Publications

Subsidy–stress gradients offer a useful framework for understanding ecological responses to perturbation and may help inform ecological metrics in highly modified systems. Historic, region-wide shifts from bottomland hardwood forest to row crop agriculture can cause positively skewed impact gradients in alluvial plain ecoregions, resulting in tolerant organisms that typically exhibit a...

Thermoelectric (TE) power plants withdraw more water than any other sector of water use in the United States and consume water at rates that can be significant especially in water-stressed regions. Historical TE water-use data have been inconsistent, incomplete, or discrepant, resulting in an increased research focus on improving the accuracy and availability of TE water-use data using...

Introduction

Lithium-rich brine deposits occur throughout the United States, including in the Smackover Formation. The concentration of lithium in Smackover Formation brines was predicted across southern Arkansas by using a machine-learning model that incorporated lithium concentration data and geologic information. Between 5.1 and 19.0 million metric tons of lithium are calculated to be present in...

The Little Sequatchie River and Pryor Cove Branch, in southern Tennessee, drain the eastern escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau to the Sequatchie River near the southern end of the Sequatchie Valley. The Little Sequatchie River is the largest tributary to the Sequatchie River by drainage area, covering over 120 square miles. The hydrology of the two drainage areas has been largely...

The water resources in the Mississippi alluvial plain, located in parts of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural industry that relies heavily on pumping of groundwater for irrigation of crops and aquaculture. The primary source of groundwater for agricultural-related pumping is the Mississippi River Valley...

Corrosive groundwater can cause lead, copper, and other metals to leach from pipes and plumbing fixtures in water distribution systems. Metals, if ingested, could lead to serious health implications to the nearly 2.9 million people in Louisiana who obtain their drinking water from groundwater sources. Four indices—the Langelier Saturation Index (LSI), Ryznar Stability Index (RSI)...

The Lower Chesapeake Bay (LCB) Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Common Experiment (CE) located in Beltsville, MD, focuses on research of concern to producers of the major regional crops, which are corn (Zea mays L.), soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.], wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and various forage species. Livestock production in the region includes broiler and laying chickens...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), known colloquially as “forever chemicals”, have been associated with adverse human health effects and have contaminated drinking water supplies across the United States owing to their long-term and widespread use. People in the United States may unknowingly be drinking water that contains PFAS because of a lack of systematic analysis...

Tropical cyclones (coastal storm events that include tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes) cause landscape-scale disturbances that can lead to impaired water quality and thus reduce water availability for use. Stakeholders and scientists at local and national scales have illustrated a need for understanding these risks to water quality. A regional and comprehensive...

As part of a cooperative investigation between the U.S. Geological Survey and the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, a network of 22 groundwater wells were sampled from 2014 through 2020 for about 230 pesticide and pesticide degradate compounds. Wells were located in three regions of intensive agricultural land use in Alabama: Baldwin County, the Wiregrass region, and the...

Global demand for lithium, the primary component of lithium-ion batteries, greatly exceeds known supplies, and this imbalance is expected to increase as the world transitions away from fossil fuel energy sources. High concentrations of lithium in brines have been observed in the Smackover Formation in southern Arkansas (>400 milligrams per liter). We used published and newly collected...