George, S.D., Baldigo, B.P., Smith, A.J. and Robinson, G.R. (2015). Effects of an Extreme Flood on Aquatic Biota in a Catskill Mountain River. Summary report #15-08. Prepared for New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
Scott George
Biography
Scott George is a biologist in the Watersheds Research Section of the USGS New York Water Science Center in Troy, NY. He recently completed a master's degree at the State University at Albany (SUNY) in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology on the impact of severe flooding on lotic biota. Scott's current research is aimed at better understanding riverine fish, benthic macroinvertebrate, and periphyton communities and the disturbances that impact them. Specific ongoing projects include monitoring the expansion of Round Goby towards the Hudson River using environmental DNA and other methods, studying the recovery of fish assemblages in acid-impacted Catskill Mountain streams, and evaluating the toxicity of sediments to benthic macroinvertebrates in Great Lakes Areas of Concern.
EDUCATION:
- M.S., State University of New York, Albany, NY; Major – Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 2014
- M.A., State University of New York, Albany, NY; Major – Social Studies, 2010
- B.A. (Magna Cum Laude), Siena College, Loudonville, NY; Major – History Education, 2008
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:
- American Fisheries Society
- New York State Chapter of the American Fisheries Society
- Society For Freshwater Science
- Trout Unlimited
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
- Biologist; U.S. Geological Survey, Troy, NY; 2011-present: Coordinates projects and provides field support and data analysis to other ongoing projects concerning: acidification, extreme hydrologic events, flow-modification, trout population dynamics, water temperatures, and other stressors in stream ecosystems.
- Intern; NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Stream Biomonitoring Unit (SBU), Troy, NY; 2010-2011: Processed benthic macroinvertebrate kick samples, locating and identifying organisms to the ordinal level. Conducted literature review of present lake biomonitoring methods for future integration into SBU Standard Operating Procedure.
Science and Products
Date published: March 18, 2020
Status: Active Response of fish assemblages and habitat to stream restoration in the Ashokan Watershed
Background: Streams are ecologically, culturally, and economically important systems that are subject to impacts from a large array of human activities. There has been a relatively recent increase in efforts to manage, protect, and restore streams that have experienced physical, chemical, and biological degradation. Unfortunately, interest in any single restoration effort tends to be...
Contacts: Scott George
Date published: November 21, 2019
Status: Active Areas of Concern: 18 Mile Creek AOC - Fish Community Characterizations
The downstream-most section of Eighteen Mile Creek (also listed as the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (USEPA) superfund site EIGHTEENMILE CREEK LOCKPORT, NY), a tributary to the south shore of Lake Ontario in New York, was designated as an Area of Concern (AOC) because water quality and bed sediments were contaminated by past industrial and municipal discharges, waste disposal, and...
Contacts: Scott George
Attribution: Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Cost Center
Date published: November 12, 2019
Status: Active Areas of Concern: Niagara River
USGS scientists participated in several projects supporting work in the Niagara River Area of Concern including: 1) Evaluating toxicity in Benthos Sediment, 2) Tracking PCB Sources in the AOC, and Identifying Source Areas Contributing to Contaminants Found in Fish Tissue.
Attribution: Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Cost Center
Date published: September 17, 2019
Status: Active Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern Fish Community Assessment
Background: Eighteenmile Creek was designated as an Area of Concern (AOC) in 1985 because water quality and bed sediments were contaminated by past industrial and municipal discharges, waste disposal, and pesticide usage. Five Beneficial Use Impairments (BUIs) were identified in the Eighteenmile Creek AOC, including BUI #3 - the degradation of fish and wildlife populations. The remedial action...
Contacts: Scott George, Barry P Baldigo
Date published: September 5, 2019
Status: Active Status of American Eel populations in the Mohawk River Basin
Background: The waters of the Mohawk River basin are inhabited by one of the richest fish communities on the East Coast. The American Eel, Anguilla rostrata, is a unique member of this community, exhibiting a catadramous (maturing in fresh water and spawning in salt water) life history. Like many migratory fish, the American Eel has suffered a general decline across the East Coast largely...
Contacts: Scott George, Barry P Baldigo
Date published: April 26, 2019
Status: Active Contaminants in fish tissues from AOCs in New York State: The Niagara River AOC
DEC collaborators collect fish from a Niagara River tributary using an electrofishing boat The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and Department of Health (NYSDOH), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are gathering data on chemical contaminants in fish from multiple Areas of Concern (AOCs) in New York State and plan to use this information to evaluate fish cons...
Contacts: Scott George, Barry P Baldigo
Date published: September 4, 2018
Status: Active Niagara River AOC-wide Benthos BUI Assessment
A USGS biologist prepares to collect a sediment sample using a petit ponar dredge. Background:The Niagara River forms the boundary between the United States and Canada and was designated as a binational Area of Concern (AOC) in 1987 because past industrial discharges and hazardous waste sites had caused extensive degradation of aquatic habitats. Within the United States (eastern) portion of...
Contacts: Scott George, Barry P Baldigo, Brian Duffy
Date published: August 30, 2018
Status: Active Quantitative Fish Surveys of Mohawk River Tributaries
Background Fish communities of the mainstem Mohawk River and Barge Canal have been well-documented (Carlson, 2015; George et al., 2016) but comparatively less information is available regarding the current status of fish communities in tributaries to the Mohawk River. This information gap is problematic because long-term shifts in species distributions or abundances due to climate change,...
Contacts: Scott George, Barry P Baldigo
Date published: May 4, 2018
Status: Active Long-term trends in Rainbow Trout growth and naturalized populations in the Ashokan Basin
Background: Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) have thrived in the Esopus Creek since their introduction in the 1880s. The construction of the Ashokan Reservoir in 1915 changed the fishery by providing a stable lentic environment where adult trout could grow large and find refuge during periods when stream conditions become stressful. Although many adult Rainbow Trout spend time in the...
Contacts: Scott George, Barry P Baldigo
Date published: October 31, 2017
Status: Active Monitoring the Status and Expansion of Round Goby Populations in the Mohawk River/Barge Canal System
Background: The waters of the Mohawk River and its tributaries are inhabited by some of the most diverse fish communities in the Northeast. The construction of the Erie Canal in 1825, and later the Barge Canal in 1918, enabled the westward expansion of fishes from the Hudson River drainage as well as the eastward expansion of fishes indigenous to the Great Lakes drainage. Today, almost half of...
Contacts: Barry P Baldigo, Scott George, Christopher Rees
Date published: October 27, 2017
Status: Active Contaminants in fish tissues from AOCs in New York State: The Buffalo River AOC 2-year post remediation
Background The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and Department of Health (NYSDOH), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) plan to obtain data on chemical contaminants in fish from multiple Areas of Concern (AOCs) in New York State and use this information to evaluate fish consumption advisories, which are a critical component of most removal criteria for “...
Contacts: Barry P Baldigo, Scott George
Date published: September 13, 2017
Status: Active New York Statewide Fish Collection: Contaminants in fish from the Buffalo River AOC
Background: The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) plan to obtain data on chemical contaminants in fish from multiple Areas of Concern (AOCs) in New York State and use this information to evaluate fish consumption advisories, which are a critical component of most removal criteria for “Restriction on Fish and Wildlife...
Contacts: Barry P Baldigo, Scott George, Damianos Skaros
Date published: January 1, 2018
Data for impacts of introduced Alewife and White Perch on growth of Rainbow Trout in the Ashokan Reservoir, Catskill Mountains, New York
This dataset contains the results from aging and back-calculation of length-at-age of scale samples from 502 Rainbow Trout captured in the Ashokan Reservoir between 1952 and 2017. The first six columns contain collection information including an assigned fish number, the year and period of capture, the basin of the Ashokan Reservoir from which a fish was captured, and the length and weight
Attribution: New York Water Science Center
Date published: January 1, 2017
Data for effects of watershed and in-stream liming on macroinvertebrate communities in acidified tributaries to an Adirondack lake
In 2012, a program was initiated using in-stream and aerial (whole-watershed) liming to improve water quality and Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) recruitment in three acidified tributaries of a high-elevation Adirondack lake in New York State. Concurrently, macroinvertebrates were sampled annually between 2013 and 2016 at 3 treated and 3 untreated reference sites to assess the eff
Attribution: New York Water Science Center
Date published: December 20, 2016
Data for assessing the status of sediment toxicity and macroinvertebrate communities in the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern, New York, 2014
Data from 10-day sediment toxicity tests of bed sediments from the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern and Oak Orchard Creek (nearby reference stream), Niagara and Orleans County, New York, respectively. Specifically, the data was used to compare the survival and growth of two macroinvertebrate species in sediments from study sites and laboratory controls. Results are from 10-day sedim
Attribution: New York Water Science Center
Year Published: 2021
Considerations of variability and power for long-term monitoring of stream fish assemblages
Little attention has been given to optimizing statistical power for monitoring stream fish assemblages. We explored the relationship between temporal variability and statistical power using 34 metrics from fish community data collected annually at six sites over 10 years via electrofishing. Metric variability differed by the life stage and group...
George, Scott D.; Daniel Stich; Baldigo, Barry P.Attribution: New York Water Science Center, Water Resources
Year Published: 2021
Eastward expansion of Round Goby in New York: Assessment of detection methods and current range
The Round Goby Neogobius melanostomus has spread rapidly around the Great Lakes region since its introduction to North America in 1990. In 2014, a specimen was captured in the New York State Canal System west of Utica, prompting concerns that Round Goby would soon reach the ecologically and economically valuable watersheds of Lake...
George, Scott D.; Baldigo, Barry P.; Rees, Christopher B.; Bartron, Meredith L.; Winterhalter, Dylan RAttribution: New York Water Science Center, Water Resources
Year Published: 2021
Biological and chemical recovery of acidified Catskill Mountain streams in response to the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990
Decades of acidic deposition have adversely affected aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in acid-sensitive watersheds in parts of the eastern United States. The national Acid Rain Program (Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments - CAAA) helped reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) and resulted in sharp decreases...
Baldigo, Barry P.; George, Scott D.; Winterhalter, Dylan R; McHale, MichaelAttribution: New York Water Science Center, Water Resources
Year Published: 2020
Decreases in aluminum toxicity and mortality of caged brook trout in Adirondack Mountain Streams
Mortality of juvenile brook trout and water chemistry were characterized in six western Adirondack streams in northern New York State during spring 2015, 2016, and 2017 and compared with results from comparable tests done between 1980 and 2003 in many of the same streams to assess temporal changes in inorganic monomeric aluminum (Ali)...
Baldigo, Barry P.; George, Scott D.Attribution: New York Water Science Center, Water Resources
Year Published: 2020
Mercury in fish from streams and rivers in New York State: Spatial patterns, temporal changes, and environmental drivers
Mercury (Hg) concentrations in freshwater fish across the state of New York frequently exceed guidelines considered harmful to humans and wildlife, but statewide distribution and temporal changes are not well known for the state’s streams and rivers. We analyzed existing data to describe recent spatial patterns, identify key environmental drivers...
Riva-Murray, Karen; Richter, Wayne; Razavi, N Roxanna; Burns, Douglas A.; Cleckner, Lisa B; Burton, Mark; George, Scott D.; Freehafer, Douglas A.Attribution: New York Water Science Center, Water Resources
Year Published: 2020
Predictive relations between acid-base chemistry and fish assemblages in streams of the Adirondack Mountains
Surface waters across much of New York State’s Adirondack Mountains were acidified in the late 20th century but began to recover following the 1990 Title IV Amendments to the Clean Air Act. Previous assessments of acidification recovery in the Adirondacks have generally been based on surface water chemistry data and inferred relationships to fish...
Bertok, Diane; Baldigo, Barry P.; George, Scott D.Attribution: New York Water Science Center, Water Resources
Year Published: 2019
Response of water chemistry and young-of-year brook trout to channel and watershed liming in streams showing lagging recovery from acidic deposition
Reductions in sulfur emissions have initiated chemical recovery of surface waters impacted by acidic deposition in the Adirondack region of New York State. However, acidified streams remain common in the region, which limits recovery of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) populations. To investigate liming as a method to accelerate recovery of...
Josephson, Daniel C; Lawrence, Gregory B.; George, Scott D.; Siemion, Jason; Baldigo, Barry P.; Kraft, Clifford E.Attribution: New York Water Science Center, Water Resources
Year Published: 2019
Resilience of benthic macroinvertebrates to extreme floods in a Catskill Mountain river, New York, USA: Implications for water quality monitoring and assessment
Changes in the timing, magnitude, frequency, and duration of extreme hydrologic events are becoming apparent and could disrupt species assemblages and stream ecosystems across the Northeastern United States. Between August 28 and 29 of 2011, an average of 31 cm of rain from Tropical Storm Irene fell across Eastern New York State in less than 24 h...
Smith, Alexander J.; Baldigo, Barry P.; Duffy, Brian T; George, Scott D.; Dresser, BrianAttribution: New York Water Science Center, Water Resources
Year Published: 2019
Spatial and temporal variability of fish assemblages in acidified streams: Implications for long-term monitoring
Numerous studies have established strong linkages between acid deposition, soil and surface-water acidification, and toxicity to aquatic biota. Little is known however, about the effects of acidification on fish assemblages in headwater streams because they are highly variable, and pre-acidification data are often lacking. The primary purpose of...
George, Scott D.; Baldigo, Barry P.; Lawrence, Gregory B.Attribution: New York Water Science Center, Water Resources
View Citation
New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA). 2019. “Spatial and Temporal Variability of Fish Assemblages in Acidified Streams: Implications for Long-Term Monitoring” NYSERDA Report Number 19-29. Prepared by the U.S. Geological Society, Troy, NY. nyserda.ny.gov/publications
Year Published: 2019
Temporal variability in stream fish assemblage metrics and implications for long-term monitoring
High natural variability in the condition of fish communities in headwater streams complicates detection of long-term responses to changes in water quality. As a result, little is known about the impacts and recovery of fishes from acid deposition in streams of New York. Twenty-one fish metrics from annual electrofishing surveys at 13 streams...
George, Scott D.; Baldigo, Barry P.; Stich, Daniel S.Attribution: New York Water Science Center, Water Resources
Year Published: 2019
Acidification impacts and goals for gauging recovery of Brook Trout populations and fish communities in streams of the Western Adirondack Mountains, New York, USA
Results from several long‐term monitoring programs in the western Adirondack Mountains, New York, indicate that acid–base chemistry of headwater streams has remained unchanged or improved only marginally since the 1990s. A paucity of quantitative fishery data, however, limits our understanding of the pre‐acidified communities as well as present‐...
Baldigo, Barry; George, Scott; Lawrence, Gregory; Paul, EricAttribution: New York Water Science Center, Water Resources
Year Published: 2018
Changes in growth of Rainbow Trout in a Catskill Mountain Reservoir following Alewife and White Perch Introductions
Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss were introduced to the Esopus Creek watershed in the Catskill Mountains of New York in the early 1880s. This introduction created a renowned naturalized fishery that remains important to the local economy today. The objective of this study was to determine whether the growth and condition of Rainbow...
George, Scott D.; Baldigo, Barry P.; Flaherty, Michael J.; Randall, Eileen A.Attribution: New York Water Science Center, Water Resources
View Citation
Changes in Growth of Rainbow Trout in a Catskill Mountain Reservoir Following Alewife and White Perch Introductions. (2018). North American Journal of Fisheries Management., 38(5), 1027–1038. https://doi.org/10.1002/nafm.10203
Pre-USGS Publications
Date published: March 23, 2021
Field Photo Friday Winner for March 2021
Kent Smith installing a Crest Stage Gage (CSG) on March 17th, 2021, while Jared Marion, Ron Johnson, Scott Holewinski, and John Wernly upgrade USGS 04230650 GENESEE R AT BALLANTYNE BRIDGE NEAR MORTIMER NY to an index velocity river gage for the New York State Canal Corporation. (Credit: John Wernly, USGS NY WSC, Public domain.)