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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: 3785

The reversibility of virus attachment to mineral surfaces The reversibility of virus attachment to mineral surfaces

Virus transport through groundwater is limited by attachment to mineral surfaces and inactivation. Current virus transport models do not consider the implications of the reversibility of virus attachment to minerals. To explore the reversibility of virus attachment to mineral surfaces, we attached PRD1, a bacteriophage considered to be a good model of enteric viruses, to quartz and...
Authors
J.P. Loveland, J. N. Ryan, G.L. Amy, R.W. Harvey

Flexible digestion strategies and trace metal assimilation in marine bivalves Flexible digestion strategies and trace metal assimilation in marine bivalves

Pulse-chase experiments show that two marine bivalves take optimal advantage of different types of particulate food by varying food retention time in a flexible two-phase digestive system. For example, carbon is efficiently assimilated from bacteria by subjecting nearly all the ingested bacteria to prolonged digestion. Prolonging digestion also enhances assimilation of metals, many of...
Authors
Alan W. Decho, Samuel N. Luoma

A three-dimensional method-of-characteristics solute-transport model (MOC3D) A three-dimensional method-of-characteristics solute-transport model (MOC3D)

This report presents a model, MOC3D, that simulates three-dimensional solute transport in flowing ground water. The model computes changes in concentration of a single dissolved chemical constituent over time that are caused by advective transport, hydrodynamic dispersion (including both mechanical dispersion and diffusion), mixing (or dilution) from fluid sources, and mathematically...
Authors
Leonard F. Konikow, D.J. Goode, G.Z. Hornberger

Spatial and temporal distribution of specific conductance, boron, and phosphorus in a sewage-contaminated aquifer near Ashumet Pond, Cape Cod, Massachusetts Spatial and temporal distribution of specific conductance, boron, and phosphorus in a sewage-contaminated aquifer near Ashumet Pond, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Spatial and temporal distributions of specific conductance, boron, and phosphorus were determined in a sewage-contaminated sand and gravel aquifer near Ashumet Pond, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The source of contamination is secondarily treated sewage that has been discharged onto rapid- infiltration sand beds at the Massachusetts Military Reservation since 1936. Contaminated ground water...
Authors
K.W. Bussey, D. A. Walter

A Generalized Approach for the Interpretation of Geophysical Well Logs in Ground-Water Studies:Theory and Application A Generalized Approach for the Interpretation of Geophysical Well Logs in Ground-Water Studies:Theory and Application

Quantitative analysis of geophysical logs in ground-water studies often involves at least as broad a range of applications and variation in lithology as is typically encountered in petroleum exploration, making such logs difficult to calibrate and complicating inversion problem formulation. At the same time, data inversion and analysis depend on inversion model formulation and refinement...
Authors
Frederick L. Paillet, R.E. Crowder

Movement of nitrate fertilizer to glacial till and runoff from a claypan soil Movement of nitrate fertilizer to glacial till and runoff from a claypan soil

Although water from 20 to 25% of shallow farmstead wells in northern Missouri has concentrations of nitrate (NO3/-) exceeding 10 mg L-1 as nitrogen (N), many potential sources for this NO3/- are usually present. A field experiment was designed to trace and isolate the amount of a single application of N fertilizer lost to a glacial-till aquifer and runoff from a 400 m2 corn (Zea mays L.)...
Authors
D. W. Blevins, D.H. Wilkison, B. P. Kelly, S. R. Silva

Inferring shallow groundwater flow in saprolite and fractured rock using environmental tracers Inferring shallow groundwater flow in saprolite and fractured rock using environmental tracers

The Ridge and Valley Province of eastern Tennessee is characterized by (1) substantial topographic relief, (2) folded and highly fractured rocks of various lithologies that have low primary permeability and porosity, and (3) a shallow residuum of medium permeability and high total porosity. Conceptual models of shallow groundwater flow and solute transport in this system have been...
Authors
P.G. Cook, D. K. Solomon, W. E. Sanford, E. Busenberg, Niel Plummer, R.J. Poreda

Phytoplankton bloom dynamics in coastal ecosystems: A review with some general lessons from sustained investigation of San Francisco Bay, California Phytoplankton bloom dynamics in coastal ecosystems: A review with some general lessons from sustained investigation of San Francisco Bay, California

Phytoplankton blooms are prominent features of biological variability in shallow coastal ecosystems such as estuaries, lagoons, bays, and tidal rivers. Long-term observation and research in San Francisco Bay illustrates some patterns of phytoplankton spatial and temporal variability and the underlying mechanisms of this variability. Blooms are events of rapid production and accumulation...
Authors
James E. Cloern

Selected meteorological and micrometeorological data for an arid site near Beatty, Nye County, Nevada, calendar year 1992 Selected meteorological and micrometeorological data for an arid site near Beatty, Nye County, Nevada, calendar year 1992

il-heat-flux data were collected at a study site adjacent to a low-level radioactive-waste burial facility near Beatty, Nevada, for calendar year 1992. Data were collected in support of ongoing studies to estimate the potential for downward movement of radionuclides into the unsaturated sediments beneath waste-burial trenches at the arid facility. Data collected for the whole year...
Authors
James L. Wood

Solution of the advection-dispersion equation: Continuous load of finite duration Solution of the advection-dispersion equation: Continuous load of finite duration

Field studies of solute fate and transport in streams and rivers often involve an. experimental release of solutes at an upstream boundary for a finite period of time. A review of several standard references on surface-water-quality modeling indicates that the analytical solution to the constant-parameter advection-dispersion equation for this type of boundary condition has been...
Authors
R.L. Runkel

Simulation of phosphate transport in sewage-contaminated groundwater, Cape Cod, Massachusetts Simulation of phosphate transport in sewage-contaminated groundwater, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Sewage-contaminated groundwater currently discharges to Ashumet Pond, located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Phosphate concentrations as high as 60 μmol l−1 have been measured in groundwater entering Ashumet Pond, and there is concern that the rate of eutrophication could increase. Phosphate in the sewage plume is sorbed by aquifer sediment; the amount is a function of phosphate...
Authors
K.G. Stollenwerk
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