Status and trends of total nitrogen and total phosphorus concentrations, loads, and yields in streams of Mississippi, water years 2008–18
Matthew B. Hicks, Angela S. Crain, Natalie G. Segrest
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5003
To assess the status and trends of conditions of surface waters throughout Mississippi, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), summarized concentrations and estimated loads, yields, trends, and spatial and temporal patterns of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) at 20 stream...
Estimating streamflow for base flow conditions at partial-record streamgaging stations at Acadia National Park, Maine
Pamela J. Lombard
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5126
The objective of the work presented in this report is to develop equations that can be used to extend the base flow record at multiple partial-record streamgaging stations at Acadia National Park in eastern coastal Maine based on nearby continuous-record streamgaging stations. Daily mean streamflow values at U.S. Geological Survey...
Nutrient and suspended-sediment concentrations, loads, and yields in upper Macoupin Creek, Illinois, 2017–21
Luis A. Garcia, Paul J. Terrio, Adam E. Manaster
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5131
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Macoupin County Soil and Water Conservation District and the American Farmland Trust, undertook a monitoring effort from 2017 to 2021 in the upper Macoupin Creek watershed. The monitoring effort was to determine and characterize nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended-sediment concentrations, loads, and yields...
Data summary report: Unregulated contaminants monitoring project
Jane de Lambert, Alycia Overbo, Steve Robertson, Sarah M. Elliott
2023, Report
The Drinking Water Protection Section of the Minnesota Department of Health conducted reconnaissance monitoring of selected public water systems in Minnesota. Funding was obtained primarily from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund. Sampling was conducted in 2019 and 2021. Laboratory analysis of samples was conducted for a variety of...
Vulnerability of estuarine systems in the contiguous United States to water quality change under future climate and land-use
Lise R. Montefiore, Natalie Nelson, Michelle Staudinger, Adam J. Terando
2023, Earth's Future (11)
Changes in climate and land-use and land-cover (LULC) are expected to influence surface water runoff and nutrient characteristics of estuarine watersheds, but the extent to which estuaries are vulnerable to altered nutrient loading under future conditions is poorly understood. The present work aims to address this gap...
The water cycle
Hayley R. Corson-Dosch, Cee S. Nell, Rachel E. Volentine, Althea A. Archer, Ellen Bechtel, Jennifer L. Bruce, Nicole Felts, Tara A. Gross, Dianne Lopez-Trujillo, Charlotte E. Riggs, Emily Read
2023, General Information Product 221
An illustrated diagram of the water cycle. This is a modern, updated version of the widely used diagram featured on the USGS Water Science School. Notably, this new water cycle diagram depicts humans and major categories of human water use as key components of the water cycle, in addition to...
Observations of coastal circulation, waves, and sediment transport along West Maui, Hawaiʻi (November 2017– March 2018), and modeling effects of potential watershed restoration on decreasing sediment loads to adjacent coral reefs
Curt D. Storlazzi, Olivia M. Cheriton, Katherine M. Cronin, Luuk H. van der Heijden, Gundula Winter, Kurt J. Rosenberger, Joshua B. Logan, Robert T. McCall
2023, Open-File Report 2022-1121
Terrestrial sediment discharging from watersheds off West Maui, Hawaiʻi, has been documented as a primary stressor to local coral reefs, causing coral reef health to decline. The U.S. Geological Survey acquired and analyzed physical oceanographic and sedimentologic field data off the coast of West Maui to calibrate and validate physics-based,...
Modeling post-wildfire hydrologic response: Review and future directions for applications of physically based distributed simulation
Brian A. Ebel, Zachary M. Shephard, Michelle A. Walvoord, Sheila F. Murphy, Trevor Fuess Partridge, Kimberlie Perkins
2023, Earth's Future (11)
Wildfire is a growing concern as climate shifts. The hydrologic effects of wildfire, which include elevated hazards and changes in water quantity and quality, are increasingly assessed using numerical models. Post-wildfire application of physically based distributed models provides unique insight into the underlying processes that affect water...
Tracking status and trends in seven key indicators of stream health in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
Samuel H. Austin, Matthew J. Cashman, John W. Clune, James E. Colgin, Rosemary M. Fanelli, Kevin P. Krause, Emily H. Majcher, Kelly O. Maloney, Christopher A. Mason, Douglas L. Moyer, Tammy M. Zimmerman
2023, Fact Sheet 2023-3003
“The Bay Connects us, the Bay reflects us” writes Tom Horton in the book “Turning the Tide—Saving the Chesapeake Bay”. The Chesapeake Bay watershed contains the largest estuary in the United States. The watershed stretches north to Cooperstown, New York, south to Lynchburg and Virginia Beach, Virginia, west to Pendleton...
Vulnerability to climate change of managed stocks in the California Current large marine ecosystem
Michelle M McClure, Melissa A. Haltuch, Ellen Willis-Norton, David D. Huff, Elliott L. Hazen, Lisa G. Crozier, Michael G. Jacox, Mark W. Nelson, Kelly S. Andrews, Lewis A. K. Barnett, Aaron M. Berger, Sabrina Beyer, Joe Bizzarro, David A. Boughton, Jason M. Cope, Mark H. Carr, Heidi Dewar, Edward Dick, Dorval Emmanis, Jason Dunham, Vladlena Gertseva, Correigh M. Greene, Richard G. Gustafson, Hamel Owen S., Chris J. Harvey, Mark J. Henderson, Chris E. Jordan, Isaac C. Kaplan, Steven T. Lindley, Nathan J. Mantua, Sean E. Matson, Melissa H. Monk, Peter B. Moyle, Colin L Nicol, John Pohl, Ryan R. Rykaczewski, Jameal F. Samhouri, Susan Sogard, Nick Tolimieri, John Wallace, Chantel Wetzel, Steven J. Bograd
2023, Frontiers in Marine Science (10)
Introduction: Understanding how abundance, productivity and distribution of individual species may respond to climate change is a critical first step towards anticipating alterations in marine ecosystem structure and function, as well as developing strategies to adapt to the full range of potential changes.Methods: This study applies the NOAA (National Oceanic and...
Predicting probabilities of late summer surface flow presence in a glaciated mountainous headwater region
Kristin L. Jaeger, Roy Sando, Sarah B. Dunn, Andrew S. Gendaszek
2023, Hydrological Processes (37)
Accurate mapping of streams that maintain surface flow during annual baseflow periods in mountain headwater streams is important for informing water availability for human consumption and is a fundamental determinant of in-channel conditions for stream-dwelling organisms. Yet accurate mapping that captures local spatial variability and associated local controls on surface...
Hydrologic compartmentalization and analytic-element groundwater-flow simulations for a draining mine tunnel
Connor P. Newman
2023, Environmental Earth Sciences (82)
Draining mine tunnels contribute contaminants to groundwater and surface water, but remediation strategies may be hindered as hydrogeologic characterization and modeling of these heterogeneous features generally relies on sparse data sets. The Captain Jack mine site in Colorado, USA, presents a unique data set allowing...
Outlining potential biomarkers of exposure and effect to critical minerals: Nutritionally essential trace elements and the rare earth elements
Jill Jenkins, MaryLynn Musgrove, Sarah Jane White
2023, Toxics (11)
Emerging and low-carbon technologies and innovations are driving a need for domestic sources, sustainable use, and availability of critical minerals (CMs)—those vital to the national and economic security of the United States. Understanding the known and potential health effects of exposures to such mineral commodities can inform prudent and...
Building a library of source samples for sediment fingerprinting – Potential and proof of concept
Tanja N. Williamson, Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Rebecca M. Kreiling
2023, Journal of Environmental Management (333)
PurposeSediment fingerprinting of fluvial targets has proven useful to guide conservation management and prioritize sediment sources for Federal and State supported programs in the United States. However, the collection and analysis of source samples can make these studies unaffordable, especially when needed for multiple...
Waterfowl recently infected with low pathogenic avian influenza exhibit reduced local movement and delayed migration
Claire S. Teitelbaum, Michael L. Casazza, Fiona McDuie, Susan E.W. De La Cruz, Cory T. Overton, Laurie Anne Hall, Elliott Matchett, Joshua T. Ackerman, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Andrew M. Ramey, Diann Prosser
2023, Ecosphere (14)
Understanding relationships between infection and wildlife movement patterns is important for predicting pathogen spread, especially for multispecies pathogens and those that can spread to humans and domestic animals, such as avian influenza viruses (AIVs). Although infection with low pathogenic AIVs is generally considered asymptomatic in wild...
Parentage-based tagging using mothers balances accuracy and cost for discriminating between natural and stocked recruitment for inland fisheries
Kimberly B. Fitzpatrick, Nina Overgaard Therkildsen, Benjamin Marcy-Quay, Harmony B. Borchardt-Wier, Suresh Sethi
2023, Fisheries Management and Ecology (30) 592-602
Hatchery programmes are frequently used to supplement inland fisheries, yet achieving successful management outcomes often requires information on stocked versus naturally reproduced fish abundance. Parentage-based tagging – genetically assigning offspring to their parents – has potential to be an effective approach for distinguishing stocked and naturally reproduced fish. However, several...
Metagenomic mapping of cyanobacteria and potential cyanotoxin producing taxa in large rivers of the United States
D.M. Linz, N. Sienkiewicz, I. Struewing, Erin A. Stelzer, Jennifer L. Graham, Jingrang Lu
2023, Scientific Reports (13)
Cyanobacteria and cyanotoxin producing cyanobacterial blooms are a trending focus of current research. Many studies focus on bloom events in lentic environments such as lakes or ponds. Comparatively few studies have explored lotic environments and fewer still have examined the cyanobacterial communities and potential cyanotoxin...
A framework for prioritizing contaminants in retrospective ecological assessments: Application in the Milwaukee Estuary (Milwaukee, WI)
Erin M Maloney, Daniel L. Villeneuve, Brett R Blackewell, Kelsey Vitense, Steven R. Corsi, Matthew A. Pronschinske, Kathleen Jensen, Gerald T. Ankley
2023, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (IEAM) (19) 1276-1296
Watersheds are subjected to diverse anthropogenic inputs, exposing aquatic biota to a wide range of chemicals. Detection of multiple, different chemicals can challenge natural resource managers who often have to determine where to allocate potentially limited resources. Here, we describe a weight-of-evidence framework for retrospectively prioritizing...
Groundwater recharge in northern New England: Meteorological drivers and relations with low streamflow
Caitlin Crossett, Glenn A. Hodgkins, Hadley Menk, Lesley-Ann L. Dupigny-Giroux, Robert W. Dudley, Mary D. Lemcke-Stampone, John C. Hammond
2023, Hydrological Processes (37)
Meteorological drivers of groundwater recharge for spring (February–June), fall (October–January), and recharge-year (October–June) recharge seasons were evaluated for northern New England and upstate New York from 1989 to 2018. Monthly groundwater recharge was computed at 21 observation wells by subtracting the water levels at...
Generalized additive model estimation of no-flow fractions and L-moments to support flow-duration curve quantile estimation using selected probability distributions for bay and estuary restoration in the Gulf States
Elena Crowley-Ornelas, William H. Asquith, Scott C. Worland
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5051
Censored and uncensored generalized additive models (GAMs) were developed using streamflow data from 941 U.S. Geological Survey streamflow-gaging stations (streamgages) to predict decadal statistics of daily streamflow for streams draining to the Gulf of Mexico. The modeled decadal statistics comprise no-flow fractions and L-moments of logarithms of nonzero streamflow for six...
High-frequency time series comparison of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 for open and vegetated water across the United States (2017-2021)
Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Laurie C. Alexander, Jay R. Christensen, Kylen Solvik, Peter Joseph Nieuwlandt, Mallory Annelle Prentiss
2023, Remote Sensing of Environment (288)
Frequent observations of surface water at fine spatial scales will provide critical data to support the management of aquatic habitat, flood risk and water quality. Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites can provide such observations, but algorithms are still needed that perform well across diverse climate and vegetation conditions. We developed surface...
Hydrodynamics structure plankton communities and interactions in a freshwater tidal estuary
Adrianne P Smits, Luke C. Loken, Erwin E Van Nieuwenhuyse, Matthew J. Young, Paul Stumpner, Leah Kammel, Jon R. Burau, Randy A Dahlgren, Tiffany Brown, April Hennessey, Steven Sadro
2023, Ecological Monographs (93)
Drivers of phytoplankton and zooplankton dynamics vary spatially and temporally in estuaries due to variation in hydrodynamic exchange and residence time, complicating efforts to understand controls on food web productivity. We conducted approximately monthly (2012–2019; n = 74) longitudinal sampling at 10 fixed stations along a freshwater...
In-stream laser diffraction for measuring suspended sediment concentration and particle size distribution in rivers: Insights from field campaigns
Muneer Ahammad, Jonathan A. Czuba, Christopher A. Curran
2023, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (ASCE) (149)
This study evaluates the laser in situ scattering and transmissometry (LISST) instrument LISST-SL2, a laser diffraction instrument for suspended sediment sampling in rivers, with concurrent physical measurements of suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and particle size distribution (PSD) as well as velocity measurements by an acoustic Doppler current...
The value of scientific information — An overview
Emily Pindilli, Scott J. Chiavacci, Crista L. Straub
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1011
IntroductionThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) provides reliable science, data, information, and models (hereafter collectively referred to as “information”) to describe and understand the Earth. This information is used to minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect quality...
Climate-driven mid- to late Holocene hydrologic evolution of arid wetlands documented by strontium, uranium, and oxygen isotopes from Lower Pahranagat Lake, southern Nevada, USA
Kevin M. Theissen, James B. Paces
2023, Quaternary Research (113) 52-68
Lacustrine carbonates in a 12.4-m-long core from Lower Pahranagat Lake (LPAH), southern Nevada, indicate that radiogenic isotopes of Sr and U (87Sr/86Sr and 234U/238U) preserve evidence of past variations in water sources and evolving hydrologic conditions. Sr and U isotope compositions in LPAH carbonates...
