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: 18418
Arizona Groundwater Explorer: Interactive maps for evaluating the historical and current groundwater conditions in wells in Arizona, USA
Groundwater is an important water source in Arizona, accounting for about 41% of water use in this mostly arid-to-semiarid state in the southwestern United States, and the availability of groundwater resources in the state is a concern. To provide accessible information from depth-to-groundwater data, a series of web-based interactive maps were developed, called the Arizona Groundwater Explorer (A
Authors
Fred D. Tillman, Marilyn E. Flynn
Conserved grasslands support similar pollinator diversity as pollinator-specific practice regardless of proximal cropland and pesticide exposure
Pollinator diversity and abundance are declining globally. Cropland agriculture and the corresponding use of agricultural pesticides may contribute to these declines, while increased pollinator habitat (flowering plants) can help mitigate them. Here we tested whether the relative effect of wildflower plantings on pollinator diversity and counts were modified by proportion of nearby agricultural la
Authors
Johanna M. Kraus, Kelly Smalling, Mark W. Vandever, Carrie E Givens, Cassandra Smith, Dana W. Kolpin, Michelle Hladik
Updates to the regional groundwater-flow model of the New Jersey Coastal Plain, 1980–2013
A 21-layer three-dimensional transient groundwater-flow model of the New Jersey Coastal Plain was developed and calibrated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to simulate groundwater-flow conditions during 1980–2013, incorporating average annual groundwater withdrawals and average annual groundwater recharge. This model is
Authors
Alison D. Gordon, Glen B. Carleton
Aquatic carbon export and dynamics in mountain headwater streams of the western U.S.
Mountain headwater streams actively cycle carbon, receiving it from terrestrial landscapes and exporting it through downstream transport and gas exchange with the atmosphere. Although their importance is now widely recognized, aquatic carbon fluxes in headwater streams remain poorly characterized. In this study, aquatic carbon fluxes were measured in 15 mountain headwater streams and were used in
Authors
David W. Clow, Garrett Alexander Akie, Robert G. Striegl, Colin Penn, Graham A. Sexstone, Gabrielle L. Keith
Assessment of post-wildfire geomorphic change in the North Fork Eagle Creek stream channel, New Mexico, 2017–21
The 2012 Little Bear Fire caused substantial vegetation loss in the Eagle Creek Basin of south-central New Mexico. This loss was expected to alter the localized hydrologic response to precipitation by creating conditions that amplify surface runoff, which might alter the geomorphology of North Fork Eagle Creek, a major tributary to Eagle Creek. To monitor short-term geomorphic change, annual geomo
Authors
Justin R. Nichols, Shaleene B. Chavarria, Alexander P. Graziano
Determination and prediction of micro scale rare earth element geochemical associations in mine drainage treatment wastes
Acid mine drainage (AMD) has been proposed as a novel source of rare earth elements (REE), a group of elements that includes critical metals for clean energy and modern technologies. REE are sequestered in the Fe–Al–Mn-rich precipitates produced during the treatment of AMD. These AMD solids are typically managed as waste but could be a REE source. Here, results from AMD solids characterization and
Authors
Benjamin C. Hedin, Mengling Y. Stuckman, Charles A. Cravotta, Christina L. Lopano, Rosemary C. Capo
Recharge estimation approach in a data-scarce semi-arid region, Northern Ethiopian Rift Valley
Sustainable management of groundwater resources highly relies on the accurate estimation of recharge. However, accurate recharge estimation is a challenge, especially in data-scarce regions, as the existing models are data-intensive and require extensive parameterization. This study developed a process-based hydrologic model combining local and remotely sensed data for characterizing recharge in d
Authors
Sisay Simachew Mekonen, Scott E. Boyce, Abdella K. Mohammed, Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L Flint, Markus Disse
Characterizing performance of freshwater wetland methane models across time scales at FLUXNET-CH4 sites using wavelet analyses
Process-based land surface models are important tools for estimating global wetland methane (CH4) emissions and projecting their behavior across space and time. So far there are no performance assessments of model responses to drivers at multiple time scales. In this study, we apply wavelet analysis to identify the dominant time scales contributing to model uncertainty in the frequency domain. We
Authors
Zhen Zhang, Sheel Bansal, Kuang-Yu Chang, Etienne Fluet-Chouinard, Kyle B. Delwiche, Mathias Goeckede, Adrian Gustafson, Sara Knox, Antii Leppanen, Licheng Liu, Jinxun Liu, Avni Malhotra, Tiina Markkanen, Gavin McNicol, Joe R. Melton, Paul A Miller, Changhui Peng, Maarit Raivonen, William Riley, Oliver Sonnentag, Tuula Aalto, Rodrigo Vargas, Wenxin Zhang, Qing Zhu, Qiuan Zhu, Qianlai Zhuang, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Robert B. Jackson, Benjamin Poulter
Predicting daily river chlorophyll concentrations at a continental scale
Eutrophication is one of the largest threats to aquatic ecosystems and chlorophyll a measurements are relevant indicators of trophic state and algal abundance. Many studies have modeled chlorophyll a in rivers but model development and testing has largely occurred at individual sites which hampers creating generalized models capable of making broad-scale predictions. To address this gap, we compil
Authors
Philip Savoy, Judson Harvey
Development of the North Carolina stormwater-treatment decision-support system by using the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM)
The Federal Highway Administration and State departments of transportation nationwide need an efficient method to assess potential adverse effects of highway stormwater runoff on receiving waters to optimize stormwater-treatment decisions. To this end, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration and the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), dev
Authors
Gregory E. Granato, Charles C. Stillwell, J. Curtis Weaver, Andrew H. McDaniel, Brian S. Lipscomb, Susan C. Jones, Ryan M. Mullins
Thirty years of regional groundwater-quality trend studies in the United States: Major findings and lessons learned
Changes in groundwater quality have been evaluated for more than 2,200 wells in 25 Principal Aquifers in the United States based on repeated decadal sampling (once every 10 years) from 1988 to 2021. The purpose of this study is to identify contaminants with changing concentrations, the locations and magnitude of those changes, the factors driving those changes, the obstacles to interpreting the ch
Authors
Bruce D. Lindsey, Brandon J. Fleming, Phillip J. Goodling, Amanda Nicole May
Growth of coal mining operations in the Elk River Valley (Canada) linked to increasing solute transport of Se, NO3-, and SO42- into the transboundary Koocanusa Reservoir (USA-Canada)
Koocanusa Reservoir (KOC) is a waterbody that spans the United States (U.S.) and Canadian border. Increasing concentrations of total selenium (Se), nitrate + nitrite (NO3–, nitrite is insignificant or not present), and sulfate (SO42–) in KOC and downstream in the Kootenai River (Kootenay River in Canada) are tied to expanding coal mining operations in the Elk River Watershed, Canada. Using a paire
Authors
Meryl Biesiot Storb, Ashley Morgan Bussell, Sara L. Caldwell Eldridge, Robert M. Hirsch, Travis S. Schmidt