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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: 18420

Dynamic relations for the deposition of sediment on floodplains and point bars of a freely-meandering river

Fluvial features such as floodplains and point bars are built by sediment deposition and sculpted by erosion. Long-term measurements (38 yr) of the cross-section topography of active floodplains and point bars along the freely-meandering Powder River in southeastern Montana, USA (mean daily discharge of 12.5 m3 s−1), were used to develop dynamic relations between annual sediment deposition and pea
Authors
John A. Moody

Effects of urban multi-stressors on three stream biotic assemblages

During 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment(NAWQA) project assessed stream quality in 75 streams across an urban disturbance gradient within the Piedmont ecoregion of southeastern United States. Our objectives were to identify primary instream stressors affecting algal, macroinvertebrate and fish assemblages in wadeable streams. Biotic communities were surveyed
Authors
Ian R. Waite, Mark D. Munn, Patrick W. Moran, Christopher P. Konrad, Lisa H. Nowell, Michael R. Meador, Peter C. Van Metre, Daren Carlisle

Negligible cycling of terrestrial carbon in many lakes of the arid circumpolar landscape

High-latitude environments store nearly half of the planet’s below-ground organic carbon (OC), mostly in perennially frozen permafrost soils. Climatic changes drive increased export of terrestrial OC into many aquatic networks, yet the role that circumpolar lakes play in mineralizing this carbon is unclear. Here we directly evaluate ecosystem-scale OC cycling for lakes of interior Alaska. This ari
Authors
Matthew J. Bogard, Catherine D. Kuhn, Sarah Ellen Johnston, Robert G. Striegl, Gordon W. Holtgrieve, Mark M. Dornblaser, Robert G. M. Spencer, Kimberly P. Wickland, David E. Butman

Factors affecting the occurrence of lead and manganese in untreated drinking water from Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain aquifers, eastern United States—Dissolved oxygen and pH framework for evaluating risk of elevated concentrations

Groundwater samples collected during 2012 and 2013 from public-supply wells screened in the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain aquifers of the eastern and southeastern U.S. rarely contained lead or manganese concentrations that exceeded drinking-water limits, despite having corrosive characteristics. Data indicate that the occurrence of dissolved lead and manganese in sampled groundwater, prior to it
Authors
Craig J. Brown, Jeannie R. B. Barlow, Charles A. Cravotta, Bruce D. Lindsey

Most Earth-surface calcites precipitate out of isotopic equilibrium

Oxygen-isotope thermometry played a critical role in the rise of modern geochemistry and remains extensively used in (bio-)geoscience. Its theoretical foundations rest on the assumption that 18O/16O partitioning among water and carbonate minerals primarily reflects thermodynamic equilibrium. However, after decades of research, there is no consensus on the true equilibrium 18O/16O fractionation bet
Authors
Mathieu Daëron, Russell N Drysdale, Marion Peral, Damien Huyghe, Dominique Blamart, Tyler B. Coplen, Franck Lartaud, Giovanni Zanchetta

The dual‐domain porosity apparatus: Characterizing dual porosity at the sediment/water interface

The characterization of pore-space connectivity in porous media at the sediment/water interface is critical to understanding contaminant transport and reactive biogeochemical processes in zones of groundwater and surface-water exchange. Previous in situ studies of dual-domain (i.e., mobile/less-mobile porosity) studies have been limited to solute tracer injections at scales of meters to 100s
Authors
Courtney R. Scruggs, Martin A. Briggs, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, Dale D. Werkema, John W. Lane

Stratification of reactivity determines nitrate removal in groundwater

Biogeochemical reactions occur unevenly in space and time, but this heterogeneity is often simplified as a linear average due to sparse data, especially in subsurface environments where access is limited. For example, little is known about the spatial variability of groundwater denitrification, an important process in removing nitrate originating from agriculture and land use conversion. Informati
Authors
Tamara Kolbe, Jean-Raynald de Dreuzy, Benjamin Abbott, Luc Aquilina, Tristan Babey, Christopher Green, Jan Fleckenstein, Thierry Labasque, Anniet M Laverman, Jean Marçais, Stefan Peiffer, Zahra Thomas, Gilles Pinay

Adaptive management assists reintroduction as higher tides threaten an endangered salt marsh plant

In theory, extirpated plant species can be reintroduced and managed to restore sustainable populations. However, few reintroduced plants are known to persist for more than a few years. Our adaptive‐management case study illustrates how we restored the endangered hemiparasitic annual plant, Chloropyron maritimum subsp. maritimum (salt marsh bird's beak), to Sweetwater Marsh, San Diego Bay National
Authors
Gregory Noe, Meghan Fellows, Lorraine Parsons, Janelle West, John C. Callaway, Sally Trnka, Mark Wegener, Joy Zedler

Hydrogeology of Lower Amargosa Valley and groundwater discharge to the Amargosa Wild and Scenic River, Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, California, and adjacent areas in Nye and Clark Counties, Nevada

In 2009, Congress designated certain reaches of the Amargosa River in Inyo County, California between the town of Shoshone and Dumont Dunes as a Wild and Scenic River. As part of the management of the Amargosa Wild and Scenic River, the Bureau of Land Management cooperated with the U.S. Geological Survey to assess the surface and groundwater resources of the Tecopa basin. Groundwater is the primar
Authors
Wayne R. Belcher, Donald S. Sweetkind, Candice B. Hopkins, Megan E. Poff

A scale to characterize the strength and impacts of atmospheric rivers

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) play vital roles in the western United States and related regions globally, not only producing heavy precipitation and flooding, but also providing beneficial water supply. This paper introduces a scale for the intensity and impacts of ARs. Its utility may be greatest where ARs are the most impactful storm type and hurricanes, nor’easters, and tornadoes are nearly nonexist
Authors
F. Martin Ralph, Jonathan J. Rutz, Jason M. Cordeira, Michael D. Dettinger, Michael Anderson, David Reynolds, Lawrence J. Schick, Christopher Smallcomb

Monitoring the pulse of our Nation's rivers and streams—The U.S. Geological Survey streamgaging network

In the late 1800s, John Wesley Powell, second Director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), proposed gaging the flow of rivers and streams in the Western United States to evaluate the potential for irrigation. Around the same time, several cities in the Eastern United States established primitive streamgages to help design water-supply systems. Streamgaging technology has greatly advanced since t
Authors
Sandra M. Eberts, Michael D. Woodside, Mark N. Landers, Chad R. Wagner