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: 18468
Groundwater/surface-water interactions in the Bad River Watershed, Wisconsin
A groundwater-flow model was developed for the Bad River Watershed and surrounding area by using the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) finite-difference code MODFLOW-NWT. The model simulates steady-state groundwater-flow and base flow in streams by using the streamflow routing (SFR) package. The objectives of this study were to: (1) develop an improved understanding of the groundwater-flow system in t
Authors
Andrew T. Leaf, Michael N. Fienen, Randall J. Hunt, Cheryl A. Buchwald
Geohydrology and water quality of the stratified-drift aquifers in Upper Buttermilk Creek and Danby Creek Valleys, Town of Danby, Tompkins County, New York
In 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Town of Danby and the Tompkins County Planning Department, began a study of the stratified-drift aquifers in the upper Buttermilk Creek and Danby Creek valleys in the Town of Danby, Tompkins County, New York. In the northern part of the north-draining upper Buttermilk Creek valley, there is only one sand and gravel aquifer, a confined ba
Authors
Todd S. Miller
NEXRAD quantitative precipitation estimates, data acquisition, and processing for the DuPage County, Illinois, streamflow-simulation modeling system
Next-Generation Radar (NEXRAD) has become an integral component in the estimation of precipitation (Kitzmiller and others, 2013). The high spatial and temporal resolution of NEXRAD has revolutionized the ability to estimate precipitation across vast regions, which is especially beneficial in areas without a dense rain-gage network. With the improved precipitation estimates, hydrologic models can p
Authors
Terry W. Ortel, Ryan R. Spies
Development of an Assessment Tool for Agricultural Best Management Practice Iimplementation in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Priority Watersheds—Alger Creek, Tributary to Saginaw River, Michigan
The Great Lakes face a number of serious challenges that cause damage to water quality, habitat, ecology, and coastal health. Excess nutrients from point and nonpoint sources have a history of causing harmful algal blooms (HABs); since the late 1990s, a resurgence of HABs have forced beach closures and resulted in water quality impairments across the Great Lakes. Studies increasingly point to phos
Authors
Katherine R. Merriman
Development of an Assessment Tool for Agricultural Best Management Practice Implementation in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Priority Watersheds—Eagle Creek, Tributary to Maumee River, Ohio
Introduction
The Great Lakes face a number of serious challenges that cause damage to water quality, habitat, ecology, and coastal health. Excess nutrients from point and nonpoint sources have a history of causing harmful algal blooms (HABs); since the late 1990s, a resurgence of HABs have forced beach closures and resulted in water quality impairments across the Great Lakes. Studies increasingly
Authors
Katherine R. Merriman
Development of an Assessment Tool for Agricultural Best Management Practice Implementation in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Priority Watersheds—Upper East River, Tributary to Green Bay, Wisconsin
Introduction
The Great Lakes face a number of serious challenges that cause damage to water quality, habitat, ecology, and coastal health. Excess nutrients from point and nonpoint sources have a history of causing harmful algal blooms (HABs); since the late 1990s, a resurgence of HABs have forced beach closures and resulted in water quality impairments across the Great Lakes. Studies increasingly
Authors
Katherine R. Merriman
Record-high specific conductance and temperature in San Francisco Bay during water year 2014
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has operated a water-quality monitoring network in San Francisco Bay since the late 1980s (Buchanan and others, 2015). This network includes 19 stations in the bay; currently, 8 stations are in operation (fig. 1). All eight stations are equipped with specific conductance (which can be related to salinity) and water-temperature sensors that record measurements at 1
Authors
Maureen A. Downing-Kunz, Paul Work, Gregory Shellenbarger
Web based visualization of large climate data sets
We have implemented the USGS National Climate Change Viewer (NCCV), which is an easy-to-use web application that displays future projections from global climate models over the United States at the state, county and watershed scales. We incorporate the NASA NEX-DCP30 statistically downscaled temperature and precipitation for 30 global climate models being used in the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5)
Authors
Jay R. Alder, Steven W. Hostetler
Anaerobic chemolithotrophic growth of the haloalkaliphilic bacterium strain MLMS‑1 by disproportionation of monothioarsenate
A novel chemolithotrophic metabolism based on a mixed arsenic−sulfur species has been discovered for the anaerobic deltaproteobacterium, strain MLMS-1, a haloalkaliphile isolated from Mono Lake, California, U.S. Strain MLMS‑1 is the first reported obligate arsenate-respiring chemoautotroph which grows by coupling arsenate reduction to arsenite with the oxidation of sulfide to sulfate. In that path
Authors
B. Planer-Friedrich, C. Hartig, R. Lohmayer, E. Suess, Shelley McCann, Ronald S. Oremland
Storage in California’s reservoirs and snowpack in this time of drought
The San Francisco Bay and Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta (Delta) are the recipients of inflows from a watershed that spans much of California and that has ties to nearly the entire state. Historically, California has buffered its water supplies and flood risks both within—and beyond—the Delta’s catchment by developing many reservoirs, large and small, high and low. Most of these reservoirs carry wat
Authors
Michael D. Dettinger, Michael L. Anderson
Water availability and land subsidence in the Central Valley, California, USA
The Central Valley in California (USA) covers about 52,000 km2 and is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. This agriculture relies heavily on surface-water diversions and groundwater pumpage to meet irrigation water demand. Because the valley is semi-arid and surface-water availability varies substantially, agriculture relies heavily on local groundwater. In the southern t
Authors
Claudia C. Faunt, Michelle Sneed, Jonathan A. Traum, Justin T. Brandt
Hydrothermal response to a volcano-tectonic earthquake swarm, Lassen, California
The increasing capability of seismic, geodetic, and hydrothermal observation networks allows recognition of volcanic unrest that could previously have gone undetected, creating an imperative to diagnose and interpret unrest episodes. A November 2014 earthquake swarm near Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, which included the largest earthquake in the area in more than 60 years, was accompan
Authors
Steven E. Ingebritsen, David R. Shelly, Paul A. Hsieh, Laura Clor, P.H. Seward, William C. Evans