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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: 1780

Volatile organic compounds in groundwater used for public supply across the United States: Occurrence, explanatory factors, and human-health context

This systematic assessment of occurrence for 85 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in raw (untreated) groundwater used for public supply across the United States (U.S.), which includes 43 compounds not previously monitored by national studies, relates VOC occurrence to explanatory factors and assesses VOC detections in a human-health context. Samples were collected in 2013 through 2019...
Authors
Laura M. Bexfield, Kenneth Belitz, Miranda S. Fram, Bruce D. Lindsey

Warming in the upper San Francisco Estuary: Patterns of water temperature change from five decades of data

Temperature is a key controlling variable from subcellular to ecosystem scales. Thus, climatic warming is expected to have broad impacts, especially in economically and ecologically valuable systems such as estuaries. The heavily managed upper San Francisco Estuary supplies water to millions of people and is home to fish species of high conservation, commercial, and recreational interest...
Authors
Samuel M. Bashevkin, Brian Mahardja, Larry R. Brown

Identification of fresh submarine groundwater off the coast of San Diego, USA, using electromagnetic methods

Climate change has a pronounced effect on water resources in many semiarid climates, causing populated areas such as San Diego County (USA), to become more vulnerable to water shortages in the coming decades. To prepare for decreased water supply, San Diego County is adopting policies to decrease water use and to develop additional local sources of water. One new local source of...
Authors
Roslynn B. King, Wesley R. Danskin, Steven Constable, Jillian M. Maloney

Selecting the optimal fine-scale historical climate data for assessing current and future hydrological conditions

High-resolution historical climate grids are readily available and frequently used as inputs for a wide range of regional management and risk assessments, including water supply, ecological processes, and as baseline for climate change impact studies that compare them to future projected conditions. Because historical gridded climates are produced using various methods, their portrayal...
Authors
Michelle A. Stern, Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L. Flint, Ryan M Boynton, Joseph A E Stewart, Jessica W Wright, James H. Thorne

Site- and individual-level contaminations affect infection prevalence of an emerging infectious disease of amphibians

Emerging infectious disease outbreaks are one of multiple stressors responsible for amphibian declines globally. In the northeastern United States, ranaviral diseases are prevalent in amphibians and other ectothermic species, but there is still uncertainty as to whether their presence is leading to population level effects. Further, there is also uncertainty surrounding the potential...
Authors
Kelly L. Smalling, Brittany A. Mosher, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Keith Loftin, Adam Boehlke, Michelle Hladik, Carly R. Muletz-Wolz, Nandadevi Córtes-Rodríguez, Robin Femmer, Evan H. Campbell Grant

Climate change and fishes in estuaries

This chapter provides an overview of the main drivers of change in estuarine systems, their expected causes and impacts on estuarine fish and fisheries. An analysis of global, regional and local patterns of estuarine fish and how climate-induced change may impact estuarine systems and their fish communities is provided. We also examine the main environmental, climatic and biological...
Authors
Bronwyn M Gillanders, Matthew N. McMillan, P. Reis-Santos, Lee J. Baumgartner, Larry R. Brown, John Conallin, Frederick V. Feyrer, Sofia Henriques, Nicola C. James, Andrés J Jaureguizar, André L. M. Pessanha, Rita P. Vasconcelos, An V. Vu, Benjamin Walther, Arif Wibowo

Joint-species analysis reveals potential displacement of native fishes by non-native fishes within the Santa Ana River, California

Accurate estimates of abundance are a cornerstone for resource managers to make effective decisions for fish conservation. However, multiple sampling methods often are required to sample fish communities, and ignoring the detection process can create substantial bias in latent state parameter estimation (e.g., abundance, survival). We developed a joint-species N-mixture model that...
Authors
Brock Huntsman, Larry R. Brown, Kai Palenscar, Chris Jones, Kerwin Russell, Heather Dyer, Brett Mills, Marissa L. Wulff, Jason May

Stable isotopes provide insight into sources and cycling of N compounds in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California, USA

River deltas and their diverse array of aquatic environments are increasingly impacted by anthropogenic inputs of nitrogen (N). These inputs can alter the N biogeochemistry of these systems and promote undesirable phenomena including harmful algae blooms and invasive aquatic macrophytes. To examine N sources and biogeochemical processes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a river delta...
Authors
Joseph K. Fackrell, Tamara E. C. Kraus, Megan B. Young, Carol Kendall, Sara Peek

Yucaipa valley integrated hydrological model

IntroductionThe hydrologic system in the Yucaipa Valley watershed (YVW) was simulated using the coupled Groundwater and Surface-water FLOW model (GSFLOW; Markstrom and others, 2008). This study uses version 2.0 of GSFLOW, which is a combination of the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS; Markstrom and others, 2015), and the Newton-Raphson formulation of the Modular Groundwater...
Authors
Ayman H. Alzraiee, John A. Engott, Geoffrey Cromwell, Linda R. Woolfenden

Hydrogeologic characterization of the Yucaipa groundwater subbasin

IntroductionWater management in the Santa Ana River watershed in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties in southern California (fig. A1) is complex with various water purveyors navigating geographic, geologic, hydrologic, and political challenges to provide a reliable water supply to stakeholders. As the population has increased throughout southern California, so has the demand for water...
Authors
Geoffrey Cromwell, John A. Engott, Ayman H. Alzraiee, Christina Stamos-Pfeiffer, Gregory Mendez, Meghan C. Dick, Sandra Bond

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in groundwater used as a source of drinking water in the eastern United States

In 2019, 254 samples were collected from five aquifer systems to evaluate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) occurrence in groundwater used as a source of drinking water in the eastern United States. The samples were analyzed for 24 PFAS, major ions, nutrients, trace elements, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pharmaceuticals, and tritium. Fourteen...
Authors
Peter B. McMahon, Andrea K. Tokranov, Laura M. Bexfield, Bruce D. Lindsey, Tyler D. Johnson, Melissa Lombard, Elise Watson

Simulation of groundwater and surface-water resources of the San Antonio Creek Valley watershed, Santa Barbara County, California

In the San Antonio Creek Valley watershed (SACVW), western Santa Barbara County, California, groundwater is the primary source of water for agricultural irrigation, the town of Los Alamos, and supplemental water to Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB). Groundwater pumpage has increased since the 1970s as non-irrigated agricultural land has been converted to irrigated land and as local...
Authors
Linda R. Woolfenden, John A. Engott, Joshua Larsen, Geoffrey Cromwell
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