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
Rice methylmercury exposure and mitigation: a comprehensive review
Rice cultivation practices from field preparation to post-harvest transform rice paddies into hot spots for microbial mercury methylation, converting less-toxic inorganic mercury to more-toxic methylmercury, which is likely translocated to rice grain. This review includes 51 studies reporting rice total mercury and/or methylmercury concentrations, based on rice (Orzya sativa) cultivated or purchas
Authors
Sarah E. Rothenberg, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Joel E. Creswell
Analytical solutions for benchmarking cold regions subsurface water flow and energy transport models: one-dimensional soil thaw with conduction and advection
Numerous cold regions water flow and energy transport models have emerged in recent years. Dissimilarities often exist in their mathematical formulations and/or numerical solution techniques, but few analytical solutions exist for benchmarking flow and energy transport models that include pore water phase change. This paper presents a detailed derivation of the Lunardini solution, an approximate a
Authors
Barret L. Kurylyk, Jeffrey M McKenzie, Kerry T. B. MacQuarrie, Clifford I. Voss
A mass balance approach to investigating geochemical controls on secondary water quality impacts at a crude oil spill site near Bemidji, MN
Secondary water quality impacts can result from a broad range of coupled reactions triggered by primary groundwater contaminants. Data from a crude-oil spill research site near Bemidji, MN provide an ideal test case for investigating the complex interactions controlling secondary impacts, including depleted dissolved oxygen and elevated organic carbon, inorganic carbon, CH4, Mn, Fe, and other diss
Authors
Gene-Hua Crystal Ng, Barbara A. Bekins, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Mary Jo Baedecker, Philip C. Bennett, Richard T. Amos
Integrated assessment of runoff from livestock farming operations: analytical chemistry, in vitro bioassays, and in vivo fish exposures
Animal waste from livestock farming operations can contain varying levels of natural and synthetic androgens and/or estrogens, which can contaminate surrounding waterways. In the present study, surface stream water was collected from 6 basins containing livestock farming operations. Aqueous concentrations of 12 hormones were determined via chemical analyses. Relative androgenic and estrogenic acti
Authors
Jenna E. Cavallin, Elizabeth J. Durhan, Nicola Evans, Kathleen M. Jensen, Michael D. Kahl, Dana W. Kolpin, Edward P. Kolodziej, William T. Foreman, Carlie A. LaLone, Elizabeth A. Makynen, Sara M. Seidl, Linnea M. Thomas, Daniel L. Villeneuve, Matthew A. Weberg, Vickie S. Wilson, Gerald T. Ankley
Synthesis of studies in the fall low-salinity zone of the San Francisco Estuary, September-December 2011
In fall 2011, a large-scale investigation (fall low-salinity habitat investigation) was implemented by the Bureau of Reclamation in cooperation with the Interagency Ecological Program to explore hypotheses about the ecological role of low-salinity habitat in the San Francisco Estuary—specifically, hypotheses about the importance of fall low-salinity habitat to the biology of delta smelt Hypomesus
Authors
Larry R. Brown, Randall Baxter, Gonzalo Castillo, Louise Conrad, Steven Culberson, Gregg Erickson, Frederick Feyrer, Stephanie Fong, Karen Gehrts, Lenny Grimaldo, Bruce Herbold, Joseph Kirsch, Anke Mueller-Solger, Steven B. Slater, Ted Sommer, Kelly Souza, Erwin Van Nieuwenhuyse
Effects of hydrologic modifications on salinity and formation of hypoxia in the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet and adjacent waterways, southeastern Louisiana, 2008 to 2012
The Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MRGO) was constructed between 1958 and 1968 to provide a safer and shorter route between the Gulf of Mexico and the Port of New Orleans for ocean-going vessels. In 2006, the U.S. Congress directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to develop and implement a plan to deauthorize a portion of the MRGO ship channel from its confluence with the Gulf Intracoasta
Authors
Christopher M. Swarzenski, Scott V. Mize
Precipitation isotopes link regional climate patterns to water supply in a tropical mountain forest, eastern Puerto Rico
Like many mountainous areas in the tropics, watersheds in the Luquillo Mountains of eastern Puerto Rico have abundant rainfall and stream discharge and provide much of the water supply for the densely populated metropolitan areas nearby. Projected changes in regional temperature and atmospheric dynamics as a result of global warming suggest that water availability will be affected by changes in ra
Authors
Martha A. Scholl, Sheila F. Murphy
Identifying dominant controls on hydrologic parameter transfer from gauged to ungauged catchments: a comparative hydrology approach
Daily streamflow information is critical for solving various hydrologic problems, though observations of continuous streamflow for model calibration are available at only a small fraction of the world’s rivers. One approach to estimate daily streamflow at an ungauged location is to transfer rainfall–runoff model parameters calibrated at a gauged (donor) catchment to an ungauged (receiver) catchmen
Authors
R. Singh, S.A. Archfield, T. Wagener
Identification of Mn(II)-oxidizing bacteria from a low-pH contaminated former uranium mine
Biological Mn oxidation is responsible for producing highly reactive and abundant Mn oxide phases in the environment that can mitigate metal contamination. However, little is known about Mn oxidation in low-pH environments, where metal contamination often is a problem as the result of mining activities. We isolated two Mn(II)-oxidizing bacteria (MOB) at pH 5.5 (Duganella isolate AB_14 and Albidife
Authors
Denise M. Akob, Tsing Bohu, Andrea Beyer, Franziska Schäffner, Matthias Händel, Carol A. Johnson, Dirk Merten, Georg Büchel, Kai Uwe Totsche, Kirsten Küsel
Occurrence and transport of nitrogen in the Big Sunflower River, northwestern Mississippi, October 2009-June 2011
The Big Sunflower River Basin, located within the Yazoo River Basin, is subject to large annual inputs of nitrogen from agriculture, atmospheric deposition, and point sources. Understanding how nutrients are transported in, and downstream from, the Big Sunflower River is key to quantifying their eutrophying effects on the Gulf. Recent results from two Spatially Referenced Regressions on Watershed
Authors
Jeannie R.B. Barlow, Richard H. Coupe
Annual agricultural pesticide use for Midwest Stream-Quality Assessment, 2012-13
This report provides estimates of annual agricultural use of 190 pesticide compounds for counties and selected watersheds of Midwestern States for 2012 and 2013 compiled for subsequent analysis by the National Water-Quality Assessment Program, Midwest Stream-Quality Assessment (MSQA). One of the goals of MSQA is to characterize contaminants at perennial-stream sites throughout the Corn Belt. Evalu
Authors
Nancy T. Baker, Wesley W. Stone
Estimation of methane concentrations and loads in groundwater discharge to Sugar Run, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania
A stream-sampling study was conducted to estimate methane concentrations and loads in groundwater discharge to a small stream in an active shale-gas development area of northeastern Pennsylvania. Grab samples collected from 15 streams in Bradford, Lycoming, Susquehanna, and Tioga Counties, Pa., during a reconnaissance survey in May and June 2013 contained dissolved methane concentrations ranging f
Authors
Victor M. Heilweil, Dennis W. Risser, Randall W. Conger, Paul L. Grieve, Scott A. Hynek