Publications
Publications intro.
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Projected changes in climate and physical processes
In Chapter 3, we examined how climate has changed in the Mid-Atlantic region during the past century. This chapter examines how climate is expected to change during the 21st century, including changes in extreme weather events and other climaterelated processes. General circulation models, also called global climate models (GCMs), are used to project future change at coarse spatial scales and then
Authors
Patricia R. Butler-Leopold, Louis R. Iverson, Frank R. Thompson III, Leslie A. Brandt, Stephen D. Handler, Maria K. Janowiak, P. Danielle Shannon, Christopher W. Swanston, Scott Bearer, Alexander Bryan, Kenneth L. Clark, Greg Czarnecki, Philip DeSenze, William D. Dijak, Jacob S. Fraser, Paul F. Gugger, Andrea Hille, Justin Hynicka, Claire A. Jantz, Matthew C. Kelly, Katrina M. Krause, Inga P. La Puma, Deborah Landau, Richard G. Lathrop, Laura P. Leites, Evan Madlinger, Stephen N. Matthews, Gulnihal Ozbay, Matthew P. Peters, Anantha Prasad, David A. Schmit, Collin Shephard, Rebecca Shirer, Nicholas S. Skowronski, Al Steele, Susan Stout, Melissa Thomas-Van Gundy, John Thompson, Richard M. Turcotte, David A. Weinstein, Alfonso Yáñez
Point sources and agricultural practices control spatial-temporal patterns of orthophosphate in tributaries to Chesapeake Bay
Orthophosphate (PO4) is the most bioavailable form of phosphorus (P). Excess PO4 may cause harmful algal blooms in aquatic ecosystems. A major restoration effort is underway for Chesapeake Bay (CB) to reduce P, nitrogen, and sediment loading to CB. Although PO4 cycling and delivery to streams has been characterized in small-scale studies, regional drivers of PO4 patterns remain poorly understood b
Authors
Rosemary M. Fanelli, Joel Blomquist, Robert M. Hirsch
Observed climate change
As discussed in Chapter 1, climate is one of the principal factors that have determined the composition and extent of forest ecosystems in the Mid-Atlantic region during the past several thousand years. This chapter describes the climate trends in the assessment area that have been observed during the past century, including documented patterns of climate-related processes and extreme weather even
Authors
Patricia R. Butler-Leopold, Louis R. Iverson, Frank R. Thompson, Leslie A. Brandt, Stephen D. Handler, Maria K. Janowiak, P. Danielle Shannon, Christopher W. Swanston, Scott Bearer, Alexander Bryan, Kenneth L. Clark, Greg Czarnecki, Philip DeSenze, William D. Dijak, Jacob S. Fraser, Paul F. Gugger, Andrea Hille, Justin Hynicka, Claire A. Jantz, Matthew C. Kelly, Katrina M. Krause, Inga P. La Puma, Deborah Landau, Richard G. Lathrop, Laura P. Leites, Evan Madlinger, Stephen N. Matthews, Gulnihal Ozbay, Matthew P. Peters, Anantha Prasad, David A. Schmit, Collin Shephard, Rebecca Shirer, Nicholas S. Skowronski, Al Steele, Susan Stout, Melissa Thomas-Van Gundy, John Thompson, Richard M. Turcotte, David A. Weinstein, Alfonso Yáñez
Estimates of tidal-marsh bird densities using Bayesian networks
Conserving tidal-marsh bird communities requires strategies to address continuing pressures from human development to the effects of increasing rates of sea-level rise. Knowing tidal-marsh bird distributions and population sizes are important for developing these strategies. In the Northeast United States, where estimates of sea-level rise are 3 times higher than the global average, 5 bird species
Authors
Whitney A. Wiest, Maureen D. Correll, Bruce G. Marcot, Brian J. Olsen, Chris Elphick, Thomas P. Hodgman, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, W. Gregory Shriver
Mw 4.2 Delaware Earthquake of 30 November 2017
The 30 November 2017 Delaware earthquake with magnitude MW 4.2 occurred beneath the northeastern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula near Dover, Delaware. The earthquake and its aftershocks provide an opportunity to evaluate seismicity in a passive margin setting using much improved coverage by high-quality permanent broadband seismometers at regional distance ranges in the central and eastern United St
Authors
Won-Young Kim, Mitchell Gold, Joseph Ramsay, Anne Meltzer, David Wunsch, Stefanie Baxter, Vedran Lekic, Phillip Goodling, Karen Pearson, Lara S. Wagner, Diana C. Roman, Steven Golden, Thomas L. Pratt
Accuracy assessment of NLCD 2011 impervious cover data for the Chesapeake Bay region, USA
The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) contains three eras (2001, 2006, 2011) of percentage urban impervious cover (%IC) at the native pixel size (30 m-x-30 m) of the Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite. These data are potentially valuable to environmental managers and stakeholders because of the utility of %IC as an indicator of watershed and aquatic condition, but lack an accuracy assessment bec
Authors
James Wickham, Nate Herold, Stephen V. Stehman, Collin Homer, George Z. Xian, Peter Claggett
Monitoring the water-quality response of agricultural conservation practices in the Bucks Branch watershed, Sussex County, Delaware, 2014–16
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of irrigation and cover crops as conservation practices on water quality in groundwater and streams. Bucks Branch, a stream in the Nanticoke River watershed in southwestern Delaware, was identified as having one of the highest concentrations of nitrate in all surface-water sites sampled by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Enviro
Authors
Judith M. Denver, Alexander M. Soroka, Betzaida Reyes, Todd R. Lester, Deborah A. Bringman, M.S. Brownley
Artificial light at night confounds broad-scale habitat use by migrating birds
With many of the world's migratory bird populations in alarming decline, broad-scale assessments of responses to migratory hazards may prove crucial to successful conservation efforts. Most birds migrate at night through increasingly light-polluted skies. Bright light sources can attract airborne migrants and lead to collisions with structures, but might also influence selection of migratory stopo
Authors
James D. McLaren, Jeffrey J. Buler, Tim Schreckengost, Jaclyn A. Smolinsky, Matthew Boone, E. Emiel van Loon, Deanna K. Dawson, Eric L. Walters
Thresholds of lake and reservoir connectivity in river networks control nitrogen removal
Lakes, reservoirs, and other ponded waters are ubiquitous features of the aquatic landscape, yet their cumulative role in nitrogen removal in large river basins is often unclear. Here we use predictive modeling, together with comprehensive river water quality, land use, and hydrography datasets, to examine and explain the influences of more than 18,000 ponded waters on nitrogen removal through riv
Authors
Noah M. Schmadel, Judson Harvey, Richard Alexander, Gregory E. Schwarz, Richard Moore, Ken Eng, Jesus D. Gomez-Velez, Elizabeth W. Boyer, Durelle Scott
Pharmaceuticals in water, fish and osprey nestlings in Delaware River and Bay
Exposure of wildlife to Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) is likely to occur but studies of risk are limited. One exposure pathway that has received attention is trophic transfer of APIs in a water-fish-osprey food chain. Samples of water, fish plasma and osprey plasma were collected from Delaware River and Bay, and analyzed for 21 APIs. Only 2 of 21 analytes exceeded method detection limit
Authors
Thomas G. Bean, Barnett A. Rattner, Rebecca S. Lazarus, Daniel D. Day, S. Rebekah Burket, Bryan W. Brooks, Samuel P. Haddad, William W. Bowerman
Water quality in the surficial aquifer near agricultural areas in the Delaware Coastal Plain, 2014
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Delaware Department of Agriculture, developed a network of wells to monitor groundwater quality in the surficial aquifer of the Delaware Coastal Plain. Well-drained soils, a flat landscape, and accessible water in the Delaware Coastal Plain make for a productive agricultural setting. As such, agriculture is one of the largest industries in the St
Authors
Brandon Fleming, Laura L. Mensch, Judith M. Denver, Roberto M. Cruz, Mark R. Nardi
The influence of data characteristics on detecting wetland/stream surface-water connections in the Delmarva Peninsula, Maryland and Delaware
The dependence of downstream waters on upstream ecosystems necessitates an improved understanding of watershed-scale hydrological interactions including connections between wetlands and streams. An evaluation of such connections is challenging when, (1) accurate and complete datasets of wetland and stream locations are often not available and (2) natural variability in surface-water extent influen
Authors
Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Hayley Distler, Megan W. Lang, Laurie C. Alexander