Water storage at the Panola Mountain Research Watershed, Georgia, USA
N.E. Peters, Brent T. Aulenbach
2011, Hydrological Processes (25) 3878-3889
Storage is a major component of a catchment water balance particularly when the water balance components are evaluated on short time scales, that is, less than annual. We propose a method of determining the storage-discharge relation using an exponential function and daily precipitation, potential evapotranspiration (PET) and baseflow during the...
Hydrologic response of catchments to precipitation: Quantification of mechanical carriers and origins of water
Y.-J. Park, E.A. Sudicky, A.E. Brookfield, J.P. Jones
2011, Water Resources Research (47)
Precipitation-induced overland and groundwater flow and mixing processes are quantified to analyze the temporal (event and pre-event water) and spatial (groundwater discharge and overland runoff) origins of water entering a stream. Using a distributed-parameter control volume finite-element simulator that can simultaneously solve the fully coupled partial differential equations describing 2-D...
Rangewide phylogeography and landscape genetics of the Western U.S. endemic frog Rana boylii (Ranidae): Implications for the conservation of frogs and rivers
A.J. Lind, P.Q. Spinks, G. M. Fellers, H.B. Shaffer
2011, Conservation Genetics (12) 269-284
Genetic data are increasingly being used in conservation planning for declining species. We sampled both the ecological and distributional limits of the foothill yellow-legged frog, Rana boylii to characterize mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation in this declining, riverine amphibian. We evaluated 1525 base pairs (bp) of cytochrome b and ND2 fragments...
Comparison of bottom-track to global positioning system referenced discharges measured using an acoustic Doppler current profiler
Chad R. Wagner, David S. Mueller
2011, Journal of Hydrology (401) 250-258
A negative bias in discharge measurements made with an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) can be caused by the movement of sediment on or near the streambed. The integration of a global positioning system (GPS) to track the movement of the ADCP can be used to avoid the systematic negative...
Assessing the detail needed to capture rainfall-runoff dynamics with physics-based hydrologic response simulation
B.B. Mirus, B.A. Ebel, C.S. Heppner, K. Loague
2011, Water Resources Research (47)
Concept development simulation with distributed, physics-based models provides a quantitative approach for investigating runoff generation processes across environmental conditions. Disparities within data sets employed to design and parameterize boundary value problems used in heuristic simulation inevitably introduce various levels of bias. The objective was to evaluate the impact of boundary...
Inversion of multi-frequency electromagnetic induction data for 3D characterization of hydraulic conductivity
Troy R. Brosten, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, Gregory M. Schultz, Gary P. Curtis, John W. Lane Jr.
2011, Journal of Applied Geophysics (73) 323-335
Electromagnetic induction (EMI) instruments provide rapid, noninvasive, and spatially dense data for characterization of soil and groundwater properties. Data from multi-frequency EMI tools can be inverted to provide quantitative electrical conductivity estimates as a function of depth. In this study, multi-frequency EMI data collected across an abandoned uranium mill site...
Estimating trends in alligator populations from nightlight survey data
Ikuko Fujisaki, F.J. Mazzotti, R.M. Dorazio, Kenneth G. Rice, M. Cherkiss, B. Jeffery
2011, Wetlands (31) 147-155
Nightlight surveys are commonly used to evaluate status and trends of crocodilian populations, but imperfect detection caused by survey- and location-specific factors makes it difficult to draw population inferences accurately from uncorrected data. We used a two-stage hierarchical model comprising population abundance and detection probability to examine recent abundance trends...
Exchange of groundwater and surface-water mediated by permafrost response to seasonal and long term air temperature variation
S. Ge, J. McKenzie, C. Voss, Q. Wu
2011, Geophysical Research Letters (38)
Permafrost dynamics impact hydrologic cycle processes by promoting or impeding groundwater and surface water exchange. Under seasonal and decadal air temperature variations, permafrost temperature changes control the exchanges between groundwater and surface water. A coupled heat transport and groundwater flow model, SUTRA, was modified to simulate groundwater flow and heat...
Vegetation index-based crop coefficients to estimate evapotranspiration by remote sensing in agricultural and natural ecosystems
E. P. Glenn, C. M. U. Neale, D.J. Hunsaker, P.L. Nagler
2011, Hydrological Processes (25) 4050-4062
Crop coefficients were developed to determine crop water needs based on the evapotranspiration (ET) of a reference crop under a given set of meteorological conditions. Starting in the 1980s, crop coefficients developed through lysimeter studies or set by expert opinion began to be supplemented by remotely sensed vegetation indices (VI)...
Estimating basin scale evapotranspiration (ET) by water balance and remote sensing methods
G.B. Senay, S. Leake, P.L. Nagler, G. Artan, J. Dickinson, J.T. Cordova, E. P. Glenn
2011, Hydrological Processes (25) 4037-4049
Evapotranspiration (ET) is an important hydrological process that can be studied and estimated at multiple spatial scales ranging from a leaf to a river basin. We present a review of methods in estimating basin scale ET and its applications in understanding basin water balance dynamics. The review focuses on two...
Re-establishing marshes can return carbon sink functions to a current carbon source in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of California, USA
Robin L. Miller, Roger Fujii
Paul E. Schmidt, editor(s)
2011, Book chapter, River deltas: Types, structures and ecology
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California was an historic, vast inland freshwater wetland, where organic soils almost 20 meters deep formed over the last several millennia as the land surface elevation of marshes kept pace with sea level rise. A system of levees and pumps were installed in the late...
Assessing field-scale biogeophysical signatures of bioremediation over a mature crude oil spill
Lee Slater, Dimitrios Ntarlagiannis, Estella Atekwana, Farag Mewafy, Andre Revil, Magnus Skold, Yuri Gorby, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, John W. Lane Jr., Dale D. Werkema, Jared J. Trost, Geoffrey N. Delin, William N. Herkelrath
H.V. Rectanus, R. Sirabian, editor(s)
2011, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the first international symposium on bioremediation and sustainable environmental technologies
We conducted electrical geophysical measurements at the National Crude Oil Spill Fate and Natural Attenuation Research Site (Bemidji, MN). Borehole and surface self-potential measurements do not show evidence for the existence of a biogeobattery mechanism in response to the redox gradient resulting from biodegradation of oil. The relatively small self...
Alteration of streamflow magnitudes and potential ecological consequences: A multiregional assessment
Daren M. Carlisle, David M. Wolock, Michael R. Meador
2011, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (9) 264-270
Human impacts on watershed hydrology are widespread in the US, but the prevalence and severity of stream-flow alteration and its potential ecological consequences have not been quantified on a national scale. We assessed streamflow alteration at 2888 streamflow monitoring sites throughout the conterminous US. The magnitudes of mean annual (1980–2007)...
Potential increase in floods in California's Sierra Nevada under future climate projections
T. Das, M. D. Dettinger, D.R. Cayan, H.G. Hidalgo
2011, Climatic Change (109) 71-94
California’s mountainous topography, exposure to occasional heavily moisture-laden storm systems, and varied communities and infrastructures in low lying areas make it highly vulnerable to floods. An important question facing the state—in terms of protecting the public and formulating water management responses to climate change—is “how might future climate changes affect...
The rise and fall of Lake Bonneville between 45 and 10.5 ka
L. V. Benson, S.P. Lund, J. P. Smoot, D.E. Rhode, R. J. Spencer, K.L. Verosub, L.A. Louderback, C. A. Johnson, R. O. Rye, R.M. Negrini
2011, Quaternary International (235) 57-69
A sediment core taken from the western edge of the Bonneville Basin has provided high-resolution proxy records of relative lake-size change for the period 45.1–10.5 calendar ka (hereafter ka). Age control was provided by a paleomagnetic secular variation (PSV)-based age model for Blue Lake core BL04-4. Continuous records of δ18O...
Alteration of streamflow magnitudes and potential ecological consequences: A multiregional assessment
Daren M. Carlisle, David M. Wolock, Michael R. Meador
2011, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (9) 264-270
Human impacts on watershed hydrology are widespread in the US, but the prevalence and severity of stream‐flow alteration and its potential ecological consequences have not been quantified on a national scale. We assessed streamflow alteration at 2888 streamflow monitoring sites throughout the conterminous US. The magnitudes of mean annual (1980–2007)...
Waste isolation and contaminant migration - Tools and techniques for monitoring the saturated zone-unsaturated zone-plant-atmosphere continuum
Brian J. Andraski, David A. Stonestrom
T.J. Nicholson, H.D. Arlt, editor(s)
2011, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the workshop on engineered barrier performance related to low-level radioactive waste, decommissioning, and uranium mill tailings facilities (NUREG/CP-0195)
In 1976 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began studies of unsaturated zone hydrology next to the Nation’s first commercial disposal facility for low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) near Beatty, NV. Recognizing the need for long-term data collection, the USGS in 1983 established research management areas in the vicinity of the waste-burial...
Natural radium and radon tracers to quantify water exchange and movement in reservoirs
Christopher G. Smith
Mark Baskaran, editor(s)
2011, Book chapter, Handbook of environmental isotope geochemistry
Radon and radium isotopes are routinely used to quantify exchange rates between different hydrologic reservoirs. Since their recognition as oceanic tracers in the 1960s, both radon and radium have been used to examine processes such as air-sea exchange, deep oceanic mixing, benthic inputs, and many others. Recently, the application of...
Estimating trends in alligator populations from nightlight survey data
Ikuko Fujisaki, Frank J. Mazzotti, Robert M. Dorazio, Kenneth G. Rice, Michael Cherkiss, Brian Jeffery
2011, Wetlands (31) 147-155
Nightlight surveys are commonly used to evaluate status and trends of crocodilian populations, but imperfect detection caused by survey- and location-specific factors makes it difficult to draw population inferences accurately from uncorrected data. We used a two-stage hierarchical model comprising population abundance and detection probability to examine recent abundance trends...
Evaluation of TRIGRS (transient rainfall infiltration and grid-based regional slope-stability analysis)'s predictive skill for hurricane-triggered landslides: A case study in Macon County, North Carolina
Z. Liao, Y. Hong, D. Kirschbaum, R.F. Adler, J.J. Gourley, R. Wooten
2011, Natural Hazards (58) 325-339
The key to advancing the predictability of rainfall-triggered landslides is to use physically based slope-stability models that simulate the transient dynamical response of the subsurface moisture to spatiotemporal variability of rainfall in complex terrains. TRIGRS (transient rainfall infiltration and grid-based regional slope-stability analysis) is a USGS landslide prediction model, coded...
Influence of dissolved organic matter on the environmental fate of metals, nanoparticles, and colloids
George R. Aiken, Heileen Hsu-Kim, Joseph N. Ryan
2011, Environmental Science & Technology (45) 3196-3201
We have known for decades that dissolved organic matter (DOM) plays a critical role in the biogeochemical cycling of trace metals and the mobility of colloidal particles in aquatic environments. In recent years, concerns about the ecological and human health effects of metal-based engineered nanoparticles released into natural waters have...
Effects of the antimicrobial sulfamethoxazole on groundwater bacterial enrichment
Jennifer C. Underwood, Ronald W. Harvey, David W. Metge, Deborah A. Repert, Laura K. Baumgartner, Richard L. Smith, Timberly M. Roane, Larry B. Barber
2011, Environmental Science & Technology (45) 3096-3101
The effects of “trace” (environmentally relevant) concentrations of the antimicrobial agent sulfamethoxazole (SMX) on the growth, nitrate reduction activity, and bacterial composition of an enrichment culture prepared with groundwater from a pristine zone of a sandy drinking-water aquifer on Cape Cod, MA, were assessed by laboratory incubations. When the enrichments...
Simulating effects of microtopography on wetland specific yield and hydroperiod
David M. Summer
Xixi Wang, editor(s)
2011, Book chapter, Modeling hydrologic effects of microtopographic features
Specific yield and hydroperiod have proven to be useful parameters in hydrologic analysis of wetlands. Specific yield is a critical parameter to quantitatively relate hydrologic fluxes (e.g., rainfall, evapotranspiration, and runoff) and water level changes. Hydroperiod measures the temporal variability and frequency of land-surface inundation. Conventionally, hydrologic analyses used these...
Fluorescent microspheres as surrogates in evaluating the efficacy of riverbank filtration for removing Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts and other pathogens
Ronald W. Harvey, David W. Metge, Rodney A. Sheets, Jay Jasperse
2011, Book chapter, Riverbank filtration for water security in desert countries. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security
A major benefit of riverbank filtration (RBF) is that it provides a relatively effective means for pathogen removal. There is a need to conduct more injection-and-recovery transport studies at operating RBF sites in order to properly assess the combined effects of the site heterogeneities and ambient physicochemical conditions, which are...
The distribution and abundance of a nuisance native alga, Didymosphen Didymosphenia geminata, in streams of Glacier National Park: Climate drivers and management implications
Schweiger E. William, I.W. Ashton, C.C. Muhlfeld, L.A. Jones, L.L. Bahls
2011, Park Science (28)
Didymosphenia geminata (didymo) is a freshwater alga native to North America, including Glacier National Park, Montana. It has long been considered a cold-water species, but has recently spread to lower latitudes and warmer waters, and increasingly forms large blooms that cover streambeds. We used a comprehensive monitoring data set from...
