Angelika L. Kurthen’s research while affiliated with Oregon State University and other places

Mercury (Hg) is a naturally occurring element, but atmospheric Hg has increased due to human activities since the industrial revolution. When deposited in aquatic environments, atmospheric Hg can be converted to methyl mercury (MeHg), which bioaccumulates in ecosystems and can cause neurologic and endocrine disruption in high quantities. While higher atmospheric Hg levels do not always translate to higher contamination in wildlife, museum specimens over the past 2 centuries have documented an increase in species that feed at higher trophic levels. Increased exposure to pollutants presents an additional threat to fish and wildlife populations already facing habitat loss or degradation due to global change. Additionally, Hg cycling and bioaccumulation are primarily driven by geophysical, ecological, and biogeochemical processes in the environment, all of which may be modulated by climate change. In this review, we begin by describing where, when, and how the Hg cycle may be altered by climate change and how this may impact wildlife exposure to MeHg. Next, we summarize the already observed physiological effects of increased MeHg exposure to wildlife and identify future climate change vulnerabilities. We illustrate the implications for wildlife managers through a case study and conclude by suggesting key areas for management action to mitigate harmful effects and conserve wildlife and habitats amid global change.

In a stroke of good luck for aquatic scientists and insect enthusiasts, the May 2022 Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting (JASM) in Grand Rapids, Michigan coincided with a spectacular hatch of hydropsychid caddisflies. To estimate density, we enumerated caddisflies on 12 polarized window panels on the western face of the DeVos Place, which faced the Grand River. We found an average of 57.8 caddisflies per 2.0 × 2.3 m window panel (density of 12.6 caddisflies m⁻²). We observed American robins, swallows, sparrows, and jumping spiders preying and scavenging during the hatch. We also describe here our observations of a novel precopulatory behavior in the species Hydropsyche morosa, which we describe as a “head‐to‐tail” position. We discuss our natural history observations and share thoughts on how conferences can be a springboard for networking and collaborative science, natural history‐focused or otherwise.

The metacommunity concept has received increasing interest in the past two decades. However, there has been limited research examining metacommunity structure of communities in high mountain streams. These ecosystems are often physically constrained and can display large environmental gradients within a relatively small spatial extent. Here, we examined metacommunity structures of stream organisms in a high mountain region, which is part of the Hengduan Mountains region in Southwest China. Macroinvertebrates and diatoms were collected from six streams in two opposite aspects of the same mountain with different connectivity between streams. On the west aspect, streams are tributaries of a river (i.e., river-connected) while streams flow into a lake (i.e., lake-connected) on the east aspect. We used Elements of Metacommunity Structure analysis to explore the metacommunity structuring of these two biological models. We also compared the contribution of dispersal and environmental filtering in structuring metacommunities by looking at Euclidean, network, topographic, and environmental distances. Communities of diatoms and macroinvertebrates were structured with clear turnover on both aspects. Further, diatom communities exhibited Clementsian structure on both aspects. Macroinvertebrates exhibited different metacommunity structures on the river-connected aspect (Quasi-Clementsian) and lake-connected aspect (Clementsian). Our results indicated that on the lake-connected aspect, environmental filtering had a stronger association with community dissimilarity than on the river-connected aspect for both macroinvertebrate and diatom communities. Diatom communities were more influenced by environmental filtering on the east aspect with weakened network connectivity compared with those on the west aspect. Our results also emphasized the potential effects of biotic interactions between macroinvertebrates and diatoms on shaping community structures of one other. Our study provides substantial elements to further understand metacommunity structure and highlights the necessity of future research to reveal the underlying mechanisms of community structuring in these remote ecosystems.