Publications
Dive into our publications and explore the science from the Environmental Health Program (Toxic Substances Hydrology and Contaminant Biology).
Filter Total Items: 4094
Endocrine disrupting activities of surface water associated with a West Virginia oil and gas industry wastewater disposal site
Currently, >95% of end disposal of hydraulic fracturing wastewater from unconventional oil and gas operations in the US occurs via injection wells. Key data gaps exist in understanding the potential impact of underground injection on surface water quality and environmental health. The goal of this study was to assess endocrine disrupting activity in surface water at a West Virginia injection well
Authors
Christopher D. Kassotis, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Denise M. Akob, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Adam Mumford, William H. Orem, Susan C. Nagel
Wastewater disposal from unconventional oil and gas development degrades stream quality at a West Virginia injection facility
The development of unconventional oil and gas (UOG) resources has rapidly increased in recent years; however, the environmental impacts and risks are poorly understood. A single well can generate millions of liters of wastewater, representing a mixture of formation brine and injected hydraulic fracturing fluids. One of the most common methods for wastewater disposal is underground injection; we ar
Authors
Denise M. Akob, Adam Mumford, William H. Orem, Mark A. Engle, Julia (Grace) Klinges, Douglas B. Kent, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli
Clarifying beliefs underlying hunter intentions to support a ban on lead shot
Shot from hunting adds toxic lead to environments worldwide. Existing lead shot regulations have been instituted with little understanding of hunter beliefs and attitudes. This study applied the Theory of Reasoned Action, using a multilevel, multivariate approach, to clarify how positive and negative beliefs relate to attitudes about a ban on lead shot. Structure coefficients and commonality analy
Authors
Susan A. Schroeder, David C. Fulton, Kathy Doncarlos
Combined use of thermal methods and seepage meters to efficiently locate, quantify, and monitor focused groundwater discharge to a sand-bed stream
Quantifying flow of groundwater through streambeds often is difficult due to the complexity of aquifer-scale heterogeneity combined with local-scale hyporheic exchange. We used fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing (FO-DTS), seepage meters, and vertical temperature profiling to locate, quantify, and monitor areas of focused groundwater discharge in a geomorphically simple sand-bed stream. Th
Authors
Donald O. Rosenberry, Martin A. Briggs, Geoffrey N. Delin, Danielle K. Hare
Mercury accumulation and the mercury-PCB-sex interaction in summer flounder
Patterns in the relative differences in contaminant concentrations between the sexes of mature fish may reveal important behavioral and physiological differences between the sexes. We determined whole-fish total mercury (Hg) concentrations in 23 female summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus) and 27 male summer flounder from New Jersey coastal waters. To estimate the change in Hg concentration due
Authors
Charles P. Madenjian, Olaf P. Jensen, David P. Krabbenhoft, John F. DeWild, Jacob M. Ogorek, Anthony R. Vastano
Regional assessment of persistent organic pollutants in resident mussels from New Jersey and New York estuaries following Hurricane Sandy
Resident mussels are effective indicators of ecosystem health and have been utilized in national assessment and monitoring studies for over two decades. Mussels were chosen because contaminant concentrations in their tissues respond to changes in ambient environmental levels, accumulation occurs with little metabolic transformation and a substantial amount of historic data were available. Mussels
Authors
Kelly L. Smalling, Ashok D. Deshpande, Heather S. Galbraith, Beth Sharack, DeMond Timmons, Ronald J. Baker
Mercury accumulation, and the mercury-PCB-sex interaction, in lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis)
We determined whole-fish Hg concentrations of 26 female and 34 male adult lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) from northern Lake Huron captured during November 2010. Subsampling from these 60 fish, Hg concentration was also determined in both the somatic tissue and ovaries (n=5), while methylmercury (MeHg) concentration was determined in whole fish (n=18). Bioenergetics modeling was used to as
Authors
Charles P. Madenjian, Mark P. Ebener, David P. Krabbenhoft
Paying the pipers: Mitigating the impact of anticoagulant rodenticides on predators and scavengers
Anticoagulant rodenticides, mainly second-generation forms, or SGARs, dominate the global market for rodent control. Introduced in the 1970s to counter genetic resistance in rodent populations to first-generation compounds such as warfarin, SGARs are extremely toxic and highly effective killers. However, their tendency to persist and accumulate in the body has led to the widespread contamination o
Authors
John E. Elliott, Barnett A. Rattner, Richard F. Shore, Nico W. van den Brink
Cyanotoxins in inland lakes of the United States: Occurrence and potential recreational health risks in the EPA National Lakes Assessment 2007
A large nation-wide survey of cyanotoxins (1161 lakes) in the United States (U.S.) was conducted during the EPA National Lakes Assessment 2007. Cyanotoxin data were compared with cyanobacteria abundance- and chlorophyll-based World Health Organization (WHO) thresholds and mouse toxicity data to evaluate potential recreational risks. Cylindrospermopsins, microcystins, and saxitoxins were detected (
Authors
Keith A. Loftin, Jennifer L. Graham, Elizabeth Hilborn, Sarah Lehmann, Michael T. Meyer, Julie E. Dietze, Christopher Griffith
Methylmercury degradation and exposure pathways in streams and wetlands impacted by historical mining
Monomethyl mercury (MMHg) and total mercury (THg) concentrations and Hg stable isotope ratios (δ202Hg and Δ199Hg) were measured in sediment and aquatic organisms from Cache Creek (California Coast Range) and Yolo Bypass (Sacramento Valley). Cache Creek sediment had a large range in THg (87 to 3870 ng/g) and δ202Hg (−1.69 to −0.20‰) reflecting the heterogeneity of Hg mining sources in sediment. The
Authors
Patrick M. Donovan, Joel D. Blum, Michael B. Singer, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, Martin T.K. Tsui
Genomics reveals historic and contemporary transmission dynamics of a bacterial disease among wildlife and livestock
Whole-genome sequencing has provided fundamental insights into infectious disease epidemiology, but has rarely been used for examining transmission dynamics of a bacterial pathogen in wildlife. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), outbreaks of brucellosis have increased in cattle along with rising seroprevalence in elk. Here we use a genomic approach to examine Brucella abortus evolution, c
Authors
Pauline L. Kamath, Jeffrey T. Foster, Kevin P. Drees, Gordon Luikart, Christine Quance, Neil J. Anderson, P. Ryan Clarke, Eric Cole, Mark L. Drew, William H. Edwards, Jack C. Rhyan, John J. Treanor, Rick L. Wallen, Patrick J. White, Suelee Robbe-Austerman, Paul C. Cross
Storm-event-transport of urban-use pesticides to streams likely impairs invertebrate assemblages
Insecticide use in urban areas results in the detection of these compounds in streams following stormwater runoff at concentrations likely to cause toxicity for stream invertebrates. In this 2013 study, stormwater runoff and streambed sediments were analyzed for 91 pesticides dissolved in water and 118 pesticides on sediment. Detections included 33 pesticides, including insecticides, fungicides, h
Authors
Kurt D. Carpenter, Kathryn Kuivila, Michelle Hladik, Tana Haluska, Michael B. Cole