The construction of artificial structures in the marine environment is increasing globally. Eco-engineering aims to mitigate the negative ecological impacts of built infrastructure through designing structures to be multifunctional, benefiting both humans and nature. To date, the focus of eco-engineering has largely been on benefits for benthic invertebrates and algae. Here, the potential effec...

Species extinctions have the potential to dramatically reshape ecological communities. In the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, the emergence of a lethal amphibian pathogen (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) drives mountain yellowlegged frog (Rana muscosa and Rana sierrae) populations to local extinction. Prior to population declines, these frogs and their tadpoles were abundant, highlevel p...

It has been hypothesised that, if ingested, plastic debris could act as vector for the transfer of chemical contaminants from seawater to organisms, yet modelling suggest that, in the natural environment, chemical transfer would be negligible compared to other routes of uptake. However, to date, the models have not incorporated consideration of the role of gut surfactants, or the influence of p...

First posted January 4, 2023 For additional information, contact: Director, Columbia Environmental Research Center U.S. Geological Survey4200 New Haven Road Columbia, MO 65201Contact Pubs Warehouse This guide is intended to assist with characterizing injury freshwater benthic macroinvertebrates (BMIs) in Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) cases. The contents are narrowly...

Habitat maps are often the core spatially consistent data set on which marine reserve networks are designed, but their efficacy as surrogates for species richness and applicability to other conservation measures is poorly understood. Combining an analysis of field survey data, literature review, and expert assessment by a multidisciplinary working group, we examined the degree to which Caribbea...

Although benthic motile invertebrate communities encompass the vast majority of coral reef diversity, their response to habitat modification has been poorly studied. A variety of benthic species, particularly decapods, provide benefits to their coral host enabling them to cope with environmental stressors, and as a result benefit the overall diversity of coral-associated species. However, littl...

What defines success and failure of river restoration measures is a strongly debated topic in restoration science, but standardized approaches to evaluate either are still not available. The debate is usually centered on measurable parameters, which adhere to scientific objectivity. More subjective aspects, such as landscape aesthetics or recreational value, are usually left out, although they ...

We assessed whether biota occupying mountain streams accumulate and biomagnify remotely derived organic pollutants originating from atmospheric inputs to snowpack and glacial runoff and from marine sources introduced by migrating anadromous salmon. Several persistent organic pollutants including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), p,p'-dichloro-diphenyl-dichloroethylene, hexachlorobenzene, and tr...