Many Toxics Program investigations include or focus directly on the occurrence, transport and ecological effects of nutrients in the environment. The major nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus typically are studied; however, this research includes any process or chemicals that enrich or otherwise affect nutrient budgets in natural as well as anthropogenically affected water resources. Nutrients from agricultural, urban, and other sources are included in these investigations. The information presented on this page cuts across lines drawn by individual investigations and projects so that information on the fate and effects of nutrients can be presented in one place.

Investigations and Research Activities

• Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico and Related USGS Activities
• Biogeochemistry of Carbon and Nitrogen in Aquatic Environments, General Project Description
• Microbiology and Molecular Ecology of Biogeochemical Cycles in Aquatic Environments
  • Fate of Nitrogen During Transport Through Agriculturally Impacted Rivers,
  • Biocomplexity of the Chesapeake Bay
• Biotic Interface with Fluvial Transport Processes Associated with Dissolved Solutes in Transport
• Plankton Dynamics in Tidal Estuaries
• Isotope Tracers of Biogeochemical and Hydrologic Processes
• Isotope Tracers Project, Research on the application of environmental isotopes in hydrology, geology, and biology
• Periodic Table--Nitrogen Isotopes, Information on nitrogen cycling and nitrogen isotopes in the environment
• Isotopes and Nitrogen Sources Research
• Biogeochemistry and Environmental Chemistry of Nitrogen
• Benthic Fluxes of Metals and Nutrients
• Management Systems Evaluation Area Program, (Completed)
• Agricultural Chemicals Crosscutting Topic

Fact Sheets

• Nitrogen in the Mississippi Basin--Estimating Sources and Predicting Flux to the Gulf of Mexico, USGS Fact Sheet FS-135-00
• Agricultural chemicals in Iowa's ground water, 1982-95 -- What are the trends?, USGS Fact Sheet FS-116-97

USGS scientist lowering a water-quality sampler into the Iowa River near Marengo, IA, (site ID 05453100). during the 1993 flood of the upper Mississippi River Watershed. The samples were analyzed for nutrients and pesticides
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Average annual nitrate concentrations in selected rivers during 1905-07 and 1980-96 (FS 135-00)
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Headlines

• Climate-Driven Ocean Changes Affect Estuaries: Pacific Ocean Cooling Triggers Phytoplankton Blooms in San Francisco Bay
• Decades Required for Natural Processes to Clean Wastewater-Contaminated Ground Water
• New Information on the Long-Term Fate of Ammonium in Ground Water
• Microscopic Phytoplankton Can Cause Big Problems for Estuaries
• New Report on Science for Hypoxia in Gulf of Mexico
• High Nitrate in the Desert? What’s Going On?
• Phosphorus Doesn't Migrate in Ground Water? Better Think Again!
• USGS Info Guides Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone Action Plan
• USGS Leads a National Study on Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico

Bibliography

• Publications on Nutrients (336 Publications)

New Publications

• Fractionation of stable isotopes in perchlorate and nitrate during in situ biodegradation in a sandy aquifer: Hatzinger, P., Böhlke, J.K., Sturchio, N.C., Gu, B., Heraty, L.J., and Borden, R.C., 2009, Environmental Chemistry, v. 6, no. 1, p. 44-52, doi:10.1071/EN09008.
• Multi-scale measurements and modeling of denitrification in streams with varying flow and nitrate concentration in the Upper Mississippi River Basin, USA: Böhlke, J.K., Antweiler, R.C., Harvey, J.W., Laursen, A.E., Smith, L.K., Smith, R.L., and Voytek, M.A., 2009, Biogeochemistry, v. 93, p. 117-141, doi:10.1007/s10533-008-9282-8 (Advanced Web release).
• Effect of grain-coating mineralogy on nitrate and sulfate storage in the unsaturated zone: Reilly, T.J., Fishman, N.S., and Baehr, A.L., 2009, Vadose Zone Journal, v. 8, no. 1, p. 75-85, doi:10.2136/vzj2008.0053.
• Benthic nutrient sources to hypereutrophic Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon: Kuwabara, J.S., Topping, B.R., Lynch, D.D., Carter, J.L., and Essaid, H.I., 2009, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, v. 28, no. 3, p. 516-524, doi:10.1897/08-207.1.
• Microbial characterization of nitrification in a shallow, nitrogen-contaminated aquifer, Cape Cod, Massachusetts and detection of a novel cluster associated with nitrifying Betaproteobacteria: Miller, D.N., and Smith, R.L., 2009, Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, v. 103, no. 3-4, p. 182-193, doi:10.1016/j.jconhyd.2008.10.011.