Articles

Ecological restoration has potential for contributing to conservation activities for threatened Mojave desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) and Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia, Y. jaegeriana) and their broader ecosystems in the Mojave and western Sonoran deserts. To be effective, restoration actions deployed strategically need to halt and reverse habitat degradation, replenish or enhance...

The Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus; LEPC) is an iconic North American prairie grouse, renowned for ornate and spectacular breeding season displays. Unfortunately, the species has disappeared across much of its historical range, with corresponding precipitous declines in contemporary population abundance, largely due to climatic and anthropogenic factors. These...

The large graben-like troughs and smooth plains visible on the surface of Ariel are indicative of a period of high heat flow in the Uranian moon's past. High heat flows on icy moons like Ariel can also enable viscous flow that removes impact crater topography, a process called viscous relaxation. Here we use numerical modeling to investigate the conditions necessary to viscously relax...

Total mercury (THg) was measured in muscle (fillet) and liver tissue of adult smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu collected at multiple sites in the Potomac and Susquehanna River drainages within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Smallmouth bass in these drainages have experienced episodic mortality events, a high prevalence of skin lesions and reproductive endocrine disruption (intersex or

In Alaska’s watersheds, climate change is altering the nature and role of the snowpack, defined as snow accumulation that melts in spring. Generally, the amount of precipitation that falls as snow and the length of the snow-cover season both decrease as temperatures exceed 0°C (32°F) more frequently. The impacts of climate change on snowpack vary among watersheds. In southern, coastal...

Point bars are crucial alluvial features that help sustain meandering river ecosystems. They are influenced by interactions among physical processes and biological components, such as riparian vegetation. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these interactions can inform management decisions. The meandering Powder River in southeastern Montana, USA, provides a valuable study system...

On 12 January 2020, an eruption began on the shores of the Main Crater Lake (MCL) of Taal Volcano—a caldera system on the southern end of Luzon Island in the Philippines. Taal, one of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines, is located 30 km south of Manila—a major metropolitan area with a population of 13.5 million people. Eruptive activity intensified throughout the day on 12...

Juvenile salmonids migrate hundreds of kilometers from their natal streams to mature in the ocean. Throughout this migration, they respond to environmental cues such as local water velocities and other stimuli to direct and modulate their movements, often through heavily modified riverine and estuarine habitats. Management strategies in an uncertain future of climate change and altered...

Because use of high-resolution hydrologic models is becoming more widespread and estimates are made over large domains, there is a pressing need for systematic evaluation of their performance. Most evaluation efforts to date have focused on smaller basins that have been relatively undisturbed by human activity, but there is also a need to benchmark model performance more comprehensively...

Sandy beaches are important resources providing recreation, tourism, habitat, and coastal protection. They evolve over various time scales due to local winds, waves, storms, and changes in sea level. A common method used to monitor change in sandy beaches is to measure the movement of the shoreline over time. Typically, the rate of change is estimated by fitting a linear regression...

Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) H5N1 was introduced in North America in late 2021 through trans-Atlantic pathways via migratory birds. These introductions have resulted in an unprecedented epizootic, a widespread disease event in animals, heavily affecting poultry, wild birds, and recently mammals. The North American incursions occurred during the largest epidemic season...

Growth of the Tibetan Plateau, Earth’s broadest and highest elevation collisional system, shapes orographic barriers, reorganizes drainage networks, and influences surface erosion and sediment delivery, whose changes in space and provenance feed back to intracontinental tectonic processes. Studies of interior basins within the northern Tibetan Plateau provide new sediment accumulation...