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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

In situ retention-transport response to nitrate loading and storm discharge in a third-order stream

Nitrate retention was assayed in a 264-m reach of a third-order stream, Little Lost Man Creek, Humboldt County, California, USA. Nitrate budgets (24-48 hours) were calculated under background conditions, and during four other intervals of modified nitrate concentration caused by nutrient amendment or storm-enhanced discharge. Under background, low-flow conditions, the reach was a source of nitrate
Authors
Frank J. Triska, Vance C. Kennedy, Ronald J. Avanzino, Gary W. Zellweger, Kenneth E. Bencala

Selenium and other elements in juvenile striped bass from the San Joaquin Valley and San Francisco Estuary, California

Concentrations of selenium and other trace elements were determined in 55 whole body samples of juvenile anadromous striped bass (Morone saxatilis) from the San Joaquin Valley and San Francisco Estuary, California. The fish (≤1 yr old—the predominant life stage in the San Joaquin Valley) were collected in September–December 1986 from 19 sites in the Valley and 3 sites in the Estuary, and analyzed
Authors
Michael K. Saiki, Donald U. Palawski

Bioaccumulation of selenium in birds at Kesterson Reservoir, California

This study was conducted to determine selenium (Se) concentrations in tissues of birds collected during the 1983-1985 nesting seasons at Kesterson Reservoir (an area receiving high-Se irrigation drainage water), compare them with birds from reference sites within California's Central Valley, and relate them to food-chain Se concentrations at the study sites. Within years, Se in livers of adult bir
Authors
Harry M. Ohlendorf, Roger L. Hothem, Christine M. Bunck, Katherine C. Marois

Chemistry of trace elements in soils and groundwater

No abstract available.
Authors
Steven J. Deverel, Sabine Goldberg, Roger Fujii

Selenium speciation methods and application to soil saturation extracts from San Joaquin Valley, California

Methods to determine soluble concentrations of selenite, selenate, and organic Se were evaluated on saturation extracts of soil samples collected from three sites on the Panoche Creek alluvial fan in the western San Joaquin Valley, California. The methods were used in combination with hydride-generation atomic-absorption spectrometry for detection of Se, and included a selective chemical-digestion
Authors
John L. Fio, Roger Fujii

Remarkable invasion of San Francisco Bay (California, USA), by the Asian clam Potamocorbula amurensis. I. Introduction and dispersal

The euryhaline bivalve mollusc Potamocorbula amurensis (family Corbulidae), a native of China, Japan, and Korea, has recently appeared and become very abundant in San Francisco Bay. This clam appears to have been introduced as veliger larvae in the seawater ballast of cargo vessels. It was first collected in northern San Francisco Bay in late 1986. P, amurensis then spread throughout the estuary w
Authors
James T. Carlton, Janet K. Thompson, Laurence E. Schemel, Frederic H. Nichols

Ground-water flow and solute movement to drain laterals, western San Joaquin Valley, California; II, Quantitative hydrologic assessment

Ground-water-flow modeling was used to estimate ground-water-flow paths and traveltimes to quantitatively assess the hydrologic processes affecting ground water and solute movement to drain laterals. Modeling results were used to calculate the depth distribution of ground water flowing into drain laterals at 1.8 meters (drain lateral 1) and 2.7 meters (drain lateral 2) below land surface. The simu
Authors
J.L. Fio, S. J. Deverel

Ground-water flow and solute movement to drain laterals, western San Joaquin Valley, California; I, Geochemical assessment

A study was undertaken to quantitatively evaluate the hydrologic processes affecting the chemical and isotopic composition of drain-lateral water in a drained agricultural field in the western San Joaquin Valley, California. The results of chemical and isotopic analysis of the samples and analysis of hydraulic-head data and drain-lateral flow data elucidate the process of mixing of deep and shallo
Authors
S. J. Deverel, J.L. Fio

Environmental changes in the Tule Lake basin, Siskiyou and Modoc Counties, California, from 3 to 2 million years before present

Pollen and diatom analyses of a core from the town of Tulelake, Siskiyou County, California, for the period between 3 and 2 Ma reveal a paleoclimatic and paleolimnologic sequence recording a long, warm time interval that lasted from about 2.9 to 2.6 Ma and had a short, cooler interval within it. During this warm interval, the regional vegetation surrounding ancient Tule Lake was a mixed coniferous
Authors
David P. Adam, J. Platt Bradbury, Hugh J. Rieck, Andrei M. Sarna-Wojcicki

Storm-runoff generation in the Permanente Creek drainage basin, west central California - An example of flood-wave effects on runoff composition

Variations in the isotopic and chemical composition of storm runoff in the 10.6-km2 Permanente Creek basin, Santa Clara County, California, indicate that changes in water composition lag behind changes in streamflow. This lag occurs even though field observations and rainfall-runoff modeling indicate that much of the storm runoff must be composed of "new" water running off impervious surfaces. The
Authors
K. M. Nolan, B. R. Hill