Publications
This list of Water Resources Mission Area publications includes both official USGS publications and journal articles authored by our scientists. A searchable database of all USGS publications can be accessed at the USGS Publications Warehouse.
Filter Total Items: 18418
Variable seepage meter efficiency in high-permeability settings
The efficiency of seepage meters, long considered a fixed property associated with the meter design, is not constant in highly permeable sediments. Instead, efficiency varies substantially with seepage bag fullness, duration of bag attachment, depth of meter insertion into the sediments, and seepage velocity. Tests conducted in a seepage test tank filled with isotropic sand with a hydraulic conduc
Authors
Donald O. Rosenberry, Jose M Nieto-Lopez, Richard M. Webb, Sascha Muller
Suspended-sediment Flux in the San Francisco Estuary; Part II: the Impact of the 2013–2016 California Drought and Controls on Sediment Flux
Recent modeling has demonstrated that sediment supply is one of the primary environmental variables that will determine the sustainability of San Francisco Estuary tidal marshes over the next century as sea level rises. Therefore, understanding the environmental controls on sediment flux within the San Francisco Estuary is crucial for optimal planning and management of tidal marsh restoration. Her
Authors
Daniel N. Livsey, Maureen A. Downing-Kunz, David H. Schoellhamer, Andrew J. Manning
Small atoll fresh groundwater lenses respond to a combination of natural climatic cycles and human modified geology
Freshwater lenses underlying small ocean islands exhibit spatial variability and temporal fluctuations in volume, influencing ecologic management. For example, The Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge harbors one of the few surviving native stands of Pisonia grandis in the central Pacific Ocean, yet these trees face pressure from groundwater salinization, with little basic groundwater data to gu
Authors
Martin A. Briggs, J Cantelon, B. Kurylyk, Justin T. Kulongoski, Audrey Mills, John W. Lane
Retrospective analysis of estrogenic endocrine disruption and land-use influences in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States and its watershed includes river drainages in six states and the District of Columbia. Sportfishing is of major economic interest, however, the rivers within the watershed provide numerous other ecological, recreational, cultural and economic benefits, as well as serving as a drinking water source for millions of people. Consequently,
Authors
Vicki S. Blazer, Stephanie Gordon, Daniel Jones, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Heather L. Walsh, Adam Sperry, Kelly L. Smalling
Landscape and climatic influences on actual evapotranspiration and available water using the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) Model in eastern Bernalillo County, New Mexico, 2015
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bernalillo County Public Works Division, conducted a 1-year study in 2015 to assess the spatial and temporal distribution of evapotranspiration (ET) and available water within the East Mountain area in Bernalillo County, New Mexico. ET and available water vary spatiotemporally because of complex interactions among environmental factors, including
Authors
Kyle R. Douglas-Mankin, Ryan J. McCutcheon, Aurelia C. Mitchell, Gabriel B. Senay
Stream dissolved organic matter in permafrost regions shows surprising compositional similarities but negative priming and nutrient effects
Permafrost degradation is delivering bioavailable dissolved organic matter (DOM) and inorganic nutrients to surface water networks. While these permafrost subsidies represent a small portion of total fluvial DOM and nutrient fluxes, they could influence food webs and net ecosystem carbon balance via priming or nutrient effects that destabilize background DOM. We investigated how addition of biolab
Authors
Ethan Wologo, Sarah Shakil, Scott Zolkos, Sadie R. Textor, Stephanie Ewing, Jane Klassen, Robert G. M. Spencer, David C. Podgorski, Suzanne E. Tank, Michelle Baker, Jonathan A. O'Donnell, Kimberly P. Wickland, Sydney Foks, Jay P. Zarnetske, Joseph Lee-Cullin, Futing Liu, Yuanhe Yang, Pirkko Kortelainen, Jaana Kolehmainen, Joshua F. Dean, Jorien E. Vonk, Robert M. Holmes, Gilles Pinay, Michaela M. Powell, Jansen Howe, Rebecca J. Frei, Samuel P. Bratsman, Benjamin W. Abbott
Field comparison of five in situ turbidity sensors
Five commercially available turbidity sensors were field tested by the U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility for accuracy and data comparability. The tested sensors were the Xylem EXO (EXO), the Hach Solitax sc (Solitax), the In Situ Aqua TROLL sensor installed onto a TROLL 600 sonde (TROLL 600), the Campbell Scientific OBS501 (OBS501), and the Observator ANALITE NEP–5000 (NEP
Authors
Teri T. Snazelle
Arsenic and uranium occurrence in private wells in Connecticut, 2013–18—A spatially weighted and bedrock geology assessment
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Public Health, conducted a study to determine the presence of arsenic and uranium in private drinking water wells in Connecticut. Samples were collected during 2013–18 from wells completed in 115 geologic units, with 2,433 samples analyzed for arsenic and 2,191 samples analyzed for uranium. The study concluded four major
Authors
Eliza L. Gross, Craig J. Brown
Mainstems: A logical data model implementing mainstem and drainage basin feature types based on WaterML2 Part 3: HY Features concepts
The Mainstems data model implements the catchment and flowpath concepts from WaterML2 Part 3: Surface Hydrology Features (HY_Features) for persistent, cross-scale, identification of hydrologic features. The data model itself provides a focused and lightweight method to describe hydrologic networks with minimum but sufficient information. The design is intended to provide a model for data integrati
Authors
David L. Blodgett, J. Micheal Johnson, Mark Sondheim, Michael Wieczorek, Nels Frazier
Recent and projected precipitation and temperature changes in the Grand Canyon area with implications for groundwater resources
Groundwater is a critical resource in the Grand Canyon region, supplying nearly all water needs for residents and millions of visitors. Additionally, groundwater discharging at hundreds of spring locations in and near Grand Canyon supports important ecosystems in this mostly arid environment. The security of groundwater supplies is of critical importance for both people and ecosystems in the regio
Authors
Fred D. Tillman, Subhrendu Gangopadhyay, Tom Pruitt
A lagrangian-to-eulerian metric to identify estuarine pelagic habitats
Estuaries are among the world’s most productive ecosystems, but recent natural and anthropogenic changes have stressed these ecosystems. Tools to assess estuarine pelagic habitats are important to support and maintain healthy ecosystem function. In this work, we demonstrate that estuarine pelagic habitats can be identified by a simple ratio, termed the LE ratio, that takes into account the tidal e
Authors
Paul Stumpner, Jon R. Burau, Alexander L. Forrest
A 450-year record of environmental change from Castle Lake, California (USA), inferred from diatoms and organic geochemistry
A 39-cm sediment core from Castle Lake, California (USA) spans the last ~ 450 years and was analyzed for diatoms and organic geochemistry (δ15N, δ13C, and C:N), with the goal of determining sensitivity to natural climate variation and twentieth century anthropogenic effects. Castle Lake is a subalpine, nitrogen-limited lake with ~ 5 months of annual ice cover. Human impacts include light recreatio
Authors
Paula Noble, Gary A. McGaughey, Michael R. Rosen, Christopher C. Fuller, Marco A. Aquino-López, Sudeep Chandra