Articles

Coral reefs provide immense ecosystem and economic value, supporting biodiversity, fisheries, tourism, and coastal protection worth billions annually. However, widespread degradation from thermal stress, storms, disease, and human impacts has caused significant coral cover and reef structure loss, increasing coastal vulnerability and economic risks. While coral loss is well-documented...

A comprehensive scientific research roadmap is essential to bridge knowledge gaps and deepen the understanding of key geological, geochemical, and geophysical aspects of natural hydrogen (H2) as a potential new energy resource. This paper reviews major scientific uncertainties on natural H2, suggesting research priorities, as a guide for defining exploration strategies, techniques, and...

Background

Organizing the eruptive histories and petrogenetic models that underpin hazard assessments at active volcanoes typically requires high-precision ages for late Pleistocene to Holocene lava flows. In this study, features of an existing 40Ar/39Ar dataset for andesitic-dacitic rocks from Ruapehu volcano, Aotearoa New Zealand, were interrogated with new microanalytical data to identify the...

Hakalau Forest Unit of the Big Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex (hereafter, Hakalau) protects the largest area with the highest endemic forest bird diversity in Hawaiʻi, including four federally listed species. Hakalau’s higher elevation montane forest provides refuge from avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum), a primary driver of Hawaiian honeycreeper extinctions. However, recent...

Cyclothems are defined by the repeat juxtaposition of littoral and open marine successions over short stratigraphic distances (meters to 10's of meters) and are interpreted to be driven by glacioeustatic forcing of sea level during the late Paleozoic Ice Age. The concept of cyclothems was defined in the Midcontinent region of the United States. However, correlating the Midcontinent...

Invasive annual grasses (IAG) continue to spread within the sagebrush biome of the western United States, degrading plant communities and wildlife habitat, decreasing forage for ranching livelihoods, and heightening wildfire risk. Effective management of IAGs requires action and long-term strategic planning across the sagebrush biome, but the cumulative effects of IAG treatments over...

Tidal marshes are considered one of the world's most efficient ecosystems for belowground organic carbon sequestration and hence climate mitigation. Marsh systems are however also vulnerable to degradation due to climate-induced sea level rise, whereby marsh vegetation conversion to open water often follows distinct spatial patterns: levees (i.e. marsh zones  30 m from creeks). Here, we...

Ecological restoration is essential to meeting global biodiversity conservation goals. Given limited conservation budgets, deciding where to restore habitat is a key challenge for the coming decade. We developed a spatially explicit framework to optimize ecological restoration site selection by integrating land use history, species distributions, and economic costs. The framework...

Human impacts from dams reduce river sediment fluxes and are primary causes of coastal erosion worldwide. Here we provide new satellite-derived shoreline observation techniques to examine beach area trends across the diverse coastal settings of California. Contrary to global trends, these data reveal that the most heavily urbanized and dammed region of southern California experienced net...

The frequent detection of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment raises concern for aquatic systems. Carbamazepine (CBZ), an antiepileptic drug, is among the most detected PPCP globally, with concentrations in surface water exceeding those that induce toxicity to aquatic organisms. Non-targeted transcriptomic profiling was conducted in zebrafish (Danio...

The 2018 eruption of Kīlauea volcano in its Lower East Rift Zone began with the discharge of evolved high-Ti basalt as weak lava fountains and short, slow-moving lava flows. The lavas were quickly geochemically recognized as being derived from magmas stored within the rift zone and remobilized by a new intrusion, a sequence that is common at Kīlauea. This initial phase of the 2018...