Aboveground carbon stocks across a hydrological gradient: Ghost forests to non-tidal freshwater forested wetlands
Christopher J. Shipway, Jamie A. Duberstein, William H. Conner, Ken Krauss, Gregory E. Noe, Stefanie L. Whitmire
2024, Forests (15)
Upper estuarine forested wetlands (UEFWs) play an important role in the sequestration of atmospheric carbon (C), which is facilitated by their position at the boundary of terrestrial and maritime environments but threatened by sea level rise. This study assessed the change in aboveground C stocks along the estuarine–riverine hydrogeomorphic...
Computation of bromide concentrations at the Kansas River at De Soto, Kansas, January 2021 through October 2023
Thomas J. Williams, Greg S. Totzke
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5078
The Kansas River is an essential water resource that provides drinking water to more than 950,000 people in northeastern Kansas. Water suppliers that rely on the Kansas River as a water-supply source use physical and chemical water-treatment strategies to remove contaminants before distribution. Water District No. 1 of Johnson County,...
Forest cover lessens hurricane impacts on peak streamflow
Jazlynn S. Hall, Martha A. Scholl, James B. Shanley, Serena Matt, Maria Uriarte
2024, Hydrological Processes (38)
Cyclonic storms (i.e., hurricanes) are powerful disturbance events that often cause widespread forest damage. Storm-related canopy damage reduces rainfall interception and evapotranspiration, but impacts on streamflow regimes are poorly understood. We quantify streamflow changes in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in September 2017, and evaluate whether forest cover and storm-related...
Cold blood in warming waters: Effects of air temperature, precipitation, and groundwater on Gulf Sturgeon thermal habitats in a changing climate
Andrew Kenneth Carlson, Bethany M. Gaffey
2024, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (44) 987-1007
ObjectiveIn a changing climate, the effects of air temperature, precipitation, and groundwater on water temperature and thermal habitat suitability for Gulf Sturgeon Acipenser desotoi, listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, are not well understood. Hence, we incorporated these factors into thermal habitat models to...
Assessment of water levels, nitrate, and arsenic in the Carson Valley Alluvial Aquifer and the development of a data visualization tool for the Carson River Basin, Nevada
Ramon C. Naranjo, Anjela Bubiy
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1045
Residents of Carson Valley, Douglas County, Nevada, rely on the basin-fill alluvial aquifer underlying the valley for drinking water. Since the 1980s, groundwater levels and water-quality data have been collected to monitor the status of the aquifer system and to assist in planning efforts to address current (2024) and future...
Declining reservoir reliability and increasing reservoir vulnerability: Long-term observations reveal longer and more severe periods of low reservoir storage for major United States reservoirs
Caelan Simeone, John C. Hammond, Stacey A. Archfield, Dan Broman, Laura Condon, Hisham Eldardiry, Carolyn G. Olson, Jen Steyaert
2024, Geophysical Research Letters (51)
Hydrological drought is a pervasive and reoccurring challenge in managing water resources. Reservoirs are critical for lessening the impacts of drought on water available for many uses. We use a novel and generalized approach to identify periods of unusually low reservoir storage—via comparisons to operational rule curves and historical patterns—to...
The effect of drying boreal lakes on plants, soils, and microbial communities in lake margin habitats
Vijay P. Patil, Jack McFarland, Kimberly Wickland, Kristen L. Manies, Mark Winterstein, Teresa N. Hollingsworth, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Mark Waldrop
2024, JGR Biogeosciences (129)
Decadal scale lake drying in interior Alaska results in lake margin colonization by willow shrub and graminoid vegetation, but the effects of these changes on plant production, biodiversity, soil properties, and soil microbial communities are not well known. We studied changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) storage,...
Numerical model of the groundwater-flow system near the southeastern part of Puget Sound, Washington
Andrew J. Long, Elise E. Wright, Leland T. Fuhrig, Valerie A.L. Bright
Wendy B. Welch, Andrew J. Long, editor(s)
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5026-D-E
Groundwater flow in the active model area (AMA) was simulated using a groundwater-flow model. A steady-state model version of the model simulates equilibrium conditions, and a transient model version simulates monthly variability. The model corresponds to the physical and temporal dimensions of the conceptual model and groundwater budget. The steady-state...
Conceptual hydrogeologic framework and groundwater budget near the southeastern part of Puget Sound, Washington
Wendy B. Welch, Valerie A.L. Bright, Andrew S. Gendaszek, Sarah B. Dunn, Alexander O. Headman, Elisabeth T. Fasser
Wendy B. Welch, Andrew J. Long, editor(s)
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5026-A-C
More than 1 million people live within the active model area (AMA) in the southeastern part of the lowlands surrounding Puget Sound, or Puget Lowland, Washington, and groundwater is the source for approximately one-half of their public, domestic, and irrigation water demands. The 887-square-mile AMA, located in King and Pierce...
Characterization of groundwater resources near the southeastern part of Puget Sound, Washington
W.B. Welch, A.J. Long, editor(s)
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5026
More than 1 million people live within the active model area (AMA) in the southeastern part of the lowlands surrounding Puget Sound, or Puget Lowland, Washington, and groundwater is the source for approximately one-half of their public, domestic, and irrigation water demands. The 887-square-mile AMA, located in King and Pierce...
Simulation of groundwater flow in the Long Island, New York regional aquifer system for pumping and recharge conditions from 1900 to 2019
Donald A. Walter, Kalle Jahn, John P. Masterson, Sarken E. Dressler, Jason S. Finkelstein, Monti
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5044
The U.S. Geological Survey has developed a transient, groundwater-flow model that simulates hydrologic conditions in the Long Island aquifer system as part of an ongoing (since 2016) multiyear, cooperative investigation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The goals of this investigation are to assist stakeholders and resource...
Landscape-scale modeling to forecast fluvial-aeolian sediment connectivity in river valleys
Alan Kasprak, Joel B. Sankey, Joshua Caster
2024, Geophysical Research Letters (51)
Sedimentary landforms on Earth and other planetary bodies are built through scour, transport, and deposition of sediment. Sediment connectivity refers to the hypothesis that pathways of sediment transport do not occur in isolation, but rather are mechanistically linked. In dryland river systems, one such example of sediment connectivity is the transport of...
Hydrogeologic conceptual model of groundwater occurrence and brine discharge to the Dolores River in the Paradox Valley, Montrose County, Colorado
Suzanne S. Paschke, M. Alisa Mast, Philip M. Gardner, Connor P. Newman, Kenneth R. Watts
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5094
Salinity, or total dissolved solids (TDS), of the Colorado River is a major concern in the southwestern United States where the river provides water to about 40 million people for municipal and industrial use and is used to irrigate about 5.5 million acres of land. Much of the salinity in...
Simulation of groundwater flow and brine discharge to the Dolores River in the Paradox Valley, Montrose County, Colorado
Charles E. Heywood, Suzanne S. Paschke, M. Alisa Mast, Kenneth R Watts
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5038
Salinity, or total dissolved solids (TDS), of the Colorado River affects agricultural, municipal, and industrial water users and is an important concern in the Western United States. In the Paradox Valley of southwestern Colorado, natural discharge of sodium-chloride brine to the Dolores River from the underlying core of a salt-valley...
Testing tree-ring cellulose δ18O with water isotopes for Holocene lake δ18O interpretations in the central Rocky Mountains USA
Lesleigh Anderson, M. Alisa Mast, Rebecca Lynn Brice, Max Berkelhammer
2024, The Holocene
Stable isotopes of water preserved in geologic archives, primarily as oxygen (δ18O), have proven critical for documenting Earth’s climatic and hydrologic systems past and present. However, timescale differences of water isotope inputs to proxy systems and the signal embedded in long paleorecords often confound translation to observed hydroclimatic metrics. Here,...
Spatial variability of water temperature within the White River basin, Mount Rainier National Park Washington
Andrew S. Gendaszek, Anya Clare Leach, Kristin L. Jaeger
2024, Preprint
Water temperature is a primary control on the occurrence and distribution of cold-water species. Rivers draining Mount Rainier in western Washington, including the White River along its northern flank, support several cold-water fish populations, but the spatial distribution of water temperatures, particularly during late-summer base flow between August and September,...
Monitoring and simulation of hydrology, suspended sediment, and nutrients in selected tributary watersheds of Lake Erie, New York
Katherine R. Merriman, Benjamin N. Fisher, Elizabeth A. Nystrom, Aubrey R. Bunch, Robert J. Welk, William M. Kappel
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5022
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Erie County, New York, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, collected water-quality samples in nine selected New York tributaries to Lake Erie, computed estimates of suspended sediment and nutrient loads using the R scripting package...
Effects of temporal hydrologic shifts on the population biology of an endangered freshwater fish in a dryland river ecosystem
Jonathan Q. Richmond, Philip Robert Gould, Jennifer Pareti, Andrew Aitken, Eric Morrissette, Adam R. Backlin, Chris Dellith, Robert N. Fisher
2024, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (34)
Species occupying dryland river ecosystems often experience “boom-and-bust” demographic cycles that coincide with shifts in habitat availability. Knowing whether declines are within natural thresholds versus those caused by acute human disturbance is critical for managing protected species. We investigated temporal shifts in abundance and habitat use of an endangered population...
Downstream decreases in water availability, tree height, canopy volume and growth rate in cottonwood forests along the Green River, southwestern USA
Richard D. Thaxton, Michael L. Scott, John T. Kemper, Sara L. Rathburn, Sabrina Butzke, Jonathan M. Friedman
2024, Ecohydrology (17)
Hydrologic stress is increasing in Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii) forests across the southwestern United States because of increased temperature and streamflow diversion. The spatial variability of this stress is large yet poorly understood. Along the Yampa and Green Rivers in Colorado and Utah, vapour...
Low-flow statistics for selected streams in New York, excluding Long Island
Timothy J. Stagnitta, Alexander P. Graziano, Joshua Woda, Robin L. Glas, Christopher L. Gazoorian
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5055
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, updated low-streamflow statistics for New York, excluding Long Island and including hydrologically connected watersheds in bordering States, for the first time since 1972. Historical daily streamflow data for active and inactive gages were considered for...
Current advances in coastal wetland elevation dynamics: Introduction to the special issue
Donald R. Cahoon, Glenn R. Guntenspergen
2024, Estuaries and Coasts (47) 1703-1707
The thematic issue entitled, “Current Advances in Coastal Wetland Elevation Dynamics,” draws on topics from two special sessions at the CERF 2021 conference plus additional recent research describing scientific insights gained from the Surface Elevation Table–Marker Horizon (SET–MH) method and its application across the globe to quantify and understand subsurface...
Low-flow period seasonality, trends, and climate linkages across the United States
Caelan Simeone, Gregory J. McCabe, Jory Seth Hecht, John C. Hammond, Glenn A. Hodgkins, Carolyn G. Olson, Michael Wieczorek, David M. Wolock
2024, Hydrological Sciences Journal (69) 1387-1398
Low-flow period properties, including timing, magnitude, and duration, influence many key processes for water resource managers and ecosystems. We computed annual low-flow period duration and timing metrics from 1951 to 2020 for 1032 conterminous United States (CONUS) streamgages and analyzed spatial patterns, trends through time, and relationships to climate. Results...
Assessment of long-term changes in surface-water extent within Klamath Marsh, south-central Oregon, 1985–2021
Joseph J. Kennedy, Henry M. Johnson, Stephen B. Gingerich
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5033
The annual maximum extent of surface water in Klamath Marsh has naturally fluctuated in response to periods of wet and dry conditions in the surrounding basin. Field observations during the 2010s indicate that the annual maximum extent of surface water has been declining and the marsh is not responding to...
High resolution identification and quantification of diffuse deep groundwater discharge in mountain rivers using continuous boat-mounted helium measurements
Connor P. Newman, Eric Humphrey, Matthias Brennwald, W. Payton Gardner, Kelli M. Palko, Michael Gooseff, Kip Solomon
2024, Journal of Hydrology (640)
Discharge of deeply sourced groundwater to streams is difficult to locate and quantify, particularly where both discrete and diffuse discharge points exist, but diffuse discharge is one of the primary controls on solute budgets in mountainous watersheds. The noble gas helium is a unique identifier...
The Native American Research Assistantship Program—Building capacity for Indigenous water-resources monitoring
Electa Hare-Red Corn, Robert F. Breault, Jason R. Sorenson
2024, Fact Sheet 2024-3026
Intertribal networks for collecting and analyzing hydrologic and environmental data are growing. The U.S. Geological Survey can be a key partner with Tribal Nations in the further development of network capacity. A first step is the internship opportunity available through the partnership between the USGS and The Wildlife Society: The...
