Publications

A massive bloom of the raphidophyte Heterosigma akashiwo occurred in summer 2022 in San Francisco Bay, causing widespread ecological impacts including events of low dissolved oxygen and mass fish kills. The rapidly evolving bloom required equally rapid management response, leading to the use of near-real-time image analysis of chlorophyll from the Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI)...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are ubiquitous in the environment but sources are not well defined for temporal and spatial aspects within an urban environment, and especially for an arid urban environment subject to seasonal short term high-intensity precipitation events. A focused diel sampling was conducted in the summer of 2021 to assess the temporal and spatial...

The GAMA-PBP is a comprehensive assessment of statewide groundwater quality in California. The first phase of the GAMA-PBP in 2004–15 assessed groundwater resources used for public drinking-water supplies. The second phase is assessing groundwater resources used for domestic drinking-water supplies. An estimated 2 million Californians rely on individual domestic wells or State small...

Redox conditions in groundwater may markedly affect the fate and transport of nutrients, volatile organic compounds, and trace metals, with significant implications for human health. While many local assessments of redox conditions have been made, the spatial variability of redox reaction rates makes the determination of redox conditions at regional or national scales problematic. In...

Cyanobacterial phytoplankton blooms are more prevalent in the freshwater Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) since the late 1990s, including blooms driven by overgrowths of potentially toxigenic organisms of the genus Microcystis. Data from 2014 to 2021 were used to show how flow dynamics, water temperature, and water clarity drive occurrence of Microcystis. We used a Microcystis bloom...

No abstract available.

Environmental exposure data are a key component of chemical and ecological assessments, supporting and guiding environmental management decisions and regulations. Measures taken to protect the environment based on exposure data can have social and economic implications. Flawed information may lead to measures being taken in the wrong place or to important action not being taken. Although...

Numerous factors influence the timing of spring migration in birds, yet the relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic variables on migration initiation remains unclear. To test for interactions among weather, migration distance, parasitism, and physiology in determining spring departure date, we used the Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) as a model migratory species known to harbor...

Risks posed by environmental exposure to chemicals are routinely assessed to inform activities ranging from environmental status reporting to authorization and registration of chemicals for commercial uses. Environmental risk assessment generally relies on two key values generated from exposure data and ecotoxicity data. Data sets of measured concentrations of chemicals in environmental...

Nontarget organisms are exposed to pesticides following applications in agricultural and urban settings, potentially resulting in deleterious effects. Direct measurements of pesticides in biological tissues may aid in characterizing exposure, accumulation, and potential toxicity versus analyses in environmental media alone (e.g., water, soil, and air). Plasma represents a nonlethal...

Environmental risk assessments often rely on measured concentrations in environmental matrices to characterize exposure of the population of interest—typically, humans, aquatic biota, or other wildlife. Yet, there is limited guidance available on how to report and evaluate exposure datasets for reliability and relevance, despite their importance to regulatory decision-making. This paper...

The widespread application of pesticides in agricultural and urban areas leads to their presence in surface waters. Presence of these biologically active chemicals in environmental waters potentially has adverse effects on nontarget organisms. To better understand the environmental fate of these contaminants, a robust method to capture chemicals with wide-ranging physicochemical...