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Publications

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

Filter Total Items: 16780

Chemical and physical controls on mercury source signatures in stream fish from the northeastern United States

Streams in the northeastern U.S. receive mercury (Hg) in varying proportions from atmospheric deposition and legacy point sources, making it difficult to attribute shifts in fish concentrations directly back to changes in Hg source management. Mercury stable isotope tracers were utilized to relate sources of Hg to co-located fish and bed sediments from 23 streams across a forested to urban-industr
Authors
Sarah E. Janssen, Karen Riva-Murray, John F. DeWild, Jacob M. Ogorek, Michael T. Tate, Peter C. Van Metre, David P. Krabbenhoft, James F. Coles

Streamflow, water quality, and constituent loads and yields, Scituate Reservoir Drainage Area, Rhode Island, Water Year 2017

As part of a long-term cooperative program to monitor water quality within the Scituate Reservoir drainage area, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Providence Water Supply Board, collected streamflow and water-quality data at the Scituate Reservoir and tributaries. Streamflow and concentrations of chloride and sodium estimated from records of specific conductance were used to calc
Authors
Kirk P. Smith

Survival and density of a dominant fish species across a gradient of urbanization in North Carolina tidal creeks

Development in the southeastern U.S. coastal plain generates the need for a better understanding of how demographics (survival and abundance) of estuarine nekton respond to urbanization. Apparent survival and density of the dominant Atlantic coast salt marsh fish, Fundulus heteroclitus, were estimated in four North Carolina tidal creeks using a model simultaneously fitted to mark-resight and mark
Authors
Paul J Rudershausen, Joseph E Hightower, Jeffery A Buckel, Matthew J. O'Donnell, Todd Dubreuil, Benjamin H. Letcher

The emerging contaminant 3,3’-dichlorobiphenyl (PCB-11) impedes Ahr activation and Cyp1a activity to modify embryotoxicity of Ahr ligands in the zebrafish embryo model (Danio rerio)

Background: 3,3’-Dichlorobiphenyl (PCB-11) is a non-legacy PCB congener widely detected in environmental samples and has been detected in human serum, but its toxicity potential is poorly understood. Objectives: We measured PCB-11 in wild caught fish and assessed its embryotoxicity and interactions with the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (Ahr) pathway in developing zebrafish (Danio rerio). Methods: PC
Authors
Monika A Roy, Karilyn E Sant, Olivia L Venezia, Alix B Shipman, Stephen D. McCormick, Alicia R Timme-Laragy

Drinking water quality in the glacial aquifer system, northern USA

Groundwater supplies 50% of drinking water worldwide, but compromised water quality from anthropogenic and geogenic contaminants can limit usage of groundwater as a drinking water source. Groundwater quality in the glacial aquifer system, USA (GLAC), is presented in the context of a hydrogeologic framework that divides the study area into 17 hydrogeologic terranes. Results are reported at aquifer-
Authors
Melinda L. Erickson, Richard M. Yager, Leon J. Kauffman, John T. Wilson

White-tailed deer movements and space use on Fire Island: A four-year radio-telemetry study 2015-2016 post-Hurricane Sandy assessment

Hurricane Sandy provided a unique opportunity to better understand the movements of Fire Island’s dense white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus borealis) herds. White-tailed deer inhabit all areas of Fire Island National Seashore and their high densities negatively affect native vegetation in several areas of the island, especially as disturbed areas attempt to recover after a catastrophic storm
Authors
Chellby R. Kilheffer, Jordan Raphael, Lindsay Ries, H. Brian Underwood

Overview of emerging amphibian pathogens and modeling advances for conservation-related decisions

One of the leading causes of global amphibian decline is emerging infectious disease. We summarize the disease ecology of four major emerging amphibian infectious agents: chytrids, ranaviruses, trematodes, and Perkinsea. We focus on recently developed quantitative advances that build on well-established ecological theories and aid in studying epizootic and enzootic disease dynamics. For example, w
Authors
Evan H. Campbell Grant, Direnzo G

Proactive management of amphibians: Challenges and opportunities

Delaying species management reduces the chance of successful recovery, increases the risk of extinction, and can be expensive. Acting before major declines are realized affords access to a greater suite of cost-effective management actions to sustain populations, reducing the likelihood of declines warranting protected status. It is clear that reactive management approaches are not sufficient for
Authors
SC Sterrett, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Katz R, Adrianne Brand, William R. Fields, Dietrich A, Hocking D, Foreman T, Wiewel A

Documentation of a Soil-Water-Balance Model to estimate recharge to Blue Ridge, Piedmont, and Mesozoic Basin fractured-rock aquifers, Fauquier County, Virginia, 1996 through 2015

This report documents a Soil-Water-Balance (SWB) model that was developed for an area covering the Blue Ridge, Piedmont, and Mesozoic basin fractured-rock aquifers in Fauquier County, Virginia, for the calendar years 1996–2015. The SWB model includes an area of 1,498 square miles, divided into 1,076-square-foot (100-square-meter) grid cells on which daily groundwater recharge was estimated using e
Authors
Kurt J. McCoy, David E. Ladd

Informing planning and management through visitor experiences in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Policies mandate that managers at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument must balance recreational opportunities with a variety of resource management and utilization activities across a vast and diverse landscape containing numerous Wilderness Study Areas and other lands containing spectacular resources. This balancing act is stressed by increasing levels of use and recent changes in managem
Authors
Derrick Taff, Jeremy Wimpey, Jeffrey L. Marion, Johanna Arredondo, Fletcher Meadema, Forrest Schwartz, Ben Lawhon, Cody Dems

Phylogeny and foraging mode correspond with thiaminase activity in freshwater fishes: Potential links to environmental factors

Knowledge of the dietary components of fish species is important for understanding their growth, survival, and recruitment. Deficiency in thiamine (vitamin B1) leading to reproductive failure and physiological illness among freshwater fishes has been attributed to thiaminase activity in fish in the Great Lakes and the New York Finger Lakes, but the causes of variation in thiaminase activity among
Authors
Daniel E Spooner, Kristin Boggs, Dustin R. Shull, Dale C. Honeyfield, Timothy Wertz, Stephanie Sweet

(U-Th)/He zircon dating of Chesapeake Bay distal impact ejecta from ODP site 1073

Single crystal (U‐Th)/He dating has been undertaken on 21 detrital zircon grains extracted from a core sample from Ocean Drilling Project (ODP) site 1073, which is located ~390 km northeast of the center of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure. Optical and electron imaging in combination with energy dispersive X‐ray microanalysis (EDS) of zircon grains from this late Eocene sediment shows clear evi
Authors
M.B. Biren, J.-A. Wartho, M.C. van Soest, K.V. Hodges, H. Cathey, B.P. Glass, C. Koeberl, J. Wright Horton, W. Hale