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Publications

Dive into our publications and explore the science from the Environmental Health Program (Toxic Substances Hydrology and Contaminant Biology).

Filter Total Items: 3746

Estimating soil hydraulic parameters from transient flow experiments in a centrifuge using parameter optimization technique

A modified version of the Hydrus software package that can directly or inversely simulate water flow in a transient centrifugal field is presented. The inverse solver for parameter estimation of the soil hydraulic parameters is then applied to multirotation transient flow experiments in a centrifuge. Using time‐variable water contents measured at a sequence of several rotation speeds, soil hydraul
Authors
Jirka Šimůnek, John R. Nimmo

Radiation pattern of a borehole radar antenna

The finite-difference time-domain method was used to simulate radar waves that were generated by a transmitting antenna inside a borehole. The simulations were of four different models that included features such as a water-filled borehole and an antenna with resistive loading. For each model, radiation patterns for the far-field region were calculated. The radiation patterns show that the amplitu
Authors
K.J. Ellefsen, D.L. Wright

Phytoplankton community ecology: Principles applied in San Francisco Bay

In his seminal 1961 paper 'The paradox of the plankton' Am Nat 95:137-147, G. E. Hutchinson asked why many species of phytoplankton can coexist while competing for a small number of limiting resources in an unstructured habitat. Hutchinson anticipated the resolution of his paradox, recognizing that communities are organized by processes beyond resource competition including species interactions, h
Authors
J. E. Cloern, R. Dufford

Enhanced zinc consumption causes memory deficits and increased brain levels of zinc

Zinc deficiency has been shown to impair cognitive functioning, but little work has been done on the effects of elevated zinc. This research examined the effect on memory of raising Sprague–Dawley rats on enhanced levels of zinc (10 ppm ZnCO3; 0.153 mM) in the drinking water for periods of 3 or 9 months, both pre- and postnatally. Controls were raised on lab water. Memory was tested in a series of
Authors
J.M. Flinn, D. Hunter, D.H. Linkous, A. Lanzirotti, L.N. Smith, J. Brightwell, B.F. Jones

Ecohydrological control of deep drainage in arid and semiarid regions

The amount and spatial distribution of deep drainage (downward movement of water across the bottom of the root zone) and groundwater recharge affect the quantity and quality of increasingly limited groundwater in arid and semiarid regions. We synthesize research from the fields of ecology and hydrology to address the issue of deep drainage in arid and semiarid regions. We start with a recently dev
Authors
M.S. Seyfried, S. Schwinning, Michelle Ann Walvoord, W. T. Pockman, B.D. Newman, R.B. Jackson, F. M. Phillips

Differences in dissolved cadmium and zinc uptake among stream insects: Mechanistic explanations

This study examined the extent to which dissolved Cd and Zn uptake rates vary in several aquatic insect taxa commonly used as indicators of ecological health. We further attempted to explain the mechanisms underlying observed differences. By comparing dissolved Cd and Zn uptake rates in several aquatic insect species, we demonstrated that species vary widely in these processes. Dissolved uptake ra
Authors
D.B. Buchwalter, S. N. Luoma

Sources of variability of evapotranspiration in California

The variability (1990–2002) of potential evapotranspiration estimates (ETo) and related meteorological variables from a set of stations from the California Irrigation Management System (CIMIS) is studied. Data from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and from the Department of Energy from 1950 to 2001 were used to validate the results. The objective is to determine the characteristics of clim
Authors
H.G. Hidalgo, D.R. Cayan, M. D. Dettinger

Major and trace element composition of copiapite-group minerals and coexisting water from the Richmond mine, Iron Mountain, California

Copiapite-group minerals of the general formula AR4(SO4)6(OH)2·nH2O, where A is predominantly Mg, Fe2+, or 0.67Al3+, R is predominantly Fe3+, and n is typically 20, are among several secondary hydrous Fe sulfates occurring in the inactive mine workings of the massive sulfide deposit at Iron Mountain, CA, a USEPA Superfund site that produces extremely acidic drainage. Samples of copiapite-group min
Authors
H.E. Jamieson, C. Robinson, Charles N. Alpers, R. Blaine McCleskey, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Ronald C. Peterson

Dissolution of cinnabar (HgS) in the presence of natural organic matter

Cinnabar (HgS) dissolution rates were measured in the presence of 12 different natural dissolved organic matter (DOM) isolates including humic, fulvic, and hydrophobic acid fractions. Initial dissolution rates varied by 1.3 orders of magnitude, from 2.31 × 10−13 to 7.16 × 10−12 mol Hg (mg C)−1 m−2s−1. Rates correlate positively with three DOM characteristics: specific ultraviolet absorbance (R2 =
Authors
J.S. Waples, K. L. Nagy, G. R. Aiken, J. N. Ryan

Chemical weathering rates of a soil chronosequence on granitic alluvium: III. Hydrochemical evolution and contemporary solute fluxes and rates

Although long-term changes in solid-state compositions of soil chronosequences have been extensively investigated, this study presents the first detailed description of the concurrent hydrochemical evolution and contemporary weathering rates in such sequences. The most direct linkage between weathering and hydrology over 3 million years of soil development in the Merced chronosequence in Central C
Authors
A. F. White, M. S. Schulz, D.V. Vivit, A.E. Blum, David A. Stonestrom, J. W. Harden

Arsenate adsorption mechanisms at the allophane: Water interface

We investigated arsenate (As(V)) reactivity and surface speciation on amorphous aluminosilicate mineral (synthetic allophane) surfaces using batch adsorption experiments, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The adsorption isotherm experiments indicated that As(V) uptake increased with increasing [As(V)]o from 50 to 1000 μM (i.e., Langmuir type adsorption isothe
Authors
Y. Arai, D.L. Sparks, J.A. Davis

Changes toward earlier streamflow timing across western North America

The highly variable timing of streamflow in snowmelt-dominated basins across western North America is an important consequence, and indicator, of climate fluctuations. Changes in the timing of snowmelt-derived streamflow from 1948 to 2002 were investigated in a network of 302 western North America gauges by examining the center of mass for flow, spring pulse onset dates, and seasonal fractional fl
Authors
I.T. Stewart, D.R. Cayan, M. D. Dettinger