Uptake of metals, metalloids, and radiocesium varies with habitat use among passerine communities at coal combustion and nuclear fission legacy waste sites.

Releases of coal combustion and nuclear fission wastes create contaminated landscapes that pose long-term management challenges. Efforts to facilitate the natural attenuation of legacy wastes in the environment can provide attractive habitat for passerine birds. Passerines have diverse foraging and nesting behaviors that lead to heterogenous contaminant exposure, yet few studies investigate contaminant uptake in passerines on a community scale.

Trace metal transfer to passerines inhabiting wastewater treatment wetlands.

Wastewater treatment wetlands are cost-effective strategies for remediating trace metals in industrial effluent. However, biogeochemical exchange between wastewater treatment wetlands and adjacent environments provides opportunities for trace metals to cycle in surrounding ecosystems. The transfer of trace metals to wildlife inhabiting treatment wetlands must be considered when evaluating wetland success.

Raccoon spatial ecology in the rural southeastern United States.

The movement ecology of raccoons varies widely across habitats with important implications for the management of zoonotic diseases such as rabies. However, the spatial ecology of raccoons remains poorly understood in many regions of the United States, particularly in the southeast. To better understand the spatial ecology of raccoons in the southeastern US, we investigated the role of sex, season, and habitat on monthly raccoon home range and core area sizes in three common rural habitats (bottomland hardwood, upland pine, and riparian forest) in South Carolina, USA.

RACCOONS (PROCYON LOTOR) SHOW HIGHER TRYPANOSOMA CRUZI DETECTION RATES THAN VIRGINIA OPOSSUMS (DIDELPHIS VIRGINIANA) IN SOUTH CAROLINA, USA.

Chagas disease, a significant public health concern in the Americas, is caused by a protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi. The life cycle of T. cruzi involves kissing bugs (Triatoma spp.

Bioaccumulation of contaminants in Scarabaeidae and Silphidae beetles at sites polluted by coal combustion residuals and radiocesium.

Anthropogenic contamination from coal-fired power plants and nuclear reactors is a pervasive issue impacting ecosystems across the globe. As a result, it is critical that studies continue to assess the accumulation and effects of trace elements and radionuclides in a diversity of biota. In particular, bioindicator species are a powerful tool for risk assessment of chemically contaminated habitats.

Spatial ecology of translocated raccoons.

Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are routinely translocated both legally and illegally to mitigate conflicts with humans, which has contributed to the spread of rabies virus across eastern North America. The movement behavior of translocated raccoons has important ramifications for disease transmission yet remains understudied and poorly quantified. To examine the spatial ecology of raccoons following experimental translocation, we performed reciprocal 16 km-distance translocations of 30 raccoons between habitats of high and low raccoon density (bottomland hardwood and upland pine, respectively) across the Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken, South Carolina, USA (2018-2019).

Carcass appearance does not influence scavenger avoidance of carnivore carrion.

The selection or avoidance of certain carrion resources by vertebrate scavengers can alter the flow of nutrients in ecosystems. Evidence suggests higher trophic level carrion is scavenged by fewer vertebrate species and persists longer when compared to lower trophic level carrion, although it is unclear how scavengers distinguish between carcasses of varying species. To investigate carnivore carrion avoidance and explore sensory recognition mechanisms in scavenging species, we investigated scavenger use of intact and altered (i.

Integrating data types to estimate spatial patterns of avian migration across the Western Hemisphere.

For many avian species, spatial migration patterns remain largely undescribed, especially across hemispheric extents. Recent advancements in tracking technologies and high-resolution species distribution models (i.e.

Exposure to ionizing radiation disrupts normal epigenetic aging in Japanese medaka.

Alterations to the epigenome are a hallmark of biological aging and age-dependent patterning of the DNA methylome ("epigenetic aging") can be modeled to produce epigenetic age predictors. Rates of epigenetic aging vary amongst individuals and correlate to the onset of age-related disease and all-cause mortality. Yet, the origins of epigenetic-to-chronological age discordance are not empirically resolved.

Escaping the fate of Sisyphus: assessing resistome hybridization baits for antimicrobial resistance gene capture.

Finding, characterizing and monitoring reservoirs for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is vital to protecting public health. Hybridization capture baits are an accurate, sensitive and cost-effective technique used to enrich and characterize DNA sequences of interest, including antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), in complex environmental samples. We demonstrate the continued utility of a set of 19 933 hybridization capture baits designed from the Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD)v1.

Functional traits driving species role in the structure of terrestrial vertebrate scavenger networks.

Species assemblages often have a non-random nested organization, which in vertebrate scavenger (carrion-consuming) assemblages is thought to be driven by facilitation in competitive environments. However, not all scavenger species play the same role in maintaining assemblage structure, as some species are obligate scavengers (i.e.

Unveiling the Gut Microbiota and Resistome of Wild Cotton Mice, , from Heavy Metal- and Radionuclide-Contaminated Sites in the Southeastern United States.

The prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) can be driven by direct selection from antibiotic use and indirect selection from substances such as heavy metals (HMs). While significant progress has been made to characterize the influence of HMs on the enrichment and dissemination of ARGs in the environment, there is still much we do not know. To fill this knowledge gap, we present a comprehensive analysis of gut bacteria associated with wild cotton mice (Peromyscus gossypinus) trapped from several areas affected by legacies of HM and radionuclide contamination.

Effects of chronic exposure to low levels of IR on Medaka (): a proteomic and bioinformatic approach.

Purpose: Chronic exposure to ionizing radiation (IR) at low doses (<100 mGy) has been insufficiently studied to understand fully the risk to health. Relatively little knowledge exists regarding how species and healthy tissues respond at the protein level to chronic exposure to low doses of IR, and mass spectrometric-based profiling of protein expression is a powerful tool for studying changes in protein abundance.

Materials And Methods: SDS gel electrophoresis, LC-MS/MS mass spectrometry-based approaches and bioinformatic data analytics were used to detect proteomic changes following chronic exposure to moderate/low doses of radiation in adults and normally developed Medaka fish ().

Improved Microbial Community Characterization of 16S rRNA via Metagenome Hybridization Capture Enrichment.

Environmental microbial diversity is often investigated from a molecular perspective using 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene amplicons and shotgun metagenomics. While amplicon methods are fast, low-cost, and have curated reference databases, they can suffer from amplification bias and are limited in genomic scope. In contrast, shotgun metagenomic methods sample more genomic regions with fewer sequence acquisition biases, but are much more expensive (even with moderate sequencing depth) and computationally challenging.

Chronic exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation impacts the processing of glycoprotein N-linked glycans in Medaka ().

Purpose: Ionizing radiation is found naturally in the environment. Low doses of IR may have beneficial applications, yet there is also potential for detrimental long-term health effects. Impacts following exposure to low levels of IR have been refractory to identification and quantification.

Integration of ecosystem science into radioecology: A consensus perspective.

In the Fall of 2016 a workshop was held which brought together over 50 scientists from the ecological and radiological fields to discuss feasibility and challenges of reintegrating ecosystem science into radioecology. There is a growing desire to incorporate attributes of ecosystem science into radiological risk assessment and radioecological research more generally, fueled by recent advances in quantification of emergent ecosystem attributes and the desire to accurately reflect impacts of radiological stressors upon ecosystem function. This paper is a synthesis of the discussions and consensus of the workshop participant's responses to three primary questions, which were: 1) How can ecosystem science support radiological risk assessment? 2) What ecosystem level endpoints potentially could be used for radiological risk assessment? and 3) What inference strategies and associated methods would be most appropriate to assess the effects of radionuclides on ecosystem structure and function? The consensus of the participants was that ecosystem science can and should support radiological risk assessment through the incorporation of quantitative metrics that reflect ecosystem functions which are sensitive to radiological contaminants.

Co-occurrence of antibiotic, biocide, and heavy metal resistance genes in bacteria from metal and radionuclide contaminated soils at the Savannah River Site.

Contaminants such as heavy metals may contribute to the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by enriching resistance gene determinants via co-selection mechanisms. In the present study, a survey was performed on soils collected from four areas at the Savannah River Site (SRS), South Carolina, USA, with varying contaminant profiles: relatively pristine (Upper Three Runs), heavy metals (Ash Basins), radionuclides (Pond B) and heavy metal and radionuclides (Tim's Branch). Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, we explored the structure and diversity of soil bacterial communities.

Chronic low dose irradiation alters hepatic transcriptional profiles, but not global DNA methylation in medaka (Oryzias latipes).

Ionizing radiation (IR) resulting from both natural and anthropogenic sources is ubiquitous throughout the environment. Historically, studies on the biological impacts of radiation primarily focused on responses to acute doses of radiation, with little advancement in our understanding of environmentally relevant exposures. Epigenetic mechanisms are capable of mediating organismal responses to environmental stressors and DNA methylation plays important roles in gene regulation and promoting chromosomal stability.

Differing, multiscale landscape effects on genetic diversity and differentiation in eastern chipmunks.

Understanding how habitat loss and fragmentation impact genetic variation is a major goal in landscape genetics, but to date, most studies have focused solely on the correlation between intervening matrix and genetic differentiation at a single spatial scale. Several caveats exist in these study designs, among them is the inability to include measures of genetic diversity in addition to differentiation. Both genetic metrics help predict population persistence, but are expected to function at differing spatial scales, which requires a multiscale investigation.

Effects of industrial disturbances on biodiversity of carrion-associated beetles.

Energy production systems such as nuclear reactors and coal-burning power plants produce a multitude of waste contaminants including radionuclides, trace elements, and heavy metals. Among invertebrates, much of the effort to understand the impact of these contaminants has focused in aquatic environments, while relatively less attention has been on terrestrial communities. We investigated the effects of trace element and radionuclide contamination on assemblages of beetles that are drawn to vertebrate carrion.

Evidence of niche differentiation for two sympatric vulture species in the Southeastern United States.

Background: As obligate scavengers utilizing similar habitats, interspecific competition undoubtedly occurs between resident black () and turkey ( vultures. In the interest of exploring how sympatric species coexist through habitat segregation, we examined resource selection of resident black and turkey vultures in the southeastern United States (US) for evidence of niche differentiation.

Methods: Using fine-scale movement data, we assessed interspecific seasonal differences in monthly roost reuse frequency and roost site fidelity, as well as monthly flight, roost, and diurnal rest site resource selection based on > 2.

An Effective Protocol for Proteome Analysis of Medaka () after Acute Exposure to Ionizing Radiation.

All terrestrial organisms are subject to evolutionary pressures associated with natural sources of ionizing radiation (IR). The legacy of human-induced IR associated with energy, weapons production, medicine, and research has changed the distribution and magnitude of these evolutionary pressures. To date, no study has systematically examined the effects of environmentally relevant doses of radiation exposure across an organismal proteome.

Scavenging in the Anthropocene: Human impact drives vertebrate scavenger species richness at a global scale.

Understanding the distribution of biodiversity across the Earth is one of the most challenging questions in biology. Much research has been directed at explaining the species latitudinal pattern showing that communities are richer in tropical areas; however, despite decades of research, a general consensus has not yet emerged. In addition, global biodiversity patterns are being rapidly altered by human activities.

Roads do not increase carrion use by a vertebrate scavenging community.

Wildlife-vehicle collisions introduce a considerable amount of carrion into the environment, but scavenger use of this resource has not been extensively investigated. Scavengers may use roads for reliable foraging opportunities, but might also use roads for other purposes and encounter carrion opportunistically. We examined scavenging of carrion along linear features by placing 52 rabbit carcasses in each of three treatments in forested habitat during winter (Dec 2016-Mar 2017) in South Carolina, USA: roads, power line clearings (linear feature with fewer carcasses than roads due to lack of road kill), and forest interior.

Effects of vulture exclusion on carrion consumption by facultative scavengers.

Vultures provide an essential ecosystem service through removal of carrion, but globally, many populations are collapsing and several species are threatened with extinction. Widespread declines in vulture populations could increase the availability of carrion to other organisms, but the ways facultative scavengers might respond to this increase have not been thoroughly explored. We aimed to determine whether facultative scavengers increase carrion consumption in the absence of vulture competition and whether they are capable of functionally replacing vultures in the removal of carrion biomass from the landscape.