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Publications

Dive into our publications and explore the science from the Environmental Health Program (Toxic Substances Hydrology and Contaminant Biology).

Filter Total Items: 4098

Importance of methane-oxidizing bacteria in the methane budget as revealed by the use of a specific inhibitor Importance of methane-oxidizing bacteria in the methane budget as revealed by the use of a specific inhibitor

METHANE is a greenhouse gas whose concentration in the atmosphere is increasing. Much of this methane is derived from the metabolism of methane-generating (methanogenic) bacteria and over the past two decades much has been learned about the ecology of methanogens; specific inhibitors of methanogenesis, such as 2-bromoethanesulphonic acid, have proved useful in this regard. In contrast...
Authors
Ronald S. Oremland, Charles W. Culbertson

Floodplain storage of mine tailings in the Belle Fourche river system: a sediment budget approach Floodplain storage of mine tailings in the Belle Fourche river system: a sediment budget approach

Arsenic‐contaminated mine tailings that were discharged into Whitewood Creek at Lead, South Dakota, from 1876 to 1978, were deposited along the floodplains of Whitewood Creek and the Belle Fourche River. The resulting arsenic‐contaminated floodplain deposit consists mostly of overbank sediments and filled abandoned meanders along White‐wood Creek, and overbank and point‐bar sediments...
Authors
D. C. Marron

Herbicide transport in rivers: Importance of hydrology and geochemistry in nonpoint-source contamination Herbicide transport in rivers: Importance of hydrology and geochemistry in nonpoint-source contamination

Alachlor, atrazine, cyanazine, metolachlor, and metribuzin were measured at six sites during 1984 and 1985 in large subbasins within the Cedar River, IA. A computer model separated the Cedar River discharge hydrograph into groundwater and overland-flow components. The concentration of herbicides in the river when groundwater was the major flow component was less than 1.0 μg/L and...
Authors
P. J. Squillace, E.M. Thurman

Determination of subsurface fluid contents at a crude-oil spill site Determination of subsurface fluid contents at a crude-oil spill site

Measurement of the fluid-content distribution at sites contaminated by immiscible fluids, including crude oil, is needed to better understand the movement of these fluids in the subsurface and to provide data to calibrate and verify numerical models and geophysical methods. A laboratory method was used to quantify the fluid contents of 146 core sections retrieved from boreholes aligned...
Authors
K.M. Hess, W.N. Herkelrath, H.I. Essaid

Isolation of hydrophilic organic acids from water using nonionic macroporous resins Isolation of hydrophilic organic acids from water using nonionic macroporous resins

A method has been developed for the isolation of hydrophilic organic acids from aquatic environments using Amberlite∗ XAD-4 resin. The method uses a two column array of XAD-8 and XAD-4 resins in series. The hydrophobic organic acids, composed primarily of aquatic fulvic acid, are removed from the sample on XAD-8, followed by the isolation of the more hydrophilic organic acids on XAD-4...
Authors
G. R. Aiken, Diane M. McKnight, K. A. Thorn, E.M. Thurman

Humic substances and trace metals associated with Fe and Al oxides deposited in an acidic mountain stream Humic substances and trace metals associated with Fe and Al oxides deposited in an acidic mountain stream

Hydrous iron and aluminum oxides are deposited on the streambed in the confluence of the Snake River and Deer Creek, two streams in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The Snake River is acidic and has high concentrations of dissolved Fe and Al. These metals precipitate at the confluence with the pristine, neutral pH, Deer Creek because of the greater pH (4.5-6.0) in the confluence. The...
Authors
Diane M. McKnight, R.L. Wershaw, K.E. Bencala, G. W. Zellweger, G. L. Feder

Evaluation of methyl fluoride and dimethyl ether as inhibitors of aerobic methane oxidation Evaluation of methyl fluoride and dimethyl ether as inhibitors of aerobic methane oxidation

Methyl fluoride (MF) and dimethyl ether (DME) were effective inhibitors of aerobic methanotrophy in a variety of soils. MF and DME blocked consumption of CH4 as well as the oxidation of 14CH4 to 14CO2, but neither MF nor DME affected the oxidation of [14C]methanol or [14C]formate to 14CO2. Cooxidation of ethane and propane by methane-oxidizing soils was also inhibited by MF...
Authors
Ronald S. Oremland, Charles W. Culbertson

D4Z: A new renumbering for iterative solution of ground-water flow and solute-transport equations D4Z: A new renumbering for iterative solution of ground-water flow and solute-transport equations

D4 zig-zag (D4Z) is a new renumbering scheme for producing a reduced matrix to be solved by an incomplete LU preconditioned, restarted conjugate-gradient iterative solver. By renumbering alternate diagonals in a zig-zag fashion, a very low sensitivity of convergence rate to renumbering direction is obtained. For two demonstration problems involving groundwater flow and solute transport...
Authors
K.L. Kipp, T.F. Russell, J.S. Otto
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