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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

Seasonal cycles of zooplankton from San Francisco Bay

The two estuarine systems composing San Francisco Bay have distinct zooplankton communities and seasonal population dynamics. In the South Bay, a shallow lagoon-type estuary, the copepods Acartia spp. and Oithona davisae dominate. As in estuaries along the northeast coast of the U.S., there is a seasonal succession involving the replacement of a cold-season Acartia species (A. clausi s.l.) by a wa
Authors
Julie W. Ambler, James E. Cloern, Anne Hutchinson

Remote sensing of tidal chlorophyll-a variations in estuaries

Simultaneous acquisition of surface chlorophyll-a concentrations for 39 samples from boats and Daedalus 1260 Multispectral Scanner data from a U-2 aircraft was conducted in the northern reaches of San Francisco Bay on 28 August 1980. These data were used to develop regression models for predicting surface chlorophyll-a concentrations over the study area for ebb-tide (8.40 a.m. P.D.T. (Pacific Dayl
Authors
Glenn P. Catts, Siamak Khorram, James E. Cloern, Allen W. Knight, Stephen D. Degloria

Analytical results and sample locality map of stream-sediment and heavy-mineral-concentrate samples from the Chuckwalla Mountains Wilderness Study Area (CDCA-348), Riverside County, California

In March 1982, we conducted a reconnaissance geochemical survey of the Chuckwalla Mountains Wilderness Study Area, Riverside County, California.The Chuckwalla Mountains Wilderness Study Area comprises about 90 mi2 (233 km) in the southeast corner of Riverside County, California, and lies just south of Interstate Highway 10 at Desert Center, California, which is approximately 180 mi east-southeast
Authors
B. M. Adrian, G.W. Day, K. C. Watts

A policy evaluation tool: Management of a multiaquifer system using controlled stream recharge

A model for the optimal allocation of water resources was developed for a multiaquifer groundwater and surface water system near Livermore, California. The complex groundwater system was analyzed using a transient, quasi-three-dimensional model that considers the nonlinear behavior of the unconfined aquifer. The surface water system consists of a reservoir that discharges water to three streams wh
Authors
Wesley R. Danskin, Steven M. Gorelick

A two-dimensional dam-break flood plain model

A simple two-dimensional dam-break model is developed for flood plain study purposes. Both a finite difference grid and an irregular triangle element integrated finite difference formulation are presented. The governing flow equations are approximately solved as a diffusion model coupled to the equation of continuity. Application of the model to a hypothetical dam-break study indicates that the ap
Authors
T. V. Hromadka, C. E. Berenbrock, J. R. Freckleton, G. L. Guymon

Time scales of circulation and mixing processes of San Francisco Bay waters

Conceptual models for tidal period and low-frequency variations in sea level, currents, and mixing processes in the northern and southern reaches of San Francisco Bay describe the contrasting characteristics and dissimilar processes and rates in these embayments: The northern reach is a partially mixed estuary whereas the southern reach (South Bay) is a tidally oscillating lagoon with density-driv
Authors
R. A. Walters, R. T. Cheng, T. J. Conomos

Time scales and mechanisms of estuarine variability, a synthesis from studies of San Francisco Bay

This review of the preceding papers suggests that temporal variability in San Francisco Bay can be characterized by four time scales (hours, days-weeks, months, years) and associated with at least four mechanisms (variations in freshwater inflow, tides, wind, and exchange with coastal waters). The best understood component of temporal variability is the annual cycle, which is most obviously influe
Authors
J. E. Cloern, F.H. Nichols

The complex variable boundary element method: Applications

The complex variable boundary element method (CVBEM) is used to approximate several potential problems where analytical solutions are known: A modelling result produced from the CVBEM is a measure of relative error in matching the known boundary condition values of the problem. A CVBEM error-reduction algorithm is used to reduce the relative error of the approximation by adding nodal points in bou
Authors
T. V. Hromadka, C.C. Yen, G. L. Guymon

Environmental setting of San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay, the largest bay on the California coast, is a broad, shallow, turbid estuary comprising two geographically and hydrologically distinct subestuaries: the northern reach lying between the connection to the Pacific Ocean at the Golden Gate and the confluence of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, and the southern reach (herein called South Bay) between the Golden Gate and the
Authors
T. J. Conomos, R. E. Smith, J. W. Gartner

Recent movement on the Garlock Fault as suggested by water level fluctuations in a well in Fremont Valley, California

Water levels have been continuously recorded since March 1978 in a well in Fremont Valley, where several strands of the adjacent Garlock fault zone have exhibited both left-lateral displacement and components of normal displacement. Differences in water levels indicate that a fault segment lies between the observation well and a nearby irrigation well. During the 4-year recording period, six sharp
Authors
Diane K. Lippincott, John D. Bredehoeft, W. R. Moyle

Transport and concentration controls for chloride, strontium, potassium and lead in Uvas Creek, a small cobble-bed stream in Santa Clara County, California, U.S.A.: 1. Conceptual model

Stream sediments adsorb certain solutes from streams, thereby significantly changing the solute composition; but little is known about the details and rates of these adsorptive processes. To investigate such processes, a 24-hr. injection of a solution containing chloride, strontium, potassium, sodium and lead was made at the head of a 640-m reach of Uvas Creek in west-central Santa Clara County, C
Authors
V. C. Kennedy, A. P. Jackman, S.M. Zand, G. W. Zellweger, R. J. Avanzino

Design and implementation of evapotranspiration measuring equipment for Owens Valley, California

As part of a plant survivability and ground water study in Owens Valley, California, semipermanent installations are used to measure continuous range‐land evapotranspiration in the valley's phreatophyte community. A proposed mobile installation also has been designed. The semipermanent micrometeoro‐logical station collects continuous data for solution of the Bowen ratio/energy budget equation and
Authors
Michael R. Simpson, Lowell F. W. Duell