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This draft report investigates the issues and challenges associated with identifying, calculating, and mapping indicators of the relative vulnerability of water quality and aquatic ecosystems, across the United States, to the potential impacts of global change. Using a large set...

EPA announced the availability of the final report, <em>The Effects of Mountaintop Mines and Valley Fills on Aquatic Ecosystems of the Central Appalachian Coalfields</em>. This report assesses the state of the science on the environmental impacts of mountaintop mines and valley ...

Methods and conceptual models to guide the development of tools for diagnosing the causes of biological impairment within aquatic ecosystems of the United States are described in this report. The conceptual models developed here address nutrients, suspended and bedded sediments (...

Variations in stratospheric ozone and changes in the aquatic environment by climate change and human activity are modifying the exposure of aquatic ecosystems to UV radiation. These shifts in exposure have consequences for the distributions of species, biogeochemical cycles, and ...

This report assesses the state of the science on the environmental impacts of mountaintop mines and valley fills (MTM-VF) on streams in the Central Appalachian Coalfields. Our review focused on the aquatic impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining, which, as its name suggests, ...

Summarizing presentations at a symposium on air pollutant effects on aquatic ecosystems, this document includes an overview of U.S. research programs, atmospheric emissions and deposition, cycling processes, and effects on plants and animals. Current U.S. research addresses ecosy...

Aquatic ecosystems are a vital part of the urban water cycle (and of urban areas more broadly), and, if healthy, provide a range of goods and services valued by humans (Meyer 1997). For example, aquatic ecosystems (e.g., rivers, lakes, wetlands) provide potable water, food resou...

The EPA document, <i>Relationships Among Exceedances of Chemical Criteria or Guidelines, the Results of Ambient Toxicity Tests, and Community Metrics in Aquatic Ecosystems</i>, presents two studies where the three general approaches for the ecological assessment of contaminant ex...

Aquatic ecosystems around the world are contaminated with a wide range of anthropogenic chemicals, including metals and organic pollutants, that originate from point and nonpoint sources. Many of these chemical contaminants have complex environmental cycles, are persistent and bi...

EPA announced the availability of the final report, <i>Aquatic Ecosystems and Global Change: The Challenges of conducting Multi-Stressor Global Change Vulnerability Assessments</i>. This report investigates the issues and challenges associated with identifying, calculating, and ...

While factors influencing perceptions of drinking water have been well studied, those of aquatic ecosystems have been to lesser extent. We conducted a review to improve awareness of these factors. Environmental factors found to influence public perceptions of aquatic ecosystems w...

Riparian spiders are being used increasingly to track spatial patterns of contaminants in and fluxing from aquatic ecosystems. However, our understanding of the circumstances under which spiders are effective sentinels of aquatic pollution is limited. The present study tests the ...

Across the Pacific Northwest the size and frequency of wildfires has been steadily increasing over the last two decades, potentially further stressing the region&rsquo;s aquatic ecosystems. However, aquatic ecosystems vary widely in their responses to wildfire, with some systems ...

<p>There is increasing evidence that stream metabolic processes that increase CO2 flux to the atmosphere will be highly sensitive to rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns and shifts in carbon loading from watersheds. In addition, preliminary data suggest that th...

Wildfires are widespread disturbances that influence the structure of ecosystems in the forested landscapes of the western United States. After decades of natural resource policies that suppressed fire activity on the landscape, changes in climate and forest conditions are increa...

Aquatic ecosystems provide services essential to human health and economies. Therefore, resource management programs aim to ensure the sustainable flow of these services. Stakeholder engagement is often a critical tool in learning what services are of priority to the public and m...

Biological surveys have become a common technique for determining whether aquatic communities have been injured. However, their results are not useful for identifying management options until the causes of apparent injuries have been identified. Techniques for determining causa...

Nutrient transport from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems is strongly mediated by soil chemical interactions. Ions deposited on or biologically released within the soil can enter into a variety of exchange and precipitation reactions prior to (or instead of) entering aquatic ecos...

Analysis of spatially-explicit ecological phenomena in aquatic ecosystems is impeded by a lack of knowledge of, and tools to delimit, spatial patterns of material supply to point locations. Here we apply the concept of "resource sheds" to coasts and watersheds. Resource sheds ar...

Environmental issues in aquatic ecosystems of high management priority involve spatially explicit phenomena that occur over vast areas. A "landscape" perspective is thus necessary, including an understanding of how ecological phenomena at a local scale are affected by physical fo...

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are a ubiquitous issue of concern in our aquatic systems. Commonly detected EDCs include natural and synthetic hormones, surfactants, plasticizers, disinfectants, herbicides and metals. The potency of these chemicals varies substantially, as ...

The industrial use and widespread application of carbon-based nanomaterials have caused a rapid increase in their production over the last decades. However, toxicity of these materials is not fully known and still being investigated for potential human and ecological health risks...

High levels of nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations are a common problem in many waters of the United States. Efforts to control these nutrients have been on-going for the last 30-40 years. The focus of these efforts over this time has been primarily to address the reduction ...

Although wildfire is a natural disturbance in many ecosystems, wildfire extent and frequency are increasing across much of North America, particularly in the western United States. There is an urgent need for researchers, managers and the general public to understand and anticipa...

Historically, water quality assessments in the United States primarily focused on water chemistry assays at or near discharge sources. As it has become clear that waters also can be highly impaired from dispersed (i.e., non-point source) chemicals and non-chemical impacts, direc...