A Comparison of The Dermal Swab and Waterborne Methods for Measuring Corticosterone Levels in Amphibians for Use in Wetland Condition Assessments

Wetlands are some of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world but have been declining in condition across the United States for decades. Methods such as the National Wetland Condition Assessment, which focuses on foliage health, nutrient enrichment, chemical contamination, and surrounding land usage, are used to catalog the condition of those wetlands that remain. It is unknown if and how these current measures of condition related to the physiological responses of the organisms that inhabit these systems. Amphibians can serve as a model organism for assessing the linkage between organismal health and wetland condition due to their high species diversity in wetlands and their use of wetlands for some or all of their life cycles. The objective of this study is to assess the utility of using rapid measures of amphibian stress physiology as complementary metrics in wetland condition assessments. The measurement of corticosterone levels in an organism represents a noninvasive means of collecting stress physiology data, with two well established methods including the Santymire dermal swab method and Gabor’s waterborne measurement method. To identify which method may be the most appropriate in the quantification of the stress response in amphibians, we will collect corticosterone samples from 15 individual tree-frogs in 5 to 10 different wetlands using both the dermal swab and waterborne measurement methods and will compare the results to traditional rapid assessment method scores

A suction lysimeter and a geophysical access port

A sampling apparatus is described for monitoring vadose zones, geologic media or buried waste in sediment and more particularly to such an apparatus which is operable as an access port for geophysical logging and collecting fluid samples to permit analysis of such fluid samples for the presence of toxic substances, having a pipe-like, stainless steel, longitudinally extending, access tube with two ends, where the first end extends above the surface of the sediment and has a removable air tight seal. The subject invention further has a backing in fluid communication with the access tube and a fluid permeable plate contiguous with the backing, wherein the fluid permeable plate is made up of porous stainless steel. A reservoir is integrated into the second closed end of the access tube for containing the collected fluid. A vacuum pump, having a vacuum gauge/transducer attached thereto, is connected to the removable air tight seal for applying a vacuum to the access tube, such that gas and fluid samples may be drawn through the fluid permeable plate. A fluid sample connector coupled to the removable air tight seal, in addition to the vacuum pump with vacuum gauge/transducer, for withdrawing a fluid sample from the access tube

Report of results of the vapor vacuum extraction test at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC) on the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) in the state of Idaho

A test-scale vapor vacuum extraction (VVE) system was installed and operated at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC) on the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), which is west of Idaho Falls, Idaho and is managed by the US Department of Energy Idaho Field Office. The system was constructed for the purpose of demonstrating the feasibility of VVE or vapor venting technology to abate a volatile organic compound (VOC) plume located in the vadose zone below the subsurface disposal area at the complex. To date, the system has been operated for two periods, a two-week test and a four-month test. The purpose of the two-week test was to determine what would be extracted from the borehole and to verify the design of the system to handle what would be extracted