Publications

Environmental decision-support tools are increasingly being used to serve both expert and non-expert audiences. Many existing tools are primarily expert-focused, and redesigning them can be challenging because experts and non-experts interact with tools differently, existing users may be resistant to changes, and there is little guidance on how to prioritize redesign efforts and...

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a widespread and incurable cervid disease. Despite continuing investments, the logistical challenges of CWD have required wildlife managers and researchers to navigate changing priorities with conflicting public perceptions. When overcoming difficult management problems, leveraging exploratory methods may identify previously unrecognized hypotheses. In...

Increasing levels of chloride in surface water are associated with detrimental effects on water quality, aquatic ecosystems, infrastructure, and human health. Numerous mass-balance studies have inferred watershed transport processes by interpreting chloride inputs and outputs, but few represent internal dynamics explicitly. We constructed a coupled water/chloride mass balance model to...

A substantial body of evidence exists demonstrating that exposure to environmental contaminants can alter animal behavior. Moreover, methodological and technological advancements, as well as increasing standardization, mean that behavioral ecotoxicity studies are more rigorous and reliable than ever before. Despite this, behavioral data are still seldom used in the risk assessment and...

San Francisco Bay, California, typically has chlorophyll a (chl-a) concentrations below 10 µg L−1, despite nutrient loadings exceeding those in many estuaries with recurring harmful algal blooms (HABs). However, in August 2022 there was a Heterosigma akashiwo (raphidophyte) bloom with chl-a concentrations exceeding 450 µg L−1, resulting in widespread hypoxia and fish die-off. We used...

In April 2021, a synoptic study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and National Park Service (NPS) identified wastewater-related contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in springs along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. These springs are located north of Bright Angel Wash, an ephemeral channel that receives treated effluent from the South Rim Wastewater Treatment Plant...

Purpose Identifying suspended-sediment (SS) sources, seasonal variability, and phosphorus (P) transported with SS is critical information for basin managers, although there may be concerns about comparability between flow-integrated SS samples used for sediment fingerprinting and discrete samples used for concentrations and loads in basins where SS is mostly silt + clay and(or) one land...

Over the last few decades, freshwater turtles have become more common in the illegal wildlife trade because of growing global demand. Illegally traded turtles may be intercepted by several different agencies with separate jurisdictions. When turtles are confiscated, uncertainties may make releasing them back to the wild difficult. We used tools from decision analysis to achieve the...

Momentum is growing for the management of coral reefs as a strategy to reduce climate risks in tropical coastlines. Yet, quantification of the life-time costs, impacts, and benefits remains limited. This study provides one of the first rigorous, spatially explicit, regional-scale Benefit:Cost Analyses (BCA) for coral reef restoration and was designed to meet the BCA requirements of major...

Long-term monitoring indicates bluegill catch rates are relatively stable in some reaches of the Upper Mississippi River and highly variable in others, whereas in the Illinois River, catch rates have decreased. A lack of age structure information precludes understanding population processes responsible for patterns in catch rates. To build a better understanding of why catch rates have...

The relation between the groundwater and the amount of natural recharge to the Cahuilla Valley and Terwilliger Valley groundwater basins is not well understood. During the 20th century, the reliance on groundwater near Anza, California, used for agricultural, domestic, and municipal reasons has increased, and there is the potential for changes in groundwater availability related to...

The need for energy storage, particularly underground, where capacity and duration may far exceed battery storage technologies, is especially relevant given the increasing demands for reliable power alongside the development of intermittent renewable electricity sources. Geologic energy storage facilities already exist, and expanded use would enable storing gases such as methane and...