Analysis of postfire hydrology, water quality, and sediment transport for selected streams in areas of the 2002 Hayman and Hinman fires, Colorado
Michael R. Stevens
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5267
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began a 5-year study in 2003 that focused on postfire stream-water quality and postfire sediment load in streams within the Hayman and Hinman fire study areas. This report compares water quality of selected streams receiving runoff from unburned areas and burned areas using concentrations and...
Flood-inundation maps for a 6.5-mile reach of the Kentucky River at Frankfort, Kentucky
Jeremiah G. Lant
2013, Scientific Investigations Map 3278
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 6.5-mile reach of Kentucky River at Frankfort, Kentucky, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the City of Frankfort Office of Emergency Management. The inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Science Web site at http://water.usgs.gov/osw/flood_inundation/,...
An update of hydrologic conditions and distribution of selected constituents in water, eastern Snake River Plain aquifer and perched groundwater zones, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho, emphasis 2009–11
Linda C. Davis, Roy C. Bartholomay, Gordon W. Rattray
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5214
Since 1952, wastewater discharged to infiltration ponds (also called percolation ponds) and disposal wells at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has affected water quality in the eastern Snake River Plain (ESRP) aquifer and perched groundwater zones underlying the INL. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department...
Geohydrologic and water-quality characterization of a fractured-bedrock test hole in an area of Marcellus shale gas development, Bradford County, Pennsylvania
Dennis W. Risser, John Williams, Kristen L. Hand, Rose-Anna Behr, Antonette K. Markowski
2013, Pennsylvania Geological Survey Open-File Report OFMI 13-01.1
Open-File Miscellaneous Investigation 13–01.1 presents the results of geohydrologic investigations on a 1,664-foot-deep core hole drilled in the Bradford County part of the Gleason 7.5-minute quadrangle in north-central Pennsylvania. In the text, the authors discuss their methods of investigation, summarize physical and analytical results, and place those results in context....
Insights and issues with simulating terrestrial DOC loading of Arctic river networks
David W. Kicklighter, Daniel J. Hayes, James W. McClelland, Bruce J. Peterson, A. David McGuire, Jerry M. Melillo
2013, Ecological Applications (23) 1817-1836
Terrestrial carbon dynamics influence the contribution of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to river networks in addition to hydrology. In this study, we use a biogeochemical process model to simulate the lateral transfer of DOC from land to the Arctic Ocean via riverine transport. We estimate that, over the 20th century,...
A computer model to forecast wetland vegetation changes resulting from restoration and protection in coastal Louisiana
Jenneke M. Visser, Scott M. Duke-Sylvester, Jacoby Carter, Whitney P. Broussard III
2013, Journal of Coastal Research 51-59
The coastal wetlands of Louisiana are a unique ecosystem that supports a diversity of wildlife as well as a diverse community of commercial interests of both local and national importance. The state of Louisiana has established a 5-year cycle of scientific investigation to provide up-to-date information to guide future legislation...
Annual flood sensitivities to El Niño-Southern Oscillation at the global scale
Philip J. Ward, S. Eisner, M. Florke, Michael D. Dettinger, M. Kummu
2013, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (18) 47-66
Floods are amongst the most dangerous natural hazards in terms of economic damage. Whilst a growing number of studies have examined how river floods are influenced by climate change, the role of natural modes of interannual climate variability remains poorly understood. We present the first global assessment of the influence...
Shifts in controls on the temporal coherence of throughfall chemical flux in Acadia National Park, Maine, USA
Sarah J. Nelson, Katherine E. Webster, Cynthia S. Loftin, Kathleen C. Weathers
2013, Biogeochemistry (116) 147-160
Major ion and mercury (Hg) inputs to terrestrial ecosystems include both wet and dry deposition (total deposition). Estimating total deposition to sensitive receptor sites is hampered by limited information regarding its spatial heterogeneity and seasonality. We used measurements of throughfall flux, which includes atmospheric inputs to forests and the net...
Hysteresis of unsaturated hydromechanical properties of a silty soil
Ning Lu, Murat Kaya, Brian D. Collins, Jonathan W. Godt
2013, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (139) 507-510
Laboratory tests to examine hysteresis in the hydrologic and mechanical properties of partially saturated soils were conducted on six intact specimens collected from a landslide-prone area of Alameda County, California. The results reveal that the pore-size distribution parameter remains statistically unchanged between the wetting and drying paths; however, the wetting...
Vascular flora of saline lakes in the southern high plains of Texas and eastern New Mexico
David J. Rosen, Warren C. Conway, David A. Haukos, Amber D. Caskey
2013, Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (7) 595-602
Saline lakes and freshwater playas form the principal surface hydrological feature of the High Plains of the Southern Great Plains. Saline lakes number less than 50 and historically functioned as discharge wetlands with relatively consistent water availability due to the presence of one or more springs. Currently, less than ten...
Distance, dams and drift: What structures populations of an endangered, benthic stream fish?
James H. Roberts, Paul L. Angermeier, Eric M. Hallerman
2013, Freshwater Biology (58) 2050-2064
Spatial population structure plays an important role in species persistence, evolution and conservation. Benthic stream fishes are diverse and frequently imperilled, yet the determinants and spatial scaling of their population structure are understudied. We investigated the range-wide population genetic structure of Roanoke logperch (Percina rex), an endangered, benthic stream fish...
Selenium in ecosystems within the mountaintop coal mining and valley-fill region of southern West Virginia-assessment and ecosystem-scale modeling
Theresa S. Presser
2013, Professional Paper 1803
Coal and associated waste rock are among environmental selenium (Se) sources that have the potential to affect reproduction in fish and aquatic birds. Ecosystems of southern West Virginia that are affected by drainage from mountaintop coal mines and valleys filled with waste rock in the Coal, Gauley, and Lower Guyandotte...
Base of the upper layer of the phase-three Elkhorn-Loup groundwater-flow model, north-central Nebraska
Jennifer S. Stanton
2013, Scientific Investigations Map 3259
The Elkhorn and Loup Rivers in Nebraska provide water for irrigation, recreation, hydropower production, aquatic life, and municipal water systems for the Omaha and Lincoln metropolitan areas. Groundwater is another important resource in the region and is extracted primarily for agricultural irrigation. Water managers of the area are interested in...
Catchment-scale stormwater management via economic incentives – An overview and lessons-learned
W. Schuster, A.S. Garmestani, O.O. Green, l.K. Rhea, Allison H. Roy, H.W. Thurston
Baden Robert Myers, Simon Beecham, Terry Lucke, Floris Boogaard, editor(s)
2013, Conference Paper, Novatech 2013: international conference on strategies and solutions for integrated and sustainable water management in the city Lyon, France
Long-term field studies of the effectiveness and sustainability of decentralized stormwater management are rare. From 2005-2011, we tested an incentive-based approach to citizen participation in stormwater management in the Shepherd Creek catchment, located in Cincinnati, OH, USA. Hydrologic, biological, and water quality data were characterized in a baseline monitoring effort...
Characterizing response of total suspended solids and total phosphorus loading to weather and watershed characteristics for rainfall and snowmelt events in agricultural watersheds
Mari E. Danz, Steven Corsi, Wesley R. Brooks, Roger T. Bannerman
2013, Journal of Hydrology (507) 249-261
Understanding the response of total suspended solids (TSS) and total phosphorus (TP) to influential weather and watershed variables is critical in the development of sediment and nutrient reduction plans. In this study, rainfall and snowmelt event loadings of TSS and TP were analyzed for eight agricultural watersheds in Wisconsin, with...
Assessing grain-size correspondence between flow and deposits of controlled floods in the Colorado River, USA
Amy Draut, David M. Rubin
2013, Journal of Sedimentary Research (83) 962-973
Flood-deposited sediment has been used to decipher environmental parameters such as variability in watershed sediment supply, paleoflood hydrology, and channel morphology. It is not well known, however, how accurately the deposits reflect sedimentary processes within the flow, and hence what sampling intensity is needed to decipher records of recent or...
Hydrology and water quality of Shell Lake, Washburn County, Wisconsin, with special emphasis on the effects of diversion and changes in water level on the water quality of a shallow terminal lake
Paul F. Juckem, Dale M. Robertson
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5181
Shell Lake is a relatively shallow terminal lake (tributaries but no outlets) in northwestern Wisconsin that has experienced approximately 10 feet (ft) of water-level fluctuation over more than 70 years of record and extensive flooding of nearshore areas starting in the early 2000s. The City of Shell Lake (City) received...
Comparative microhabitat characteristics at oviposition sites of the California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii)
Jeff A. Alvarez, David G. Cook, Julie L. Yee, Michael G. van Hattem, Darren R. Fong, Robert N. Fisher
2013, Herpetological Conservation and Biology (8) 539-551
We studied the microhabitat characteristics of 747 egg masses of the federally-threatened Rana draytonii (California red-legged frog) at eight sites in California. our study showed that a broad range of aquatic habitats are utilized by ovipositing R. draytonii, including sites with perennial and ephemeral water sources, natural and constructed wetlands,...
Streamflow monitoring and statistics for development of water rights claims for Wild and Scenic Rivers, Owyhee Canyonlands Wilderness, Idaho, 2012
Molly S. Wood, Ryan L. Fosness
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5212
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), collected streamflow data in 2012 and estimated streamflow statistics for stream segments designated "Wild," "Scenic," or "Recreational" under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System in the Owyhee Canyonlands Wilderness in southwestern Idaho. The streamflow statistics were...
Integrated carbon budget models for the Everglades terrestrial-coastal-oceanic gradient: Current status and needs for inter-site comparisons
Tiffany G. Troxler, Evelyn Gaiser, Jordan Barr, Jose D. Fuentes, Rudolf Jaffe, Daniel L. Childers, Ligia Collado-Vides, Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Edward Castañeda-Moya, William Anderson, Randy Chambers, Meilian Chen, Carlos Coronado-Molina, Stephen E. Davis, Victor C. Engel, Carl Fitz, James Fourqurean, Tom Frankovich, John Kominoski, Chris Madden, Sparkle L. Malone, Steve F. Oberbauer, Paulo Olivas, Jennifer Richards, Colin Saunders, Jessica Schedlbauer, Leonard J. Scinto, Fred Sklar, Thomas J. Smith III, Joseph M. Smoak, Gregory Starr, Robert Twilley, Kevin Whelan
2013, Oceanography (26) 98-107
Recent studies suggest that coastal ecosystems can bury significantly more C than tropical forests, indicating that continued coastal development and exposure to sea level rise and storms will have global biogeochemical consequences. The Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (FCE LTER) site provides an excellent subtropical system for examining...
Origin and characteristics of discharge at San Marcos Springs, south-central Texas
MaryLynn Musgrove, Cassi L. Crow
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3080
The Edwards aquifer in south-central Texas is one of the most productive aquifers in the Nation and is the primary source of water for the rapidly growing San Antonio area. Springs issuing from the Edwards aquifer provide habitat for several threatened and endangered species, serve as locations for recreational activities,...
Holocene dynamics of the Florida Everglades with respect to climate, dustfall, and tropical storms
Paul H. Glaser, Barbara C. S. Hansen, Joseph J. Donovan, Thomas J. Givnish, Craig A. Stricker, John C. Volin
2013, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (110) 17211-17216
Aeolian dust is rarely considered an important source for nutrients in large peatlands, which generally develop in moist regions far from the major centers of dust production. As a result, past studies assumed that the Everglades provides a classic example of an originally oligotrophic, P-limited wetland that was subsequently degraded...
Flood-inundation maps for the DuPage River from Plainfield to Shorewood, Illinois, 2013
Elizabeth A. Murphy, Jennifer B. Sharpe
2013, Scientific Investigations Map 3275
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 15.5-mi reach of the DuPage River from Plainfield to Shorewood, Illinois, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Will County Stormwater Management Planning Committee. The inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Science Web site...
Urban runoff (URO) process for MODFLOW 2005: simulation of sub-grid scale urban hydrologic processes in Broward County, FL
Jeremy D. Decker, J.D. Hughes
2013, Book, MODFLOW and More 2013: Translating Science into Practice: Conference Proceedings
Climate change and sea-level rise could cause substantial changes in urban runoff and flooding in low-lying coast landscapes. A major challenge for local government officials and decision makers is to translate the potential global effects of climate change into actionable and cost-effective adaptation and mitigation strategies at county and municipal...
Controls on ecosystem and root respiration across a permafrost and wetland gradient in interior Alaska
Nicole A. McConnell, Merritt R. Turetsky, A. David McGuire, Evan S. Kane, Mark P. Waldrop, Jennifer W. Harden
2013, Environmental Research Letters (8)
Permafrost is common to many northern wetlands given the insulation of thick organic soil layers, although soil saturation in wetlands can lead to warmer soils and increased thaw depth. We analyzed five years of soil CO2 fluxes along a wetland gradient that varied in permafrost and soil moisture conditions. We...
