USGS scientist Duane Chapman provided reporters and filming crew from National Geographic an educational Missouri River tour for the upcoming winter television special, "Monster Fish," which profiles invasive Asian carp. Chapman explained the carps' invasive history, the abundance of larvae compared to native fish, and why their anatomy makes carp such a fierce competitor. National Geographic will return in Sept. for more details on Asian carp research underway at the USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center.

USGS scientist Chris Ingersoll was interviewed and appeared on KOMU TV, Columbia, Mo., on July 30, 2009. The interview was about a biosolids spill along Missouri Callaway County Road UU, south of Columbia, due to a traffic accident. Dr. Ingersoll gave information regarding the transport and safety of biosolids, stating that this spill was not a hazard to the public.

Aaron DeLonay, an employee for the Columbia Environmental Research Center, shows David Walchshauser a shovelnose sturgeon on California Island during the Big Canoe River Float on Saturday. Many of the sturgeon in the Missouri River are electronically tagged and monitored because of their status on the endangered species list. Sturgeon were around with the dinosaurs and many found in the river are more than 15 years old.

USGS scientist Duane Chapman of the Columbia Environmental Research Center, appeared on June 7, 2009, in the Columbia Missourian about Asian carp facing starvation and reproductive problems in the Missouri River. Chapman discussed their health decline, which is hypothesized to result from a low supply of zooplankton in the river.

The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) just notified the winners of its prestigious 2009 Boeing Award for Best Paper in Image Analysis and Interpretation. The award was given to USGS scientist Matthew Struckhoff, Columbia Environmental Research Center, and his co-authors, for the article entitled, "Mapping Vegetation Communities Using Statistical Data Fusion in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri, USA," which appeared in the February 2008 issue of the journal. The ASPRS advances knowledge of mapping sciences through imaging and geospatial information, a professional, international society.

Exactly how the chemicals are able to transform males into females is the subject of continuous study. "There are several hypotheses about how a genetically male frog can become a phenotypic female frog or an intersex frog." Papoulias adds. "Most involve interference by the chemical [endocrine disruptor] on the sex steroids."

A new website by the U.S Geological Survey focuses on the science and natural resources of the Ozarks and makes that information available to the public. Officials say the website was designed to inform the public about the natural and cultural resources of the Ozarks, while also facilitating the exchange of information. Ozarks at Large's Bryan Rachal has the story.

news release: Ozark Natural Resource Information Now Available Online

"I don't think there are very many serious scientists who think it could have been native to Montana," said Duane Chapman, president of the Introduced Fish Section in the American Fisheries Society, a leading organization of fisheries professionals. Walleye "have been moved around an awful lot through illegal stocking," Chapman said from Columbia, Mo. The fish is found widely in the United States.

Duane Chapman

Burrowing Owls and Eastern Screech Owls
"Some call them our little winter Texans. Burrowing Owls breed in Canada and then fly south for the winter. But what do they do all day while they're here? To find out, we're joined by Marc Woodin of the U.S. Geological Society."

 "You can find fish of any size in the river at any time of year," said Duane Chapman, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. And if the fish are smaller than about five inches, tests have shown one volt simply will not repel them all."

"According to Duane Chapman, a fish biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who specializes in carp studies, Opel's catch is the largest on record by a recreational fisherman in the Western Hemisphere."

 "On a spring day one year ago, scientists in life vests and blue jeans invaded the bucolic slice of nature where Perche Creek empties into the Missouri River. The scientists, representing the U.S. Geological Survey and a lab from the University of Missouri-Columbia, suspended mesh cages in the river's current and filled them with fathead minnows , the— white rat of the aquatic world, ideal for biological testing. Meanwhile, from the river's edge, National Geographic cameras took in the scene."

Michael Mac, director of the U.S. Geological Survey Columbia Environmental Research Center on New Haven Road, said pharmaceuticals infiltrate drinking water a couple of ways: excretory waste in the sewage system and the flushing of medications down the toilet. Hormones in birth control pills have been found in water, possibly affecting fish and other aquatic organisms, Mac said, adding he has witnessed male fish carrying eggs and developing other female characteristics.

Diana Papoulias, a fish biologist at CERC, began studying the reproductive effects of sturgeon in 2002. Little was known at the time, so she and her colleagues went out on the Missouri River and collected samples of sturgeon near Hartsburg and Boonville with a goal of obtaining 15 males and 15 females. They came back with something totally different.

"The types of things we're finding are the types of things that are associated with everyday life," said David Alvarez, a U.S. Geological Survey research chemist who analyzed samples from the Potomac. The contaminants flow into the river from sewer plants and in rainwater washing off of farm fields and suburban lawns, he said.

Two biologists, Sabrina Davenport and Brian Carollo, both of the United States Geological Survey, tracked the pallid sturgeon Wednesday downstream from Atchison to an area south of Leavenworth. Both Ms. Davenport and Mr. Carollo are based at the Columbia Environmental Research Center of the USGS in Columbia, Mo. They usually stop in Atchison every one or two weeks. However, this week's stop marked the first since November.

Under the Endangered Species Act, the federal government is compelled to fight the endangered species’ decline, said Aaron DeLonay, an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. But many of the scientists fighting for the fish do it because they want to. "It is a unique species that has taken thousands, maybe millions, of years to evolve," DeLonay said. "And once it is gone, it is gone forever."

Under the currents of the Missouri River lies a murky world where the currency is not water but sediment. From its mountainous headwaters in Montana to its mouth outside St. Louis, the Missouri River acts like a conveyor belt, moving millions of tons of sediment — a mixture of sand, soil and silt. At St. Louis, the Mississippi River takes over and carries the load down to the Gulf of Mexico. Over the past century, the system’s economy has been faltering. Signs from Kansas City to the Gulf indicate the river’s sediment — or lack of it — might have lasting environmental and economic ramifications.