Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Publications

Browse more than 150,000 publications authored by our scientists over the past 100+ year history of the USGS.  Publications available are: USGS-authored journal articles, series reports, book chapters, other government publications, and more.

Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center Publications

Filter Total Items: 3227

Indirect ground-water discharge to the Great Lakes

Estimates of the average ground-water component of streamflow for 195 streams in the United States part of the Great Lakes Basin range from 25 to 97 percent. Among the selected streams, the average ground-water component of streamflow was 67.3 percent. Estimates of the ground-water component of streamflow are based on hydrograph separation of 5,735 years of daily streamflow data. Incorporation of
Authors
David J. Holtschlag, J.R. Nicholas

Hydrogeology and sources of recharge to the Buffalo and Wahpeton aquifers in the southern part of the Red River of the North drainage basin, west-central Minnesota and southeastern North Dakota

Declining hydraulic heads in the Buffalo and Wahpeton aquifers are of concern to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and local water managers because of limited groundwater resources in the southern part of the Red River of the North drainage basin. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Moorhead Public Service, investigated the
Authors
Michael Schoenberg

Pesticides and nitrate in surficial sand and gravel aquifers as related to modeled contamination susceptibility in part of the Upper Mississippi River Basin

The occurrence of pesticides and nitrate (nitrite plus nitrate as nitrogen) in surficial sand and gravel aquifers in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin was summarized as part of an analysis of historical water-quality data for the Upper Mississippi River Basin study unit of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. Water samples were collected by State and Feder
Authors
Paul E. Hanson

Nutrient sources within the Upper Mississippi River Basin, Minnesota and Wisconsin, 1991-93

The amount of nutrients contained in fertilizer, livestock manure, municipal wastewater, atmospheric deposition, and legume residues were quantified in each of the major drainage basins within the Upper Mississippi River Basin study unit (fig. 1) as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program. These sources of nutrients may potentially affect surface- and ground-
Authors
Sharon E. Kroening

Hydrology, water quality, and phosphorus loading of Kirby Lake, Barron County, Wisconsin

In 1992, residents near Kirby Lake, located about five miles northwest of Cumberland, in Barron County, Wisconsin, formed the Kirby Lake Management District. The Lake District immediately began to gather information needed for the preparation of a comprehensive lake-management plan that would be used to protect the natural and recreational assets of the lake. The Lake District completed a land-use
Authors
William J. Rose, Dale M. Robertson

Successful water quality monitoring: The right combination of intent, measurement, interpretation, and a cooperating ecosystem

Water quality monitoring is invaluable to ensure compliance with regulations, detect trends or patterns, and advance ecological understanding. However, monitoring typically measures only a few characteristics in a small fraction of a large and complex system, and thus the information contained in monitoring data depends upon which features of the ecosystem are actually captured by the measurements
Authors
D.M. Soballe

The aquatic macrophyte seed bank in Lake Onalaska, Wisconsin

Submersed aquatic vegetation, dominated by Vallisneria americana Michx., declined dramatically in Lake Onalaska (Navigation Pool 7, on the Upper Mississippi River) following drought conditions in the late 1980s. Coinciding with the decline were marked increases in the abundance of phyllum spicatum L., particularly in areas vacated by A. americana. Recent evidence indicates that much of the lake ha
Authors
D.G. McFarland, S.J. Rogers

Experimental infection of rainbow trout with Saprolegnia parasitica

A method was developed to experimentally induce saprolegniasis in rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss. The development of a reliable method to produce infected fish is essential to efforts to determine the efficacy of various antifungal treatments. Three methods for inducing saprolegniasis were evaluated in waters containing known concentrations of Saprolegnia parasitica zoospores. These methods inc
Authors
George E. Howe, Guy R. Stehly

Floodplain forest loss and changes in forest community composition and structure in the upper Mississippi River: A wildlife habitat at risk

Large floodplain forests represent a threatened and endangered type of ecosystem in the United States. Estimates of cumulative losses of floodplain forest range from 57% to 95% at different locations within the continental United Stales. Floodplain forests of the Upper Mississippi River (UMR) have significantly declined in extent due to agriculture, lock and dam construction, and urban development
Authors
M. G. Knutson, E. E. Klaas

Habitat associations of small fishes around islands in the upper Mississippi River

In large rivers, islands provide a variety of habitat types and increase habitat heterogeneity. Creating or modifying islands with dredged sediments from channel maintenance operations provides an opportunity to enhance habitat features that might promote certain fish communities or general fish abundance. To determine associations between fish species and habitat features of islands, we sampled f
Authors
Barry L. Johnson, Cecil A. Jennings

Sampling benthic macroinvertebrates in a large flood-plain river: Considerations of study design, sample size, and cost

Estimation of benthic macroinvertebrate populations over large spatial scales is difficult due to the high variability in abundance and the cost of sample processing and taxonomic analysis. To determine a cost-effective, statistically powerful sample design, we conducted an exploratory study of the spatial variation of benthic macroinvertebrates in a 37 km reach of the Upper Mississippi River. We
Authors
L.A. Bartsch, W. B. Richardson, T.J. Naimo