Publications
This list of Upper Midwest Water Science Center publications spans from 1899 to present. It includes both official USGS publications and journal articles authored by our scientists. To access the full, searchable catalog of USGS publications, please visit the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Filter Total Items: 2247
Geographic setting influences Great Lakes beach microbiological water quality
Understanding of factors that influence Escherichia coli (EC) and enterococci (ENT) concentrations, pathogen occurrence, and microbial sources at Great Lakes beaches comes largely from individual beach studies. Using 12 representative beaches, we tested enrichment cultures from 273 beach water and 22 tributary samples for EC, ENT, and genes indicating the bacterial pathogens Shiga-toxin producing
Authors
Sheridan K. Haack, Lisa R. Fogarty, Erin A. Stelzer, Lori M. Fuller, Angela K. Brennan, Natasha M. Isaacs, Heather E. Johnson
Evaluation of internal loading and water level changes: implications for phosphorus, algal production, and nuisance blooms in Kabetogama Lake, Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota
Hydrologic manipulations have the potential to exacerbate or remediate eutrophication in productive reservoirs. Dam operations at Kabetogama Lake, Minnesota, were modified in 2000 to restore a more natural water regime and improve water quality. The US Geological Survey and National Park Service evaluated nutrient, algae, and nuisance bloom data in relation to changes in Kabetogama Lake water leve
Authors
Victoria G. Christensen, Ryan P. Maki, Richard L. Kiesling
Global change and mercury
More than 140 nations recently agreed to a legally binding treaty on reductions in human uses and releases of mercury that will be signed in October of this year. This follows the 2011 rule in the United States that for the first time regulates mercury emissions from electricity-generating utilities. Several decades of scientific research preceded these important regulations. However, the impacts
Authors
David P. Krabbenhoft, Elsie M. Sunderland
Temporal and spatial variability of groundwater recharge on Jeju Island, Korea
Estimates of groundwater recharge spatial and temporal variability are essential inputs to groundwater flow models that are used to test groundwater availability under different management and climate conditions. In this study, a soil water balance analysis was conducted to estimate groundwater recharge on the island of Jeju, Korea, for baseline, drought, and climate-land use change scenarios. The
Authors
Alan Mair, Benjamin Hagedorn, Suzanne Tillery, Aly I. El-Kadi, Stephen M. Westenbroek, Kyoochul Ha, Gi-Won Koh
Characterizing the distribution of particles in urban stormwater: advancements through improved sampling technology
A new sample collection system was developed to improve the representation of sediment in stormwater by integrating the entire water column. The depth-integrated sampler arm (DISA) was able to mitigate sediment stratification bias in storm water, thereby improving the characterization of particle size distribution from urban source areas. Collector streets had the lowest median particle diameter o
Authors
William R. Selbig
Relation between organic-wastewater compounds, groundwater geochemistry, and well characteristics for selected wells in Lansing, Michigan
In 2010, groundwater from 20 Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL) production wells was tested for 69 organic-wastewater compounds (OWCs). The OWCs detected in one-half of the sampled wells are widely used in industrial and environmental applications and commonly occur in many wastes and stormwater. To identify factors that contribute to the occurrence of these constituents in BWL wells, the U.S.
Authors
Sheridan K. Haack, Carol L. Luukkonen
New service interface for River Forecasting Center derived quantitative precipitation estimates
For more than a decade, the National Weather Service (NWS) River Forecast Centers (RFCs) have been estimating spatially distributed rainfall by applying quality-control procedures to radar-indicated rainfall estimates in the eastern United States and other best practices in the western United States to producea national Quantitative Precipitation Estimate (QPE) (National Weather Service, 2013). Th
Authors
David L. Blodgett
Nitrous oxide emissions from cropland: a procedure for calibrating the DayCent biogeochemical model using inverse modelling
DayCent is a biogeochemical model of intermediate complexity widely used to simulate greenhouse gases (GHG), soil organic carbon and nutrients in crop, grassland, forest and savannah ecosystems. Although this model has been applied to a wide range of ecosystems, it is still typically parameterized through a traditional “trial and error” approach and has not been calibrated using statistical invers
Authors
Rashad Rafique, Michael N. Fienen, Timothy B. Parkin, Robert P. Anex
Bridging groundwater models and decision support with a Bayesian network
Resource managers need to make decisions to plan for future environmental conditions, particularly sea level rise, in the face of substantial uncertainty. Many interacting processes factor in to the decisions they face. Advances in process models and the quantification of uncertainty have made models a valuable tool for this purpose. Long-simulation runtimes and, often, numerical instability make
Authors
Michael N. Fienen, John P. Masterson, Nathaniel G. Plant, Benjamin T. Gutierrez, E. Robert Thieler
Atmospheric mercury and fine particulate matter in coastal New England: implications for mercury and trace element sources in the northeastern United States
Intensive sampling of ambient atmospheric fine particulate matter was conducted at Woods Hole, Massachusetts over a four-month period from 3 April to 29 July, 2008, in conjunction with year-long deployment of the USGS Mobile Mercury Lab. Results were obtained for trace elements in fine particulate matter concurrently with determination of ambient atmospheric mercury speciation and concentrations o
Authors
Allan Kolker, Mark A. Engle, Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink, Nicholas J. Geboy, David P. Krabbenhotft, Michael H. Bothner, Michael T. Tate
Source and transport of human enteric viruses in deep municipal water supply wells
Until recently, few water utilities or researchers were aware of possible virus presence in deep aquifers and wells. During 2008 and 2009 we collected a time series of virus samples from six deep municipal water-supply wells. The wells range in depth from approximately 220 to 300 m and draw water from a sandstone aquifer. Three of these wells draw water from beneath a regional aquitard, and three
Authors
Kenneth R. Bradbury, Mark A. Borchardt, Madeline Gotkowitz, Susan K. Spencer, Jun Zhu, Randall J. Hunt