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: 18470
Preface
Arsenic is perhaps history’s favorite poison, often termed the “King of Poisons” and the “Poison of Kings” and thought to be the demise of fiction’s most famous ill-fated lovers. The toxic nature of arsenic has been known for millennia with the mineral realgar (AsS), originally named “arsenikon” by Theophrastus in 300 B.C.E. meaning literally “potent.” For centuries it has been used as rat poison
Authors
Robert J. Bowell, Charles N. Alpers, Heather E. Jamieson, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Juraj Majzlan
The environmental geochemistry of Arsenic – An overview
Arsenic is one of the most prevalent toxic elements in the environment. The toxicity, mobility, and fate of arsenic in the environment are determined by a complex series of controls dependent on mineralogy, chemical speciation, and biological processes. The element was first described by Theophrastus in 300 B.C. and named arsenikon (also arrhenicon; Caley and Richards 1956) referring to its “poten
Authors
Robert J. Bowell, Charles N. Alpers, Heather E. Jamieson, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Juraj Majzlan
ARkStorm@Tahoe: Stakeholder perspectives on vulnerabilities and preparedness for an extreme storm event in the greater Lake Tahoe, Reno, and Carson City region
Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are strongly linked to extreme winter precipitation events in the Western U.S., accounting for 80 percent of extreme floods in the Sierra Nevada and surrounding lowlands. In 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey developed the ARkStorm extreme storm scenario for California to quantify risks from extreme winter storms and to allow stakeholders to better explore and mitigate poten
Authors
Christine M. Albano, Dale A. Cox, Michael D. Dettinger, Kevin Shaller, Toby L. Welborn, Maureen McCarthy
Stream water temperature limits occupancy of salamanders in mid-Atlantic protected areas
Stream ecosystems are particularly sensitive to urbanization, and tolerance of water-quality parameters is likely important to population persistence of stream salamanders. Forecasted climate and landscape changes may lead to significant changes in stream flow, chemical composition, and temperatures in coming decades. Protected areas where landscape alterations are minimized will therefore become
Authors
Evan H. Campbell Grant, Amber N. M. Wiewel, Karen C. Rice
A hydrogeomorphic river network model predicts where and why hyporheic exchange is important in large basins
Hyporheic exchange has been hypothesized to have basin-scale consequences; however, predictions throughout river networks are limited by available geomorphic and hydrogeologic data and by models that can analyze and aggregate hyporheic exchange flows across large spatial scales. We developed a parsimonious but physically based model of hyporheic flow for application in large river basins: Networks
Authors
Jesus D. Gomez-Velez, Judson Harvey
Correlations in distribution and concentration of calcium, copper and iron with zinc in isolated extracellular deposits associated with age-related macular degeneration
Zinc (Zn) is abundantly enriched in sub-retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) deposits, the hallmarks of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and is thought to play a role in the formation of these deposits. However, it is not known whether Zn is the only metal relevant for sub-RPE deposit formation. Because of their involvement in the pathogenesis of AMD, we determined the concentration and distrib
Authors
Jane M Flinn, Peter Kakalec, Ryan Tappero, Blair F. Jones, Imre Lengyel
USGS48 Puerto Rico precipitation - A new isotopic reference material for δ2H and δ18O measurements of water
A new secondary isotopic reference material has been prepared from Puerto Rico precipitation, which was filtered, homogenised, loaded into glass ampoules, sealed with a torch, autoclaved to eliminate biological activity, and calibrated by dual-inlet isotope-ratio mass spectrometry. This isotopic reference material, designated as USGS48, is intended to be one of two isotopic reference waters for da
Authors
Haiping Qi, Tyler B. Coplen, Lauren V. Tarbox, Jennifer M. Lorenz, Martha A. Scholl
The curved 14C vs. δ13C relationship in dissolved inorganic carbon: A useful tool for groundwater age- and geochemical interpretations
Determination of the 14C content of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) is useful for dating of groundwater. However, in addition to radioactive decay, the 14C content in DIC (14CDIC) can be affected by many geochemical and physical processes and numerous models have been proposed to refine radiocarbon ages of DIC in groundwater systems. Changes in the δ13C content of DIC (δ13CDIC) often can be used
Authors
Liang-Feng Han, Niel Plummer, Pradeep Aggarwal
Resolving terrestrial ecosystem processes along a subgrid topographic gradient for an earth-system model
Soil moisture is a crucial control on surface water and energy fluxes, vegetation, and soil carbon cycling. Earth-system models (ESMs) generally represent an areal-average soil-moisture state in gridcells at scales of 50–200 km and as a result are not able to capture the nonlinear effects of topographically-controlled subgrid heterogeneity in soil moisture, in particular where wetlands are present
Authors
Z M Subin, Paul C.D. Milly, B N Sulman, Sergey Malyshev, E Shevliakova
Water quality monitoring protocol for wadeable streams and rivers in the Northern Great Plains Network
Preserving the national parks unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations is a fundamental purpose of the National Park Service (NPS). To address growing concerns regarding the overall physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes of park ecosystems, the NPS implemented science-based management through “Vital Signs” monitoring in 270 national parks (NPS 2007). The Northern Great
Authors
Marcia H. Wilson, Barbara L. Rowe, Robert A. Gitzen, Stephen K. Wilson, Kara J. Paintner-Green
USGS reservoir and lake gage network: Elevation and volumetric contents data, and their uses
In December of 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) marked the 125th anniversary of the installation of its first official water level and streamflow gage, on the Rio Grande at Embudo, New Mexico. The gage was installed because it was recognized that water data were important to expanding irrigation needs. The USGS is a federal agency that provides nationally consistent and unbiased surface-wat
Authors
Anita C. Kroska
Potentiometric surface and water-level difference maps of selected confined aquifers in Southern Maryland and Maryland’s Eastern Shore, 1975-2013
Groundwater is the principal source of freshwater supply in most of Southern Maryland and Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It is also the source of freshwater supply used in the operation of the Calvert Cliffs, Chalk Point, and Morgantown power plants. Increased groundwater withdrawals over the last several decades have caused groundwater levels to decline. This report presents potentiometric-surface map
Authors
Andrew W. Staley, David C. Andreasen, Stephen E. Curtin