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Ethanol (EtOH), an emerging contaminant with potential direct and indirect environmental effects, poses threats to water supplies when spilled in large volumes. A series of experiments was directed at understanding the electrical geophysical signatures arising from groundwater contamination by ethanol. Conductivity measurements were performed at the laboratory scale on EtOH–water...

In semiarid western North American riparian ecosystems, increased drought and lower streamflows under climate change may reduce plant growth and recruitment, and favor drought‐tolerant exotic species over mesic native species. We tested whether elevated atmospheric CO2 might ameliorate these effects by improving plant water‐use efficiency.We examined the effects of CO2 and...

Conflict between native amphibians and aquatic weed management in the Pacific Northwest is rarely recognized because most native stillwater-breeding amphibian species move upland during summer, when herbicide application to control weeds in aquatic habitats typically occurs. However, aquatic weed management may pose a risk for aquatic species present in wetlands...

Arsenic (As) is a metalloid element (atomic number 33) with one naturally occurring isotope of atomic mass 75, and four oxidation states (-3, 0, +3, and +5) (Smedley and Kinniburgh, 2002). In the aqueous environment, the +3 and +5 oxidation states are most prevalent, as the oxyanions arsenite (H3AsO3 or...

Paleomagnetic inclination and polarity studies were conducted on subcore samples from eight coreholes located at and near the Naval Reactors Facility (NRF), Idaho National Laboratory (INL). These studies were used to characterize and to correlate successive stratigraphic basalt flow groups in each corehole to basalt flow groups with similar paleomagnetic...

The U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration (EIA) joined with the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to analyze the world uranium supply and demand balance. To evaluate short-term primary supply (0–15 years), the analysis focused on Reasonably Assured Resources (RAR), which are resources projected with...

Filtered total mercury (FTHg) concentrations in a rapidly urbanizing area ranged from 50 to 250 ng/L in surface waters of the Squankum Branch, a tributary to a major river (Great Egg Harbor River (GEHR)) traversing both urban and forested/wetland areas in the Coastal Plain of New Jersey. An unsewered residential area...

We characterized the male-specific region on the Y chromosome of rainbow trout, which contains both sdY (the sex-determining gene) and the male-specific genetic marker, OmyY1. Several clones containing the OmyY1 marker were screened from a BAC library from a YY clonal line and found to be part of an 800 kb...

If conservation of biodiversity is the goal, then the protected areas network of the continental US may be one of our best conservation tools for safeguarding ecological systems (i.e., vegetation communities). We evaluated representation of ecological systems in the current protected areas network and found insufficient representation at three vegetation...

An epizootic of beak abnormalities (avian keratin disorder) was recently detected among wild birds in Alaska. Here we describe the gross, histologic, and ultrastructural features of the disease in 30 affected adult black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus). Grossly, there was elongation of the rhamphotheca, with varying degrees of lateral deviation, crossing,...

At the request of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, we performed a study during April–July 2010 to characterize mercury (Hg), monomethyl mercury (MMeHg), and other geochemical constituents in sediment, water, and biota at the Clyde Gold Mine and the Elgin Mercury Mine, located in neighboring subwatersheds of Sulphur Creek,...

Ninety percent of the drinking water for New York City passes through the Hillview Reservoir facility in the City of Yonkers, Westchester County, New York. In the past, several seeps located downslope from the reservoir have flowed out from the side of the steepest slope at the southern end of...

Digital flood-inundation maps for a 4.0-mile reach of the Iroquois River at Rensselaer, Indiana (Ind.), were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Indiana Department of Transportation. The inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Science Web site at http://water.usgs.gov/osw/flood_inundation/, depict...

Few studies assess the potential of ongoing sources of “fresh” polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) to aquatic systems when direct discharge to the environment has been eliminated. In the present study, the authors used single-layered, low-density polyethylene samplers (PEs) to measure total PCB concentrations, congener profiles, and enantiomeric fractions (EFs) in a...

The impact of preferential flow on recharge and contaminant transport poses a considerable challenge to water-resources management. Typical hydrologic models require extensive site characterization, but can underestimate fluxes when preferential flow is significant. A recently developed source-responsive model incorporates film-flow theory with conservation of mass to estimate unsaturated-zone preferential fluxes...

Rates of U(VI) release from individual dry-sieved size fractions of a field-aggregated, field-contaminated composite sediment from the seasonally saturated lower vadose zone of the Hanford 300-Area were examined in flow-through reactors to maintain quasi-constant chemical conditions. The principal source of variability in equilibrium U(VI) adsorption properties of the various size...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Trinity Glen Rose Groundwater Conservation District, the Edwards Aquifer Authority, and the San Antonio River Authority, developed a geodatabase of springs within and surrounding the Trinity aquifer outcrops in a 331-square-mile study area in northern Bexar County, Texas. The data used to...

New national programs, as well as natural and man-made disasters, have raised awareness about the need to find new and improved ways to share information about the coastal and marine environment with a wide-ranging public audience. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Geology Program (CMGP) has begun a...

This chapter provides a brief survey of key concepts in continuum mechanics. It focuses on the fundamental physical concepts that underlie derivations of the mathematical formulations of stress, strain, hydraulic head, pore-fluid pressure, and conservation equations. It then shows how stresses are linked to strain and rates of distortion through...

Northern peatlands have accumulated large carbon (C) stocks, acting as a long-term atmospheric C sink since the last deglaciation. How these C-rich ecosystems will respond to future climate change, however, is still poorly understood. Furthermore, many northern peatlands exist in regions underlain by permafrost, adding to the challenge of projecting...

Exotic plant invasions into riparia often result in shifts in vegetative composition, altered stream function, and cascading effects to biota at multiple scales. Characterizing the distribution patterns of exotic plants is an important step in directing targeted research to identify mechanisms of invasion and potential management strategies. In this study,...

Executive Summary Survival of juvenile endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers is thought to limit recruitment into the adult populations and ultimately limit the recovery of these species in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. Although many hypotheses exist about the sources of mortality, the contribution of each speculated source of mortality has...

With the recent release of new recreational water quality monitoring criteria, there are more options for regulatory agencies seeking to protect beachgoers from waterborne pathogens. Included are methods that can reduce analytical time, providing timelier estimates of water quality, but the application of these methods has not been examined at...

Understanding interactions between mobile species distributions and landcover characteristics remains an outstanding challenge in ecology. Multiple factors could explain species distributions including endogenous evolutionary traits leading to conspecific clustering and endogenous habitat features that support life history requirements. Birds are a useful taxon for examining hypotheses about the relative importance...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, prepared databases for mineral-resource target areas in Afghanistan. The purpose of the databases is to (1) provide useful data to ground-survey crews for use in performing detailed assessments of the...