (SOM) and primary production, this transition could alter the basal energy pathways supporting salt marsh food webs. We...

Objective Landscape context structures fish abundance and dynamics, and understanding trends in fish abundance across the landscape is often prerequisite for effective conservation. In this study, we evaluated the status and trends of Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis in Shenandoah National Park to understand how these are structured across bedrock geology, elevation, and stream size...

Hydropsyche and Arctopsyche are filter-feeding caddisflies (Order: Trichoptera; Family: Hydropsychidae) that are commonly used to monitor metal exposures in rivers. While tissue residue concentrations provide important bioaccumulation data regarding metal bioavailability, they do not provide information regarding the mechanisms of uptake and loss, or exposure history. This study examined...

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko displays a pronounced hemispherical dichotomy in surface morphology, where the southern hemisphere exhibits more erosional features than the northern hemisphere due to receiving much greater solar radiation. Consequently, it is generally assumed that particles are ejected from the southern hemisphere through sublimation and a significant fraction...

Declining body size in fishes and other aquatic ectotherms associated with anthropogenic climate warming has significant implications for future fisheries yields, stock assessments and aquatic ecosystem stability. One proposed mechanism seeking to explain such body-size reductions, known as the gill oxygen limitation (GOL) hypothesis, has recently been used to model future impacts of...