Assessing spatial variability of nutrients, phytoplankton, and related water-quality constituents in the California Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta at the landscape scale—2018 high resolution mapping surveys
Brian A. Bergamaschi, Tamara E. C. Kraus, Bryan D. Downing, Elizabeth B. Stumpner, Katy O’Donnell, Jeffrey A. Hansen, Jeniffer Soto Perez, Emily T. Richardson, Angela M. Hansen, Alan Gelber
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5060
Executive Summary This study examined the abundance and distribution of nutrients and phytoplankton in the tidal aquatic environments of the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta (Delta) and Suisun Bay, comprising three spatial surveys conducted in May, July, and October of 2018 that used continuous underway high frequency sampling and measurements onboard a...
Triangle Area Water Supply Monitoring Project, North Carolina—Overview of hydrologic and water-quality monitoring activities and data quality assurance
J.C. Diaz, Rosemary Margaret Fanelli
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1003
Surface-water supplies are important sources of drinking water for residents in the Triangle area of North Carolina, which is located within the upper Cape Fear and Neuse River Basins. Since 1988, the U.S. Geological Survey and a consortium of local governments have participated in a cooperative effort, known as the...
Clumped isotopes record a glacial-interglacial shift in seasonality of soil carbonate accumulation in the San Luis Valley, southern Rocky Mountains, USA
Adam M. Hudson, Julia R. Kelson, James B. Paces, Chester A. Ruleman, Katharine W. Huntington, Andrew J. Schauer
2024, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (25)
Clumped isotope paleothermometry using pedogenic carbonates is a powerful tool for investigating past climate changes. However, location-specific seasonal patterns of precipitation and soil moisture cause systematic biases in the temperatures they record, hampering comparison of data across large areas or differing climate states. To account for biases, more systematic studies...
Evaluation of the characteristics, discharge, and water quality of selected springs at Fort Irwin National Training Center, San Bernardino County, California
Jill N. Densmore, Drew C. Thayer, Meghan C. Dick, Peter W. Swarzenski, Lyndsay B. Ball, Celia Z. Rosecrans, Cordell Johnson
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5142
Eight springs and seeps at Fort Irwin National Training Center were described and categorized by their general characteristics, discharge, geophysical properties, and water quality between 2015 and 2017. The data collected establish a modern (2017) baseline of hydrologic conditions at the springs. Two types of springs were identified: (1) precipitation-fed...
A comparison of contemporary and historical hydrology and water quality in the foothills and coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Arctic Slope, northern Alaska
Joshua C. Koch, Heather Best, Carson Baughman, Charles Couvillion, Michael P. Carey, Jeff Conaway
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5008
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a unique landscape in northern Alaska with limited water resources, substantial biodiversity of rare and threatened species, as well as oil and gas resources. The region has unique hydrology related to perennial springs, and the formation of large aufeis fields—sheets of ice that grow...
The Metzger marsh restoration: A vegetation-centric look after 27 years
Douglas A. Wilcox, Kurt P. Kowalski, Alexandra A Bozimowski
2024, Journal of Great Lakes Research (50)
We investigated wetland vegetation before, during, and after dike construction at the Metzger Marsh project in western Lake Erie, which was designed to restore a 300-ha wetland that had been degraded following the loss of a protective barrier beach. A dike was constructed in 1995 to replace the function of...
Groundwater model of the Harney Basin, southeastern Oregon
Stephen B. Gingerich, Darrick E. Boschmann, Gerald H. Grondin, Halley J Schibel
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5017
Groundwater development, mainly for large-scale irrigation, has increased substantially in the Harney Basin of southeastern Oregon since 2010. Concurrently, some areas of the basin experienced groundwater-level declines of more than 100 feet, and some shallow wells have gone dry. The Oregon Water Resources Department has limited new groundwater development in...
Characterizing future streamflows in Massachusetts using stochastic modeling—A pilot study
Scott A. Olson, Ghazal Shabestanipour, Jonathan Lamontagne, Scott Steinschneider
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5134
Communities throughout Massachusetts face the potential effects of climate change, ranging from more extreme rainfall to more pronounced and frequent droughts. Understanding the effects of climate change on hydrology is important to State and community officials to evaluate the potential effects on infrastructure and water systems. To better understand the...
Spatial extent drives patterns of relative climate change sensitivity for freshwater fishes of the United States
Samuel C. Silknetter, Abigail Benson, Jennifer A. Smith, Meryl C. Mims
2024, Ecosphere (15)
Assessing the sensitivity of freshwater species to climate change is an essential component of prioritizing conservation efforts for threatened freshwater ecosystems and organisms. Sensitivity to climate change can be systematically evaluated for multiple species using geographic attributes such as range size and climate niche...
StreamStats—A quarter century of delivering web-based geospatial and hydrologic information to the public, and lessons learned
Kernell G. Ries III, Peter A. Steeves, Peter M. McCarthy
2024, Circular 1514
StreamStats is a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) web application that provides streamflow statistics, such as the 1-percent annual exceedance probability peak flow, the mean flow, and the 7-day, 10-year low flow, to the public through a map-based user interface. These statistics are used in many ways, such as in the...
Chemistry, growth, and fate of the unique, short-lived (2019–2020) water lake at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii
Patricia A. Nadeau, Shaul Hurwitz, Sara Peek, Allan Lerner, Edward F. Younger, Matthew R. Patrick, David Damby, R. Blaine McCleskey, Peter J. Kelly
2024, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (25)
Less than a year after the 2018 Kīlauea caldera collapse and eruption, water appeared in newly deepened Halemaʻumaʻu crater. The lake—unprecedented in the written record—grew to a depth of ∼50 m before lava from the December 2020 eruption boiled it away. Surface water heightened concerns of potential phreatic...
Geologic framework and hydrostratigraphy of the Edwards and Trinity aquifers within parts of Bandera and Kendall Counties, Texas
Allan K. Clark, Robert R. Morris, Alexis P. Lamberts
2024, Scientific Investigations Map 3518
The karstic Edwards and Trinity aquifers are classified as major sources of water in south-central Texas by the Texas Water Development Board. During 2019–23 the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Edwards Aquifer Authority, mapped and described the geology and hydrostratigraphy of the rocks composing the Edwards and Trinity...
A multi-sensor approach to characterize winter water-level drawdown patterns in lakes
Abhishek Kumar, Allison H. Roy, Konstantinos Andreadis, Xinchen He, Caitlyn Butler
2024, Remote Sensing (16)
Artificial manipulation of lake water levels through practices like winter water-level drawdown (WD) is prevalent across many regions, but the spatiotemporal patterns are not well documented due to limited in situ monitoring. Multi-sensor satellite remote sensing provides an opportunity to map and analyze drawdown frequency and metrics (timing, magnitude, duration)...
Predicting redox conditions in groundwater at a national scale using random forest classification
Anthony J. Tesoriero, Susan Wherry, Danielle Dupuy, Tyler D. Johnson
2024, Environmental Science and Technology (58) 5079-5092
Redox conditions in groundwater may markedly affect the fate and transport of nutrients, volatile organic compounds, and trace metals, with significant implications for human health. While many local assessments of redox conditions have been made, the spatial variability of redox reaction rates makes the determination of redox conditions at regional...
Modeled coastal-ocean pathways of land-sourced contaminants in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence
Melissa Moulton, Joseph B. Zambon, Zuo Xue, John C. Warner, Daoyang Bao, Dongxiao Yin, Zafer Defne, Ruoying He, Christie Hegermiller
2024, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (129)
Extreme precipitation during Hurricane Florence, which made landfall in North Carolina in September 2018, led to breaches of hog waste lagoons, coal ash pits, and wastewater facilities. In the weeks following the storm, freshwater discharge carried pollutants, sediment, organic matter, and debris to the coastal ocean, contributing...
Small forested watershed weathers effects of climate change better than a nearby urban watershed in Northern Virginia, USA
Aaron J. Porter, Karen C Rice
2024, Hydrological Processes (38)
South Fork Quantico Creek (SFQ; 19.8 square kilometre (km2), forested) and Fourmile Run (4MR; 32.4-km2, urban) are small watersheds in northern Virginia, United States. Precipitation and streamflow data for both watersheds were examined from water year (WY) 1952 through 2022. Temporal changes in hydrologic...
Rising water temperature in rivers: Ecological impacts and future resilience
Matthew F. Johnson, Lindsey K. Albertson, Adam C. Algar, Stephen J. Dugdale, Patrick Edwards, Judy England, Christopher Gibbins, So Kazama, Daisuke Komori, Andrew Maccoll, Eric Arthur Scholl, Robert Wilby, Fabio de Oliveira Roque, Paul F. Wood
2024, WIREs Water (11)
Rising water temperatures in rivers due to climate change are already having observable impacts on river ecosystems. Warming water has both direct and indirect impacts on aquatic life, and further aggravates pervasive issues such as eutrophication, pollution, and the spread of disease. Animals can survive higher temperatures through physiological and/or...
Exploring landscape and geologic controls on spatial patterning of streambank groundwater discharge in a mixed land use watershed
Kevin E. Jackson, Eric M. Moore, Ashley M. Helton, Adam B. Haynes, Janet R. Barclay, Martin A. Briggs
2024, Hydrological Processes (38)
Preferential groundwater discharge features along stream corridors are ecologically important at local and stream network scales, yet we lack quantification of the multiscale controls on the spatial patterning of groundwater discharge. Here we identify physical attributes that best explain variation in the presence and...
Low flows from drought and water use reduced total dissolved solids fluxes in the Lower Colorado River Basin between 1976 to 2008
Annie L. Putman, Hannah Erin Mcilwain, Christine Rumsey, Thomas M. Marston
2024, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies (52)
Study area:We evaluated the Virgin, Verde, Salt, and Gila Rivers in the Lower Colorado River Basin. The watersheds have extents in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, US and Sonora, MX.Study focus:We calculated trends in total dissolved solids (TDS) concentrations...
Unravelling spatial heterogeneity of inundation pattern domains for 2D analysis of fluvial landscapes and drainage networks
Pierfranco Costabile, Carmelina Costanzo, Margherita Lombardo, Ethan J. Shavers, Larry Stanislawski
2024, Journal of Hydrology (632)
Fluvial landscape analysis is an essential part of geomorphology, hydrology, ecology, and cartography. It is traditionally focused on the transition between hillslopes and channel domain, in which the network drainage is represented by static flow lines. However, the natural fluctuations of the processes occurring in the watershed induce lateral and...
Seasonal and decadal subsurface thaw dynamics of an Aufeis feature investigated through numerical simulations
Alexi Lainis, Roseanna M. Neupauer, Joshua C. Koch, Michael Gooseff
2024, Hydrological Processes (38)
Aufeis (also known as icings) are large sheet-like masses of layered ice that form in river channels in arctic environments in the winter as groundwater discharges to the land surface and subsequently freezes. Aufeis are important sources of water for Arctic river ecosystems, bolstering late...
Insight into sources of benzene, TCE, and PFOA/PFAS in groundwater at Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Florida, through numerical particle-tracking simulations
Eric Swain, James E. Landmeyer, Michael A. Singletary , Shannon E. Provenzano
2024, Hydrology (11)
Past waste-disposal activities at Naval Air Station Whiting Field (NASWF) have led to elevated concentrations of contaminants in the underlying sand and gravel aquifer. Contaminants include two of the most commonly detected chemicals in groundwater in many countries (benzene and trichloroethylene (TCE)) and the “forever chemicals” per- and poly-fluoroalkyl...
The incredible HALK: borrowing data for age assignment
Paul N. Frater, Zachary S. Feiner, Gretchen J.A. Hansen, Daniel A. Isermann, Alexander W. Latzka, Olaf P. Jensen
2024, Fisheries Magazine (49) 117-128
Understanding age and growth are important for fisheries science and management; however, age data are not routinely collected for many populations. We propose and test a method of borrowing age–length data across increasingly broader spatiotemporal levels to create a hierarchical age–length key (HALK). We assessed this method by comparing growth...
Water resources inventory of the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, southeastern Arizona
Jon P. Mason
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5131
The Las Cienegas National Conservation Area was established by the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area Establishment Act of 1999 (Public Law 106–538) and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Located in southeastern Arizona, the conservation area contains more than 45,000 acres of rolling grassland, wetlands, and woodlands surrounded...
Simulation of groundwater and surface-water interaction and lake resiliency at Crystal Lake, City of Crystal Lake, Illinois
Amy M. Gahala, Emilia L. Bristow, Jennifer B. Sharpe, Benjamin G Metcalf, Lisa A. Matson
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5007
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the City of Crystal Lake, Illinois, started a study to increase understanding of groundwater and surface-water interaction between the glacial aquifer and the city’s namesake lake, Crystal Lake, and the effect of higher and lower precipitation conditions on groundwater and lake levels. The...
