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Description of Work Benthos (benthic invertebrate) and plankton (phytoplankton/zooplankton) communities in Wisconsin's four Lake Michigan Areas of Concern (AOCs; Menominee River, Lower Green Bay and Fox River, Sheboygan River, and Milwaukee Estuary) and six non-AOCs will be quantified. The inclusion of non-AOC sites will allow comparison of AOC sites to relatively-unimpacted or less-impacted control sites with natural physical and chemical characteristics that are as close as possible to that of the AOCs. The community data within and between the AOCs and non-AOCs will be analyzed. This project is a cooperative agreement between the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) and the US Geological Survey (USGS)....
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Description of Work USGS will conduct seasonal sampling of benthic invertebrates, zooplankton, prey fish, and their diets to complement the seasonal lower trophic level sampling by EPA. A point of emphasis is describing the vertical distribution of planktivores and their zooplankton prey, to fill a knowledge gap on these predator/prey interactions. These data will provide a more holistic understanding of how invasive-driven, food-web changes could be altering energy available to sport fishes in the Great Lakes and used to build bioenergetics models that can evaluate whether zooplankton dynamics are being driven by limited resources or excessive predation. Understanding the key drivers of zooplankton will provide...
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Background Climate change during the past century has resulted in changes to precipitation amounts, form (rain vs. snow), as well as frequency and intensity in the northeastern US (Huntington et al., 2009). Additional changes in precipitation are forecast for the 21st Century as the global and regional climate is expected to warm substantially (Hayhoe et al., 2007). These ongoing and projected future changes in precipitation along with other related changes to evapotranspiration rates and land use patterns will result in changes in streamflow patterns as well (Hayhoe et al., 2007). Although precipitation amounts have generally increased in the Northeast during the past 20-30 years (Huntington et al., 2009),...
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Background Streams and rivers are an important environmental resource and provide water for many human needs. Streamflow is a measure of the volume of water carried by rivers and streams. Changes in streamflow can directly influence the supply of water available for human consumption, irrigation, generating electricity, and other needs. In addition, many plants and animals depend on streamflow for habitat and survival. Streamflow naturally varies over the course of a year. For example, rivers and streams in many parts of the country have their highest (peak) flow when snow melts in the spring. The amount of streamflow is important because high flows can cause erosion and damaging floods, while very low flows...
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Title IV has been successful in reducing emissions of SO2 and NOx from power generation to the levels set by Congress. In fact, by 2009, SO2 emissions from power plants were already 3.25 million tons lower than the final 2010 cap level of 8.95 million tons, and NOx emissions were 6.1 million tons less than the projected level in 2000 without the ARP, or more than triple the Title IV NOx emission-reduction objective. As a result of these emission reductions, air quality has improved, providing significant human health benefits, and acid deposition has decreased to the extent that some acid-sensitive areas are beginning to show signs of recovery. Current emission reductions and the passage of time, which is needed...
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Fish tissue from 203 samples collected at five locations in the Niagara River Area of Concern in 2018 were analyzed for a wide range of analytes including Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides (E1 and E2), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), organochlorine and other persistent organic compounds, metals, lipid and moisture. Over 230 analytes were analyzed in the tissue samples, including 160 PCB congeners. Fish tissues from a subset of the sites (n=40) were also analyzed for Dioxins and Furans. The data set includes a variety of laboratory quality assurance data including sample replicates, laboratory blank data, laboratory spike data, matrix spike recoveries, and replicate matrix spike recoveries.
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Macroinvertebrate samples were collected from streams tributary to Honnedaga Lake and from the Middle Branch of the Black River during 2012-2016 and analyzed for methylmercury concentrations and for stable isotope ratios of nitrogen and carbon. Macroinvertebrates were identified in the field, and the level of taxonomic resolution varied from order to species; most taxa were identified to the family level. Specimens were field-processed into composite samples, field-frozen, and submitted to the mercury laboratory for freeze-drying and analysis. Subsamples were then submitted to the stable isotope laboratory for analysis of nitrogen and carbon isotope ratios. This database contains the resulting data and associated...
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Description of Work USGS will conduct monthly samples of benthic invertebrates, zooplankton, and water quality as well as seasonal sampling of fish and fish diets. This project supports lower trophic sampling in Lake Erie and understanding food webs. An emphasis will be collecting samples from a nearshore to offshore design.
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Description of Work Jeorse Park Beach is located in East Chicago, Indiana, within the Grand Calumet River Area of Concern (AOC), which has been identified as having all 14 beneficial use designations impaired, including beach closings. Jeorse Park Beach has been identified as one of the most highly contaminated beaches in the nation, with annual beach closings due to bacterial contamination as high as 76% in 2010. Further, beach closings have steadily increased each year since beach monitoring was initiated in 2005 in response to the Beaches Environmental and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act. Beach closings represent an environmental, social, and economic burden, the alleviation of which require various remediation strategies...
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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 Consumption” beneficial use impairments (BUI). The first project in the Buffalo River AOC will help determine if current fish consumption advisories are appropriate, if they can be modified, and if they support or do not support BUI removal as recommended in the June 2014 “Buffalo River AOC: A Monitoring Plan for the Delisting of...
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Background Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the hereditary material in organisms that contains the biological instructions for building and maintaining them. The chemical structure of DNA is the same for all organisms, but differences exist in the order of the DNA building blocks, known as base pairs. Unique sequences provide a means to identify individual species and detect their presence within aquatic or terrestrial environments. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is nuclear or mitochondrial DNA that is shed from an organism into the environment. Sources of eDNA include feces, mucous, and gametes; shed skin; and carcasses. In aquatic environments, eDNA is diluted and distributed by currents and other hydrological processes....
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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 the fish species in the Mohawk River are nonnative (Carlson and Daniels, 2004) and George et al (2016), yet the fish community still fulfills many important economic and ecological functions. The Round Goby (Neogobius melanostomus) is an invasive benthic fish indigenous to Ponto-Caspian region of Eurasia that is invading eastward...
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Problem - In August 2000, eleven sites were sampled from 9 streams within the Croton watershed for pharmaceuticals and other organic compounds associated with wastewater as part of a national study of these compounds in streams receiving wastewater discharges. Results from the national study indicated that streams in the Croton Reservoir downstream of sewage treatment plants had concentrations of target compounds. Detected compounds included pharmaceuticals, detergent degradates, insecticides, caffeine, and other organic compounds (Kolpin and others, 2002). The results indicate that these compounds are commonly present in streams below wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Many of these compounds have not been...
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Problem The discharge of freshwater and associated loading of nutrients and other dissolved constituents from the Long Island aquifer system to surrounding estuaries and their tributaries are increasingly recognized as critical factors in the health of these ecosystems. However, further work is needed to scientifically characterize these factors and present them to the public in an appropriate manner. Many organizations have undertaken assessments of this discharge and loading for discrete groundwater source areas and (or) receiving surface waters, applying a variety of techniques and assumptions. In part, this is because there is no delineation of recharge areas to the island’s groundwater-fed streams and estuaries...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, Shapefile; Tags: Basin & Hydrogeologic Characterization, Basin & Hydrogeologic Characterization, Climate Change, Climate Research and Development, ClimateChange, All tags...
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The Appalachian Trail (AT), a 14-state footpath from Maine to Georgia, is a unit of the National Park Service that is cooperatively managed and maintained by the National Park Service (NPS), the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, AT Club volunteers, the USDA Forest Service, and other public land-management agencies. Upper elevation and ridge-top ecosystems, which comprise much of the trail corridor, have been impacted by and remain extremely sensitive to acidic deposition. Ridgetop soils that are often low in calcium make the ecosystems of the AT more sensitive to acidic deposition than other ecosystems. Furthermore, upper elevations tend to receive the highest levels of deposition. In areas along the AT, such...
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Description of Work Participation on the Lake Erie Lakewide Management Plan Workgroup and related subcommittees such as toxics, sources and loads, nutrients, and biodiversity. Attend meetings and conferences associated with LE LAMP activities. This includes The Lake Erie Millennium Network, CSMI, Ohio Phosphorus Task Force, and other meetings or workshops addressing nutrient and toxicity issues in Lake Erie. Communicate USGS activities in the Lake Erie Basin that can influence understanding or impact decision making.
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Stream flows are essential for maintaining healthy aquatic ecosystems and for supporting human water supply needs. Integrated modeling approaches assessing the impact of changes in climate, land use, and water withdrawals on stream flows and the subsequent impact of changes in flow regime on aquatic biota at multiple spatial scales are necessary to insure an adequate supply of water for humans and healthy river ecosystems. We compared streamflow predictions from a regional-scale hydrological model to those of several fine-scale SW models under a range of hypothetical climate change scenarios to determine the range of predicted streamflow responses to fixed climate perturbations.This spreadsheet contains the results...
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Stream flows are essential for maintaining healthy aquatic ecosystems and for supporting human water supply needs. Integrated modeling approaches assessing the impact of changes in climate, land use, and water withdrawals on stream flows and the subsequent impact of changes in flow regime on aquatic biota at multiple spatial scales are necessary to insure an adequate supply of water for humans and healthy river ecosystems. This spreadsheet contains an inventory of existing hydrologic models in the Southeast region and Puerto Rico. Data were compiled by contacting federal and state agencies, members of academia, and environmental consultants.
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The movement of mercury (Hg) from the atmosphere to the biosphere occurs by both wet and dry deposition to solid surfaces, water, and vegetation. Most of the annual dry atmospheric Hg deposition in deciduous forests is believed to originate from litterfall which consists mainly of dead leaves that fall to the earth’s surface, primarily during the autumn and winter seasons. Atmospheric Hg reaches an annual maximum concentration in leaves at the time of leaf fall. Analysis of litterfall samples helps to quantify total annual atmospheric Hg deposition to forests when combined with precipitation Hg data. This data set is derived from litterfall samples collected during 2017-18 and 2018-19 at 27 selected National Atmospheric...


map background search result map search result map Lakewide Management Plan Capacity Support by U.S. Geological Survey - LAKE ERIE Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI) - LAKE HURON Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI) - LAKE ERIE Jeorse Park Beach Contamination Benthos & Plankton in Wisconsin's Lake Michigan AOCs Organic Wastewater Contaminants in New York City Watersheds National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program Report to Congress 2011: An Integrated Assessment Emerging Methods for Detection and their Potential for Inventorying Brook Trout Populations in Streams of the Western Adirondacks Development of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to Predict Streamflow Statistics using USGS Streamstats and Precipitation from Downscaled Global Climate Change Models Appalachian Trail MEGA-Transect Atmospheric Deposition Effects Study Hydrologic Climate Change Indicators Comprehensive Delineation of Groundwater Source Areas and Times-of-travel to Long Island Streams and Estuaries Regional to local coarse to fine scale global change impact study on flow Southeast modeling efforts for flow and ecology New York Statewide Fish Collection: Contaminants in fish from the Buffalo River AOC Monitoring the Status and Expansion of Round Goby Populations in the Mohawk River/Barge Canal System Methylmercury and associated data in macroinvertebrates from tributaries of Honnedaga Lake and from the Middle Branch Black River in New York. Mercury and Methylmercury Concentrations in Litterfall Samples Collected at Selected National Atmospheric Deposition Program Sites during 2017 to 2019 Organic and Metal Contaminants in Fish Tissue Collected from the Niagara River Area of Concern, New York, 2018 New York Statewide Fish Collection: Contaminants in fish from the Buffalo River AOC Organic and Metal Contaminants in Fish Tissue Collected from the Niagara River Area of Concern, New York, 2018 Methylmercury and associated data in macroinvertebrates from tributaries of Honnedaga Lake and from the Middle Branch Black River in New York. Emerging Methods for Detection and their Potential for Inventorying Brook Trout Populations in Streams of the Western Adirondacks Comprehensive Delineation of Groundwater Source Areas and Times-of-travel to Long Island Streams and Estuaries Monitoring the Status and Expansion of Round Goby Populations in the Mohawk River/Barge Canal System Organic Wastewater Contaminants in New York City Watersheds Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI) - LAKE ERIE Jeorse Park Beach Contamination Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI) - LAKE HURON Lakewide Management Plan Capacity Support by U.S. Geological Survey - LAKE ERIE Benthos & Plankton in Wisconsin's Lake Michigan AOCs Development of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to Predict Streamflow Statistics using USGS Streamstats and Precipitation from Downscaled Global Climate Change Models Appalachian Trail MEGA-Transect Atmospheric Deposition Effects Study Mercury and Methylmercury Concentrations in Litterfall Samples Collected at Selected National Atmospheric Deposition Program Sites during 2017 to 2019 Regional to local coarse to fine scale global change impact study on flow Southeast modeling efforts for flow and ecology Hydrologic Climate Change Indicators National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program Report to Congress 2011: An Integrated Assessment