Publications
Browse more than 150,000 publications authored by our scientists over the past 100+ year history of the USGS. Publications available are: USGS-authored journal articles, series reports, book chapters, other government publications, and more.
Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center Publications
Filter Total Items: 3223
Particle size distribution of main-channel-bed sediments along the upper Mississippi River, USA
In this study, we compared pre-lock-and-dam (ca. 1925) with a modern longitudinal survey of main-channel-bed sediments along a 740-km segment of the upper Mississippi River (UMR) between Davenport, IA, and Cairo, IL. This comparison was undertaken to gain a better understanding of how bed sediments are distributed longitudinally and to assess change since the completion of the UMR lock and dam nav
Authors
Jonathan Remo, Ruben A. Heine, Brian Ickes
Contamination with bacterial zoonotic pathogen genes in U.S. streams influenced by varying types of animal agriculture
Animal waste, stream water, and streambed sediment from 19 small (< 32 km2) watersheds in 12 U.S. states having either no major animal agriculture (control, n = 4), or predominantly beef (n = 4), dairy (n = 3), swine (n = 5), or poultry (n = 3) were tested for: 1) cholesterol, coprostanol, estrone, and fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) concentrations, and 2) shiga-toxin producing and enterotoxigenic
Authors
Sheridan K. Haack, Joseph W. Duris, Dana W. Kolpin, Michael J. Focazio, Michael T. Meyer, Heather E. Johnson, Ryan J. Oster, William T. Foreman
Long-term trends in a Dimictic Lake
The one-dimensional hydrodynamic ice model, DYRESM-WQ-I, was modified to simulate ice cover and thermal structure of dimictic Lake Mendota, Wisconsin, USA, over a continuous 104-year period (1911–2014). The model results were then used to examine the drivers of changes in ice cover and water temperature, focusing on the responses to shifts in air temperature, wind speed, and water clarity at mult
Authors
Dale M. Robertson, Yi-Fang Hsieh, Richard C Lathrop, Chin H Wu, Madeline Magee, David P. Hamilton
Developing population models with data from marked individuals
Population viability analysis (PVA) is a powerful tool for biodiversity assessments, but its use has been limited because of the requirements for fully specified population models such as demographic structure, density-dependence, environmental stochasticity, and specification of uncertainties. Developing a fully specified population model from commonly available data sources – notably, mark–recap
Authors
Hae Yeong Ryu, Kevin T. Shoemaker, Eva Kneip, Anna Pidgeon, Patricia Heglund, Brooke Bateman, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Reşit Akçakaya
Carbon dioxide as a tool to deter the movement of invasive bigheaded carps
Nonnative bigheaded carps are established in the Mississippi River and there is substantial concern about their potential entry into the interconnected Laurentian Great Lakes. While electrical barriers currently exist as a preventative measure, there is need for additional control mechanisms to promote barrier security through redundancy. We tested the effectiveness of infused carbon dioxide gas (
Authors
Michael R. Donaldson, Jon Amberg, Shivani Adhikari, Aaron R. Cupp, Nathan Jensen, Jason G. Romine, Adam Wright, Mark P. Gaikowski, Cory D. Suski
Informing Lake Erie agriculture nutrient management via scenario evaluation
Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have been increasing in extent and intensity in the western basin of Lake Erie. The cyanobacteria Microcystis produces toxins that pose serious threats to animal and human health, resulting in beach closures and impaired water supplies, and have even forced a “do not drink” advisory for the City of Toledo water system for several days in the summer of 2014. The main dri
Authors
Donald Scavia, Margaret Kalcic, Rebecca Logsdon Muenich, Noel Aloysius, Jeffrey Arnold, Chelsie Boles, Remegio Confesor, Joseph DePinto, Marie Gildow, Jay Martin, Jennifer Read, Todd Redder, Dale M. Robertson, Scott P. Sowa, Yu-Chen Wang, Michael White, Haw Yen
Airborne pathogens from dairy manure aerial irrigation and the human health risk
Dairy manure, like the fecal excrement from any domesticated or wild animal, can contain pathogens capable of infecting humans and causing illness or even death. Pathogens in dairy manure can be broadly divided into categories of taxonomy or infectiousness. Dividing by taxonomy there are three pathogen groups in dairy manure: viruses (e.g., bovine rotavirus), bacteria (e.g., Salmonella species), a
Authors
Mark A. Borchardt, Tucker R Burch
Landscape ecology of the Upper Mississippi River System: Lessons learned, challenges and opportunities
The Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) is a mosaic of river channels, backwater lakes, floodplain forests, and emergent marshes. This complex mosaic supports diverse aquatic and terrestrial plant communities, over 150 fish species; 40 freshwater mussel species; 50 amphibian and reptile species; and over 360 bird species, many of which use the UMRS as a critical migratory route. The river and fl
Authors
Nathan R. De Jager
Identifying the origin of waterbird carcasses in Lake Michigan using a neural network source tracking model
Avian botulism type E is responsible for extensive waterbird mortality on the Great Lakes, yet the actual site of toxin exposure remains unclear. Beached carcasses are often used to describe the spatial aspects of botulism mortality outbreaks, but lack specificity of offshore toxin source locations. We detail methodology for developing a neural network model used for predicting waterbird carcass m
Authors
Kevin P. Kenow, Zhongfu Ge, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Brian R. Lubinski
Evaluating the sources of water to wells: Three techniques for metamodeling of a groundwater flow model
For decision support, the insights and predictive power of numerical process models can be hampered by insufficient expertise and computational resources required to evaluate system response to new stresses. An alternative is to emulate the process model with a statistical “metamodel.” Built on a dataset of collocated numerical model input and output, a groundwater flow model was emulated using a
Authors
Michael N. Fienen, Bernard T. Nolan, Daniel T. Feinstein
Methods to estimate historical daily streamflow for ungaged stream locations in Minnesota
Effective and responsible management of water resources relies on a thorough understanding of the quantity and quality of available water; however, streamgages cannot be installed at every location where streamflow information is needed. Therefore, methods for estimating streamflow at ungaged stream locations need to be developed. This report presents a statewide study to develop methods to estima
Authors
David L. Lorenz, Jeffrey R. Ziegeweid
Estimation of a Trophic State Index for selected inland lakes in Michigan, 1999–2013
A 15-year estimated Trophic State Index (eTSI) for Michigan inland lakes is available, and it spans seven datasets, each representing 1 to 3 years of data from 1999 to 2013. On average, 3,000 inland lake eTSI values are represented in each of the datasets by a process that relates field-measured Secchi-disk transparency (SDT) to Landsat satellite imagery to provide eTSI values for unsampled inland
Authors
Lori M. Fuller, Richard S. Jodoin