Hydrologic technicians deploying a flow sensor on a shoal in San Francisco Bay to investigate phytoplankton production and nutrient transformations.
A view from the office: USGS scientists heading out to deploy sensors for sediment nutrient storage and release in Rodeo Lagoon.
USGS laboratory technician filtering for chlorophyll-a.
Scientists aboard research vessel Aiken conduct water-quality mapping in support of wastewater-derived nutrients project.
The Biogeochemistry (BGC) Group uses an interdisciplinary approach to address surface water quality issues and food web dynamics throughout California, particularly in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay.
Study areas include:
- Drivers of phytoplankton community composition and abundance and harmful algal bloom-related toxins
- Long-term continuous monitoring of numerous water quality constituents, phytoplankton, phytoplankton community structure, dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen as well as other constituents important to aquatic systems
- Changes in wastewater-derived nutrients and effects on phytoplankton community structure
- Effects of flow and water residence time on nutrient cycling and phytoplankton
- The impacts of invasive aquatic vegetation on water quality, water residence time, and native phytoplankton
- Assessing the role of wetlands in the Delta with respect to such topics as mercury, nutrients, drinking water quality and phytoplankton production
- Assessing the potential of tidal wetlands to mitigate land subsidence and sequester carbon
- Supporting improved water quality management through development of new sensors, analyses and techniques such as direct residence time measurements, custom sensor technologies, wide-area high-speed mapping surveys, remote sensing calibration and validation and other related activities
The BGC Group specializes in the application of in-situ optical sensors that monitor short- and long-term water quality trends. These sensors measure a host of biogeochemical parameters and capture continuous temporal trends – including those that may go undetected through traditional discrete sampling. The BGC Group also employs novel high-resolution boat-based mapping surveys, conducting intensive sampling for a diverse variety of biogeochemical parameters throughout the Bay-Delta.
These studies and data will help resource managers assess response to management actions and predict how the Bay-Delta will respond to future changes. The high frequency, real-time data can act as an early warning system for unanticipated, short-lived, or rapidly changing conditions, such as those due to spills, harmful algal blooms, and altered water-quality resulting from storms or levee breaches. The BGC group additionally specialize in the creation of novel data dissemination techniques in effort to ease open data acquisition, ultimately aiming to advance Bay-Delta science.
Additional Biogeochemistry Group staff include:
- Malanyon Adams
- Dulci Avouris
- Tom Bergamaschi
- Tim Baxter
- Heidi Bockisch
- Bryan Bonham
- Jake Brinkman
- Dylan Burau
- Jordy Conneely
- Ayelet Delascagigas
- Patrick Dellwo
- Nicholas Framsted
- Tommy (Hieu) Ly
- Andrea Jaegge
- Nathan Jumps
- Colin Keating
- Anne Le
- Ariana Maestas
- Kat Mai Cone
- Schuyler Nardelli
- Erica Nejad
- Diana Oros
- Emily Richardson
- Tara Schraga
- Jesse Schroeder
- Jennifer Soto-Perez
- Corrine Sanford
- Crystal Sturgeon
- Maura Uebner
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Below are multimedia items associated with this project.
Below are publications associated with this project.
DOM composition in an agricultural watershed: assessing patterns and variability in the context of spatial scales
Groundwater contributions of flow, nitrate, and dissolved organic carbon to the lower San Joaquin River, California, 2006-08
The role of irrigation runoff and winter rainfall on dissolved organic carbon loads in an agricultural watershed
Optical techniques for the determination of nitrate in environmental waters: Guidelines for instrument selection, operation, deployment, maintenance, quality assurance, and data reporting
Sources and characteristics of organic matter in the Clackamas River, Oregon, related to the formation of disinfection by-products in treated drinking water
Mercury dynamics in a San Francisco estuary tidal wetland: assessing dynamics using in situ measurements
Baseline and projected future carbon storage and greenhouse-gas fluxes in ecosystems of the Western United States
Dissolved organic matter reduces algal accumulation of methylmercury
Seeing the light: the effects of particles, dissolved materials, and temperature on in situ measurements of DOM fluorescence in rivers and streams
Structural stability of coprecipitated natural organic matter and ferric iron under reducing conditions
In situ optical water-quality sensor networks - Workshop summary report
Tidally driven export of dissolved organic carbon, total mercury, and methylmercury from a mangrove-dominated estuary
Below are data or web applications associated with this project.
Below are news stories associated with this project.
Below are partners associated with this project.
The Biogeochemistry (BGC) Group uses an interdisciplinary approach to address surface water quality issues and food web dynamics throughout California, particularly in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay.
Study areas include:
- Drivers of phytoplankton community composition and abundance and harmful algal bloom-related toxins
- Long-term continuous monitoring of numerous water quality constituents, phytoplankton, phytoplankton community structure, dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen as well as other constituents important to aquatic systems
- Changes in wastewater-derived nutrients and effects on phytoplankton community structure
- Effects of flow and water residence time on nutrient cycling and phytoplankton
- The impacts of invasive aquatic vegetation on water quality, water residence time, and native phytoplankton
- Assessing the role of wetlands in the Delta with respect to such topics as mercury, nutrients, drinking water quality and phytoplankton production
- Assessing the potential of tidal wetlands to mitigate land subsidence and sequester carbon
- Supporting improved water quality management through development of new sensors, analyses and techniques such as direct residence time measurements, custom sensor technologies, wide-area high-speed mapping surveys, remote sensing calibration and validation and other related activities
The BGC Group specializes in the application of in-situ optical sensors that monitor short- and long-term water quality trends. These sensors measure a host of biogeochemical parameters and capture continuous temporal trends – including those that may go undetected through traditional discrete sampling. The BGC Group also employs novel high-resolution boat-based mapping surveys, conducting intensive sampling for a diverse variety of biogeochemical parameters throughout the Bay-Delta.
These studies and data will help resource managers assess response to management actions and predict how the Bay-Delta will respond to future changes. The high frequency, real-time data can act as an early warning system for unanticipated, short-lived, or rapidly changing conditions, such as those due to spills, harmful algal blooms, and altered water-quality resulting from storms or levee breaches. The BGC group additionally specialize in the creation of novel data dissemination techniques in effort to ease open data acquisition, ultimately aiming to advance Bay-Delta science.
Additional Biogeochemistry Group staff include:
- Malanyon Adams
- Dulci Avouris
- Tom Bergamaschi
- Tim Baxter
- Heidi Bockisch
- Bryan Bonham
- Jake Brinkman
- Dylan Burau
- Jordy Conneely
- Ayelet Delascagigas
- Patrick Dellwo
- Nicholas Framsted
- Tommy (Hieu) Ly
- Andrea Jaegge
- Nathan Jumps
- Colin Keating
- Anne Le
- Ariana Maestas
- Kat Mai Cone
- Schuyler Nardelli
- Erica Nejad
- Diana Oros
- Emily Richardson
- Tara Schraga
- Jesse Schroeder
- Jennifer Soto-Perez
- Corrine Sanford
- Crystal Sturgeon
- Maura Uebner
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Below are multimedia items associated with this project.
Below are publications associated with this project.
DOM composition in an agricultural watershed: assessing patterns and variability in the context of spatial scales
Groundwater contributions of flow, nitrate, and dissolved organic carbon to the lower San Joaquin River, California, 2006-08
The role of irrigation runoff and winter rainfall on dissolved organic carbon loads in an agricultural watershed
Optical techniques for the determination of nitrate in environmental waters: Guidelines for instrument selection, operation, deployment, maintenance, quality assurance, and data reporting
Sources and characteristics of organic matter in the Clackamas River, Oregon, related to the formation of disinfection by-products in treated drinking water
Mercury dynamics in a San Francisco estuary tidal wetland: assessing dynamics using in situ measurements
Baseline and projected future carbon storage and greenhouse-gas fluxes in ecosystems of the Western United States
Dissolved organic matter reduces algal accumulation of methylmercury
Seeing the light: the effects of particles, dissolved materials, and temperature on in situ measurements of DOM fluorescence in rivers and streams
Structural stability of coprecipitated natural organic matter and ferric iron under reducing conditions
In situ optical water-quality sensor networks - Workshop summary report
Tidally driven export of dissolved organic carbon, total mercury, and methylmercury from a mangrove-dominated estuary
Below are data or web applications associated with this project.
Below are news stories associated with this project.
Below are partners associated with this project.