Can data from disparate long-term fish monitoring programs be used to increase our understanding of regional and continental trends in large river assemblages?
Timothy D. Counihan, Ian R. Waite, Andrew F. Casper, David L. Ward, Jennifer S. Sauer, Elise R. Irwin, Colin G. Chapman, Brian Ickes, Craig P. Paukert, John J. Kosovich, Jennifer M. Bayer
2018, PLoS ONE (13)
Understanding trends in the diverse resources provided by large rivers will help balance tradeoffs among stakeholders and inform strategies to mitigate the effects of landscape scale stressors such as climate change and invasive species. Absent a cohesive coordinated effort to assess trends in important large river resources, a logical starting...
Regional variability of nitrate fluxes in the unsaturated zone and groundwater, Wisconsin, USA
Christopher T. Green, Lixia Liao, Bernard T. Nolan, Paul F. Juckem, Christopher L. Shope, Anthony J. Tesoriero, Bryant C. Jurgens
2018, Water Resources Research (54) 301-322
Process-based modeling of regional NO3− fluxes to groundwater is critical for understanding and managing water quality, but the complexity of NO3− reactive transport processes make implementation a challenge. This study introduces a regional vertical flux method (VFM) for efficient estimation of reactive transport of NO3− in the vadose zone and...
Relations between total phosphorus and orthophosphorus concentrations and rainfall, surface-water discharge, and groundwater levels in Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation, Florida, 2014–16
W. Scott McBride, Dorothy F. Sifuentes
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1014
The Seminole Tribe of Florida (the Tribe) is partnering with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop a numeric phosphorus criterion for the 52,000-acre Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation (BCSIR), which is located downgradient of the Everglades Agricultural Area, and of other public and private lands, in southeastern Hendry County...
Winter swarming behavior by the exotic cladoceran Daphnia lumholtzi Sars, 1885 in a Kentucky (USA) reservoir
John R. Beaver, Thomas R. Renicker, Claudia E. Tausz, Jade L. Young, Jennifer C. Thomason, Zachary L. Wolf, Amber L. Russell, Mac A. Cherry, Kyle C. Scotese, Dawn T. Koenig
2018, BioInvasions Records (7) 43-50
We describe swarming behavior in the invasive cladoceran Daphnia lumholtzi Sars, 1885 in a Kentucky, USA, reservoir during winter 2017. The taxon is a highly successful tropical invader and has spread throughout the lower latitude systems in the USA since its discovery in 1991. Other than a few isolated reports,...
Alternate wetting and drying decreases methylmercury in flooded rice (Oryza sativa) systems
K. Christy Tanner, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, Jacob Fleck, Bruce A. Linquist
2018, Soil Science Society of America Journal (82) 115-125
In flooded soils, including those found in rice (Oryza sativa L.) fields, microbes convert inorganic Hg to more toxic methylmercury (MeHg). Methylmercury is accumulated in rice grain, potentially affecting health. Methylmercury in rice field surface water can bioaccumulate in wildlife. We evaluated how introducing aerobic periods into an otherwise continuously flooded...
Investigating runoff efficiency in upper Colorado River streamflow over past centuries
Connie A. Woodhouse, Gregory T. Pederson
2018, Water Resources Research (54) 286-300
With increasing concerns about the impact of warming temperatures on water resources, more attention is being paid to the relationship between runoff and precipitation, or runoff efficiency. Temperature is a key influence on Colorado River runoff efficiency, and warming temperatures are projected to reduce runoff efficiency. Here, we investigate the...
Snow sublimation in mountain environments and its sensitivity to forest disturbance and climate warming
Graham A. Sexstone, David W. Clow, Steven R. Fassnacht, Glen E. Liston, Christopher A. Hiemstra, John F. Knowles, Colin A. Penn
2018, Water Resources Research (54) 1191-1211
Snow sublimation is an important component of the snow mass balance, but the spatial and temporal variability of this process is not well understood in mountain environments. This study combines a process‐based snow model (SnowModel) with eddy covariance (EC) measurements to investigate (1) the spatio‐temporal variability of simulated snow sublimation...
Flood of August 24–25, 2016, Upper Iowa River and Turkey River, northeastern Iowa
S. Mike Linhart, Padraic S. O’Shea
2018, Open-File Report 2017-1128
Major flooding occurred August 24–25, 2016, in the Upper Iowa River Basin and Turkey River Basin in northeastern Iowa following severe thunderstorm activity over the region. About 8 inches of rain were recorded for the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m., August 24, at Decorah, Iowa, and about 6 inches...
Maturity of nearby faults influences seismic hazard from hydraulic fracturing
Maria Kozlowska, Michael R. Brudzinski, Paul A. Friberg, Robert J. Skoumal, Nicholas Baxter, Brian S. Currie
2018, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (115) E1720-E1729
Understanding the causes of human-induced earthquakes is paramount to reducing societal risk. We investigated five cases of seismicity associated with hydraulic fracturing (HF) in Ohio since 2013 that, because of their isolation from other injection activities, provide an ideal setting for studying the relations between high-pressure...
Vibrio population dynamics in Mid-Atlantic surface waters during Saharan dust events
Jason R. Westrich, Dale W. Griffin, Douglas L. Westphal, Erin K. Lipp
2018, Frontiers in Marine Science (5)
Vibrio is a cosmopolitan genus of marine bacteria, highly investigated in coastal and estuarine environments. Vibrio have also been isolated from pelagic waters, yet very little is known about the ecology of these oligotrophic species. In this study we examined the relative change in bacterial abundance and more specifically the dynamics of Vibrio in the...
Hydrogeophysics at societally relevant scales: Airborne electromagnetic applications and model structural uncertainty quantification
Burke J. Minsley, Nathan Leon Foks, Wade Kress, James R. Rigby
2018, Conference Paper, SEG technical program expanded abstracts 2018
There is a critical and growing need for information about subsurface geological properties and processes over sufficiently large areas that can inform key scientific and societal studies. Airborne geophysical methods fill a unique role in Earth observation because of their ability to detect deep subsurface properties at regional scales and...
Case study comparing multiple irrigated land datasets in Arizona and Colorado, USA
Hua Shi, Roger F. Auch, James Vogelmann, Min Feng, Matthew B. Rigge, Gabriel B. Senay, James Verdin
2018, Journal of American Water Resources Association (54) 505-526
While there are currently a number of irrigated land datasets available for the western United States (U.S.), there is uncertainty regarding in how they relate to each other. To help understand the characteristics of available irrigated datasets, we compared (1) the Cropland Data Layer (CDL), (2)...
Satellite psychrometric formulation of the operational simplified surface energy balance (SSEBop) model for quantifying and mapping evapotranspiration
Gabriel B. Senay
2018, Applied Engineering in Agriculture (34) 555-566
Remote sensing-based evapotranspiration (ET) can be derived using various methods, from soil moisture accounting to vegetation-index based approaches to simple and complex surface energy balance techniques. Due to the complexity of fully representing and parameterizing ET sub-processes, different models tend to diverge in their estimations. However, most models appear to...
Exposed subsurface ice sheets in the Martian mid-latitudes
Colin M. Dundas, Ali M Bramson, Lujendra Ojha, James J. Wray, Michael T. Mellon, Shane Byrne, Alfred S. McEwen, N. E. Putzig, Donna Viola, Sarah Sutton, E. Clark, J.W. Holt
2018, Science (359) 199-201
Thick deposits cover broad regions of the Martian mid-latitudes with a smooth mantle; erosion in these regions creates scarps that expose the internal structure of the mantle.We investigated eight of these locations and found that they expose deposits of water ice that can be >100 meters thick, extending downward from depths as shallow...
Potential for western US seasonal snowpack prediction
Sarah B. Kapnick, Xiaosong Yang, Gabriel A. Vecchi, Thomas L. Delworth, Rich Gudgel, Sergey Malyshev, Paul C. D. Milly, Elena Shevliakova, Seth Underwood, Steven A. Margulis
2018, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (115) 1180-1185
Western US snowpack—snow that accumulates on the ground in the mountains—plays a critical role in regional hydroclimate and water supply, with 80% of snowmelt runoff being used for agriculture. While climate projections provide estimates of snowpack loss by the end of th ecentury and weather forecasts provide predictions of weather...
A surrogate regression approach for computing continuous loads for the tributary nutrient and sediment monitoring program on the Great Lakes
Dale M. Robertson, Laura E. Hubbard, David L. Lorenz, Daniel J. Sullivan
2018, Journal of Great Lakes Research (44) 26-42
Water quality (WQ) in many Great Lake tributaries has been degraded (increased nutrient and sediment concentrations) due to changes in their watersheds, resulting in downstream eutrophication. As part of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, specific goals were established for loading of specific constituents (e.g., phosphorus)....
High‐elevation evapotranspiration estimates during drought: Using streamflow and NASA Airborne Snow Observatory SWE observations to vlose the upper Tuolumne River Basin eater balance
Brian Henn, Thomas H. Painter, Kathryn J. Bormann, Bruce McGurk, Alan L. Flint, Lorraine E. Flint, Vince White, Jessica D. Lundquist
2018, Water Resources Research (54) 746-766
Hydrologic variables such as evapotranspiration (ET) and soil water storage are difficult to observe across spatial scales in complex terrain. Streamflow and lidar‐derived snow observations provide information about distributed hydrologic processes such as snowmelt, infiltration, and storage. We use a distributed streamflow data set across eight basins in the upper...
Increasing chloride in rivers of the conterminous U.S. and linkages to potential corrosivity and lead action level exceedances in drinking water
Edward G. Stets, Casey J. Lee, Darren A. Lytle, Michael R. Schock
2018, Science of the Total Environment (613-614) 1498-1509
Corrosion in water-distribution systems is a costly problem and controlling corrosion is a primary focus of efforts to reduce lead (Pb) and copper (Cu) in tap water. High chloride concentrations can increase the tendency of water to cause corrosion in distribution systems. The effects of chloride are also expressed in several indices commonly used...
Wind River Subbasin Restoration, Annual report of U.S. Geological Survey activities, January 2016 through December 2016
Ian G. Jezorek, Patrick J. Connolly
2018, Report
We used Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT)-tagging and a series of instream PIT-tag interrogation systems (PTISs) to investigate life-histories, populations, and efficacy of habitat restoration actions for steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss in the Wind River subbasin, WA. Our tagging focused on parr in headwaters areas of the subbasin and our instream readers...
Poroelastic stress changes associated with primary oil production in the Los Angeles Basin, California
Susan E. Hough, Roger G. Bilham
2018, The Leading Edge (37) 108-116
While recent investigations of induced earthquakes have focused on earthquakes associated with wastewater injection and unconventional recovery methods, the potential for earthquakes to be induced by primary production has long been recognized. We use boundary element methods to quantify the predicted geometry and amplitude of stress and strain changes associated...
Bathymetry of Ashokan, Cannonsville, Neversink, Pepacton, Rondout, and Schoharie Reservoirs, New York, 2013–15
Elizabeth A. Nystrom
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5064
Drinking water for New York City is supplied from several large reservoirs, including a system of reservoirs west of the Hudson River. To provide updated reservoir capacity tables and bathymetry maps of the City’s six West of Hudson reservoirs, bathymetric surveys were conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey from 2013...
Evaluating the “Gradual Entrainment Lake Inverter” (GELI) artificial mixing technology for lake and reservoir management
Colin A Smith, Jordan Read, M Jake Vander Zanden
2018, Land and Reservoir Management (34) 232-243
Thermal stratification is important to the structure and function of lake and reservoir ecosystems. Yet when lakes undergo eutrophication, thermal stratification can exacerbate water quality problems. As a result, lake management has sometimes involved artificial mixing and destratification, though the available technologies are few and costly. It...
Fine-scale heterogeneity drives forest use by spring migrant landbirds across a broad, contiguous forest matrix
Theodore J. Zenzal Jr., Robert J. Smith, David N. Ewert, Robert H. Diehl, Jeffrey J. Buler
2018, Ornithological Applications (120) 166-184
Much of our understanding of en route landbird habitat use comes from research performed at local scales, ignoring effects at larger spatial scales. We used a multiscale approach to investigate stopover habitat use by landbirds using transect surveys in 68 forested sites in southwestern Michigan, USA, during the springs...
Estimating wetland connectivity to streams in the Prairie Pothole Region: An isotopic and remote sensing approach
J. R. Brooks, David M. Mushet, Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Scott G. Leibowitz, J. R. Christensen, Brian Neff, Donald O. Rosenberry, W. D. Rugh, L.C. Alexander
2018, Water Resources Research (54) 955-977
Understanding hydrologic connectivity between wetlands and perennial streams is critical to understanding the reliance of stream flow on inputs from wetlands. We used the isotopic evaporation signal in water and remote sensing to examine wetland‐stream hydrologic connectivity within the Pipestem Creek watershed, North Dakota, a watershed dominated by prairie‐pothole wetlands....
Tidal extension and sea-level rise: recommendations for a research agenda
Scott H. Ensign, Gregory E. Noe
2018, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (16) 37-43
Sea-level rise is pushing freshwater tides upstream into formerly non-tidal rivers. This tidal extension may increase the area of tidal freshwater ecosystems and offset loss of ecosystem functions due to salinization downstream. Without considering how gains in ecosystem functions could offset losses, landscape-scale assessments of ecosystem functions may be biased...
