Publications
Dive into our publications and explore the science from the Environmental Health Program (Toxic Substances Hydrology and Contaminant Biology).
GeoHEALTH-USGS Newsletter
GeoHEALTH-USGS Newsletter
The GeoHEALTH–USGS Newsletter—published since 2004—provides information on USGS science activities pertinent to safeguarding the health of fish, wildlife, domesticated animals, and people from environmental exposures to contaminants and pathogens.
Featured Science Activities
Featured Science Activities
Learn about our Featured Science Activities through our pages that highlight studies, publications, and results.
Filter Total Items: 4047
Conflation and aggregation of spatial data improve predictive models for species with limited habitats: a case of the threatened yellow-billed cuckoo in Arizona, USA
Riparian vegetation provides important wildlife habitat in the Southwestern United States, but limited distributions and spatial complexity often leads to inaccurate representation in maps used to guide conservation. We test the use of data conflation and aggregation on multiple vegetation/land-cover maps to improve the accuracy of habitat models for the threatened western yellow-billed cuckoo (Co
Authors
Miguel L. Villarreal, Charles van Riper, Roy E. Petrakis
Toxicokinetics and coagulopathy threshold of the rodenticide diphacinone in eastern screech-owls (Megascops asio)
In the United States, new regulations on second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides will likely be offset by expanded use of first-generation anticoagulant rodenticides. In the present study, eastern screech-owls (Megascops asio) were fed 10 µg diphacinone/g wet weight food for 7 d, and recovery was monitored over a 21-d postexposure period. By day 3 of exposure, diphacinone (DPN) was detected i
Authors
Barnett A. Rattner, K.E. Horak, Rebecca S. Lazarus, D.A. Goldade, J. J. Johnston
The population history of endogenous retroviruses in mule deer (Odocoileus heminous)
Mobile elements are powerful agents of genomic evolution and can be exceptionally informative markers for investigating species and population-level evolutionary history. While several studies have utilized retrotransposon-based insertional polymorphisms to resolve phylogenies, few population studies exist outside of humans. Endogenous retroviruses are LTR-retrotransposons derived from retroviruse
Authors
Pauline L. Kamath, Daniel Elleder, Le Bao, Paul C. Cross, John H. Powell, Mary Poss
Integration of stable carbon isotope, microbial community, dissolved hydrogen gas, and 2HH2O tracer data to assess bioaugmentation for chlorinated ethene degradation in fractured rocks
An in situ bioaugmentation (BA) experiment was conducted to understand processes controlling microbial dechlorination of trichloroethene (TCE) in groundwater at the Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC), West Trenton, NJ. In the BA experiment, an electron donor (emulsified vegetable oil and sodium lactate) and a chloro-respiring microbial consortium were injected into a well in fractured mudstone of Tri
Authors
Kinga M. Révész, Barbara Sherwood Lollar, Julie D. Kirshtein, Claire R. Tiedeman, Thomas E. Imbrigiotta, Daniel J. Goode, Allen M. Shapiro, Mary A. Voytek, Pierre J. Lancombe, Eurybiades Busenberg
Mycotoxins: diffuse and point source contributions of natural contaminants of emerging concern to streams
To determine the prevalence of mycotoxins in streams, 116 water samples from 32 streams and three wastewater treatment plant effluents were collected in 2010 providing the broadest investigation on the spatial and temporal occurrence of mycotoxins in streams conducted in the United States to date. Out of the 33 target mycotoxins measured, nine were detected at least once during this study. The det
Authors
Dana W. Kolpin, Judith Schenzel, Michael T. Meyer, Patrick J. Phillips, Laura E. Hubbard, Tia-Marie Scott, Thomas D. Bucheli
The importance of mineralogical input into geometallurgy programs
Mineralogy is the link between ore formation and ore extraction. It is the most fundamental component of geomet programs, and the most important aspect of a life-of-project approach to mineral resource projects. Understanding orebodies is achieved by understanding the mineralogy
and texture of the materials, throughout the process, because minerals hold the information required to unlock the valu
Authors
K. Olson Hoal, J.D. Woodhead, Kathleen S. Smith
Discharges of produced waters from oil and gas extraction via wastewater treatment plants are sources of disinfection by-products to receiving streams
Fluids co-produced with oil and gas production (produced waters) are often brines that contain elevated concentrations of bromide. Bromide is an important precursor of several toxic disinfection by-products (DBPs) and the treatment of produced water may lead to more brominated DBPs. To determine if wastewater treatment plants that accept produced waters discharge greater amounts of brominated DBPs
Authors
Michelle Hladik, Michael J. Focazio, Mark Engle
Mercury cycling in agricultural and managed wetlands of California: experimental evidence of vegetation-driven changes in sediment biogeochemistry and methylmercury production
The role of live vegetation in sediment methylmercury (MeHg) production and associated biogeochemistry was examined in three types of agricultural wetlands (domesticated or white rice, wild rice, and fallow fields) and adjacent managed natural wetlands (cattail- and bulrush or tule-dominated) in the Yolo Bypass region of California's Central Valley, USA. During the active growing season for each w
Authors
Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Mark Marvin-DiPasquale, Craig A. Stricker, Jennifer L. Agee, Le H. Kieu, Evangelos Kakouros
Modeling the effects of naturally occurring organic carbon on chlorinated ethene transport to a public supply well
The vulnerability of public supply wells to chlorinated ethene (CE) contamination in part depends on the availability of naturally occurring organic carbon to consume dissolved oxygen (DO) and initiate reductive dechlorination. This was quantified by building a mass balance model of the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer, which is widely used for public water supply in New Jersey. This model was built by t
Authors
Francis H. Chapelle, Leon J. Kauffman, Mark A. Widdowson
Exposure and effects of perfluoroalkyl substances in tree swallows nesting in Minnesota and Wisconsin, USA
The exposure and effects of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) were studied at eight locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin between 2007 and 2011 using tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor). Concentrations of PFASs were quantified as were reproductive success end points. The sample egg method was used wherein an egg sample is collected, and the hatching success of the remaining eggs in the nest is asse
Authors
Christine M. Custer, Thomas W. Custer, Paul Dummer, Matthew A. Etterson, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Qian Wu, Kurunthachalam Kannan, Annette Trowbridge, Patrick C. McKann
Automated quantitative micro-mineralogical characterization for environmental applications
Characterization of ore and waste-rock material using automated quantitative micro-mineralogical techniques (e.g., QEMSCAN® and MLA) has the potential to complement traditional acid-base accounting and humidity cell techniques when predicting acid generation and metal release. These characterization techniques, which most commonly are used for metallurgical, mineral-processing, and geometallurgica
Authors
Kathleen S. Smith, K.O. Hoal, Katherine Walton-Day, J.G. Stammer, K. Pietersen
Perfluorinated compound concentrations in great blue heron eggs near St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, in 1993 and 2010-2011
A great blue heron (Ardea herodias) colony on Pig's Eye Island on the Mississippi River near St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, is located near several potential perfluorinated compound (PFC) sources. The PFC concentrations in great blue heron eggs reported from a 1993 collection from the Pig's Eye colony were among the highest measured in bird eggs worldwide. The objective of this investigation was to det
Authors
Thomas W. Custer, Paul M. Dummer, Christine M. Custer, Qian Wu, Kurunthachalam Kannan, Annette Trowbridge