Lisa Nowell
Biography
I am a Research Chemist with the USGS National Water Quality Program (NWQP), National Water Quality Assessment Project (NAWQA). Since 2013, I have been part of the Regional Stream-Quality Assessment (RSQA) team, which is a multidisciplinary team conducting a series of multistressor studies of wadable streams in the Midwest, Southeast, Pacific Northwest, Northeast, and Central Coastal California regions. My primary focus is to track, interpret and model the occurrence of pesticides in stream water and sediment at the regional scale; and to interpret data on sediment toxicity and ecological condition in relation to chemical stressors. I have participated in the design and implementation of NAWQA since 1991, when I first joined the USGS as a member of NAWQA’s Pesticide National Synthesis team. Since that time, I have conducted national and regional-scale assessments of pesticides in water, sediment, and aquatic biota, and with my colleagues have developed tools (such as sediment benchmarks, aquatic-life benchmarks, the Pesticide Toxicity Index, and Health-Based Screening Levels) for interpreting the biological significance of pesticides in water and sediment. I also evaluated contaminants in water and sediment on the Gulf Coast before and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and I co-authored a book on pesticides in stream sediment and aquatic biota.
Before coming to the USGS, I worked for the Food and Drug Administration; was an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow in environmental science and engineering at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and conducted post-doctoral research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG) in Switzerland. I am an active member of the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), American Chemical Society, and American Geophysical Union. I currently serve on the Meetings Committee and 2018 Program Committee of SETAC North America, and I am an Associate Editor of the journal, Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal.
Science and Products
Influence of sediment chemistry and sediment toxicity on macroinvertebrate communities across 99 wadable streams of the Midwestern USA
Simultaneous assessment of sediment chemistry, sediment toxicity, and macroinvertebrate communities can provide multiple lines of evidence when investigating relations between sediment contaminants and ecological degradation. These three measures were evaluated at 99 wadable stream sites across 11 states in the Midwestern United States during the...
Moran, Patrick W.; Nowell, Lisa H.; Kemble, Nile E.; Mahler, Barbara; Waite, Ian R.; Van Metre, Peter C.Design and methods of the Midwest Stream Quality Assessment (MSQA), 2013
During 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment Project (NAWQA), in collaboration with the USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA), and the EPA Office of Pesticide Programs assessed stream quality across the Midwestern...
Garrett, Jessica D.; Frey, Jeffrey W.; Van Metre, Peter C.; Journey, Celeste A.; Nakagaki, Naomi; Button, Daniel T.; Nowell, Lisa H.Recovery data for surface water, groundwater and lab reagent samples analyzed by the USGS National Water Quality Laboratory schedule 2437, water years 2013-15
Analytical recovery is the concentration of an analyte measured in a water-quality sample expressed as a percentage of the known concentration added to the sample (Mueller and others, 2015). Analytical recovery (hereafter referred to as “recovery”) can be used to understand method bias and variability and to assess the temporal changes in a method...
Shoda, Megan E.; Nowell, Lisa H.; Bexfield, Laura M.; Sandstrom, Mark W.; Stone, Wesley W.Complex mixtures of Pesticides in Midwest U.S. streams indicated by POCIS time-integrating samplers
The Midwest United States is an intensely agricultural region where pesticides in streams pose risks to aquatic biota, but temporal variability in pesticide concentrations makes characterization of their exposure to organisms challenging. To compensate for the effects of temporal variability, we deployed polar organic chemical integrative samplers...
Van Metre, Peter C.; Alvarez, David; Mahler, Barbara; Nowell, Lisa H.; Sandstrom, Mark W.; Moran, Patrick W.Similarities and differences in occurrence and temporal fluctuations in glyphosate and atrazine in small Midwestern streams (USA) during the 2013 growing season
Glyphosate and atrazine are the most intensively used herbicides in the United States. Although there is abundant spatial and temporal information on atrazine occurrence at regional scales, there are far fewer data for glyphosate, and studies that compare the two herbicides are rare. We investigated temporal patterns in glyphosate and atrazine...
Mahler, Barbara; Van Metre, Peter C.; Burley, Thomas E.; Loftin, Keith A.; Meyer, Michael T.; Nowell, Lisa H.Concentrations of glyphosate and atrazine compounds in 100 Midwest United States streams in 2013
Temporal patterns in glyphosate and atrazine concentrations were measured weekly by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) during the 2013 growing season in 100 small streams in the Midwestern United States. Concentrations also were measured every 2 days at a subset of 8 of the sites, all located in Missouri. Glyphosate was detected more frequently in...
Mahler, Barbara J.; Van Metre, Peter C.; Burley, Thomas E.; Loftin, Keith A.; Meyer, Michael T.; Nowell, Lisa H.Prediction of pesticide toxicity in Midwest streams
The occurrence of pesticide mixtures is common in stream waters of the United States, and the impact of multiple compounds on aquatic organisms is not well understood. Watershed Regressions for Pesticides (WARP) models were developed to predict Pesticide Toxicity Index (PTI) values in unmonitored streams in the Midwest and are referred to as WARP-...
Shoda, Megan E.; Stone, Wesley W.; Nowell, Lisa H.Development and application of freshwater sediment-toxicity benchmarks for currently used pesticides
Sediment-toxicity benchmarks are needed to interpret the biological significance of currently used pesticides detected in whole sediments. Two types of freshwater sediment benchmarks for pesticides were developed using spiked-sediment bioassay (SSB) data from the literature. These benchmarks can be used to interpret sediment-toxicity data or to...
Nowell, Lisa H.; Norman, Julia E.; Ingersoll, Christopher G.; Moran, Patrick W.Pesticide Toxicity Index: a tool for assessing potential toxicity of pesticide mixtures to freshwater aquatic organisms
Pesticide mixtures are common in streams with agricultural or urban influence in the watershed. The Pesticide Toxicity Index (PTI) is a screening tool to assess potential aquatic toxicity of complex pesticide mixtures by combining measures of pesticide exposure and acute toxicity in an additive toxic-unit model. The PTI is determined separately...
Nowell, Lisa H.; Norman, Julia E.; Moran, Patrick W.; Martin, Jeffrey D.; Stone, Wesley W.Contaminants in stream sediments from seven United States metropolitan areas: part I: distribution in relation to urbanization
Organic contaminants and trace elements were measured in bed sediments collected from streams in seven metropolitan study areas across the United States to assess concentrations in relation to urbanization. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, organochlorine pesticides, the pyrethroid insecticide bifenthrin, and several...
Nowell, Lisa H.; Moran, Patrick W.; Gilliom, Robert J.; Calhoun, Daniel L.; Ingersoll, Christopher G.; Kemble, Nile E.; Kuivila, Kathryn ; Phillips, Patrick J.Contaminants in stream sediments from seven United States metropolitan areas: part II—sediment toxicity to the amphipod Hyalella azteca and the midge Chironomus dilutus
Relationships between sediment toxicity and sediment chemistry were evaluated for 98 samples collected from seven metropolitan study areas across the United States. Sediment-toxicity tests were conducted with the amphipod Hyalella azteca (28 day exposures) and with the midge Chironomus dilutus (10 day exposures). Overall, 33 % of the samples were...
Kemble, Nile E.; Hardesty, Douglas K.; Ingersoll, Christopher G.; Kunz, James L.; Sibley, Paul K.; Calhoun, Daniel L.; Gilliom, Robert J.; Kuivila, Kathryn ; Nowell, Lisa H.; Moran, Patrick W.Organic contaminants, trace and major elements, and nutrients in water and sediment sampled in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Beach water and sediment samples were collected along the Gulf of Mexico coast to assess differences in contaminant concentrations before and after landfall of Macondo-1 well oil released into the Gulf of Mexico from the sinking of the British Petroleum Corporation's Deepwater Horizon drilling platform. Samples were collected at 70 coastal sites...
Nowell, Lisa H.; Ludtke, Amy S.; Mueller, David K.; Scott, Jonathon C.