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: 18422
Factors affecting marsh vegetation at the Liberty Island Conservation Bank in the Cache Slough region of the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, California
The Liberty Island Conservation Bank (LICB) is a tidal freshwater marsh restored for the purpose of mitigating adverse effects on sensitive fish populations elsewhere in the region. The LICB was completed in 2012 and is in the northern Cache Slough region of the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. The wetland vegetation at the LICB is stunted and yellow-green in color (chlorotic) compared to nearby wetl
Authors
James L. Orlando, Judith Z. Drexler
Hourly storm characteristics along the U.S. West Coast: Role of atmospheric rivers in extreme precipitation
Gridded hourly precipitation observations over the conterminous U.S., from 1948 to 2002, are analyzed to determine climatological characteristics of storm precipitation totals. Despite generally lower hourly intensities, precipitation totals along the U.S. West Coast (USWC) are comparable to those in southeast U.S. (SEUS). Storm durations, more so than hourly intensities, strongly modulate precipi
Authors
Maryam A. Lamjiri, Michael D. Dettinger, F. Martin Ralph, B. Guan
How uncertainty analysis of streamflow data can reduce costs and promote robust decisions in water management applications
Streamflow data are used for important environmental and economic decisions, such as specifying and regulating minimum flows, managing water supplies, and planning for flood hazards. Despite significant uncertainty in most flow data, the flow series for these applications are often communicated and used without uncertainty information. In this commentary, we argue that proper analysis of uncertain
Authors
Hilary McMilan, Jan Seibert, Asgeir Petersen‐Øverleir, Michel Lang, Paul White, Ton Snelder, Kit Rutherford, Tobias Krueger, Robert R. Mason,, Julie E. Kiang
Fine particle retention within stream storage areas at base flow and in response to a storm event
Fine particles (1–100 µm), including particulate organic carbon (POC) and fine sediment, influence stream ecological functioning because they may contain or have a high affinity to sorb nitrogen and phosphorus. These particles are immobilized within stream storage areas, especially hyporheic sediments and benthic biofilms. However, fine particles are also known to remobilize under all flow conditi
Authors
J. D. Drummond, L. G. Larsen, R. González-Pinzón, A. I. Packman, Judson Harvey
Plant diversity increases with the strength of negative density dependence at the global scale
Theory predicts that higher biodiversity in the tropics is maintained by specialized interactions among plants and their natural enemies that result in conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD). By using more than 3000 species and nearly 2.4 million trees across 24 forest plots worldwide, we show that global patterns in tree species diversity reflect not only stronger CNDD at tropical versus
Authors
Joseph A. LaManna, Scott A. Mangan, Alfonso Alonso, Norman Bourg, Warren Y. Brockelman, Sarayudh Bunyavejchewin, Li-Wan Chang, Jyh-Min Chiang, George B. Chuyong, Keith Clay, Richard Condit, Susan Cordell, Stuart J. Davies, Tucker J. Furniss, Christian P. Giardina, I.A.U. Nimal Gunatilleke, C.V. Savitri Gunatilleke, Fangliang He, Robert W. Howe, Stephen P. Hubbell, Chang-Fu Hsieh, Faith M. Inman-Narahari, David Janik, Daniel J. Johnson, David Kenfack, Lisa Korte, Kamil Kral, Andrew J. Larson, James A. Lutz, Sean M. McMahon, William J. McShea, Herve R. Memiaghe, Anuttara Nathalang, Vojtech Novotny, Perry S. Ong, David A. Orwig, Rebecca Ostertag, Geoffrey G. Parker, Richard P. Phillips, Lawren Sack, I-Fang Sun, J. Sebastian Tello, Duncan W. Thomas, Benjamin L. Turner, Dilys M. Vela Diaz, Tomas Vrska, George D. Weiblen, Amy Wolf, Sandra Yap, Jonathan A. Myers
An “EAR” on environmental surveillance and monitoring: A case study on the use of Exposure–Activity Ratios (EARs) to prioritize sites, chemicals, and bioactivities of concern in Great Lakes waters
Current environmental monitoring approaches focus primarily on chemical occurrence. However, based on concentration alone, it can be difficult to identify which compounds may be of toxicological concern and should be prioritized for further monitoring, in-depth testing, or management. This can be problematic because toxicological characterization is lacking for many emerging contaminants. New sour
Authors
Brett R. Blackwell, Gerald T. Ankley, Steven R. Corsi, Laura A. DeCicco, Kieth A. Houck, Richard S. Judson, Shibin Li, Matthew T. Martin, Elizabeth Murphy, Anthony L. Schroeder, Edwin R. Smith, Joe Swintek, Daniel L. Villeneuve
Inputs and internal cycling of nitrogen to a causeway influenced, hypersaline lake, Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA
Nitrogen inputs to Great Salt Lake (GSL), located in the western USA, were quantified relative to the resident nitrogen mass in order to better determine numeric nutrient criteria that may be considered at some point in the future. Total dissolved nitrogen inputs from four surface-water sources entering GSL were modeled during the 5-year study period (2010–2014) and ranged from 1.90 × 106 to 5.56
Authors
David L. Naftz
High-frequency dissolved organic carbon and nitrate measurements reveal differences in storm hysteresis and loading in relation to land cover and seasonality
High-frequency dissolved organic carbon and nitrate measurements reveal differences in storm hysteresis and loading in relation to land cover and seasonality
Authors
Matthew C.H. Vaughan, William B. Bowden, James B. Shanley, Andrew W. Vermilyea, Ryan Sleeper, Arthur J. Gold, Soni M. Pradhanang, Shreeram P. Inamdar, Delphis F. Levia, A. Scott Andres, François Birgand, Andrew W. Schroth
Complex networks of functional connectivity in a wetland reconnected to its floodplain
Disturbances such as fire or flood, in addition to changing the local magnitude of ecological, hydrological, or biogeochemical processes, can also change their functional connectivity—how those processes interact in space. Complex networks offer promise for quantifying functional connectivity in watersheds. The approach resolves connections between nodes in space based on statistical similarities
Authors
Laurel G. Larsen, Susan Newman, Colin Saunders, Judson Harvey
Tracking the fate of nitrate through pulse-flow wetlands: A mesocosm scale 15N enrichment tracer study
Quantitative information about the fate of applied nitrate (NO3-N) in pulse-flow constructed wetlands is essential for designing wetland treatment systems and assessing their nitrogen removal services for agricultural and stormwater applications. Although many studies have documented NO3-N losses in wetlands, controlled experiments indicating the relative importance of different processes and N si
Authors
Tiffany L. Messer, Michael R. Burchell, John K. Böhlke, Craig R. Tobias
Response of deep groundwater to land use change in desert basins of the Trans-Pecos region, Texas, USA: Effects on infiltration, recharge, and nitrogen fluxes
Quantifying the effects of anthropogenic processes on groundwater in arid regions can be complicated by thick unsaturated zones with long transit times. Human activities can alter water and nutrient fluxes, but their impact on groundwater is not always clear. This study of basins in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas links anthropogenic land use and vegetation change with alterations to unsaturated z
Authors
Wendy Marie Robertson, John K. Böhlke, John M. Sharp
On the probability distribution of daily streamflow in the United States
Daily streamflows are often represented by flow duration curves (FDCs), which illustrate the frequency with which flows are equaled or exceeded. FDCs have had broad applications across both operational and research hydrology for decades; however, modeling FDCs has proven elusive. Daily streamflow is a complex time series with flow values ranging over many orders of magnitude. The identification of
Authors
Annalise G. Blum, Stacey A. Archfield, Richard M. Vogel