Science Inventory

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As part of the 2024 Lake Erie Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative field year, staff of EPA-Duluth led water quality sampling, collaborated to generate lower food web data, collected specimens for examination of contaminant bioaccumulation, examined primary producer resp...

Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition leads to many changes in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, affecting ecosystem processes and species composition. Terrestrial vegetation often shifts from being N-limited to light-limited and becomes dominated by a few fast-growing strong com...

An increase in the occurrence of large, high severity wildfires in the western Pacific Northwest (PNW), USA, has created an urgent need for science to better inform forest management and policy decisions to maintain source water quality in the region. The western PNW faces simila...

Reservoirs are globally important sources of methane and carbon dioxide, but the magnitude of their emissions is highly uncertain. This uncertainty is due in part to a lack of wide-ranging empirical measurement datasets for training predictive models. Here, we present the largest...

Reservoirs are globally important sources of greenhouse gases, but the magnitude of their emissions is highly uncertain. Here, we present data for 146 reservoirs from two surveys of reservoir methane and carbon dioxide emissions, one at the regional scale in the midwestern United...

Interest in using DNA metabarcoding as part of monitoring and assessment programs continues to increase since 2020 when EPA first published a study on its use to quantify diatom responses to nutrients in streams at a watershed scale. Results from this initial work were subsequent...

This is a presentation to be given for the HABs, Hypoxia, and Nutrients Research Webinar. The presentation shows that wildfire smoke contains high amounts of nutrients compared to non-smoke days. The elevated phosphorus is particularly notable relative to non-smoke measurements. ...

Low-gradient coastal stream systems support important landscape level ecological functions by connecting uplands and marshes directly to large tidal rivers, estuaries, and coastal waterbodies. In this study, we develop and evaluate innovative monitoring and assessment methods to ...

Spring 2025 Puget Sound Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS) algal toxin concentration results from aqueous and solid phase adsorption toxin tracking (SPATT) samples 

It is broadly understood that waterbody eutrophication is a widespread and ever-increasing problem driven by anthropogenic nutrient pollution. However, a lack of detailed monitoring data makes it difficult to interpret water quality outcomes for all affected waters across the Uni...

Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) is a well-established method for molecular detection and quantification of microorganisms. Molecular detection of toxigenic cyanobacteria using qPCR has also been employed as a useful tool for predicting cyanotoxin production and form...

Eutrophication of the northern Gulf of America (NGOA) (also known as northern Gulf of Mexico) due to excess nutrients has resulted in harmful algal blooms, the development of hypoxic zones, and negative impacts on seafood production, recreational activities, and marine transporta...

Shellfish restoration and aquaculture are considered as innovative methods to mitigate in-water nutrients in coastal waters. Water quality was examined at two oyster aquaculture farms in Potter (2021–2023) and Pt Judith (2023) Ponds in southern Rhode Island, USA. Twice mont...

This report estimates the natural background and ambient concentrations of primary producer abundance indicators in California wadeable streams, identifies thresholds of adverse effects of nutrient-stimulated primary producer abundance on benthic macroinvertebrate and algal commu...

An increase in the occurrence of large, high severity wildfires in the western Pacific Northwest (PNW), USA, has created an urgent need for science to better inform forest management and policy decisions to maintain source water quality in the region. The western PNW faces simila...

Efforts to constrain the negative environmental impacts of excess nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are costly and challenging, due in part to inconsistent reporting of nutrient sources at temporal and spatial scales relevant for local decision making. To meet this challenge, the U...

Lake Erie has been re-experiencing excessive nutrient loading (i.e., eutrophication) during recent decades, the causes and consequences of which remain incomplete (Scavia et al., 2014; Sinclair et al., 2023; Watson et al., 2016). Our general understanding is that increased runoff...

Tropical urban estuaries are understudied, where ecosystem health is often considered through a temperate lens. Here, we use stable isotopes and other biogeochemical parameters to begin to address the hypothesis that the biogeochemical drivers of water column chemistry in tropica...

Seagrass and oyster beds are biogenic habitats of global importance in shallow coastal waters as they provide critical ecosystem functions. These habitats may be adversely affected by warming trends. Short-term effects and interactions of oysters (presence, absence) and water tem...

Nutrient budgets, accounting frameworks that track nutrients (e.g. nitrogen and phosphorus_ as they move through landscapes, are foundational tools for understanding and managing environmental change. From food production to drinking water safety to greenhouse gas emissions, nutr...

US EPA previously released two static versions of the River Basin Export Reduction Optimization Support Tool (RBEROST), one version for the Upper Connecticut River basin (v1s), and one for the Puget Sound Basin (v2s).  RBEROST is designed to enable stakeholders to identify t...

Support for using diatom DNA metabarcoding in stream monitoring and assessment programs continues to grow, but its use often requires storing samples for months prior to extraction and analysis. Freezing without preservatives is a cheap, simple way to store and handle samples, bu...

Cyanobacterial blooms have been increasingly detected in estuaries and freshwater tidal rivers. To enhance detailed monitoring, an efficient approach to detecting algal blooms through remote sensing is needed to focus more detailed monitoring focused on cyanobacteria. In this stu...

Excess nitrogen and phosphorus export from agricultural lands is a primary contributor to water quality degradation in the United States. To improve water quality, significant investments have been made to implement conservation practices on agricultural lands, including through ...

Wetland restoration can be an effective tool in nutrient reduction strategies. However, to be effective as a strategy, restored wetlands must be geographically positioned where (1) soil and hydrologic conditions promote wetland persistence post-restoration and (2) interception of...