Treesearch

Prior to exponential growth in the early to mid-2000s, the Town of Bluffton, SC was one square mile; as of 2015, it is approximately 55 square miles. Associated with this growth was a shellfish harvesting closure for nearly onethird of the May River in 2009. The Town and its partners developed and began to implement the May River Watershed Action Plan in 2011. The plan is a “living document” allowing for the incorporation of new information and technology as well as modifications based upon its impact on water quality. The continuous evaluation of the success of any watershed management...

During the spring and summer of 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water- Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) assessed stream quality across the Piedmont and southern Appalachian Mountain region in the southeastern United States.

The Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) was established in 2003 to document the effects and benefits of conservation practices. CEAP conducts assessments at multiple scales – national, regional, and watershed scale – on croplands, grazing lands and wetlands, and to address wildlife concerns. A major part of CEAP since its inception included a collection of 42 small Watershed Assessment Studies, involving 3 USDA agencies along with numerous other Federal and university partners.

Agriculture, across the value chain, is the greatest consumptive user of water resources in the United States and around the world. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing agricultural producers will be increased agricultural production to meet rising demand in the face of limited water resources.

High elevation watersheds in the southern Appalachian Mountains have unique soils and vegetation communities. They also receive greater inputs of acidic deposition as a result of increased precipitation compared to lower elevation sites.

Despite much of the environmental history of Wormsloe State Historic Site on the Isle of Hope, Georgia having previously been documented and described, there are still some aspects that require deeper investigation. For example, whether rice cultivation was ever performed at Wormsloe is a question which does not have a definitive answer.

The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) is in the process of developing drought early warning systems in areas of the U.S. where the development and coordination of drought information is needed. In summer 2012, NIDIS launched a pilot program in North and South Carolina, addressing the uniqueness of drought impacts on coastal ecosystems.

The location of the freshwater-saltwater interface in surface-water bodies is an important factor in the ecological and socio-economic dynamics of coastal communities. It influences community composition in freshwater and saltwater ecosystems, determines fisheries spawning habitat, and controls freshwater availability for municipal and industrial water intakes. These dynamics may be affected by coastal drought through changes in Vibrio bacteria impacts on shellfish harvesting and occurrence of wound infection, fish kills, harmful algal blooms, hypoxia, and beach closures.

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is recognized as a major component in the global carbon cycle and is an important driver of numerous biogeochemical processes in aquatic ecosystems, both in-stream and downstream in estuaries. This study sought to characterize chromophoric DOM (CDOM), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and dissolved nutrients in major rivers and their tributaries of the South Carolina Coastal Plain to assess the impact of land cover, soils, and other factors on water quality.

The Waccamaw River Basin is located in the coastal plain and meanders from North Carolina to South Carolina. This tidal black-water river flows parallel to the coast past the cities of Conway and Georgetown, terminating in Winyah Bay. The river is hydrologically connected to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIW) and experiences semi-diurnal tides with a range classified as micro-tidal (< 6.5 feet). The semi-diurnal tidal amplitude in the Waccamaw River declines with increasing distance upstream from Winyah Bay and the AIW. Temporal variations in the longitudinal tidal gradient of Winyah...