Brooke E Penaluna

US Forest Service | FS · Pacific Northwest Research Station

Pacific trout Oncorhynchus spp. in western North America are strongly valued in ecological, socioeconomic, and cultural views, and have been the subject of substantial research and conservation efforts. Despite this, the understanding of their evolutionary histories, overall diversity, and challenges to their conservation is incomplete. We review t...

Through their multiple functions, refuges may be important for stream‐living fishes, particularly during stressful events such as seasonal low flow or drought. Coastal Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii is an ideal study organism to understand the importance of refuge. During seasonal low flow, lower water levels limit access to refuge an...

The management of species that occur in low densities is a conservation concern worldwide across taxa with consequences for managers and policymakers. The distribution boundary at the upper extent of fish in North America receives extra attention because stream reaches with fish are managed differently and often have more protections than fishless...

Genetic diversity underpins species conservation and management goals, and ultimately determines a species' ability to adapt. Using freshwater environmental DNA (eDNA) samples, we examined mitochondrial genetic diversity using multigene metabarcode sequence data from four Oncorhynchus species across 16 sites in Oregon and northern California. Our m...

Predicting the edges of species distributions is fundamental for species conservation, ecosystem services, and management decisions. In North America, the location of the upstream limit of fish in forested streams receives special attention, because fish-bearing portions of streams have more protections during forest management activities than fish...

As early-career professionals (ECPs) navigate their education and professional development in the aquatic sciences, many seek to build a network to help guide their entrance into the field. As influential organizations, scientific societies play a vital role through hosted conferences, where ECPs can meet and share ideas with others, and find mento...

Decreases in body sizes of animals related to recent climate warming can affect population persistence and stability. However, direct observations of average sizes over time and their interrelationships with underlying density-dependent and density-independent processes remain poorly understood owing to the lack of appropriate long-term datasets. W...

We quantified temporal dynamics of wood storage, input, and transport over a 24‐year period in adjacent old‐growth and second‐growth forested reaches in Mack Creek, a third‐order stream in the Cascade Range of Oregon. The standing stocks of large wood in the old‐growth reach exceeded those at the second‐growth reach by more than double the number o...

Ecosystems that are coupled by reciprocal flows of energy and nutrient subsidies can be viewed as a single “meta‐ecosystem.” Despite these connections, the reciprocal flow of subsidies is greatly asymmetrical and seasonally pulsed. Here, we synthesize existing literature on stream–riparian meta‐ecosystems to quantify global patterns of the amount o...

Quantifying the dynamics of natural populations is a central issue in ecology. In the Pacific Northwest of North America, climate extremes are becoming more frequent and severe with projections of increasing winter floods and prolonged droughts during summer. Using a 13-year dataset of adult (Age 1+) Coastal Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii cl...

Smallmouth bass populations have expanded far beyond their native range and these predatory fish present a pervasive threat to native aquatic species throughout North America. In the western United States, smallmouth bass are now present in river and reservoir habitats where Pacific salmon are found and are considered a potential threat to salmon r...

We quantified temporal dynamics of wood storage, input, and transport in a third-order stream over a 23-year period in adjacent old-growth and second-growth forested reaches in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. Numbers and volumes of large wood (i.e., standing stock) in the old growth reach were more than double and triple, respectively, than those...

Mentoring is important to career development and employee morale of public sector employees, but little is known about how employee mentoring needs change over the course of one’s career or at different job classification levels. An online survey about the mentoring needs of 251 aquatic professionals in the USDA Forest Service was conducted in 2019...

Species detection using eDNA is revolutionizing global capacity to monitor biodiversity. However, the lack of regional, vouchered, genomic sequence information-especially sequence information that includes intraspecific variation-creates a bottleneck for management agencies wanting to harness the complete power of eDNA to monitor taxa and implement...

Freshwaters require targeted policy considerations to achieve biodiversity conservation goals and to support ecosystem services that communities around the globe depend upon. Effective conservation requires creative solutions that build and expand upon conventional protected areas, contextualized for these diverse ecosystems.

Background Wildfire is a landscape disturbance important for stream ecosystems and the recruitment of large wood (LW; LW describes wood in streams) into streams, with post-fire management also playing a role. We used a stratified random sample of 4th- order watersheds that represent a range of pre-fire stand age and fire severity from unburned to e...

The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) to assess aquatic biodiversity is a growing field with great potential for monitoring and managing threatened species, like freshwater mussel (Unionidae) populations. Freshwater mussels are globally imperiled and serve essential roles in aquatic systems as a food source and as a natural water filter making their...

Aim: Freshwater invasions are a global conservation issue. Emerging tools for biogeographical analyses can provide critical information for their effective management and monitoring. Here, we propose a method to assess the distribution of environmental resistance of stream ecosystems to biological invasions by coupling multi-stage habitat potential...

Aim Biodiversity changes can occur gradually or as distinct jumps as species distributions end and others begin. However, comprehensive assessments of freshwater biodiversity and how assemblages change along a continuum have been hindered by the connectivity and networked nature of streams and their large numbers of rare and cryptic species found t...

Species detection using eDNA is revolutionizing global capacity to monitor biodiversity. However, the lack of regional, vouchered, genomic sequence information—especially sequence information that includes intraspecific variation—creates a bottleneck for management agencies wanting to harness the complete power of eDNA to monitor taxa and implement...

Mentoring is suggested as an important strategy to promote workplace inclusivity and is shown to be positively associated with high employee morale, yet mentee needs and experiences may not be universal. To evaluate mentoring impacts from the perspective of USDA Forest Service employees, we conducted an online survey of 251 aquatic professionals, i...

Forest and freshwater ecosystems are tightly linked and together provide important ecosystem services, but climate change is affecting their species composition, structure, and function. Research at nine US Long Term Ecological Research sites reveals complex interactions and cascading effects of climate change, some of which feed back into the clim...

Degraded floodplains and valley floors are restored with the goal of enhancing habitat for native fish and aquatic-riparian biota and the protection or improvement of water quality. Recent years have seen a shift toward “process-based restoration” that is intended to reestablish compromised ecogeomorphic processes resulting from site- or watershed-...

The management and conservation of inland waters involves working with diverse groups of people and partners across a wide array of fisheries and aquatic resources. Here, we extracted historical authorship information (2006–2020) from published articles in 18 fish-related international journals to understand the productivity and impact of women inv...

Species detection using eDNA is revolutionizing the global capacity to monitor biodiversity. However, the lack of regional, vouchered, genomic sequence information—especially sequence information that includes intraspecific variation—creates a bottleneck for management agencies wanting to harness the complete power of eDNA to monitor taxa and imple...

Early detection methods are critical for the effective management of biological invasions. Escapes from salmon aquaculture facilities can lead to the naturalization of nonnative species. Massive escapes from aquaculture net-pens (approximately one million fish per year), predominantly Atlantic salmon Salmo salar, occur in Southern Chile. Similarly,...

Forested stream ecosystems involve complex physical and biotic pathways that can influence fish in numerous ways. Consequently, the responses of fish communities to disturbance can be difficult to understand. In this study, we employed a food web model that links biotic (e.g., physiology, predator–prey interactions) and abiotic (e.g., temperature,...

The inclusion of diverse individuals in ecological sciences has shown little progress over the past 2 decades for various reasons, including structural barriers in societies, organizations, and academia. Collaboration networks are important for productivity, promotion, and scientific impact, yet the extent to which the structure of these networks a...

A common goal of biological adaptation planning is to identify and prioritize locations that remain suitably cool during the summer. This implicitly devalues areas that are ephemerally warm, even if they are suitable most of the year for mobile animals. Here we develop an alternative conceptual framework, the growth regime, which considers seasonal...

Food webs show the architecture of trophic relationships, revealing the biodiversity and species interactions in an ecosystem. Understanding which factors modulate the structure of food webs offers us the ability to predict how they will change when influential factors are altered. To date, most of the research about food webs has focused on specie...

Species introductions threaten ecosystem function worldwide, and interactions among introduced species may amplify their impacts. Effects of multiple invasions are still poorly studied, and often, the mechanisms underlying potential interactions among invaders are unknown. Despite being a remote and well-conserved area, the southern portion of Sout...

Mentoring has had a recent resurgence as the key to achieving both individual and organizational goals, especially as workforce diversification efforts have led to the hiring of new talent. Few studies have evaluated mentoring within an organization or examined changes in mentoring practices over time. We describe the role and status of mentoring f...

The effects of volcanic disturbance on aquatic communities and their recovery are poorly studied. To fill this gap, we explored the effects on fish communities in rivers in Argentina of the 2008 eruption of Chaitén Volcano in southern Chile (42.8° lat. S). The eruption produced volcanic plumes of ash that persisted in the atmosphere for several mon...

Although there is widespread support for diversity in natural resources, diversity is valued for different reasons. It is important to understand and critically examine these reasons, to ensure diversity efforts express clear thinking and appropriate motivations. We compiled recent (2000–2019) diversity literature in fisheries, forestry, range, and...

Recognizing some of the women who have contributed to fisheries science and the American Fisheries Society.

Discussions about diversity, equity, and inclusivity are becoming increasingly common in scientific societies. However, more concerted efforts are needed to recognize and challenge systemic discrimination to ensure scientists from marginalized groups can contribute to and benefit from scientific societies. Here, we evaluate efforts and opportunitie...

We document the 1st record in 93 y of Umpqua Chub (Oregonichthys kalawatseti) in the North Umpqua River, Oregon, USA. Although the North Umpqua River has been surveyed for Umpqua Chub over the past 3 decades without success, we captured 34 Umpqua Chub on 14 May 2019, 5.8 km downstream from Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River, using baited minn...

We provide lessons learned during the last several decades of research and management of a broad array of species in the Pacific Northwest that inhabit moist coniferous forests. We provide insights about how biodiversity management and research priorities are changing. We draw from examples across taxa to show that providing for a diversity of fore...

Trout and char of North America

Environmental DNA (eDNA) assays for single‐ and multi‐species detection show promise for providing standardized assessment methods for diverse taxa, but techniques for evaluating multiple taxonomically divergent assemblages are in their infancy. We evaluated whether microfluidic multiplex metabarcoding on the Fluidigm Access Array™ platform and hig...

• Globally, river systems have been extensively modified through alterations in riverscapes and flow regimes, reducing their capacity to absorb geophysical and environmental changes. • In western North America and elsewhere, alterations in natural flow regimes and swimways through dams, levees, and floodplain development, work in concert with fire...

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is an emerging biological monitoring tool that can aid in assessing the effects of forestry and forest manufacturing activities on biota. Monitoring taxa across broad spatial and temporal scales is necessary to ensure forest management and forest manufacturing activities meet their environmental goals of maintaining biodive...

Chile is the second largest farmed salmon producer in the world, and currently produces more than 700,000 tons per year. Several reports of mass escapes from net-pens and habitual “leaks” of these non-native salmonids continually increase propagule pressure leading to an increased risk of natural establishments over time. Here, we present a spatial...

Propagule pressure has been widely described as one of the best predictors for invasive species success, however different perceptions arise when considering salmonid invasions in Chilean Patagonia. Currently, Chile maintains the largest industry of farmed salmon in the world. The industry is in constant expansion with hundreds of established net-p...

The diversity of aquatic ecosystems is being quickly reduced on many continents, warranting a closer examination of the consequences for ecological integrity and ecosystem services. Here we describe intermediate and final ecosystem services derived from aquatic biodiversity in forests. We include a summary of the factors framing the assembly of aqu...

An Introduction Steve L. McMullin, AFS President-Elect. E-mail: mcmullintraining@gmail.com Increasing diversity in the fisheries profession, including diversity of members of the American Fisheries Society (AFS), is vital to ensuring the future relevance of fish and their habitats, fisheries, and fisheries professionals in the broader context of so...

As water plays a defining role for the development of moist coniferous forests, aquatic-riparian systems are defining components of these landscapes. In the Pacific Northwest, aquatic-riparian ecosystems in moist forests are increasingly being recognized as multistate systems, with a complex mix of heterogeneous habitats within and among watersheds...

Sustainability of a human-forest ecosystem refers to its continuing capacity to maintain characteristic species, processes, and functions; to be resistant or resilient to most perturbations; and to provide commodities, uses, and other public benefits in the face of changing environmental, social, economic, and cultural circumstances. The nature of...

A diverse workforce in science can bring about competitive advantages, innovation, and new knowledge, skills, and experiences for understanding complex problems involving the science and management of natural resources. In particular, fisheries sciences confronts exceptional challenges because of complicated societal-level problems from the overexp...

Land use and climate change occur simultaneously around the globe. Fully understanding their separate and combined effects requires a mechanistic understanding at the local scale where their effects are ultimately realized. Here we applied an individual-based model of fish population dynamics to evaluate the role of local stream variability in modi...

Piscivory by birds can be significant, particularly on fish in small streams and during seasonal low flow when available cover from predators can be limited. Yet, how varying amounts of cover may change the extent of predation mortality from avian predators on fish is not clear. We evaluated size-selective survival of coastal cutthroat trout (Oncor...

The importance of multiple processes and instream factors to aquatic biota has been explored extensively, but questions remain about how local spatiotemporal variability of aquatic biota is tied to environmental regimes and the geophysical template of streams. We used an individual-based trout model to explore the relative role of the geophysical t...

The importance of multiple processes and instream factors to aquatic biota has been explored extensively, but questions remain about how local spatiotemporal variability of aquatic biota is tied to environmental regimes and the geophysical template of streams. We used an individual-based trout model to explore the relative role of the geophysical t...

Biological invasions create complex eco-logical and societal issues worldwide. Most of the knowledge about invasions comes only from success-ful invaders, but less is known about which processes determine the differential success of invasions. In this review, we develop a framework to identify the main dimensions driving the success and failure of...

Biological invasions represent one of the greatest threats to aquatic ecosystems, particularly in locations a high degree of isolation and endemism, such as southern South America. In this region, salmonids are top-level invaders, but information about their dispersal, persistence, and population dynamics is still limited. Here, we used available h...

Most ecological investigations examining processes that either limit or regulate populations have focused on space, food, or inter- or intraspecific interactions, and less on cover as a key resource. Cover is often studied from an individual perspective (e.g., habitat use or selection), but influences on populations are infrequently demonstrated. W...

Trophic relations among introduced species may induce highly variable and complex effects in communities and ecosystems. However, studies that identify the potential impacts for invaded systems and illuminate mechanisms of coexistence with native species are scarce. Here, we examined trophic relations between two introduced fishes in streams of NW...

An extensive amount of literature exists which examines the consequences of historical forest harvest practices on stream ecosystems, including fishes. However, the importance of certain aspects of physical habitat structure is not well understood for trout, especially during seasonal low-flow. Physical habitat structure in the form of in-stream co...

In South America, salmonids have been widely introduced to lakes, yet there are still many oligotrophic lakes without current abundance estimates. Catch per unit effort is a good estimator of fish abundance, but its correct implementation requires an expensive and long-term effort. Thus, there is a need to develop a rapid assessment to estimate the...

Introduced rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and brown trout Salmo trutta fario are the most abundant fishes in lie northern Chilean Patagonia, and their effect on native fishes is not well known. We tested for interactive segregation between trout and native fishes by using a before-after, control-impact design in which we deliberately reduced the...

1. Even though intensive aquaculture production of salmonids in lakes occurs in many locations around the world published studies on the survival and reproductive success of escaped cultured salmonids in freshwater ecosystems are not common. A recent expansion of aquaculture in Chile has led it to become the world’s second largest producer of cultu...