Publications

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, used noninvasive surface geophysics in the investigation of the distribution of saline groundwater in the valley-fill aquifer system of the Genesee River Valley near the former Retsof salt mine in western New York. In 1994, the Retsof salt mine, the largest of its kind in the...

The Buck Creek-Boreas River Adirondack Watershed Monitoring Program, located in the Adirondack region of New York State, United States, combines the monitoring of headwater streams, soils, and vegetation based on a watershed design. Continuous monitoring of six watersheds is linked to the sampling of more than 400 additional Adirondack streams between 2003 and 2019 for chemical analysis...

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) has received considerable attention in freshwater research, particularly since the early 2000s when increasing trends became apparent. However, remaining questions need to be resolved to address future effects of DOC on surface waters. This study was undertaken to determine (1) the relative importance of acidity and ionic strength in driving DOC increases...

The U.S. Geological Survey used surface and borehole geophysical methods to delineate the freshwater-saltwater interface in coastal plain aquifers along the southwestern part of Long Island, New York. Over pumping of groundwater in the early 20th century combined with freshwater-saltwater interfaces at the coastline created saltwater intrusion in the upper glacial, Jameco, Magothy, and...

Acidic deposition contributes to a range of environmental impacts across forested landscapes, including acidification of soil and drainage water, toxic aluminum mobilization, depletion of available soil nutrient cations, and impacts to forest and aquatic species health and biodiversity. In response to decreasing levels of acidic deposition, soils and drainage waters in some regions of...

Globally, over 200 million people are chronically exposed to arsenic (As) and/or manganese (Mn) from drinking water. We used machine-learning (ML) boosted regression tree (BRT) models to predict high As (>10 μg/L) and Mn (>300 μg/L) in groundwater from the glacial aquifer system (GLAC), which spans 25 states in the northern United States and provides drinking water to 30 million people...

No abstract available.

Little attention has been given to optimizing statistical power for monitoring stream fish assemblages. We explored the relationship between temporal variability and statistical power using 34 metrics from fish community data collected annually at six sites over 10 years via electrofishing. Metric variability differed by the life stage and group of species considered, use of abundance or...

We investigated changes in soil chemistry and foliar metabolism of Himalayan cedar [Cedrus deodara (Roxb. Ex Lamb.) G.Don] and Himalayan spruce [Picea smithiana (Wall.) Boiss] trees along a steep elevational gradient in the lower Himalayan Mountains at Kufri, Himachal Pradesh (HP), India. The foliar and soil samples were collected from four locations along a 300 m elevational gradient at...

Groundwater models have evolved to encompass more aspects of the water cycle, but the incorporation of realistic boundary conditions representing surface water remains time-consuming and error-prone. We present two Python packages that robustly automate this process using readily available hydrography data as the primary input. SFRmaker creates input for the MODFLOW SFR package, while...

Mobilization of toxic forms of aluminum (Ali) have been one of the most harmful effects of acidic deposition on aquatic ecosystems. Large decreases in acidic deposition levels have resulted in decreases in Ali concentrations in surface waters starting in the 1990s. However, recent studies indicate that fish communities are still being impaired by elevated Ali concentrations in streams...

The Round Goby Neogobius melanostomus has spread rapidly around the Great Lakes region since its introduction to North America in 1990. In 2014, a specimen was captured in the New York State Canal System west of Utica, prompting concerns that Round Goby would soon reach the ecologically and economically valuable watersheds of Lake Champlain and the Hudson River estuary. The establishment...