Laura DeCicco
Biography
USGS Work Experience:
2019 - present, Upper Midwest Water Science Center (UMid WSC)
2018 - 2019, Integrated Information Decemination Division (IIDD), Data Science Branch
2014 - 2018, Office of Water Information (OWI)
2010 - 2014, Center for Integrated Data Analytics (CIDA)
Education
B.S. Mechanical Engineering - University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1999
M.S. Biomedical Engineering - University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2001
Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering - University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2006
Post doc, Oak Ridge National Lab, 2007-2009
Accreditations
Professional Engineer, State of Wisconsin, 2011
(Formally Laura Kranendonk)
Science and Products
Evaluating chloride trends due to road-salt use and its impacts on water quality and aquatic organisms
Chloride, a key component of road salt, is soluble, highly mobile in water, and, at high concentrations, can be toxic to aquatic vegetation and wildlife. USGS scientists have been analyzing temporal, seasonal, and environmental trends in chloride concentrations across the U.S. to determine the effects that road salt may be having on water quality and aquatic organisms.
Identifying chemicals and mixtures of potential biological concern detected in passive samplers from Great Lakes tributaries using high-throughput data and biological pathways
Waterborne contaminants were monitored in 69 tributaries of the Laurentian Great Lakes in 2010 and 2014 using semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs) and polar organic chemical integrative samplers (POCIS). A risk-based screening approach was used to prioritize chemicals and chemical mixtures, identify sites at greatest risk for biological impacts...
Alvarez, David; Corsi, Steven R.; DeCicco, Laura A.; Villeneuve, Daniel L.; Baldwin, Austin K. Evaluating the potential role of bioactive chemicals on the distribution of invasive Asian carp upstream and downstream from river mile 278 in the Illinois waterway
Two non-native carp species have invaded the Illinois Waterway and are a threat to Great Lakes ecosystems. Poor water quality in the upper Illinois Waterway, may be a factor contributing to the stalling of the carp population front near river mile 278. In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey collected 4 sets of water samples from two sites upstream...
Battaglin, William A.; Duncker, James J.; Terrio, Paul J.; Bradley, Paul; Barber, Larry; DeCicco, Laura A. Prioritizing chemicals of ecological concern in Great Lakes tributaries using high-throughput screening data and adverse outcome pathways
Chemical monitoring data were collected in surface waters from 57 Great Lakes tributaries from 2010-13 to identify chemicals of potential biological relevance and sites at which these chemicals occur. Traditional water-quality benchmarks for aquatic life based on in vivo toxicity data were available for 34 of 67 evaluated chemicals. To expand...
Corsi, Steven R.; DeCicco, Laura A.; Daniel Villeneuve; Brett Blackwell; Kellie Fay; Gerald Ankley; Baldwin, Austin K. Mixed-chemical exposure and predicted effects potential in wadeable southeastern USA streams
Complex chemical mixtures have been widely reported in larger streams but relatively little work has been done to characterize them and assess their potential effects in headwaterstreams. In 2014, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) sampled 54 Piedmont streams over ten weeks and measured 475 unique organic compounds...
Bradley, Paul M.; Journey, Celeste A.; Berninger, Jason P.; Button, Daniel T.; Clark, Jimmy M.; Corsi, Steven R.; DeCicco, Laura A.; Hopkins, Kristina G.; Huffman, Bradley J.; Nakagaki, Naomi; Norman, Julia E.; Nowell, Lisa H.; Qi, Sharon L.; Van Metre, Peter C.; Waite, Ian R. Reconnaissance of mixed organic and inorganic chemicals in private and public supply tapwaters at selected residential and workplace sites in the United States
Safe drinking water at the point-of-use (tapwater, TW) is a United States public health priority. Multiple lines of evidence were used to evaluate potential human health concerns of 482 organics and 19 inorganics in TW from 13 (7 public supply, 6 private well self-supply) home and 12 (public supply) workplace locations in 11 states. Only uranium (...
Bradley, Paul M.; Kolpin, Dana W.; Romanok, Kristin M.; Smalling, Kelly L.; Focazio, Michael J.; Brown, Juliane B.; Cardon, Mary C.; Carpenter, Kurt; Corsi, Steven R.; DeCicco, Laura A.; Dietze, Julie E.; Evans, Nicola; Furlong, Edward T.; Givens, Carrie E.; Gray, James L.; Griffin, Dale W.; Higgins, Christopher P.; Hladik, Michelle L.; Iwanowicz, Luke R. ; Journey, Celeste A.; Kuivila, Kathryn ; Masoner, Jason R.; McDonough, Carrie A.; Meyer, Michael T.; Orlando, James L.; Strynar, Mark J.; Weis, Christopher P.; Wilson, Vickie S. An “EAR” on environmental surveillance and monitoring: A case study on the use of Exposure–Activity Ratios (EARs) to prioritize sites, chemicals, and bioactivities of concern in Great Lakes waters
Current environmental monitoring approaches focus primarily on chemical occurrence. However, based on concentration alone, it can be difficult to identify which compounds may be of toxicological concern and should be prioritized for further monitoring, in-depth testing, or management. This can be problematic because toxicological characterization...
Blackwell, Brett R.; Ankley, Gerald T.; Corsi, Steven R.; DeCicco, Laura A.; Houck, Kieth A.; Judson, Richard S.; Li, Shibin; Martin, Matthew T.; Murphy, Elizabeth; Schroeder, Anthony L.; Smith, Edwin R.; Swintek, Joe; Villeneuve, Daniel L.
Water-quality trends in the nation’s rivers and streams, 1972–2012—Data preparation, statistical methods, and trend results
Since passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, Federal, State, and local governments have invested billions of dollars to reduce pollution entering rivers and streams. To understand the return on these investments and to effectively manage and protect the Nation’s water resources in the future, we need to know how and why water quality has been...
Oelsner, Gretchen P.; Sprague, Lori A.; Murphy, Jennifer C.; Zuellig, Robert E.; Johnson, Henry M.; Ryberg, Karen R.; Falcone, James A.; Stets, Edward G.; Vecchia, Aldo V.; Riskin, Melissa L.; De Cicco, Laura A.; Mills, Taylor J.; Farmer, William H. Water quality data for national-scale aquatic research: The Water Quality Portal
Aquatic systems are critical to food, security, and society. But, water data are collected by hundreds of research groups and organizations, many of which use nonstandard or inconsistent data descriptions and dissemination, and disparities across different types of water observation systems represent a major challenge for freshwater research. To...
Read, Emily K.; Carr, Lindsay; DeCicco, Laura A.; Dugan, Hilary; Hanson, Paul C.; Hart, Julia A.; Kreft, James; Read, Jordan S.; Winslow, Luke Organic contaminants in Great Lakes tributaries: Prevalence and potential aquatic toxicity
Organic compounds used in agriculture, industry, and households make their way into surface waters through runoff, leaking septic-conveyance systems, regulated and unregulated discharges, and combined sewer overflows, among other sources. Concentrations of these organic waste compounds (OWCs) in some Great Lakes tributaries indicate a high...
Baldwin, Austin K.; Corsi, Steven R.; De Cicco, Laura A.; Lenaker, Peter L.; Lutz, Michelle A.; Sullivan, Daniel J.; Richards, Kevin D. A bootstrap method for estimating uncertainty of water quality trends
Estimation of the direction and magnitude of trends in surface water quality remains a problem of great scientific and practical interest. The Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS) method was recently introduced as an exploratory data analysis tool to provide flexible and robust estimates of water quality trends. This paper...
Hirsch, Robert M.; Archfield, Stacey A.; DeCicco, Laura A.
User guide to Exploration and Graphics for RivEr Trends (EGRET) and dataRetrieval: R packages for hydrologic data
Evaluating long-term changes in river conditions (water quality and discharge) is an important use of hydrologic data. To carry out such evaluations, the hydrologist needs tools to facilitate several key steps in the process: acquiring the data records from a variety of sources, structuring it in ways that facilitate the analysis, processing the...
Hirsch, Robert M.; De Cicco, Laura A. River chloride trends in snow-affected urban watersheds: increasing concentrations outpace urban growth rate and are common among all seasons
Chloride concentrations in northern U.S. included in this study have increased substantially over time with average concentrations approximately doubling from 1990 to 2011, outpacing the rate of urbanization in the northern U.S. Historical data were examined for 30 monitoring sites on 19 streams that had chloride concentration and flow records of...
Corsi, Steven R.; De Cicco, Laura A.; Lutz, Michelle A.; Hirsch, Robert M.