Simulated effects of existing and proposed surface-water impoundments and gas-well pads on streamflow and suspended sediment in the Cypress Creek watershed, Arkansas
Rheannon M. Hart
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5057
Cypress Creek is located in central Arkansas and is the main tributary to Brewer Lake, which serves as the primary water supply for Conway, Arkansas, and the surrounding areas. A model of the Cypress Creek watershed was developed and calibrated in cooperation with Southwestern Energy Company using detailed precipitation, streamflow,...
Simulation of groundwater flow and interaction of groundwater and surface water on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation, Wisconsin
Paul F. Juckem, Michael N. Fienen, Randall J. Hunt
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5020
The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Indian Health Service are interested in improving the understanding of groundwater flow and groundwater/surface-water interaction on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation (Reservation) in southwest Vilas County and southeast Iron County, Wisconsin, with particular interest in an understanding of the potential...
Mercury in the soil of two contrasting watersheds in the eastern United States
Douglas A. Burns, Laurel G. Woodruff, Paul M. Bradley, William F. Cannon
2014, PLoS ONE (9)
Soil represents the largest store of mercury (Hg) in terrestrial ecosystems, and further study of the factors associated with soil Hg storage is needed to address concerns about the magnitude and persistence of global environmental Hg bioaccumulation. To address this need, we compared total Hg and methyl Hg concentrations and...
Linking aquifer spatial properties and non-Fickian transport in mobile-immobile like alluvial settings
Yong Zhang, Christopher T. Green, Boris Baeumer
2014, Journal of Hydrology (512) 315-331
Time-nonlocal transport models can describe non-Fickian diffusion observed in geological media, but the physical meaning of parameters can be ambiguous, and most applications are limited to curve-fitting. This study explores methods for predicting the parameters of a temporally tempered Lévy motion (TTLM) model for transient sub-diffusion in mobile–immobile like alluvial...
Decadal surface water quality trends under variable climate, land use, and hydrogeochemical setting in Iowa, USA
Christopher T. Green, Barbara A. Bekins, Stephen J. Kalkhoff, Robert M. Hirsch, Lixia Liao, Kimberlee K. Barnes
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 2425-2443
Understanding how nitrogen fluxes respond to changes in agriculture and climate is important for improving water quality. In the midwestern United States, expansion of corn cropping for ethanol production led to increasing N application rates in the 2000s during a period of extreme variability of annual precipitation. To examine the...
Stream macroinvertebrate response models for bioassessment metrics: addressing the issue of spatial scale
Ian R. White, Jonathan G. Kennen, Jason T. May, Larry R. Brown, Thomas F. Cuffney, Kimberly A. Jones, James L. Orlando
2014, PLoS ONE (9) 1-21
We developed independent predictive disturbance models for a full regional data set and four individual ecoregions (Full Region vs. Individual Ecoregion models) to evaluate effects of spatial scale on the assessment of human landscape modification, on predicted response of stream biota, and the effect of other possible confounding factors, such...
Spatial and temporal patterns of endocrine active chemicals in small streams indicate differential exposure to aquatic organisms
K. E. Lee, L. B. Barber, H.L. Schoenfuss
2014, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (50) 401-419
Alkylphenolic chemicals (APCs) and hormones were measured six times from February through October 2007 in three Minnesota streams receiving wastewater to identify spatial and temporal patterns in concentrations and in estrogen equivalency. Fish were collected once during the study to evaluate endpoints indicative of endocrine disruption. The most commonly detected...
Reconnaissance of pharmaceuticals and wastewater indicators in streambed sediments of the lower Columbia River basin, Oregon and Washington
Elena Nilsen, Edward T. Furlong, Robert Rosenbauer
2014, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (50) 291-301
One by-product of advances in modern chemistry is the accumulation of synthetic chemicals in the natural environment. These compounds include contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), some of which are endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) that can have detrimental reproductive effects. The role of sediments in accumulating these types of...
Small reservoir distribution, rate of construction, and uses in the upper and middle Chattahoochee basins of the Georgia Piedmont, USA, 1950-2010
Amber R. Ignatius, John W. Jones
2014, ISPRS International Journal of Geo-information (3) 460-480
Construction of small reservoirs affects ecosystem processes in numerous ways including fragmenting stream habitat, altering hydrology, and modifying water chemistry. While the upper and middle Chattahoochee River basins within the Southeastern United States Piedmont contain few natural lakes, they have a high density of small reservoirs (more than 7500 small...
Capturing interactions between nitrogen and hydrological cycles under historical climate and land use: Susquehanna watershed analysis with the GFDL land model LM3-TAN
M. Lee, S. Malyshev, E. Shevliakova, Paul C. D. Milly, P. R. Jaffe
2014, Biogeosciences (11) 5809-5826
We developed a process model LM3-TAN to assess the combined effects of direct human influences and climate change on terrestrial and aquatic nitrogen (TAN) cycling. The model was developed by expanding NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory land model LM3V-N of coupled terrestrial carbon and nitrogen (C-N) cycling and including new...
Identifying legal, ecological and governance obstacles and opportunities for adapting to climate change
Barbara Cosens, Lance Gunderson, Craig R. Allen, Melinda H. Benson
2014, Sustainability (6) 2338-2356
Current governance of regional scale water management systems in the United States has not placed them on a path toward sustainability, as conflict and gridlock characterize the social arena and ecosystem services continue to erode. Changing climate may continue this trajectory, but it also provides a catalyst for renewal of...
Hydrological effects of forest transpiration loss in bark beetle-impacted watersheds
Lindsay A. Bearup, Reed M. Maxwell, David W. Clow, John E. McCray
2014, Nature Climate Change (4) 481-486
The recent climate-exacerbated mountain pine beetle infestation in the Rocky Mountains of North America has resulted in tree death that is unprecedented in recorded history. The spatial and temporal heterogeneity inherent in insect infestation creates a complex and often unpredictable watershed response, influencing the primary storage and flow components of...
Infiltration and runoff generation processes in fire-affected soils
John A. Moody, Brian A. Ebel
2014, Hydrological Processes (28) 3432-3453
Post-wildfire runoff was investigated by combining field measurements and modelling of infiltration into fire-affected soils to predict time-to-start of runoff and peak runoff rate at the plot scale (1 m2). Time series of soil-water content, rainfall and runoff were measured on a hillslope burned by the 2010 Fourmile Canyon Fire west...
Biochar application to hardrock mine tailings: Soil quality, microbial activity, and toxic element sorption
Charlene N. Kelly, Christopher D. Peltz, Mark R. Stanton, David W. Rutherford, Colleen E. Rostad
2014, Applied Geochemistry (43) 35-48
Waste rock piles from historic mining activities remain unvegetated as a result of metal toxicity and high acidity. Biochar has been proposed as a low-cost remediation strategy to increase soil pH and reduce leaching of toxic elements, and improve plant establishment. In this laboratory column study, biochar made from beetle-killed...
Simulation of zones of contribution to wells at site GM–38, Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant, Bethpage, New York
Paul Misut
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5036
A three-dimensional groundwater-flow model is coupled with the particle-tracking program MODPATH to delineate zones of contribution to wells pumping from the Magothy aquifer and supplying water to a chlorinated volatile organic compound removal plant at site GM–38, Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant, Bethpage, New York. By use of driller’s logs,...
Hydrologic Drought Decision Support System (HyDroDSS)
Gregory E. Granato
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1003
The hydrologic drought decision support system (HyDroDSS) was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Rhode Island Water Resources Board (RIWRB) for use in the analysis of hydrologic variables that may indicate the risk for streamflows to be below user-defined flow targets at a designated site...
Petrophysical properties, mineralogy, fractures, and flow tests in 25 deep boreholes at Yucca Mountain, Nevada
Philip H. Nelson, Joyce E. Kibler
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1023
As part of a site investigation for the disposal of radioactive waste, numerous boreholes were drilled into a sequence of Miocene pyroclastic flows and related deposits at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. This report contains displays of data from 25 boreholes drilled during 1979–1984, relatively early in the site investigation program. Geophysical...
1DTempPro: analyzing temperature profiles for groundwater/surface-water exchange
Emily B. Voytek, Anja Drenkelfuss, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, Richard Healy, John W. Lane Jr., Dale D. Werkema
2014, Ground Water (52) 298-302
A new computer program, 1DTempPro, is presented for the analysis of vertical one-dimensional (1D) temperature profiles under saturated flow conditions. 1DTempPro is a graphical user interface to the U.S. Geological Survey code Variably Saturated 2-Dimensional Heat Transport (VS2DH), which numerically solves the flow and heat-transport equations. Pre- and postprocessor features...
Phytoremediation of a petroleum-hydrocarbon contaminated shallow aquifer in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, USA
Elizabeth Guthrie Nichols, Rachel L. Cook, James Landmeyer, Brad Atkinson, Donald R. Malone, George Shaw, Leilani Woods
2014, Remediation Journal (24) 29-46
A former bulk fuel terminal in North Carolina is a groundwater phytoremediation demonstration site where 3,250 hybrid poplars, willows, and pine trees were planted from 2006 to 2008 over approximately 579,000 L of residual gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. Since 2011, the groundwater altitude is lower in the area with...
Quantity and quality of groundwater discharge in a hypersaline lake environment
R.B. Anderson, D. L. Naftz, F. D. Day-Lewis, R.D. Henderson, D.O. Rosenberry, Bernard J. Stolp, P. Jewell
2014, Journal of Hydrology (512) 177-194
Geophysical and geochemical surveys were conducted to understand groundwater discharge to Great Salt Lake (GSL) and assess the potential significance of groundwater discharge as a source of selenium (Se). Continuous resistivity profiling (CRP) focusing below the sediment/water interface and fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing (FO-DTS) surveys were conducted along the south...
Methods for estimating the magnitude and frequency of floods for urban and small, rural streams in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, 2011
Toby D. Feaster, Anthony J. Gotvald, J. Curtis Weaver
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5030
Reliable estimates of the magnitude and frequency of floods are essential for the design of transportation and water-conveyance structures, flood-insurance studies, and flood-plain management. Such estimates are particularly important in densely populated urban areas. In order to increase the number of streamflow-gaging stations (streamgages) available for analysis, expand the geographical...
Surface-water and karst groundwater interactions and streamflow-response simulations of the karst-influenced upper Lost River watershed, Orange County, Indiana
E. Randall Bayless, Peter J. Cinotto, Randy L. Ulery, Charles J. Taylor, Gregory K. McCombs, Moon H. Kim, Hugh L. Nelson
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5028
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA), conducted a study of the upper Lost River watershed in Orange County, Indiana, from 2012 to 2013. Streamflow and groundwater data were collected at 10...
How mangrove forests adjust to rising sea level
Ken W. Krauss, Karen L. McKee, Catherine E. Lovelock, Donald R. Cahoon, Neil Saintilan, Ruth Reef, Luzhen Chen
2014, New Phytologist (202) 19-34
Mangroves are among the most well described and widely studied wetland communities in the world. The greatest threats to mangrove persistence are deforestation and other anthropogenic disturbances that can compromise habitat stability and resilience to sea-level rise. To persist, mangrove ecosystems must adjust to rising sea level by building vertically...
Does water chemistry affect the dietary uptake and toxicity of silver nanoparticles by the freshwater snail Lymnaea stagnalis?
Ana Lopez-Serrano Oliver, Marie-Noële Croteau, Tasha L. Stoiber, Mila Tejamaya, Isabella Römer, Jamie R. Lead, Samuel N. Luoma
2014, Environmental Pollution (189) 87-91
Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are widely used in many applications and likely released into the aquatic environment. There is increasing evidence that Ag is efficiently delivered to aquatic organisms from AgNPs after aqueous and dietary exposures. Accumulation of AgNPs through the diet can damage digestion and adversely affect growth. It is...
HydroClimATe: hydrologic and climatic analysis toolkit
Jesse E. Dickinson, Randall T. Hanson, Steven K. Predmore
2014, Techniques and Methods 4-A9
The potential consequences of climate variability and climate change have been identified as major issues for the sustainability and availability of the worldwide water resources. Unlike global climate change, climate variability represents deviations from the long-term state of the climate over periods of a few years to several decades. Currently,...
