Publications

Lake Erie has the most populated watershed of all the Great Lakes and has undergone dramatic anthropogenic changes. Since the 1800s, overexploitation of fish populations, habitat destruction, non-native species proliferation, industrial contamination, and changes in nutrient loading have impacted the fish community including declines in or extirpation of many native species (Regier et al...

1. Populations of cold-adapted species are increasingly vulnerable along their low-latitude range limits due to shifting environmental conditions, biotic interactions, and anthropogenic pressures. Managing these populations is particularly challenging because of complex ecological dynamics, conflicting stakeholder interests, and decision-making under uncertainty. 2. We explored...

Background: As solar energy development expands in desert regions, new installation practices and solar technologies seek to balance ecosystem conservation and energy generation (ecovoltaics). The Gemini Solar Project, a large ecovoltaic facility located in the northeastern Mojave Desert, employed low impact installation methods to reduce disturbance of the desert ecosystem within arrays...

Knowledge of factors that influence nest survival can inform effective conservation management for imperiled avian species. Habitat availability and quality are common priorities of conservation efforts, and climate and interspecific associations can also affect survival rates. In the lower Platte River system of eastern Nebraska, USA, Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus, hereafter...

The Determining Volcanic Risk in Auckland (DEVORA) Research Programme was launched in 2008 to address the challenges associated with monogenetic volcanism in an urban setting and to enhance volcanic risk management in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is a multi-agency, increasingly transdisciplinary (defined here as research that transcends traditional disciplinary...

Since 1978, bottom trawl surveys in Lake Ontario have provided information on the status and trends of the benthic prey fish community related to Fish Community Objectives that include understanding prey fish population dynamics and community diversity. Beginning in 2015, the benthic prey fish survey expanded from only U.S. sites to incorporate Canadian sites, increasing the survey’s...

The U.S. Geological Survey has conducted annual trawl surveys across Lake Superior since 1978 that describe trends in fish species occurrence and relative abundance to support fisheries science and management. In 2025, the Lake Superior fish community was sampled with daytime bottom and surface trawls at 72 nearshore stations in May and June and 36 offshore locations in July. Nearshore...

The southwestern United States consists of diverse ecosystems that are experiencing increasing pressures from rising temperatures, increasing aridity, and sea level rise. To prepare this region for future uncertainty, there is a need for strong partnerships among researchers and societal partners. The Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (SW CASC) acts to foster engaged...

Patterns of resource selection are driven by the decision-making processes of animals occurring at multiple scales from where to establish a home range (i.e., second order selection) to which resource patches to use within the home range (i.e., third order selection). Elk (Cervus canadensis) were reintroduced to southwestern Virginia, USA, from 2012 to 2014 following successful...

Precipitation is one of the dominant drivers of landscape erosion and evolution; however, the effects of typical rainfall compared with less frequent, high-magnitude precipitation events on erosion remain unclear. Volcanic islands are ideal locations to study such phenomena due to their simple geometries, nontectonic construction, and strong spatiotemporal rainfall gradients. However...

Local to global scale projections of future coastal landscape change are essential to improve land and resource management decisions that aim to prepare for and reduce risk exposure to impending coastal hazards. However, the availability of actionable knowledge is often limited due to the complexity of drivers of change, their consequences, and uncertainties that span disciplines...

Rivers continually integrate terrestrial organic matter (OM) into their waters, in a process that transfers 1.9 Pg C yr–1 as the primary linkage between oceanic and terrestrial carbon cycles. Yet rivers are not simple, conservative OM integrators. Patchy local land uses (wetlands, bogs, agriculture) release OM that can disproportionately alter river biogeochemistry and overprint upstream...