Publications

Five U.S. Geological Survey case studies in real-time stream and lake monitoring are presented. The emphases of the case studies are in-stream biological characteristics, fecal coliform bacteria, atrazine, phosphorus, and taste-and-odor compounds.

In this article, we discuss the use of MODFLOW-Style parameters in the numerical codes MODFLOW_2005 and MODFLOW_2005-Adjoint for the definition of variables in the Layer Property Flow package. Parameters are a useful tool to represent aquifer properties in both codes and are the only option available in the adjoint version. Moreover, for overdetermined parameter estimation problems, the...

Inland lakes are an important economic and environmental resource for Michigan. The U.S. Geological Survey and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment have been cooperatively monitoring the quality of selected lakes in Michigan through the Lake Water Quality Assessment program. Sampling for this program began in 2001; by 2010, 730 of Michigan’s 11,000 inland lakes...

Beginning in 2005, water availability and use were assessed for the U.S. part of the Great Lakes Basin through the Great Lakes Basin Pilot of a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) national assessment of water availability and use. The goals of a national assessment of water availability and use are to clarify our understanding of water-availability status and trends and improve our ability to...

Pilot points have been used in geophysics and hydrogeology for at least 30 years as a means to bridge the gap between estimating a parameter value in every cell of a model and subdividing models into a small number of homogeneous zones. Pilot points serve as surrogate parameters at which values are estimated in the inverse-modeling process, and their values are interpolated onto the...

No abstract available.

Nutrient input to the Laurentian Great Lakes continues to cause problems with eutrophication. To reduce the extent and severity of these problems, target nutrient loads were established and Total Maximum Daily Loads are being developed for many tributaries. Without detailed loading information it is difficult to determine if the targets are being met and how to prioritize rehabilitation...

Direct determination of mercury (Hg) speciation in sulfide-containing environments is confounded by low mercury concentrations and poor analytical sensitivity. Here we report the results of experiments designed to assess mercury speciation at environmentally relevant ratios of mercury to dissolved organic matter (DOM) (i.e.,

This is the first report on the ambient levels of glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the United States, and its major degradation product, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), in air and rain. Concurrent, weekly integrated air particle and rain samples were collected during two growing seasons in agricultural areas in Mississippi and Iowa. Rain was also collected in Indiana in a

Sulfur is broadly recognized as a water quality issue of significance for the freshwater Florida Everglades. Roughly 60% of the remnant Everglades has surface water sulfate concentrations above 1 mg l-1, a restoration performance measure based on present sulfate levels in unenriched areas. Highly enriched marshes in the northern Everglades have average sulfate levels of 60 mg l-1...

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the Florida Everglades controls a number of environmental processes important for ecosystem function including the absorption of light, mineral dissolution/precipitation, transport of hydrophobic compounds (e.g., pesticides), and the transport and reactivity of metals, such as mercury. Proposed attempts to return the Everglades to more natural flow...

Nearly all the mercury (Hg) in whole muscle from whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) and walleye (Sander vitreus) was present as methyl mercury (MeHg). The Hg content in whole muscle from whitefish and walleye was 0.04–0.09 and 0.14–0.81 ppm, respectively. The myofibril fraction contained approximately three-fourths of the Hg in whitefish and walleye whole muscle. The sarcoplasmic protein...