Evaluation of uncertainty intervals for daily, statistically derived streamflow estimates at ungaged basins across the continental U.S.
Sara B. Levin, William H. Farmer
2020, Water (12)
Streamflow estimation methods that transfer information from an index gage to an ungaged site are commonly used; however, uncertainty in daily streamflow estimates are often not adequately quantified. In this study, daily streamflow was simulated at 1,331 validation streamgages across the continental United States using four transfer-based streamflow estimation...
Time-series model, statistical methods, and software documentation for R–QWTREND—An R package for analyzing trends in stream-water quality
Aldo V. Vecchia, Rochelle A. Nustad
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1014
As part of a U.S. Geological Survey water-quality study started in 2018, in cooperation with the International Joint Commission, North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality, and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, a publicly available software package called R–QWTREND was developed for analyzing trends in stream-water quality. The R–QWTREND package is a...
Assessment of rangeland ecosystem conditions in Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, Arizona
Michael C. Duniway, Emily C. Palmquist
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1040
Sustainability of dryland ecosystems depends on the functionality of soil-vegetation feedbacks that affect ecosystem processes, such as nutrient cycling, water capture and retention, soil erosion and deposition, and plant establishment and reproduction. Useful, common indicators can provide information on soil and site stability, hydrologic function, and biotic integrity. Evaluation of...
Sources and dynamics of international funding for waterfowl conservation in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America
Brady J. Mattsson, Jim Devries, James A. Dubovsky, Darius J. Semmens, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Jonathan J. Derbridge, Laura Lopez-Hoffman
2020, Wildlife Research (47) 279-295
Context: Funding for habitat-management programs to maintain population viability is critical for conservation of migratory species; however, such financial resources are limited and can vary greatly over time. The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America is an excellent system for examining spatiotemporal patterns of funding for waterfowl conservation, because this...
Forecasting the combined effects of anticipated climate change and agricultural conservation practices on fish recruitment dynamics in Lake Erie
David A Dippold, Noel Aloysis, S. Conor Keitzer, Haw Yen, Jeffrey G. Arnold, Prasad Daggupati, Michael E. Fraker, Jay F. Martin, Dale M. Robertson, Scott P. Sowa, Mari-Vaughn V. Johnson, Mike J. White, Stuart A. Ludsin
2020, Freshwater Biology (65) 1487-1508
Many aquatic ecosystems are experiencing multiple anthropogenic stressors that threaten their ability to support ecologically and economically important fish species. Two of the most ubiquitous stressors are climate change and non‐point source nutrient pollution.Agricultural conservation practices (ACPs, i.e. farming practices that reduce runoff, prevent erosion, and curb excessive nutrient...
Altitude of the potentiometric surface in the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer, spring 2018
Virginia L. McGuire, Ronald C. Seanor, William H. Asquith, Anna M. Nottmeier, David C. Smith, Roland W. Tollett, Wade H. Kress, Kellan R. Strauch
2020, Scientific Investigations Map 3453
A potentiometric-surface map for spring 2018 was created for the Mississippi River Valley alluvial (MRVA) aquifer using available groundwater-altitude data from 1,126 wells completed in the MRVA aquifer and from the altitude of the top of the water surface in area rivers from 66 streamgages. Personnel from Arkansas Natural Resources...
Water-table elevation maps for 2008 and 2016 and water-table elevation changes in the aquifer system underlying eastern Albuquerque, New Mexico
Allison K. Flickinger, Aurelia C. Mitchell
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1036
The addition of surface water from the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project to the Albuquerque water supply and the reduction in per capita water use has led to decreased groundwater withdrawals. This decrease in withdrawals has resulted in rising groundwater levels since 2008 in portions of the aquifer underlying Albuquerque....
Using multiple environmental proxies and hydrodynamic modeling to investigate Late Holocene climate and coastal change within a large Gulf of Mexico estuarine system (Mobile Bay, Alabama, USA)
Christopher G. Smith, Miriam C. Jones, Lisa Osterman, Davina Passeri
2020, Marine Geology (427)
A high degree of uncertainty exists for understanding and predicting coastal estuarine response to changing climate, land-use, and sea-level conditions, leaving geologic records as a best-proxy for constraining potential outcomes. With the majority of the world's population focused in coastal regions, understanding how local systems respond to global, regional, and...
Inventory and analysis of groundwater resources: Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
William G. Eldridge, Colton J. Medler
2020, Report
Industrial and commercial developments in western North Dakota potentially could affect the sources of water that contribute to wells, spring flow, and seeps within Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Without basic water resources data, accurately predicting the effects of water withdrawals and water quality concerns related to industrial and commercial developments...
Resource allocation for coastal wetland management: Confronting uncertainty about sea level rise
James E. Lyons, Kevin S. Kalasz, Gregory Breese, Clint W. Boal
2020, Book chapter, Structured decision making: Case studies in natural resource management
Coastal wetlands are rich and diverse ecosystems with a wide variety of birdlife and other natural resources. Decision making for coastal wetland management is difficult given the complex nature of these ecological systems and the frequent need to meet multiple objectives for varied resources. Management challenges in the...
Trends in streamflow, nutrients, and total suspended solids in the Upper White River Basin, Indiana
G. F. Koltun, Cassie Hauswald
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3030
The U.S. Geological Survey, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, analyzed existing water-quality and streamflow data from three locations in the Upper White River Basin, Indiana, to estimate annual mean concentrations and fluxes and to identify and quantify changes in water quality and streamflow over time. Water-quality data used in...
Ecological status of aquatic communities in selected streams in the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District planning area of Wisconsin, 2004–13
Barbara C. Scudder Eikenberry, Michelle A. Nott, Jana S. Stewart, Daniel J. Sullivan, David A. Alvarez, Amanda H. Bell, Faith A. Fitzpatrick
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5035
A total of 14 wadable streams in urban or urbanizing watersheds near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, were sampled in 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2013 to assess the ecological status of aquatic communities (biota), including benthic algae and invertebrates, and fish. To assess temporal variation, additional community sampling was also done at a...
Groundwater-quality and select quality-control data from the National Water-Quality Assessment Project, January through December 2016, and previously unpublished data from 2013 to 2015
Terri Arnold, Laura M. Bexfield, MaryLynn Musgrove, Melinda L. Erickson, James A. Kingsbury, James R. Degnan, Anthony J. Tesoriero, Justin T. Kulongoski, Kenneth Belitz
2020, Data Series 1124
Environmental groundwater-quality data were collected from 648 wells as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Project of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Program and are included in this report. Most of the wells (514) were sampled from January through December 2016, and 60 of them were sampled in 2013...
Fluoride occurrence in United States groundwater
Peter B. McMahon, Craig J. Brown, Tyler D. Johnson, Kenneth Belitz, Bruce D. Lindsey
2020, Science of the Total Environment (732)
Data from 38,105 wells were used to characterize fluoride (F) occurrence in untreated United States (U.S.) groundwater. For domestic wells (n = 11,032), water from which is generally not purposely fluoridated or monitored for quality, 10.9% of the samples have F concentrations >0.7 mg/L (U.S. Public Health Service recommended optimal...
Compositional analysis of formation water geochemistry and microbiology of commercial and carbon dioxide-rich wells in the southwestern United States
Jenna L. Shelton, Robert S. Andrews, Denise M. Akob, Christina A. DeVera, Adam C. Mumford, Mark Engle, Michelle R. Plampin, Sean T. Brennan
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5037
Studies of naturally occurring subsurface carbon dioxide (CO2) accumulations can provide useful information for potential CO2 injection projects; however, the microbial communities and formation water geochemistry of most reservoirs are understudied. Formation water and microbial biomass were sampled at four CO2-rich reservoir sites: two within Bravo Dome, a commercial CO2...
Species richness responses to water withdrawal scenarios and minimum flow levels: Evaluating presumptive standards in the Tennessee and Cumberland River basins
Lucas Driver, Jennifer M. Cartwright, Rodney Knight, William J. Wolfe
2020, Water (12)
Water resource managers are challenged to balance growing water demand with protecting aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity. Management decisions can benefit from improved understanding of water withdrawal impacts on hydrologic regimes and ecological assemblages. This study used Ecological Limit Functions for fish groups within the Tennessee and Cumberland river basins to...
Pilot-scale testing of dairy manure treatments to reduce nutrient transport from land application, northwest Ohio, 2015–17
Donna S. Francy, Amie M.G. Brady, Bethany L. Ash, W. Robert Midden
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5015
Manure and wastewater from large livestock operations have the potential to negatively affect surface water and groundwater, including the eutrophication of surface waters and harmful algal blooms. In the Western Lake Erie Basin, where there is a high density of animal agriculture, harmful algal blooms have been attributed, in part,...
Simulation of the probabilistic plume extent for a potential replacement wastewater-infiltration lagoon, and probabilistic contributing areas for supply wells for the Town of Lac du Flambeau, Vilas County, Wisconsin
Paul F. Juckem, Michael N. Fienen
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1032
An existing two-dimensional, steady-state groundwater-flow model of the shallow groundwater-flow system of the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in Vilas County, Wisconsin, originally developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, was used to simulate the potential for wastewater from a proposed relocation of a wastewater lagoon to contaminate the Lac du Flambeau...
Chemical evaluation of water and gases collected from hydrothermal systems located in the central Aleutian arc, August 2015
Cynthia A. Werner, Christoph Kern, Peter J. Kelly
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5043
Five volcanic-hydrothermal systems in the central Aleutians Islands were sampled for water and gas geochemistry in 2015 to provide baseline data to help predict future volcanic unrest. Some areas had not been sampled in 20–30 years (Makushin volcano, Geyser Bight), and other areas had minimal to no prior sampling (Tana...
History and evolution of seepage meters for quantifying flow between groundwater and surface water: Part 1 – Freshwater settings
Donald O. Rosenberry, Carlos Duque, David R. Lee
2020, Earth-Science Reviews (204)
More than 75 years after its introduction, the seepage meter remains the only device for directly quantifying exchange across the sediment-water interface between groundwater and surface water. This device, first presented in the literature in the 1940s, has been in a state of near-constant improvement and design change, necessitating...
Isolating anthropogenic wetland loss by concurrently tracking inundation and land cover disturbance across the Mid-Atlantic Region, U.S.
Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Jay R. Christensen, Yen-Ju G. Beal, Ben DeVries, Megan W. Lang, Nora Hwang, Christine Mazzarella, John Jones
2020, Remote Sensing (12)
Global trends in wetland degradation and loss have created an urgency to monitor wetland extent, as well as track the distribution and causes of wetland loss. Satellite imagery can be used to monitor wetlands over time, but few efforts have attempted to distinguish anthropogenic wetland loss from climate-driven variability in...
Simulation of discharge, water-surface elevations, and water temperatures for the St. Louis River estuary, Minnesota-Wisconsin, 2016–17
Erik A. Smith, Richard L. Kiesling, Earl J. Hayter
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5028
The St. Louis River estuary is a large freshwater estuary, next to Duluth, Minnesota, that encompasses the headwaters of Lake Superior. The St. Louis River estuary is one of the most complex and compromised near-shore systems in the upper Great Lakes with a long history of environmental contamination caused by...
Prioritizing habitats based on abundance and distribution of molting waterfowl in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area of the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska
Paul L. Flint, Vijay Patil, Bradley Shults, Sarah J. Thompson
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1034
The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) encompasses more than 9.5 million hectares of federally managed land on the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska, where it supports a diversity of wildlife, including millions of migratory birds. Within the NPR-A, Teshekpuk Lake and the surrounding area provide important habitat for...
Ringed seal (Pusa hispida) seasonal movements, diving, and haul-out behavior in the Beaufort, Chukchi, and Bering Seas (2011–2017)
Andrew L. Von Duyke, David C. Douglas, Jason K Herreman, Justin A. Crawford
2020, Ecology and Evolution (10) 5595-5616
Continued Arctic warming and sea-ice loss will have important implications for the conservation of ringed seals, a highly ice-dependent species. A better understanding of their spatial ecology will help characterize emerging ecological trends and inform management decisions. We deployed satellite transmitters on ringed seals in the summers of 2011, 2014,...
Inland fish and fisheries integral to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
Abigail Lynch, Vittoria Elliott, Sui C. Phang, Julie E. Claussen, Ian Harrison, Karen J. Murchie, E. Ashley Steel, Gretchen L. Stokes
2020, Nature Sustainability (3) 579-587
Inland fish provide food for billions and livelihoods for millions of people worldwide and are integral to effective freshwater ecosystem function, yet the recognition of these services is notably absent in development discussions and policies, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). How might the SDGs be enhanced...
