Removal of inorganic mercury and methylmercury from surface waters following coagulation of dissolved organic matter with metal-based salts
Y.K. Henneberry, T.E.C. Kraus, J.A. Fleck, David P. Krabbenhoft, P.M. Bachand, W.R. Horwath
2011, Science of the Total Environment (409) 631-637
The presence of inorganic mercury (IHg) and methylmercury (MeHg) in surface waters is a health concern worldwide. This study assessed the removal potential use of metal-based coagulants as a means to remove both dissolved IHg and MeHg from natural waters and provides information regarding the importance of Hg associations with...
Trends in pesticide concentrations in streams of the western United States, 1993-2005
Henry M. Johnson, Joseph L. Domagalski, Dina Saleh
2011, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (47) 265-286
Trends in pesticide concentrations for 15 streams in California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho were determined for the organophosphate insecticides chlorpyrifos and diazinon and the herbicides atrazine, s‐ethyl diproplythiocarbamate (EPTC), metolachlor, simazine, and trifluralin. A parametric regression model was used to account for flow, seasonality, and antecedent hydrologic conditions and thereby...
The importance of warm season warming to western U.S. streamflow changes
T. Das, D.W. Pierce, D.R. Cayan, J.A. Vano, D.P. Lettenmaier
2011, Geophysical Research Letters (38)
Warm season climate warming will be a key driver of annual streamflow changes in four major river basins of the western U.S., as shown by hydrological model simulations using fixed precipitation and idealized seasonal temperature changes based on climate projections with SRES A2 forcing. Warm season (April-September) warming reduces streamflow...
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...
NETPATH-WIN: an interactive user version of the mass-balance model, NETPATH
A. I. El-Kadi, Niel Plummer, P. Aggarwal
2011, Ground Water (49) 593-599
NETPATH-WIN is an interactive user version of NETPATH, an inverse geochemical modeling code used to find mass-balance reaction models that are consistent with the observed chemical and isotopic composition of waters from aquatic systems. NETPATH-WIN was constructed to migrate NETPATH applications into the Microsoft WINDOWS® environment. The new version facilitates...
Soil-geomorphic significance of land surface characteristics in an arid mountain range, Mojave Desert, USA
D.R. Hirmas, R.C. Graham, K.J. Kendrick
2011, Catena (87) 408-420
Mountains comprise an extensive and visually prominent portion of the landscape in the Mojave Desert, California. Landform surface properties influence the role these mountains have in geomorphic processes such as dust flux and surface hydrology across the region. The primary goal of this study was to describe and quantify land...
Modeling hydrologic and geomorphic hazards across post-fire landscapes using a self-organizing map approach
Michael J. Friedel
2011, Environmental Modelling and Software (26) 1660-1674
Few studies attempt to model the range of possible post-fire hydrologic and geomorphic hazards because of the sparseness of data and the coupled, nonlinear, spatial, and temporal relationships among landscape variables. In this study, a type of unsupervised artificial neural network, called a self-organized map (SOM), is trained using data...
Self-potential investigations of a gravel bar in a restored river corridor
N. Linde, J. Doetsch, D. Jougnot, O. Genoni, Y. Durst, B. J. Minsley, T. Vogt, N. Pasquale, J. Luster
2011, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (15) 729-742
Self-potentials (SP) are sensitive to water fluxes and concentration gradients in both saturated and unsaturated geological media, but quantitative interpretations of SP field data may often be hindered by the superposition of different source contributions and time-varying electrode potentials. Self-potential mapping and close to two months of SP monitoring on...
Nest success of snowy plovers (Charadrius nivosus) in the Southern high plains of Texas
S.T. Saalfeld, Warren C. Conway, D.A. Haukos, W.P. Johnson
2011, Waterbirds (34) 389-399
Snowy Plovers (Charadrius nivosus) nesting on edges of saline lakes within the Southern High Plains (SHP) of Texas are threatened by habitat degradation due to reduced artesian spring flow, making many saline lakes unsuitable for nesting and migrating shorebirds. Factors influencing nest success were evaluated, current nest success estimates in...
New insights from well responses to fluctuations in barometric pressure
J.J. Butler, W. Jin, G.A. Mohammed, E.C. Reboulet
2011, Ground Water (49) 525-533
Hydrologists have long recognized that changes in barometric pressure can produce changes in water levels in wells. The barometric response function (BRF) has proven to be an effective means to characterize this relationship; we show here how it can also be utilized to glean valuable insights into semi-confined aquifer systems....
An improved understanding of the Alaska coastal current: The application of a bivalve growth-temperature model to reconstruct freshwater-influenced paleoenvironments
N. Hallmann, B.R. Schone, G.V. Irvine, M. Burchell, E.D. Cokelet, M.R. Hilton
2011, Palaios (26) 346-363
Shells of intertidal bivalve mollusks contain sub-seasonally to interannually resolved records of temperature and salinity variations in coastal settings. Such data are essential to understand changing land-sea interactions through time, specifically atmospheric (precipitation rate, glacial meltwater, river discharge) and oceanographic circulation patterns; however, independent temperature and salinity proxies are currently...
Microtopography enhances nitrogen cycling and removal in created mitigation wetlands
K.L. Wolf, C. Ahn, G.B. Noe
2011, Ecological Engineering (37) 1398-1406
Natural wetlands often have a heterogeneous soil surface topography, or microtopography (MT), that creates microsites of variable hydrology, vegetation, and soil biogeochemistry. Created mitigation wetlands are designed to mimic natural wetlands in structure and function, and recent mitigation projects have incorporated MT as one way to attain this goal. Microtopography...
Simulating the potential effects of climate change in two Colorado basins and at two Colorado ski areas
William Battaglin, Lauren E. Hay, Steve Markstrom
2011, Earth Interactions (15) 1-23
The mountainous areas of Colorado are used for tourism and recreation, and they provide water storage and supply for municipalities, industries, and agriculture. Recent studies suggest that water supply and tourist industries such as skiing are at risk from climate change. In this study, a distributed-parameter watershed model, the Precipitation-Runoff...
Field tracer investigation of unsaturated zone flow paths and mechanisms in agricultural soils of northwestern Mississippi, USA
K. S. Perkins, J. R. Nimmo, C.E. Rose, R.H. Coupe
2011, Journal of Hydrology (396) 1-11
In many farmed areas, intensive application of agricultural chemicals and withdrawal of groundwater for irrigation have led to water quality and supply issues. Unsaturated-zone processes, including preferential flow, play a major role in these effects but are not well understood. In the Bogue Phalia basin, an intensely agricultural area in...
Spatial variation in transient water table responses: Differences between an upper and lower hillslope zone
D.R.W. Haught, H. J. Van Meerveld
2011, Hydrological Processes (25) 3866-3877
To better understand storage-runoff dynamics, transient groundwater responses were examined in one of the steep watersheds in British Columbia's coastal mountains. Streamflow and piezometric data were collected for 1year to determine the spatial and temporal relations between transient groundwater levels and discharge. Correlations between piezometer responses and lag-time analysis were...
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...
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...
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...
Using Cl/Br ratios and other indicators to assess potential impacts on groundwater quality from septic systems: A review and examples from principal aquifers in the United States
B. G. Katz, S. M. Eberts, L. J. Kauffman
2011, Journal of Hydrology (397) 151-166
A detailed review was made of chemical indicators used to identify impacts from septic tanks on groundwater quality. Potential impacts from septic tank leachate on groundwater quality were assessed using the mass ratio of chloride–bromide (Cl/Br), concentrations of selected chemical constituents, and ancillary information (land use, census data, well...
Source identification of Florida Bay's methylmercury problem: Mainland runoff versus atmospheric deposition and in situ production
Darren G. Rumbold, David W. Evans, Sharon Niemczyk, Larry E. Fink, Krysten A. Laine, Nicole Howard, David P. Krabbenhoft, Mark Zucker
2011, Estuaries and Coasts (34) 494-513
The first advisory to limit consumption of Florida Bay fish due to mercury was issued in 1995. Studies done by others in the late 1990s found elevated water column concentrations of both total Hg (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) in creeks discharging from the Everglades, which had its own recognized mercury...
Effect of land cover change on runoff curve number estimation in Iowa, 1832-2001
Loren L. Wehmeyer, Frank H. Weirich, Thomas F. Cuffney
2011, Ecohydrology (4) 315-321
Within the first few decades of European-descended settlers arriving in Iowa, much of the land cover across the state was transformed from prairie and forest to farmland, patches of forest, and urbanized areas. Land cover change over the subsequent 126 years was minor in comparison. Between 1832 and 1859, the...
Estimation of selected seasonal streamflow statistics representative of 1930–2002 in West Virginia
Jeffrey B. Wiley, John T. Atkins
2010, Scientific Investigations Report 2010-5185
Regional equations and procedures were developed for estimating seasonal 1-day 10-year, 7-day 10-year, and 30-day 5-year hydrologically based low-flow frequency values for unregulated streams in West Virginia. Regional equations and procedures also were developed for estimating the seasonal U.S. Environmental Protection Agency harmonic-mean flows and the 50-percent flow-duration values. The...
The 7Q10 in South Carolina water-quality regulation: Nearly fifty years later
Toby D. Feaster, Wade M. Cantrell
2010, Conference Paper
The annual minimum 7-day average streamflow with a 10-year recurrence interval, often referred to as the 7Q10, has a long history of being an important low-flow statistic used in water-quality management in South Carolina as evidenced by its adoption into South Carolina law in 1967. State agencies, such as the...
Development of inferential sensors for real-time quality control of water-level data for the Everglades Depth Estimation Network
Ruby C. Daamen, Jr. Edwin A. Roehl, Paul Conrads
2010, Conference Paper
The Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN) is an integrated network of real-time water-level gaging stations, ground-elevation models, and watersurface models designed to provide scientists, engineers, and water-resource managers with current (2000-present) water-depth information for the entire freshwater portion of the greater Everglades. The generation of EDEN waterlevel surfaces is derived...
Seasonal and decadal-scale channel evolution on the dammed Elwha River, Washington
Amy E. Draut, Joshua B. Logan, Mark C. Mastin, Randall E. McCoy
2010, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the Joint Federal Interagency Conference 2010: Hydrology and sedimentation for a changing future: Existing and emerging issues
More than 75,000 dams exist in the continental United States to provide water storage, flood control, and hydropower generation (Graf, 1999). Many of these were built during the early twentieth century and are due for relicensing consideration now and in the near future. The cost of repairing aging dams, together...