Publications
Dive into our publications and explore the science from the Environmental Health Program (Toxic Substances Hydrology and Contaminant Biology).
Filter Total Items: 4094
Agricultural wetlands as potential hotspots for mercury bioaccumulation: Experimental evidence using caged fish
Wetlands provide numerous ecosystem services, but also can be sources of methylmercury (MeHg) production and export. Rice agricultural wetlands in particular may be important sites for MeHg bioaccumulation due to their worldwide ubiquity, periodic flooding schedules, and high use by wildlife. We assessed MeHg bioaccumulation within agricultural and perennial wetlands common to California’s Central
Authors
Joshua T. Ackerman, Collin A. Eagles-Smith
Variation in Lake Michigan alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) thiaminase and fatty acids composition
Thiaminase activity of alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) is variable across Lake Michigan, yet factors that contribute to the variability in alewife thiaminase activity are unknown. The fatty acid content of Lake Michigan alewife has not been previously reported. Analysis of 53 Lake Michigan alewives found a positive correlation between thiaminase activity and the following fatty acid: C22:ln9, sum o
Authors
Dale C. Honeyfield, Donald E. Tillitt, John D. Fitzsimons, Scott B. Brown
Antidepressant pharmaceuticals in two U.S. effluent-impacted streams: Occurrence and fate in water and sediment and selective uptake in fish neural tissue
Antidepressant pharmaceuticals are widely prescribed in the United States; release of municipal wastewater effluent is a primary route introducing them to aquatic environments, where little is known about their distribution and fate. Water, bed sediment, and brain tissue from native white suckers (Catostomus commersoni)were collected upstream and atpoints progressively downstream from outfalls dis
Authors
M.M. Schultz, Edward T. Furlong, Dana W. Kolpin, Stephen L. Werner, H.L. Schoenfuss, Larry B. Barber, Vicki S. Blazer, D.O. Norris, A.M. Vajda
Enhanced reproduction in mallards fed a low level of methylmercury: An apparent case of hormesis
Breeding pairs of mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) were fed a control diet or a diet containing 0.5 µg/g mercury (Hg) in the form of methylmercury chloride. There were no effects of Hg on adult weights and no overt signs of Hg poisoning in adults. The Hg‐containing diet had no effect on fertility of eggs, but hatching success of eggs was significantly higher for females fed 0.5 µg/g Hg (71.8%) than f
Authors
Gary H. Heinz, D. J. Hoffman, Jon D. Klimstra, Katherine R. Stebbins
Perfluorinated compounds and polybrominated diphenyl ethers in great blue heron eggs from three colonies on the Mississippi River, Minnesota
Archived Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) eggs (N = 16) collected in 1993 from three colonies on the Mississippi River in Minnesota were analyzed in 2007 for perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). One of the three colonies, Pig's Eye, was located near a presumed source of PFCs. Based on a multivariate analysis, the pattern of nine PFC concentrations differed s
Authors
Thomas W. Custer, Kurunthachalam Kannan, Lin Tao, Se Hun Yun, Annette Trowbridge
Response of a macrotidal estuary to changes in anthropogenic mercury loading between 1850 and 2000
Methylmercury (MeHg) bioaccumulation in marine food webs poses risks to fish-consuming populations and wildlife. Here we develop and test an estuarine mercury cycling model for a coastal embayment of the Bay of Fundy, Canada. Mass budget calculations reveal that MeHg fluxes into sediments from settling solids exceed losses from sediment-to-water diffusion and resuspension. Although measured methyl
Authors
E.M. Sunderl, J. Dalziel, A. Heyes, B.A. Branfireun, David P. Krabbenhoft, F.A.P.C. Gobas
Fate of trace organic compounds during vadose zone soil treatment in an onsite wastewater system
During onsite wastewater treatment, trace organic compounds are often present in the effluents applied to subsurface soils for advanced treatment during vadose zone percolation and groundwater recharge. The fate of the endocrine-disrupting surfactant metabolites 4-nonylphenol (NP), 4-nonylphenolmonoethoxylate (NP1EO), and 4-nonylphenolmonoethoxycarboxylate (NP1EC), metal-chelating agents ethylened
Authors
K.E. Conn, R.L. Siegrist, Larry B. Barber, Michael T. Meyer
Sensitivity of early life stages of freshwater mussels (Unionidae) to acute and chronic toxicity of lead, cadmium, and zinc in water
Toxicity of lead, cadmium, or zinc to early life stages of freshwater mussels (fatmucket, Lampsilis siliquoidea; Neosho mucket, L. rafinesqueana) was evaluated in 48‐h exposures with mussel larvae (glochidia), in 96‐h exposures with newly transformed (5‐d‐old) and two‐ or six‐month‐old juvenile mussels, or in 28‐d exposures with two‐ or four‐month‐old mussels in reconstituted soft water. The 24‐h
Authors
Ning Wang, Christopher G. Ingersoll, Chris D. Ivey, Douglas K. Hardesty, Thomas W. May, T. Augspurger, A.D. Roberts, E. Van Genderen, M.C. Barnhart
Cyanotoxin mixtures and taste-and-odor compounds in cyanobacterial blooms from the midwestern united states
The mixtures of toxins and taste-and-odor compounds present during cyanobacterial blooms are not well characterized and of particular concern when evaluating potential human health risks. Cyanobacterial blooms were sampled in twenty-three Midwestern United States lakes and analyzed for community composition, thirteen cyanotoxins by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and immunoassay, and two t
Authors
Jennifer L. Graham, Keith A. Loftin, Michael T. Meyer, Andrew C. Ziegler
Relative vulnerability of public supply wells to VOC contamination in hydrologically distinct regional aquifers
A process-based methodology was used to compare the vulnerability of public supply wells tapping seven study areas in four hydrologically distinct regional aquifers to volatile organic compound (VOC) contamination. This method considers (1) contributing areas and travel times of groundwater flowpaths converging at individual supply wells, (2) the oxic and/or anoxic conditions encountered along eac
Authors
Leon J. Kauffman, Francis H. Chapelle
Zinc isotopic composition of particulate matter generated during the combustion of coal and coal + tire-derived fuels
Atmospheric Zn emissions from the burning of coal and tire-derived fuel (TDF) for power generation can be considerable. In an effort to lay the foundation for tracking these contributions, we evaluated the Zn isotopes of coal, a mixture of 95 wt % coal + 5 wt % TDF, and the particulate matter (PM) derived from their combustion in a power-generating plant. The average Zn concentrations and δ(66)Zn
Authors
D.M. Borrok, R. Gieré, M. Ren, E. R. Landa
The annual cycles of phytoplankton biomass
Terrestrial plants are powerful climate sentinels because their annual cycles of growth, reproduction and senescence are finely tuned to the annual climate cycle having a period of one year. Consistency in the seasonal phasing of terrestrial plant activity provides a relatively low-noise background from which phenological shifts can be detected and attributed to climate change. Here, we ask whethe
Authors
Monika Winder, James E. Cloern