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Transient numerical simulations of the Glacial Lake Agassiz Peatland near the Red Lakes in Northern Minnesota were constructed to evaluate observed reversals in vertical ground-water flow. Seasonal weather changes were introduced to a ground-water flow model by varying evapotranspiration and recharge over time. Vertical hydraulic reversals, driven by changes in...

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Recent studies of uranium(VI) geochemistry have focused on the potentially important role of the aqueous species, CaUO2(CO3)32− and Ca2UO2(CO3)30(aq), on inhibition of microbial reduction and uranium(VI) aqueous speciation in contaminated groundwater. However, to our knowledge, there have been no direct studies of the effects...

Static pore water pressures in confined aquifers vary in response to ground surface loading changes, including precipitation and evaporation. Under certain hydrogeological conditions such aquifers can function as giant natural weighing lysimeters, referenced here as 'geological weighing lysimeters'. The extent of the land area 'weighed' increases with aquifer depth and...

Characterization of the physical and unsaturated hydrologic properties of subsurface materials is necessary to calculate flow and transport for land use practices and to evaluate subsurface processes such as perched water or lateral diversion of water, which are influenced by features such as faults, fractures, and abrupt changes in lithology....

Groundwater from remote parts of the Middle Rio Grande Basin in north-central New Mexico has perchlorate (ClO4-) concentrations of 0.12−1.8 μg/L. Because the water samples are mostly preanthropogenic in age (0−28 000 years) and there are no industrial sources in the study area, a natural source of the...

Twenty-three snow-course sites in and near Maine, USA, with records spanning at least 50 years through to 2004 were tested for changes over time in snowpack depth, water equivalent, and density in March and April. Of the 23 sites, 18 had a significant decrease (Mann-Kendall test, p < 0??1) in...

The effects of land cover on water table, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and groundwater recharge were studied with water level measurements collected from two monitoring wells over a period of 122 days. The two wells were installed under similar conditions except that one was drilled on the east side of a...

Inverse modeling studies employing data collected from the classic Henry seawater intrusion problem give insight into several important aspects of inverse modeling of seawater intrusion problems and effective measurement strategies for estimation of parameters for seawater intrusion. Despite the simplicity of the Henry problem, it embodies the behavior of a...

Two practical approaches incorporating lithologic information for groundwater modeling calibration are presented to estimate distributed, cell-based hydraulic conductivity. The first approach is to estimate optimal hydraulic conductivities for geological materials by incorporating thickness distribution of materials into inverse modeling. In the second approach, residuals for the groundwater model solution are...

A presumed value of shallow-habitat enhanced pelagic productivity derives from the principle that in nutrient-rich aquatic systems phytoplankton growth rate is controlled by light availability, which varies inversely with habitat depth. We measured a set of biological indicators across the gradient of habitat depth within the Sacramento–San Joaquin River...

Iron-hydroxysulfate minerals can be important hosts for metals such as lead, mercury, copper, zinc, silver, chromium, arsenic, and selenium and for radionuclides such as 226Ra. These mineral-bound contaminants are considered immobilized under oxic conditions. However, when anoxic conditions develop, the activities of sulfate- or iron-reducing bacteria could result in mineral...

Arsenic is a highly toxic element that supports a surprising range of biogeochemical transformations. The biochemical basis of these microbial interactions is described, with an emphasis on energy-yielding redox biotransformations that cycle between the As5+ and As3+ oxidation states. The subsequent impact of As3+-oxidising and As 5+-reducing prokaryotes on the...

Macro- and molecular-scale knowledge of uranyl (U(VI)) partitioning reactions with soil/sediment mineral components is important in predicting U(VI) transport processes in the vadose zone and aquifers. In this study, U(VI) reactivity and surface speciation on a poorly crystalline aluminosilicate mineral, synthetic imogolite, were...

It has been long known that land surface topography governs both groundwater flow patterns at the regional‐to‐continental scale and on smaller scales such as in the hyporheic zone of streams. Here we show that the surface topography can be separated in a Fourier‐series...

The USGS conducted a geophysical investigation in support of a U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southern Division field‐scale biostimulation pilot project at Anoka County Riverfront Park (ACP), downgradient of the Naval Industrial Reserve Ordnance Plant, Fridley, Minnesota. The goal of the pilot project is to evaluate...

Leachate plume emanating from an old unlined municipal landfill site near the city of Norman, Oklahoma, is discharging into the underlying alluvial aquifer. Subsurface imaging techniques, electrical resistivity tomography and electrical conductivity (EC) logging, were used on the site to detect and map the position of...

In light of recent reductions in sulphur (S) and nitrogen (N) emissions mandated by Title IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, temporal trends and trend coherence in precipitation (1984-2001 and 1992-2001) and surface water chemistry (1992-2001) were determined in two of the most acid-sensitive regions of North...

The Niigata Ken Chuetsu earthquake triggered a vast number of lanslides in the epicentral region. Landslide concentrations were among the highest ever measured after an earthquake, and most of the triggered landslides were relatively shallow failures parallel to the steep slope faces. The dense concentration of landslides can be attributed...

The USGS precipitation-runoff modelling system (PRMS) hydrologic model was used to evaluate experimental, gridded, 1 km2 snow-covered area (SCA) and snow water equivalent (SWE) products for two headwater basins within the Rio Grande (i.e. upper Rio Grande River basin) and Salt River (i.e. Black River basin) drainages in the southwestern...

This study examined the influence of fall-spawning coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) on the density, growth rate, body condition, and survival to outmigration of juvenile coho salmon on the Copper River Delta, Alaska, USA. During the fall of 1999 and 2000, fish rearing in beaver ponds that received spawning salmon were...

Ammonium (NH4+) is a major constituent of many contaminated groundwaters, but its movement through aquifers is complex and poorly documented. In this study, processes affecting NH4+ movement in a treated wastewater plume were studied by a combination of techniques including large‐scale monitoring of NH4+ distribution; isotopic analyses of coexisting aqueous NH4+, NO3−,...

Bear Lake (Utah-Idaho, USA) has been producing large quantities of carbonate minerals of varying mineralogy for the past 17,000 years. The history of sedimentation in Bear Lake is documented through the study of isotopic ratios of oxygen, carbon, and strontium, percent organic carbon, percent CaCO3, X-ray diffraction mineralogy, HCl-leach inorganic...

The Model Parameter Estimation Experiment (MOPEX) is an international project aimed at developing enhanced techniques for the a priori estimation of parameters in hydrologic models and in land surface parameterization schemes of atmospheric models. The MOPEX science strategy involves three major steps: data preparation, a priori parameter estimation methodology development,...

The balance, accumulation rate and temporal dynamics of belowground carbon in the successional series of monsoon evergreen broadleaved forest are obtained in this paper, based on long-term observations to the soil organic matter, input and standing biomass of litter and coarse woody debris, and dissolved organic carbon carried in the...