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USGS2013

Tools for beach health data management, data processing, and predictive model implementation

This fact sheet describes utilities created for management of recreational waters to provide efficient data management, data aggregation, and predictive modeling as well as a prototype geographic information system (GIS)-based tool for data visualization and summary. All of these utilities were developed to assist beach managers in making decisions to protect public health. The Environmental Data Discovery and Transformation (EnDDaT) Web service identifies, compiles, and sorts environmental data from a variety of sources that help to define climatic, hydrologic, and hydrodynamic characteristics including multiple data sources within the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Great Lakes Beach Health Database (GLBH-DB) and Web application was designed to provide a flexible input, export, and storage platform for beach water quality and sanitary survey monitoring data to compliment beach monitoring programs within the Great Lakes. A real-time predictive modeling strategy was implemented by combining the capabilities of EnDDaT and the GLBH-DB for timely, automated prediction of beach water quality. The GIS-based tool was developed to map beaches based on their physical and biological characteristics, which was shared with multiple partners to provide concepts and information for future Web-accessible beach data outlets.

Fact Sheet↗

USGS2005

Feasibility of using benthic invertebrates as indicators of stream quality in Hawaii

Macroinvertebrates were collected from 19 sites on 14 streams on the island of Oahu and from 9 sites on 7 streams on the island of Kauai to evaluate associations between macroinvertebrate assemblages and environmental variables and to determine whether or not it would be feasible, in future studies, to develop macroinvertebrate metrics that would indicate stream quality based on the macroinvertebrate assemblages and/or components of the assemblages. The purpose of applying rapid bioassessment techniques is to identify stream quality problems and to document changes in stream quality. Samples were collected at 10 sites in 1999, 3 sites in 2000, and 5 sites in 2003 on Oahu and at 9 sites on Kauai in 2003. Additionally, multiple year and multiple reach samples were collected at 1 site on Oahu. Macroinvertebrates were collected primarily from boulder/cobble riffles or from the fastest flowing habitat when riffles were absent. Although most streams in Hawaii originate in mountainous, forested areas, the lower reaches often drain urban, agricultural, or mixed land-use areas. The macroinvertebrate community data were used to identify metrics that could best differentiate between sites according to levels of environmental impairment. Environmental assessments were conducted using land-use/land-cover data, bed-sediment and fish-tissue contaminant data, and reach-level environmental data using a calibration set of 15 sites. The final scores of the environmental assessments were used to classify the sites into three categories of impairment: mild, moderate or severe. A number of invertebrate metrics were then tested and calibrated to the environmental assessments scores. The individual metrics that were the best at discerning environmental assessments among the sites were combined into a multimetric benthic index of biotic integrity (BIBI). These metrics were: total invertebrate abundance, taxa richness, insect relative abundance, amphipod abundance, crayfish presence or absence, and native mountain shrimp presence or absence. Because this index is in the preliminary stage of development and additional 'pristine' sites need to be sampled and assessed to develop a more robust measure of biotic integrity, the index will be referred to as a Preliminary Hawaiian Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (P-HBIBI). The P-HBIBI scores were then classified into three categories of impairment: mild, moderate, or severe. The P-HBIBI was then used to assess the remaining sites and classify them into impairment categories. The P-HBIBI was correlated (r2 = 0.72; p < 0.005) with a reduced environmental assessment determined without contaminants data. The results of this study suggest that the development of a reliable Hawaiian benthic index of biotic integrity (HBIBI), based on macroinvertebrate assemblages, is feasible; however, a much larger sample size, including more samples from 'pristine' sites and from the other islands, would be required.

Scientific Investigations Report↗

USGS2003

Interactions of an insecticide, herbicide, and natural stressors in amphibian community mesocosms

Amphibians developing in wetlands embedded within or near agricultural lands may frequently encounter chemical mixtures. The objectives of our study were to determine the effects that post-application concentrations of an insecticide (carbaryl) and an herbicide (atrazine) have on body mass, development, and survival of two anuran species (southern leopard frog, Rana sphenocephala ; American toad, Bufo americanus ) and two caudate species (spotted salamander, Ambystoma maculatum ; small-mouthed salamander, A. texanum ) reared in outdoor cattle tank mesocosms. In one experiment, we manipulated tadpole density (low or high), carbaryl exposure (0, 3.5, 7.0 mg/L), and atrazine exposure (0 or 200 μg/L) to test for effects on development, mass, and survival of larvae. In a second experiment, we manipulated pond hydroperiod (constant or drying), carbaryl exposure (0 or 5 mg/L), and atrazine exposure (0 or 200 μg/L) to test for effects on mass, time, and survival to metamorphosis. Salamanders were virtually eliminated in carbaryl treatments, indicating that at realistic levels, this insecticide could cause population declines for salamanders in contaminated habitats. Carbaryl also had negative effects on toad survival. Exposure to atrazine had negative effects on body size, development, and time to metamorphosis in anuran species, which were associated with reduced chlorophyll levels. Both chemicals interacted significantly with density or hydroperiod, indicating that the environmental conditions could influence the impact of a contaminant. A significant atrazine-by-carbaryl interaction resulted in smaller and less developed spotted salamander larvae than in control ponds. Atrazine exposure, however, appeared to moderate negative effects of carbaryl for spotted salamanders. Our research suggests that important changes in the community's food web result from chemical exposure, which influence the susceptibility of amphibian species to contaminants.

Ecological Applications↗

USGS2018

When portfolio theory can help environmental investment planning to reduce climate risk to future environmental outcomes - and when it cannot

Variability among climate change scenarios produces great uncertainty in what is the best allocation of resources among investments to protect environmental goods in the future. Previous research shows Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) can help optimize environmental investment targeting to reduce outcome risk with minimal loss of expected level of environmental benefits, but no work has yet identified the types of cases for which MPT is most useful. This paper assembles data on 26 different conservation cases in three distinct ecological settings and develops new metrics to evaluate how well MPT can reduce uncertainty in future outcomes of a set of environmental investments. We find MPT is broadly but not universally useful and works best when multiple investments have negatively correlated outcomes across climate scenarios, a second-best investment has expected value almost as good as the value in the best investment; or multiple investments have little uncertainty in ecological outcomes.

Conservation Letters↗

USGS2013

Effects of dietary exposure to brominated flame retardant BDE-47 on thyroid condition, gonadal development and growth of zebrafish

Little is known about the effects of brominated flame retardants in teleosts and some of the information currently available is inconsistent. This study examined effects of dietary exposure to 2,2′,4,4′-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47) on thyroid condition, body mass and size, and gonadal development of zebrafish. Pubertal, 49-day-old (posthatch) fish were fed diets without BDE-47 (control) or with 1, 5 or 25 μg/g BDE-47/diet. Treatments were conducted in triplicate 30-L tanks each containing 50 zebrafish, and 15 fish per treatment (5 per tank) were sampled at days 40, 80 and 120 of exposure. Measurements were taken of body mass, standard length, head depth and head length. Sex (at 40–120 days of exposure), germ cell stage (at 40 days) and thyroid condition (at 120 days; follicular cell height, colloid depletion, angiogenesis) were histologically determined. Whole-body BDE-47 levels at study completion were within the high end of levels reported in environmentally exposed (wild) fishes. Analysis of variance was used to determine differences among treatments at each sampling time. No effects were observed on thyroid condition or germ cell stage in either sex. Reduced head length was observed in females exposed to BDE-47 at 80 days but not at 40 or 120 days. In males, no apparent effects of BDE-47 were observed at 40 and 80 days, but fish exposed to 25 μg/g had lower body mass at 120 days compared to control fish. These observations suggest that BDE-47 at environmentally relevant whole-body concentrations does not affect thyroid condition or pubertal development of zebrafish but does affect growth during the juvenile-to-adult transition, especially in males.

Fish Physiology and Biochemistry↗

USGS1998

Effect of environmental setting on sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus concentrations in Albemarle-Pamlico drainage basin, North Carolina and Virginia, USA

Environmental settings were defined, through an overlay process, as areas of coincidence between categories of three mapped variables - land use, surficial geology, and soil drainage characteristics. Expert judgment was used in selecting factors thought to influence sediment and nutrient concentrations in the Albemarle-Pamlico drainage area. This study's findings support the hypothesis that environmental settings defined using these three variables can explain variations in the concentration of certain sediment and nutrient constituents. This finding underscores the importance of developing watershed management plans that account for differences associated with the mosaic of natural and anthropogenic factors that define a basin's environmental setting. At least in the case of sediment and nutrients in the Albemarle-Pamlico region, a watershed management plan that focuses only on anthropogenic factors, such as point-source discharges, and does not account for natural characteristics of a watershed and the influences of these characteristics on water quality, may lead to water-quality goals that are over- or underprotective of key environmental features and to a misallocation of the resources available for environmental protection.

Environmental Management↗

USGS2019

Environmental and biological factors influence migratory Sea Lamprey catchability: Implications for tracking abundance in the Laurentian Great Lakes

Sea Lamprey Petromyzon marinus population trends in the Great Lakes are tracked by trapping migratory adults in tributaries and using mark and recapture techniques to estimate abundance. Understanding what environmental and biological factors influence Sea Lamprey capture in tributaries is crucial to developing efficient trapping methods and reliable abundance estimates. We analyzed data from trapping sites located on eight Great Lakes tributaries using Cormack-Jolly-Seber models and examined how water temperature, discharge, sex, and length influenced Sea Lamprey apparent survival and capture probability. Sea Lamprey apparent survival was negatively associated with water temperature in all tributaries. Additionally, the odds of small Sea Lamprey (≤45 cm) remaining available to capture were 39% less (95% CI: 63% decrease – 1% increase) than large (>45 cm) lamprey odds. These observed relationships were used to investigate if bias in abundance estimates using the pooled-Petersen estimator and Jolly-Seber models was expected to be similar across trapping locations or influenced by variable environmental conditions and biological traits. Pooled-Petersen abundance estimates had a positive bias when datasets were generated from simulated populations with empirical relationships between environmental characteristics and catchability. The degree of bias depended upon changes in stream warming patterns and was not consistent among trapping locations. Jolly-Seber models using data from either weekly-batch-marked or uniquely-marked individuals generated abundance estimate with low bias when data quality was high, but performed poorly in scenarios with few recaptured Sea Lamprey. This research can promote improved Sea Lamprey monitoring efforts by providing insight into the reliability of the pooled-Petersen abundance estimator as a tool for tracking Sea Lamprey populations and demonstrating the limitations of adopting more robust methods when data are sparse.

Laurentian Great lakes↗

USGS2021

Literature review for candidate chemical control agents for nonnative crayfish

Nonnative crayfish are an immediate and pervasive threat to aquatic environments and their biodiversity. Crayfish control can be achieved by physical methods, water chemistry modification, biological methods, biocidal application, and application of crayfish physiology modifiers. The purpose of this report is to identify suitable candidates for potential control of nonnative crayfish through a comprehensive literature review. This review focuses on control methods, specifically on the available data to support registration of a crayfish pesticide. The literature search resulted in 28,058 documents, which were searched to determine if they contained information on physical, chemical, biological, and (or) biocidal approaches to control crayfish. Pesticides directly toxic to crayfish in this literature review include: pyrethroids (natural pyrethrins and synthetic), fipronil, mirex, antimycin-A, and rotenone. Some chemicals, such as diflubenzuron and emamectin benzoate, alter crayfish physiology resulting in a lower pesticide dose needed to control crayfish. Environmental damage, application rate, exposure duration, nontarget effects, environmental persistence, and registration data gaps were used as criteria to define which pesticides are potentially selective to crayfish, along with which have the greatest amount of data to support registration by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Synthetic pyrethroids were identified as the most likely candidate to be developed into a crayfish pesticide. A type-2 synthetic pyrethroid, cyfluthrin, has the greatest potential for eradicating nonnative crayfish. Although other invertebrate species will be negatively affected at the concentrations required for crayfish control, compared with other pyrethroids and other potential control chemicals, cyfluthrin offers rapid ecosystem recovery due to being more selective, having fewer effects on native fish, and having a short aquatic persistence. Cyfluthrin also has few data gaps for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency registration purposes.

Open-File Report↗

USGS2009

Hydrogeology and Simulation of Groundwater Flow in the Plymouth-Carver-Kingston-Duxbury Aquifer System, Southeastern Massachusetts

The glacial sediments that underlie the Plymouth-Carver-Kingston-Duxbury area of southeastern Massachusetts compose an important aquifer system that is the primary source of water for a region undergoing rapid development. Population increases and land-use changes in this area has led to two primary environmental effects that relate directly to groundwater resources: (1) increases in pumping that can adversely affect environmentally sensitive groundwater-fed surface waters, such as ponds, streams, and wetlands; and (2) adverse effects of land use on the quality of water in the aquifer. In response to these concerns, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, began an investigation in 2005 to improve the understanding of the hydrogeology in the area and to assess the effects of changing pumping and recharge conditions on groundwater flow in the Plymouth-Carver-Kingston-Duxbury aquifer system. A numerical flow model was developed based on the USGS computer program MODFLOW-2000 to assist in the analysis of groundwater flow. Model simulations were used to determine water budgets, flow directions, and the sources of water to pumping wells, ponds, streams, and coastal areas. Model-calculated water budgets indicate that approximately 298 million gallons per day (Mgal/d) of water recharges the Plymouth-Carver-Kingston-Duxbury aquifer system. Most of this water (about 70 percent) moves through the aquifer, discharges to streams, and then reaches the coast as surface-water discharge. Of the remaining 30 percent of flow, about 25 percent of the water that enters the aquifer as recharge discharges directly to coastal areas and 5 percent discharges to pumping wells. Groundwater withdrawals are anticipated to increase from the current (2005) rate of about 14 Mgal/d to about 21 Mgal/d by 2030. Pumping from large-capacity production wells decreases water levels and increases the potential for effects on surface-water bodies, which are affected by pumping and wastewater disposal locations and rates. Pumping wells that are upgradient of surface-water bodies potentially capture water that would otherwise discharge to these surface-water bodies, thereby reducing streamflow and pond levels. The areas most affected by proposed increases in groundwater withdrawals are in the Towns of Plymouth and Wareham where more than half of the proposed increase in pumping will occur. In response to an increase of about 7 Mgal/d of pumping, groundwater discharge to streams is reduced by about 6 cubic feet per second (ft3/s) (about 4 Mgal/d) from a total of about 325 ft3/s. Reduction in streamflow is moderated by an increase of artificial recharge from wastewater returned to the aquifer by onsite domestic septic systems and centralized wastewater treatment facilities. It is anticipated that about 3 Mgal/d of the 7 Mgal/d of increase in pumped water will be returned to the aquifer as wastewater by 2030. Currently (2005) about 3 percent of groundwater discharge to streams is from wastewater return flow to the aquifer during average conditions. During drought conditions, the component of streamflow augmented by wastewater return flow doubles as wastewater recharge remains constant and aquifer recharge rates decrease. Wastewater return flow, whether as direct groundwater discharge to streams or as an additional source of aquifer recharge, increases the height of the water table near streams, thereby moderating the effects of increased groundwater withdrawals on streamflow. An analysis of a simulated drought similar to the 1960s drought of record indicates that the presence of streams moderates the effects on water levels of reduced aquifer recharge. The area where water-table altitudes were least affected by drought was in the Weweantic River watershed in the Town of Carver. Water levels decreased by less than 2 feet from current average conditions compared to decreases of greater than 5

Scientific Investigations Report↗

USGS2013

Characterization and conceptualization of groundwater flow systems

This chapter discusses some of the fundamental concepts, data needs and approaches that aid in developing a general understanding of a groundwater system. Principles of the hydrological cycle are reviewed; the processes of recharge and discharge in aquifer systems; types of geological, hydrological and hydraulic data needed to describe the hydrogeological framework of an aquifer system; factors affecting the distribution of recharge to aquifers; and uses of groundwater chemistry, geochemical modelling, environmental tracers and age interpretations in groundwater studies. Together, these concepts and observations aid in developing a conceptualization of groundwater flow systems and provide input to the development of numerical models of a flow system. Conceptualization of the geology, hydrology, geochemistry, and hydrogeological and hydrochemical framework can be quite useful in planning, study design, guiding sampling campaigns, acquisition of new data and, ultimately, developing numerical models capable of assessing a wide variety of societal issues — for example, sustainability of groundwater resources in response to real or planned withdrawals from the system, CO 2 sequestration or other waste isolation issues (such as nuclear waste disposal).

Book chapter↗

USGS2001

Duck populations as indicators of landscape condition in the Prairie Pothole Region

The Prairie Pothole Region of the northern Great Plains is an important region for waterfowl production because of the abundance of shallow wetlands. The ecological significance of the region and impacts from intensive agriculture prompted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to select it as one of the first areas for developing and evaluating ecological indicators of wetland condition. We examined hypothesized relations between indicators of landscape and wetland conditions and waterfowl abundance on 45 40 km2 study sites in North Dakota for 1995-96. Landscape condition was defined a priori as the ratio of cropland area to total upland area surrounding wetlands. Measures of waterfowl abundance included estimated numbers of breeding pairs (by species and total numbers) and , a species-specific correction factor which effectively adjusts breeding pair estimates for annual or area-related differences in pond size. Landscape indicators and waterfowl measures varied among regions. Results indicated that most areas in the Coteau region are of much higher quality for ducks than those in the Drift Plain, and areas in the Red River Valley are of the poorest quality for ducks. Regression models demonstrated the impact of agricultural development on breeding duck populations in the Prairie Pothole Region. The most consistent landscape indicators of waterfowl abundance were percent of cropland and grassland. Models were inconsistent among years and species. The potential biotic indicators of landscape and wetland condition examined here would be appropriate for temporal trend analyses, but because of inherent geographic variability would not be appropriate for single-year geographic trend analyses without more extensive evaluations to improve explanatory models

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment↗

USGS2020

Robotic environmental DNA bio-surveillance of freshwater health

Autonomous water sampling technologies may help to overcome the human resource challenges of monitoring biological threats to rivers over long time periods and large geographic areas. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has pioneered a robotic Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) that overcomes some of the constraints associated with traditional sampling since it can automate water sample filtration and preservation of the captured material or homogenize it for immediate analyses in situ. The ESP was originally developed for marine environment applications. Here we evaluated whether the ESP can provide reliable, timely information on environmental (e)DNA detections of human and fish pathogens and introduced fishes at U.S. Geological Survey streamgage sites in freshwater rivers. We compared eDNA collected via ESP at high frequency (e.g., every 3 h) with manual eDNA collections collected at lower frequency (e.g., weekly). We found that water samples filtered and preserved by ESPs successfully detected the DNA of human pathogens, fish pathogens and introduced fishes. Both ESP and manually collected samples provided similar information about target DNA presence. We suggest that the greatest current benefit of the ESP is the cost savings of high frequency, bio-surveillance at remote or hard to access sites. The full potential of robotic technologies like the ESP will be realized when they can more easily execute in situ analyses of water samples and rapidly transmit results to decision-makers.

Idaho, Montana, Wyoming↗

USGS2013

Ecosystem services: developing sustainable management paradigms based on wetland functions and processes

In the late nineteenth century and twentieth century, there was considerable interest and activity to develop the United States for agricultural, mining, and many other purposes to improve the quality of human life standards and prosperity. Most of the work to support this development was focused along disciplinary lines with little attention focused on ecosystem service trade-offs or synergisms, especially those that transcended boundaries of scientific disciplines and specific interest groups. Concurrently, human population size has increased substantially and its use of ecosystem services has increased more than five-fold over just the past century. Consequently, the contemporary landscape has been highly modified for human use, leaving behind a fragmented landscape where basic ecosystem functions and processes have been broadly altered. Over this period, climate change also interacted with other anthropogenic effects, resulting in modern environmental problems having a complexity that is without historical precedent. The challenge before the scientific community is to develop new science paradigms that integrate relevant scientific disciplines to properly frame and evaluate modern environmental problems in a systems-type approach to better inform the decision-making process. Wetland science is a relatively new discipline that grew out of the conservation movement of the early twentieth century. In the United States, most of the conservation attention in the earlier days was on wildlife, but a growing human awareness of the importance of the environment led to the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act in 1969. Concurrently, there was a broadening interest in conservation science, and the scientific study of wetlands gradually gained acceptance as a scientific discipline. Pioneering wetland scientists became formally organized when they formed The Society of Wetland Scientists in 1980 and established a publication outlet to share wetland research findings. In comparison to older and more traditional scientific disciplines, the wetland sciences may be better equipped to tackle today’s complex problems. Since its emergence as a scientific discipline, the study of wetlands has frequently required interdisciplinary and integrated approaches. This interdisciplinary/integrated approach is largely the result of the fact that wetlands cannot be studied in isolation of upland areas that contribute surface and subsurface water, solutes, sediments, and nutrients into wetland basins. However, challenges still remain in thoroughly integrating the wetland sciences with scientific disciplines involved in upland studies, especially those involved with agriculture, development, and other land-conversion activities that influence wetland hydrology, chemistry, and sedimentation. One way to facilitate this integration is to develop an understanding of how human activities affect wetland ecosystem services, especially the trade-offs and synergisms that occur when land-use changes are made. Used in this context, an understanding of the real costs of managing for a particular ecosystem service or groups of services can be determined and quantified in terms of reduced delivery of other services and in overall sustainability of the wetland and the landscapes that support them. In this chapter, we discuss some of the more salient aspects of a few common wetland types to give the reader some background on the diversity of functions that wetlands perform and the specific ecosystem services they provide to society. Wetlands are among the most complex ecosystems on the planet, and it is often difficult to communicate to a diverse public all of the positive services wetlands provide to mankind. Our goal is to help the reader develop an understanding that management options can be approached as societal choices where decisions can be made within a spatial and temporal context to identify trade-offs, synergies, and effects on long-term sustainability of wetland ecosystems. This will be especially relevant as we move into alternate climate futures where our portfolio of management options for mitigating damage to ecosystem function or detrimental cascading effects must be diverse and effective.

Book chapter↗

USGS2017

Unconventional oil and gas spills: Risks, mitigation priorities, and state reporting requirements

Rapid growth in unconventional oil and gas (UOG) has produced jobs, revenue, and energy, but also concerns over spills and environmental risks. We assessed spill data from 2005 to 2014 at 31 481 UOG wells in Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania. We found 2–16% of wells reported a spill each year. Median spill volumes ranged from 0.5 m 3 in Pennsylvania to 4.9 m 3 in New Mexico; the largest spills exceeded 100 m 3 . Seventy-five to 94% of spills occurred within the first three years of well life when wells were drilled, completed, and had their largest production volumes. Across all four states, 50% of spills were related to storage and moving fluids via flowlines. Reporting rates varied by state, affecting spill rates and requiring extensive time and effort getting data into a usable format. Enhanced and standardized regulatory requirements for reporting spills could improve the accuracy and speed of analyses to identify and prevent spill risks and mitigate potential environmental damage. Transparency for data sharing and analysis will be increasingly important as UOG development expands. We designed an interactive spills data visualization tool ( http://snappartnership.net/groups/hydraulic-fracturing/webapp/spills.html ) to illustrate the value of having standardized, public data.

Environmental Science & Technology↗

USGS1987

Stratification of a cityscape using census and land use variables for inventory of building materials

A cityscape (or any landscape) can be stratified into environmental units using multiple variables of information. For the purposes of sampling building materials, census and land use variables were used to identify similar strata. In the Metropolitan Statistical Area of a cityscape, the census tract is the smallest unit for which census data are summarized and digitized boundaries are available. For purposes of this analysis, census data on total population, total number of housing units, and number of singleunit dwellings were aggregated into variables of persons per square kilometer and proportion of housing units in single-unit dwellings. The level 2 categories of the U.S. Geological Survey's land use and land cover data base were aggregated into variables of proportion of residential land with buildings, proportion of nonresidential land with buildings, and proportion of open land. The cityscape was stratified, from these variables, into environmental strata of Urban Central Business District, Urban Livelihood Industrial Commercial, Urban Multi-Family Residential, Urban Single Family Residential, Non-Urban Suburbanizing, and Non-Urban Rural. The New England region was chosen as a region with commonality of building materials, and a procedure developed for trial classification of census tracts into one of the strata. Final stratification was performed by discriminant analysis using the trial classification and prior probabilities as weights. The procedure was applied to several cities, and the results analyzed by correlation analysis from a field sample of building materials. The methodology developed for stratification of a cityscape using multiple variables has application to many other types of environmental studies, including forest inventory, hydrologic unit management, waste disposal, transportation studies, and other urban studies. Multivariate analysis techniques have recently been used for urban stratification in England. ?? 1987 Annals of Regional Science.

The Annals of Regional Science↗

USGS2025

Insights and strategic opportunities from the USGS 2024 Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Interagency Workshop

Introduction In 2021, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) published Circular 1490 titled, “Integrated Science for the Study of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in the Environment: A Strategic Science Vision for the U.S. Geological Survey” (Tokranov and others, 2021). Circular 1490 was created to be a resource for USGS scientists prioritizing and planning research related to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and to be a guide for developing partnerships with other scientists, State and Federal agencies, and stakeholders engaged in PFAS research and management and mitigation of the environmental and human-health effects of PFAS. This USGS PFAS Strategic Science Vision document was intended to be the foundation for a “living strategic vision,” periodically providing updates on the state of USGS PFAS research, emerging PFAS data gaps and needs, and progress on interagency and stakeholder PFAS partnerships and priorities. To meet this objective, the USGS planned to host an Interagency and Stakeholder PFAS Workshop every 2–3 years. During September 10–12, 2024, the USGS hosted the first Interagency and Stakeholder PFAS Workshop in Reston, Virginia. The Workshop brought together experts from other Federal agencies (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Defense [Air Force, Army]), State agencies (Washington Fish and Wildlife, Virginia Department of Transportation), and academia (Harvard University, University of Maryland) to address key challenges relating to the measurement and modeling of PFAS and the implications for environmental health. Participants engaged in in-depth discussions centered around six pivotal topics related to PFAS: (1) sampling protocols, methods and interpretation; (2) environmental sources, source apportionment, and occurrence; (3) environmental fate and transport; (4) human and wildlife exposure routes and risk; (5) bioconcentration, bioaccumulation, and biomagnification; and (6) ecotoxicology and effects. Each topic had three breakout sessions. A recurrent theme of workshop discussions was how data on a nationwide scale for PFAS occurrence in various environmental matrices, including air, water, food crops, biota, soil, and streambed sediment could help to advance scientific understanding. Participants noted significant geospatial data gaps, particularly in the midwestern and southern United States and the Pacific Northwest. PFAS data collection tends to be more robust along the eastern seaboard and in California. Participants stressed how enhancing the integration of large and small datasets across various agencies could help to support national scale understanding of PFAS. To address these gaps, attendees suggested leveraging datasets from Federal entities like the USGS and the U.S. Department of Defense, State agencies, and municipal utility services to develop predictive contaminant detection and transport models. Improved coordination between water quality programs and USGS research could help to facilitate access to valuable data, leading to comprehensive databases that inform PFAS point (wastewater treatment plants and landfills) and nonpoint (runoff from land, atmospheric deposition, food packaging) sources, environmental transport mechanisms, environmental detection and concentrations, potential exposure routes, and health effects on different biota, including humans. A specific request was made to develop a map demarking the depth of modern (1953 or later) groundwater, which is susceptible to surface-derived anthropogenic (that is, human-made) contamination, based on tritium-age dating. Emphasis was placed on incorporation of hydrology, groundwater flow paths, groundwater–surface water interactions, and landscape factors in predictive statistical models as a step to improve contaminant source identification and tracking. Molecular fingerprinting approaches garnered attention as techniques to link specific PFAS mixtures detected in a sample to environmental sources and levels in biota (Dávila-Santiago and others, 2022). Integrating data from abiotic (that is, water, soil, and air) and biotic (that is, living organisms) systems identified as a research opportunity. For example, understanding the composition of soils and sediments, which include a mixture of mineral, plant, and animal components, could advance understanding of exposure pathways. The discussions highlighted opportunities to explore and understand the potential redistribution and biotic exposures of PFAS from biosolid and wastewater treatment plant effluent land application practices, in addition to atmospheric releases and discharges from landfill and wastewater treatment plants. Participants identified research gaps surrounding how these sources may contribute to contamination and may affect surrounding ecosystems, including a better definition of anthropogenic background concentrations. Moving forward, the collection of co-occurrence data was noted as a means to improve understanding of complex mixtures and to leverage companion modeling efforts focused on areas with high and low contamination levels to identify areas of concern and unaffected resources. Participants emphasized how centralized USGS databases and the establishment of sample-metadata archives can help to ensure that samples are preserved and accessible for future research. In conclusion, the workshop participants identified opportunities to bridge data gaps and improve measurement techniques, modeling frameworks, databases, and communication, to enhance the understanding of PFAS and their effects on environmental and human health. Upon completion of the workshop, participants indicated an interest in developing strategic data collection, modeling, and analytical approaches to address these challenges.

Open-File Report↗

USGS2007

Data for a regional approach to the development of an effects-based nutrient criterion for wadable streams

States are required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish nutrient criteria (concentrations of nutrients above which water quality is deteriorated) as part of their water-quality regulations. A study of wadable streams in the Mid-Atlantic Region was undertaken by the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Maryland Department of the Environment, with assistance from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, to help define current concentrations of nutrients in streams with the goal of associating different nutrient-concentration levels with their effects on water quality. During the summers of 2004 and 2005, diel concentrations of dissolved oxygen, nutrient concentrations, concentrations of chlorophyll a in attached algae, and algal-community structure were measured at 46 stream sites in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Data from this work can be used by individual state agencies to define nutrient criteria. Quality-control measures for the study included submitting blank samples, duplicate samples, and reference samples for analysis of nutrients, total organic carbon, chlorophyll a, and algal biomass. Duplicate and split samples were submitted for periphyton identifications. Three periphyton split samples were sent to an independent lab for a check on periphyton identifications. Neither total organic carbon nor nutrients were detected in blank samples. Concentrations of nutrients and total organic carbon were similar for most duplicate sample pairs, with the exception of a duplicate pair from Western Run. Concentrations of ammonia plus organic nitrogen for this duplicate pair differed by as much as 34 percent. Total organic carbon for the duplicate pair from Western Run differed by 102 percent. The U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Laboratory performance on the only valid reference sample submitted was excellent; the relative percent difference values were no larger than 5 percent for any constituent analyzed. For periphyton identifications, duplicate samples had Jaccard Coefficient of Community values slightly greater than 0.5. This indicates the periphyton sampling protocol used provided a sample that was only moderately reproducible. Jaccard Coefficients for three periphyton samples split between two independent labs were 0.2, 0.11, and 0.08. These very low values suggest a poor concurrence on species identifications performed by the two labs. As a result of these quality-control samples, the slides prepared for diatom identifications were sent to the Academy of Natural Sciences for re-identification. Caution is urged when interpreting periphyton-community information from this study. This report and the raw data from the study are available online at http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds257

Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia↗

USGS2017

SToRM: A Model for 2D environmental hydraulics

A two-dimensional (depth-averaged) finite volume Godunov-type shallow water model developed for flow over complex topography is presented. The model, SToRM, is based on an unstructured cell-centered finite volume formulation and on nonlinear strong stability preserving Runge-Kutta time stepping schemes. The numerical discretization is founded on the classical and well established shallow water equations in hyperbolic conservative form, but the convective fluxes are calculated using auto-switching Riemann and diffusive numerical fluxes. Computational efficiency is achieved through a parallel implementation based on the OpenMP standard and the Fortran programming language. SToRM’s implementation within a graphical user interface is discussed. Field application of SToRM is illustrated by utilizing it to estimate peak flow discharges in a flooding event of the St. Vrain Creek in Colorado, U.S.A., in 2013, which reached 850 m3/s (~30,000 f3 /s) at the location of this study.

Colorado↗