Lara J. Brenner, Nathaniel Rindlaub, Juliana Matos, Scott Meyler, Sue Pollock, Falk Schuetzenmeister, Nick D. Holmes
Invasive mammals like rats pose a major threat to island ecosystems and endemic species. This study tests a wireless camera network on Santa Cruz Island that uses AI to detect nonnative mammals in real time. Compared to traditional cameras, the system reduced detection delays, improved reliability, and became more cost-effective over time. By enabling faster response to potential incursions, this technology strengthens biosecurity and helps safeguard vulnerable island wildlife from nonnative species invasions and disease.
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Lara J. Brenner, Nathaniel Rindlaub, Juliana Matos, Scott Meyler, Sue Pollock, Falk Schuetzenmeister, Nick D. Holmes
Invasive mammals like rats pose a major threat to island ecosystems and endemic species. This study tests a wireless camera network on Santa Cruz Island that uses AI to detect nonnative mammals in…
Alexandra L. DeCandia, Jasmine Lu, Emily E. Hamblen, Lara J. Brenner, Julie L. King, Calypso N. Gagorik, Juliann T. Schamel, Stacy S. Baker, Francesca J. Ferrara, Melissa Booker, Andrew Bridges, Cesar Carrasco, Bridgett M. vonHoldt, Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Jesús E. Maldonado
Isolated island species may be more susceptible to disease because of their lack of genetic diversity. Santa Catalina Island foxes have the highest rate of cancer ever measured in wildlife - over 50%…
Alexander L. Metcalf, Elizabeth Covelli Metcalf, Lara J. Brenner, Holly K. Nesbitt, Conor N. Phelan, Michael S. Lewis, Justin A. Gude
The long-term survival of large carnivores like wolves, grizzly bears and mountain lions depends not just on ecological factors like habitat, but also on social factors like human acceptance of their…
Lara J. Brenner, Piper D. Wallingford, Nick D. Holmes, John J. Knapp, John M. Randall, Scott A. Morrison
Island ecosystems are especially vulnerable to climate change, yet planning for these impacts remains challenging due to a lack of available data. This paper reports on a collaborative workshop across…
Samantha Pasciullo Boychuck, Lara J. Brenner, Calypso N. Gagorik, Juliann T. Schamel, Stacy Baker, Elton Tran, Bridgett M. vonHoldt, Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Jesús E. Maldonado, Alexandra L. DeCandia
On California’s Channel Islands, two rare carnivores—the island fox and island spotted skunk—have coexisted for millennia despite competing for similar resources. This study explores…
Bruce Markman, H. Scott Butterfield, Janet Franklin, Lloyd Coulter, Moses Katkowski, and Dan Sousa
Residual dry matter has been widely used to monitor grazing impacts across conservation grazing lands for more than 75 years, largely done with time-intensive, expensive, and hard-to-reproduce…
Golet G.H., Kristen E. Dybala, Joeseph G. Silvera, Adam Henderson, Jennifer Isola, David H. Wright, Ron Melcer Jr., and Danika Tsao.
Lowland alluvial rivers are rich in biodiversity, yet many are highly degraded and no longer support robust natural communities. Over the past few decades, Bank Swallows, which depend upon these…
A.D. Binley, J.O. Hanson, O.J. Robinson, G.H. Golet, J.R. Bennett
Monitoring biodiversity is critical for informing conservation but can also deplete resources available for management actions if the time and money available are limited. Freely available…
Nisi A, H Welch, S Brodie, C Liephardt, R Rhodes, E Hazen, JV Redfern, TA Branch, A S Barreto, J Calambokidis, T Clavelle, L Dares, A de Vos, S Gero, J A. Jackson, RD Kenney, D Kroodsma, R Leaper, DJ McCauley, SE Moore, E Ovsyanikova, S Panigada, CV Robinson, T White, JR Wilson, B Abrahms
Collisions between whales and ships are a leading cause of death for threatened whale species across the globe. In this paper, scientists identified high risk areas for whale-ship collisions by…
The Nature Conservancy
In 2013, sea star wasting disease led to the collapse of sunflower sea stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides) along the west coast of North America. Animals are now being grown in captivity for eventual…
Michael J Clifford, Peter Gower, Tanya Anderson, Jaina Moan, Mickey Hazelwood, Sophie S Parker, Laurel Saito
Dramatic changes to the transportation and energy sectors are required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet the goal of keeping global average temperatures from rising. The authors discuss how…
Bryan DeAngelis, Elliot Hall
We must radically increase the pace, scale, and impact of restoration to recover the abundance, resilience, and benefits of coastal ecosystems. This project explored the current size of the…
Bixler, K., D. Roby, D.B. Irons, G.H. Golet
Seabirds are excellent indicators of the health of the world’s oceans. They are susceptible to marine pollution and dependent upon ecological processes that concentrate food in predictable…
Carrie A. Schloss, D. Richard Cameron, Bradley Franklin, Christoph Nolte, Scott A. Morrison
In response to biodiversity declines worldwide, over 190 nations committed to protect 30% of their lands and waters by 2030 . As these jurisdictions move from planning to implementation, we propose a…
Erin. E. Conlisk, Gregory H. Golet, Mark D. Reynolds, Nathan Elliot. and Matthew E. Reiter
Shorebirds are the second fastest declining group of birds in North America. To reverse this trend, The Nature Conservancy has been implementing BirdReturns, a habitat incentive program that pays…
William T. Bean, H. Scott Butterfield, Jeanette K. Howard, Thomas J. Batter
In this paper, the authors used a variety of habitat suitability modeling approaches to begin to understand where pronghorn may exist in the future in California under different climate change…
Lucy Genua, Brad Anderson, Meghan Bowen, Genelle Ives, Owen Liu, Thomas Paschos, H. Scott Butterfield, Kelly Easterday, Mark Reynolds, James H. Thorne
In this paper, the authors used historical vegetation data, from both aerial photographs and field transects, to assess the change in major vegetation types at the Dangermond Preserve over the last…
Kate Kauer, Lyall Bellquist, Jenn Humberstone, Vienna Saccomanno, Dwayne Oberhoff, Sherry Flumerfelt, Mary Gleason
This 2024 paper by TNC staff and partners represents the first U.S.-wide synthesis of fisheries trusts – which are community-based entities that acquire and manage fishery privileges with the…
Michael J. Clifford, Sophie S. Parker, Laurel Saito, Brian S. Cohen, Naomi S. Fraga
Lithium batteries are important for the clean energy transition in the United States because they are used in electric vehicles and for grid power storage. However, lithium extraction may have impacts…