Restoration of rapids habitat in a Great Lakes connecting channel, the St. Marys River, Michigan
A. Molina-Moctezuma, E. Ellis, K. Kapuscinski, Edward F. Roseman, T. Heatlie, A. Moerke
2020, Restoration Ecology (29)
Aquatic habitat has been extensively altered throughout the Laurentian Great Lakes to increase navigation connectivity. In particular, the St. Marys River, a Great Lakes connecting channel, lost >50% of its historic rapids habitat over the past century. In 2016, the natural flow was restored to the...
Detecting cover crop end-of-season using VENµS and sentinel-2 satellite imagery
Feng Gao, Martha Anderson, W. Dean Hively
2020, Remote Sensing (12)
Cover crops are planted during the off-season to protect the soil and improve watershed management. The ability to map cover crop termination dates over agricultural landscapes is essential for quantifying conservation practice implementation, and enabling estimation of biomass accumulation during the active cover period. Remote sensing detection of end-of-season (termination)...
Statistical methods in water resources
Dennis R. Helsel, Robert M. Hirsch, Karen R. Ryberg, Stacey A. Archfield, Edward J. Gilroy
2020, Techniques and Methods 4-A3
This text began as a collection of class notes for a course on applied statistical methods for hydrologists taught at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Training Center. Course material was formalized and organized into a textbook, first published in 1992 by Elsevier as part of their Studies in Environmental...
Water resources in the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal jurisdictional area, west-central Oklahoma, with an analysis of data gaps through 2015
Carol Becker, Matthew S. Varonka
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5105
This report provides an overview of existing hydrologic information describing the quality, quantity, and extent of the major surface-water and groundwater resources in the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal jurisdictional area, west-central Oklahoma. Hydrologic information is provided for five major river systems (Cimarron River, North Canadian River, Canadian River, Washita River,...
Meeting the challenge: U.S. Geological Survey North Atlantic and Appalachian Region fiscal year 2020 in review
U.S. Geological Survey
2020, General Information Product 207
The utilization, preservation, and conservation of the Nation’s resources requires well-informed management decisions. The North Atlantic and Appalachian Region (NAAR) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) supports science-based decision making for Federal, State, and local policymakers to meet the challenges of today and into the future. The science centers in...
Hydrogeology and groundwater flow in alluvial deposits, north Summerset, South Dakota
William G. Eldridge, Todd M. Anderson
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5097
The city of Summerset is a growing community in west South Dakota. The Sun Valley Estates subdivision in the north part of the city was developed on unconsolidated deposits surrounded by steep terrain. During years with greater than normal precipitation, particularly in 2019, groundwater levels increased in the unconsolidated deposits...
Outsized nutrient contributions from small tributaries to a Great Lake
Robert J Mooney, Emily H. Stanley, William C. Rosenthal, Peter C. Esselman, Anthony D Kendall, Peter B. McIntyre
2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (117)
Excessive nutrient inputs from tributary streams and rivers contribute to harmful algal blooms and coastal ecosystem degradation worldwide. However, the role that small tributaries play in coastal nutrient dynamics remains unknown because most monitoring and regulatory efforts focus only on the largest tributaries. We combined a 6-d sampling...
Lava–water interaction and hydrothermal activity within the 2014–2015 Holuhraun Lava Flow Field, Iceland
Colin M. Dundas, Laszlo P. Keszthelyi, Einat Lev, M. Elise Rumpf, Christopher W. Hamilton, Armann Hoskuldsson, Thorvaldur Thordarson
2020, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (408)
Lava that erupted during the 2014–2015 Holuhraun eruption in Iceland flowed into a proglacial river system, resulting in aqueous cooling of the lava and an ephemeral hydrothermal system. We carried out a monitoring study of this system from 2015 to 2018...
Thermokarst amplifies fluvial inorganic carbon cycling and export across watershed scales on the Peel Plateau, Canada
Scott Zolkos, Suzanne E. Tank, Robert G. Striegl, Steven V. Kokelj, Justin Kokszka, Cristian Estop-Aragones, David Olefeldt
2020, Biogeosciences (17) 5163-5182
As climate warming and precipitation increase at high latitudes, permafrost terrains across the circumpolar north are poised for intensified geomorphic activity and sediment mobilization that are expected to persist for millennia. In previously glaciated permafrost terrain, ice-rich deposits are associated with large stores of reactive mineral substrate. Over geological timescales,...
Evaluation of the U.S. Geological Survey streamgage network in South Carolina, 2017
Toby D. Feaster, Katharine Kolb
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1104
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been monitoring streamflow in South Carolina since the late 1800s. From the beginning, the USGS streamgage network in South Carolina has been dynamic, with streamgages being added or removed depending on their purpose and the availability of funding from Federal, State, and local partners....
Chapter A6.2. Dissolved oxygen
U.S. Geological Survey
2020, Techniques and Methods 9-A6.2
The “National Field Manual for the Collection of Water-Quality Data” (NFM) provides guidelines and procedures for U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) personnel who collect data used to assess the quality of the Nation’s surface water and groundwater resources. This chapter, NFM A6.2, provides guidance and protocols for the measurement of dissolved...
Common insecticide disrupts aquatic communities: A mesocosm-to-field ecological risk assessment of fipronil and its degradates in U.S. streams
Janet L. Miller, Travis S. Schmidt, Peter C. Van Metre, Barbara Mahler, Mark W. Sandstrom, Lisa H. Nowell, Daren M. Carlisle, Patrick W. Moran
2020, Science Advances (6) eabc1299
Insecticides in streams are increasingly a global concern, yet information on safe concentrations for aquatic ecosystems is sparse. In a 30-day mesocosm experiment exposing native benthic aquatic invertebrates to the common insecticide fipronil and four degradates, fipronil compounds caused altered emergence and trophic cascades. Effect concentrations eliciting a 50% response...
Diverse cataclysmic floods from Pleistocene glacial Lake Missoula
Roger P. Denlinger, David L. George, Charles M. Cannon, Jim E. O'Connor, Richard B. Waitt
2020, GSA Special Volume on Pleistocene megafloods (548)
In late Wisconsin time, the Purcell Trench lobe of the Cordilleran ice sheet dammed the Clark Fork of the Columbia River in western Montana, creating glacial Lake Missoula. During part of this epoch, the Okanogan lobe also dammed the Columbia River downstream, creating glacial Lake Columbia in northeast Washington. Repeated...
Geomorphic and sedimentary effects of modern climate change: Current and anticipated future conditions in the western United States
Amy E. East, Joel B. Sankey
2020, Reviews of Geophysics (58)
Hydroclimatic changes associated with global warming over the past 50 years have been documented widely, but physical landscape responses are poorly understood thus far. Detecting sedimentary and geomorphic signals of modern climate change presents challenges owing to short record lengths, difficulty resolving signals in stochastic natural systems, influences of land...
Estimating flood magnitude and frequency on gaged and ungaged streams in Maine
Pamela J. Lombard, Glenn A. Hodgkins
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5092
Accurate estimates of flood frequency and magnitude on rivers and streams in Maine are a key component of effective flood risk management, flood mitigation, and flood recovery programs for the State. Flood-frequency estimates are published here for 148 streamgages in and adjacent to Maine. Equations are provided for users to...
Physical and chemical stressors on algal, invertebrate, and fish communities in 14 Milwaukee area streams, 2004–2013
Barbara C. Scudder Eikenberry, Michelle A. Nott, Jana S. Stewart, Daniel J. Sullivan, David A. Alvarez, Amanda H. Bell, Faith A. Fitzpatrick
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3051
In 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began sampling 14 wadable streams in urban or urbanizing watersheds near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The overall goal of the study is to assess the health of the aquatic communities in the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District planning area to inform current and future watershed management....
River network and reach‐scale controls on habitat for lamprey larvae in the Umpqua River Basin, Oregon
Krista Jones, Jason B. Dunham, Jim E. O'Connor, Mackenzie K. Keith, Joseph F. Mangano, Kelly Coates, Travis Mackie
2020, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (40) 1400-1416
This study developed a spatially explicit framework to support the conservation of Western Brook Lamprey Lampetra richardsoni and Pacific Lamprey Entosphenus tridentatus in the Umpqua River basin, Oregon. This framework identified locations within the river network likely to support “potential burrowing habitat” for lamprey larvae based on geomorphic conditions and evaluated the overlap of...
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Water-Use Data and Research (WUDR) program overview and status as of October 22, 2020
Kimberly Shaffer
2020, Newsletter
The USGS Water-Use Data and Research Program (WUDR) is an appropriated program that began in Federal fiscal year 2015 and is authorized under the SECURE Water Act (Sec. 9508 (c)). WUDR provides financial assistance through cooperative agreements to State water resource agencies. The WUDR Program has two main goals: To improve...
Variable-density groundwater flow and contaminant transport, Operable Unit 1, Naval Base Kitsap, Keyport, Washington
Richard M. Yager, Wendy B. Welch, Alexander O. Headman, Richard S. Dinicola
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5066
Chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) have migrated to groundwater beneath a former 9-acre landfill at Operable Unit 1 (OU-1) on Naval Base Kitsap, which was active from the 1930s through 1973 on the Keyport Peninsula, in Kitsap County, Washington. Biodegradation of CVOCs at OU-1 limits the mass of dissolved-phase CVOCs...
Simulated effects of pumping in the Death Valley Regional Groundwater Flow System, Nevada and California—Selected management scenarios projected to 2120
Nora C. Nelson, Tracie R. Jackson
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5103
Declining water levels and reduced natural discharge at springs, seeps, and phreatophyte areas primarily are the result of decades of groundwater development in the Death Valley regional flow system, in Nevada and California. A calibrated groundwater-flow model was used to simulate potential future effects of groundwater pumping on water levels...
Understanding the relationship between stream metabolism and biological assemblages
Mark D. Munn, Rich W. Sheibley, Ian R. Waite, Michael R. Meador
2020, Freshwater Science (39) 680-692
Biological assemblages are commonly used for assessing stream health, but there is increased interest among the freshwater research community in incorporating measures of stream function, such as metabolism, to strengthen stream-health assessments. Presently, there is limited information about the relationships between stream metabolism and biological assemblages, along...
An interactive data visualization framework for exploring geospatial environmental datasets and model predictions
Jeffrey D. Walker, Benjamin Letcher, Kirk D. Rodgers, Clint C. Muhlfeld, Vincent S. D’Angelo
2020, Water (12)
With the rise of large-scale environmental models comes new challenges for how we best utilize this information in research, management and decision making. Interactive data visualizations can make large and complex datasets easier to access and explore, which can lead to knowledge discovery, hypothesis formation and improved...
Using environmental DNA (eDNA) to detect the endangered Spectaclecase Mussel (Margaritifera monodonta)
Yer Lor, Theresa M. Schreier, Diane L. Waller, Christopher M. Merkes
2020, Freshwater Science (39) 837-847
Margaritifera monodonta, or the Spectaclecase Mussel, is a federally endangered freshwater mussel species that has experienced a 55% reduction in range and is currently concentrated in 3 rivers in the Midwest region of the United States (Gasconade and Meramec rivers, Missouri, and St Croix River, Wisconsin). The detection of new...
Warming of alpine tundra enhances belowground production and shifts community towards resource acquisition traits
Yan Yang, Julia A. Klein, Daniel E. Winkler, Ahui Peng, Brynne E. Lazarus, Matthew Germino, Katherine Suding, Jane G. Smith, Lara M. Kueppers
2020, Ecosphere (11)
Climate warming is expected to stimulate plant growth in high‐elevation and high‐latitude ecosystems, significantly increasing aboveground net primary production (ANPP). However, the effects of simultaneous changes in temperature, snowmelt timing, and summer water availability on total net primary production (NPP)—and elucidation of both above‐ and belowground responses—remain an important area...
Modeling three-dimensional flow over spur-and-groove morphology
Renan da Silva, Curt D. Storlazzi, Justin S. Rogers, Johan Reyns, Robert T. McCall
2020, Coral Reefs (39) 1841-1858
Spur-and-groove (SAG) morphology characterizes the fore reef of many coral reefs worldwide. Although the existence and geometrical properties of SAG have been well documented, an understanding of the hydrodynamics over them is limited. Here, the three-dimensional flow patterns over SAG formations, and a sensitivity of those...
