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: 1734
Groundwater quality in the Klamath Mountains, California
Groundwater provides more than 40 percent of California’s drinking water. To protect this vital resource, the State of California created the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The Priority Basin Project of the GAMA Program provides a comprehensive assessment of the State’s groundwater quality and increases public access to groundwater-quality information. The Klamath Mo
Authors
George L. Bennett V, Miranda S. Fram
Incorporating cold-air pooling into downscaled climate models increases potential refugia for snow-dependent species within the Sierra Nevada Ecoregion, CA
We present a unique water-balance approach for modeling snowpack under historic, current and future climates throughout the Sierra Nevada Ecoregion. Our methodology uses a finer scale (270 m) than previous regional studies and incorporates cold-air pooling, an atmospheric process that sustains cooler temperatures in topographic depressions thereby mitigating snowmelt. Our results are intended to s
Authors
Jennifer A. Curtis, Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L. Flint, Jessica D. Lundquist, Brian Hudgens, Erin E. Boydston, Julie K. Young
A ternary age-mixing model to explain contaminant occurrence in a deep supply well
The age distribution of water from a public-supply well in a deep alluvial aquifer was estimated and used to help explain arsenic variability in the water. The age distribution was computed using a ternary mixing model that combines three lumped parameter models of advection-dispersion transport of environmental tracers, which represent relatively recent recharge (post- 1950s) containing volatile
Authors
Bryant C. Jurgens, Laura M. Bexfield, Sandra M. Eberts
Educational webtool illustrating groundwater age effects on contaminant trends in wells
No abstract available.
Authors
John Karl Böhlke, Bryant C. Jurgens, David J. Uselmann, Sandra M. Eberts
Dissolved pesticide concentrations entering the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, California, 2012-13
Surface-water samples were collected from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers where they enter the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, and analyzed by the U.S. Geological Survey for a suite of 99 current-use pesticides and pesticide degradates. Samples were collected twice per month from May 2012 through July 2013 and from May 2012 through April 2013 at the Sacramento River at Freeport, and the San Jo
Authors
James L. Orlando, Megan McWayne, Corey Sanders, Michelle Hladik
Construction, water-level, and water-quality data for multiple-well monitoring sites and test wells, Fort Irwin National Training Center, San Bernardino County, California, 2009-12
Because of increasing water demands at the U.S. Army Fort Irwin National Training Center, the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the U.S. Army carried out a study to evaluate the water quality and potential groundwater supply of undeveloped basins within the U.S. Army Fort Irwin National Training Center. In addition, work was performed in the three developed basins—Langford, Bicycle, and I
Authors
Adam R. Kjos, Jill N. Densmore, Joseph M. Nawikas, Anthony A. Brown
Wetland management and rice farming strategies to decrease methylmercury bioaccumulation and loads from the Cosumnes River Preserve, California
We evaluated mercury (Hg) concentrations in caged fish (deployed for 30 days) and water from agricultural wetland (rice fields), managed wetland, slough, and river habitats in the Cosumnes River Preserve, California. We also implemented experimental hydrological regimes on managed wetlands and post-harvest rice straw management techniques on rice fields in order to evaluate potential Best Manageme
Authors
Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Joshua T. Ackerman, Jacob Fleck, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Harry McQuillen, Wes Heim
Hydrologic models and analysis of water availability in Cuyama Valley, California
Changes in population, agricultural development practices (including shifts to more water-intensive crops), and climate variability are placing increasingly larger demands on available water resources, particularly groundwater, in the Cuyama Valley, one of the most productive agricultural regions in Santa Barbara County. The goal of this study was to produce a model capable of being accurate at sc
Authors
R. T. Hanson, Lorraine E. Flint, Claudia C. Faunt, Dennis R. Gibbs, Wolfgang Schmid
Cuyama Valley, California hydrologic study: an assessment of water availability
Water resources are under pressure throughout California, particularly in agriculturally dominated valleys. Since 1949, the Cuyama Valley’s irrigated acreage has increased from 13 to 35 percent of the valley. Increased agriculture has contributed to the demand for water beyond natural recharge. The tools and information developed for this study can be used to help understand the Cuyama Valley aqui
Authors
Randall T. Hanson, Donald S. Sweetkind
Synthesis of studies in the fall low-salinity zone of the San Francisco Estuary, September-December 2011
In fall 2011, a large-scale investigation (fall low-salinity habitat investigation) was implemented by the Bureau of Reclamation in cooperation with the Interagency Ecological Program to explore hypotheses about the ecological role of low-salinity habitat in the San Francisco Estuary—specifically, hypotheses about the importance of fall low-salinity habitat to the biology of delta smelt Hypomesus
Authors
Larry R. Brown, Randall Baxter, Gonzalo Castillo, Louise Conrad, Steven Culberson, Gregg Erickson, Frederick Feyrer, Stephanie Fong, Karen Gehrts, Lenny Grimaldo, Bruce Herbold, Joseph Kirsch, Anke Mueller-Solger, Steven B. Slater, Ted Sommer, Kelly Souza, Erwin Van Nieuwenhuyse
Assessing the solubility controls on vanadium in groundwater, northeastern San Joaquin Valley, CA
The solubility controls on vanadium (V) in groundwater were studied due to concerns over possible harmful health effects of ingesting V in drinking water. Vanadium concentrations in the northeastern San Joaquin Valley ranged from 25 μg/L) and lowest in samples collected from anoxic groundwater (70% < 0.8 μg/L). In oxic groundwater, speciation modeling (SM) using PHREEQC predicted that V exists pr
Authors
Michael T. Wright, Kenneth G. Stollenwerk, Kenneth Belitz
Widespread occurrence of neonicotinoid insecticides in streams in a high corn and soybean producing region, USA
Neonicotinoid insecticides are of environmental concern, but little is known about their occurrence in surface water. An area of intense corn and soybean production in the Midwestern United States was chosen to study this issue because of the high agricultural use of neonicotinoids via both seed treatments and other forms of application. Water samples were collected from nine stream sites during t
Authors
Michelle Hladik, Dana W. Kolpin, Kathryn Kuivila