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At least 415 records · Page 23Linked to original sources

USGS2010

The transboundary nature of seabird ecology

The term ‘seabird’ is generally applied to avian species that forage in the marine environment over open water. Seabirds typically nest in colonies and are long-lived species with low annual reproductive rates. Seabird breeding sites typically occur on islands or along coasts and as such are often at the boundaries of ecological or political zones. During the breeding season, seabirds cross a very distinct terrestrial/marine ecological boundary on a regular basis to forage. Even relatively ‘local’ species cross multiple jurisdictions within a day (e.g., state lands and waters, and federal waters) while pelagic species may transit through international waters on a daily, weekly, or monthly time-frame. Seabird life-histories expose individuals and populations to environmental conditions affecting both terrestrial and marine habitats. The wide-ranging and transboundary nature of seabird ecology also exposes these species to various environmental and anthropogenic forces such as contamination, commercial fisheries and climate forcing that also are transboundary in nature. Therefore, wherever conservation of seabirds or the management of their populations is the goal, consideration must be given to ecosystem dynamics on land and at sea. Because the jurisdiction of agencies does not cross the land-sea boundary in the same manner as the seabirds they are managing, these efforts are facilitated by multi-agency communication and collaboration. By their very nature and by the nature of the systems that they must function within, seabirds embody the complexity of wildlife ecology and conservation in the twenty-first century.

Book chapter↗

USGS2024

Empirical assessments of the type and strength of stream fish habitat associations can advance understanding of functional diversity and promote effective conservation.

The ability to accurately quantify biodiversity is fundamental to understanding ecological trends, identifying drivers of declines, and selecting effective conservation options. Scientists and resource managers have grappled with what metrics best show relevant biodiversity patterns and are still practical enough to aid on-the-ground resource conservation. Our purpose is to construct empirically derived, functional habitat guilds for prairie stream fish, then recommend future directions for constructing and using diversity metrics that aid field-based conservation. Working in the Upper Neosho River, KS, USA, we used univariate methods, cluster analysis, non-metric multi-dimensional scaling, and an analysis of similarity to functionally group stream fish taxa. The 11 most abundant fish species grouped into seven ecological guilds: riffle specialist, pool specialist, riffle generalist, pool generalist, riffle–run generalist, pool–run generalist, and generalist. Combining the habitat type and strength of association added ecological accuracy to our species groups. Employing multiple statistical methods increased confidence and generality in our grouping results. Moving forward will require a coordinated, coalition-driven, conservation-related strategy on which researchers and practitioners collaborate to synthesize diverse empirical results, organize general principles of structure and function, and balance accuracy with practicality.

Kansas↗

USGS2007

Spatial design and strength of spatial signal: Effects on covariance estimation

In a spatial regression context, scientists are often interested in a physical interpretation of components of the parametric covariance function. For example, spatial covariance parameter estimates in ecological settings have been interpreted to describe spatial heterogeneity or “patchiness” in a landscape that cannot be explained by measured covariates. In this article, we investigate the influence of the strength of spatial dependence on maximum likelihood (ML) and restricted maximum likelihood (REML) estimates of covariance parameters in an exponential-with-nugget model, and we also examine these influences under different sampling designs—specifically, lattice designs and more realistic random and cluster designs—at differing intensities of sampling ( n =144 and 361). We find that neither ML nor REML estimates perform well when the range parameter and/or the nugget-to-sill ratio is large—ML tends to underestimate the autocorrelation function and REML produces highly variable estimates of the autocorrelation function. The best estimates of both the covariance parameters and the autocorrelation function come under the cluster sampling design and large sample sizes. As a motivating example, we consider a spatial model for stream sulfate concentration.

Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environme↗

USGS2023

A global ecological signal of extinction risk in marine ray-finned fishes (class Actinopterygii)

Many marine fish species are experiencing population declines, but their extinction risk profiles are largely understudied in comparison to their terrestrial vertebrate counterparts. Selective extinction of marine fish species may result in rapid alteration of the structure and function of ocean ecosystems. In this study, we compiled an ecological trait dataset for 8,185 species of marine ray-finned fishes (class Actinopterygii) from FishBase and used phylogenetic generalized linear models to examine which ecological traits are associated with increased extinction risk, based on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List. We also assessed which threat types may be driving these species toward greater extinction risk and whether threatened species face a greater average number of threat types than non-threatened species. We found that larger body size and/or fishes with life histories involving movement between marine, brackish, and freshwater environments are associated with elevated extinction risk. Commercial harvesting threatens the greatest number of species, followed by pollution, development, and then climate change. We also found that threatened species, on average, face a significantly greater number of threat types than non-threatened species. These results can be used by resource managers to help address the heightened extinction risk patterns we found.

Cambridge Prisms: Extinction↗

USGS2024

The state of the science and practice of stream restoration in the Chesapeake: Lessons learned to inform better implementation, assessment and outcomes

The Chesapeake Bay Program’s (CBP) Science and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) organized and led a workshop on the science and practice of stream restoration in order to summarize the state of knowledge in order to identify ways to improve stream restoration outcomes. The workshop identified a general framework for explaining the main factors leading to stream restoration outcomes: stream degradation has occurred, leading to regulatory and policy motivations that prioritize project goals, which leads to restoration approaches, assessment and monitoring efforts, and ultimately stream restoration outcomes. In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, stream restoration often occurs in response to Clean Water Act (CWA) mandates to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads to the Bay. Reviews of stream restoration outcomes summarized at the workshop showed that, in general, stream restorations have led to minimal improvement to stream aquatic biota, effective ‘stabilization’ of channel form over time, moderate improvements to water quality, and short-term negative impacts to riparian vegetation. The fundamental finding of the workshop was that often the primary goal of stream restoration projects is to improve geomorphic stability in the restored reach and downstream water quality, and not to improve local ecological conditions through ‘uplift’ (improvement of one or more ecosystem functions through a restorative activity; a term defined in Appendix D), and therefore these projects often do not improve aquatic macroinvertebrate or fish communities. This conflict in goals is a shortcoming of the currently most common regulatory driver for stream restoration (reducing downstream loads of N, P, and sediment) that could be addressed directly through diversifying goals to include biotic uplift, as biological benefit is an assumed condition for the permitting and crediting of stream restoration projects. It is also likely that current understanding of stressors and drivers of stream ecosystem health is insufficient, and that reach-scale restoration focused on geomorphic restoration is not removing the actual sources of stream health impairment that may arise in the upstream watershed. More science could help to identify how to improve the ecological condition of streams through management. The outcome of stream restoration monitoring has revealed that while geomorphic and hydrodynamic functions of stream restoration projects may be achieved, biotic stream function improvements remain elusive. As such, ensuring uplift may be achieved by avoiding restoration projects that risk resources in higher-quality streams and riparian corridors. Reach-scale restoration often does not effectively mitigate the watershed-scale stressors of stream ecosystems. If a desired outcome of stream restoration includes ecological uplift, then focusing efforts on improving stream ecology could help meet that goal.

Chesapeake Bay watershed↗

USGS2001

Applicability of NASQAN data for ecosystem assessments on the Missouri River

The effectiveness of ecological restoration efforts on large developed rivers is often unknown because comprehensive ecological monitoring programs are often absent. Although Eulerian water-quality monitoring programs, such as the National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN) program, are more common, they are usually not designed for ecological assessment. Therefore, this paper addresses the value of NASQAN for ecological assessments on the Missouri River and identifies potential program additions and modifications to assess certain ecological changes in physical habitat, biological structure and function, and ecotoxicity. Five additional sites: The analysis of chlorophyll, mercury, ATP, potential endocrine disruptors, total trace elements, and selected total hydrophobic organics; and the hourly measurement of dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and temperature are recommended. Hourly measurements would require an entirely new operational aspect to NASQAN. However, the presence of data loggers and satellite transmitters in the gauging stations at all NASQAN sites substantially improves the feasibility of continuous water-quality monitoring. The use of semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs) to monitor dissolved bioaccumulating organics and trace elements, identification and enumeration of zooplankton, and characterization of the bioavailability of organic matter are also recommended. The effect of biological processes on the conservative assumptions that are used in flux and source determinations of NASQAN constituents are also evaluated. Organic carbon, organic nitrogen, dissolved phosphate, and dissolved inorganic nitrogen are the NASQAN constituents most vulnerable to biological processes and thus violation of conservative assumptions.

Hydrological Processes↗

USGS2025

Macroinvertebrate community responses to disturbance in a fragmented river with contrasting legacies of alteration

Flow is a critical factor determining the riverine ecosystem structure and function. Widespread hydrologic alteration, however, has impacted the ecological integrity of rivers in ways that are not well understood, including responses of biological communities to increasingly frequent and severe climatic disturbances. Our study compared the responses of invertebrate communities on woody debris to large flooding and extreme drought in two highly contrasting segments of an impaired low-gradient river. The upstream segment, which according to previous research has higher α -diversity and production of large-bodied and sensitive invertebrates, maintained higher flows and longitudinal connectivity throughout the 4-year study. Communities in this upper segment resembled one another among sites (lower spatial turnover) but experienced greater temporal shifts in composition associated with hydrological disturbances. Conversely, invertebrate communities in the highly altered downstream segment, which is impaired by reduced flow, sedimentation, and hypoxia, were composed of smaller-bodied and pollution-tolerant taxa with lower α -diversity. Unlike the upper segment, communities were patchily distributed among sites (higher spatial turnover), which made it more difficult to detect system-wide temporal variation in composition throughout the study. Our study underscores the benefit of including measures of connectivity and spatial heterogeneity when assessing the ecological integrity of lotic systems. Understanding the system-wide response to disturbances across longer time frames can help better predict and mitigate the impacts of climate change on ecosystem integrity in degraded rivers.

River Research and Applications↗

USGS2001

Coastal sage scrub case study

In ecological applications of large-scale spatial data to management decisions concerning land planning and conservation, errors and biases may creep into the analysis and decision making at several steps (see Chaps. 1, 2, and 3), including: • Uncertainty in positions of spatial locations of relevant ecological and physiographic features of the landscape. • Uncertainty of the type and attributes of land cover at a particular location. • Uncertainty in how different land covers at a position in space and the geometric arrangement of land covers nearby might influence an animal species occurrence or distribution, or the magnitude of some ecological process. • Uncertainty about the relative importance of each spatial location to the overall success or persistence of a population or ecological process. • Uncertainty about how to weight each species or ecological process in determining the overall biodiversity and functioning of ecosystems, local and national resource priorities, and consistency with legislative mandates. We would like to be able to quantify the errors at each step, identify biases, and pass these along to the next analysis step so that our degree of uncertainty regarding potential outcomes is evident at each level (e.g., Stoms et al. 1992).

Book chapter↗

USGS2023

Movement beyond the mean: decoupling sources of individual variation in brook trout movement across seasons

Movement is an important eco-evolutionary process that can shape population and ecosystem structure and function. Accordingly, a firm understanding of species movement ecology is often foundational to effective management and conservation. However, despite movement being an inherently individual-level behavior, there remains a tendency to describe dispersal and migration patterns using simple population-level processes and effects. Overlooking within- and among-individual variation in movement risks incomplete understanding of the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that govern dispersal dynamics and could potentially result in inadequate management of critical behavioral phenotypes. In this study, we monitored movement of over 100 brook trout ( Salvelinus fontinalis ) and quantified the effect of individual-level traits, season, and their interactions to better understand factors that influence vagility. Our results suggest that movement was higher in fall than in summer, particularly for fish in poor condition. But we found no significant main effects for sex, providing no evidence for sex-biased dispersal. To better understand sources of individual variation, we also allowed for sex- and season-specific residual standard deviations. In doing so, we found that, on average, movement was more variable in fall compared to summer, and that females were more variable than males in vagility. Taken together, these results demonstrate how intrinsic, individual-level traits can interact with abiotic environmental conditions to determine movement. They also highlight the potential for simple explanations of movement ecology to overlook important traits that may help predict individual-level behaviors.

Pennsylvania↗

USGS2017

A floodplain continuum for Atlantic coast rivers of the Southeastern US: Predictable changes in floodplain biota along a river's length

Floodplains are among the world’s economically-most-valuable, environmentally-most-threatened, and yet conceptually-least-understood ecosystems. Drawing on concepts from existing riverine and wetland models, and empirical data from floodplains of Atlantic Coast rivers in the Southeastern US (and elsewhere when possible), we introduce a conceptual model to explain a continuum of longitudinal variation in floodplain ecosystem functions with a particular focus on biotic change. Our hypothesis maintains that major controls on floodplain ecology are either external (ecotonal interactions with uplands or stream/river channels) or internal (wetland-specific functions), and the relative importance of these controls changes progressively from headwater to mid-river to lower-river floodplains. Inputs of water, sediments, nutrients, flora, and fauna from uplands-to-floodplains decrease, while the impacts of wetland biogeochemistry and obligate wetland plants and animals within-floodplains increase, along the length of a river floodplain. Inputs of water, sediment, nutrients, and fauna from river/stream channels to floodplains are greatest mid-river, and lower either up- or down-stream. While the floodplain continuum we develop is regional in scope, we review how aspects may apply more broadly. Management of coupled floodplain-river ecosystems would be improved by accounting for how factors controlling the floodplain ecosystem progressively change along longitudinal riverine gradients.

Wetlands↗

USGS2024

Mixed responses of tenebrionid beetles to solar energy development in the Mojave Desert

Solar energy development causes land-use change and habitat alteration that may affect desert ecosystems. Tenebrionid beetles have evolved to exploit desert environments and heavily contribute to ecosystem functionality in aridlands, yet their species-specific, ecological responses to solar energy development are unknown. Our objective was to elucidate effects of solar energy development decisions at a solar power facility (392 MW) on a tenebrionid beetle community in the Mojave Desert. Seven years post-construction, we used pitfall traps to collect tenebrionid beetles for one month in treatments representing variably intense site preparation practices and conservation measures, including blading (i.e., bulldozing), mowing, and establishment of undeveloped patches in solar fields, replicated across three power blocks comprising the facility and in undeveloped control sites surrounding the facility. Blading caused significant, deleterious effects on tenebrionid beetle abundance, species richness, and diversity. Ordination revealed apparent overlap of non-bladed treatments and controls, suggesting that intermediate levels of disturbance from less intensive solar energy development decisions may serve to minimize negative effects of solar energy development on tenebrionid communities. Anepsius delicatulus and Triorophus laevis , the two most commonly collected tenebrionids, were significantly more abundant in non-bladed treatments in the solar facility than in undeveloped controls; thus, solar facilities with minimized disturbance to vegetation may provide preferred habitat for certain tenebrionid species. Our results demonstrate the value of understanding variable responses of insects to solar energy development decisions in deserts to inform real-world adaptive management of natural resources during the renewable energy transition.

California↗

USGS2025

Experimental drought suppresses amphibian pathogen yet intensifies transmission and disrupts protective skin microbiome

Shifting precipitation regimes driven by global climate change can alter vertebrate behavior and host-symbiont relationships, potentially compromising host resistance to pathogen invasion. In Brazil's Atlantic Forest, a biodiversity hotspot, prior research identified drought as a key factor disrupting the skin microbiome, contributing to a die-off of pumpkin toadlets due to the invasive waterborne fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). However, observational studies cannot disentangle the direct effect of moisture on Bd growth from increased amphibian activity during wet breeding seasons. Using field enclosures, we experimentally tested the influence of drought conditions on host microhabitat use, Bd disease dynamics, and the composition and predicted Bd-inhibitory function of cutaneous bacterial communities. Each enclosure housed ecologically realistic densities of Brachycephalus pitanga , a micro-endemic pumpkin toadlet. We simulated a short-term drought in half of the enclosures using translucent tarp coverings. To track individual toadlets, we identified their unique markings and collected skin swabs biweekly over 3 months. We then implemented molecular techniques to quantify Bd loads and characterize skin bacterial diversity and composition over time. Our findings indicate that while drought may reduce overall Bd loads on hosts, this effect is partially offset by an increase in the use of water-filled areas of the enclosures and by a disruption of the protective host skin microbiome. This study provides valuable insights into the cascading impacts of climate change on animal behavior, host-symbiont interactions, and disease dynamics.

Atlantic Forest↗

USGS2018

The influence of different deep-sea coral habitats on sediment macrofaunal community structure and function

Deep-sea corals can create a highly complex, three-dimensional structure that facilitates sediment accumulation and influences adjacent sediment environments through altered hydrodynamic regimes. Infaunal communities adjacent to different coral types, including reef-building scleractinian corals and individual colonies of octocorals, are known to exhibit higher macrofaunal densities and distinct community structure when compared to non-coral soft-sediment communities. However, the coral types have different morphologies, which may modify the adjacent sediment communities in discrete ways. Here we address: (1) how infaunal communities and their associated sediment geochemistry compare among deep-sea coral types ( Lophelia pertusa, Madrepora oculata, and octocorals) and (2) do infaunal communities adjacent to coral habitats exhibit typical regional and depth-related patterns observed in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Sediment push cores were collected to assess diversity, composition, numerical abundance, and functional traits of macrofauna (>300 µm) across 450 kilometers in the GOM at depths ranging from 263–1,095 m. Macrofaunal density was highest in L. pertusa habitats, but similar between M. oculata and octocorals habitats. Density overall exhibited a unimodal relationship with depth, with maximum densities between 600 and 800 m. Diversity and evenness were highest in octocoral habitats; however, there was no relationship between diversity and depth. Infaunal assemblages and functional traits differed among coral habitats, with L. pertusa habitats the most distinct from both M. oculata and octocorals. These patterns could relate to differences in sediment geochemistry as L. pertusa habitats contained high organic carbon content but low proportions of mud compared to both M. oculata and octocoral habitats. Distance-based linear modeling revealed depth, mud content, and organic carbon as the primary factors in driving coral infaunal community structure, while geographic location (longitude) was the primary factor in functional trait composition, highlighting both the location and ecological differences of L. pertusa habitats from other coral habitats. Enhanced habitat structural complexity associated with L. pertusa and differences in localized hydrodynamic flow may contribute to the dissimilarities in the communities found among the coral types. Our results suggest a decoupling for infaunal coral communities from the typical depth-related density and diversity patterns present throughout soft-sediment habitats in the GOM, highlighting the importance of deep-sea corals in structuring unique communities in the nearby benthos.

PeerJ↗

USGS2017

Food-web structure in canyon and slope-associated fauna revealed by stable isotopes

Food webs and associated trophic linkages among organisms are central themes in ecology that provide insight into the structure and function of ecosystems. In the deep sea, food webs rely on particulate flux raining from surface waters for energy (Klages et al. 2003), except for chemosynthetic communities, which rely on in situ production via chemosynthesis (Van Dover 2007). In general, the deep sea is a food limited environment because only a small percentage of organic carbon produced in surface waters settles to the seafloor (Gage and Tyler 1991, Klages et al. 2003, De La Rocha and Passow 2007). In contrast, relative to more quiescent slope environments, canyons can experience dynamic flow and turbulence. Internal tides can enhance turbulent mixing near the canyon seafloor leading to resuspension of sediments. Channeling of organic matter in deepsea canyons can enhance benthic productivity leading to high biodiversity (Vetter and Dayton 1998, 1999) and trophic complexity (Stefanescu et al. 1994, Cartes and Sorbe 1999). Thus, there may be a decoupling between the benthic-productivity relationships in canyon environments where food limitation may not be a driving factor influencing community structure. However, there have been only a few studies, often limited in depth range and spatial scale, that have examined the trophic pathways of deepsea canyons relative to adjacent slope environments (Duineveld et al. 2001, Fanelli et al. 2009, Cartes et al. 2010, Jeffreys et al. 2011).

OCS Study↗

USGS2006

Data collection network to support ecosystem forecasting for the Barataria Basin - Mississippi River domain

Ecosystem forecasting is limited by a number of uncertainties including inadequate initialization information, unknown boundary conditions, inaccurate model physics and atmospheric forcing functions, and inadequate algorithm development of geomorphic and ecological responses to hydrodynamic and geophysical processes. Monitoring can help reduce these uncertainties by providing numerical information on those variables that can improve simulation capabilities. A data collection network was designed for the Mississippi River, south of Tarbert Landing, Ms. to Venice, La., and for the inland and nearshore waters of Barataria Basin, La. The network considered existing monitoring efforts that effectively link oceanographic and water quality observations to system drivers to support ecosystem hindcasting, nowcasting, and forecasting capabilities. The design was driven by the diverse needs of the modeling community and utilized questionnaire surveys, workshops, and web- based applications to inventory past and present modeling applications, domains, and attributes. The use of existing monitoring stations, including variables measured and frequency of data collection, were also considered, as well as recommendations on where new monitoring stations should be located, what types of data should be collected, and at what temporal frequency. Compiled databases are presented as a series of GIS layers to represent overlap between existing and requested stations, and priorities are established for either maintaining or augmenting existing stations or deploying new stations. An optimization plan will be prepared from the results of this study that will provide a rationale for the ecosystem forecasting data collection network that includes a description of existing monitoring programs to support ecosystem forecasting and a set of justifiable locations for "megastations" that meet the needs of the modeling and assessment communities.

Louisiana↗

USGS2022

Microbiome assembly in thawing permafrost and its feedbacks to climate

The physical and chemical changes that accompany permafrost thaw directly influence the microbial communities that mediate the decomposition of formerly frozen organic matter, leading to uncertainty in permafrost–climate feedbacks. Although changes to microbial metabolism and community structure are documented following thaw, the generality of post-thaw assembly patterns across permafrost soils of the world remains uncertain, limiting our ability to predict biogeochemistry and microbial community responses to climate change. Based on our review of the Arctic microbiome, permafrost microbiology, and community ecology, we propose that Assembly Theory provides a framework to better understand thaw-mediated microbiome changes and the implications for community function and climate feedbacks. This framework posits that the prevalence of deterministic or stochastic processes indicates whether the community is well-suited to thrive in changing environmental conditions. We predict that on a short timescale and following high-disturbance thaw (e.g., thermokarst), stochasticity dominates post-thaw microbiome assembly, suggesting that functional predictions will be aided by detailed information about the microbiome. At a longer timescale and lower-intensity disturbance (e.g., active layer deepening), deterministic processes likely dominate, making environmental parameters sufficient for predicting function. We propose that the contribution of stochastic and deterministic processes to post-thaw microbiome assembly depends on the characteristics of the thaw disturbance, as well as characteristics of the microbial community, such as the ecological and phylogenetic breadth of functional guilds, their functional redundancy, and biotic interactions. These propagate across space and time, potentially providing a means for predicting the microbial forcing of greenhouse gas feedbacks to global climate change.

Global Change Biology↗

USGS1995

Amphibians

Amphibians are ecologically important in most freshwater and terrestrial habitats in the United States: they can be numerous, function as both predators and prey, and constitute great biomass. Amphibians have certain physiological (e.g., permeable skin) and ecological (e.g., complex life cycle) traits that could justify their use as bioindicators of environmental health. For example, local declines in adult amphibians may indicate losses of nearby wetlands. The aquatic breeding habits of many terrestrial species result in direct exposure of egg, larval, and adult stages to toxic pesticides, herbicides, acidification, and other human-induced stresses in both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Reported declines of amphibian populations globally have drawn considerable attention (Bury et al. 1980; Bishop and Petit 1992; Richards et al. 1993; Blaustein 1994; Pechmann and Wilbur 1994). Approximately 230 species of amphibians, including about 140 salamanders and 90 anurans (frogs and toads) occur in the continental United States. Because of their functional importance in most ecosystems, declines of amphibians are of considerable conservation interest. If these declines are real, the number of listed or candidate species at federal, state, and local levels could increase significantly. Unfortunately, because much of the existing information on status and trends of amphibians is anecdotal, coordinated monitoring programs are greatly needed.

Book chapter↗

USGS2002

A review of bacterial methyl halide degradation: Biochemistry, genetics and molecular ecology

Methyl halide‐degrading bacteria are a diverse group of organisms that are found in both terrestrial and marine environments. They potentially play an important role in mitigating ozone depletion resulting from methyl chloride and methyl bromide emissions. The first step in the pathway(s) of methyl halide degradation involves a methyltransferase and, recently, the presence of this pathway has been studied in a number of bacteria. This paper reviews the biochemistry and genetics of methyl halide utilization in the aerobic bacteria Methylobacterium chloromethanicum CM4 T , Hyphomicrobium chloromethanicum CM2 T , Aminobacter strain IMB‐1 and Aminobacter strain CC495. These bacteria are able to use methyl halides as a sole source of carbon and energy, are all members of the α ‐Proteobacteria and were isolated from a variety of polluted and pristine terrestrial environments. An understanding of the genetics of these bacteria identified a unique gene ( cmuA ) involved in the degradation of methyl halides, which codes for a protein (CmuA) with unique methyltransferase and corrinoid functions. This unique functional gene, cmuA , is being used to develop molecular ecology techniques to examine the diversity and distribution of methyl halide‐utilizing bacteria in the environment and hopefully to understand their role in methyl halide degradation in different environments. These techniques will also enable the detection of potentially novel methyl halide‐degrading bacteria.

Environmental Microbiology↗