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
smwrData—An R package of example hydrologic data, version 1.1.1
A collection of 24 datasets, including streamflow, well characteristics, groundwater elevations, and discrete water-quality concentrations, is provided to produce a consistent set of example data to demonstrate typical data manipulations or statistical analysis of hydrologic data. These example data are provided in an R package called smwrData. The data in the package have been collected by the U.
Authors
David L. Lorenz
From extreme pH to extreme temperature: An issue in honor of the geochemical contributions of Kirk Nordstrom, USGS hydrogeochemist
This special issue of Applied Geochemistry honors Dr. D. Kirk Nordstrom, and his influential career spent primarily at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This issue does not herald his retirement or other significant career milestone, but serves as a recognition of the impact his work has had on the field of geochemistry in general. This special issue grew from a symposium in Kirk’s honor (affecti
Authors
Kate M. Campbell, Philip L. Verplanck, R. Blaine McCleskey, Charles N. Alpers
Hydrogeology and sources of water to select springs in Black Canyon, south of Hoover Dam, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada and Arizona
Springs in Black Canyon of the Colorado River, directly south of Hoover Dam in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada and Arizona, are important hydrologic features that support a unique riparian ecosystem including habitat for endangered species. Rapid population growth in areas near and surrounding Black Canyon has caused concern among resource managers that such growth could affect the
Authors
Michael J. Moran, Jon W. Wilson, L. Sue Beard
Climate and streamflow characteristics for selected streamgages in eastern South Dakota, water years 1945–2013
Upward trends in precipitation and streamflow have been observed in the northeastern Missouri River Basin during the past century, including the area of eastern South Dakota. Some of the identified upward trends were anomalously large relative to surrounding parts of the northern Great Plains. Forcing factors for streamflow trends in eastern South Dakota are not well understood, and it is not know
Authors
Galen K. Hoogestraat, John F. Stamm
Widespread occurrence of (per)chlorate in the Solar System
Perchlorate (ClO− 4 ) and chlorate (ClO− 3 ) are ubiquitous on Earth and ClO− 4 has also been found on Mars. These species can play important roles in geochemical processes such as oxidation of organic matter and as biological electron acceptors, and are also indicators of important photochemical reactions involving oxyanions; on Mars they could be relevant for human habitability both in terms of
Authors
W. Andrew Jackson, Alfonso F Davila, Derek W. G. Sears, John D. Coates, Christopher P. McKay, Meaghan Brundrett, Nubia Estrada, John K. Böhlke
Interpretation of hydraulic conductivity in a fractured-rock aquifer over increasingly larger length dimensions
A comparison of the hydraulic conductivity over increasingly larger volumes of crystalline rock was conducted in the Piedmont physiographic region near Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Fluid-injection tests were conducted on intervals of boreholes isolating closely spaced fractures. Single-hole tests were conducted by pumping in open boreholes for approximately 30 min, and an interference test was conduct
Authors
Allen M. Shapiro, Jeffery Ladderud, Richard M. Yager
Trends and natural variability of North American spring onset as evaluated by a new gridded dataset of spring indices
Climate change is expected to modify the timing of seasonal transitions this century, impacting wildlife migrations, ecosystem function, and agricultural activity. Tracking seasonal transitions in a consistent manner across space and through time requires indices that can be used for monitoring and managing biophysical and ecological systems during the coming decades. Here a new gridded dataset of
Authors
Toby R. Ault, Mark D. Schwartz, Raul Zurita-Milla, Jake F. Weltzin, Julio L. Betancourt
LIMS for Lasers 2015 for achieving long-term accuracy and precision of δ2H, δ17O, and δ18O of waters using laser absorption spectrometry
RationaleAlthough laser absorption spectrometry (LAS) instrumentation is easy to use, its incorporation into laboratory operations is not easy, owing to extensive offline manipulation of comma-separated-values files for outlier detection, between-sample memory correction, nonlinearity (δ-variation with water amount) correction, drift correction, normalization to VSMOW-SLAP scales, and difficulty i
Authors
Tyler B. Coplen, Leonard I Wassenaar
A bootstrap method for estimating uncertainty of water quality trends
Estimation of the direction and magnitude of trends in surface water quality remains a problem of great scientific and practical interest. The Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS) method was recently introduced as an exploratory data analysis tool to provide flexible and robust estimates of water quality trends. This paper enhances the WRTDS method through the introduction o
Authors
Robert M. Hirsch, Stacey A. Archfield, Laura A. DeCicco
In Response: Biological arguments for selecting effect sizes in ecotoxicological testing—A governmental perspective
Criticisms of the uses of the no-observed-effect concentration (NOEC) and the lowest-observed-effect concentration (LOEC) and more generally the entire null hypothesis statistical testing scheme are hardly new or unique to the field of ecotoxicology [1-4]. Among the criticisms of NOECs and LOECs is that statistically similar LOECs (in terms of p value) can represent drastically different levels of
Authors
Christopher A. Mebane
Nutrient-enhanced decomposition of plant biomass in a freshwater wetland
We studied soil decomposition in a Panicum hemitomon (Schultes)-dominated freshwater marsh located in southeastern Louisiana that was unambiguously changed by secondarily-treated municipal wastewater effluent. We used four approaches to evaluate how belowground biomass decomposition rates vary under different nutrient regimes in this marsh. The results of laboratory experiments demonstrated how nu
Authors
James E. Bodker, Robert Eugene Turner, Andrew Tweel, Christopher Schulz, Christopher M. Swarzenski