Hydrogeology, groundwater seepage, nitrate distribution, and flux at the Raleigh hydrologic research station, Wake County, North Carolina, 2005-2007
Kristen Bukowski McSwain, Richard E. Bolich, Melinda J. Chapman
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5041
rom 2005 to 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Water Quality, conducted a study to describe the geologic framework, measure groundwater quality, characterize the groundwater-flow system, and describe the groundwater/surface-water interaction at the 60-acre Raleigh hydrogeologic research station (RHRS)...
Occurrence and mobility of mercury in groundwater: Chapter 5
Julia L. Barringer, Zoltan Szabo, Pamela A. Reilly
Paul M. Bradley, editor(s)
2013, Book chapter, Current perspectives in contaminant hydrology and water resources sustainability
1. Introduction 1.1. FORMS, TOXICITY, AND HEALTH EFFECTS Mercury (Hg) has long been identified as an element that is injurious, even lethal, to living organisms. Exposure to its inorganic form, mainly from elemental Hg (Hg(0)) vapor (Fitzgerald & Lamborg, 2007) can cause damage to respiratory, neural,...
Spatial dynamics of ecosystem service flows: a comprehensive approach to quantifying actual services
Kenneth J. Bagstad, Gary W. Johnson, Brian Voigt, Ferdinando Villa
2013, Ecosystem Services (4) 117-125
Recent ecosystem services research has highlighted the importance of spatial connectivity between ecosystems and their beneficiaries. Despite this need, a systematic approach to ecosystem service flow quantification has not yet emerged. In this article, we present such an approach, which we formalize as a class of agent-based models termed “Service...
A comparison of models for estimating potential evapotranspiration for Florida land cover types
Ellen M. Douglas, Jennifer M. Jacobs, David M. Sumner, Ram L. Ray
2013, Journal of Hydrology (373) 366-376
We analyzed observed daily evapotranspiration (DET) at 18 sites having measured DET and ancillary climate data and then used these data to compare the performance of three common methods for estimating potential evapotranspiration (PET): the Turc method (Tc), the Priestley-Taylor method (PT) and the Penman-Monteith method (PM). The sites were...
Appraising options to reduce shallow groundwater tables and enhance flow conditions over regional scales in an irrigated alluvial aquifer system
Eric D. Morway, Timothy K. Gates, Richard G. Niswonger
2013, Journal of Hydrology (495) 216-237
Some of the world’s key agricultural production systems face big challenges to both water quantity and quality due to shallow groundwater that results from long-term intensive irrigation, namely waterlogging and salinity, water losses, and environmental problems. This paper focuses on water quantity issues, presenting finite-difference groundwater models developed to describe...
Thermokarst and thaw-related landscape dynamics -- an annotated bibliography with an emphasis on potential effects on habitat and wildlife
Benjamin M. Jones, Courtney L. Amundson, Joshua C. Koch, Guido Grosse
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1161
Permafrost has warmed throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere since the 1980s, with colder permafrost sites warming more rapidly (Romanovsky and others, 2010; Smith and others, 2010). Warming of the near-surface permafrost may lead to widespread terrain instability in ice-rich permafrost in the Arctic and the Subarctic, and may result...
Predicting the likelihood of altered streamflows at ungauged rivers across the conterminous United States
Ken Eng, Daren M. Carlisle, David M. Wolock, James A. Falcone
2013, River Research and Applications (29) 781-791
An approach is presented in this study to aid water-resource managers in characterizing streamflow alteration at ungauged rivers. Such approaches can be used to take advantage of the substantial amounts of biological data collected at ungauged rivers to evaluate the potential ecological consequences of altered streamflows. National-scale random forest statistical...
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....
