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: 18960
Distribution and characterization of in-channel large wood in relation to geomorphic patterns on a low-gradient river
A 177 river km georeferenced aerial survey of in-channel large wood (LW) on the lower Roanoke River, NC was conducted to determine LW dynamics and distributions on an eastern USA low-gradient large river. Results indicate a system with approximately 75% of the LW available for transport either as detached individual LW or as LW in log jams. There were approximately 55 individual LW per...
Authors
Bertrand Moulin, Edward R. Schenk, Cliff R. Hupp
A 50-year record of NOx and SO2 sources in precipitation in the Northern Rocky Mountains, USA
Ice-core samples from Upper Fremont Glacier (UFG), Wyoming, were used as proxy records for the chemical composition of atmospheric deposition. Results of analysis of the ice-core samples for stable isotopes of nitrogen (δ15N, ) and sulfur (δ34S, ), as well as and deposition rates from the late-1940s thru the early-1990s, were used to enhance and extend existing National Atmospheric...
Authors
David L. Naftz, Paul F. Schuster, Craig A. Johnson
Seasonal dripwater Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca variations driven by cave ventilation: Implications for and modeling of speleothem paleoclimate records
A 4-year study in a central Texas cave quantifies multiple mechanisms that control dripwater composition and how these mechanisms vary at different drip sites. We monitored cave-air compositions, in situ calcite growth, dripwater composition and drip rate every 4–6 weeks. Three groups of drip sites are delineated (Groups 1–3) based on geochemical variations in dripwater composition...
Authors
C.I. Wong, J.L. Banner, MaryLynn Musgrove
Nekton community response to a large-scale Mississippi River discharge: Examining spatial and temporal response to river management
Freshwater flow is generally held to be one of the most influential factors affecting community structure and production in estuaries. In coastal Louisiana, the Caernarvon Freshwater Diversion (CFD) is managed to control freshwater discharge from the Mississippi River into Breton Sound basin. Operational since 1991, CFD has undergone several changes in management strategy including...
Authors
Bryan P. Piazza, Megan La Peyre
Groundwater conditions in Utah, spring of 2011
This is the forty-eighth in a series of annual reports that describe groundwater conditions in Utah. Reports in this series, published cooperatively by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Division of Water Rights, and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Quality, provide data to enable interested parties to maintain...
Authors
Carole B. Burden
Inverse modeling with RZWQM2 to predict water quality
This chapter presents guidelines for autocalibration of the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM2) by inverse modeling using PEST parameter estimation software (Doherty, 2010). Two sites with diverse climate and management were considered for simulation of N losses by leaching and in drain flow: an almond [Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D.A. Webb] orchard in the San Joaquin Valley, California and...
Authors
Bernard T. Nolan, Robert W. Malone, Liwang Ma, Christopher T. Green, Michael N. Fienen, Dan B. Jaynes
Streamflow of 2010--Water year summary
The maps and graph in this summary describe streamflow conditions for water-year 2010 (October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2010) in the context of the 81-year period 1930-2010, unless otherwise noted. The illustrations are based on observed data from the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Streamflow Information Program. The period 1930-2010 was used because prior to 1930, the number...
Authors
Jian Xiaodong, David M. Wolock, Harry F. Lins, Steve Brady
Concentrations and loads of nutrients in the tributaries of the Lake Okeechobee watershed, south-central Florida, water years 2004-2008
Lake Okeechobee in south-central Florida is the second largest freshwater lake in the contiguous United States. Excessive phosphorus loading, harmful high and low water levels, and rapid expansion of non-native vegetation have threatened the health of the lake in recent decades. A study was conducted to monitor discharge and nutrient concentrations from selected tributaries into Lake...
Authors
Michael J. Byrne, Molly S. Wood
Comparison of load estimation techniques and trend analysis for nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended sediment in the Eucha-Spavinaw Basin, northwestern Arkansas and northeastern Oklahoma, 2002-10
The City of Tulsa, Oklahoma, uses water from Lake Eucha and Spavinaw Lake in the Eucha-Spavinaw basin of northwestern Arkansas and northeastern Oklahoma for public water supply. Increases in algal biomass, which cause taste and odor problems in drinking water produced from the lakes, may be attributable to increases in nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in the lakes and in streams...
Authors
Rachel A. Esralew, William J. Andrews, Monica L. Allen, Carol Becker
Peak-flow characteristics of Virginia streams
Peak-flow annual exceedance probabilities, also called probability-percent chance flow estimates, and regional regression equations are provided describing the peak-flow characteristics of Virginia streams. Statistical methods are used to evaluate peak-flow data. Analysis of Virginia peak-flow data collected from 1895 through 2007 is summarized. Methods are provided for estimating...
Authors
Samuel H. Austin, Jennifer L. Krstolic, Ute Wiegand
Redox chemistry and natural organic matter (NOM): Geochemists' dream, analytical chemists' nightmare
Natural organic matter (NOM) is an inherently complex mixture of polyfunctional organic molecules. Because of their universality and chemical reversibility, oxidation/reductions (redox) reactions of NOM have an especially interesting and important role in geochemistry. Variabilities in NOM composition and chemistry make studies of its redox chemistry particularly challenging, and details...
Authors
Donald L. Macalady, Katherine Walton-Day
Sudden clearing of estuarine waters upon crossing the threshold from transport to supply regulation of sediment transport as an erodible sediment pool is depleted: San Francisco Bay, 1999
The quantity of suspended sediment in an estuary is regulated either by transport, where energy or time needed to suspend sediment is limiting, or by supply, where the quantity of erodible sediment is limiting. This paper presents a hypothesis that suspended-sediment concentration (SSC) in estuaries can suddenly decrease when the threshold from transport to supply regulation is crossed...
Authors
David H. Schoellhamer