Publications

Objective The potential for environmental DNA (eDNA) to disperse widely from source organisms enables high detection efficiency but raises questions about eDNA's ability to differentiate fine-scale spatial patterns relative to conventional fish capture data.Methods We evaluate these questions in the St. Louis River estuary—a hydrologically and spatially complex coastal system within Lake...

Critical minerals are necessary for modern technology and strategic purposes. Their increasing importance requires finding new and nontraditional resources. Samples of ore, altered, and unaltered host rock were collected from 26 iron mines and prospects in California, Nevada, and Utah to assess the potential of these deposits to host economic quantities of different critical minerals...

Fecal pellets contain genetic information and can be used to identify individuals, their diet, and more. Individual identification can be useful in understanding movements of individuals, developing population estimates, assessing vital rates, genetic diversity and structure, and evaluating trends over time (e.g., Epps et al 2024). Successful genotyping depends on the quality of the...

Food chain length (FCL) is a primary determinant of food web structure and is hypothesized to be influenced by habitat size, productivity, and disturbance. Understanding the environmental characteristics that determine food chain length can assist in understanding how food webs may be impacted due to changes in habitats and environmental characteristics. This study examines the impact of

Homeowner wildfire risk mitigation and preparedness are critical components of community wildfire readiness. This report describes the data collected through two efforts conducted in the Estes Valley Fire Protection District of Larimer County, Colorado, study area: (1) parcel-level rapid wildfire risk assessments performed by trained assessors and (2) homeowner surveys in which...

The resilience of salt marshes with low organic production depends on their effective capture and retention of mineral sediment from adjacent waters. Little prior work has directly compared mechanisms of sediment import from wave-influenced marsh boundaries against those of tidal creeks. We used simultaneous deployment of net-deposition tiles and oceanographic sensors to identify the...

As there are a growing number of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) alternative substitutes applied globally, it remains paramount to characterize their potential health risks. Perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) is the most common alternative PFAS detected in the environment; however, its toxic effects and underlying mechanism of action to aquatic biota remains unclear. In this study...

Shifting climate regimes are projected to increase the area of xeric regions and result in more pronounced intermittency across river networks. Given these projected changes, we aim to understand the factors contributing to species persistence under increasing aridity. To investigate how changing flow regimes are related to changes in fish richness and assemblage composition, we compiled...

Clear Lake volcanic field (CLVF) is the northernmost and youngest (~2.2 Ma to 8 ka) of the volcanic centers distributed along the San Andreas transform fault in western California. The initial phase of CLVF volcanism (interval one) occurred between ~2.2 and 1.3 Ma and extends ~35 km southeast of Clear Lake, forming a semi-continuous upland plateau capped by lava flows, with isolated...

Seasonal shifts from runoff to groundwater dominance influence daily headwater stream temperatures, especially where local groundwater input is strong. This input buffers temperature during hot periods, supporting cold-water habitats. Recent studies use air–water temperature signal metrics to identify zones of strong stream–groundwater connectivity. While Previous studies used air–water...

Tsunami hazards are substantial threats to coastal communities across the United States (U.S.) and its territories. U.S. states and territories collaborate through the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP) to develop their own tsunami-hazard information for outreach and evacuation planning. An effort to curate this tsunami-hazard information to support comprehensive risk...

The ongoing degradation of coral reef habitats is widely acknowledged to have adverse effects on the abundance and diversity of reef fish populations, yet the direct effects on ecosystem functions remain uncertain. This study used a quantitative approach to determine the mechanistic links between fish assemblages and ecological function. We investigated the effects of 3D habitat...