Publications

Multiple physical and chemical stressors can simultaneously affect the biological condition of streams. To better understand the complex interactions of land-use practices, water quality, and ecological integrity of streams, the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Assessment Project is conducting regional-scale assessments of stream condition across the United States. In the...

Chemical data from 43 334 wells were used to examine the role of land surface–soil–aquifer connections in producing elevated manganese concentrations (>300 μg/L) in United States (U.S.) groundwater. Elevated concentrations of manganese and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in groundwater are associated with shallow, anoxic water tables and soils enriched in organic carbon, suggesting soil...

Lakes in boreal lowlands cycle carbon and supply an important source of freshwater for wildlife and migratory waterfowl. The abundance and distribution of these lakes are supported, in part, by permafrost distribution, which is subject to change. Relationships between permafrost thaw and lake dynamics remain poorly known in most boreal regions. Here, new airborne electromagnetic (AEM)...

Paleofloods are flood events that occurred prior to instrumented records that are discerned from sedimentary evidence. Historic floods are flood events that predate the instrumented record that have been reconstructed based on evidence provided by historical sources. This special issue presents papers on historic and paleoflood analyses that stemmed from the 5th International Paleoflood...

We recently reported the initial discovery of neonicotinoid pesticides in drinking water and their potential for transformation through chlorination and alkaline hydrolysis during water treatment. The objectives of this research were: (1) to determine if neonicotinoid metabolites are relevant to drinking water exposure and (2) to identify the products formed from chlorination of...

While chemical analysis of contaminant mixtures remains an essential component of environmental monitoring, bioactivity-based assessments using in vitro systems increasingly play a role in the detection of biological effects. Historically, in vitro assessments focused on a few biological pathways, e.g., aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) or estrogen receptor (ER) activities. High-throughput...

The microscopic alga Picocystis sp. strain ML is responsible for recurrent algal blooms in Mono Lake, CA. This organism was characterized by only very little molecular data, despite its prominence as a primary producer in saline environments. Here, we report the draft genome sequence for Picocystis sp. strain ML based on long-read sequencing.

The forthcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission will provide global measurements of the free surface of large rivers, providing new opportunities for remote sensing‐derived estimates of river discharge in gaged and ungaged basins. SWOT discharge algorithms have been developed and benchmarked using synthetic data but remain untested on real‐world swath...

Permafrost thaw alters subsurface flow in boreal regions that in turn influences the magnitude, seasonality, and chemical composition of streamflow. Prediction of these changes is challenged by incomplete knowledge of timing, flowpath depth, and amount of groundwater discharge to streams in response to thaw. One important phenomenon that may affect flow and transport through boreal...

Little is known about temporal variability in nitrate concentration responses to changes in discharge on intraannual time scales in large rivers. To investigate this knowledge gap, we used a six‐year data set of daily surface water nitrate concentration and discharge averaged from near‐continuous monitoring at U.S. Geological Survey gaging stations on the Connecticut, Potomac, and...

Stormwater practitioners need quantitative information about the quality and volume of highway runoff to assess and mitigate potential adverse effects of runoff on the Nation’s receiving waters. The U.S. Geological Survey developed the Highway Runoff Database (HRDB) in cooperation with the FHWA to provide practice-ready information to meet these information needs on the local or national...

Lakes are biogeochemical hotspots on the landscape, contributing significantly to the global carbon cycle despite their small areal coverage. Observations and models of lake carbon pools and fluxes are rarely explicitly combined through data assimilation despite successful use of this technique in other fields. Data assimilation adds value to both observations and models by constraining...