Articles

A common challenge when modeling social–ecological systems (SESs) is defining the spatial extent of the system. Boundaries that do not adequately capture both social and ecological processes and their interactions can lead to mischaracterization of the system, while expanding boundaries too widely can impact model complexity and required resources. Socially, boundaries can invoke and...

Iron (Fe) and nickel (Ni) were both foundational to early metabolism, yet their biological trajectories diverged as Earth’s surface redox state changed. Here, we integrate mineral chemistry network analysis, protein metal-site coordination-sphere analysis, and curated redox comparisons to test how geochemistry and metalloprotein architecture co-evolved. Mineral network analyses show...

The United States Magnetotelluric Array (USMTArray) data set, collected in the years 2006–2024, consists of more than 1,700 long-period magnetotelluric stations covering the entirety of the contiguous United States on a quasi-regular 70 km grid. Funding across multiple federal agencies was critical to sustaining this effort to its completion. Important components of the project included...

Rivers throughout the world have been dammed for flood control, irrigation, hydropower, and water storage for centuries. Dams service the economic and development needs of societies, but degrade the ecology of rivers. To conserve diminishing aquatic species and their habitats, methods are needed to help managers implement flow releases with timescales and patterns that are relevant to...

Understanding spatial distribution patterns is essential to management of invasive species. Aquatic invasive species can be notably challenging to detect due to the substantial effort required to locate them underwater. This limitation has resulted in a lack of timely distribution maps, particularly over vast regions, and hindered efforts to understand, forecast, and manage the...

Pinyon–juniper (PJ) woodlands, one of the most extensive mature and old-growth woodland types in the Western United States, provide critical ecological, cultural, and economic benefits but face increasing threats from climate change, altered disturbance regimes, invasive species, and pests. We developed the PJ Woodland Climate Adaptation Management Menu, a decision support tool designed...

Climate change is transforming the Arctic and sub-Arctic at a pace that threatens many taxa with population declines and extinction. However, some habitats–such as muskeg bogs–can serve as climatic refugia and lessen the effects of a changing climate on the species that rely on them. Hudsonian Godwits (Limosa haemastica) are a species of migratory shorebird that utilizes the muskeg bogs...

Many hydrologic applications require basic information on the size and shape of river channels, but measuring cross section (XS) geometry in the field or via remote sensing can be costly and often provides only partial coverage. Given these challenges, we capitalized upon an existing data set of 46,971 XS from gaging stations to evaluate various approximations of channel shape. After...

Transport of terrigenic sediment from nontidal watersheds into estuaries has important impacts on coastal habitat quality, pollutant transport, and resilience to sea-level rise. However, relatively little is known about changes in suspended sediment as nontidal rivers encounter tide, transition into tidal rivers through the tidal freshwater zone (TFZ), and enter saline portions of...

Agrivoltaics, the co-location of agriculture and solar photovoltaic (PV) infrastructure, can deliver co-benefits like reduced plant drought stress and improved yields of shade-tolerant crops, particularly in water-scarce regions. Despite growing global interest, the technical potential and opportunities for agrivoltaics remain poorly understood in many regions facing both food and energy

Human development has resulted in the loss of natural wetlands in many regions and thus has led to amphibian habitat loss. Human-constructed wetlands are increasingly prevalent, particularly in human-modified landscapes, and can be used as breeding habitats by amphibians. It is important to identify factors influencing amphibian use of constructed wetlands to guide future wetland...

Human settlements are increasingly being impacted by urban fires initiated by wildfires. Metrics such as area burned and number of structures destroyed are important, but research often overlooks the socio-ecological complexity of urban fires. We study the impacts of the 2025 Los Angeles fires on two communities at the neighborhood and residential parcel scales. Geospatial analyses and...