Publications

This report presents results of the evaluation and interpretation of hydrologic and water-quality data collected as part of a cooperative program between the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Streamflow, phosphorus, and solids dissolved and suspended in stream water were the focus of monitoring by the U.S. Geological Survey at 10 sites on 9 selected...

Recent reports suggest that decreases in atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition throughout Europe and North America may have resulted in declining nitrate export in surface waters in recent decades, yet it is unknown if and how terrestrial N cycling was affected. During a period of decreased atmospheric N deposition, we assessed changes in forest N cycling by evaluating trends in tree-ring...

Pharmaceutical pollution in surface waters poses risks to human and ecosystem health. Wastewater treatment facilities are primary sources of pharmaceutical pollutants, but little is known about the factors that affect drugs entering the wastewater stream. This paper investigates the effects of student pharmaceutical use and disposal behaviors and an annual demographic shift on...

Recent soils research has shown that important chemical soil characteristics can change in less than a decade, often the result of broad environmental changes. Repeated sampling to monitor these changes in forest soils is a relatively new practice that is not well documented in the literature and has only recently been broadly embraced by the scientific community. The objective of this...

A new Web-based application, titled “Application of Flood Regressions and Climate Change Scenarios To Explore Estimates of Future Peak Flows”, has been developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New York State Department of Transportation, that allows a user to apply a set of regression equations to estimate the magnitude of future floods for any stream or river in...

We describe a new approach that couples hydrograph separation with high-frequency nitrate data to quantify time-variable groundwater and runoff loading of nitrate to streams, and the net in-stream fate of nitrate at the watershed-scale. The approach was applied at three sites spanning gradients in watershed size and land use in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Results indicate that 58-73%...

The hydrogeology of the Owego-Apalachin Elementary School geothermal fields, which penetrate saline water and methane in fractured upper Devonian age bedrock in the Owego Creek valley, south-central New York, was characterized through the analysis of drilling and geophysical logs, water-level monitoring data, and specific-depth water samples. Hydrogeologic insights gained during the...

Acid deposition is sometimes referred to as “acid rain,” although part of the acid load reaches the surface by means other than rainfall. In the eastern U.S., acid deposition consists of several forms of sulfur and nitrogen that largely originate as emissions to the atmosphere from sources such as electricity-generating facilities (coal, oil, and natural gas), diesel- and gasoline...

In 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Town of Danby and the Tompkins County Planning Department, began a study of the stratified-drift aquifers in the upper Buttermilk Creek and Danby Creek valleys in the Town of Danby, Tompkins County, New York. In the northern part of the north-draining upper Buttermilk Creek valley, there is only one sand and gravel aquifer, a...

Direct linkages between endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) from municipal and industrial wastewaters and impacts on wild fish assemblages are rare. The levels of plasma vitellogenin (Vtg) and Vtg messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) in male fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) exposed to wastewater effluents and dilutions of 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2), estrogen activity, and fish...

In a study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, water samples were collected from 4 production wells and 4 domestic wells in the Chemung River Basin, 8 production wells and 7 domestic wells in the Eastern Lake Ontario Basin, and 12 production wells and 13 domestic wells in the Lower Hudson River...

Decline of sugar maple in North American forests has been attributed to changes in soil calcium (Ca) and nitrogen (N) by acidic precipitation. Although N is an essential and usually a limiting factor in forests, atmospheric N deposition may cause N-saturation leading to loss of soil Ca. Such changes can affect carbon gain and growth of sugar maple trees and seedlings. We applied a 22...