Publications

Elevated nitrate (NO3) and sulfate (SO4) in surface water are of global concern, and studies are needed to generate toxicity data to develop environmental guideline values for NO3 and SO4. The present study was designed to fill existing gaps in toxicity databases by determining the acute and/or chronic toxicity of NO3 (tested as NaNO3) to a unionid mussel (Lampsilis siliquoidea), a midge

A new method was developed to assess the effect of matrix diffusion on contaminant transport and remediation of groundwater in fractured rock. This method utilizes monitoring wells constructed of open boreholes in fractured rock to conduct backward diffusion experiments on chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) in groundwater. The experiments are performed on relatively...

Southern Leopard Frogs, Lithobates sphenocephalus (Cope, 1889), lay eggs year-round in their southern range, including Louisiana, but their peak breeding season is the cooler months from late fall through early spring (Mount, 1975; Caldwell, 1986; Dundee and Rossman, 1989). Double-enveloped eggs in globular masses are typically deposited in shallow water, but deeper waters are used when

Mangroves are expanding poleward along coastlines globally as a response to rising temperatures and reduced incidence of freezing under climate change. Yet, knowledge of mangrove responses to infrequent cold events in the context of future global and regional environmental changes is limited. We initiated a mesocosm experiment in which the seedlings of two mangrove species were grown...

The chapter starts by addressing some of the issues that come from not using a conceptual framework. This point is illustrated using an example with causal factors. The chapter then goes on to explain the mechanics of establishing conceptual frameworks. Lastly, it lays out a step-by-step guide on how to create a framework—generating a set of concepts, specifying the relations between...

Low-lying public lands along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast are vulnerable to sea-level rise. Coastal planners and resource managers in the region have requested customized information that can be used to concisely communicate local sea-level rise scenarios and identify potential impacts to the missions of management agencies. In this project, researchers worked with the Northern Gulf...

Conservation biology is a rapidly evolving discipline, with its synthetic, multidisciplinary framework expanding extensively in recent years. Seemingly disparate disciplines, such as behavior and physiology, are being integrated into this discipline's growing portfolio, resulting in diverse tools that can help develop conservation solutions. Behavior and physiology have traditionally...

Two Pagers for Federally Managed Lands The Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative partnered with individuals at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Wetland and Aquatic Research Center and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to produce customized two-pager information sheets for federal coastal refuges, parks, and reserves across the northern Gulf of Mexico (i.e., sea-level rise...

Groundwater levels and stream stage were monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Friends of Herring River, at 19 sites in the Mill Creek Basin, a tributary of the Herring River in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, on outer Cape Cod, to provide baseline data prior to a proposed restoration of tidal flow to the Herring River estuary at the Cape Cod National Seashore. Tidal...

Submarine canyons are often morphologically complex features in the deep sea contributing to habitat heterogeneity. In addition, they act as major conduits of organic matter from the shallow productive shelf to the food deprived deep-sea, promoting gradients in food resources and areas of sediment resuspension and deposition. This study focuses on the Baltimore and Norfolk canyons, in...

Landbirds in the Gulf of Mexico region include an ecologically diverse group of taxa that depend on a wide range of terrestrial habitats and the airspace above them. For the GoMAMN region of the Gulf of Mexico, the Landbird Working Group identified 19 species from 12 families as priorities for monitoring (Table 3.1). In addition, all species that stopover within the GoMAMN region during...

Carbon stock trends of the knees of Taxodium distichum likely vary across climate gradients of the southeastern United States and contribute an unknown quantity of “teal” carbon to inland freshwater wetlands. Knee metrics (e.g., density, height, biomass) were measured in mixed T. distichum swamps across the Mississippi River Alluvial Valley (MRAV) from Illinois to Louisiana. Based on...