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: 18422
A machine learning approach to modeling streamflow with sparse data in ungaged watersheds on the Wyoming Range, Wyoming, 2012–17
Scant availability of streamflow data can impede the utility of streamflow as a variable in ecological models of aquatic and terrestrial species, especially when studying small streams in watersheds that lack streamgages. Streamflow data at fine resolution and broad extent were needed by collaborators for ecological research on small streams in several ungaged watersheds of southwestern Wyoming, w
Authors
Ryan R. McShane, Cheryl A. Eddy-Miller
Post-fire temporal trends in soil-physical and -hydraulic properties and simulated runoff generation: Insights from different burn severities in the 2013 Black Forest Fire, CO, USA
Burn severity influences on post-fire recovery of soil-hydraulic properties controlling runoff generation are poorly understood despite the importance for parameterizing infiltration models. We measured soil-hydraulic properties of field-saturated hydraulic conductivity (Kfs), sorptivity (S), and wetting front potential (ψf) for four years after the 2013 Black Forest Fire, Colorado, USA at six sit
Authors
Brian A. Ebel, John A. Moody, Deborah A. Martin
Machine learning predictions of mean ages of shallow well samples in the Great Lakes Basin, USA
The travel time or “age” of groundwater affects catchment responses to hydrologic changes, geochemical reactions, and time lags between management actions and responses at down-gradient streams and wells. Use of atmospheric tracers has facilitated the characterization of groundwater ages, but most wells lack such measurements. This study applied machine learning to predict ages in wells across a l
Authors
Christopher Green, Katherine Marie Ransom, Bernard T. Nolan, Lixia Liao, Thomas Harter
Simulated effects of sea-level rise on the shallow, fresh groundwater system of Assateague Island, Maryland and Virginia
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service, developed a three-dimensional groundwater-flow model for Assateague Island in eastern Maryland and Virginia to assess the effects of sea-level rise on the groundwater system. Sea-level rise is expected to increase the altitude of the water table in barrier island aquifer systems, possibly leading to adverse effects to ecosy
Authors
Brandon J. Fleming, Jeff P. Raffensperger, Phillip J. Goodling, John P. Masterson
Precipitation-runoff processes in the Merced River Basin, Central California, with prospects for streamflow predictability, water years 1952–2013
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), has constructed a new spatially detailed Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) model for the Merced River Basin, California, which is a tributary of the San Joaquin River in California. Operated through an Object User Interface (OUI) with Ensemble Streamflow Prediction (ESP) and daily climate
Authors
Kathryn M. Koczot, John C. Risley, JoAnn M. Gronberg, John M. Donovan, Kelly R. McPherson
Occurrence, fate, and transport of aerially applied herbicides to control invasive buffelgrass within Saguaro National Park Rincon Mountain District, Arizona, 2015–18
The spread of the invasive and fire-adapted buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris L.) threatens desert ecosystems by competing for resources, increasing fuel loads, and creating wildfire connectivity. The Rincon Mountain District of Saguaro National Park addressed this natural resource threat with the use of glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs). In 2010, the Rincon Mountain District initiated an aerial res
Authors
Nicholas V. Paretti, Kimberly R. Beisner, Bruce Gungle, Michael T. Meyer, Bethany K. Kunz, Edyth Hermosillo, Jay R. Cederberg, Justine P. Mayo
Aquatic-terrestrial linkages control metabolism and carbon dynamics in a mid-sized, urban stream influenced by snowmelt
Freshwater streams can exchange nutrients and carbon with the surrounding terrestrial environment through various mechanisms including physical erosion, flooding, leaf drop, and snowmelt. These aquatic-terrestrial interactions are crucial in carbon mobilization, transformation, ecosystem productivity, and have important implications for the role of freshwater ecosystems in the global carbon budget
Authors
Ariel P. Reed, Edward G. Stets, Sheila F. Murphy, Emily Mullins
Critical aquifer overdraft accelerates degradation of groundwater quality in California’s Central Valley during drought
Drought-induced pumpage has precipitated dramatic groundwater-level declines in California’s Central Valley over the past 30 years, but the impacts of aquifer overdraft on water quality are poorly understood. This study coupled over 160,000 measurements of nitrate from ∼6,000 public-supply wells with a 30-year reconstruction of groundwater levels throughout the Central Valley to evaluate dynamic r
Authors
Zeno Levy, Bryant Jurgens, Karen R. Burow, Stefan Voss, Kirsten Faulkner, Jose Alfredo Arroyo-Lopez, Miranda S. Fram
Using regional watershed data to assess water-quality impairment in the Pacific Drainages of the United States
Two datasets containing the first complete estimates of reach-scale nutrient, water use, dissolved oxygen, and pH conditions for the Pacific drainages of the United States were created to help inform water-quality management decisions in that region. The datasets were developed using easily obtainable watershed data, most of which have not been available until recently, and the techniques that wer
Authors
Daniel R. Wise
Comparison of passive and pumped sampling methods for analysis of groundwater quality, Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2019
A plume of ethylene dibromide (EDB) dissolved in groundwater extends northeast from the Bulk Fuels Facility on Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. The leading edge of the EDB plume is upgradient from several water-supply wells. In 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority and the U.S. Air Force, installed four sentinel w
Authors
Rebecca E. Travis, Kate Wilkins
Electrical signatures of dual domain mass transfer observed in rock cores
No abstract available.
Authors
S. Falzone, B. B. Parker, Frederick Day-Lewis, L. Slater
Phytoplankton and cyanobacteria abundances in mid-21st century lakes depend strongly on future land use and climate projections
Land use and climate change are anticipated to affect phytoplankton of lakes worldwide. The effects will depend on the magnitude of projected land use and climate changes and lake sensitivity to these factors. We used random forests fit with long-term (1971–2016) phytoplankton and cyanobacteria abundance time series, climate observations (1971–2016), and upstream catchment land use (global Clumond
Authors
Karan Kakouei, B.M. Kraemer, O. Anneville, L. Carvalho, H. Feuchtmayr, Jennifer L. Graham, S. Higgins, F. Pomati, L.G. Rudstam, J.D. Stockwell, S.J. Thackeray, M. Vanni, R. Adrian