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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: 1734

Comparison of simulations of land-use specific water demand and irrigation water supply by MF-FMP and IWFM

Two hydrologic models, MODFLOW with the Farm Process (MF-FMP) and the Integrated Water Flow Model (IWFM), are compared with respect to each model’s capabilities of simulating land-use hydrologic processes, surface-water routing, and groundwater flow. Of major concern among the land-use processes was the consumption of water through evaporation and transpiration by plants. The comparison of MF-FMP
Authors
Wolfgang Schmid, Emin Dogural, Randall T. Hanson, Tariq Kadir, Francis Chung

Continuous salinity and temperature data from San Francisco estuary, 1982-2002: Trends and the salinity-freshwater inflow relationship

The U.S. Geological Survey and other federal and state agencies have been collecting continuous temperature and salinity data, two critical estuarine habitat variables, throughout San Francisco estuary for over two decades. Although this dynamic, highly variable system has been well studied, many questions remain relating to the effects of freshwater inflow and other physical and biological linkag
Authors
Gregory Shellenbarger, David H. Schoellhamer

High-resolution three-dimensional imaging and analysis of rock falls in Yosemite valley, California

We present quantitative analyses of recent large rock falls in Yosemite Valley, California, using integrated high-resolution imaging techniques. Rock falls commonly occur from the glacially sculpted granitic walls of Yosemite Valley, modifying this iconic landscape but also posing significant potential hazards and risks. Two large rock falls occurred from the cliff beneath Glacier Point in eastern
Authors
Gregory M. Stock, Gerald W. Bawden, J.K. Green, E. Hanson, G. Downing, Brian D. Collins, Sandra Bond, M. Leslar

Occurrence of azoxystrobin, propiconazole, and selected other fungicides in US streams, 2005-2006

Fungicides are used to prevent foliar diseases on a wide range of vegetable, field, fruit, and ornamental crops. They are generally more effective as protective rather than curative treatments, and hence tend to be applied before infections take place. Less than 1% of US soybeans were treated with a fungicide in 2002 but by 2006, 4% were treated. Like other pesticides, fungicides can move-off of f
Authors
William A. Battaglin, Mark W. Sandstrom, Kathryn Kuivila, Dana W. Kolpin, Michael T. Meyer

Uranium and barium cycling in a salt wedge subterranean estuary: The influence of tidal pumping

The contribution of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) to oceanic metal budgets is only beginning to be explored. Here, we demonstrate that biogeochemical processes in a northern Florida subterranean estuary (STE) significantly alter U and Ba concentrations entering the coastal ocean via SGD. Tidal pumping controlled the distribution of dissolved metals in shallow beach groundwater. Hourly obse
Authors
I.R. Santos, W. C. Burnett, S. Misra, I.G.N.A. Suryaputra, J. P. Chanton, T. Dittmar, R.N. Peterson, P.W. Swarzenski

Re-establishing marshes can return carbon sink functions to a current carbon source in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of California, USA

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California was an historic, vast inland freshwater wetland, where organic soils almost 20 meters deep formed over the last several millennia as the land surface elevation of marshes kept pace with sea level rise. A system of levees and pumps were installed in the late 1800s and early 1900s to drain the land for agricultural use. Since then, land surface has subs
Authors
Robin L. Miller, Roger Fujii

Comparison of two parametric methods to estimate pesticide mass loads in California's Central Valley

Mass loadings were calculated for four pesticides in two watersheds with different land uses in the Central Valley, California, by using two parametric models: (1) the Seasonal Wave model (SeaWave), in which a pulse signal is used to describe the annual cycle of pesticide occurrence in a stream, and (2) the Sine Wave model, in which first-order Fourier series sine and cosine terms are used to simu
Authors
Dina K. Saleh, David L. Lorenz, Joseph L. Domagalski

Sudden clearing of estuarine waters upon crossing the threshold from transport to supply regulation of sediment transport as an erodible sediment pool is depleted: San Francisco Bay, 1999

The quantity of suspended sediment in an estuary is regulated either by transport, where energy or time needed to suspend sediment is limiting, or by supply, where the quantity of erodible sediment is limiting. This paper presents a hypothesis that suspended-sediment concentration (SSC) in estuaries can suddenly decrease when the threshold from transport to supply regulation is crossed as an erodi
Authors
David H. Schoellhamer

Statistical models of temperature in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta under climate-change scenarios and ecological implications

Changes in water temperatures caused by climate change in California's Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta will affect the ecosystem through physiological rates of fishes and invertebrates. This study presents statistical models that can be used to forecast water temperature within the Delta as a response to atmospheric conditions. The daily average model performed well (R2 values greater than 0.93 durin
Authors
R. Wayne Wagner, Mark T. Stacey, Larry R. Brown, Mike Dettinger

Discontinuous hindcast simulations of estuarine bathymetric change: A case study from Suisun Bay, California

Simulations of estuarine bathymetric change over decadal timescales require methods for idealization and reduction of forcing data and boundary conditions. Continuous simulations are hampered by computational and data limitations and results are rarely evaluated with observed bathymetric change data. Bathymetric change data for Suisun Bay, California span the 1867–1990 period with five bathymetric
Authors
Neil K. Ganju, Bruce E. Jaffe, David H. Schoellhamer