South Cascade (USA/North Cascades)
William R. Bidlake
2011, Glacier Mass Balance Bulletin (11) 81-89
The U.S. Geological Survey has closely monitored this temperate mountain glacier since the late 1950s. During 1958-2007, the glacier retreated about 0.7 km and shrank in area from 2.71 to 1.73 km2, although part of the area change was due to separation of contributing ice bodies from the main glacier....
Applications of Groundwater Helium
Justin T. Kulongoski, David R. Hilton
2011, Book chapter, Handbook of Environmental Isotop Geochemistry, Volume 1
Helium abundance and isotope variations have widespread application in groundwater-related studies. This stems from the inert nature of this noble gas and the fact that its two isotopes ? helium-3 and helium-4 ? have distinct origins and vary widely in different terrestrial reservoirs. These attributes allow He concentrations and 3He/4He...
Spring-migration ecology of Northern Pintails in south-central Nebraska
Aaron T. Pearse, Gary L. Krapu, Robert R. Cox Jr., Bruce E. Davis
2011, Waterbirds (34) 10-18
Spring-migration ecology of staging Northern Pintails, Anas acuta, was investigated in south-central Nebraska, USA. Habitat associations, local movements, settling patterns, arrival dates, residency times and survival were estimated from 71 radiomarked pintails during spring 2001, 2003 and 2004, and diet determined from 130 females collected during spring 1998 and 1999. Seventy-two percent of...
Fish and land use influence Gammarus lacustris and Hyalella azteca (Amphipoda) densities in large wetlands across the upper Midwest
Michael J. Anteau, Alan D. Afton, Andrea C.E. Anteau, E. Barry Moser
2011, Hydrobiologia (664) 69-80
Gammarus lacustris and Hyalella azteca (hereafter G. lacustris and H. azteca, respectively) are important components of secondary production in wetlands and shallow lakes of the upper Midwest, USA. Within the past 50 years, amphipod densities have decreased while occurrences of fish and intensity of agricultural land use have increased...
Discussion of Near-Transducer Errors in ADCP Measurements: Experimental Findings by Marian Muste, Dongsu Kim, and Juan A Gonzalez-Castro
David S. Mueller, Kevin A. Oberg
2011, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (137) 863-866
Seasonal flows on warm Martian slopes
Alfred S. McEwen, Lujendra Ojha, Colin M. Dundas, Sarah S. Mattson, Shane Byrne, James J. Wray, Selby C. Cull, Scott L. Murchie, Nicolas Thomas, Virginia C. Gulick
2011, Science (333) 740-743
Water probably flowed across ancient Mars, but whether it ever exists as a liquid on the surface today remains debatable. Recurring slope lineae (RSL) are narrow (0.5 to 5 meters), relatively dark markings on steep (25° to 40°) slopes; repeat images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter High Resolution Imaging Science...
Evaluation of influence of sediment on the sensitivity of a unionid mussel (Lamsilis silquoidea) to ammonia in 28-day water exposures
Ning Wang, Rebecca A. Consbrock, Christopher G. Ingersoll, M. Christopher Barnhart
2011, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (30) 2270-2276
A draft update of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ambient water quality criteria (AWQC) for ammonia substantially lowers the ammonia AWQC, primarily due to the inclusion of toxicity data for freshwater mussels. However, most of the mussel data used in the updated AWQC were generated from water-only exposures and limited...
Concentrations and bioaccessibility of metals in vegetation and dust near a mining haul road, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Alaska
William G. Brumbaugh, Suzette A. Morman, Thomas W. May
2011, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (182) 325-340
Vegetation, sub-surface peat, and road dust were sampled near the Delong Mountain Transportation System (DMTS) haul road in northwest Alaska in 2005-2006 to document aluminum, barium, cadmium, lead, and zinc concentrations, and to evaluate bioaccessibility of these metals. The DMTS haul road is the transport corridor between Red Dog Mine...
Behavioral, clinical, and pathological characterization of acid metalliferous water toxicity in mallards
John P. Isanhart, Hongmei Wu, Karamjeet Pandher, Russell K. MacRae, Stephen B. Cox, Michael J. Hooper
2011, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (61) 653-667
From September to November 2000, United States Fish and Wildlife Service biologists investigated incidents involving 221 bird deaths at 3 mine sites located in New Mexico and Arizona. These bird deaths primarily involved passerine and waterfowl species and were assumed to be linked to consumption of acid metalliferous water (AMW)....
Multivariate analyses with end-member mixing to characterize groundwater flow: Wind Cave and associated aquifers
Andrew J. Long, Joshua F. Valder
2011, Journal of Hydrology (409) 315-327
Principal component analysis (PCA) applied to hydrochemical data has been used with end-member mixing to characterize groundwater flow to a limited extent, but aspects of this approach are unresolved. Previous similar approaches typically have assumed that the extreme-value samples identified by PCA represent end members. The method presented herein is...
Multiple applications of the U.S. EPA 1312 leach procedure to mine waste from the Animas watershed, SW Colorado
David L. Fey, Stan E. Church, Rhonda L. Driscoll, Monique G. Adams
2011, Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis (11) 163-178
Eleven acid-sulphate and quartz-sericite-pyrite altered mine waste samples from the Animas River watershed in SW Colorado were subjected to a series of 5 to 6 successive leaches using the US EPA 1312 leach protocol to evaluate the transport of metals and loss of acidity from mine wastes as a function...
Multilevel eEmpirical Bayes modeling for improved estimation of toxicant formulations tosuppress parasitic sea lamprey in the Upper Great Lakes
Laura A. Hatfield, Steve Gutreuter, Michael A. Boogaard, Bradley P. Carlin
2011, Biometrics (67) 1153-1162
Estimation of extreme quantal-response statistics, such as the concentration required to kill 99.9% of test subjects (LC99.9), remains a challenge in the presence of multiple covariates and complex study designs. Accurate and precise estimates of the LC99.9 for mixtures of toxicants are critical to ongoing control of a parasitic invasive...
Stationarity: Wanted dead or alive?
Larry F. Lins, Timothy A. Cohn
2011, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (47) 475-480
Aligning engineering practice with natural process behavior would appear, on its face, to be a prudent and reasonable course of action. However, if we do not understand the long-term characteristics of hydroclimatic processes, how does one find the prudent and reasonable course needed for water management? We consider this question...
Modules based on the geochemical model PHREEQC for use in scripting and programming languages
Scott R. Charlton, David L. Parkhurst
2011, Computers & Geosciences (37) 1653-1663
The geochemical model PHREEQC is capable of simulating a wide range of equilibrium reactions between water and minerals, ion exchangers, surface complexes, solid solutions, and gases. It also has a general kinetic formulation that allows modeling of nonequilibrium mineral dissolution and precipitation, microbial reactions, decomposition of organic compounds, and other...
Mercury export from the Yukon River Basin and potential response to a changing climate
Paul F. Schuster, Robert G. Striegl, George R. Aiken, David P. Krabbenhoft, John F. DeWild, Kenna D. Butler, Ben Kamark, Mark Dornblaser
2011, Environmental Science & Technology (45) 9262-9267
We measured mercury (Hg) concentrations and calculated export and yield from the Yukon River Basin (YRB) to quantify Hg flux from a large, permafrost-dominated, high-latitude watershed. Exports of Hg averaged 4400 kg Hg yr-1. The average annual yield for the YRB during the study period was 5.17 μg m-2 yr-1,...
How reservoirs alter drinking water quality: Organic matter sources, sinks, and transformations
Tamara E.C. Kraus, Brian A. Bergamaschi, Peter J. Hernes, Daniel H. Doctor, Carol Kendall, Bryan D. Downing, Richard F. Losee
2011, Lake and Reservoir Management (27) 205-219
Within reservoirs, production, transformation, and loss of dissolved organic matter (DOM) occur simultaneously. While the balance between production and loss determines whether a reservoir is a net sink or source of DOM, changes in chemical composition are also important because they affect DOM reactivity with respect to disinfection by-product (DBP)...
Hydrogeochemical processes governing the origin, transport and fate of major and trace elements from mine wastes and mineralized rock to surface waters
D. Kirk Nordstrom
2011, Applied Geochemistry (26) 1777-1791
The formation of acid mine drainage from metals extraction or natural acid rock drainage and its mixing with surface waters is a complex process that depends on petrology and mineralogy, structural geology, geomorphology, surface-water hydrology, hydrogeology, climatology, microbiology, chemistry, and mining and mineral processing history. The concentrations of metals, metalloids,...
Intra-seasonal variation in foraging behavior among Adélie penguins (Pygocelis adeliae) breeding at Cape Hallett, Ross Sea, Antarctica
P. O. B. Lyver, C. J. MacLeod, G. Ballard, B. J. Karl, K. J. Barton, J. Adams, D. G. Ainley, P. R. Wilson
2011, Polar Biology (34) 49-67
We investigated intra-seasonal variation in foraging behavior of chick-rearing Adélie penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae, during two consecutive summers at Cape Hallett, northwestern Ross Sea. Although foraging behavior of this species has been extensively studied throughout the broad continental shelf region of the Ross Sea, this is the first study to report...
Interhemispheric ice-sheet synchronicity during the last glacial maximum
Michael E. Weber, Peter U. Clark, Werner Ricken, Jerry X. Mitrovica, Steven W. Hostetler, Gerhard Kuhn
2011, Science (334) 1265-1269
The timing of the last maximum extent of the Antarctic ice sheets relative to those in the Northern Hemisphere remains poorly understood. We develop a chronology for the Weddell Sea sector of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet that, combined with ages from other Antarctic ice-sheet sectors, indicates that the advance...
Streamflow of 2010--Water year summary
Jian Xiaodong, David M. Wolock, Harry F. Lins, Steve Brady
2011, Fact Sheet 2011-3043
The maps and graph in this summary describe streamflow conditions for water-year 2010 (October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2010) in the context of the 81-year period 1930-2010, unless otherwise noted. The illustrations are based on observed data from the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Streamflow Information Program. The period...
Influence of dissolved organic carbon on toxicity of copper to a unionid mussel (Villosa iris) and a cladoceran (Ceriodaphnia dubia) in acute and chronic water exposures
Ning Wang, Christopher A. Mebane, James L. Kunz, Christopher G. Ingersoll, William G. Brumbaugh, Robert C. Santore, Joseph W. Gorsuch, W. Ray Arnold
2011, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (30) 2115-2125
Acute and chronic toxicity of copper (Cu) to a unionid mussel (Villosa iris) and a cladoceran (Ceriodaphnia dubia) were determined in water exposures at four concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC; nominally 0.5, 2.5, 5, and 10 mg/L as carbon [C]). Test waters with DOC concentrations of 2.5 to 10...
Influence of body condition on influenza A virus infection in mallard ducks: Experimental infection data
Dustin M. Arsnoe, S. Ip, Jennifer C. Owen
2011, PLoS ONE (6)
Migrating waterfowl are implicated in the global spread of influenza A viruses (IAVs), and mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) are considered a particularly important IAV reservoir. Prevalence of IAV infection in waterfowl peaks during autumn pre-migration staging and then declines as birds reach wintering areas. Migration is energetically costly and birds often...
Impacts of climate change on the growing season in the United States
Steven L. Markstrom, Lauren E. Hay
2011, Earth Interactions (15) 1-17
Understanding the effects of climate change on the vegetative growing season is key to quantifying future hydrologic water budget conditions. The U.S. Geological Survey modeled changes in future growing season length at 14 basins across 11 states. Simulations for each basin were generated using five general circulation models with three...
Evaluation of the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) seismic method to determine sediment thickness in the vicinity of the South Well Field, Franklin County, OH
Ralph J. Haefner, Rodney A. Sheets, Robert E. Andrews
2011, Ohio Journal of Science (110) 77-85
The horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) seismic method involves analyzing measurements of ambient seismic noise in three dimensions to determine the fundamental site resonance frequency. Resonance is excited by the interaction of surface waves (Rayleigh and Love) and body waves (vertically incident shear) with the high-contrast aconstic impedance boundary at the...
Concentrations and loads of nutrients in the tributaries of the Lake Okeechobee watershed, south-central Florida, water years 2004-2008
Michael J. Byrne, Molly S. Wood
2011, Data Series 613
Lake Okeechobee in south-central Florida is the second largest freshwater lake in the contiguous United States. Excessive phosphorus loading, harmful high and low water levels, and rapid expansion of non-native vegetation have threatened the health of the lake in recent decades. A study was conducted to monitor discharge and nutrient...
