Publications

Study regionNorth-central United StatesStudy focusThis study uses circular statistics to characterize the seasonal properties of annual maximum (AMS) and peaks-over-threshold (POT) streamflow time series for 841 and 623 selected U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamgages, respectively, without regulation or substantial diversion among common 75-, 50-, and 30-year trend periods through...

A Research Topic on the microbiology of hydrocarbon and gas storage reservoirs has far reaching industrial applications. In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in understanding microbial communities in subsurface energy reservoirs, such as coal, oil, and shale beds. This area of research has broadened to include gas storage reservoirs for hydrogen and CO2. Scientists are...

Peak-flow (flood) frequency analysis is essential to water-resources management applications, including the design of critical infrastructure such as bridges and culverts, and floodplain mapping. Federal guidelines for performing peak-flow flood frequency analyses are presented in a U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods Report known as Bulletin 17C. A basic assumption within...

Extraordinary floods surged down the Yellowstone River and its tributaries in northwestern Wyoming and south-central Montana on June 13–15, 2022. During the flood, U.S. Geological Survey staff worked to maintain real-time data from streamgages by making field measurements of streamflow and repairing damaged equipment while communicating the latest streamflow information with the public...

Expanding coal-mining operations in the Elk River Valley (British Columbia, Canada) have increased total selenium (Se) concentrations in the transboundary Lake Koocanusa (Canada and United States), but the spatial extent of Se transport from the Elk River Mines is unknown. We evaluated multiple lines of evidence of long-range transport of Se at five sites downstream of the mines relative...

Estimating snow conditions is often done using numerical snowpack evolution models at spatial resolutions of 500 m and greater; however, snow depth in complex terrain often varies on sub-meter scales. This study investigated how the spatial distribution of simulated snow conditions varied across seven model spatial resolutions from 30 to 1,000 m and over two meteorological data sets...

Naegleria fowleri has been detected in drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) in Australia, Pakistan and the United States and is the causative agent of the highly fatal disease primary amoebic meningoencephalitis. Previous small scale field studies have shown that Meiothermus may be a potential biomarker for N. fowleri. However, correlations between predictive biomarkers in small...

Biogenic methane in subsurface coal seam environments is produced by diverse consortia of microbes. Although this methane is useful for global energy security, it remains unclear which microbes can liberate carbon from the coal. Most of this carbon is relatively resistant to biodegradation, as it is contained within aromatic rings. Thus, to explore for coal-degrading taxa in the...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation, began monitoring the Yellowstone River fish bypass channel according to the specifications of the Lower Yellowstone Adaptive Management and Monitoring Plan. The fish bypass channel was constructed to provide upstream migrating fish with a route around a diversion dam. The objective of this study is to monitor the...

The free-living thermophilic amoeba Naegleria fowleri (N. fowleri) causes the highly fatal disease primary amoebic meningoencephalitis. The environmental conditions that are favorable to the growth and proliferation of N. fowleri are not well-defined, especially in northern regions of the United States. In this study, we used culture-based methods and multiple molecular approaches to...

Koocanusa Reservoir (KOC) is a waterbody that spans the United States (U.S.) and Canadian border. Increasing concentrations of total selenium (Se), nitrate + nitrite (NO3–, nitrite is insignificant or not present), and sulfate (SO42–) in KOC and downstream in the Kootenai River (Kootenay River in Canada) are tied to expanding coal mining operations in the Elk River Watershed, Canada...

Surface-water availability has major implications for the environment and society in the 21st century. With climate change, increased drought severity, and altered water and land use, future water availability is predicted to continue to decline in many areas, including much of the western United States. An understanding of where and when water will be available at multiple scales is...