Publications
USGS Publications Warehouse
Information about all USGS publications. Advanced searches available
Information about all USGS publications. Advanced searches available
Links to all publications authored by WY-MT Water Science Center Scientists:
Filter Total Items: 323
June 2022 floods in the Upper Yellowstone River Basin
Extraordinary floods surged down the Yellowstone River and its tributaries in northwestern Wyoming and south-central Montana on June 13–15, 2022. During the flood, U.S. Geological Survey staff worked to maintain real-time data from streamgages by making field measurements of streamflow and repairing damaged equipment while communicating the latest streamflow information with the public and with lo
Authors
Katherine J. Chase, DeAnn Dutton, William B. Hamilton, Seth A. Siefken, Cassidy Vander Voort, Aroscott Whiteman
Evidence of long-range transport of selenium downstream of coal mining operations in the Elk River Valley, Canada
Expanding coal-mining operations in the Elk River Valley (British Columbia, Canada) have increased total selenium (Se) concentrations in the transboundary Lake Koocanusa (Canada and United States), but the spatial extent of Se transport from the Elk River Mines is unknown. We evaluated multiple lines of evidence of long-range transport of Se at five sites downstream of the mines relative to a site
Authors
Madison Jo Foster, Meryl Biesiot Storb, Johanna Blake, Travis S. Schmidt, Rochelle A. Nustad, Ashley Morgan Bussell
Evaluating distributed snow model resolution and meteorology parameterizations against streamflow observations: Finer Is not always better
Estimating snow conditions is often done using numerical snowpack evolution models at spatial resolutions of 500 m and greater; however, snow depth in complex terrain often varies on sub-meter scales. This study investigated how the spatial distribution of simulated snow conditions varied across seven model spatial resolutions from 30 to 1,000 m and over two meteorological data sets, coarser (≈12
Authors
Theodore B. Barnhart, Annie L. Putman, Aaron Joseph Heldmyer, David Rey, John C. Hammond, Jessica M. Driscoll, Graham A. Sexstone
Prokaryotic microbial ecology as an ecosurveillance tool for eukaryotic pathogen colonisation: Meiothermus and Naegleria fowleri
Naegleria fowleri has been detected in drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) in Australia, Pakistan and the United States and is the causative agent of the highly fatal disease primary amoebic meningoencephalitis. Previous small scale field studies have shown that Meiothermus may be a potential biomarker for N. fowleri. However, correlations between predictive biomarkers in small sample sizes
Authors
Natalia Malinowski, Matthew J. Morgan, Jason Wylie, Tom Walsh, Sergio Domingos, Suzanne Metcalfe, Anna H. Kaksonen, Elliott Barnhart, Rebecca C. Mueller, Brent M. Peyton, Geoffrey J. Puzon
Krumholzibacteriota and Deltaproteobacteria contain rare genetic potential to liberate carbon from monoaromatic compounds in subsurface coal seams
Biogenic methane in subsurface coal seam environments is produced by diverse consortia of microbes. Although this methane is useful for global energy security, it remains unclear which microbes can liberate carbon from the coal. Most of this carbon is relatively resistant to biodegradation, as it is contained within aromatic rings. Thus, to explore for coal-degrading taxa in the subsurface, this s
Authors
Bronwyn C. Campbell, Paul Greenfield, Elliott Barnhart, Se Gong, David J. Midgley, Ian T. Paulsen, Simon C. George
Yellowstone River fish bypass channel physical and hydraulic monitoring, Montana
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation, began monitoring the Yellowstone River fish bypass channel according to the specifications of the Lower Yellowstone Adaptive Management and Monitoring Plan. The fish bypass channel was constructed to provide upstream migrating fish with a route around a diversion dam. The objective of this study is to monitor the physical a
Authors
J. Brooks Stephens, Jason S. Alexander, Seth A. Siefken
Naegleria fowleri detected in Grand Teton National Park Hot Springs
The free-living thermophilic amoeba Naegleria fowleri (N. fowleri) causes the highly fatal disease primary amoebic meningoencephalitis. The environmental conditions that are favorable to the growth and proliferation of N. fowleri are not well-defined, especially in northern regions of the United States. In this study, we used culture-based methods and multiple molecular approaches to detect and an
Authors
Elliott Barnhart, Stacy Kinsey, Peter R. Wright, Sara L. Caldwell Eldridge, Vince Hill, Amy Kahler, Mia Mattioli, Robert S. Cornman, Deborah D. Iwanowicz, Zachary Eddy, Sandra Halonen, Rebecca C. Mueller, Brent Peyton, Geoffrey Puzon
Growth of coal mining operations in the Elk River Valley (Canada) linked to increasing solute transport of Se, NO3-, and SO42- into the transboundary Koocanusa Reservoir (USA-Canada)
Koocanusa Reservoir (KOC) is a waterbody that spans the United States (U.S.) and Canadian border. Increasing concentrations of total selenium (Se), nitrate + nitrite (NO3–, nitrite is insignificant or not present), and sulfate (SO42–) in KOC and downstream in the Kootenai River (Kootenay River in Canada) are tied to expanding coal mining operations in the Elk River Watershed, Canada. Using a paire
Authors
Meryl Biesiot Storb, Ashley Morgan Bussell, Sara L. Caldwell Eldridge, Robert M. Hirsch, Travis S. Schmidt
Development of a Surface-Water Index of Permanence to assess surface-water availability for ecohydrological refugia
Surface-water availability has major implications for the environment and society in the 21st century. With climate change, increased drought severity, and altered water and land use, future water availability is predicted to continue to decline in many areas, including much of the western United States. An understanding of where and when water will be available at multiple scales is crucial for t
Authors
Alynn Martin, Roy Sando, Lindsey Thurman, Kyle McLean, Patrick Wurster, John Jones, Anteneh Sarbanes
USGS installs 2022 high-water markers to provide flood information
Historic flooding on June 12-13, 2022 occurred in the Gallatin, Absaroka and Beartooth Mountains of Montana and Wyoming, near Yellowstone National Park. The flooding was initiated by rainstorms that produced between 1-5 inches of rain on top of an above-average snowpack, causing the snow to melt faster and rush downstream. The combined rain and melted snow led to record floods on the Yellowstone
Authors
Daniel W. Armstrong
Predicting water quality in the Clark Fork near Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, southwestern Montana
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) provides a wide range of streamflow, groundwater, and water-quality data to Government, commercial, academic, and public users. The USGS has a record of success with using optical turbidity sensors to predict suspended-sediment concentrations in rivers and streams. Turbidity sensors collect backscatter signals from suspended particles in water, which can be accura
Authors
Christopher A. Ellison
Spatiotemporal variations in copper, arsenic, cadmium, and zinc concentrations in surface water, fine-grained bed sediment, and aquatic macroinvertebrates in the upper Clark Fork Basin, western Montana—A 20-year synthesis, 1996–2016
The legacy of mining-related contamination in the upper Clark Fork Basin created an extensive longitudinal gradient in metal concentrations, extending from Silver Bow Creek to Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho. Downstream metal concentrations continue to decline, but, despite such improvements, the ecological health of much of the river remains uncertain. Understanding the long-term consequences of the Cla
Authors
Sara L. Caldwell Eldridge, Michelle I. Hornberger