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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: 18428

Estimated use of water in the Delaware River Basin in Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, 2010

The Delaware River Basin (DRB) was selected as a Focus Area Study in 2011 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as part of the USGS National Water Census. The National Water Census is a USGS research program that focuses on national water availability and use and then develops new water accounting tools and assesses water availability at both the regional and national scales. One of the water manag
Authors
Susan S. Hutson, Kristin S. Linsey, Russell A. Ludlow, Betzaida Reyes, Jennifer L. Shourds

Summary of environmental flow monitoring for the Sustainable Rivers Project on the Middle Fork Willamette and McKenzie Rivers, western Oregon, 2014–15

This report presents the results of an ongoing environmental flow monitoring study by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and U.S. Geological Survey in support of the Sustainable Rivers Project (SRP) of TNC and USACE. The overarching goal of this study is to evaluate and characterize relations between streamflow, geomorphic processes, and black cottonwood (Populus t
Authors
Krista L. Jones, Joseph F. Mangano, J. Rose Wallick, Heather D. Bervid, Melissa Olson, Mackenzie K. Keith, Leslie Bach

Streamflow data

Streamflow data are vital for a variety of water-resources issues, from flood warning to water supply planning. The collection of streamflow data is usually an involved and complicated process. This chapter serves as an overview of the streamflow data collection process. Readers with the need for the detailed information on the streamflow data collection process are referred to the many references
Authors
Gregg J. Wiche, Robert R. Holmes

Atomic weights of the elements 2013 (IUPAC Technical Report)

The biennial review of atomic-weight determinations and other cognate data has resulted in changes for the standard atomic weights of 19 elements. The standard atomic weights of four elements have been revised based on recent determinations of isotopic abundances in natural terrestrial materials:cadmium to 112.414(4) from 112.411(8),molybdenum to 95.95(1) from 95.96(2),selenium to 78.971(8) from 7
Authors
Juris Meija, Tyler B. Coplen, Michael Berglund, Willi A. Brand, Paul De Bièvre, Manfred Gröning, Norman E. Holden, Johanna Irrgeher, Robert D. Loss, Thomas Walczyk, Thomas Prohaska

Isotopic compositions of the elements 2013 (IUPAC Technical Report)

The Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (ciaaw.org) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (iupac.org) has revised the Table of Isotopic Compositions of the Elements (TICE). The update involved a critical evaluation of the recent published literature. The new TICE 2013 includes evaluated data from the “best measurement” of the isotopic abundances in a single samp
Authors
Juris Meija, Tyler B. Coplen, Michael Berglund, Willi A. Brand, Paul De Bièvre, Manfred Gröning, Norman E. Holden, Johanna Irrgeher, Robert D. Loss, Thomas Walczyk, Thomas Prohaska

Spatial and temporal variability of contaminants within estuarine sediments and native Olympia oysters: A contrast between a developed and an undeveloped estuary

Chemical contaminants can be introduced into estuarine and marine ecosystems from a variety of sources including wastewater, agriculture and forestry practices, point and non-point discharges, runoff from industrial, municipal, and urban lands, accidental spills, and atmospheric deposition. The diversity of potential sources contributes to the likelihood of contaminated marine waters and sediments
Authors
Elise F. Granek, Kathleen E. Conn, Elena B. Nilsen, Lori Pillsbury, Angela L. Strecker, Steve Rumrill, William Fish

Deposition, accumulation, and alteration of Cl−, NO3−, ClO4− and ClO3− salts in a hyper-arid polar environment: Mass balance and isotopic constraints

The salt fraction in permafrost soils/sediments of the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) of Antarctica can be used as a proxy for cold desert geochemical processes and paleoclimate reconstruction. Previous analyses of the salt fraction in MDV permafrost soils have largely been conducted in coastal regions where permafrost soils are variably affected by aqueous processes and mixed inputs from marine and st
Authors
Andrew Jackson, Alfonso F. Davila, John Karl Böhlke, Neil C. Sturchio, Ritesh Sevanthi, Nubia Estrada, Maeghan Brundrett, Denis Lacelle, Christopher P. McKay, Armen Poghosyan, Wayne Pollard, Kris Zacny

A dynamic leaf gas-exchange strategy is conserved in woody plants under changing ambient CO2: evidence from carbon isotope discrimination in paleo and CO2 enrichment studies

Rising atmospheric [CO2], ca, is expected to affect stomatal regulation of leaf gas-exchange of woody plants, thus influencing energy fluxes as well as carbon (C), water, and nutrient cycling of forests. Researchers have proposed various strategies for stomatal regulation of leaf gas-exchange that include maintaining a constant leaf internal [CO2], ci, a constant drawdown in CO2(ca − ci), and a co
Authors
Steven L. Voelker, J. Renée Brooks, Frederick C. Meinzer, Rebecca Anderson, Martin K.-F. Bader, Giovanna Battipaglia, Katie M. Becklin, David Beerling, Didier Bert, Julio L. Betancourt, Todd E. Dawson, Jean-Christophe Domec, Richard P. Guyette, Christian Körner, Steven W. Leavitt, Sune Linder, John D. Marshall, Manuel Mildner, Jérôme Ogée, Irina P. Panyushkina, Heather J. Plumpton, Kurt S. Pregitzer, Matthias Saurer, Andrew R. Smith, Rolf T.W. Siegwolf, Michael C. Stambaugh, Alan F. Talhelm, Jacques C. Tardif, Peter K. Van De Water, Joy K. Ward, Lisa Wingate

A-DROP: A predictive model for the formation of oil particle aggregates (OPAs)

Oil–particle interactions play a major role in removal of free oil from the water column. We present a new conceptual–numerical model, A-DROP, to predict oil amount trapped in oil–particle aggregates. A new conceptual formulation of oil–particle coagulation efficiency is introduced to account for the effects of oil stabilization by particles, particle hydrophobicity, and oil–particle size ratio on
Authors
Lin Zhao, Michel C. Boufadel, Xiaolong Geng, Kenneth Lee, Thomas King, Brian H. Robinson, Faith A. Fitzpatrick

Acid rain and its environmental effects: Recent scientific advances

The term ‘acid rain’ refers to atmospheric deposition of acidic constituents that impact the earth as rain, snow, particulates, gases, and vapor. Acid rain was first recognized by Ducros (1845) and subsequently described by the English chemist Robert Angus Smith (Smith, 1852) whose pioneering studies linked the sources to industrial emissions and included early observations of deleterious environm
Authors
Douglas A. Burns, Julian Aherne, David A. Gay, Christopher M.B. Lehmann

Bounded fractional diffusion in geological media: Definition and Lagrangian approximation

Spatiotemporal Fractional-Derivative Models (FDMs) have been increasingly used to simulate non-Fickian diffusion, but methods have not been available to define boundary conditions for FDMs in bounded domains. This study defines boundary conditions and then develops a Lagrangian solver to approximate bounded, one-dimensional fractional diffusion. Both the zero-value and non-zero-value Dirichlet, Ne
Authors
Yong Zhang, Christopher T. Green, Eric M. LaBolle, Roseanna M. Neupauer, Hong-Guang Sun

Characterization of sediment and measurement of groundwater levels and temperatures, Camas National Wildlife Refuge, eastern Idaho

The Camas National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge) in eastern Idaho, established in 1937, contains wetlands, ponds, and wet meadows that are essential resting and feeding habitat for migratory birds and nesting habitat for waterfowl. Initially, natural sources of water supported these habitats. However, during the past few decades, climate change and changes in surrounding land use have altered and reduc
Authors
Brian V. Twining, Gordon W. Rattray