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Anna M Mckee (Former Employee)

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Decommissioned Greensferry combined sewer overflow, Proctor Creek Watershed, Atlanta, Georgia.

Urban Waters Federal Partnership: Proctor Creek, Atlanta, Georgia

The South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC) geographic area has two Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) watersheds: Proctor Creek in Atlanta, GA (Figure 1) and the newly established partnership for Walnut Creek in Raleigh, NC. SAWSC is working on two UWFP projects in the Proctor Creek Watershed focused on fecal-associated pathogens (Figure 2) and microplastics (Figure 3). This work in...
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South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)
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Urban Waters Federal Partnership: Proctor Creek, Atlanta, Georgia

The South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC) geographic area has two Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) watersheds: Proctor Creek in Atlanta, GA (Figure 1) and the newly established partnership for Walnut Creek in Raleigh, NC. SAWSC is working on two UWFP projects in the Proctor Creek Watershed focused on fecal-associated pathogens (Figure 2) and microplastics (Figure 3). This work in...
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Streamgage on Mountain Creek Tributary

Actual evapotranspiration, flash droughts, water deficits, reduced vegetative growth, and wildfires: the effects of seasonally water-limited conditions in a changing climate

The Southeastern U.S. experiences recurring hydrologic droughts, which can reduce water availability for human consumption and ecosystem services, leading to plant stress and reduced plant growth. This project examines relationships between drought and the water cycle in the Southeast with data from the Panola Mountain Research Watershed (PMRW) near Atlanta, Georgia and other Southeastern sites...
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Climate Research and Development Program, Wildland Fire Science
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Actual evapotranspiration, flash droughts, water deficits, reduced vegetative growth, and wildfires: the effects of seasonally water-limited conditions in a changing climate

The Southeastern U.S. experiences recurring hydrologic droughts, which can reduce water availability for human consumption and ecosystem services, leading to plant stress and reduced plant growth. This project examines relationships between drought and the water cycle in the Southeast with data from the Panola Mountain Research Watershed (PMRW) near Atlanta, Georgia and other Southeastern sites...
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Environmental DNA logo

Environmental DNA (eDNA)

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is organismal DNA that can be found in the environment. Environmental DNA originates from cellular material shed by organisms (via skin, excrement, etc.) into aquatic or terrestrial environments that can be sampled and monitored using new molecular methods. Such methodology is important for the early detection of invasive species as well as the detection of rare and...
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Water Resources Mission Area, Water Science School
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Environmental DNA (eDNA)

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is organismal DNA that can be found in the environment. Environmental DNA originates from cellular material shed by organisms (via skin, excrement, etc.) into aquatic or terrestrial environments that can be sampled and monitored using new molecular methods. Such methodology is important for the early detection of invasive species as well as the detection of rare and...
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Microbial Source Tracking Marker Concentrations in Congaree National Park in 2017-2019, South Carolina, USA

The dataset contains quantitative polymerase chain reaction data for microbial source tracking markers screened on water samples collected from streams and rivers within and bounding Congaree National Park from samples collected throughout the year from December 2017 through June 2019. The number of samples collected per event ranged from 4-16 over the span of 11 sample events.
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Contaminant Biology, Environmental Health Program, Toxic Substances Hydrology, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)

Microbial Source Tracking Marker Concentrations in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area Watershed in 2015-2017, Georgia, USA

The dataset contains Esherichia coli and quantitative polymerase chain reaction data for microbial source tracking markers in the Chattahoochee River and streams within the Chattahoochee River National Recreation area from samples collected in the winter and summer of the federal fiscal years 2016 and 2017. Six water samples were collected from three sites on the Chattahoochee River each season. E
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South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)
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Dead-end hollow fiber ultrafiltration capture of environmental DNA for freshwater mussel (Unionidae) species detection with metabarcoding

Insufficient water sample volumes can be a limiting factor for detecting species with environmental DNA (eDNA) from aquatic habitats. We compared detections of freshwater mussel (Unionidae) communities using large water sample volumes and dead-end hollow fiber ultrafiltration (D-HFUF or DEUF) with traditional eDNA filtration methods that use relatively small water sample volumes. Unionid species w
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Anna M. McKee, Katy E. Klymus, Yer Lor, Marissa H Kaminski, Tariq Tajjioui, Nathan Johnson, Matthew Carroll, Christopher Goodson, Stephen Frank Spear
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Columbia Environmental Research Center, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC), Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Occurrence and distribution of mercury in streams and reservoirs in the Triangle Area of North Carolina, July 2007–June 2009

During the time period 2001–2006, the U.S. Geological Survey reported mercury-concentration measurements that exceeded the North Carolina water-quality criterion (NCWQC) of 0.012 microgram per liter for total recoverable mercury in streams and reservoirs across the Triangle Area of North Carolina. Mercury data were sparse, however, generally consisting of only one or two water samples per year. Ad
Authors
Anna M. McKee, Sharon Fitzgerald, Mary J. Giorgino
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Water Resources Mission Area, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)

Executive summary and annotated bibliography of selected references from “Microbial and viral indicators of pathogens and human health risks from recreational exposure to waters impaired by fecal contamination” with related project ideas for Gwinnett Coun

This document was prepared in cooperation with Gwinnett County, Georgia, to supplement the journal article “Microbial and Viral Indicators of Pathogens and Human Health Risks from Recreational Exposure to Waters Impaired by Fecal Contamination” (published in Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment). The document includes an executive summary of the article, project ideas for Gwinnett
Authors
Anna M. McKee, Marcella A. Cruz
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Water Resources Mission Area, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)

Feral swine as sources of fecal contamination in recreational waters

Recreational waters are primary attractions at many national and state parks where feral swine populations are established, and thus are possible hotspots for visitor exposure to feral swine contaminants. Microbial source tracking (MST) was used to determine spatial and temporal patterns of fecal contamination in Congaree National Park (CONG) in South Carolina, U.S.A., which has an established pop
Authors
Anna M. McKee, Paul Bradley, David Shelley, Shea McCarthy, Marirosa Molina
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Water Resources Mission Area, Contaminant Biology, Environmental Health Program, Toxic Substances Hydrology, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)

Microbial and viral indicators of pathogens and human health risks from recreational exposure to waters impaired by fecal contamination

Fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) (e.g., fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, and enterococci) have been used for decades to monitor for and protect the public from waterborne pathogens from fecal contamination. However, FIB may not perform well at predicting the presence of waterborne pathogens or human health outcomes from recreational exposure to fecal-contaminated surface waters. Numerous factors c
Authors
Anna M. McKee, Marcella A. Cruz
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Water Resources Mission Area, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)

Monitoring and real-time modeling of Escherichia coli bacteria for the Chattahoochee River, Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Georgia, 2000–2019

The Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CRNRA) is a National Park Service unit/park with 48 miles of urban waterway in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Chattahoochee River within the CRNRA is a popular place for water-based recreation but is known to periodically experience elevated levels of fecal-coliform bacteria associated with warm-blooded animals that can result in a variety of p
Authors
Brent T. Aulenbach, Anna M. McKee
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Water Resources Mission Area, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)

Microbial source tracking (MST) in Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area: Seasonal and precipitation trends in MST marker concentrations, and associations with E. coli levels, pathogenic marker presence, and land use

Escherichia coli levels in recreational waters are often used to predict when fecal-associated pathogen levels are a human health risk. The reach of the Chattahoochee River that flows through the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CRNRA), located in the Atlanta-metropolitan area, is a popular recreation area that frequently exceeds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency beach action v
Authors
Anna M. McKee, Marirosa Molina, Mike Cyterski, Ann Couch
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Water Resources Mission Area, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)

Adapterama II: Universal amplicon sequencing on Illumina platforms (TaggiMatrix)

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) of amplicons is used in a wide variety of contexts. In many cases, NGS amplicon sequencing remains overly expensive and inflexible, with library preparation strategies relying upon the fusion of locus-specific primers to full-length adapter sequences with a single identifying sequence or ligating adapters onto PCR products. In Adapterama I, we presented universal s
Authors
Travis C Glenn, Todd W Pierson, Natalia J Bayona-Vásquez, Troy J. Kieran, Sandra L. Hoffberg, Jesse Thomas, Daniel E. Lefever, John W. Finger Jr., Bei Gao, Xiaoming Bian, Swarnali Louha, Ramya Kolli, Kerin Bentley, Julie Rushmore, Kelvin Wong, Michael Rothrock, Anna M. McKee, Tai L. Guo, Rodney Mauricio, Marirosa Molina, Brian Cummings, Lawrence H. Lash, Kun Lu, Gregory S. Gilbert, Stephen P. Hubbell, Brant C. Faircloth
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Water Resources Mission Area, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)

South Atlantic Water Science Center Strategic Science Plan: 2019–23

Executive SummaryThe South Atlantic Water Science Center Strategic Science Planning Team has developed a unified strategic science plan to guide the science vision of the South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC) in response to the merging of the Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina Water Science Centers. This plan proposes a path forward to keep SAWSC science activities relevant to the m
Authors
Thomas F. Cuffney, Ana M. Garcia, Arthur J. Horowitz, Jacob H. LaFontaine, James E. Landmeyer, Anna M. McKee, Kristen Bukowski McSwain, Jaime A. Painter, John M. Shelton, Christopher A. Smith
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Water Resources Mission Area, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)

Adding value to monitoring efforts with environmental DNA

No abstract available.
Authors
Adam J. Sepulveda, Andrew M. Ray, Anna M. McKee
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center

New distributional records of the stygobitic crayfish Cambarus cryptodytes (Decapoda: Cambaridae) in the Floridan Aquifer System of southwestern Georgia

Cambarus cryptodytes (Dougherty Plain Cave Crayfish) is an obligate inhabitant of groundwater habitats (i.e., a stygobiont) with troglomorphic adaptations in the Floridan aquifer system of southwestern Georgia and adjacent Florida panhandle, particularly in the Dougherty Plain and Marianna Lowlands. Documented occurrences of Dougherty Plain Cave Crayfish are spatially distributed as 2 primary clus
Authors
Dante B. Fenolio, Matthew L. Niemiller, Andrew G. Gluesenkamp, Anna M. McKee, Steven J. Taylor
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Water Resources Mission Area, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)

Detection of an enigmatic plethodontid Salamander using Environmental DNA

The isolation and identification of environmental DNA (eDNA) offers a non-invasive and efficient method for the detection of rare and secretive aquatic wildlife, and it is being widely integrated into inventory and monitoring efforts. The Patch-Nosed Salamander (Urspelerpes brucei) is a tiny, recently discovered species of plethodontid salamander known only from headwater streams in a small region
Authors
Todd W. Pierson, Anna M. McKee, Stephen F. Spear, John C. Maerz, Carlos D. Camp, Travis C. Glenn
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Water Resources Mission Area, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)

Non-USGS Publications**

McKee, A. M., et al. (2015). "The effect of dilution and the use of a post-extraction nucleic acid purification column on the accuracy, precision, and inhibition of environmental DNA samples." Biological Conservation 183: 70-76.

**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.

Science and Products