Publications

American eel Anguilla rostrata abundances have undergone significant declines over the last 50 years, and migration barriers have been recognized as a contributing cause. We evaluated eel abundances in headwater streams of Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, to compare sites before and after the removal of a large downstream dam in 2004 (Embrey Dam, Rappahannock River). Eel abundances in...

The Chesapeake Bay, the Nation's largest estuary, has been degraded due to the impact of human-population increase, which has doubled since 1950, resulting in degraded water quality, loss of habitat, and declines in populations of biological communities. Since the mid-1980s, the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), a multi-agency partnership which includes the Department of Interior (DOI), has...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) updates information on loads of, and trends in, nutrients and sediment annually to help the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) investigators assess progress toward improving water-quality conditions in the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. CBP scientists and managers have worked since 1983 to improve water quality in the bay. In 2010, the U.S. Environmental...

Shipboard magnetic field data collected over Chesapeake Bay exhibit low-amplitude, short-wavelength anomalies that most likely indicate shallow concentrations of heavy mineral sediments. Piston core layers and black sand beach samples exhibit enhanced magnetic susceptibilities and carry remanent magnetization, with mineralogical analyses indicating ilmenite and trace magnetite and/or...

Contamination of the environment with endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) is a major health concern. The presence of estrogenic compounds in water and their deleterious effect are well documented. However, detection and monitoring of other classes of EDCs is limited. Here we utilize a high-throughput live cell assay based on sub-cellular relocalization of GFP-tagged glucocorticoid and...

A high prevalence of intersex or testicular oocytes (TO) in male smallmouth bass within the Potomac River drainage has raised concerns as to the health of the river. Studies were conducted to document biomarker responses both temporally and spatially to better understand the influence of normal physiological cycles, as well as water quality and land-use influences. Smallmouth bass were...

Suspended sediment is one of the major concerns regarding the quality of water entering the Chesapeake Bay. Some of the highest suspended-sediment concentrations occur on Piedmont streams, including Difficult Run, a tributary of the Potomac River draining urban and suburban parts of northern Virginia. Accurate information on catchment level sediment budgets is rare and difficult to...

Nutrient and sediment fluxes and changes in fluxes over time are key indicators that water resource managers can use to assess the progress being made in improving the structure and function of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The U.S. Geological Survey collects annual nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) and sediment flux data and computes trends that describe the extent to which water...

Global sea level is rising, and the relative rate in the Chesapeake Bay region of the East Coast of the United States is greater than the worldwide rate. Sea-level rise can cause saline water to migrate upstream in estuaries and rivers, threatening freshwater habitat and drinking-water supplies. The effects of future sea-level rise on two tributaries of Chesapeake Bay, the James and...

Shale gas development may involve trade-offs between energy development and benefits provided by natural ecosystems. However, current best management practices (BMPs) focus on mitigating localized ecological degradation. We review evidence for cumulative effects of natural gas development on brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and conclude that BMPs should account for potential watershed...

This report is a synthesis of the latest findings from an ongoing study of Dyke Marsh, an eroding freshwater tidal wetland that is scheduled for federal restoration. Its purpose is to provide an accurate and up-to-date temporal and geological framework for the marsh, of which most is new information (plus a compilation of historical and recent information), that is directly relevant to...

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...