Physiomorphic transformation in extreme endurance migrants: Revisiting the case of bar-tailed godwits preparing for trans-pacific flights
Theunis Piersma, Robert E. Gill Jr., Daniel R. Ruthrauff
2021, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (9)
In a 1998 paper entitled “Guts don’t fly: small digestive organs in obese bar-tailed godwits,” Piersma and Gill (1998) showed that the digestive organs were tiny and the fat loads huge in individuals suspected of embarking on a non-stop flight from Alaska to New Zealand. It was suggested that prior...
Assessment of a conservative mixing model for the evaluation of constituent behavior below river confluences, Elqui River Basin, Chile
Catalina Rossi, Jorge Oyarzun, Pablo Pasten, Robert L. Runkel, Jorge Núñez, Denisse Duhalde, Hugo Maturana, Eduardo Rojas, José L. Arumí, Daniela Castillo, Ricardo Oyarzun
2021, River Research and Applications (37) 967-978
Fate and transport modeling of water-borne contaminants is a data demanding and costly endeavor, requiring considerable expes such, it becomes important to know when a complex modeling approach is required, and when a simpler approach is adequate. This is the main objective herein, where a conservative mixing model is used...
Extensibility of U-net neural network model for hydrographic feature extraction and implications for hydrologic modeling
Larry V. Stanislawski, Ethan J. Shavers, Shaowen Wang, Zhe Jiang, E. Lynn Usery, Evan Moak, Alexander Duffy, Joel Schott
2021, Remote Sensing (13)
Accurate maps of regional surface water features are integral for advancing ecologic, atmospheric and land development studies. The only comprehensive surface water feature map of Alaska is the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). NHD features are often digitized representations of historic topographic map blue lines and may be outdated. Here we...
Bathymetry of New York City’s East of Hudson reservoirs and controlled lakes, 2017 to 2019
Elizabeth A. Nystrom, Courtney J. Huston, Robert J. Welk
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5057
New York City maintains an extensive system of reservoirs and aqueducts to provide drinking water to its residents, including 16 reservoirs and controlled lakes in Westchester and Putnam Counties in southern New York, east of the Hudson River (also called “East of Hudson reservoirs and controlled lakes”). These reservoirs were...
Permeable groundwater pathways and tritium migration patterns from the HANDLEY underground nuclear test, Pahute Mesa, Nevada
Tracie R. Jackson
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5032
The HANDLEY nuclear test was detonated at about 2,700 feet below the water table on March 26, 1970, in Pahute Mesa, south-central Nevada. Measured tritium concentrations in boreholes ER-20-12 and PM-3 indicate that a shallow tritium plume has migrated more than 1 mile (mi) downgradient from the HANDLEY test...
Incorporating water quality analysis into navigation assessments as demonstrated in the Mississippi River Basin
Barbara Kleiss, Jennifer C. Murphy, Casey M. Mayne, Jake P. Allgeier, Amanda B. Edmondson, Katrina C. Ginsberg, Keaton E. Jones, Timothy J. Lauth, Emily L. Moe, Julie W. Murphy, Mead Allison
2021, Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering (147)
A description of historical and ambient water quality conditions is often required as part of navigational studies. This paper describes a series of tools developed by the USGS that can aid navigation managers in developing water quality assessments. The tools use R, a statistical software program, and...
Most rivers and streams run dry every year
Kristin Jaeger
2021, Nature (594) 335-336
The flowing waters of surface rivers and streams efficiently transport sediment, organic material and nutrients, among other things, from hillsides and overland areas to downstream lakes, reservoirs and the ocean. Along the way, rivers and streams (hereafter referred to collectively as streams) provide important resources for our communities and support...
Evaluation of techniques for mitigating snowmelt infiltration-induced landsliding in a highway embankment
Eric Hinds, Ning Lu, Benjamin B. Mirus, Jonathan W. Godt, Alexandra Wayllace
2021, Engineering Geology (291)
Infiltration-induced landslides threaten transportation infrastructure around the world, and impose both direct costs through repair and remediation work and indirect costs through lost economic activity. Therefore, finding the most cost-effective techniques to mitigate slope failures that can impact critical infrastructure links is desirable. The Straight Creek landslide, which affects a...
Land use change influences ecosystem function in headwater streams of the Lowland Amazon Basin
Kathi Jo Jankowski, Linda A. Deegan, Christopher Neill, HIllary L. Sullivan, Paulo Ilha, Leonardo Maracahipes-Santos, Nubia C.S. Marques, Marcia N. Macedo
2021, Water (13)
Intensive agriculture alters headwater streams, but our understanding of its effects is limited in tropical regions where rates of agricultural expansion and intensification are currently greatest. Riparian forest protections are an important conservation tool, but whether they provide adequate protection of stream function in these areas of rapid tropical agricultural...
Cyanotoxin occurrence in the United States: A 20 year retrospective
Jennifer L. Graham
2021, Lakeline (41) 8-11
Cyanobacterial blooms, and associated cyanotoxin occurrence, are a concern because of the potential harms posed to humans, wildlife, and aquatic ecosystem health. Evidence suggests the magnitude, frequency, and duration of cyanobacterial blooms are increasing, and these events represent a significant challenge to freshwaters and, increasingly, marine waters, worldwide. Cyanobacterial blooms...
Movement of sediment through a burned landscape: Sediment volume observations and model comparisons in the San Gabriel Mountains, California, USA
Francis K. Rengers, Luke A. McGuire, Jason W. Kean, Dennis M. Staley, Mariana Dobre, Peter R. Robichaud, Tyson Swetnam
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research (126)
Post-wildfire changes to hydrologic and geomorphic systems can lead to widespread sediment redistribution. Understanding how sediment moves through a watershed is crucial for assessing hazards, developing debris flow inundation models, engineering sediment retention solutions, and quantifying the role that disturbances play in landscape evolution. In this study,...
Is there an urban pesticide signature? Urban streams in five U.S. regions share common dissolved-phase pesticides but differ in predicted aquatic toxicity
Lisa H. Nowell, Patrick W. Moran, Laura M. Bexfield, Barbara Mahler, Peter C. Van Metre, Paul M. Bradley, Travis S. Schmidt, Daniel T. Button, Sharon L. Qi
2021, Science of the Total Environment (793)
Pesticides occur in urban streams globally, but the relation of occurrence to urbanization can be obscured by regional differences. In studies of five regions of the United States, we investigated the effect of region and urbanization on the occurrence and potential toxicity of dissolved...
Effects of tidally varying river flow on entrainment of juvenile salmon into Sutter and Steamboat Sloughs
Jason G. Romine, Russell Perry, Paul Stumpner, Aaron R. Blake, Jon R. Burau
2021, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (19) 1-17
Survival of juvenile salmonids in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta (Delta) varies by migration route, and thus the proportion of fish that use each route affects overall survival through the Delta. Understanding factors that drive routing at channel junctions along the Sacramento River...
Streambank erosion and related geomorphic change in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, California
Stephen B. DeLong, Alexandra J. Pickering, Timothy Kuhn
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5025
Landscape change in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, California, was characterized using data derived from four lidar surveys: one airborne survey in 2006 and three terrestrial surveys in 2016, 2017, and 2018. These surveys were used to generate a better quantitative understanding of changes associated with fluvial processes along the...
Seasonal controls on sediment delivery and hydrodynamics in a vegetated tidally influenced interdistributary island
Richard Styles, Gregg Snedden, S. Jarrell Smith, Duncan B. Bryant, Brandon M. Boyd, Joseph Z. Gailani, Brady Couvillion, Edward Race
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (126)
River deltas are maintained by a continuous supply of terrestrial sediments that provide critical land building material to help sustain and protect vulnerable ecological communities and serve as natural storm protection barriers. Local hydrodynamics are important in determining the degree to which fluvial sediments are removed from...
Use of the MODFLOW 6 water mover package to represent natural and managed hydrologic connections
Eric D. Morway, Christian D. Langevin, Joseph D. Hughes
2021, Groundwater (59) 913-924
The latest release of MODFLOW 6, the current core version of the MODFLOW groundwater modeling software, debuted a new package dubbed the “mover” (MVR). Using a generalized approach, MVR facilitates the transfer of water among any arbitrary combination of simulated features (i.e., pumping wells, stream, drains,...
Advancing estuarine ecological forecasts: Seasonal hypoxia in Chesapeake Bay
Donald Scavia, Isabella Bertani, Jeremy M. Testa, Aaron J. Bever, Joel D. Blomquist, Marjorie A. M. Friedrichs, Lewis C. Linker, Bruce Michael, Rebecca Murphy, Gary W. Shenk
2021, Ecological Applications (31)
Ecological forecasts are quantitative tools that can guide ecosystem management. The coemergence of extensive environmental monitoring and quantitative frameworks allows for widespread development and continued improvement of ecological forecasting systems. We use a relatively simple estuarine hypoxia model to demonstrate advances in addressing some of the...
Effects of climate and land-use change on thermal springs recharge—A system-based coupled surface-water and groundwater-flow model for Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
Rheannon M. Hart, Scott J. Ikard, Phillip D. Hays, Brian R. Clark
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5045
A three-dimensional hydrogeologic framework of the Hot Springs anticlinorium beneath Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas, was constructed to represent the complex hydrogeology of the park and surrounding areas to depths exceeding 9,000 feet below ground surface. The framework, composed of 6 rock formations and 1 vertical fault emplaced beneath the...
Response of fish assemblages to restoration of rapids habitat in a Great Lakes connecting channel
A. Molina-Moctezuma, N. Godby, K. Kapuscinski, Edward F. Roseman, K. Skubik, A. Moerke
2021, Journal of Great Lakes Research (47) 1182-1191
Rapids habitats are critical spawning and nursery grounds for multiple Laurentian Great Lakes fishes of ecological importance such as lake sturgeon, walleye, and salmonids. However, river modifications have destroyed important rapids habitat in connecting channels by modifying flow profiles and removing large quantities of cobble and gravel that are preferred...
Integrating thermal infrared stream temperature imagery and spatial stream network models to understand natural spatial thermal variability in streams
Matthew R. Fuller, Joseph L. Ebersole, Naomi Detenbeck, Rochelle Labisoa, P.T. Leinenbach, Christian E. Torgersen
2021, Journal of Thermal Biology (100)
Under a warmer future climate, thermal refuges could facilitate the persistence of species relying on cold-water habitat. Often these refuges are small and easily missed or smoothed out by averaging in models. Thermal infrared (TIR) imagery can provide empirical water surface...
Nuclear magnetic resonanance logs of fractured bedrock at the Hidden Lane Landfill site, Culpeper Basin, Virginia
Carole D. Johnson, Stephanie N. Phillips, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, Claire R. Tiedeman, Bruce Rundell, Edward Gilbert
2021, Conference Paper, Symposium on the application of geophysics to engineering and environmental problems proceedings
In May 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) collected borehole nuclear magnetic resonance (bNMR) logs in three boreholes completed in sandstone and siltstone of the Balls Bluff Member of the Bull Run Formation at a Superfund Site in Culpeper Basin, Virginia....
Abundance of Gulf Coast Waterdogs (Necturus beyeri) along Bayou Lacombe, Saint Tammany Parish, Louisiana
Brad Glorioso, Hardin Waddle, Lindy J. Muse, Sidney T Godfrey
2021, Journal of Herpetology (55) 160-166
Few ecological studies have been conducted on Gulf Coast Waterdogs (Necturus beyeri), and published studies have focused on relatively small stream sections of 125 m to 1.75 km. In 2015, we sampled 25 sites along a 13.4-km stretch of Bayou Lacombe (Saint Tammany Parish, Louisiana,...
Assessment of streamflow and water quality in the Upper Yampa River Basin, Colorado, 1992–2018
Natalie K. Day
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5016
The Upper Yampa River Basin drains approximately 2,100 square miles west of the Continental Divide in north-western Colorado. There is a growing need to understand potential changes in the quantity and quality of water resources as the basin is undergoing increasing land and water development to support growing municipal, industrial,...
The biophysical role of water and ice within permafrost nearing collapse: Insights from novel geophysical observations
Stephanie R. James, Burke J. Minsley, Jack McFarland, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Colin W. Edgar, Mark Waldrop
2021, JGR Earth Surface (126)
The impact of permafrost thaw on hydrologic, thermal, and biotic processes remains uncertain, in part due to limitations in subsurface measurement capabilities. To better understand subsurface processes in thermokarst environments, we collocated geophysical and biogeochemical instruments along a thaw gradient between forested permafrost and collapse-scar bogs at the Alaska Peatland...
Evaluation of remote mapping techniques for earthquake-triggered landslide inventories in an urban subarctic environment: A case study of the 2018 Anchorage, Alaska Earthquake
Sabrina N. Martinez, Lauren N. Schaefer, Kate E. Allstadt, Eric M. Thompson
2021, Frontiers Earth Science Journal (9)
Earthquake-induced landslide inventories can be generated using field observations but doing so can be challenging if the affected landscape is large or inaccessible after an earthquake. Remote sensing data can be used to help overcome these limitations. The effectiveness of remotely sensed data to produce landslide inventories, however,...
