Survival, travel time, and utilization of Yolo Bypass, California, by outmigrating acoustic-tagged late-fall Chinook salmon
Adam C. Pope, Russell W. Perry, Dalton J. Hance, Hal C. Hansel
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1118
Juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) migrating through California's Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta toward the Pacific Ocean face numerous challenges to their survival. The Yolo Bypass is a broad floodplain of the Sacramento River that floods in about 70 percent of years in response to large, uncontrolled runoff events. As...
Subseasonal variations in marine reservoir age from pre-bomb Donax obesulus and Protothaca asperrima shell carbonate
Miguel F. Etayo-Cadavid, C. Fred T. Andrus, Kevin B. Jones, Gregory W. L. Hodgins
2018, Chemical Geology (526) 110-116
Two Donax obesulus and two Protothaca asperrima shells collected prior to the nuclear testing of the 1950's were micromilled at sub-seasonal resolution to yield new reservoir effect (ΔR) estimates for the coast of Peru. Shells from northern (4°40′S to 8°14′S) and central (13°52′S) Peru produced ΔR values of 123 ± 50 and 110 ± 49 years respectively. We found...
Findings from a preliminary investigation of the effects of aquatic habitat (water) availability on giant gartersnake (Thamnophis gigas) demography in the Sacramento Valley, California, 2014–17
Jonathan P. Rose, Julia S. M. Ersan, Gabriel A. Reyes, K. Benjamin Gustafson, Alexandria M. Fulton, Kristen J. Fouts, Raymund F. Wack, Glenn D. Wylie, Michael L. Casazza, Brian J. Halstead
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1114
The giant gartersnake (Thamnophis gigas) is a semi-aquatic species of snake precinctive to the Central Valley of California. Because the Central Valley has experienced a substantial loss of wetland habitat, giant gartersnake populations are largely found in aquatic habitats associated with rice agriculture. In dry years, less water may be...
Quality-assurance plan for groundwater activities, U.S. Geological Survey Dakota Water Science Center
Joshua F. Valder, Janet M. Carter, Steven M. Robinson, Christopher D. Laveau, Joel A. Petersen
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1103
As the Nation’s principal earth-science information agency, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is depended upon to collect accurate data and produce factual and impartial interpretive reports. Methods for data collection and analysis that were developed by the USGS have become standard techniques used by numerous Federal, State, and local agencies...
Coeur d’Alene Basin Environmental Monitoring Program, surface water, northern Idaho—Annual data summary, water year 2017
Lauren M. Zinsser
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1113
Streams within the Coeur d’Alene River drainage basin in northern Idaho have been extensively affected by historical mining activities and are subject to ongoing remedial actions as part of the Bunker Hill Mining & Metallurgical Complex Superfund Site. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) operates 12 real-time streamgages and collects...
Prioritization of oil and gas fields for regional groundwater monitoring based on a preliminary assessment of petroleum resource development and proximity to California’s groundwater resources
Tracy Davis, Matthew K. Landon, George L. Bennett V
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5065
The California State Water Resources Control Board initiated a regional monitoring program in July 2015 to determine where and to what degree groundwater quality may be adversely impacted by oil and gas development activities. A key issue in the implementation of the regional groundwater monitoring program is that each year,...
Linking the Ukinrek 1977 maar-eruption observations to the tephra deposits: New insights into maar depositional processes
Michael Ort, Nathalie Lefebvre, Christina A. Neal, Vicki McConnell, Ken Wohletz
2018, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (360) 36-60
The Ukinrek Maars erupted 30 March to 9 April 1977, forming two maars, a line of small pit craters and a tephra blanket extending to ~2 km from the vents. We combine photographic and written observations with stratigraphic analysis to reconstruct the eruption. The eruption began...
Near-field receiving-water monitoring of trace metals and a benthic community near the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant in south San Francisco Bay, California—2017
Daniel J. Cain, Janet K. Thompson, Francis Parchaso, Sarah Pearson, A. Robin Stewart, Matthew A. Turner, David Barasch, Ane Slabic, Samuel N. Luoma
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1107
Trace-metal concentrations in sediment and in the clam Macoma petalum (formerly reported as Macoma balthica), clam reproductive activity, and benthic macroinvertebrate community structure were investigated in a mudflat 1 kilometer south of the discharge of the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant (PARWQCP) in south San Francisco Bay, Calif....
Geohydrology, geochemistry, and numerical simulation of groundwater flow and land subsidence in the Bicycle Basin, Fort Irwin National Training Center, California
Jill N. Densmore, Linda R. Woolfenden, Diane L. Rewis, Peter M. Martin, Michelle Sneed, Kevin M. Ellett, Michael Solt, David M. Miller
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5067
Groundwater pumping from Bicycle Groundwater Basin (referred to as Bicycle Basin) in the Fort Irwin National Training Center, California, began in 1967. From 1967 to December 2010, about 46,000 acre-feet of water had been pumped from the basin and transported to the Irwin Basin. During this time, not only did...
Modeling managed flows in the Sacramento/San Joaquin watershed, California, under scenarios of future change for CASCaDE2
Noah Knowles, Collin Cronkite-Ratcliff
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1101
Projections of managed flows from the Sacramento River/San Joaquin River watershed, California, into the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta under scenarios of future climate change are needed for evaluations of potential impacts on water supply and estuarine ecosystems. A new, multiple-model approach for achieving this is described. First,...
Combining nutrient, productivity, and landscape-based regressions improves predictions of lake nutrients and provides insight into nutrient coupling at macroscales
Tyler Wagner, Erin M. Schliep
2018, Limnology and Oceanography (63) 2372-2383
Empirical nutrient models that describe lake nutrient, productivity, and water clarity relationships among lakes play a prominent role in limnology. Landscape-based regressions are also used to understand macroscale variability of lake nutrients, clarity, and productivity (hereafter referred to as nutrient-productivity). Predictions from both models are used to inform eutrophication management...
Trends in water quality of selected streams and reservoirs used for water supply in the Triangle area of North Carolina, 1989–2013
Mary J. Giorgino, Thomas F. Cuffney, Stephen L. Harden, Toby D. Feaster
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5077
As the population of the Triangle area in central North Carolina increases, the demand for good quality drinking water from streams and lakes within the upper Neuse and upper Cape Fear River Basins also increases. The Triangle area includes Raleigh, Cary, Research Triangle Park, Durham, Chapel Hill, and the surrounding...
Monitoring the water-quality response of agricultural conservation practices in the Bucks Branch watershed, Sussex County, Delaware, 2014–16
Judith M. Denver, Alexander M. Soroka, Betzaida Reyes, Todd R. Lester, Deborah A. Bringman, M.S. Brownley
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5020
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of irrigation and cover crops as conservation practices on water quality in groundwater and streams. Bucks Branch, a stream in the Nanticoke River watershed in southwestern Delaware, was identified as having one of the highest concentrations of nitrate in all...
Simulation of potential groundwater recharge for the glacial aquifer system east of the Rocky Mountains, 1980–2011, using the Soil-Water-Balance Model
Jared J. Trost, Jason L. Roth, Stephen M. Westenbroek, Howard W. Reeves
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5080
An understanding of the spatial and temporal extent of groundwater recharge is critical for many types of hydrologic assessments involving water quality, contaminant transport, ecosystem health, and sustainable use of groundwater. Annual potential groundwater recharge was simulated at a 1-kilometer resolution with the Soil-Water-Balance (SWB) model for the glacial aquifer...
Idaho water use, 2015
Erin M. Murray
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3036
The ability to quantify water resources hinges on the understanding of water use by the population. The demand humans place on the water cycle varies across the United States, driven by both need and availability. The U.S. Geological Survey quantifies water use nationally, at the county scale, with estimates of...
The Future
David L. Blodgett, Alan H. Rea, Josh Lieberman
Jeffrey D. Simley, editor(s)
2018, Book chapter, GIS for surface water: Using the National Hydrography Dataset
No abstract available....
Post-fledging movements and habitat associations of White-tailed Sea Eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) in Central Asia
Evgeny A. Bragin, Sharon A. Poessel, Michael J. Lanzone, Todd E. Katzner
2018, Wilson Journal of Ornithology (130) 784-788
Behavior of young birds can have important consequences for population dynamics. We investigated the autumnal post-fledging movements of 3 White-tailed Sea Eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) hatched in Kazakhstan. All 3 eagles traveled south, flying on average 25–108 km/d. Movement was nonrandom, with eagles generally traveling near mosaics of forest, open areas,...
Do economic values and expenditures for viewing waterfowl in the U.S. differ among species?
John Loomis, Michelle Haefele, James Dubovsky, Aaron M. Lien, Wayne E. Thogmartin, James E. Diffendorfer, Dale D. Humburg, Brady J. Mattsson, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Darius J. Semmens, Laura Lopez-Hoffman, Robert Merideth
2018, Human Dimensions of Wildlife (23) 587-596
Many economic studies value birdwatching in general and often do not account for potential differences in viewers’ benefits from observing different species. But, how different are economic values of viewing various bird species? To answer that question, we surveyed Ducks Unlimited (DU) members using an online questionnaire to estimate trip...
Assessing the effectiveness of riparian restoration projects using Landsat and precipitation data from the cloud-computing application ClimateEngine.org
Mark B. Hausner, Justin L. Huntington, Caroline Nash, Charles Morton, Daniel J. McEvoy, David S. Pilliod, Katherine C. Hegewisch, Britta Daudert, John T. Abatzoglou, Gordon E. Grant
2018, Ecological Engineering (120) 432-440
Riparian vegetation along streams provides a suite of ecosystem services in rangelands and thus is the target of restoration when degraded by over-grazing, erosion, incision, or other disturbances. Assessments of restoration effectiveness depend on defensible monitoring data, which can be both expensive and difficult to collect. We present a method...
Soil water dynamics at 15 locations distributed across a desert landscape: insights from a 27‐yr dataset
Michael C. Duniway, Matthew D. Petrie, Debra P. C. Peters, John P. Anderson, Keith Crossland, Jeffrey E. Herrick
2018, Ecosphere (9) 1-36
Desert ecosystems are primarily limited by water availability. Within a climatic regime, topography, soil characteristics, and vegetation are expected to determine how the combined effects of precipitation, temperature, and evaporative demand of the atmosphere shape the spatial and temporal patterns of water within the soil profile and across a landscape....
Stronger peak ground motion, beyond the threshold to initiate a response, does not lead to larger stream discharge responses to earthquakes
Christian H. Mohr, Michael Manga, David J. Wald
2018, Geophysical Research Letters (45) 6523-6531
The impressive number of stream gauges in Chile, combined with a suite of past and recent large earthquakes, makes Chile a unique natural laboratory to study several streams that recorded responses to multiple seismic events. We document changes in discharge in eight streams in Chile following two or more large...
Effects of land use on summer thermal regimes in critical salmonid habitats of the Pacific Northwest
Ryan Kovach, Clint C. Muhlfeld, Robert Al-Chokhachy, Jeffrey V. Ojala, Eric Archer
2018, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (76) 753-761
The effect of climate change on stream temperature regimes is of significant concern to natural resource managers focused on protecting cold-water-dependent species. Nevertheless, understanding of how human land-use activities may act to exacerbate the effects of climate change on stream temperature regimes is limited. Using extensive stream temperature data with...
Water budget of the upper Chehalis River Basin, southwestern Washington
Andrew S. Gendaszek, Wendy B. Welch
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5084
Groundwater and surface water collectively supply the domestic, agricultural, and industrial needs of the 895-square mile upper Chehalis River Basin upstream of Grand Mound, Washington, while providing streamflow for fish and other aquatic species in the Chehalis River and its tributaries. To support sustainable water management decision-making, a water budget...
Outburst floods provide erodability estimates consistent with long-term landscape evolution
Daniel Garcia-Castellanos, Jim E. O'Connor
2018, Scientific Reports (8) 1-9
Most current models for the landscape evolution over geological timescales are based on semi-empirical laws that consider riverbed incision proportional to rock erodability (dependent on lithology) and to the work performed by water flow (stream power). However, the erodability values obtained from these models are entangled with poorly known conditions...
Explicit consideration of preferential groundwater discharges as surface water ecosystem control points
Martin A. Briggs, Danielle K. Hare
2018, Hydrological Processes (32) 2435-2440
Heterogeneities in sediment and rock permeability induce preferentialgroundwater flow from the scale of pore networks to large basins. Inthe unsaturated zone, preferential flow is frequently conceptualizedas an infiltration process dominated by macropores, resulting in stron-ger delivery of surface‐derived solute...
