Relating Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis) occupancy to habitat and landscape features in the context of fire
Jane E. Austin, Deborah A. Buhl
2013, Waterbirds (36) 199-213
The Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis) is a focal species of concern associated with shallowly flooded emergent wetlands, most commonly sedge (Carex spp.) meadows. Their populations are believed to be limited by loss or degradation of wetland habitat due to drainage, altered hydrology, and fire suppression, factors that have often resulted...
Hydrologic connectivity to streams increases nitrogen and phosphorus inputs and cycling in soils of created and natural floodplain wetlands
Kristin L. Wolf, Gregory B. Noe, Changwoo Ahn
2013, Journal of Environmental Quality (42) 1245-1255
Greater connectivity to stream surface water may result in greater inputs of allochthonous nutrients that could stimulate internal nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling in natural, restored, and created riparian wetlands. This study investigated the effects of hydrologic connectivity to stream water on soil nutrient fluxes in plots (n =...
The effects of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee on the bed sediment geochemistry of U.S. Atlantic coastal rivers
Arthur J. Horowitz
2013, Hydrological Processes (28) 1250-1259
Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, both of which made landfall in the U.S. between late August and early September 2011, generated record or near record water discharges in 41 coastal rivers between the North Carolina/South Carolina border and the U.S./Canadian border. Despite the discharge of substantial amounts of suspended...
Culvert Analysis Program Graphical User Interface 1.0--A preprocessing and postprocessing tool for estimating flow through culvert
D. Nathan Bradley
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3045
The peak discharge of a flood can be estimated from the elevation of high-water marks near the inlet and outlet of a culvert after the flood has occurred. This type of discharge estimate is called an “indirect measurement” because it relies on evidence left behind by the flood, such as...
Reorganization of vegetation, hydrology and soil carbon after permafrost degradation across heterogeneous boreal landscapes
M.T. Jorgenson, Jennifer W. Harden, M. Kanevskiy, J.A. O'Donnell, Kimberly Wickland, S. Ewing, Kristen L. Manies, Q. Zhuang, Y. Shur, Robert G. Striegl, Joshua C. Koch
2013, Enivronmental Research Letters (8)
The diversity of ecosystems across boreal landscapes, successional changes after disturbance and complicated permafrost histories, present enormous challenges for assessing how vegetation, water and soil carbon may respond to climate change in boreal regions. To address this complexity, we used a chronosequence approach to assess changes in vegetation composition, water...
Geology, water-quality, hydrology, and geomechanics of the Cuyama Valley groundwater basin, California, 2008--12
Rhett R. Everett, Dennis R. Gibbs, Randall T. Hanson, Donald S. Sweetkind, Justin T. Brandt, Sarah E. Falk, Christopher R. Harich
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5108
To assess the water resources of the Cuyama Valley groundwater basin in Santa Barbara County, California, a series of cooperative studies were undertaken by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Santa Barbara County Water Agency. Between 2008 and 2012, geologic, water-quality, hydrologic and geomechanical data were collected from selected sites...
Construction of 3-D geologic framework and textural models for Cuyama Valley groundwater basin, California
Donald S. Sweetkind, Claudia C. Faunt, Randall T. Hanson
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5127
Groundwater is the sole source of water supply in Cuyama Valley, a rural agricultural area in Santa Barbara County, California, in the southeasternmost part of the Coast Ranges of California. Continued groundwater withdrawals and associated water-resource management concerns have prompted an evaluation of the hydrogeology and water availability for the...
Hydrologic conditions in New Hampshire and Vermont, water year 2011
Richard G. Kiah, Jason D. Jarvis, Robert F. Hegemann, Gregory S. Hilgendorf, Sanborn L. Ward
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1135
Record-high hydrologic conditions in New Hampshire and Vermont occurred during water year 2011, according to data from 125 streamgages and lake gaging stations, 27 creststage gages, and 41 groundwater wells. Annual runoff for the 2011 water year was the sixth highest on record for New Hampshire and the highest on...
The simulated effects of wastewater-management actions on the hydrologic system and nitrogen-loading rates to wells and ecological receptors, Popponesset Bay Watershed, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Donald A. Walter
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5060
The discharge of excess nitrogen into Popponesset Bay, an estuarine system on western Cape Cod, has resulted in eutrophication and the loss of eel grass habitat within the estuaries. Septic-system return flow in residential areas within the watershed is the primary source of nitrogen. Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for...
Hydrologic and geochemical characterization of the Santa Rosa Plain watershed, Sonoma County, California
Tracy Nishikawa
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5118
The Santa Rosa Plain is home to approximately half of the population of Sonoma County, California, and faces growth in population and demand for water. Water managers are confronted with the challenge of meeting the increasing water demand with a combination of water sources, including local groundwater, whose future availability...
Flood-inundation maps for the Saddle River from Upper Saddle River Borough to Saddle River Borough, New Jersey, 2013
Kara M. Watson, Heidi L. Hoppe
2013, Scientific Investigations Map 3262
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 4.1-mile reach of the Saddle River from 0.6 miles downstream from the New Jersey-New York State boundary in Upper Saddle River Borough to 0.2 miles downstream from the East Allendale Road bridge in Saddle River Borough, New Jersey, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey...
Hydrologic drought of water year 2011 compared to four major drought periods of the 20th century in Oklahoma
Molly J. Shivers, William J. Andrews
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5018
Water year 2011 (October 1, 2010, through September 30, 2011) was a year of hydrologic drought (based on streamflow) in Oklahoma and the second-driest year to date (based on precipitation) since 1925. Drought conditions worsened substantially in the summer, with the highest monthly average temperature record for all States being...
Ecosystem services: developing sustainable management paradigms based on wetland functions and processes
Ned H. Euliss Jr., David M. Mushet, Loren M. Smith, William H. Conner, Virginia R. Burkett, Douglas A. Wilcox, Mark W. Hester, Haochi Zheng
2013, Book chapter, Wetland Techniques
In the late nineteenth century and twentieth century, there was considerable interest and activity to develop the United States for agricultural, mining, and many other purposes to improve the quality of human life standards and prosperity. Most of the work to support this development was focused along disciplinary lines with...
Impacts on groundwater recharge areas of megacity pumping: analysis of potential contamination of Kolkata, India, water supply
Paulami Sahu, Holly A. Michael, Clifford I. Voss, Pradip K. Sikdar
2013, Hydrological Sciences Journal (58) 1340-1360
Water supply to the world's megacities is a problem of quantity and quality that will be a priority in the coming decades. Heavy pumping of groundwater beneath these urban centres, particularly in regions with low natural topographic gradients, such as deltas and floodplains, can fundamentally alter the hydrological system. These...
Rivermouth alteration of agricultural impacts on consumer tissue δ15N
James H. Larson, William B. Richardson, Jonathan M. Vallazza, J. C. Nelson
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Terrestrial agricultural activities strongly influence riverine nitrogen (N) dynamics, which is reflected in the δ15N of riverine consumer tissues. However, processes within aquatic ecosystems also influence consumer tissue δ15N. As aquatic processes become more important terrestrial inputs may become a weaker predictor of consumer tissue δ15N. In a previous study,...
Meeting the Science Needs of the Nation in the Wake of Hurricane Sandy-- A U.S. Geological Survey Science Plan for Support of Restoration and Recovery
Herbert T. Buxton, Matthew E. Andersen, Michael J. Focazio, John W. Haines, Robert A. Hainly, Daniel J. Hippe, Larry J. Sugarbaker
2013, Circular 1390
n late October 2012, Hurricane Sandy came ashore during a spring high tide on the New Jersey coastline, delivering hurricane-force winds, storm tides exceeding 19 feet, driving rain, and plummeting temperatures. Hurricane Sandy resulted in 72 direct fatalities in the mid-Atlantic and northeastern United States, and widespread and substantial physical,...
Modeling transport of nutrients & sediment loads into Lake Tahoe under climate change
John Riverson, Robert Coats, Mariza Costa-Cabral, Mike Dettinger, John Reuter, Goloka Sahoo, Geoffrey Schladow
2013, Climatic Change (116) 35-50
The outputs from two General Circulation Models (GCMs) with two emissions scenarios were downscaled and bias-corrected to develop regional climate change projections for the Tahoe Basin. For one model—the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory or GFDL model—the daily model results were used to drive a distributed hydrologic model. The watershed model...
Framing scenarios of binational water policy with a tool to visualize, quantify and valuate changes in ecosystem services
Laura M. Norman, Miguel L. Villarreal, Rewati Niraula, Thomas Meixner, George Frisvold, William Labiosa
2013, Water (5) 852-874
In the Santa Cruz Watershed, located on the Arizona-Sonora portion of the U.S.-Mexico border, an international wastewater treatment plant treats wastewater from cities on both sides of the border, before discharging it into the river in Arizona. These artificial flows often subsidize important perennial surface water ecosystems in the region....
Introduction to the special issue on “Understanding and predicting change in the coastal ecosystems of the northern Gulf of Mexico”
John Brock, John A. Barras, S. Jeffress Williams
2013, Journal of Coastal Research (63) 1-5
The coastal region of the northern Gulf of Mexico owes its current landscape structure to an array of tectonic, erosional and depositional, climatic, geochemical, hydrological, ecological, and human processes that have resulted in some of the world's most complex, dynamic, productive, and threatened ecosystems. Catastrophic hurricane landfalls, ongoing subsidence and...
Geochemical evidence of groundwater flow paths and the fate and transport of constituents of concern in the alluvial aquifer at Fort Wingate Depot Activity, New Mexico, 2009
Andrew J. Robertson, David W. Henry, Jeffery B. Langman
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5098
As part of an environmental investigation at Fort Wingate Depot Activity, New Mexico, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, interpreted aqueous geochemical concentrations to better understand the groundwater flow paths and the fate and transport of constituents of concern in the alluvial aquifer...
Streamflow and water-quality conditions including geologic sources and processes affecting selenium loading in the Toll Gate Creek watershed, Aurora, Arapahoe County, Colorado, 2007
Suzanne S. Paschke, Robert L. Runkel, Katherine Walton-Day, Briant A. Kimball, Keelin R. Schaffrath
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5280
Toll Gate Creek is a perennial stream draining a suburban area in Aurora, Colorado, where selenium concentrations have consistently exceeded the State of Colorado aquatic-life standard for selenium of 4.6 micrograms per liter since the early 2000s. In cooperation with the City of Aurora, Colorado, Utilities Department, a synoptic water-quality...
Landscape factors and hydrology influence mercury concentrations in wading birds breeding in the Florida Everglades, USA
Garth Herring, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Joshua T. Ackerman, Dale E. Gawlik, James M. Beerens
2013, Science of the Total Environment (458-460) 637-646
The hydrology of wetland ecosystems is a key driver of both mercury (Hg) methylation and waterbird foraging ecology, and hence may play a fundamental role in waterbird exposure and risk to Hg contamination. However, few studies have investigated hydrological factors that influence waterbird Hg exposure. We examined how several landscape-level...
A model for evaluating effects of climate, water availability, and water management on wetland impoundments--a case study on Bowdoin, Long Lake, and Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuges
Brian A. Tangen, Robert A. Gleason, John F. Stamm
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5114
Many wetland impoundments managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) National Wildlife Refuge System throughout the northern Great Plains rely on rivers as a primary water source. A large number of these impoundments currently are being stressed from changes in water supplies and quality, and these problems are...
Multi-temporal maps of the Montaguto earth flow in southern Italy from 1954 to 2010
Luigi Guerriero, Paola Revellino, Jeffrey A. Coe, Mariano Focareta, Gerardo Grelle, Vincenzo Albanese, Angelo Corazza, Francesco M. Guadagno
2013, Journal of Maps (9) 135-145
Historical movement of the Montaguto earth flow in southern Italy has periodically destroyed residences and farmland, and damaged the Italian National Road SS90 and the Benevento-Foggia National Railway. This paper provides maps from an investigation into the evolution of the Montaguto earth flow from 1954 to 2010. We used aerial...
Evaluation of groundwater quality and selected hydrologic conditions in the South Coast aquifer, Santa Isabel area, Puerto Rico, 2008–09
José M. Rodríguez
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5254
The source of drinking water in the Santa Isabel and Coamo areas of Puerto Rico (Molina and Gómez-Gómez, 2008) is the South Coast aquifer (hereafter referred to as the aquifer), which supplies about 30,700 cubic meters per day (m³/d) to Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA) public-supply wells. In...
