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Publications

Here you will find publications, reports and articles produced by Lower Mississippi-Gulf scientists. For a comprehensive listing of all USGS publications please click the button below.

Filter Total Items: 420

Effects of salinity and light on growth and interspecific interactions between Myriophyllum spicatum L. and Ruppia maritima L.

Submerged macrophyte habitats provide significant benefits to estuarine systems. In southeast Louisiana, Myriophyllum spicatum L. (milfoil) and Ruppia maritima L. (widgeongrass) are dominant species existing across fresh to brackish areas. Though frequently co-occurring across the range of salinity and light conditions, their individual responses to changing environmental conditions from restorati
Authors
E. R. Hillman, Megan La Peyre

Diatom assemblage changes in agricultural alluvial plain streams and application for nutrient management

In large, alluvial floodplains dominated by agriculture, small streams have the potential to experience nutrient enrichment affecting algal assemblage structure and metabolism. Nutrient enrichment is largely driven by application of nutrients and altered hydrologic regimes. To inform stressor–response-based nutrient reduction goals for agricultural alluvial plain streams, diatom assemblages were s
Authors
Matthew B. Hicks, Jason M. Taylor

Tracking changes in nutrient delivery to western Lake Erie: Approaches to compensate for variability and trends in streamflow

Tracking changes in stream nutrient inputs to Lake Erie over multidecadal time scales depends on the use of statistical methods that can remove the influence of year-to-year variability of streamflow but also explicitly consider the influence of long-term trends in streamflow. The methods introduced in this paper include an extended version of Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (W
Authors
Anne F. Choquette, Robert M. Hirsch, Jennifer C. Murphy, L.T. Johnson, R. B. Confesor

Spatially referenced models of streamflow and nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended-sediment loads in the southeastern United States

Spatially Referenced Regression On Watershed attributes (SPARROW) models were applied to describe and estimate mean-annual streamflow and transport of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and suspended sediment (SS) in streams and delivered to coastal waters of the southeastern United States on the basis of inputs and management practices centered near 2012, the base year of the model. Prev
Authors
Anne B. Hoos, Victor L. Roland

Agricultural conservation practice implementation in the Chesapeake Bay watershed supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides cost-share funding and technical assistance to support the implementation of agricultural conservation practices on farms throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Conservation implementation has been substantial in the time period for which digital records are available (from 2007 through 2017). Farmer participation in USDA conservation programs i
Authors
W. Dean Hively, Olivia H. Devereux, Jennifer L. D. Keisman

Water-quality trends in US rivers: Exploring effects from streamflow trends and changes in watershed management

We present a conceptual model that explores the relationship of streamflow trends to 15 water-quality parameters at 370 sites across the contiguous United States (US). Our analytical framework uses discrete water-quality data, daily streamflow records, and a statistical model to estimate water-quality trends between 1982 and 2012 and parse these trends into the amount of change attributed to trend
Authors
Jennifer C. Murphy, Lori A. Sprague

Landscape topoedaphic features create refugia from drought and insect disturbance in a lodgepole and whitebark pine forest

Droughts and insect outbreaks are primary disturbance processes linking climate change to tree mortality in western North America. Refugia from these disturbances—locations where impacts are less severe relative to the surrounding landscape—may be priorities for conservation, restoration, and monitoring. In this study, hypotheses concerning physical and biological processes supporting refugia were
Authors
Jennifer M. Cartwright

Flood frequency of rural streams in Mississippi, 2013

To improve flood-frequency estimates at rural streams in Mississippi, annual exceedance probability flows at gaged streams and regional regression equations used to estimate annual exceedance probability flows for ungaged streams were developed by using current geospatial data, new analytical methods, and annual peak-flow data through the 2013 water year. The regional regression equations were der
Authors
Brandon T. Anderson

Coupling high-frequency stream metabolism and nutrient monitoring to explore biogeochemical controls on downstream nitrate delivery

Instream biogeochemical process measurements are often short-term and localized. Here we use in situ sensors to quantify the net effects of biogeochemical processes on seasonal patterns in baseflow nitrate retention at the river-reach scale. Dual-station high-frequency in situ nitrate measurements, were coupled with high-frequency measurements of stream metabolism and dissolved inorganic carbon, i
Authors
Helen P. Jarvie, Andrew N. Sharpley, Timothy M. Kresse, Phillip D. Hays, Richard J. Williams, Stephen M. King, Lawrence G. Berry

Mapping crop residue and tillage intensity using WorldView-3 satellite shortwave infrared residue indices

Crop residues serve many important functions in agricultural conservation including preserving soil moisture, building soil organic carbon, and preventing erosion. Percent crop residue cover on a field surface reflects the outcome of tillage intensity and crop management practices. Previous studies using proximal hyperspectral remote sensing have demonstrated accurate measurement of percent residu
Authors
W. Dean Hively, Brian T. Lamb, Craig S. T. Daughtry, Jacob Shermeyer, Gregory W. McCarty, Miguel Quemada

Preliminary evaluation of the hydrogeology and groundwater quality of the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer and Memphis aquifer at the Tennessee Valley Authority Allen Power Plants, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee

The hydrogeology, groundwater quality, and potential for hydraulic connection between the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer and the Memphis aquifer in the area of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Allen Combined Cycle and Allen Fossil Plants in southwestern Memphis, Tennessee, were evaluated from September through December 2017. The study was designed as a preliminary assessment of the
Authors
John K. Carmichael, James A. Kingsbury, Daniel Larsen, Scott Schoefernacker

Karst hydrogeology of Tuckaleechee Cove and the western Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee and North Carolina

The geology of Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) in Tennessee and North Carolina is dominated by siliciclastics and metamorphic strata. However, in the western portion of GRSM, a series of carbonate fensters (windows) expose the Lower Ordovician–age section of the Knox Group, a series of dolomite and limestone units that are partially marbleized as a result of contact metamorphism from th
Authors
Benjamin Miller, Mike Bradley, Teresa L. Brown