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At least 847 records · Page 47Linked to original sources
USGS2008

Coast salish and U.S. Geological Survey: Tribal journey water quality project

The ancestral waters of the Coast Salish People, the Salish Sea, comprise a large inland sea contained within both United States (Puget Sound) and Canadian (Georgia Strait) territory. The Salish Sea is home to more than 220 species of fish, 29 species of marine mammals, more than 40 species of commercial and recreationally harvested invertebrates, and numerous resident and migratory bird species (Washington Sea Grant Program, 2000). Unfortunately, at least 60 of these marine based species are listed as threatened, endangered or of concern (Fraser and others, 2006), many of which sustained Coast Salish for millennia and are of essential cultural importance. The cumulative impacts of human activities and climate change are deteriorating coastal ecosystems and accelerating the loss of ecologically and culturally important marine resources. Watershed modifications, coastal development and industrial activities are altering river and tidal flow, sediment transport, and nutrient delivery all across the region, leading to the break down of ecosystem functions and decreasing biodiversity, thus changing the face of the Salish Sea. A cooperative trans-boundary partnership between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Government of Canada has identified Salish Sea indicators of health. Several of these indicators have been noted as having degrading quality including urbanization and forest change, river, stream, and lake quality, marine species at risk, toxics in harbor seals, and marine water quality conditions (USEPA, 2008). The functioning of the Salish Sea ecosystem is increasingly threatened by ever more frequent observations and expanding zones of anoxia. The complexities of monitoring, protecting, and restoring such a large and diverse geographical area are exacerbated by a political border. The Coast Salish Peoples and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have commenced on a partnership to examine water quality throughout the Georgia Straits and Puget Sound, blending tradition and science, in response to this deterioration of coastal environments and loss of essential habitats and marine resources of cultural and ecological importance throughout the ancestral waters of the Salish Sea. This report describes the Coast Salish Tribal Journey Water Quality Project, its inception, the results of the 2008 Tribal Journey project, lessons learned, and recommendations for future directions.

Report↗
USGS2009

Facilitating adaptive management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed through the use of online decision support tools

The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) is attempting to more strategically implement management actions to improve the health of the Nation’s largest estuary. In 2007 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) CBP office began a joint effort to develop a suite of Internetaccessible decision-support tools and to help meet the needs of CBP partners to improve water quality and habitat conditions in the Chesapeake Bay and its watersheds. An adaptive management framework is being used to provide a structured decision process for information and individual tools needed to implement and assess practices to improve the condition of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The Chesapeake Online Adaptive Support Toolkit (COAST) is a collection of web-based analytical tools and information, organized in an adaptive management framework, intended to aid decisionmakers in protecting and restoring the integrity of the Bay ecosystem. The initial version of COAST is focused on water quality issues. During early and mid- 2008, initial ideas for COAST were shared and discussed with various CBP partners and other potential user groups. At these meetings, test cases were selected to help improve understanding of the types of information and analytical functionality that would be most useful for specific partners’ needs. These discussions added considerable knowledge about the nature of decisionmaking for Federal, State, local and nongovernmental partners. Version 1.0 of COAST, released in early winter of 2008, will be further reviewed to determine improvements needed to address implementation and assessment of water quality practices. Future versions of COAST may address other aspects of ecosystem restoration, including restoration of habitat and living resources and maintaining watershed health.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2010

Cladophora in the Great Lakes: Impacts on beach water quality and human health

Cladophora in the Great Lakes grows rapidly during the warm summer months, detaches, and becomes free-floating mats as a result of environmental conditions, eventually becoming stranded on recreational beaches. Cladophora provides protection and nutrients, which allow enteric bacteria such as Escherichia coli , enterococci, Shigella , Campylobacter , and Salmonella to persist and potentially regrow in the presence of the algae. As a result of wind and wave action, these microorganisms can detach and be released to surrounding waters and can influence water quality. Enteric bacterial pathogens have been detected in Cladophora mats; E. coli and enterococci may populate to become part of the naturalized microbiota in Cladophora ; the high densities of these bacteria may affect water quality, resulting in unnecessary beach closures. The continued use of traditional fecal indicators at beaches with Cladophora presence is inadequate at accurately predicting the presence of fecal contamination. This paper offers a substantial review of available literature to improve the knowledge of Cladophora impacts on water quality, recreational water monitoring, fecal indicator bacteria and microorganisms, and public health and policy.

Water Science and Technology↗
USGS2020

Freshwater neurotoxins and concerns for human, animal, and ecosystemhealth: A review of anatoxin-a and saxitoxin

Toxic cyanobacteria are a concern worldwide because they can adversely affect humans, animals, and ecosystems. However, neurotoxins produced by freshwater cyanobacteria are understudied relative to microcystin. Thus, the objective of this critical review was to provide a comprehensive examination of the modes of action, production, fate, and occurrence of the freshwater neurotoxins anatoxin-a and saxitoxin as they relate to human, animal, and ecosystem health. Literature on freshwater anatoxin-a and saxitoxin was obtained and reviewed for both laboratory and field studies. Current (2020) research identifies as many as 41 anatoxin-a producing species and 15 saxitoxin-producing species of freshwater cyanobacteria. Field studies indicate that anatoxin-a and saxitoxin have widespread distribution, and examples are given from every continent except Antarctica. Human and animal health concerns can range from acute to chronic. However, few researchers studied chronic or sublethal effects of freshwater exposures to anatoxin-a or saxitoxin. Ecosystemhealth also is a concern, as the effects of toxicity may be far reaching and include consequences throughout the food web. Several gaps in knowledgewere identified for anatoxin-a and saxitoxin, including triggers of production and release, environmental fate and degradation, primary and secondary exposure routes, diel variation, food web effects, effects of cyanotoxin mixtures, and sublethal health effects on individual organisms and populations. Despite the gaps, this critical review facilitates our current understanding of freshwater neurotoxins and thus can serve to guide future research on anatoxin-a, saxitoxin, and other cyanotoxins.

Science of the Total Environment↗
USGS2017

A regional assessment of chemicals of concern in surface waters of four Midwestern United States national parks

Anthropogenic chemicals and their potential for adverse biological effects raise concern for aquatic ecosystem health in protected areas. During 2013–15, surface waters of four Midwestern United States national parks were sampled and analyzed for wastewater indicators, pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and pesticides. More chemicals and higher concentrations were detected at the two parks with greater urban influences (Mississippi National River and Recreation Area and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore) than at the two more remote parks (Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and Isle Royale National Park). Atrazine (10–15 ng/L) and N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide (16–120 ng/L) were the only chemicals detected in inland lakes of a remote island national park (Isle Royale National Park). Bisphenol A and organophosphate flame retardants were commonly detected at the other sampled parks. Gabapentin and simazine had the highest observed concentrations (> 1000 ng/L) in three and two samples, respectively. At the two parks with urban influences, metolachlor and simazine concentrations were similar to those reported for other major urban rivers in the United States. Environmental concentrations of detected chemicals were often orders of magnitude less than standards or reference values with three exceptions: (1) hydrochlorothiazide exceeded a human health-based screening value in seven samples, (2) estrone exceeded a predicted critical environmental concentration for fish pharmacological effects in one sample, and (3) simazine was approaching the 4000 ng/L Maximum Contaminant Level in one sample even though this concentration is not expected to reflect peak pesticide use. Although few environmental concentrations were approaching or exceeded standards or reference values, concentrations were often in ranges reported to elicit effects in aquatic biota. Data from this study will assist in establishing a baseline for chemicals of concern in Midwestern national parks and highlight the need to better understand the sources, pathways, and potential adverse effects to aquatic systems in national parks.

Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin↗
USGS2015

Understanding uncertainty in temperature effects on vector-borne disease: a Bayesian approach

Extrinsic environmental factors influence the distribution and population dynamics of many organisms, including insects that are of concern for human health and agriculture. This is particularly true for vector-borne infectious diseases like malaria, which is a major source of morbidity and mortality in humans. Understanding the mechanistic links between environment and population processes for these diseases is key to predicting the consequences of climate change on transmission and for developing effective interventions. An important measure of the intensity of disease transmission is the reproductive number R 0 . However, understanding the mechanisms linking R 0 and temperature, an environmental factor driving disease risk, can be challenging because the data available for parameterization are often poor. To address this, we show how a Bayesian approach can help identify critical uncertainties in components of R 0 and how this uncertainty is propagated into the estimate of R 0 . Most notably, we find that different parameters dominate the uncertainty at different temperature regimes: bite rate from 15°C to 25°C; fecundity across all temperatures, but especially ~25–32°C; mortality from 20°C to 30°C; parasite development rate at ~15–16°C and again at ~33–35°C. Focusing empirical studies on these parameters and corresponding temperature ranges would be the most efficient way to improve estimates of R 0 . While we focus on malaria, our methods apply to improving process-based models more generally, including epidemiological, physiological niche, and species distribution models.

Ecology↗
USGS1998

Walden Pond, Massachusetts: Environmental setting and current investigations

Introduction Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, is famous among lakes because of its unique social history. Walden was the setting for American naturalist Henry David Thoreau's well-known essay 'Walden; or, Life in the Woods,' first published in 1854. Thoreau lived and wrote at Walden Pond from July 1845 to September 1847. In 'Walden,' Thoreau combined highly admired writing on Transcendental philosophy with pioneering observations of aquatic ecology and physical aspects of limnology, the study of lakes. Because Thoreau also defended so effectively the value of living close to nature in the Walden woods, the pond is considered by many to be the birthplace of the American conservation movement. Visitors come from all over the world to the pond, which has been designated a National Historic Landmark, and its fame has resulted in a major fund drive to preserve the surrounding woods. Walden Pond has no surfacewater inflow or outflow, and much of its ground-water contributing area likely is preserved within the Walden Pond Reservation area (fig. 1). Only 15 miles from Boston, the pond is unusually clear and pristine for an urban-area lake. However, point sources of nutrients near the pond, and a large annual visitor attendance, concentrated during the summer when the swimming beach (fig. 2) is open, may contribute a nutrient load sufficient to change the pond environment. The occurrence of nuisance algal species, a recent beach closing, and an awareness of water-quality problems suffered by other ponds in the region raise concerns about the risk of ecological change at Walden Pond. Despite the role of Walden Pond as a cultural and environmental icon, little is known about the pond's ecological features, such as its internal nutrient cycling or the structure of its food web, nor have consistent measurements been made to determine whether these features are changing or are stable. Production rates of aquatic plants in lakes and ponds naturally undergo a slow increase as plant nutrients, organic matter, and soil are leached and eroded from the surrounding watershed. This process is known as eutrophication. The term 'cultural eutrophication' refers to an accelerated form of the natural process in which extra soil and nutrients are derived from people's use of fertilizer, rerouting of surface drainage, and disposal of domestic and industrial waste. Cultural eutrophication can lead to excessive growth of aquatic plants, pond filling by decayed plants and eroded soils, reduced water clarity, and depletion of dissolved oxygen in deep water with subsequent loss of cold-water fish habitat. In order to document the longterm ecological health of Walden Pond, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), working in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management (MDEM), is investigating factors that could contribute to cultural eutrophication of Walden. Through measurements of mass balance of nutrients and oxygen in the pond's deep water, the investigation will establish a baseline data set on Walden's trophic state, which is a measure of the pond's ability to support plant growth. The baseline data will be used to detect trends and give early warning of trophic changes or trophic response to pond remediation projects. This Fact Sheet provides background information on the environmental setting, limnological features, and cultural eutrophication of Walden Pond, and describes the joint USGS/MDEM study.

Massachusetts↗
USGS2010

Effects of wastewater effluent discharge and treatment facility upgrades on environmental and biological conditions of the upper Blue River, Johnson County, Kansas and Jackson County, Missouri, January 2003 through March 2009

The Johnson County Blue River Main Wastewater Treatment Facility discharges into the upper Blue River near the border between Johnson County, Kansas and Jackson County, Missouri. During 2005 through 2007 the wastewater treatment facility underwent upgrades to increase capacity and include biological nutrient removal. The effects of wastewater effluent on environmental and biological conditions of the upper Blue River were assessed by comparing an upstream site to two sites located downstream from the wastewater treatment facility. Environmental conditions were evaluated using previously and newly collected discrete and continuous data, and were compared with an assessment of biological community composition and ecosystem function along the upstream-downstream gradient. This evaluation is useful for understanding the potential effects of wastewater effluent on water quality, biological community structure, and ecosystem function. In addition, this information can be used to help achieve National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) wastewater effluent permit requirements after additional studies are conducted. The effects of wastewater effluent on the water-quality conditions of the upper Blue River were most evident during below-normal and normal streamflows (about 75 percent of the time), when wastewater effluent contributed more than 20 percent to total streamflow. The largest difference in water-quality conditions between the upstream and downstream sites was in nutrient concentrations. Total and inorganic nutrient concentrations at the downstream sites during below-normal and normal streamflows were 4 to 15 times larger than at the upstream site, even after upgrades to the wastewater treatment facility were completed. However, total nitrogen concentrations decreased in wastewater effluent and at the downstream site following wastewater treatment facility upgrades. Similar decreases in total phosphorus were not observed, likely because the biological phosphorus removal process was not optimized until after the study was completed. Total nitrogen and phosphorus from the wastewater treatment facility contributed a relatively small percentage (14 to 15 percent) to the annual nutrient load in the upper Blue River, but contributed substantially (as much as 75 percent) to monthly loads during seasonal low-flows in winter and summer. During 2007 and 2008, annual discharge from the wastewater treatment facility was about one-half maximum capacity, and estimated potential maximum annual loads were 1.6 to 2.4 times greater than annual loads before capacity upgrades. Even when target nutrient concentrations are met, annual nutrient loads will increase when the wastewater treatment facility is operated at full capacity. Regardless of changes in annual nutrient loads, the reduction of nutrient concentrations in the Blue River Main wastewater effluent will help prevent further degradation of the upper Blue River. The Blue River Main Wastewater Treatment Facility wastewater effluent caused changes in concentrations of several water-quality constituents that may affect biological community structure and function including larger concentrations of bioavailable nutrients (nitrate and orthophosphorus) and smaller turbidities. Streambed-sediment conditions were similar along the upstream-downstream gradient and measured constituents did not exceed probable effect concentrations. Habitat conditions declined along the upstream-downstream gradient, largely because of decreased canopy cover and riparian buffer width and increased riffle-substrate fouling. Algal biomass, primary production, and the abundance of nutrient-tolerant diatoms substantially increased downstream from the wastewater treatment facility. Likewise, the abundance of intolerant macroinvertebrate taxa and Kansas Department of Health and Environment aquatic-life-support scores, derived from macroinvertebrate data, significantly decreased downstream from the wastewater treatment facility. Ecosystem functional health, evaluated using a preliminary framework based on primary production and community respiration, downstream from the wastewater treatment facility was mildly impaired relative to the upstream site during summer 2008 but not during other times of the year. Upgrades to the Blue River Main Wastewater Treatment Facility improved wastewater effluent quality, but the wastewater effluent discharge still had negative effects on the water quality and biological conditions at the downstream sites. Wastewater effluent discharge into the upper Blue River likely contributed to changes in measures of ecosystem structure (streamflow, water chemistry, algal biomass, algal periphyton and macroinvertebrate community composition) and primary production, a measure of ecosystem function, along the upstream-downstream gradient. Because the Blue River Main Wastewater Treatment Facility is located in a rapidly urbanizing area, urbanization effects also may play a role in the decline in environmental and biological conditions along the upstream-downstream gradient. Despite these differences in environmental and biological conditions, ecosystem functional health was not impaired downstream from the WWTF during most times of the year, indicating the declines in environmental and biological conditions along the upstream-downstream gradient were not substantial enough to cause persistent changes in ecosystem function.

Kansas, Missouri↗
USGS1998

The environmental occurrence of herbicides: The importance of degradates in ground water

Numerous studies are being conducted to investigate the occurrence, fate, and effects on human health and the environment from the extensive worldwide use of herbicides to control weeds. Few studies, however, are considering the degradates of these herbicides in their investigations. Our study of herbicides in aquifers across Iowa found herbicide degradates to be prevalent in ground water, being detected in about 75% of the wells sampled. With the exception of atrazine, the frequencies of detection in ground water for a given herbicide increased multifold when its degradates were considered. Furthermore, a majority of the measured concentration for a given herbicide was in the form of its degradates—even for a relatively persistent compound such as atrazine. For this study, degradates comprised from 60 to over 99% of a herbicide's measured concentration. Because herbicide degradates can have similar acute and chronic toxicity as their parent compounds, these compounds have environmental significance as well as providing a more complete understanding of the fate and transport of a given herbicide. Thus, it is essential that degradates are included in any type of herbicide investigation.

Iowa↗
USGS2013

Long-distance transport of Hg, Sb, and As from a mined area, conversion of Hg to methyl-Hg, and uptake of Hg by fish on the Tiber River basin, west-central Italy

Stream sediment, stream water, and fish were collected from a broad region to evaluate downstream transport and dispersion of mercury (Hg) from inactive mines in the Monte Amiata Hg District (MAMD), Tuscany, Italy. Stream sediment samples ranged in Hg concentration from 20 to 1,900 ng/g, and only 5 of the 17 collected samples exceeded the probable effect concentration for Hg of 1,060 ng/g, above which harmful effects are likely to be observed in sediment-dwelling organisms. Concentrations of methyl-Hg in Tiber River sediment varied from 0.12 to 0.52 ng/g, and although there is no established guideline for sediment methyl-Hg, these concentrations exceeded methyl-Hg in a regional baseline site (<0.02 ng/g). Concentrations of Hg in stream water varied from 1.2 to 320 ng/L, all of which were below the 1,000 ng/L Italian drinking water Hg guideline and the 770 ng/L U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) guideline recommended to protect against chronic effects to aquatic wildlife. Methyl-Hg concentrations in stream water varied from <0.02 to 0.53 ng/L and were generally elevated compared to the baseline site (<0.02 ng/L). All stream water samples contained concentrations of As (<1.0–6.2 μg/L) and Sb (<0.20–0.37 μg/L) below international drinking water guidelines to protect human health (10 μg/L for As and 20 μg/L for Sb) and for protection against chronic effects to aquatic wildlife (150 μg/L for As and 5.6 μg/L for Sb). Concentrations of Hg in freshwater fish muscle ranged from 0.052–0.56 μg/g (wet weight), mean of 0.17 μg/g, but only 17 % (9 of 54) exceeded the 0.30 μg/g (wet weight) USEPA fish muscle guideline recommended to protect human health. Concentrations of Hg in freshwater fish in this region generally decreased with increasing distance from the MAMD, where fish with the highest Hg concentrations were collected more proximal to the MAMD, whereas all fish collected most distal from Hg mines contained Hg below the 0.30 μg/g fish muscle guideline. Data in this study indicate some conversion of inorganic Hg to methyl-Hg and uptake of Hg in fish on the Paglia River, but less methylation of Hg and Hg uptake by freshwater fish in the larger Tiber River.

Tiber River Basin↗
USGS2023

Exposures and potential health implications of contaminant mixtures in linked source water, finished drinking water, and tapwater from public-supply drinking water systems in Minneapolis/St. Paul area, USA

Continued improvements in drinking-water quality characterization and treatment/distribution infrastructure are required to address the expanding number of documented environmental contaminants. To better understand the variability in contaminant exposures from the drinking water resource (surface and groundwater), through the distribution process, to the point-of-use (tapwater), in 2019 a synoptic assessment of broad chemical exposures was conducted in system-specific source waters, finished drinking water and service-area tapwater from 10 drinking water treatment facilities in the greater Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota, United States. Source water, finished water (collected pre-distribution in the treatment facility), and tapwater samples were analyzed for 465 unique organic compounds, 34 inorganic constituents, and 3 field parameters as well as in vitro estrogen, androgen, and glucocorticoid bioactivities. Mixtures of organic and inorganic contaminants were prevalent in source water, finished water, and tapwater samples, indicating the continued need for broad assessments of mixed contaminant exposures to characterize potential drinking-water human health outcomes. Contaminant concentrations were similar among drinking water sources and no exceedances of Environmental Protection Agency maximum contaminant level(s) (MCL) were observed in any treated sample (finished water or tapwater) in this study. No treated sample contained estrogenic, androgenic, or glucocorticoid activity at concentrations that may cause adverse human health effects. However, there were multiple exceedances of non-enforceable MCL goal(s) (MCLG), and other health advisories combined with frequent exceedances of benchmark-based hazard indices in both finished water and tapwater samples. These results indicate that exposure to contaminant mixtures is a potential public health concern underscoring our continued efforts to assess contaminant mixture exposures at the drinking-water point of consumption using a broad analytical scope.

Minnesota↗
USGS2002

Application of landscape models to alternative futures analyses

Scientists and environmental managers alike are concerned about broadscale changes in land use and landscape pattern and their cumulative impact on environmental and economic end points, such as water quality and quantity, species habitat, productivity, erosion potential, recreational value, and overall ecological health (Rapport et al., 1998). They also are interested in predicting short-and long-term future impacts on ecological goods and services based on current land management policies and decisions (Steinitz, 1996). Because we have the means to adjust land management policies, it is worthwhile to develop approaches that can predict the consequences (alternative futures) of different land management policies for different environmental end points. This type of analysis can, for example, allow decision makers in resource conservation and restoration programs to estimate how they can get the most ecological benefit for the least cost

Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virgin↗
USGS2017

Human infectious disease burdens decrease with urbanization but not with biodiversity

nfectious disease burdens vary from country to country and year to year due to ecological and economic drivers. Recently, Murray et al. (Murray CJ et al . 2012 Lancet 380 , 2197–2223. ( doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61689-4 )) estimated country-level morbidity and mortality associated with a variety of factors, including infectious diseases, for the years 1990 and 2010. Unlike other databases that report disease prevalence or count outbreaks per country, Murray et al. report health impacts in per-person disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), allowing comparison across diseases with lethal and sublethal health effects. We investigated the spatial and temporal relationships between DALYs lost to infectious disease and potential demographic, economic, environmental and biotic drivers, for the 60 intermediate-sized countries where data were available and comparable. Most drivers had unique associations with each disease. For example, temperature was positively associated with some diseases and negatively associated with others, perhaps due to differences in disease agent thermal optima, transmission modes and host species identities. Biodiverse countries tended to have high disease burdens, consistent with the expectation that high diversity of potential hosts should support high disease transmission. Contrary to the dilution effect hypothesis, increases in biodiversity over time were not correlated with improvements in human health, and increases in forestation over time were actually associated with increased disease burden. Urbanization and wealth were associated with lower burdens for many diseases, a pattern that could arise from increased access to sanitation and healthcare in cities and increased investment in healthcare. The importance of urbanization and wealth helps to explain why most infectious diseases have become less burdensome over the past three decades, and points to possible levers for further progress in improving global public health.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B:↗
USGS2018

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the Nation, almost one-fifth the size of the combined lower 48 United States, and is rich in natural capital resources. Alaska is often identified as being on the front lines of climate change since it is warming faster than any other state and faces a myriad of issues associated with a changing climate. The cost of infrastructure damage from a warming climate is projected to be very large, potentially ranging from $110 to $270 million per year, assuming timely repair and maintenance. Although climate change does and will continue to dramatically transform the climate and environment of the Arctic, proactive adaptation in Alaska has the potential to reduce costs associated with these impacts. This includes the dissemination of several tools, such as guidebooks to support adaptation planning, some of which focus on Indigenous communities. While many opportunities exist with a changing climate, economic prospects are not well captured in the literature at this time. As the climate continues to warm, there is likely to be a nearly sea ice-free Arctic during the summer by mid-century. Ocean acidification is an emerging global problem that will intensify with continued carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions and negatively affects organisms. Climate change will likely affect management actions and economic drivers, including fisheries, in complex ways. The use of multiple alternative models to appropriately characterize uncertainty in future fisheries biomass trajectories and harvests could help manage these challenges. As temperature and precipitation increase across the Alaska landscape, physical and biological changes are also occurring throughout Alaska’s terrestrial ecosystems. Degradation of permafrost is expected to continue, with associated impacts to infrastructure, river and stream discharge, water quality, and fish and wildlife habitat. Longer sea ice-free seasons, higher ground temperatures, and relative sea level rise are expected to exacerbate flooding and accelerate erosion in many regions, leading to the loss of terrestrial habitat in the future and in some cases requiring entire communities or portions of communities to relocate to safer terrain. The influence of climate change on human health in Alaska can be traced to three sources: direct exposures, indirect effects, and social or psychological disruption. Each of these will have different manifestations for Alaskans when compared to residents elsewhere in the United States. Climate change exerts indirect effects on human health in Alaska through changes to water, air, and soil and through ecosystem changes affecting disease ecology and food security, especially in rural communities. Alaska’s rural communities are predominantly inhabited by Indigenous peoples who may be disproportionately vulnerable to socioeconomic and environmental change; however, they also have rich cultural traditions of resilience and adaptation. The impacts of climate change will likely affect all aspects of Alaska Native societies, from nutrition, infrastructure, economics, and health consequences to language, education, and the communities themselves. The profound and diverse climate-driven changes in Alaska’s physical environment and ecosystems generate economic impacts through their effects on environmental services. These services include positive benefits directly from ecosystems (for example, food, water, and other resources), as well as services provided directly from the physical environment (for example, temperature moderation, stable ground for supporting infrastructure, and smooth surface for overland transportation). Some of these effects are relatively assured and in some cases are already occurring. Other impacts are highly uncertain, due to their dependence on the structure of global and regional economies and future human alterations to the environment decades into the future, but they could be large. In Alaska, a range of adaptations to changing climate and related environmental conditions are underway and others have been proposed as potential actions, including measures to reduce vulnerability and risk, as well as more systemic institutional transformation.

Report↗
USGS2019

Toward sustainable environmental quality: Priority research questions for North America

Anticipating, identifying, and prioritizing strategic needs represent essential activities by research organizations. Decided benefits emerge when these pursuits engage globally important environment and health goals, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. To this end, horizon scanning efforts can facilitate identification of specific research needs to address grand challenges. We report and discuss 40 priority research questions following engagement of scientists and engineers in North America. These timely questions identify the importance of stimulating innovation and developing new methods, tools, and concepts in environmental chemistry and toxicology to improve assessment and management of chemical contaminants and other diverse environmental stressors. Grand challenges to achieving sustainable management of the environment are becoming increasingly complex and structured by global megatrends, which collectively challenge existing sustainable environmental quality efforts. Transdisciplinary, systems‐based approaches will be required to define and avoid adverse biological effects across temporal and spatial gradients. Similarly, coordinated research activities among organizations within and among countries are necessary to address the priority research needs reported here. Acquiring answers to these 40 research questions will not be trivial, but doing so promises to advance sustainable environmental quality in the 21st century.

Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry↗
USGS2014

Environmental impacts of utility-scale solar energy

Renewable energy is a promising alternative to fossil fuel-based energy, but its development can require a complex set of environmental tradeoffs. A recent increase in solar energy systems, especially large, centralized installations, underscores the urgency of understanding their environmental interactions. Synthesizing literature across numerous disciplines, we review direct and indirect environmental impacts – both beneficial and adverse – of utility-scale solar energy (USSE) development, including impacts on biodiversity, land-use and land-cover change, soils, water resources, and human health. Additionally, we review feedbacks between USSE infrastructure and land-atmosphere interactions and the potential for USSE systems to mitigate climate change. Several characteristics and development strategies of USSE systems have low environmental impacts relative to other energy systems, including other renewables. We show opportunities to increase USSE environmental co-benefits, the permitting and regulatory constraints and opportunities of USSE, and highlight future research directions to better understand the nexus between USSE and the environment. Increasing the environmental compatibility of USSE systems will maximize the efficacy of this key renewable energy source in mitigating climatic and global environmental change.

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews↗
USGS2022

Natural and anthropogenic influences on benthic cyanobacteria in streams of the northeastern United States

Benthic cyanobacteria are widespread in streams and rivers and have the potential to release toxins. In large numbers, these microorganisms and their toxins present a risk to human health. Cyanobacterial abundance in stream biofilms is typically related to single or a limited set of environmental factors, mainly light availability, water temperature, and nutrient concentrations. However, these factors may act synergistically with watershed characteristics and other stressors, such as anthropogenic pollutants, to affect cyanobacteria. We investigated the influence of multiple regional and local variables on the abundance of benthic cyanobacterial genera in streams using all subsets generalized additive modeling. We examined watershed factors (topography, geology, and climate) alongside in-stream factors (geomorphology, hydrology, pH, specific conductance, nutrients, organic contaminants, and dissolved metals) from 76 sites along an urban gradient in the northeast United States. Each genus responded to a distinct combination of environmental variables, demonstrating strong intergeneric variation in environmental selection of realized niches. Four of the 7 potentially toxigenic genera that we modeled were positively influenced by water temperature or nutrients. Nonetheless, watershed characteristics, streamflow, and/or other water quality pollutants were equally or more influential for the potentially toxigenic genera. Additionally, the relationships between cyanobacterial abundance and environmental factors varied in shape and direction across many genera. In particular, with increasing concentrations of herbicides, polychlorinated biphenyls, or metals, the abundance of roughly half of the affected genera decreased, while the others increased. These results likely demonstrate novel toxic effects of the pollutants on cyanobacterial genera in the environment, while indicating that unmeasured biotic interactions may lead to positive responses for other genera. Our results emphasize the need to consider variables beyond those that are most frequently measured or implicated (e.g., water temperature and nutrients) to more fully understand the environmental conditions that influence the distributions and abundance of potentially harmful cyanobacteria.

Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire. New Yor↗
USGS2011

Estimating geographic variation on allometric growth and body condition of blue suckers with quantile regression

Increasing our understanding of how environmental factors affect fish body condition and improving its utility as a metric of aquatic system health require reliable estimates of spatial variation in condition (weight at length). We used three statistical approaches that varied in how they accounted for heterogeneity in allometric growth to estimate differences in body condition of blue suckers Cycleptus elongatus across 19 large-river locations in the central USA. Quantile regression of an expanded allometric growth model provided the most comprehensive estimates, including variation in exponents within and among locations (range = 2.88–4.24). Blue suckers from more-southerly locations had the largest exponents. Mixed-effects mean regression of a similar expanded allometric growth model allowed exponents to vary among locations (range = 3.03–3.60). Mean relative weights compared across selected intervals of total length (TL = 510–594 and 594–692 mm) in a multiplicative model involved the implicit assumption that allometric exponents within and among locations were similar to the exponent (3.46) for the standard weight equation. Proportionate differences in the quantiles of weight at length for adult blue suckers (TL = 510, 594, 644, and 692 mm) compared with their average across locations ranged from 1.08 to 1.30 for southern locations (Texas, Mississippi) and from 0.84 to 1.00 for northern locations (Montana, North Dakota); proportionate differences for mean weight ranged from 1.13 to 1.17 and from 0.87 to 0.95, respectively, and those for mean relative weight ranged from 1.10 to 1.18 and from 0.86 to 0.98, respectively. Weights for fish at longer lengths varied by 600–700 g within a location and by as much as 2,000 g among southern and northern locations. Estimates for the Wabash River, Indiana (0.96–1.07 times the average; greatest increases for lower weights at shorter TLs), and for the Missouri River from Blair, Nebraska, to Sioux City, Iowa (0.90–1.00 times the average; greatest decreases for lower weights at longer TLs), were examined in detail to explain the additional information provided by quantile estimates.

Transactions of the American Fisheries Society↗