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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

StreamStats for South Carolina: A multipurpose water-resources web application

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed the South Carolina StreamStats application in cooperation with the South Carolina Department of Transportation. StreamStats (https://water.usgs.gov/osw/streamstats/) is a map-based web application that provides analytical tools useful for water-resources planning and management and many engineering purposes. The web application delineates drainage areas
Authors
Toby D. Feaster, Jimmy M. Clark, Katharine R. Kolb

Effect of sample holding time on bioaccessibility and sediment ecotoxicological assessments

The ecotoxicological effects of hydrophobic organic compound (HOC) contamination in sediment are often assessed using laboratory exposures of cultured invertebrates to field-collected sediment. The use of a sediment holding time (storage at 4°C) between field sampling and the beginning of the bioassay is common practice, yet the effect of holding time on the reliability of bioassay results is larg
Authors
Kara S Huff Hartz, Federico L. Sinche, Samuel A. Nutile, Courtney Y. Fung, Patrick W. Moran, Peter C. Van Metre, Lisa H. Nowell, Marc A. Mills, Michael J Lydy

Geologic, hydrologic, and water-quality data from multiple-well monitoring sites in the Bunker Hill and Yucaipa Groundwater Subbasins, San Bernardino County, California, 1974–2016

In 1974, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, initiated a study to assess the regional groundwater resources in the Bunker Hill Subbasin of the Upper Santa Ana Valley Groundwater Basin in San Bernardino County, California. The study area expanded east into the Yucaipa Subbasin in 1996. This report compiles the geologic (borehole
Authors
Gregory O. Mendez, Robert Anders, Kelly R. McPherson, Wesley R. Danskin

River network saturation concept: factors influencing the balance of biogeochemical supply and demand of river networks

River networks modify material transfer from land to ocean. Understanding the factors regulating this function for different gaseous, dissolved, and particulate constituents is critical to quantify the local and global effects of climate and land use change. We propose the River Network Saturation (RNS) concept as a generalization of how river network regulation of material fluxes declines with in
Authors
W.M. Wollheim, S. Bernal, Douglas A. Burns, J.A. Czuba, C.T. Driscoll, A.T. Hansen, R.T. Hensley, J.D. Hosen, Shreeram Inamdar, S.S. Kaushall, L. E. Koenig, Y. H. Lu, A. Marzadri, P. A. Raymond, D. Scott, R.J. Stewart, P.G. Vidon, E. Wohl

Watershed ‘chemical cocktails’: forming novel elemental combinations in Anthropocene fresh waters

In the Anthropocene, watershed chemical transport is increasingly dominated by novel combinations of elements, which are hydrologically linked together as ‘chemical cocktails.’ Chemical cocktails are novel because human activities greatly enhance elemental concentrations and their probability for biogeochemical interactions and shared transport along hydrologic flowpaths. A new chemical cocktail a
Authors
Sujay S. Kaushal, Arthur J. Gold, Susana Bernal, Tammy A. Newcomer Johnson, Kelly Addy, Amy Burgin, Douglas A. Burns, Ashley A. Coble, Eran W. Hood, Yuehan Lu, Paul Mayer, Elizabeth C. Minor, Andrew W. Schroth, Philippe Vidon, Henry F. Wilson, Marguerite A. Xenopolous, Thomas Doody, Joseph G. Galella, Phillip Goodling, Katherine Haviland, Shahan Haq, Barret Wessel, Kelsey L. Wood, Norbert Jaworski, Kenneth T. Belt

Systematic variation in evapotranspiration trends and drivers across the Northeastern United States

The direction and magnitude of responses of evapotranspiration (ET) to climate change are important to understand, as ET represents a major water and energy flux from terrestrial ecosystems, with consequences that feed back to the climate system. We inferred multidecadal trends in water balance in 11 river basins (1940–2012) and eight smaller watersheds (with records ranging from 18 to 61 years in
Authors
Matthew A Vadeboncoeur, Mark B. Green, Heidi Asbjornsen, John L. Campbell, Mary Beth Adams, Elizabeth W. Boyer, Douglas A. Burns, Ivan J Fernandez, Myron J Mitchell, James B. Shanley

Understanding the captivity effect on invertebrate communities transplanted into an experimental stream laboratory

Little is known about how design and testing methodologies affect the macroinvertebrate communities that are held captive in mesocosms. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a 32‐d test to determine how seeded invertebrate communities changed once removed from the natural stream and introduced to the laboratory. We evaluated larvae survival and adult emergence in controls from 4 subsequent s
Authors
Travis S. Schmidt, Holly Rogers, Janet L. Miller, Christopher A. Mebane, Laurie S. Balistrieri

Concentrations of nutrients at the water table beneath forage fields receiving seasonal applications of manure, Whatcom County, Washington, autumn 2011–spring 2015

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Whatcom Conservation District (WCD), collected groundwater-quality data for roughly 3 years (October 2011–May 2015) from near the water table beneath forage fields receiving regular seasonal applications of liquid dairy manure in Whatcom County, Washington. The work was done as part of an evaluation of WCD’s prototypical Application Risk Manageme
Authors
Stephen E. Cox, Andrew R. Spanjer, Raegan L. Huffman, Robert W. Black, Jack E. Barbash, Nichole M. Embertson

Decreased atmospheric nitrogen deposition in eastern North America: Predicted responses of forest ecosystems

Historical increases in emissions and atmospheric deposition of oxidized and reduced nitrogen (N) provided the impetus for extensive, global-scale research investigating the effects of excess N in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, with several regions within the Eastern Deciduous Forest of the United States found to be susceptible to negative effects of excess N. The Clean Air Act and associated
Authors
Frank S. Gilliam, Douglas A. Burns, Charles T. Driscoll, Serita D. Frey, Gary M. Lovett, Shaun A. Watmough

Satellite remote sensing estimation of river discharge: Application to the Yukon River Alaska

A methodology based on general hydraulic relations for rivers has been developed to estimate the discharge (flow rate) of rivers using satellite remote sensing observations. The estimates of discharge, flow depth, and flow velocity are derived from remotely observed water surface area, water surface slope, and water surface height, and demonstrated for two reaches of the Yukon River in Alaska, at
Authors
David M. Bjerklie, Charon M. Birkett, John Jones, Claudia C. Carabajal, Jennifer Rover, John Fulton, Pierre-Andre Garambois

Preliminary peak stage and streamflow data for selected U.S. Geological Survey streamgaging stations in North and South Carolina for flooding following Hurricane Florence, September 2018

Hurricane Florence made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, shortly after dawn on September 14, 2018. Once over land, the forward motion of the hurricane slowed to about 2 to 3 miles per hour. Over the next several days, the hurricane delivered historic amounts of rainfall across North and South Carolina, causing substantial flooding in many communities across
Authors
Toby D. Feaster, J. Curtis Weaver, Anthony J. Gotvald, Katharine R. Kolb

Geomorphic characteristics of Tenmile Creek, Montgomery County, Maryland, 2014–16

Data collected from April 2014 through September 2016 were used to assess geomorphic characteristics and geomorphic changes over time in a selected reach of Tenmile Creek, a small rural watershed near Clarksburg, Maryland. Longitudinal profiles of the channel bed, water surface, and bank features were developed from field surveys. Changes in cross-section geometry between field surveys were docume
Authors
Edward J. Doheny, S. Matthew Baker