Publications

To advance national efforts for the detection and biosurveillance of aquatic invasive species (AIS), we employed a community consensus process to enable the incorporation of environmental DNA (eDNA) detection data into the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (NAS) database (https://nas.er.usgs.gov/eDNA/). Our goal was to identify minimum standards and best...

Seasonal movements cued by environmental variables are a critical component of riverine fish life history. Life-history events for species such as blue sucker Cycleptus elongatus are likely cued by discharge and temperature and may be disrupted if those life-history events and environmental regimes are mismatched. However, this effect may be dependent upon the habitat occupied when...

NOAA’s Deep-Sea Coral Research Technology Program (DSCRTP) began a 4-year funding initiative for the U.S. West Coast in 2018. The goals of the West Coast Deep-Sea Coral Initiative were to: 1) gather baseline information on DSCS in areas subject to fishing regulation changes prior to the implementation of Amendment 28; 2) improve our understanding of known DSCS bycatch “hot spots”; and 3)...

“Blue carbon” wetland vegetation has a limited freshwater requirement. One type, mangroves, utilizes less freshwater during transpiration than adjacent terrestrial ecoregions, equating to only 43% (average) to 57% (potential) of evapotranspiration ( ET). Here, we demonstrate that comparative consumptive water use by mangrove vegetation is as much as 2905 kL H2O ha−1 year−1 less than...

The U.S. Geological Survey has been working in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection on a project to collect water-quality data from the Merrimack River watershed since April 2020. Twelve locations in the Merrimack River watershed are being sampled for nutrients (such as nitrogen), metals (such as aluminum), Escherichia coli bacteria, and other...

Early life stages of pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus are rarely collected, and thus information on their biology and ecology is extremely limited. We sampled 75 larval pallid sturgeon (25-110 mm) and 148 larval shovelnose sturgeon S. platorynchus (15-95 mm) by trawl from the upper Missouri River (USA) in 2019. Stomach contents were identified to compare food use and diet overlap...

The coastal waters of Cuba are home to a small, endangered population of West Indian manatee, which would benefit from a comprehensive characterization of the population’s genetic variation. We conducted the first genetic assessment of Cuban manatees to determine the extent of the population's genetic structure and characterize the neutral genetic diversity among regions within the...

Tree-derived dissolved organic matter (DOM) comprises a significant carbon flux within forested watersheds. Few studies have assessed the optical properties of tree-derived DOM. To increase understanding of the factors controlling tree-derived DOM quality, we measured DOM optical properties, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and calcium concentrations in throughfall and stemflow for 17...

Oil spills can inflict mortality and injury on bird populations; many of these deaths involve starvation resulting from thermoregulatory costs incurred by oiling of birds’ feathers. However, the fates and responses of sublethally oiled birds are poorly known. Due to this knowledge gap and the potential for birds to die far from the spill site, resource risk and injury assessors need...

Sturgeons have a complex free-embryo period extending from hatch to the initiation of exogenous feeding. Although available for some sturgeon species of the genus Acipenser, descriptions of the developmental stages of free embryos of the genus Scaphirhynchus are lacking. We characterised the ontogenetic development of pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) and shovelnose sturgeon (S...

The increasing global expansion of antimicrobial resistant infections warrants the development of effective antibiotic alternative therapies, particularly for use in livestock production, an agricultural sector that is perceived to disproportionately contribute to the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis by consuming nearly two-thirds of the global antibiotic supply. Probiotics and...

Ecosystem modeling is a critical process for understanding complex systems at spatiotemporal scales needed to conserve, manage, and restore ecosystem services (ESs). Although mangrove wetlands are sources of ESs worth billions of dollars, there is a lack of modeling tools. This is reflected in our lack of understanding of mangroves’ functional and structural attributes. Here, we discuss...