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Publications

These publications showcase the significant science conducted in our Science Centers.

Filter Total Items: 16782

Estimated hydrologic budgets of kettle-hole ponds in coastal aquifers of southeastern Massachusetts

Kettle-hole ponds in southeastern Massachusetts are in good hydraulic connection to an extensive coastal aquifer system that includes the Plymouth-Carver aquifer system on the mainland and aquifers underlying Cape Cod. The ponds receive water from, and contribute water to, the underlying glacial aquifer; ponds also receive water from precipitation and lose water to evaporation from the pond surfac
Authors
Donald A. Walter, John P. Masterson

Assessing the vulnerability of public-supply wells to contamination—Edwards aquifer near San Antonio, Texas

This fact sheet highlights findings from the vulnerability study of a public-supply well field in San Antonio, Texas. The well field consists of six production wells that tap the Edwards aquifer. Typically, one or two wells are pumped at a time, yielding an average total of 20-21 million gallons per day. Water samples were collected from public-supply wells in the well field and from monitoring we
Authors
Martha L. Jagucki, MaryLynn Musgrove, Richard J. Lindgren, Lynne Fahlquist, Sandra M. Eberts

Structural complexity, movement bias, and metapopulation extinction risk in dendritic ecological networks

Spatial complexity in metacommunities can be separated into 3 main components: size (i.e., number of habitat patches), spatial arrangement of habitat patches (network topology), and diversity of habitat patch types. Much attention has been paid to lattice-type networks, such as patch-based metapopulations, but interest in understanding ecological networks of alternative geometries is building. Den
Authors
Evan H. Campbell Grant

Was pre–twentieth century sea level stable?

Sea level rise (SLR) ranks high on the list of climate change issues because the expected acceleration from the current rate (about 3.1 millimeters per year) poses threats to coastal regions. Tide gauge, salt marsh, and archaeological records, and modeling of glacioisostatic adjustment (GIA) have led to the widely accepted idea that late Holocene (the past ∼2000 years) sea level was stable prior t
Authors
Thomas M. Cronin

Monitoring to assess progress toward meeting the Assabet River, Massachusetts, phosphorus total maximum daily load - Aquatic macrophyte biomass and sediment-phosphorus flux

In 2004, the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for Total Phosphorus in the Assabet River, Massachusetts, was approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The goal of the TMDL was to decrease the concentrations of the nutrient phosphorus to mitigate some of the instream ecological effects of eutrophication on the river; these effects were, for the most part, direct consequences of the excess
Authors
Marc J. Zimmerman, Yu Qian, Tian Yong Q.

Sediment infilling and wetland formation dynamics in an active crevasse splay of the Mississippi River delta

Crevasse splay environments provide a mesocosm for evaluating wetland formation and maintenance processes on a decadal time scale. Site elevation, water levels, vertical accretion, elevation change, shallow subsidence, and plant biomass were measured at five habitats along an elevation gradient to evaluate wetland formation and development in Brant Pass Splay; an active crevasse splay of the Baliz
Authors
Donald R. Cahoon, David A. White, James C. Lynch

Sedimentation and response to sea-level rise of a restored marsh with reduced tidal exchange: Comparison with a natural tidal marsh

Along coasts and estuaries, formerly embanked land is increasingly restored into tidal marshes in order to re-establish valuable ecosystem services, such as buffering against flooding. Along the Scheldt estuary (Belgium), tidal marshes are restored on embanked land by allowing a controlled reduced tide (CRT) into a constructed basin, through a culvert in the embankment. In this way tidal water lev
Authors
W. Vandenbruwaene, T. Maris, Donald R. Cahoon, P. Meire, S. Temmerman

Selenium concentrations and enzyme activities of glutathione metabolism in wild long-tailed ducks and common eiders

The relationships of selenium (Se) concentrations in whole blood with plasma activities of total glutathione peroxidase, Se-dependent glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione reductase were studied in long-tailed ducks (Clangula hyemalis) and common eiders (Somateria mollissima) sampled along the Beaufort Sea coast of Alaska, USA. Blood Se concentrations were >8 μg/g wet weight in both species. Lin
Authors
J. Christian Franson, David J. Hoffman, Paul L. Flint

Spatial distribution and risk factors of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 in China

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 was first encountered in 1996 in Guangdong province (China) and started spreading throughout Asia and the western Palearctic in 2004–2006. Compared to several other countries where the HPAI H5N1 distribution has been studied in some detail, little is known about the environmental correlates of the HPAI H5N1 distribution in China. HPAI H5N1 clinical dis
Authors
Vincent Martin, Dirk U. Pfeiffer, Xiaoyan Zhou, Xiangming Xiao, Diann J. Prosser, Fusheng Guo, Marius Gilbert

Modeling the potential impact of seasonal and inactive multi-aquifer wells on contaminant movement to public water-supply wells

Wells screened across multiple aquifers can provide pathways for the movement of surprisingly large volumes of groundwater to confined aquifers used for public water supply (PWS). Using a simple numerical model, we examine the impact of several pumping scenarios on leakage from an unconfined aquifer to a confined aquifer and conclude that a single inactive multi-aquifer well can contribute nearly
Authors
R.L. Johnson, B.R. Clark, M.K. Landon, L. J. Kauffman, S. M. Eberts

Accounting for non-independent detection when estimating abundance of organisms with a Bayesian approach

Summary1. Binomial mixture models use repeated count data to estimate abundance. They are becoming increasingly popular because they provide a simple and cost‐effective way to account for imperfect detection. However, these models assume that individuals are detected independently of each other. This assumption may often be violated in the field. For instance, manatees (Trichechus manatus latirost
Authors
Julien Martin, J. Andrew Royle, Darryl I. MacKenzie, Holly H. Edwards, Marc Kery, Beth Gardner

Spatial patch occupancy patterns of the Lower Keys marsh rabbit

Reliable estimates of presence or absence of a species can provide substantial information on management questions related to distribution and habitat use but should incorporate the probability of detection to reduce bias. We surveyed for the endangered Lower Keys marsh rabbit (Sylvilagus palustris hefneri) in habitat patches on 5 Florida Key islands, USA, to estimate occupancy and detection proba
Authors
Mitchell J. Eaton, Phillip T. Hughes, James D. Nichols, Anne Morkill, Chad Anderson