Public Health Forward: Modernizing the U.S. Public Health System

Public Health Forward: Modernizing the U.S. Public Health System defines a vision for a modernized public health system in the 21st century and provides a framework of practical, prioritized, and bipartisan actions for policymakers and public health officials to guide strategic investments and decision-making to help translate the vision into a reality with a focus on equity. The federal government continues to provide critical leadership and funding to navigate the current pandemic and has a responsibility to make significant investments and changes in public health for the post-pandemic future. Long-term, increased, sustainable funding and policy leadership from the federal government will be crucial to support this five-year vision, framework, and set of actions, as most public health departments are concerned over their funding levels, notwithstanding the recent infusion of money

Designing a suite of measurements to understand the critical zone

Many scientists have begun to refer to the earth surface environment from the upper canopy to the depths of bedrock as the critical zone (CZ). Identification of the CZ as an integral object worthy of study implicitly posits that the study of the whole earth surface will provide benefits that do not arise when studying the individual parts. To study the CZ, however, requires prioritizing among the measurements that can be made – and we do not generally agree on the priorities. Currently, the Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory (SSHCZO) is expanding from a small original focus area (0.08 km2 , Shale Hills catchment), to a larger watershed (164 km2 , Shavers Creek watershed) and is grappling with the prioritization. This effort is an expansion from a monolithologic first-order forested catchment to a watershed that encompasses several lithologies (shale, sandstone, limestone) and land use types (forest, agriculture). The goal of the project remains the same: to understand water, energy, gas, solute, and sediment (WEGSS) fluxes that are occurring today in the context of the record of those fluxes over geologic time as recorded in soil profiles, the sedimentary record, and landscape morphology. Given the small size of the Shale Hills catchment, the original design incorporated measurement of as many parameters as possible at high temporal and spatial density. In the larger Shavers Creek watershed, however, we must focus the measurements. We describe a strategy of data collection and modeling based on a geomorphological and land use framework that builds on the hillslope as the basic unit. Interpolation and extrapolation beyond specific sites relies on geophysical surveying, remote sensing, geomorphic analysis, the study of natural integrators such as streams, groundwaters or air, and application of a suite of CZ models. We hypothesize that measurements of a few important variables at strategic locations within a geomorphological framework will allow development of predictive models of CZ behavior. In turn, the measurements and models will reveal how the larger watershed will respond to perturbations both now and into the future

Agricultural Research Service Weed Science Research: Past, Present, and Future

The U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) has been a leader in weed science research covering topics ranging from the development and use of integrated weed management (IWM) tactics to basic mechanistic studies, including biotic resistance of desirable plant communities and herbicide resistance. ARS weed scientists have worked in agricultural and natural ecosystems, including agronomic and horticultural crops, pastures, forests, wild lands, aquatic habitats, wetlands, and riparian areas. Through strong partnerships with academia, state agencies, private industry, and numerous federal programs, ARS weed scientists have made contributions to discoveries in the newest fields of robotics and genetics, as well as the traditional and fundamental subjects of weed-crop competition and physiology and integration of weed control tactics and practices. Weed science at ARS is often overshadowed by other research topics; thus, few are aware of the long history of ARS weed science and its important contributions. This review is the result of a symposium held at the Weed Science Society of America\u27s 62nd Annual Meeting in 2022 that included 10 separate presentations in a virtual Weed Science Webinar Series. The overarching themes of management tactics (IWM, biological control, and automation), basic mechanisms (competition, invasive plant genetics, and herbicide resistance), and ecosystem impacts (invasive plant spread, climate change, conservation, and restoration) represent core ARS weed science research that is dynamic and efficacious and has been a significant component of the agency\u27s national and international efforts. This review highlights current studies and future directions that exemplify the science and collaborative relationships both within and outside ARS. Given the constraints of weeds and invasive plants on all aspects of food, feed, and fiber systems, there is an acknowledged need to face new challenges, including agriculture and natural resources sustainability, economic resilience and reliability, and societal health and well-being

Variations in Export of Nitrate and Other Solutes Across Lithologies and Land Uses in a Huc 10 Watershed Within the Susquehanna River Basin

From catchment to watershed scale, the critical zone community is asking the question of what to measure—and where to measure it—to constrain models and make informed observations about critical zone processes. One of the primary goals of the Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory (SSHCZO) is to scale-up hydrologic models from the catchment scale at Shale Hills (0.08 km2), Garner Run (1.21 km2), and Cole Farm (0.43 km2) catchments to the larger watershed scale of Shavers Creek watershed (~120 km2). The increase in drainage area of three orders of magnitude introduces a challenge of increased spatial heterogeneity in lithology, relief, and land use. Shavers Creek is an upland watershed within the Susquehanna River Basin (SRB) that drains a variety of lithologies and is overlain by both agricultural and forested land uses. To address the challenge of spatial heterogeneity in Shavers Creek, several synoptic sampling campaigns have been performed to develop datasets of solute fluxes at high spatial resolution in Shavers Creek. In addition, three monolithologic subcatchments have been monitored in regions of homogeneous land use. These data sets include hydrologic data collected from both forested (Shale Hills and Garner Run) and agricultural lands (Cole Farm). Using Cole Farm as a proxy for agricultural land use in Shavers Creek provides insight into groundwater quality in the agriculturally developed portion of the uplands of the SRB. Synoptic sampling data sets were collected during periods of both high and low hydrologic connectivity within the watershed. These data sets, combined with long term data from the SSHCZO subcatchments, show that the surface and ground water sources appear to have geochemical homogeneity during wet periods, but during dry periods, the various stream sites in Shavers Creek and its major tributaries become geochemically distinct, instead reflecting the solute signatures associated with local land uses and lithologies. This geochemical homogenization that occurs during wet periods is observed via principal component analysis which shows that stream water chemistry in Shavers Creek clusters together, close to the values associated with headwaters and precipitation

Integrated field, model, and theoretical advances inform a predictive understanding of transport and transformation in the critical zone

Dr. Kamini Singha\u27s work has been transformative in advancing our predictive understanding of transport and transformation in Earth\u27s critical zone. She integrates empirical, numerical, and theoretical advances at scales spanning individual pores to regional aquifers, and works seamlessly across disciplines to connect otherwise disparate fields. Her work has both applied and basic research dimensions, ensuring advances inform best practices across the industry. That she has achieved prominence in research while maintaining a successful portfolio of teaching, mentoring, and service to the profession is particularly impressive. Indeed, Singha has fostered the burgeoning discipline of hydrogeophysics and ensured that this discipline, and its role in critical zone science, is an open, accessible, and welcoming field. Here, we summarize Singha\u27s impact on hydrologic science as a researcher, educator, mentor, and agent of change in the field

The Effect of Lithology and Agriculture at the Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory

The footprint of the Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory was expanded in 2013 from the forested Shale Hills subcatchment (0.08 km) to most of Shavers Creek watershed (163 km) in an effort to understand the interactions among water, energy, gas, solute, and sediment. The main stem of Shavers Creek is now monitored, and instrumentation has been installed in two new subcatchments: Garner Run and Cole Farm. Garner Run is a pristine forested site underlain by sandstone, whereas Cole Farm is a cultivated site on calcareous shale. We describe preliminary data and insights about how the critical zone has evolved on sites of different lithology, vegetation, and land use. A notable conceptual model that has emerged is the “two water table” concept. Despite differences in critical zone architecture, we found evidence in each catchment of a shallow and a deep water table, with the former defined by shallow interflow and the latter defined by deeper groundwater flow through weathered and fractured bedrock. We show that the shallow and deep waters have distinct chemical signatures. The proportion of contribution from each water type to stream discharge plays a key role in determining how concentrations, including nutrients, vary as a function of stream discharge. This illustrates the benefits of the critical zone observatory approach: having common sites to grapple with cross-disciplinary research questions, to integrate diverse datasets, and to support model development that ultimately enables the development of powerful conceptual and numerical frameworks for large-scale hindcasting and forecasting capabilities