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Publications

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

Filter Total Items: 16784

Interactive effects of climate change with nutrients, mercury, and freshwater acidification on key taxa in the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative region

The North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative LCC (NA LCC) is a public–private partnership that provides information to support conservation decisions that may be affected by global climate change (GCC) and other threats. The NA LCC region extends from southeast Virginia to the Canadian Maritime Provinces. Within this region, the US National Climate Assessment documented increases in air t
Authors
Alfred E. Pinkney, Charles T. Driscoll, David C. Evers, Michael J. Hooper, Jeffrey Horan, Jess W. Jones, Rebecca S. Lazarus, Harold G. Marshall, Andrew Milliken, Barnett A. Rattner, John J. Schmerfeld, Donald W. Sparling

Sediment transport-based metrics of wetland stability

Despite the importance of sediment availability on wetland stability, vulnerability assessments seldom consider spatiotemporal variability of sediment transport. Models predict that the maximum rate of sea level rise a marsh can survive is proportional to suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and accretion. In contrast, we find that SSC and accretion are higher in an unstable marsh than in an adj
Authors
Neil K. Ganju, Matthew L. Kirwan, Patrick J. Dickhudt, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Donald R. Cahoon, Kevin D. Kroeger

Preliminary estimates of annual agricultural pesticide use for counties of the conterminous United States, 2013

Summary This report provides preliminary estimates of annual agricultural use of 387 pesticide compounds in counties of the conterminous United States in 2013, compiled by means of methods described in Thelin and Stone (2013) and Baker and Stone (2015). U.S. Department of Agriculture county-level data for harvested-crop acreage were used in conjunction with proprietary Crop Reporting District-leve
Authors
Nancy T. Baker

Soil geochemical survey of abandoned mining sites in the Eastern-Central Peloritani Mountains, Sicily, Italy

This investigation focused on topsoils (n = 122) and vertical profiles (n = 6) distributed over an area of 250 km2 in the eastern-central Peloritani Mountains, northeastern Sicily. Georeferenced concentration of 53 elements (including potentially harmful ones), determined by ICP-MS after an aqua regia leach, were used to produce geochemical maps by means of a GIS-aided spatial interpolation proces
Authors
A. Consenza, A. Lima, Robert A. Ayuso, Nora K. Foley, S. Albanese, A. Messina, B. De Vivo

Mineral Resource of the Month: Iodine

Iodine is a bluish-black lustrous solid (violet-colored in its gaseous state) found primarily in seaweed, underground brines associated with petroleum deposits and caliche ore deposits. 
Authors
Emily Schnebele

On the reconstruction of palaeo-ice sheets: Recent advances and future challenges

Reconstructing the growth and decay of palaeo-ice sheets is critical to understanding mechanisms of global climate change and associated sea-level fluctuations in the past, present and future. The significance of palaeo-ice sheets is further underlined by the broad range of disciplines concerned with reconstructing their behaviour, many of which have undergone a rapid expansion since the 1980s. In
Authors
Chris R. Stokes, Lev Tarasov, Robin Blomdin, Thomas M. Cronin, Timothy G. Fisher, Richard Gyllencreutz, Clas Hattestrand, Jakob Heyman, Richard C. A. Hindmarsh, Anna L. C. Hughes, Martin Jakobsson, Nina Kirchner, Stephen J. Livingstone, Martin Margold, Julian B. Murton, Riko Noormets, W. Richard Peltier, Dorothy M. Peteet, David J. W. Piper, Frank Preusser, Hans Renssen, David H. Roberts, Didier M. Roche, Francky Saint-Ange, Arjen P. Stroeven, James T. Teller

Preface to the special issue on gas hydrate drilling in the Eastern Nankai Trough

Methane hydrate traps enormous amounts of methane in frozen deposits in continental margin sediments, and these deposits have long been targeted for studies investigating their potential as an energy resource. As a concentrated form of methane that occurs at shallower depths than conventional and most unconventional gas reservoirs, methane hydrates could be a readily accessible source of hydrocarb
Authors
Koji Yamamoto, Carolyn D. Ruppel

Localization and seasonal variation of blue pigment (sandercyanin) in walleye (Sander vitreus)

Several fish species, including the walleye (Sander vitreus), have “yellow” and “blue” color morphs. In S. vitreus, one source of the blue color has been identified as a bili-binding protein pigment (sandercyanin), found in surface mucus of the fish. Little is known about the production of the pigment or about its functions. We examined the anatomical localization and seasonal variation of sanderc
Authors
Wayne Schaefer, Mark Schmitz, Vicki S. Blazer, Tim Ehlinger, John Berges

Suburban watershed nitrogen retention: Estimating the effectiveness of stormwater management structures

Excess nitrogen (N) is a primary driver of freshwater and coastal eutrophication globally, and urban stormwater is a rapidly growing source of N pollution. Stormwater best management practices (BMPs) are used widely to remove excess N from runoff in urban and suburban areas, and are expected to perform under a wide variety of environmental conditions. Yet the capacity of BMPs to retain excess N va
Authors
Benjamin J. Koch, Catherine M. Febria, Roger M. Cooke, Jacob D. Hosen, Matthew E. Baker, Abigail R. Colson, Solange Filoso, Katharine Hayhoe, J. V. Loperfido, Anne M.K. Stoner, Margaret A. Palmer

Geochemical legacies and the future health of cities: A tale of two neurotoxins in urban soils

The past and future of cities are inextricably linked, a linkage that can be seen clearly in the long-term impacts of urban geochemical legacies. As loci of population as well as the means of employment and industry to support these populations, cities have a long history of co-locating contaminating practices and people, sometimes with negative implications for human health. Working at the inters
Authors
Gabriel M. Fillipelli, Martin R. Risch, Mark A. S. Laidlaw, Deborah E. Nichols, Julie Crewe

Fluvial geomorphology and suspended-sediment transport during construction of the Roanoke River Flood Reduction Project in Roanoke, Virginia, 2005–2012

Beginning in 2005, after decades of planning, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) undertook a major construction effort to reduce the effects of flooding on the city of Roanoke, Virginia—the Roanoke River Flood Reduction Project (RRFRP). Prompted by concerns about the potential for RRFRP construction-induced geomorphological instability and sediment liberation and the detrimental effects thes
Authors
John D. Jastram, Jennifer L. Krstolic, Douglas Moyer, Kenneth Hyer

Effects of Hydrocarbon Extraction on Landscapes of the Appalachian Basin

An important and sometimes overlooked aspect of contemporary natural gas exploration, development, and delivery activities is the geographic profile and spatial footprint that these activities have on the land surface. The function of many ecosystems and the goods and services they provide, in large part, are the result of their natural spatial arrangement on the landscape. Shale-gas development c
Authors
Terry E. Slonecker, Lesley E. Milheim, Coral M. Roig-Silva, Siddiq S. Kalaly