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Publications

The following list of California Water Science Center publications includes both official USGS publications and journal articles authored by our scientists.

Filter Total Items: 1734

A methodology to asess relations between climatic variability and variations in hydrologic time series in the southwestern United States

A new method for frequency analysis of hydrologic time series was developed to facilitate the estimation and reconstruction of individual or groups of frequencies from hydrologic time-series and facilitate the comparison of these isolated time-series components across data types, between different hydrologic settings within a watershed, between watersheds, and across frequencies. While climate-rel
Authors
R. T. Hanson, M.W. Newhouse, M. D. Dettinger

Tidal oscillation of sediment between a river and a bay: A conceptual model

A conceptual model of fine sediment transport between a river and a bay is proposed, based on observations at two rivers feeding the same bay. The conceptual model consists of river, transitional, and bay regimes. Within the transitional regime, resuspension, advection, and deposition create a mass of sediment that oscillates landward and seaward. While suspended, this sediment mass forms an estua
Authors
N. K. Ganju, D. H. Schoellhamer, J.C. Warner, M.F. Barad, S.G. Schladow

Carbon, sulfur, and mercury - A biogeochemical axis of evil

I welcome this opportunity to come and preach the gospel according to Aiken, which is that to really understand ecosystems we need to pay much more attention to reactions involving natural organic matter. It's taken me many years to convince my colleagues of the important role of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the methylation of mercury. Methylmercury is a nasty player - it's a very efficient b
Authors
George R. Aiken

Chromium geochemistry of serpentinous sediment in the Willow core, Santa Clara County, California

A preliminary investigation of Cr geochemistry in serpentinous sediment completed for a multiple-aquifer ground-water monitoring well (Willow core of Santa Clara County, CA) determined sediment at depths >225 meters contains Cr concentrations ranging from 195 to 1155 mg/kg. Serpentinous sediment from this site is a potential source of non-anthropogenic Cr contamination. Chromium-bearing minerals s
Authors
Christopher J. Oze, Matthew J. LaForce, Carl M. Wentworth, Randall T. Hanson, Dennis K. Bird, Robert G. Coleman

A micrometeorological investigation of a restored California wetland ecosystem

No abstract available.
Authors
Frank Anderson, Richard L. Snyder, Robin L. Miller, Judith Z. Drexler

Channel response to tectonic forcing: field analysis of stream morphology and hydrology in the Mendocino triple junction region, northern California

An empirical calibration of the shear stress model for bedrock incision is presented, using field and hydrologic data from a series of small, coastal drainage basins near the Mendocino triple junction in northern California. Previous work comparing basins from the high uplift zone (HUZ, uplift rates around 4 mm/year) to ones in the low uplift zone (LUZ, ∼0.5 mm/year) indicates that the HUZ channel
Authors
Noah P. Snyder, Kelin X. Whipple, Gregory E. Tucker, D.J. Merritts

Comparison of salinity and temperature at continuous monitoring stations and nearby monthly measurement sites in San Francisco Bay

Salinity and temperature are crucial state variables affecting estuarine habitat an d, thus, are measured by various San Francisco Estuary programs. This article presents a comparison of salinity and temperature data collected at seven continuo us monitoring stations throughout San Francisco Bay (Figure 1) with data collected monthly by the US Geological Survey (USGS) research vessel ( RV ) Polari
Authors
L.G. Bergfeld, D. H. Schoellhamer

Importance of a stochastic distribution of floods and erosion thresholds in the bedrock river incision problem

Fluvial erosion of bedrock occurs during occasional flood events when boundary shear stress exceeds a critical threshold to initiate incision. Therefore efforts to model the evolution of topography over long timescales should include an erosion threshold and should be driven by a stochastic distribution of erosive events. However, most bedrock incision models ignore the threshold as a second‐order
Authors
Noah P. Snyder, Kelin X. Whipple, Gregory E. Tucker, D.J. Merritts

Preliminary assessment of DOC and THM precursor loads from a freshwater restored wetland, an agricultural field, and a tidal wetland in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta

Water exported from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta supplies drinking water to more than 22 million people in California. At certain times of the year, Delta waters contain relatively high concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and bromide. During these times, chlorination of Delta water for drinking water disinfection will form disinfection byproducts, such as trihalomethanes (TH
Authors
R. Fujii, B.A. Bergamaschi, N. K. Ganju, J.A. Fleck, K.R. Burow-Fogg, D. Schoellhamer, S. J. Deverel

A summary of the San Francisco tidal wetlands restoration series

The four topical articles of the Tidal Wetlands Restoration Series summarized and synthesized much of what is known about tidal wetlands and tidal wetland restoration in the San Francisco Estuary (hereafter “Estuary”). Despite a substantial amount of available information, major uncertainties remain. A major uncertainty with regard to fishes is the net benefit of restored tidal wetlands relative t
Authors
Larry R. Brown

Potential for increased mercury accumulation in the estuary food web

Present concentrations of mercury in large portions of San Francisco Bay (Bay), the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta), and the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers are high enough to warrant concern for the health of humans and wildlife. Large scale tidal wetland restoration is currently under consideration as a means of increasing populations of fish species of concern. Tidal wetland restoration
Authors
Jay A. Davis, Donald Yee, Joshua N. Collins, Steven E. Schwarzbach, Samuel N. Luoma