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

Filter Total Items: 16784

Time of travel and dispersion of a dye plume in the Blackstone River, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, 2009

To obtain copies of this report, please contact: Director, Division of Watershed Management, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, 8 New Bond St., Worcester, MA 01608, (508) 792–7650
Authors
Gene W. Parker, Robert F. Breault, Andrew M. Waite, Elaine Hartman

Observed and forecast flood-inundation mapping application-A pilot study of an eleven-mile reach of the White River, Indianapolis, Indiana

Near-real-time and forecast flood-inundation mapping products resulted from a pilot study for an 11-mile reach of the White River in Indianapolis. The study was done by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Indiana Silver Jackets hazard mitigation taskforce members, the National Weather Service (NWS), the Polis Center, and Indiana University, in cooperation with the City of Indianapolis, the Indianap
Authors
Moon H. Kim, Scott E. Morlock, Leslie D. Arihood, James L. Kiesler

Denitrification rates in marsh soils and hydrologic and water quality data for Northeast Creek and Bass Harbor Marsh watersheds, Mount Desert Island, Maine

Nutrient enrichment from atmospheric deposition, agricultural activities, wildlife, and domestic sources is a concern at Acadia National Park because of the potential problem of water-quality degradation and eutrophication in estuaries. Water-quality degradation has been observed at the park's Bass Harbor Marsh estuary but minimal degradation is observed in Northeast Creek estuary. Previous studie
Authors
Thomas G. Huntington, Charles W. Culbertson, John H. Duff

Enhanced decomposition offsets enhanced productivity and soil carbon accumulation in coastal wetlands responding to climate change

Coastal wetlands are responsible for about half of all carbon burial in oceans, and their persistence as a valuable ecosystem depends largely on the ability to accumulate organic material at rates equivalent to relative sea level rise. Recent work suggests that elevated CO2 and temperature warming will increase organic matter productivity and the ability of marshes to survive sea level rise. Howev
Authors
M. L. Kirwan, L. K. Blum

Neither a year nor an annus can be a derived unit in the SI

The year is not a unit of the SI. The only SI unit of measurement for time is the second. The word “annus” or “annum” does not appear anywhere in the current SI document. The word “year” is not in the table of “Non-SI units accepted for use with the International System of Units,” nor in the table of “Non-SI units whose values in SI units must be obtained experimentally,” nor even in the table
Authors
Lucy E. Edwards

Relating injury to the forest ecosystem near Palmerton, PA, to zinc contamination from smelting

The forest on Blue Mountain, near Lehigh Gap, has been injured by emissions from two historical zinc (Zn) smelters in Palmerton, PA, located at the northern base of the mountain. The uppermost mineral soil and lower litter from sites along a transect, just south of the ridgetop, contained from 64 to 4400 mg/kg Zn. We measured forest metrics at 15 sampling sites to ascertain how forest structure, s
Authors
W. Nelson Beyer, Cairn Krafft, Stephen Klassen, Carrie E. Green, Rufus L. Chaney

Relating nutrient and herbicide fate with landscape features and characteristics of 15 subwatersheds in the Choptank River watershed

Excess nutrients and agrochemicals from non-point sources contribute to water quality impairment in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and their loading rates are related to land use, agricultural practices, hydrology, and pollutant fate and transport processes. In this study, monthly baseflow stream samples from 15 agricultural subwatersheds of the Choptank River in Maryland USA (2005 to 2007) were cha
Authors
W. Dean Hively, Cathleen J. Hapeman, Laura L. McConnell, Thomas R. Fisher, Clifford P. Rice, Gregory W. McCarty, Ali M. Sadeghi, David R. Whitall, Peter M. Downey, Gabriela T. Nino de Guzman, Krystyna Bialek-Kalinski, Megan W. Lang, Anne B. Gustafson, Adrienne J. Sutton, Kerry A. Sefton, Jennifer A. Harman Fetcho

Development of a flood-warning network and flood-inundation mapping for the Blanchard River in Ottawa, Ohio

Digital flood-inundation maps of the Blanchard River in Ottawa, Ohio, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Village of Ottawa, Ohio. The maps, which correspond to water levels (stages) at the USGS streamgage at Ottawa (USGS streamgage site number 04189260), were provided to the Nation
Authors
Matthew T. Whitehead

The biogeochemistry of anchialine caves: Progress and possibilities

Recent investigations of anchialine caves and sinkholes have identified complex food webs dependent on detrital and, in some cases, chemosynthetically produced organic matter. Chemosynthetic microbes in anchialine systems obtain energy from reduced compounds produced during organic matter degradation (e.g., sulfide, ammonium, and methane), similar to what occurs in deep ocean cold seeps and mud vo
Authors
John W. Pohlman

Rapid wetland expansion during European settlement and its implication for marsh survival under modern sediment delivery rates

Fluctuations in sea-level rise rates are thought to dominate the formation and evolution of coastal wetlands. Here we demonstrate a contrasting scenario in which land-use–related changes in sediment delivery rates drive the formation of expansive marshland, and vegetation feedbacks maintain their morphology despite recent sediment supply reduction. Stratigraphic analysis and radiocarbon dating in
Authors
Matthew L. Kirwan, A. Brad Murray, Jeffrey P. Donnelly, D. Reide Corbett

Pythons in Burma: Short-tailed python (Reptilia: Squamata)

Short-tailed pythons, Python curtus species group, occur predominantly in the Malayan Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. The discovery of an adult female in Mon State, Myanmar, led to a review of the distribution of all group members (spot-mapping of all localities of confirmed occurrence) and an examination of morphological variation in P. brongersmai. The resulting maps demonstrate a limited occurr
Authors
George R. Zug, Steve W. Gotte, Jeremy F. Jacobs

Predator removal enhances waterbird restoration in Chesapeake Bay (Maryland)

This report represents an update to an earlier report(Erwin et al. 2007a) on wildlife restoration on the largest dredge material island project in the United States underway in Talbot County, Maryland (Figure 1) in the mid–Chesapeake Bay region, referred to as the Paul Sarbanes Ecosystem Restoration Project at Poplar Island (www.nab.usace.army.mil/projects/Maryland/PoplarIsland/documents.html). An
Authors
R. Michael Erwin, Peter C. McGowan, Jan Reese