Articles

The lower 3.5 km of Eighteenmile Creek, a tributary to Lake Ontario in New York, was designated as an Area of Concern (AOC) in 1985 under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement due to extensive contamination of bed sediments by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other toxicants. Five beneficial use impairments (BUIs) have been identified in this AOC, including degraded fish and...

Grassland birds are among the fastest declining avian species in North America, primarily due to habitat loss. In the southeastern U.S., much grassland and open savanna habitat has been converted to timber production or agriculture, neither of which typically provides habitat for breeding or wintering grassland birds. Powerline right-of-ways could provide suitable habitat for many...

Understanding the processes governing population dynamics is important for effective conservation and environmental management. Disentangling the relative role of density-dependent versus density-independent processes on population dynamics is often made difficult by the inability to control for abiotic or biotic factors, but long-term datasets are invaluable in this pursuit. We used a...

Images from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission of lacustrine sedimentary rocks of Vera Rubin ridge on “Mt. Sharp” in Gale crater, Mars, have shown stark color variations from red to purple to gray. These color differences crosscut stratigraphy and are likely due to diagenetic alteration of the sediments after deposition. However, the chemistry and timing of these fluid...

Megaherbivores are keystone species whose removal from landscapes can cause cascading ecosystem changes, yet the consequences of Late Quaternary megaherbivore extinctions remain uncertain. This paper tests the Megaherbivory Release Hypothesis (MRH), which posits that the decline and extinction of megaherbivores (body size >1000 kg) during the last deglaciation in eastern North America...

Climate change poses a significant threat to Arctic freshwater biodiversity, but impacts depend upon the strength of organism response to climate‐related drivers. Currently, there is insufficient knowledge about Arctic freshwater biodiversity patterns to guide assessment, prediction, and management of biodiversity change.As part of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program's first...

We studied the sequence of climatic and hydrological events associated with the formation of peat during the Holocene, using pollen, diatoms and environmental magnetism from peat cores at three locations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of California: Browns Island, Franks Wetland and Webb Track Levee. Our data show that peat first formed under relatively dry conditions in a...

The Appalachian Region is a rich forested ecosystem that has been impacted by coal mining. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 was enacted to resolve many of the environmental problems caused by surface mining. Reclamation practices resulted in excessive soil compaction and use of nonnative grasses and shrubs that have altered hydrologic processes. The Forestry...

Moose (Alces alces) populations along the southern extent of their range are largely declining, and there is growing evidence that nutritional condition — which influences several vital rates – is a contributing factor. Moose body condition can presently be estimated only when there is measurable subcutaneous rump fat, which equates to animals with >6% ingesta-free body fat (IFBFat)...

The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic triggered dramatic shifts in the way that ecologists teach, research, and interact (e.g., Cooke et al. 2021). As the world now adjusts to a “new normal” era, there is notable and open discussion about the merits or desire to return to practices used prior to the pandemic (e.g., Roulson 2021). A dominant aspect of these discussions is when and how...

The diffusion of molecular water (H2Om) from the environment into volcanic glass can hydrate the glass up to several wt% at low temperature over long timescales. During this process, the water imprints its hydrogen isotope composition (δDH2O) to the glass (δDgl) offset by a glass-H2O fractionation factor (ΔDgl-H2O = δDgl – δDH2O) which is approximately −33‰ at Earth surface temperatures...

Aquatic vegetation can provide habitat and refuge for a variety of species in streams. However, the flow features generated by submerged patches of vegetation can also pose a challenge for fish larvae. We conducted a series of experiments with live grass carp larvae (starting ∼50 h post hatch) in a laboratory racetrack flume, using a submerged array of rigid cylinders to mimic vegetation...