In artisanal small-scale gold mines (ASGM), mercury (Hg) is known to pollute nearby river waters and sediments where it can be methylated to the highly bioavailable methylmercury (MeHg). The assessment of Hg speciation in water samples has been challenging for many years, with recommended procedures often not adequately allowing for analysis of samples in a suitable timeframe. Using a novel solid-phase extraction (SPE) method...

The importance of managing land to optimize carbon sequestration for climate change mitigation is widely recognized, with grasslands being identified as having the potential to sequester additional carbon. However, most soil carbon inventories only consider surface soils, and most large‐scale surveys group ecosystems into broad habitats without considering management intensity. Consequently, little is known about the quantity...

The Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) provides for attorneys fees and court costs to be awarded to parties prevailing in litigation against US federal agencies. We examined EAJA awards paid by the US Forest Service from 1999 to 2005, finding more than $6 million awarded to various plaintiffs. Awards were most commonly paid to environmental litigants, although all categories of litigant stakeholders made use of the law. Althou...

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its accompanying regulations provide a spectrum of alternative analytical pathways for federal agencies proposing major actions that might significantly impact the human environment. Although guidance from the President's Council on Environmental Quality suggests the decision to develop an environmental impact statement (EIS), which requires the most rigorous level of analysis,...

Estimates of the sources and wet deposition fluxes of inorganic nutrients (PO 4 3− , NO 3 − , NO 2 − , NH 4 + ) have been made using a long‐term wet atmospheric deposition measurement at three sites along the Mediterranean coast of Israel. The nutrient composition in rainwater indicated a dominant anthropogenic source for NO 3 − and NH 4 + and a continental, natural, and anthropogenic, rock/soil source for PO 4 3− . The calcul...