Publications

Silver has been used for thousands of years as ornaments and utensils, for trade and as the basis of many monetary systems. The metal has played an important part in world history. Silver from the mines at Laurion, Greece, for example, financed the Greek victory over the Persians in 480 B.C. Silver from Potosi, Bolivia, helped Spain become a world power in the 16th and 17th centuries...

Thallium is known as a poison, its use initially suspected in the recent death of a Russian spy, but it has a variety of more important applications in everything from medical imaging to wireless communications.

Opening paragraph: Tidal and nontidal wetlands in the Chesapeake Bay watershed provide vital hydrologic, water-quality, and ecological functions. Situated at the interface of land and water, these valuable habitats are vulnerable to alteration and loss by human activities including direct conversion to non-wetland habitat by dredge-and-fill activities from land development, and to the...

No abstract available.

Ammonia was produced by 15 companies at 25 plants in 16 states in the United States during 2006. Fifty-seven percent of U.S. ammonia production capacity was centered in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas because of their large reserves of natural gas, the dominant domestic feedstock. In 2006, U.S. producers operated at about 72 percent of their rated capacity (excluding plants that were idle...

A review of: Waterfowl Ecology and Management. Second Edition. By Guy A Baldassarre and , Eric G Bolen; illustrated by , Tamara R Sayre. Malabar (Florida): Krieger Publishing. $112.50. xii + 567 p; ill.; index. ISBN: 1‐57524‐260‐5. 2006

Although fecal contamination of streams is a problem of national scope, few investigations have been directed at relatively pristine streams in forested basins in national parks. With approximately 1.8 million visitors annually, Shenandoah National Park in Virginia is subject to extensive recreational use. The effects of these visitors and their recreational activities on fecal indicator...

No abstract available.

Vanadium, the name of which comes from Vanadis, a goddess in Scandinavian mythology, is one of the most important ferrous metals. Vanadium has many uses, but the metal’s metallurgical applications, such as an alloying element in iron and steel, account for more than 85 percent of U.S. consumption. The dominant nonmetallurgical use of the metal is as a catalyst for the production of...

We examined a suite of environmental contaminants and exposure endpoints in black-crowned night-heron (Nycticorax nycticorax, BCNH) embryos collected in 2002 from colonies in Illinois, Minnesota, and Virginia. Embryos from the Lake Calumet, IL, colony had greater exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), 4,4'-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), dieldrin, transnonachlor...

Lek-mating Long-tailed Manakins (Chiroxiphia linearis) exhibit an unusual pattern of delayed plumage maturation. Each year, males progress through a series of predefinitive plumages before attaining definitive plumage in their fifth calendar year. Females also exhibit variation in plumage coloration, with some females displaying male-like plumage characteristics. Using data from mist-net...

No abstract available.