Publications
The list below includes official USGS publications and journal articles authored by New England Water Science Center scientists. The USGS Pubs Warehouse link provides access to all USSG publications.
Filter Total Items: 1081
Instructions for running the analytical code PAT (Purge Analyzer Tool) for computation of in-well time of travel of groundwater under pumping conditions
IntroductionUnderstanding the optimal time needed to purge a well while pumping to collect a representative groundwater sample requires an understanding of groundwater flow in wells (in-well flow). Parameters that affect in-well flow include the hydraulic properties of the aquifer, well construction, drawdown from pumping, and pump rate. The time of travel relative to in-well flow is affected by t
Authors
P.T. Harte, B. J. Huffman, Tomas Perina, Herb Levine, Daewon Rojas-Mickelson
Soil aggregates as a source of dissolved organic carbon to streams: An experimental study on the effect of solution chemistry on water extractable carbon
Over the past two decades, headwater streams of the northern hemisphere have shown increased amounts of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), coinciding with decreased acid deposition. The exact nature of the mechanistic link between precipitation composition and stream water DOC is still widely debated in the literature. We hypothesize that soil aggregates are the main source of stream water DOC and th
Authors
Malayika M. Cincotta, Julia N. Perdrial, Aaron Shavitz, Arianna Libenson, Maxwell Landsman, Nicolas Perdrial, Jesse Armfield, Thomas Adler, James B. Shanley
Resolving a paradox—high mercury deposition, but low bioaccumulation in northeastern Puerto Rico
At a “clean air” trade winds site in northeastern Puerto Rico, we found an apparent paradox: atmospheric total mercury (THg) deposition was highest of any site in the USA Mercury Deposition Network, but assimilation into the local food web was quite low. Avian blood THg concentrations (n = 31, from eight species in five foraging guilds) ranged widely from 0.2 to 32 ng g−1 (median of 4.3 ng g−1). W
Authors
James B. Shanley, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, Oksana P. Lane, Wayne J. Arendt, Steven J. Hall, William H. McDowell
Hysteretic response of solutes and turbidity at the event scale across forested tropical montane watersheds
Concentration-discharge relationships are a key tool for understanding the sourcing and transport of material from watersheds to fluvial networks. Storm events in particular provide insight into variability in the sources of solutes and sediment within watersheds, and the hydrologic pathways that connect hillslope to stream channel. Here we examine high-frequency sensor-based specific conductance
Authors
Adam S. Wymore, Miguel C. Leon, James B. Shanley, William C. McDowell
Low streamflow trends at human-impacted and reference basins in the United States
We present a continent-scale exploration of trends in annual 7-day low streamflows at 2482 U.S. Geological Survey streamgages across the conterminous United States over the past 100, 75, and 50 years (1916–2015, 1941–2015 and 1966–2015). We used basin characteristics to identify subsets of study basins representative of reference basins with streamflow relatively free from human effects (n = 259),
Authors
Robert W. Dudley, Robert M. Hirsch, Stacey A. Archfield, Annalise G. Blum, Benjamin Renard
Influence of land use and hydrologic variability on seasonal dissolved organic carbon and nitrate export: Insights from a multi-year regional analysis for the northeastern USA
Land use/land cover (LULC) change has significant impacts on nutrient loading to aquatic systems and has been linked to deteriorating water quality globally. While many relationships between LULC and nutrient loading have been identified, characterization of the interaction between LULC, climate (specifically variable hydrologic forcing) and solute export across seasonal and interannual time scale
Authors
Erin Seybold, Arthur J. Gold, Shreeram P. Inamdar, Carol Adair, W.B. Bowden, Matthew C.H. Vaughan, Soni M. Pradhanang, Kelly Addy, James B. Shanley, Andrew W. Vermilyea, Delphis F. Levia, Beverley Wemple, Andrew W. Schroth
Water for Long Island: Now and for the future
Do you ever wonder where your water comes from? If you live in Nassau or Suffolk County, the answer is, groundwater. Groundwater is water that started out as precipitation (rain and snow melt) and seeped into the ground. This seepage recharges the freshwater stored underground, in the spaces between the grains of sand and gravel in what are referred to as aquifers. Long Island has three primary aq
Authors
John P. Masterson, Robert F. Breault
Arsenic variability and groundwater age in three water supply wells in southeast New Hampshire
Three wells in New Hampshire were sampled bimonthly over three years to evaluate the temporal variability of arsenic concentrations and groundwater age. All samples had measurable concentrations of arsenic throughout the entire sampling period and concentrations in individual wells varied, on average, by more than 7 µg/L. High arsenic concentrations (>10 µg/L) were measured in bedrock wells KFW-87
Authors
Joseph Levitt, James Degnan, Sarah Flanagan, Bryant Jurgens
Tritium as an indicator of modern, mixed, and premodern groundwater age
Categorical classification of groundwater age is often used for the assessment and understanding of groundwater resources. This report presents a tritium-based age classification system for the conterminous United States based on tritium (3H) thresholds that vary in space and time: modern (recharged in 1953 or later), if the measured value is larger than an upper threshold; premodern (recharged pr
Authors
Bruce D. Lindsey, Bryant C. Jurgens, Kenneth Belitz
Development and evaluation of a record extension technique for estimating discharge at selected stream sites in New Hampshire
Daily mean discharges are needed for rivers in New Hampshire for the management of instream flows. It is impractical, however, to continuously gage all streams in New Hampshire, and at many sites where information is needed, the discharge data required do not exist. For such sites, techniques for estimating discharge are available. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New Hampshire
Authors
Scott A. Olson, Abraham J. Meyerhofer
Use of set blanks in reporting pesticide results at the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Laboratory, 2001-15
Executive SummaryBackground.—Pesticide results from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL) are used for water-quality assessments by many agencies and organizations. The USGS is committed to providing data of the highest possible quality to the consumers of its data. A cooperator’s inquiries about specific pesticide detections in water revealed potential laborat
Authors
Laura Medalie, Mark W. Sandstrom, Patricia L. Toccalino, William T. Foreman, Rhiannon C. ReVello, Laura M. Bexfield, Melissa L. Riskin
Chemical and physical controls on mercury source signatures in stream fish from the northeastern United States
Streams in the northeastern U.S. receive mercury (Hg) in varying proportions from atmospheric deposition and legacy point sources, making it difficult to attribute shifts in fish concentrations directly back to changes in Hg source management. Mercury stable isotope tracers were utilized to relate sources of Hg to co-located fish and bed sediments from 23 streams across a forested to urban-industr
Authors
Sarah E. Janssen, Karen Riva-Murray, John F. DeWild, Jacob M. Ogorek, Michael T. Tate, Peter C. Van Metre, David P. Krabbenhoft, James F. Coles