Patrick W Moran
Science and Products
Nutrients and Eutrophication
Like people, plants need nutrients, but too much of a good thing can be a problem. Nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, occur naturally, but most of the nutrients in our waterways come from human activities and sources—fertilizers, wastewater, automobile exhaust, animal waste. The USGS investigates the source, transport, and fate of nutrients and their impacts on the world around us....
Mercury
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that can affect the human nervous system. Eating fish contaminated with mercury can cause serious harm to people and wildlife.
Regional Stream Quality Assessment (RSQA)
The goals of the Regional Stream Quality Assessment (RSQA) are to characterize multiple water-quality factors that are stressors to aquatic life (contaminants, nutrients, sediment, and streamflow alteration) and to develop a better understanding of the relation of these stressors to ecological conditions in streams throughout the region.
Stillaguamish Emerging Contaminants
Emerging contaminants are a group of chemical compounds that generally include pharmaceuticals, personal-care products, surfactants, industrial and household chemicals, and food additives. Their presence in the environment is typically associated with discharges from wastewater treatment-plants (WWTP), on-site septic systems, and some animal production operations. They are of particular...
Lake Crescent
Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park is known for its clear, near-pristine water. Because the water is very low in plant nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, the lake is extremely susceptible to even small increases in nutrient levels, which could cause algal blooms and impact the health of three species of fish in the lake. Currently, the growth of bottom-dwelling algae in developed...
Regional Stream Quality Assessment Results Viewer
The Regional Stream Quality Assessment is a part of the National Water Quality Assessment project. The Results Viewer allows the user to visualize the water quality factors assessed, including total nitrogen, total phosphorus, dissolved oxygen, pesticide toxicity, sediment contaminants, pyrethroid pesticides, riparian buffers, fine sediment, and fish and macroinvertebrate...
Regional Stream Quality Assessment: Data Downloader
The Regional Stream Quality Assessment (RSQA) is a part of the National Water Quality Assessment project. The data downloader provides access to the water quality data that were assessed as a part of the RSQA study by region, state, and county.
Survey of bioaccessible pyrethroid insecticides and sediment toxicity in urban streams of the northeast United States
Pyrethroids are a class of widely-used insecticides that can be transported from terrestrial applications to aquatic systems via runoff and tend to sorb to organic carbon in sediments. Pyrethroid occurrence is detrimental to stream ecosystems due to toxicity to sediment-dwelling invertebrates which are particularly at risk of pyrethroid exposure...
Huff-Hartz, Kara E.; Nutile, Samuel A.; Fung, Courtney Y.; Sinche, Federico L.; Moran, Patrick W.; Van Metre, Peter C.; Nowell, Lisa H.; Lydy, Michael J. Effects of urban multi-stressors on three stream biotic assemblages
During 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment(NAWQA) project assessed stream quality in 75 streams across an urban disturbance gradient within the Piedmont ecoregion of southeastern United States. Our objectives were to identify primary instream stressors affecting algal, macroinvertebrate...
Waite, Ian R.; Munn, Mark D.; Moran, Patrick W.; Konrad, Christopher P.; Nowell, Lisa H.; Meador, Michael R.; Van Metre, Peter C.; Carlisle, Daren M. Effect of sample holding time on bioaccessibility and sediment ecotoxicological assessments
The ecotoxicological effects of hydrophobic organic compound (HOC) contamination in sediment are often assessed using laboratory exposures of cultured invertebrates to field-collected sediment. The use of a sediment holding time (storage at 4°C) between field sampling and the beginning of the bioassay is common practice, yet the effect of holding...
Huff Hartz, Kara S; Sinche, Federico L.; Nutile, Samuel A.; Fung, Courtney Y.; Moran, Patrick W.; Van Metre, Peter C.; Nowell, Lisa H.; Mills, Marc A.; Lydy, Michael J
Mercury methylation and bioaccumulation in Sinclair Inlet, Kitsap County, Washington
The U.S. Geological Survey evaluated the transformation of mercury to bioavailable methylmercury in Sinclair Inlet, Kitsap County, Washington, and assessed the effect of the transformation processes on the mercury burden in marine organisms and sediment. In August 2008, samples of sediment, water, and biota from six sites in Sinclair Inlet and...
Paulson, A.J.; Marvin-DiPasquale, M.C.; Moran, P.W.; Stewart, A.R.; DeWild, J.F.; Toft, J.; Agee, J.L.; Kakouros, E.; Kieu, Le H.; Carter, B.; Sheibley, R.W.; Cordell, J.; Krabbenhoft, David P. Juvenile coho salmon growth and health in streams across an urbanization gradient
Expanding human population and urbanization alters freshwater systems through structural changes to habitat, temperature effects from increased runoff and reduced canopy cover, altered flows, and increased toxicants. Current stream assessments stop short of measuring health or condition of species utilizing these freshwater habitats and fail to...
Spanjer, Andrew R.; Moran, Patrick W.; Larsen, Kimberly; Wetzel, Lisa; Hansen, Adam G.; Beauchamp, David A. Complex mixtures of dissolved pesticides show potential aquatic toxicity in a synoptic study of Midwestern U.S. streams
Aquatic organisms in streams are exposed to pesticide mixtures that vary in composition over time in response to changes in flow conditions, pesticide inputs to the stream, and pesticide fate and degradation within the stream. To characterize mixtures of dissolved-phase pesticides and degradates in Midwestern streams, a synoptic study was...
Nowell, Lisa H.; Moran, Patrick W.; Schmidt, Travis S.; Norman, Julia E.; Nakagaki, Naomi; Shoda, Megan E.; Mahler, Barbara J.; Van Metre, Peter C.; Stone, Wesley W.; Sandstrom, Mark W.; Hladik, Michelle L. 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 J.; Waite, Ian R.; Van Metre, Peter C.
Suspended sediment, turbidity, and stream water temperature in the Sauk River Basin, western Washington, water years 2012-16
The Sauk River is a federally designated Wild and Scenic River that drains a relatively undisturbed landscape along the western slope of the North Cascade Mountain Range, Washington, which includes the glaciated volcano, Glacier Peak. Naturally high sediment loads characteristic of basins draining volcanoes like Glacier Peak make the Sauk River a...
Jaeger, Kristin L.; Curran, Christopher A.; Anderson, Scott W.; Morris, Scott T.; Moran, Patrick W.; Reams, Katherine A. 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 J.; Nowell, Lisa H.; Sandstrom, Mark W.; Moran, Patrick W.
Monitoring plant tissue nitrogen isotopes to assess nearshore inputs of nitrogen to Lake Crescent, Olympic National Park, Washington
Mats of filamentous-periphytic algae present in some nearshore areas of Lake Crescent, Olympic National Park, Washington, may indicate early stages of eutrophication from nutrient enrichment of an otherwise highly oligotrophic lake. Natural abundance ratios of stable isotopes of nitrogen (δ15N) measured in plant tissue growing in nearshore areas...
Cox, Stephen E.; Moran, Patrick W.; Huffman, Raegan L.; Fradkin, Steven C. 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.
Contaminant removal by wastewater treatment plants in the Stillaguamish River Basin, Washington
Human activities in most areas of the developed world typically release nutrients, pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides, and other contaminants into the environment, many of which reach freshwater ecosystems. In urbanized areas, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are critical facilities for collecting and reducing the amounts of...
Barbash, Jack E.; Moran, Patrick W.; Wagner, Richard J.; Wolanek, Michael