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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

An Excel Workbook for Identifying Redox Processes in Ground Water

The reduction/oxidation (redox) condition of ground water affects the concentration, transport, and fate of many anthropogenic and natural contaminants. The redox state of a ground-water sample is defined by the dominant type of reduction/oxidation reaction, or redox process, occurring in the sample, as inferred from water-quality data. However, because of the difficulty in defining and applying a
Authors
Bryant C. Jurgens, Peter B. McMahon, Francis H. Chapelle, Sandra M. Eberts

Why are diverse relationships observed between phytoplankton biomass and transport time?

Transport time scales such as flushing time and residence time are often used to explain variability in phytoplankton biomass. In many cases, empirical data are consistent with a positive phytoplankton‐transport time relationship (i.e., phytoplankton biomass increases as transport time increases). However, negative relationships, varying relationships, or no significant relationship may also be ob
Authors
Lisa V. Lucas, Janet K. Thompson, Larry R. Brown

Comparison of groundwater flow in Southern California coastal aquifers

Development of the coastal aquifer systems of Southern California has resulted in overdraft, changes in streamflow, seawater intrusion, land subsidence, increased vertical flow between aquifers, and a redirection of regional flow toward pumping centers. These water-management challenges can be more effectively addressed by incorporating new understanding of the geologic, hydrologic, and geochemica
Authors
Randall T. Hanson, John A. Izbicki, Eric G. Reichard, Brian D. Edwards, Michael Land, Peter Martin

Polaris

No abstract available.
Authors
James F. Howle

Urban streams across the USA: Lessons learned from studies in 9 metropolitan areas

Studies of the effects of urbanization on stream ecosystems have usually focused on single metropolitan areas. Synthesis of the results of such studies have been useful in developing general conceptual models of the effects of urbanization, but the strength of such generalizations is enhanced by applying consistent study designs and methods to multiple metropolitan areas across large geographic sc
Authors
Larry R. Brown, Thomas F. Cuffney, James F. Coles, Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Gerard McMahon, Jeffrey Steuer, Amanda H. Bell, Jason T. May

Relation of urbanization to stream fish assemblages and species traits in nine metropolitan areas of the United States

We examined associations of fish assemblages and fish traits with urbanization and selected environmental variables in nine major United States metropolitan areas. The strongest relations between fishes and urbanization occurred in the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; Boston, Massachusetts; and Portland, Oregon. In these areas, environmental variables with strong associ
Authors
Larry R. Brown, M. Brian Gregory, Jason T. May

Mercury concentrations and loads in a large river system tributary to San Francisco Bay, California, USA

In order to estimate total mercury (HgT) loads entering San Francisco Bay, USA, via the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, unfiltered water samples were collected between January 2002 and January 2006 during high flow events and analyzed for HgT. Unfiltered HgT concentrations ranged from 3.2 to 75 ng/L and showed a strong correlation (r2 = 0.8, p < 0.001, n = 78) to suspended sediment concentrat
Authors
N. David, L.J. McKee, F.J. Black, A.R. Flegal, C.H. Conaway, D. H. Schoellhamer, N. K. Ganju

Stratigraphic controls on seawater intrusion and implications for groundwater management, Dominguez Gap area of Los Angeles, California, USA

Groundwater pumping has led to extensive water-level declines and seawater intrusion in coastal Los Angeles, California (USA). A SUTRA-based solute-transport model was developed to test the hydraulic implications of a sequence-stratigraphic model of the Dominguez Gap area and to assess the effects of water-management scenarios. The model is two-dimensional, vertical and follows an approximate flow
Authors
Tracy Nishikawa, Adam J. Siade, Eric G. Reichard, Daniel J. Ponti, A.G. Canales, T.A. Johnson

Stratigraphic controls on saltwater intrusion in the Dominguez Gap area of coastal Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Basin is a densely populated coastal area that significantly depends on groundwater. A part of this groundwater supply is at risk from saltwater intrusion—the impetus for this study. High-resolution seismic-reflection data collected from the Los Angeles–Long Beach Harbor Complex have been combined with borehole geophysical and descriptive geological data from four nearby ~400-m-dee
Authors
Brian D. Edwards, Kenneth D. Ehman, Daniel J. Ponti, Eric G. Reichard, John Tinsley, Robert J. Rosenbauer, Michael T. Land

New evidence for a magmatic influence on the origin of Valles Marineris, Mars

In this paper, we show that the complex geological evolution of Valles Marineris, Mars, has been highly influenced by the manifestation of magmatism (e.g., possible plume activity). This is based on a diversity of evidence, reported here, for the central part, Melas Chasma, and nearby regions, including uplift, loss of huge volumes of material, flexure, volcanism, and possible hydrothermal and end
Authors
J. M. Dohm, J.-P. Williams, R. C. Anderson, J. Ruiz, P.C. McGuire, G. Komatsu, A.F. Davila, J.C. Ferris, D. Schulze-Makuch, V.R. Baker, W. V. Boynton, A.G. Fairen, T.M. Hare, H. Miyamoto, K. L. Tanaka, S.J. Wheelock

Hydrologic and biogeochemical controls of river subsurface solutes under agriculturally enhanced ground water flow

The relative influences of hydrologic processes and biogeochemistry on the transport and retention of minor solutes were compared in the riverbed of the lower Merced River (California, USA). The subsurface of this reach receives ground water discharge and surface water infiltration due to an altered hydraulic setting resulting from agricultural irrigation. Filtered ground water samples were collec
Authors
R.A. Wildman, Joseph L. Domagalski, J. G. Hering

Ecological risk of heavy metals in sediments of the Luan river source water

Distribution and characteristics of heavy metals enrichment in sediment were surveyed including the bio-available form analyzed for assessment of the Luan River source water quality. The approaches of sediment quality guidelines (SQG), risk assessment code and Hakanson potential ecological risk index were used for the ecological risk assessment. According to SQG, The results show that in animal bo
Authors
Jingling Liu, Yongli Li, Bao Zhang, Jinling Cao, Zhiguo Cao, Joseph L. Domagalski