Multiscale habitat selection of wetland birds in the northern Gulf Coast
Bradley A. Pickens, Sammy L. King
2014, Estuaries and Coasts (37) 1301-1311
The spatial scale of habitat selection has become a prominent concept in ecology, but has received less attention in coastal ecology. In coastal marshes, broad-scale marsh types are defined by vegetation composition over thousands of hectares, water-level management is applied over hundreds of hectares, and fine-scale habitat is depicted by...
Temporal changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of fish assemblages downstream from mountaintop mining
Nathaniel P. Hitt, Douglas B. Chambers
2014, Freshwater Science (33) 915-926
Mountaintop mining (MTM) affects chemical, physical, and hydrological properties of receiving streams, but the long-term consequences for fish-assemblage structure and function are poorly understood. We sampled stream fish assemblages using electrofishing techniques in MTM exposure sites and reference sites within the Guyandotte River basin, USA, during 2010–2011. We calculated indices...
Educational webtool illustrating groundwater age effects on contaminant trends in wells
John Karl Böhlke, Bryant C. Jurgens, David J. Uselmann, Sandra M. Eberts
2014, Groundwater (52) 8-9
No abstract available....
Hydrology and numerical simulation of groundwater movement and heat transport in Snake Valley and surrounding areas, Juab, Miller, and Beaver Counties, Utah, and White Pine and Lincoln Counties, Nevada
Melissa D. Masbruch, Philip M. Gardner, Lynette E. Brooks
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5103
Snake Valley and surrounding areas, along the Utah-Nevada state border, are part of the Great Basin carbonate and alluvial aquifer system. The groundwater system in the study area consists of water in unconsolidated deposits in basins and water in consolidated rock underlying the basins and in the adjacent mountain blocks....
Resource manager information needs regarding hydrologic regime shifts for the North Pacific Landscape Conservation
Andrea Woodward, Karen Jenni
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1178
Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) are a network of 22 public-private partnerships, defined by ecoregion, that share and provide science to ensure the sustainability of land, water, wildlife, and cultural resources in North America. LCCs were established by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in recognition of the fact that...
Simulating water-quality trends in public-supply wells in transient flow systems
J. Jeffrey Starn, Christopher T. Green, Stephen R. Hinkle, Amvrossios C. Bagtzoglou, Bernard J. Stolp
2014, Ground Water (52) 53-62
Models need not be complex to be useful. An existing groundwater-flow model of Salt Lake Valley, Utah, was adapted for use with convolution-based advective particle tracking to explain broad spatial trends in dissolved solids. This model supports the hypothesis that water produced from wells is increasingly younger with higher proportions...
Generating nested wetland catchments with readily-available digital elevation data may improve evaluations of land-use change on wetlands
Lisa A. McCauley, Michael J. Anteau
2014, Wetlands (34) 1123-1132
The important ecosystem functions wetlands perform are influenced by land-use changes in their surrounding uplands and thus, identifying the upland area that flows into a wetland is important. We provide a method to define wetland catchments as the portion of the landscape that flows into a wetland; we allowed catchments...
Description of landscape features, summary of existing hydrologic data, and identification of data gaps for the Osage Nation, northeastern Oklahoma, 1890-2012
William J. Andrews, S. Jerrod Smith
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5134
The Osage Nation of northeastern Oklahoma, conterminous with Osage County, is characterized by gently rolling uplands and incised stream valleys that have downcut into underlying sedimentary rock units of Pennsylvanian through Permian age. Cattle ranching and petroleum and natural-gas extraction are the principal land uses in this rural area. Freshwater...
Hydrogeology and hydrology of the Punta Cabullones wetland area, Ponce, southern Puerto Rico, 2007-08
Jesús Rodríguez-Martínez, Luis R. Soler-Lopez
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5102
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Municipio Autónomo de Ponce and the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, conducted a study of the hydrogeology and hydrology of the Punta Cabullones area in Ponce, southern Puerto Rico. (Punta Cabullones is also referred to as Punta Cabullón.) The...
Hydrogeology of Puerto Rico and the outlying islands of Vieques, Culebra, and Mona
Fernando Gómez-Gómez, Jesús Rodríguez-Martínez, Marilyn Santiago
2014, Scientific Investigations Map 3296
The availability of hydrogeologic maps for Puerto Rico and the outlying islands of Vieques, Culebra, and Mona are important to hydrogeologists, groundwater specialists, and water resource managers and planners. These maps, in combination with the report, serve as a source of information to all users by providing basic hydrogeologic and...
Tracking geomorphic signatures of watershed suburbanization with multi-temporal LiDAR
Daniel K. Jones, Matthew E. Baker, Andrew J. Miller, S. Taylor Jarnagin, Dianna M. Hogan
2014, Geomorphology (219) 42-52
Urban development practices redistribute surface materials through filling, grading, and terracing, causing drastic changes to the geomorphic organization of the landscape. Many studies document the hydrologic, biologic, or geomorphic consequences of urbanization using space-for-time comparisons of disparate urban and rural landscapes. However, no previous studies have documented geomorphic changes from...
Wetland management and rice farming strategies to decrease methylmercury bioaccumulation and loads from the Cosumnes River Preserve, California
Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Joshua T. Ackerman, Jacob Fleck, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Harry McQuillen, Wes Heim
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1172
We evaluated mercury (Hg) concentrations in caged fish (deployed for 30 days) and water from agricultural wetland (rice fields), managed wetland, slough, and river habitats in the Cosumnes River Preserve, California. We also implemented experimental hydrological regimes on managed wetlands and post-harvest rice straw management techniques on rice fields in...
Hydrologic models and analysis of water availability in Cuyama Valley, California
R. T. Hanson, Lorraine E. Flint, Claudia C. Faunt, Dennis R. Gibbs, Wolfgang Schmid
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5150
Changes in population, agricultural development practices (including shifts to more water-intensive crops), and climate variability are placing increasingly larger demands on available water resources, particularly groundwater, in the Cuyama Valley, one of the most productive agricultural regions in Santa Barbara County. The goal of this study was to produce a...
Cuyama Valley, California hydrologic study: an assessment of water availability
Randall T. Hanson, Donald S. Sweetkind
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3075
Water resources are under pressure throughout California, particularly in agriculturally dominated valleys. Since 1949, the Cuyama Valley’s irrigated acreage has increased from 13 to 35 percent of the valley. Increased agriculture has contributed to the demand for water beyond natural recharge. The tools and information developed for this study can...
Strategic needs of water on the Yukon: an interdisciplinary approach to studying hydrology and climate change in the Lower Yukon River Basin
Nicole M. Herman-Mercer, Paul F. Schuster
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3060
Strategic Needs of Water on the Yukon (SNOWY) is an interdisciplinary research project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF; http://www.nsf.gov/). The SNOWY team is made up of a diverse group of researchers from different backgrounds and organizations. This partnership between scientists from different disciplines (hydrology, geography, and...
Flood-inundation maps for the Saddle River in Ho-Ho-Kus Borough, the Village of Ridgewood, and Paramus Borough, New Jersey, 2013
Kara M. Watson, Michal J. Niemoczynski
2014, Scientific Investigations Map 3299
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 5.4-mile reach of the Saddle River in New Jersey from Hollywood Avenue in Ho-Ho-Kus Borough downstream through the Village of Ridgewood and Paramus Borough to the confluence with Hohokus Brook in the Village of Ridgewood were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation...
Stable isotope (δ18O and δ2H) data for precipitation, stream water, and groundwater in Puerto Rico
Martha A. Scholl, Angel Torres-Sanchez, Manuel Rosario-Torres
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1101
Puerto Rico is located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea (18.2 °N, 66.3 °W), with the Atlantic Ocean on its northern coast. The U.S. Geological Survey’s Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB) program study area in which most of these data were collected comprises the El Yunque National Forest and surrounding...
Multi-scale observations of the variability of magmatic CO2 emissions, Mammoth Mountain, CA, USA
Jennifer L. Lewicki, George E. Hilley
2014, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (284) 1-15
One of the primary indicators of volcanic unrest at Mammoth Mountain is diffuse emission of magmatic CO2, which can effectively track this unrest if its variability in space and time and relationship to near-surface meteorological and hydrologic phenomena versus those occurring at depth beneath the mountain are understood. In June–October...
A precipitation-runoff model for simulating natural streamflow conditions in the Smith River watershed, Montana, water years 1996-2008
Katherine J. Chase, Rodney R. Caldwell, Andrea K. Stanley
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5125
This report documents the construction of a precipitation-runoff model for simulating natural streamflow in the Smith River watershed, Montana. This Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System model, constructed in cooperation with the Meagher County Conservation District, can be used to examine the general hydrologic framework of the Smith River watershed, including quantification of...
Summary of hydrologic conditions in Kansas, 2013 water year
Arin J. Peters, Teresa J. Rasmussen
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3061
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Kansas Water Science Center (KSWSC), in cooperation with local, State, and other Federal agencies, maintains a long-term network of hydrologic monitoring gages in the State of Kansas. These include 195 real-time streamflow-gaging stations (herein gages) and 12 real-time reservoir-level monitoring stations. These data and associated...
An expanded model: flood-inundation maps for the Leaf River at Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 2013
John B. Storm
2014, Scientific Investigations Map 3300
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 6.8-mile reach of the Leaf River at Hattiesburg, Mississippi (Miss.), were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the City of Hattiesburg, City of Petal, Forrest County, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, Mississippi Department of Homeland Security, and the Emergency Management District. The...
Simulating soil-water movement through loess-veneered landscapes using nonconsilient saturated hydraulic conductivity measurements
Tanja N. Williamson, Brad D. Lee, Philip J. Schoeneberger, W. M. McCauley, Samuel J. Indorante, Phillip R. Owens
2014, Soil Science Society of America Journal (78) 1320-1331
Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO) data are available for the entire United States, so are incorporated in many regional and national models of hydrology and environmental management. However, SSURGO does not provide an understanding of spatial variability and only includes saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) values estimated from particle size analysis...
A multiphased approach to groundwater investigations for the Edwards-Trinity and related aquifers in the Pecos County region, Texas
Jonathan V. Thomas
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3025
The Edwards-Trinity aquifer is a vital groundwater resource for agricultural, industrial, and public supply uses in the Pecos County region of western Texas. Resource managers would like to understand the future availability of water in the Edwards-Trinity aquifer in the Pecos County region and the effects of the possible increase...
Monitoring Everglades freshwater marsh water level using L-band synthetic aperture radar backscatter
Jin-Woo Kim, Zhong Lu, John W. Jones, C. K. Shum, Hyongki Lee, Yuanyuan Jia
2014, Remote Sensing of Environment (150) 66-81
The Florida Everglades plays a significant role in controlling floods, improving water quality, supporting ecosystems, and maintaining biodiversity in south Florida. Adaptive restoration and management of the Everglades requires the best information possible regarding wetland hydrology. We developed a new and innovative approach to quantify spatial and temporal variations in...
Density-stratified flow events in Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA: implications for mercury and salinity cycling
David L. Naftz, Gregory T. Carling, Cory Angeroth, Michael Freeman, Ryan Rowland, Eddy Pazmino
2014, Aquatic Geochemistry (20) 547-571
Density stratification in saline and hypersaline water bodies from throughout the world can have large impacts on the internal cycling and loading of salinity, nutrients, and trace elements. High temporal resolution hydroacoustic and physical/chemical data were collected at two sites in Great Salt Lake (GSL), a saline lake in the...