Publications

The distribution of river-bed grain sizes plays a foundational role in river morphology and ecology. River-bed grain size is a key driver of channel form and process, and has first order effects on aquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages, fish nesting, and biogeochemical processes. Despite this importance, tools to spatially quantify grain-size distributions, particularly submerged grain...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been a National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) partner agency since 1981. NADP is composed of five atmospheric monitoring networks that verify Clean Air Act effectiveness and provide essential data to protect human health and preserve ecosystems for current and future generations. Stakeholders include land management agencies overseeing...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) operates a National Water Quality Network (NWQN) to monitor trends in groundwater quality and assess emerging contaminants of concern. It is a “network of networks” with 81 subnetworks being sampled on a decadal time scale. Each year, 8 of the subnetworks are sampled. Subnetworks have 20–30 wells each and include studies of domestic supply wells or...

Built infrastructure, such as seawalls and levees, has long been used to reduce shoreline erosion and protect coastal properties from flood impacts. In contrast, natural and nature-based features (NNBF), including marshes, mangroves, oyster reefs, coral reefs, and seagrasses, offer not only coastal protection but also a range of valuable ecosystem services. There is no clear...

More than 10 years following the onset of the sea star wasting disease (SSWD) epidemic, affecting over 20 asteroid species from Mexico to Alaska, the causative agent has been elusive. SSWD killed billions of the most susceptible species, sunflower sea stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides), initiating a trophic cascade involving unchecked urchin population growth and the widespread loss of...

Insects are declining worldwide, yet gaps remain in our understanding of how declines are distributed across species within communities. Using three decades of butterfly monitoring data aggregated from the Midwestern United States, we found that no butterfly species increased in abundance from 1992 to 2023. 59 out of 136 species declined (annual mean trend: −1.2 to −6.9% per year) with...

A decade after a marine epidemic killed off sea stars and triggered ecosystem-wide effects along the Pacific Coast of North America, researchers have identified the bacterial pathogen that is responsible for sea star wasting disease.

Coral-reef degradation is disrupting the balance between reef accretion and erosion and threatening the persistence of essential coral-reef habitats. In south Florida, most reefs are already net eroding, and without intervention, valuable ecosystem services may be lost. Coral restoration holds the potential to reverse those trends; however, typical restoration monitoring does not...

Water development and the proliferation of invasive riparian vegetation have led to widespread habitat loss and simplification of rivers in the western United States, contributing to the imperilment of native fishes. Here, we quantify channel narrowing and vegetation encroachment, which are conspicuous indicators of riverine habitat alteration, along ∼400 km of three dryland tributaries...

The lower Virgin River is a sandy, shallow reach of the Virgin River that flows from northern Arizona to Lake Mead in Nevada. The Virgin River hosts several native fish species, including two endangered fish, woundfin (Plagopterus argentissimu) and Virgin River chub (Gila seminuda). All native fish species in the lower Virgin River have experienced reductions in population sizes in the...

No abstract available.

The partitioning behavior of Li in magmatic systems is increasingly being investigated due to the economic importance of Li in the transition to sustainable energy resources (e.g., batteries). However, at upper crustal pressures, it remains uncertain whether Li preferentially partitions into the vapor or liquid (brine) phase or remains in the silicate melt. This complicates our ability...