ContDataQC: An R package and Shiny app for quality control of continuous water quality sensor data.

The ContDataQC R package is a free, open-source tool that was developed to help water quality monitoring programs perform quality control (QC) procedures on continuous sensor data. ContDataQC helps users speed up and standardize the QC process, minimize undetected data errors, and make full use of their sensor data. It has three main functions: generate QC reports to detect anomalies and erroneous data values, merge QC'd data files from different time periods, and generate time series plots and basic summary statistics.

Incorporating adaptation and resilience into an integrated watershed and coral reef management plan.

Changing environmental conditions are forcing natural resource managers and communities to adapt their strategies to account for global shifts in precipitation, temperature, sea level and more, all of which are occurring in addition to local human impacts. Adapting to threats from climate change requires a fundamental shift in the practice of natural resource management through the development of forward-looking "climate-smart" goals and strategies. Here we present a proof-of-concept application of a decision-support tool to help design climate-smart management actions for the watershed and coral reef management plan for Guánica Bay watershed in southwest Puerto Rico.

Resilience assessment of Puerto Rico's coral reefs to inform reef management.

Globally increasing sea surface temperatures threaten coral reefs, both directly and through interactions with local stressors. More resilient reefs have a higher likelihood of returning to a coral-dominated state following a disturbance, such as a mass bleaching event. To advance practical approaches to reef resilience assessments and aid resilience-based management of coral reefs, we conducted a resilience assessment for Puerto Rico's coral reefs, modified from methods used in other U.

How environmental futures can inform decision making: A review.

Environmental decision- and policy-making must contend with uncertainty about the future that can hinder proactive environmental decisions, forcing environmental managers into reactive postures. To help prevent this, a variety of methods exist for exploring potential environmental futures and associated uncertainties. Producing environmental futures benefits those involved by supporting a systems-level understanding and expanding thinking beyond "business as usual".

Adaptation Design Tool for Climate-Smart Management of Coral Reefs and Other Natural Resources.

Scientists and managers of natural resources have recognized an urgent need for improved methods and tools to enable effective adaptation of management measures in the face of climate change. This paper presents an Adaptation Design Tool that uses a structured approach to break down an otherwise overwhelming and complex process into tractable steps. The tool contains worksheets that guide users through a series of design considerations for adapting their planned management actions to be more climate-smart given changing environmental stressors.

Spatial patterns of coral survivorship: impacts of adult proximity versus other drivers of localized mortality.

Species-specific enemies may promote prey coexistence through negative distance- and density-dependent survival of juveniles near conspecific adults. We tested this mechanism by transplanting juvenile-sized fragments of the brooding corals Pocillopora damicornis and Seriatopora hystrix 3, 12, 24 and 182 cm up- and down-current of conspecific adults and monitoring their survival and condition over time. We also characterized the spatial distribution of P.

Experimental infections of Orchitophrya stellarum (Scuticociliata) in American blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) and fiddler crabs (Uca minax).

Outbreaks of an unidentified ciliate have occurred on several occasions in blue crabs from Chesapeake Bay held during winter months in flow-through systems. The parasite was initially thought to be Mesanophrys chesapeakensis, but molecular analysis identified it as Orchitophyra stellarum, a facultative parasite of sea stars (Asteroidea). We investigated the host-parasite association of O.