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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

Sampling and monitoring for the mine life cycle

Sampling and Monitoring for the Mine Life Cycle provides an overview of sampling for environmental purposes and monitoring of environmentally relevant variables at mining sites. It focuses on environmental sampling and monitoring of surface water, and also considers groundwater, process water streams, rock, soil, and other media including air and biological organisms. The handbook includes an appe
Authors
Virginia T. McLemore, Kathleen S. Smith, Carol C. Russell

Bioaccumulation and toxicity of CuO nanoparticles by a freshwater invertebrate after waterborne and dietborne exposures

The incidental ingestion of engineered nanoparticles (NPs) can be an important route of uptake for aquatic organisms. Yet, knowledge of dietary bioavailability and toxicity of NPs is scarce. Here we used isotopically modified copper oxide (65CuO) NPs to characterize the processes governing their bioaccumulation in a freshwater snail after waterborne and dietborne exposures. Lymnaea stagnalis effic
Authors
Marie Noële Croteau, Superb K. Misra, Samuel N. Luoma, Eugenia Valsami-Jones

An empirical approach to modeling methylmercury concentrations in an Adirondack stream watershed

Inverse empirical models can inform and improve more complex process-based models by quantifying the principal factors that control water quality variation. Here we developed a multiple regression model that explains 81% of the variation in filtered methylmercury (FMeHg) concentrations in Fishing Brook, a fourth-order stream in the Adirondack Mountains, New York, a known “hot spot” of Hg bioaccumu
Authors
Douglas A. Burns, Elizabeth A. Nystrom, David M. Wolock, Paul M. Bradley, Karen Riva-Murray

A computer program for uncertainty analysis integrating regression and Bayesian methods

This work develops a new functionality in UCODE_2014 to evaluate Bayesian credible intervals using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. The MCMC capability in UCODE_2014 is based on the FORTRAN version of the differential evolution adaptive Metropolis (DREAM) algorithm of Vrugt et al. (2009), which estimates the posterior probability density function of model parameters in high-dimensional
Authors
Dan Lu, Ming Ye, Mary C. Hill, Eileen P. Poeter, Gary Curtis

Lacustrine responses to decreasing wet mercury deposition rates: results from a case study in northern Minnesota

We present a case study comparing metrics of methylmercury (MeHg) contamination for four undeveloped lakes in Voyageurs National Park to wet atmospheric deposition of mercury (Hg), sulfate (SO4–2), and hydrogen ion (H+) in northern Minnesota. Annual wet Hg, SO4–2, and H+ deposition rates at two nearby precipitation monitoring sites indicate considerable decreases from 1998 to 2012 (mean decreases
Authors
Mark E. Brigham, Mark B. Sandheinrich, David A. Gay, Ryan P. Maki, David P. Krabbenhoft, James G. Wiener

Size-dependent reactivity of magnetite nanoparticles: a field-laboratory comparison

Logistic challenges make direct comparisons between laboratory- and field-based investigations into the size-dependent reactivity of nanomaterials difficult. This investigation sought to compare the size-dependent reactivity of nanoparticles in a field setting to a laboratory analog using the specific example of magnetite dissolution. Synthetic magnetite nanoparticles of three size intervals, ∼6 n
Authors
Andrew L. Swindle, Andrew S. Elwood Madden, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Mourad Benamara

Modeling long-term trends of chlorinated ethene contamination at a public supply well

A mass-balance solute-transport modeling approach was used to investigate the effects of dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) volume, composition, and generation of daughter products on simulated and measured long-term trends of chlorinated ethene (CE) concentrations at a public supply well. The model was built by telescoping a calibrated regional three-dimensional MODFLOW model to the capture zo
Authors
Francis H. Chapelle, Leon J. Kauffman, Mark A. Widdowson

Density-stratified flow events in Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA: implications for mercury and salinity cycling

Density stratification in saline and hypersaline water bodies from throughout the world can have large impacts on the internal cycling and loading of salinity, nutrients, and trace elements. High temporal resolution hydroacoustic and physical/chemical data were collected at two sites in Great Salt Lake (GSL), a saline lake in the western USA, to understand how density stratification may influence
Authors
David L. Naftz, Gregory T. Carling, Cory Angeroth, Michael Freeman, Ryan Rowland, Eddy Pazmiño

Comparison of surficial CO2 efflux to other measures of subsurface crude oil degradation

At a spill site near Bemidji, Minnesota, crude oil at the water table has been undergoing anaerobic biodegradation for over 30 years. Previous work at this site has shown that methane produced from biodegradation of the oil migrates upward and is oxidized in a methanotrophic zone midway between the water table and the surface. To compare microbial activity measurement methods from multiple locatio
Authors
Ean Warren, Natasha J. Sihota, Frances D. Hostettler, Barbara A. Bekins

A mass balance approach to investigating geochemical controls on secondary water quality impacts at a crude oil spill site near Bemidji, MN

Secondary water quality impacts can result from a broad range of coupled reactions triggered by primary groundwater contaminants. Data from a crude-oil spill research site near Bemidji, MN provide an ideal test case for investigating the complex interactions controlling secondary impacts, including depleted dissolved oxygen and elevated organic carbon, inorganic carbon, CH4, Mn, Fe, and other diss
Authors
Gene-Hua Crystal Ng, Barbara A. Bekins, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Mary Jo Baedecker, Philip C. Bennett, Richard T. Amos

Integrated assessment of runoff from livestock farming operations: analytical chemistry, in vitro bioassays, and in vivo fish exposures

Animal waste from livestock farming operations can contain varying levels of natural and synthetic androgens and/or estrogens, which can contaminate surrounding waterways. In the present study, surface stream water was collected from 6 basins containing livestock farming operations. Aqueous concentrations of 12 hormones were determined via chemical analyses. Relative androgenic and estrogenic acti
Authors
Jenna E. Cavallin, Elizabeth J. Durhan, Nicola Evans, Kathleen M. Jensen, Michael D. Kahl, Dana W. Kolpin, Edward P. Kolodziej, William T. Foreman, Carlie A. LaLone, Elizabeth A. Makynen, Sara M. Seidl, Linnea M. Thomas, Daniel L. Villeneuve, Matthew A. Weberg, Vickie S. Wilson, Gerald T. Ankley