Fluvial fishes are threatened globally from intensive human landscape stressors degrading aquatic ecosystems. However, impacts vary regionally, as stressors and natural environmental factors differ between ecoregions and continents. To date, a comparison of fish responses to landscape stressors over continents is lacking, limiting understanding of consistency of impacts and hampering efficiencies in conserving fishes over large regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnvironmental DNA (eDNA) sampling provides sensitive early detection capabilities for recently introduced taxa. However, natural resource managers struggle with how to integrate eDNA results into an early detection rapid response program because positive eDNA detections are not always indicative of an eventual infestation. We used a structured decision making (SDM) framework to evaluate appropriate response actions to hypothetical eDNA early detections of an introduced aquatic plant in Sebago Lake (Maine, USA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInvasive species surveillance programs can utilize environmental DNA sampling and analysis to provide information on the presence of invasive species. Wider utilization of eDNA techniques for invasive species surveillance may be warranted. This paper covers topics directed towards invasive species managers and eDNA practitioners working at the intersection of eDNA techniques and invasive species surveillance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite the prevalence of damming as a global disturbance to river habitats, detailed reach-based assessments of the ecological effects of dams are lacking, particularly across large spatial extents. Using data from nearly 50,000 large dams, we assessed stream network fragmentation and flow alteration by large dams for streams of the conterminous USA. We developed 21 dam metrics characterizing a diversity of dam influences operating at both localized (e.
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