Nursery and greenhouse products are economically important agricultural commodities for Oregon and Washington. Nursery crops including tree seedlings can be damaged or killed by soilborne plant pathogens, which can be challenging to manage because of their persistence in soil and limited options for control. Soil solarization is a pre-planting soil...
Stable oxygen and stable carbon isotopes of foraminifera are widely applied in paleoceanographic reconstructions. Oxygen and carbon isotopes are typically measured using pooled sample analysis (i.e., the combination of several shells) or single-shell analysis (typically restricted to heavier shells that weigh above 10 µg). With pooled sample analysis, where many...
Public attention and concern about per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are increasing due to detection of PFASs in drinking water supplies, the environment, including remote locations, and wildlife and to the lowering of the federal health advisory levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) in drinking water. Aqueous film-forming...
Aqueous film forming foams (AFFFs) are proprietary mixtures containing hydrocarbon surfactants and per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) that are used to extinguish hydrocarbon-based fuel fires. There is limited information on hydrocarbon surfactants in AFFFs and AFFF-contaminated groundwater even though they are more abundant (5-10% w/w) than PFASs (0.9-1.5% w /w) in...
To determine the impact of emerging environmental contaminants on human and environmental health, quantitative analytical methods are required. Analysis of emerging contaminants is hampered by their widely varying physical-chemical properties. Therefore quantitative analytical methods must be developed to determine the behavior of emerging contaminants in environmental systems.
A quantitative analytical...
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are anthropogenic surfactants that have recently been identified as persistent organic pollutants. These so called “Forever Chemicals” have been detected in drinking waters, ground waters, soils, and consumer and industrial products globally; with environmental impacts stretching into the artic, far from known PFAS sources. The...
Trichloroethene (TCE) is the most frequently detected organic contaminant in groundwater, is classified as a probable human carcinogen, and exhibits toxicological effects on the human endocrine, immune, developmental, and reproductive systems. While significant research efforts have been devoted to the development of strategies for remediating TCE-contaminated groundwater, their advancement is...
It is the responsibility of humans, as environmental stewards, to monitor our impact on the environment so that efforts can be made to remediate the effects of our actions and change behaviors. To better understand our environmental footprint, sensitive and simple analytical methods are needed to quantify the contaminants that...
Nurseries are an important part of the agriculture industry of the United States. The nursery industry provides ornamental, forest, restoration and specialty products to many markets in N. America. The disease sudden oak death, caused by Phytophthora ramorum, has devastating environmental and economic impacts on forested land, the urban-forest interface,...
Linear alkylbenzenesulfonate (LAS) is the most widely used anionic surfactant in
commercial detergent formulations. The environmental fate of LAS is of interest because
of its disposal to wastewater treatment facilities and subsequent occurrence as a
micropollutant in surface waters and groundwater. While LAS fate in wastewater
treatment systems and surface...