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Results for “Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences”

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USGS2025

U.S. Geological Survey science strategy to address white-nose syndrome and bat health in 2025–2029

Since its discovery in 2006, the fungal disease known as white-nose syndrome (WNS) has killed millions of bats. Of the 47 bat species native to the conterminous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Canada, 12 have been affected by WNS, including 3 endangered species and 1 proposed endangered species. WNS has also been detected in 40 States and 9 Canadian Provinces. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists have been critical in identifying the causal fungus for WNS ( Pseudogymnoascus destructans [Pd]), characterizing the effects of WNS, and tracking the spread of Pd in many bat populations in North America. The mission of the USGS WNS and Bat Health Science Team is to deliver integrated science in order to build resiliency into free-ranging bat populations through more effective WNS management, build capacity for bat health science, and enhance bat health information sharing across USGS science centers and cooperative research units as well as with stakeholders. The USGS can play an important role in supporting regional and national capacity building by providing resources and guidance to local, State, and Tribal management entities and by providing tools to enhance disease management. The USGS Ecosystems Mission Area’s Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program is the lead Federal program for free-ranging wildlife disease research and surveillance. As of 2024, guided by the science priorities set by the WNS Steering Committee, USGS scientists are engaged in a nationwide response to WNS. This work is done in close coordination with our partners at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Defense, as well as State and Tribal agencies. In addition to conducting WNS research, the USGS is mapping the spread of WNS and coordinating the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) to understand how WNS and other stressors affect the status and trends of native bats across their range. The USGS is supporting the national WNS response through four science goals: (1) provide situational awareness on the health of bat populations; (2) conduct ecological studies of bats along the gradient of disease vulnerability; (3) contribute actionable science to enhance the resiliency of bat populations; and (4) implement an adaptive, holistic approach to bat health.

Circular↗
USGS2024

Factors contributing to pesticide contamination in riverine systems: The role of wastewater and landscape sources

Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharges can be a source of organic contaminants, including pesticides, to rivers. An integrated model was developed for the Potomac River watershed (PRW) to determine the amount of accumulated wastewater percentage of streamflow (ACCWW) and calculate predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) for 14 pesticides in non-tidal National Hydrography Dataset Plus Version 2.1 stream segments. Predicted environmental concentrations were compared to measured environmental concentrations (MECs) from 32 stream sites that represented a range of ACCWW and land use to evaluate model performance and to assess possible non-WWTP loading sources. Statistical agreement between PECs and MECs was strongest for insecticides, followed by fungicides and herbicides. Principal component analysis utilizing optical fluorescence and ancillary water quality data identified wastewater and urban runoff sources. Pesticides that indicated relatively larger sources from WWTPs included dinotefuran, fipronil, carbendazim, thiabendazole, and prometon whereas imidacloprid, azoxystrobin, propiconazole, tebuconazole, and diuron were more related to urban runoff. In addition, PECs generally comprised a low proportion of MECs, which indicates possible dominant loading sources beyond WWTP discharges. Cumulative potential toxicity was higher for sites with greater ACCWW and/or located in developed areas. Imidacloprid, fipronil, and carbendazim accounted for the largest portion of predicted potential toxicity across sites. The chronic aquatic life toxicity benchmarks for freshwater invertebrates were exceeded for 82 % of the imidacloprid detections ( n = 28) and 47 % of the fipronil detections ( n = 19). These results highlight the ecological implications of pesticide contamination from WWTP discharges and also the potential legacy effects from accumulated soil and groundwater sources. Pesticide management strategies that mitigate both current and historical impacts may improve the health of aquatic ecosystems.

Potomac River watershed↗
USGS2025

Exploring the science and data foundation for Federal public lands decisions

Public lands provide diverse resources, values, and services worldwide. Laws and policies typically require consideration of science in public lands decisions, and resource managers are committed to science-informed decision-making. However, it can be challenging for managers to use, and document the use of, science and data in their decisions. To better understand science and data use in Federal public lands decisions in the United States, we assessed the number, type, and age of documents cited in 70 Environmental Assessments (EAs) completed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Colorado from 2015–2019. We focused on the BLM, as they manage the largest area of public lands in the United States. We selected Colorado as our study area, as actions proposed on BLM lands in Colorado are representative of those across the nation. Fifty percent of citations were categorized as science and 23% as data. EAs contained an average of 17 citations (range 0–111), with documents analyzing effects of oil and gas development and recreation actions including the highest and lowest mean number of citations (41 and 6, respectively). Of individual resource analysis sections within EAs, 24% contained ≥1 science citation and 21% contained ≥1 data citation. Journal articles were the most cited type of document (26% of citations) followed by non-BLM inventories (13%). Forty-seven percent of citations were relatively recent (2010 or later); the oldest citation was from 1927. Commonly analyzed resources with the highest mean number of citations were socioeconomics, mineral resources, and noise. Fourteen of 33 commonly analyzed resources included <1 citation on average. Actions and resources with no or few citations represent opportunities for strengthening the transparent use of science and data in public lands decision-making.

Colorado↗
USGS2024

Integrating Sr isotopes, microchemistry, and genetics to reconstruct Salmonidae species and life history

Recent approaches to fisheries research emphasize the importance of the coproduction of knowledge in building resilient and culturally mindful fisheries management frameworks. Despite widespread recognition of the need for Indigenous knowledge and historical reference points as baseline data, archaeological data are rarely included in conservation biology research designs. Here we propose a novel multiproxy method to learn from former fisheries stewards by generating archaeological data on past salmonid population parameters. We used a newly developed, high throughput qPCR (HT-qPCR) chip, originally designed for environmental DNA (eDNA), for species identification of archaeological salmonid vertebrae. We combine this with the laser ablation split-stream (LASS) approach to identify ocean-migration versus freshwater residency. We test this multidisciplinary approach using both contemporary and archaeological salmonid samples and new radiocarbon dates from the Tronsdal Site on the Skagit River, Washington State, USA. This is a useful approach for extracting information about Salmonidae species and life history diversity from archaeological remains to reconstruct historic baselines for several population parameters in anadromous species with long periods of freshwater residency. The approach outlined in this paper may be particularly useful for research investigating past fisheries dynamics, offering hundreds to thousands of years of temporal depth for modern fisheries management, harvest policies, restoration ecology, and conservation biology.

Idaho, Oregon, Washington↗
USGS2026

Remote compositional analyses of space-weathered lunar maria

Visible-to-shortwave infrared (VSWIR) reflectance spectroscopy has revolutionized our understanding of planetary surface compositions. However, space-weathering processes on airless bodies complicate quantitative compositional analyses. Here, we present a framework to isolate the signatures of space weathering in VSWIR spectra of lunar maria by leveraging radiative transfer modeling under the assumptions that (i) a space-weathered target can be expressed as a mixture of fresh and fully space-weathered components and (ii) remaining signatures can be modeled by including agglutinates as an end-member component. We first validate this approach against laboratory spectra of space-weathered Apollo mare soils of known mineral compositions using a probabilistic Markov Chain Monte Carlo implementation of the Hapke radiative transfer model. Second, we illustrate how this approach can be applied to orbital Moon Mineralogy Mapper data. The proposed space-weathering correction workflow for lunar maria could be expanded to other lunar lithologies and applied to existing and future data sets.

Planetary Science Journal↗
USGS2025

Prospectivity modeling of the NASA VIPER landing site at Mons Mouton near the Lunar South Pole

We use a high-resolution digital elevation model and a numerical thermal model to produce a variety of inputs for a water-ice prospectivity model for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) landing site. These input data are maps of topography, surface slope, surface aspect, surface curvature, maximum temperature, depth to ice stability, permanently shadowed regions (PSRs), distance to PSRs, and PSR density. This model predicts where water ice is most likely within the top meter of regolith, assuming plausible relationships between ice concentration and the various inputs. The model is designed to be adjusted in near-real time as data are collected during the VIPER mission. As such, it is a tool for both analyzing data from the mission as well as planning operations. Since the current model, at this point, relies only on orbital remote sensing, the final version will also be a tool to extrapolate the VIPER mission results across the lunar poles.

Planetary Science Journal↗
USGS2024

A conceptual framework to assess post-wildfire water quality: State of the science and knowledge gaps

Wildfire substantially alters aquatic ecosystems by inducing moderate to catastrophic physical and chemical changes. However, the relations of environmental and watershed variables that drive those effects are complex. We present a Driver-Factor-Stressor-Effect (DFSE) conceptual framework to assess the current state of the science related to post-wildfire water-quality. We reviewed 64 peer-reviewed papers using the DFSE framework to identify drivers, factors, stressors, and effects associated with each study. A total of five drivers were identified and ranked according to their frequency of occurrence in the literature: atmospheric processes > fire characteristics > ecologic processes and characteristics > land surface characteristics > soil characteristics. Commonly reported stressors include increased nutrients, runoff, and sediment transport. Furthermore, although several different factors have been used at least once to explain water-quality effects, relatively few factors outside of precipitation and fire characteristics are frequently studied. We identified several gaps indicating the need for long-term monitoring, multi-factor studies, consideration of organic contaminants, consideration of groundwater, and inclusion of soil characteristics. This assessment expands on other reviews and meta-analyses by exploring causal linkages between influential variables and overall effects in post-wildfire watersheds. Information gathered from our assessment and the framework itself can be used to inform future monitoring plans and as a guide for modeling efforts focused on better understanding specific processes or to mitigate potential risks of post-wildfire water quality.

Water Resources Research↗
USGS2026

Subsurface water ice mapping on Mars: A probabilistic approach

Subsurface water ice deposits on Mars are an important resource for potential future human exploration. They are also an indicator of the planet’s past climate. However, the distribution of subsurface water ice in Mars’s midlatitudes is uncertain because spacecraft imagery cannot directly observe subsurface ice in most cases. Various spacecraft remote sensing instruments are sensitive to subsurface water ice, including thermal imaging spectrometers, radar sounders, and neutron spectrometers. Geomorphic analyses of images can also implicate subsurface ice. Building upon the data products from the Mars Subsurface Water Ice Mapping project, we provide a probabilistic framework to jointly interpret existing data and estimate the likelihood of subsurface water ice in the Martian midlatitudes between 60 ∘ S and 60 ∘ N with uncertainty. Broadly, we find that near-surface ice is likely present poleward of ∼45 ∘ in both the northern and southern hemispheres. However, closer to the equator, existing remote sensing data cannot uniquely constrain the presence of subsurface water ice. Our probabilistic results provide a framework for quantifying the abundance of ice on Mars, and our uncertainty estimates allow future analysis and exploration to target regions of high uncertainty.

Planetary Science Journal↗
USGS2025

VIPER site analysis

We needed to evaluate available orbital data of NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission area in order to derive a variety of maps to help the science team identify scientifically interesting places for the rover to visit and to provide scientific context for our mission. Some of these maps also fulfilled engineering and mission design needs to enable safe and efficient landing and roving. We incorporated data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, the Lunar Orbital Laser Altimeter, the Mini-RF instrument, the Chandrayaan-2 Orbital High Resolution Camera, the Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter’s Shadowcam, the Kaguya Spectral Profiler and Multiband Imager, and the Chandrayaan-1 Moon Mineralogy Mapper. We used a variety of techniques to build these maps, including stereogrammetry, shape-from-shading, ice stability depth and surface temperature calculations, and the horizon method for solar illumination and direct-to-Earth communications maps. Altogether, these maps allowed us to survey for boulders, evaluate features in permanently shadowed regions that VIPER might explore, provide mineralogic context for what VIPER’s instruments may learn, estimate the ages and radar properties of craters in the VIPER mission area, and evaluate the potential for gravity traverses with the rover. These data and techniques provided a rich set of information from which both the VIPER science team and engineering teams were able to draw in order to plan a safe landing and to plan a VIPER surface mission that will be both scientifically valuable and robust from an operational perspective.

The Planetary Science Journal↗
USGS2026

End-user needs for remote sensing wetlands of the Prairie Pothole Region of North America

The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America comprises globally important grassland and wetland ecosystems critical for numerous populations of migratory birds. Due to the importance of this region for migratory birds, and particularly waterfowl, and the threats of habitat loss due to intensifying agriculture, there is a mature and diverse system of conservation organizations, agencies, and partnerships that spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually on habitat conservation to support migratory bird populations. Remote sensing can be a powerful tool for observing and evaluating global change at large scales as well as expanding inferences from field studies to the broader landscape with statistical models. However, development and utilization of these tools has lagged behind their demand for several reasons, including concerns over spatial and temporal resolution and accuracy of products; perception of a misalignment with decision-maker needs; technological barriers such as skill sets of conservation professionals, computing resources, data access, and usability. In this report, we summarize the needs of conservation professionals and scientists who use or want to use remote sensing data products to inform science about wetland change and conservation of wetlands in the PPR. We assembled this information through several methods leading up to, during, and following a January 2026 PPR Wetland Remote Sensing Workshop. The workshop included United States and Canadian scientists, conservation professionals, and policy experts. Our goal was to bring together end-users and remote sensing product developers jointly to explore reducing the lag between product development and utilization of products to inform science and conservation. Specifically, we aimed to identify gaps in wetland remote sensing that limit effective monitoring, management, and conservation in the PPR, and to develop a framework that outlines pathways to address these gaps by fostering collaboration, improving communication networks, encouraging discussion, and building on existing and ongoing efforts. This report summarizes our participants’ descriptions of end-user needs and the outcomes of the workshop.

Prairie Pothole region↗
USGS2026

Thermal detectability of subsurface water ice on Mars: A comparative analysis for the Subsurface Water Ice Mapping (SWIM) Project

We have developed a new global map of shallow ground ice distribution, SWIM23, based on Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer data and made systematic comparisons between this new map and two similar, previously developed data products. We have explored the origin of differences between the three ice maps by detailing technical and procedural differences in their development, by making global pixel-by-pixel comparisons, and by carrying out a series of one-dimensional thermal simulations to explore fundamental physical limitations of thermal ice-detection techniques. These efforts and the production of a composite thermal ice-consistency map supported integration of multiple geophysical data products relevant to ice detection in the upper meter of the Martian regolith into the larger Mars Subsurface Water Ice Mapping project. Our work also highlights fundamental physical limitations to thermal ice detection as a technique, particularly the rapid fall-off in ice detection sensitivity at depths >30 cm, which produces maximum uncertainty in the presence and depth of ice within regions preferred for potential human landing sites. A future Mars orbiter mission designed to detect ice and support crewed landing site selection in the midlatitude region should give payload priority to an instrument capable of probing the 1–5 m depth range (i.e., a high-frequency radar), over a next-generation thermal spectrometer, which is unlikely to offer clarity on ice table depths or lateral continuity of the ice table in the locations of highest interest.

Planetary Science Journal↗
USGS2024

Detrital zircons and the magmatic history of Viti Levu, Fiji

We integrate the existing detrital zircon data from multiple modern river sediment samples on Viti Levu, Fiji, with the most current available geological and topographic mapping of the respective river drainage basins to compare detrital populations with potential bedrock sources. The temporal and spatial variations in zircon geochemistry supplement what is known from igneous rocks and confirm the petrological differences between plutonic and volcanic rocks from the Eocene to early Oligocene (Yavuna age, >30 Ma), middle Oligocene to middle Miocene (Wainimala age, 30–12.5 Ma), late Miocene (Colo age, 12.5–6.5 Ma) and latest Miocene (Namosi age, 6.5–5 Ma). The >30 Ma Yavuna-age zircons are restricted to areas that drain the previously mapped Yavuna Group. The 30–12.5 Ma zircons are found across central Viti Levu from west to east, and the 30–15 Ma zircons have distinctively low U/Yb and high Dy/Yb ratios. They are the best radiometric evidence of widespread early to middle Miocene arc magmatism in Fiji that was relatively U-poor. Peak deconvolution of the Colo age zircons from individual basins suggests the following ages for undated or poorly dated plutons from central Viti Levu. The large Mavuvu pluton is probably composed of multiple intrusions in the 12–10 Ma range, the Waiqa pluton is probably ca 10 Ma, and the Noikoro pluton is probably ca 9 Ma. There are zircons from unknown plutonic or volcanic sources between 8 and 7 Ma in western Viti Levu that have distinct Eu/Eu* ratios. We attribute the highest U/Yb ratios in some Colo age zircons to crustal anatexis. Namosi-age zircons are abundant in the Medrausucu Group and can be found scattered across Viti Levu.

Viti Levu↗
USGS2024

A multidisciplinary approach that considers occurrence, geochemistry, bioavailability, and toxicity to prioritize critical minerals for environmental research

Critical minerals (or critical elements) are minerals or elements that are essential to global security and development and have supply chains vulnerable to disruption. In general, knowledge of the environmental behavior and health effects of critical elements is needed to support the development of safe and environmentally responsible supplies. This knowledge includes identifying potential consequences of increased critical element production and use, alternative critical element sources such as mine wastes, and adverse effects of critical elements on ecosystem condition and organismal health. Here we identify significant data gaps in the understanding of critical elements in surficial and aquatic environments, and the need, given the large number of commodities (50) identified on the 2022 critical minerals list for the United States, for an approach to prioritize them for study of their environmental fate and effects. We propose a multidisciplinary approach for this prioritization, considering measures of occurrence, geochemistry, bioavailability, and toxicity. We describe relatively easy-to-obtain metrics for each of these topic areas and demonstrate the utility of this integrated prioritization approach using indium and zinc as examples. This approach facilitates prioritizing research with a focus on those critical elements that are most mobile in the environment, bioavailable, toxic, or simply lacking data in these categories.

Environmental Science & Technology↗
USGS2026

Integrating habitat suitability and climate constraints to predict nonnative fish invasion risk for U.S. streams and inland lakes

Introduction: Nonnative fishes in streams and inland lakes can substantially alter aquatic ecosystems by degrading habitat conditions, competing with native species, and restructuring food webs. Identifying invasion hotspots can inform proactive management and prevention of nonnative species establishment. Methods: In this study, we identified streams and lakes across the conterminous United States that are vulnerable to invasion by 18 nonnative stream and 28 nonnative lake fish species. Habitat suitability models were developed separately for stream and lake species across nine ecoregions using natural and anthropogenic predictors, and species occurrences were predicted by integrating model results with climate match scores based on comparisons between environmental conditions in species’ native and potential nonnative ranges. We classified areas with both high habitat suitability and strong climate similarity as having high invasion potential and generated hotspot maps by stacking species-level predictions. Results: Florida exhibits the highest invasion risk for both habitat types. Stream hotspots were concentrated near major metropolitan areas, whereas lake hotspots were more widely distributed across the Great Lakes basin and the northeastern U.S. Twelve species were predicted to invade both habitat types, with goldfish ( Carassius auratus ) and pirapitinga ( Piaractus brachypomus ) showing particularly high invasion potential. Discussion: These findings provide a comprehensive assessment of nonnative freshwater fish invasion risk and support targeted monitoring and management strategies.

conterminous United States↗
USGS2026

A geographic dataset of rocky reefs habitat areas of particular concern for the United States West Coast

The United States National Marine Fisheries Service determines “essential fish habitat (EFH)” for federally managed species in coordination with regional fishery management councils, considers adverse effects to those habitats, and provides information to further habitat conservation and enhancement. Identifying discrete subsets of EFH as “habitat areas of particular concern (HAPC)” can help focus conservation, management, and research efforts. In 2006, the Pacific Fishery Management Council designated rocky reefs along the United States (U.S.) West Coast as HAPCs for groundfishes because of their ecological significance, sensitivity to human impacts, and relative rarity. To better understand where rocky reefs occur, we (1) located rocky reef areas that were not included in the 2006 rocky reef dataset, and (2) incorporated best available data into a refined geographic dataset that enables visualization. Our update shows that rocky reefs are distributed throughout the U.S. West Coast continental margin, are patchier than previously known, and comprise 8% of the extent of all data inputs. This updated dataset will inform resource management decisions in coastal and marine environments.

California, Oregon, Washington↗
USGS1999

Selected aquatic biological investigations in the Great Salt Lake basins, 1875-1998, National Water-Quality Assessment Program

This report summarizes previous investigations of aquatic biological communities, habitat, and contaminants in streams and selected large lakes within the Great Salt Lake Basins study unit as part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA). The Great Salt Lake Basins study unit is one of 59 such units designed to characterize water quality through the examination of chemical, physical, and biological factors in surface and ground waters across the country. The data will be used to aid in the planning, collection, and analysis of biological information for the NAWQA study unit and to aid other researchers concerned with water quality of the study unit. A total of 234 investigations conducted during 1875-1998 are summarized in this report. The studies are grouped into three major subjects: (1) aquatic communities and habitat, (2) contamination of streambed sediments and biological tissues, and (3) lakes. The location and a general description of each study is listed. The majority of the studies focus on fish and macroinvertebrate communities. Studies of algal communities, aquatic habitat, riparian wetlands, and contamination of streambed sediment or biological tissues are less common. Areas close to the major population centers of Salt Lake City, Provo, and Logan, Utah, are generally well studied, but more rural areas and much of the Bear River Basin are lacking in detailed information, except for fish populations.

Idaho, Utah, Wyoming↗