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In this study we were able to provide the first estimates of transition probabilities of wet prairie and slough vegetative communities in Water Conservation Area 3A (WCA3A) of the Florida Everglades and to identify the hydrologic variables that determine these transitions. These estimates can be used in management models aimed...

Ground surface displacement (GSD) in large calderas is often interpreted as resulting from magma intrusion at depth. Recent advances in geodetic measurements of GSD, notably interferometric synthetic aperture radar, reveal complex and multifaceted deformation patterns that often require complex source models to explain the observed GSD. Although hydrothermal fluids have...

Many national and regional groundwater studies have correlated land use "near" a well, often using a 500 m radius circle, with water quality. However, the use of a 500 m circle may seem counterintuitive given that contributing areas are expected to extend up-gradient from wells, and not be circular in...

Distributed hydrologic models capable of simulating fully-coupled surface water and groundwater flow are increasingly used to examine problems in the hydrologic sciences. Several techniques are currently available to couple the surface and subsurface; the two most frequently employed approaches are first-order exchange coefficients (a.k.a., the surface conductance method) and enforced...

Heat from wildfires can produce a two-layer system composed of extremely dry soil covered by a layer of ash, which when subjected to rainfall, may produce extreme floods. To understand the soil physics controlling runoff for these initial conditions, we used a small, portable disk infiltrometer to measure two hydraulic...

The legacy of acid mine drainage and toxic trace metals left in streams by historical mining is being addressed by many important yet costly remediation efforts. Monitoring of environmental conditions frequently is not performed but is essential to evaluate remediation effectiveness, determine whether clean-up goals have been met, and assess...

To understand their relation to pedogenic development, soil hydraulic properties in the Mojave Desert were investi- gated for three deposit types: (i) recently deposited sediments in an active wash, (ii) a soil of early Holocene age, and (iii) a highly developed soil of late Pleistocene age. Eff ective parameter values...

The common recommendation that recharge should be estimated from multiple methods is sound, but the inherent differences of the methods make it difficult to assess the accuracy of differing results. In this study, four methods for estimating groundwater recharge and two methods for estimating base flow (as a proxy for...

Biodegradation of 17β-estradiol (E2), estrone (E1), and testosterone (T) was investigated in three wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) affected streams in the United States. Relative differences in the mineralization of [4-14C] substrates were assessed in oxic microcosms containing saturated sediment or water-only from locations upstream and downstream of the WWTP outfall...

Flood inundation maps typically have been used to depict inundated areas for floods having specific exceedance levels. The uncertainty associated with the inundation boundaries is seldom quantified, in part, because all of the sources of uncertainty are not recognized and because data available to quantify uncertainty seldom are available. Sources...

Installation of a permeable reactive barrier to intercept a phosphate (PO4) plume where it discharges to a pond provided an opportunity to develop and test methods for monitoring the barrier’s performance in the shallow pond‐bottom sediments. The barrier is composed of zero‐valent‐iron mixed with the native sediments to a 0.6‐m...

Freshwater lakes are an important component of the global carbon cycle through both organic carbon (OC) sequestration and carbon dioxide (CO 2) emission. Most lakes have a net annual loss of CO2 to the atmosphere and substantial current evidence suggests that biologic mineralization of allochthonous OC maintains this flux. Because...

Presented here is a model framework based on a land surface topography that can be represented with various degrees of resolution and capable of providing representative channel/floodplain hydraulic characteristics on a daily to hourly scale. The framework integrates two models: (1) a water balance model (WBM) for the vertical fluxes...

Knowledge of key sources and biogeochemical processes that affect the transport of nitrate (NO3-) in streams can inform watershed management strategies for controlling downstream eutrophication. We applied dual isotope analysis of NO3- to determine the dominant sources and processes that affect NO3- concentrations in six stream/river watersheds of different land...

Mercury speciation, controls on methylmercury (MeHg) production, and bed sediment−pore water partitioning of total Hg (THg) and MeHg were examined in bed sediment from eight geochemically diverse streams where atmospheric deposition was the predominant Hg input. Across all streams, sediment THg concentrations were best described as a combined function of...

The naturally abundant nitrogen in soil and aquatic NOM samples from the International Humic Substances Society has been characterized by solid state CP/MAS 15N NMR. Soil samples include humic and fulvic acids from the Elliot soil, Minnesota Waskish peat and Florida Pahokee peat, as well as the Summit Hill soil...

Coastal wetland seed banks exposed by low lake levels or through management actions fuel the reestablishment of emergent plant assemblages (i.e., wetland habitat) critical to Great Lakes aquatic biota. This project explored the effectiveness of using portable, water-filled cofferdams as a management tool to promote the natural growth of emergent...

Sedimentary basins in general, and deep saline aquifers in particular, are being investigated as possible repositories for large volumes of anthropogenic CO2 that must be sequestered to mitigate global warming and related climate changes. To investigate the potential for the long-term storage of CO2 in such aquifers, 1600 t of...

Trophic dynamics (community composition and feeding relationships) have been identified as important drivers of methylmercury (MeHg) bioaccumulation in lakes, reservoirs, and marine ecosystems. The relative importance of trophic dynamics and geochemical controls on MeHg bioaccumulation in streams, however, remains poorly characterized. MeHg bioaccumulation was evaluated in eight stream ecosystems across...

Soil elevation affects tidal inundation period, inundation frequency, and overall hydroperiod, all of which are important ecological factors affecting species recruitment, composition, and survival in wetlands. Hurricanes can dramatically affect a site's soil elevation. We assessed the impact of Hurricane Wilma (2005) on soil elevation at a mangrove forest location...

The thiaminase I enzyme produced by the gram-positive bacterium Paenibacillus thiaminolyticus isolated from the viscera of Lake Michigan alewives Alosa pseudoharengus is currently the only defined source of the thiaminase activity linked to thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency in early mortality syndrome (EMS) in the larvae of Great Lakes salmonines. Diets...

The late Eocene Chesapeake Bay impact structure lies buried at moderate depths below Chesapeake Bay and surrounding landmasses in southeastern Virginia, USA. Numerous characteristics made this impact structure an inviting target for scientific drilling, including the location of the impact on the Eocene continental shelf, its threelayer target structure, its...

Recent advances in mass spectrometry have allowed isotope scientists to precisely determine stable isotope variations in the metallic elements. Biologically infl uenced and truly inorganic isotope fractionation processes have been demonstrated over the mass range of metals. This Elements issue provides an overview of the application of metal stable isotopes...

The purpose of this paper is to identify simple connections between observations of hydrological processes at the hillslope scale and observations of the response of watersheds following rainfall, with a view to building a parsimonious model of catchment processes. The focus is on the well-studied Panola Mountain Research Watershed (PMRW),...

The Des Moines River that drains a watershed of 16,175 km2 in portions of Iowa and Minnesota is impaired for nitrate-nitrogen (nitrate) due to concentrations that exceed regulatory limits for public water supplies. The Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to model streamflow and nitrate loads and evaluate...