Advanced Capabilities and Research

Accurate river-sediment data is fundamental to planning and managing river restoration efforts on the Trinity River, and throughout the world’s waterways. The USGS has developed a “hydrophone” that enables scientists to listen to sediment particles as they move along the riverbed in order to inexpensively and reliably record near-continuous sediment-bedload-transport data. For this study...

Pesticides are used in both agricultural and urban settings to manage unwanted plants, insects, fungi, and other pests. However, these substances and their breakdown products can move beyond their intended application sites through various means, ending up in areas where they weren't meant to be. This movement can happen via the air, through water (both surface and groundwater), and by sticking to...

Rivers, wetlands, and agricultural operations supply natural organic material to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) and the San Francisco Estuary. This natural organic matter provides many ecosystem benefits, but it also adversely affects drinking water. During drinking water treatment, chlorine added for purposes of pathogen control reacts with dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the water to...

Historic landuse, dam construction, water storage and flow diversion within the Trinity River watershed resulted in downstream geomorphic changes that simplified the river planform and lead to dramatic losses of salmonid habitat and significant population declines. The Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP) requested the USGS complete an assessment of geomorphic change that could be used to...

The California Water Science Center's "SmeltCam" helps describe processes influencing Delta Smelt distribution and movement.