Sarah Stackpoole
Biography
I am a Research Ecologist with the US Geological Survey in Denver. I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, my graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and I joined the USGS in 2009. I use field studies along with large-scale data assimilation and statistical approaches to document surface water quality status and trends. I also use a variety of methods to integrate water quality metrics with climate and land-use datasets to identify drivers of change in surface water quality and potential stessors on human and aquatic ecosystem health.
Current and Past Projects:
- USGS National Water Quality Program Surface Water Status and Trends Team (2018 - present) - Document the impact of current and past anthropogenic phosphorus sources on soil saturation and water quality. Characterize the occurrence and distribution of pesticides in surface waters. https://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/swtrends/
- USGS LandCarbon Team (2009 - 2017) - Assimilate large-scale datasets and determine the best statistical models and extrapolation methods to provide an assessment of current rates of freshwater carbon storage, transport, and emissions for the conterminous United States and Alaska. https://www2.usgs.gov/climate_landuse/land_carbon/
Science and Products
Watershed-scale agricultural phosphorus balances and river export trends for the conterminous United States, 1992-2012
This product consists of two tabular datasets and associated metadata for major phosphorus fluxes including manure and fertilizer inputs, crop uptake, as well as waste water treatment facility effluent and river export. These are time series data representing water years 1992 to 2012 for watersheds associated with the National Water Quality Program Surface Water Trends project. Dataset 1: M...
Water quality, quantity, and gas fluxes of the Upper Mississippi River basin (WY 2012-2016)
This product consists of one tabular dataset and associated metadata of water quality information related to rivers, streams, and reservoirs in the Upper Mississippi River watershed between 2012 and 2016. This data release is apart of a national assessment of freshwater aquatic carbon fluxes. Data consist of organic and inorganic carbon related species, carbon dioxide and methane gas fluxes...
Pesticide mixtures show potential toxicity to aquatic life in U.S. streams, water years 2013-2017
During water years (WY) 2013–2017, the U.S. Geological Survey, National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project, sampled the National Water Quality Network – Rivers and Streams (NWQN) year-round and reported on 221 pesticides at 72 sites across the United States in agricultural, developed, and mixed land use watersheds. The Pesticide Toxicity...
Covert, S. Alex.; Shoda, Megan E.; Stackpoole, Sarah M.; Stone, Wesley W.Variable impacts of contemporary versus legacy agricultural phosphorus on US river water quality
Phosphorus (P) fertilizer has contributed to the eutrophication of freshwater ecosystems. Watershed-based conservation programs aiming to reduce external P loading to surface waters have not resulted in significant water-quality improvements. One factor that can help explain the lack of water-quality response is remobilization of accumulated...
Stackpoole, Sarah M.; Stets, Edward G.; Sprague, Lori A.Inland waters
1. The total flux of carbon—which includes gaseous emissions, lateral flux, and burial—from inland waters across the conterminous United States (CONUS) and Alaska is 193 teragrams of carbon (Tg C) per year. The dominant pathway for carbon movement out of inland waters is the emission of carbon dioxide gas across water surfaces of streams, rivers,...
Cavallaro, N.; Shrestha, G.; Birdsey, R.; Mayes, M. A.; Najjar, R.G.; Reed, S.C.; Romero-Lankao, P.; Zhu, Z.; Butman, David E.; Striegl, Robert G.; Stackpoole, Sarah M.; Del Giorgio, Paul; Prairie, Yves; Pilcher, Darren; Raymond, Peter; Paz Pellat, Fernando; Alcocer, JavierAssessing historical and projected carbon balance of Alaska: A synthesis of results and policy/management implications
We summarize the results of a recent interagency assessment of land carbon dynamics in Alaska, in which carbon dynamics were estimated for all major terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems for the historical period (1950–2009) and a projection period (2010–2099). Between 1950 and 2009, upland and wetland (i.e., terrestrial) ecosystems of the state...
McGuire, A. David; Genet, Hélène; Lyu, Zhou; Pastick, Neal J.; Stackpoole, Sarah M.; Birdsey, Richard; D'Amore, David; He, Yujie; Rupp, T. Scott; Striegl, Robert G.; Wylie, Bruce K.; Zhou, Xiaoping; Zhuang, Qianlai; Zhu, ZhiliangInland waters and their role in the carbon cycle of Alaska
The magnitude of Alaska (AK) inland waters carbon (C) fluxes is likely to change in the future due to amplified climate warming impacts on the hydrology and biogeochemical processes in high latitude regions. Although current estimates of major aquatic C fluxes represent an essential baseline against which future change can be compared, a...
Stackpoole, Sarah M.; Butman, David E.; Clow, David W.; Verdin, Kristine L.; Gaglioti, Benjamin V.; Genet, Hélène; Striegl, Robert G.Carbonate buffering and metabolic controls on carbon dioxide in rivers
Multiple processes support the significant efflux of carbon dioxide (CO2) from rivers and streams. Attribution of CO2 oversaturation will lead to better quantification of the freshwater carbon cycle and provide insights into the net cycling of nutrients and pollutants. CO2 production is closely related to O2consumption because of the...
Stets, Edward G.; Butman, David; McDonald, Cory P.; Stackpoole, Sarah M.; DeGrandpre, Michael D.; Striegl, Robert G.Spatial and temporal patterns of dissolved organic matter quantity and quality in the Mississippi River Basin, 1997–2013
Recent studies have found insignificant or decreasing trends in time-series dissolved organic carbon (DOC) datasets, questioning the assumption that long-term DOC concentrations in surface waters are increasing in response to anthropogenic forcing, including climate change, land use, and atmospheric acid deposition. We used the weighted...
Stackpoole, Sarah M.; Stets, Edward G.; Clow, David W.; Burns, Douglas A.; Aiken, George R.; Aulenbach, Brent T.; Creed, Irena F.; Hirsch, Robert M.; Laudon, Hjalmar; Pellerin, Brian; Striegl, Robert G.Aquatic carbon cycling in the conterminous United States and implications for terrestrial carbon accounting
Inland water ecosystems dynamically process, transport, and sequester carbon. However, the transport of carbon through aquatic environments has not been quantitatively integrated in the context of terrestrial ecosystems. Here, we present the first integrated assessment, to our knowledge, of freshwater carbon fluxes for the conterminous United...
Butman, David; Stackpoole, Sarah M.; Stets, Edward G.; McDonald, Cory P.; Clow, David W.; Striegl, Robert G.Organic carbon burial in lakes and reservoirs of the conterminous United States
Organic carbon (OC) burial in lacustrine sediments represents an important sink in the global carbon cycle; however, large-scale OC burial rates are poorly constrained, primarily because of the sparseness of available data sets. Here we present an analysis of OC burial rates in water bodies of the conterminous U.S. (CONUS) that takes advantage of...
Clow, David W.; Stackpoole, Sarah M.; Verdin, Kristine L.; Butman, David E.; Zhu, Zhi-Liang; Krabbenhoft, David P.; Striegl, Robert G.The river as a chemostat: fresh perspectives on dissolved organic matter flowing down the river continuum
A better understanding is needed of how hydrological and biogeochemical processes control dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations and dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition from headwaters downstream to large rivers. We examined a large DOM dataset from the National Water Information System of the US Geological Survey, which represents...
Creed, Irena F.; McKnight, Diane M.; Pellerin, Brian; Green, Mark B.; Bergamaschi, Brian; Aiken, George R.; Burns, Douglas A.; Findlay, Stuart E G; Shanley, James B.; Striegl, Robert G.; Aulenbach, Brent T.; Clow, David W.; Laudon, Hjalmar; McGlynn, Brian L.; McGuire, Kevin J.; Smith, Richard A.; Stackpoole, Sarah M.The impact of climate and reservoirs on longitudinal riverine carbon fluxes from two major watersheds in the Central and Intermontane West
A nested sampling network on the Colorado (CR) and Missouri Rivers (MR) provided data to assess impacts of large-scale reservoir systems and climate on carbon export. The Load Estimator (LOADEST) model was used to estimate both dissolved inorganic and organic carbon (DIC and DOC) fluxes for a total of 22 sites along the main stems of the CR and MR...
Stackpoole, Sarah M.; Stets, Edward G.; Striegl, Robert G.Baseline and projected future carbon storage and greenhouse-gas fluxes in ecosystems of the Western United States
This assessment was conducted to fulfill the requirements of section 712 of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 and to improve understanding of carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in ecosystems of the Western United States. The assessment examined carbon storage, carbon fluxes, and other GHG fluxes (methane and nitrous oxide...
Zhu, Zhi-Liang; Reed, Bradley C.Pre-USGS Publications
Phosphorus and River Water Quality
Investigating the effects of historical phosphorus on current river water quality.
Managing phosphorus in U.S. streams and rivers still a challenge
Despite decades of efforts to reduce phosphorus loads in streams, phosphorus continues to be a problem in many U.S. streams and rivers, causing explosive growth of aquatic plants and algae, including formation of harmful algal blooms. A new study by the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Program investigates why.