Continuous-flow centrifugation to collect suspended sediment for chemical analysis
Kathleen E. Conn, Richard S. Dinicola, Robert W. Black, Stephen E. Cox, Richard W. Sheibley, James R. Foreman, Craig A. Senter, Norman T. Peterson
2016, Techniques and Methods 1-D6
Recent advances in suspended-sediment monitoring tools and surrogate technologies have greatly improved the ability to quantify suspended-sediment concentrations and to estimate daily, seasonal, and annual suspended-sediment fluxes from rivers to coastal waters. However, little is known about the chemical composition of suspended sediment, and how it may vary spatially between...
Evaluating external nutrient and suspended-sediment loads to Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, using surrogate regressions with real-time turbidity and acoustic backscatter data
Liam N. Schenk, Chauncey W. Anderson, Paul Diaz, Marc A. Stewart
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5167
Executive SummarySuspended-sediment and total phosphorus loads were computed for two sites in the Upper Klamath Basin on the Wood and Williamson Rivers, the two main tributaries to Upper Klamath Lake. High temporal resolution turbidity and acoustic backscatter data were used to develop surrogate regression models to compute instantaneous concentrations and...
Quantifying the effects of research band resighting activities on staging terns in comparison to other disturbances
Melissa Althouse, Jonathan B. Cohen, Jeffrey A. Spendelow, Sarah M. Karpanty, Kayla L. Davis, Katharine C. Parsons, Cristin F. Luttazi
2016, Waterbirds (39) 417-421
Avian research that involves potential disturbance to the study species may have unintended fitness consequences and could lead to biases in measurements of interest. The effects of band resighting on the behavior of mixed-species flocks of staging waterbirds were evaluated against recreational pedestrian activity that was expected to cause flushing....
Sources of groundwater and characteristics of surface-water recharge at Bell, White, and Suwannee Springs, Florida, 2012–13
John F. Stamm, W. Scott McBride
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1190
Discharge from springs in Florida is sourced from aquifers, such as the Upper Floridan aquifer, which is overlain by an upper confining unit that locally can have properties of an aquifer. Water levels in aquifers are affected by several factors, such as precipitation, recharge, and groundwater withdrawals, which in turn...
Ambient water quality in aquifers used for drinking-water supplies, Gem County, southwestern Idaho, 2015
James R. Bartolino, Candice B. Hopkins
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5170
In recent years, the rapid population growth in Gem County, Idaho, has been similar to other counties in southwestern Idaho, increasing about 54 percent from 1990 to 2015. Because the entire population of the study area depends on groundwater for drinking water supply (either from self-supplied domestic, community, or municipal-supply...
Concentration, flux, and trend estimates with uncertainty for nutrients, chloride, and total suspended solids in tributaries of Lake Champlain, 1990–2014
Laura Medalie
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1200
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission and the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, estimated daily and 9-month concentrations and fluxes of total and dissolved phosphorus, total nitrogen, chloride, and total suspended solids from 1990 (or first available date) through 2014...
Migratory-stage sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus stop responding to conspecific damage-released alarm cues after 4 h of continuous exposure in laboratory conditions
Istvan Imre, Richard T. Di Rocco, Haley McClure, Nicholas S. Johnson, Grant E. Brown
2016, Journal of Fish Biology (90) 1297-1304
This study investigated the length of avoidance response of migratory-stage sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus exposed continuously to conspecific damage-released alarm cues for varying lengths of time in laboratory stream channels. Ten replicate groups of P. marinus, separated by sex, were exposed to either deionized water control or to P. marinus...
Active season microhabitat and vegetation selection by giant gartersnakes associated with a restored marsh in California
Brian J. Halstead, Patricia Valcarcel, Glenn D. Wylie, Peter S. Coates, Michael L. Casazza, Daniel K. Rosenberg
2016, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (7) 397-407
Studies of habitat selection can reveal important patterns to guide habitat restoration and management for species of conservation concern. Giant gartersnakes Thamnophis gigas are endemic to the Central Valley of California, where >90% of their historical wetland habitat has been converted to agricultural and other uses. Information about the selection...
Suspended-sediment concentrations, bedload, particle sizes, surrogate measurements, and annual sediment loads for selected sites in the lower Minnesota River Basin, water years 2011 through 2016
Joel T. Groten, Christopher A. Ellison, Jon S. Hendrickson
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5174
Accurate measurements of fluvial sediment are important for assessing stream ecological health, calculating flood levels, computing sediment budgets, and managing and protecting water resources. Sediment-enriched rivers in Minnesota are a concern among Federal, State, and local governments because turbidity and sediment-laden waters are the leading impairments and affect more than...
Preliminary peak stage and streamflow data at selected streamgaging stations in North Carolina and South Carolina for flooding following Hurricane Matthew, October 2016
J. Curtis Weaver, Toby D. Feaster, Jeanne C. Robbins
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1205
The passage of Hurricane Matthew across the central and eastern regions of North Carolina and South Carolina during October 7–9, 2016, resulted in heavy rainfall that caused major flooding in parts of the eastern Piedmont in North Carolina and coastal regions of both States. Rainfall totals of 3 to 8...
Science to support the understanding of Ohio's water resources, 2016-17
Kimberly Shaffer, Stephanie P. Kula
2016, Fact Sheet 2016-3087
Ohio’s water resources support a complex web of human activities and nature—clean and abundant water is needed for drinking, recreation, farming, and industry, as well as for fish and wildlife needs. Although rainfall in normal years can support these activities and needs, occasional floods and droughts can disrupt streamflow, groundwater,...
Barrier island breach evolution: Alongshore transport and bay-ocean pressure gradient interactions
Ilgar Safak, John C. Warner, Jeffrey H. List
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (121) 8720-8730
Physical processes controlling repeated openings and closures of a barrier island breach between a bay and the open ocean are studied using aerial photographs and atmospheric and hydrodynamic observations. The breach site is located on Pea Island along the Outer Banks, separating Pamlico Sound from the Atlantic Ocean. Wind direction...
GDGT and alkenone flux in the northern Gulf of Mexico: Implications for the TEX86 and UK137 paleothermometers
Julie N. Richey, Jessica E. Tierney
2016, Paleoceanography (31) 1547-1561
The TEX86 and molecular biomarker proxies have been broadly applied in down-core marine sediments to reconstruct past sea surface temperature (SST). Although both TEX86 and have been interpreted as proxies...
Estimated nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to the Fish Creek watershed, Teton County, Wyoming, 2009–15
Cheryl A. Eddy-Miller, Roy Sando, Michael J. MacDonald, Carlin Girard
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5160
Nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, are essential for plant and animal growth and nourishment, but the overabundance of bioavailable nitrogen and phosphorus in water can cause adverse health and ecological effects. It is generally accepted that increased primary production of surface-water bodies because of high inputs of nutrients is...
Quantifying chemical weathering rates along a precipitation gradient on Basse-Terre Island, French Guadeloupe: new insight from U-series isotopes in weathering rinds
Jacqueline M. Engel, Linda May, Peter B. Sak, Jerome Gaillardet, Minghua Ren, Mark A. Engle, Susan L. Brantley
2016, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (195) 29-67
Inside soil and saprolite, rock fragments can form weathering clasts (alteration rinds surrounding an unweathered core) and these weathering rinds provide an excellent field system for investigating the initiation of weathering and long term weathering rates. Recently, uranium-series (U-series) disequilibria have shown great potential for determining rind formation rates...
Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on deep-sea coral-associated sediment communities
Amanda W.J. Demopoulos, Jill R. Bourque, Erik E. Cordes, Katherine Stamler
2016, Marine Ecology Progress Series (561) 51-68
Cold-water corals support distinct populations of infauna within surrounding sediments that provide vital ecosystem functions and services in the deep sea. Yet due to their sedentary existence, infauna are vulnerable to perturbation and contaminant exposure because they are unable to escape disturbance events. While multiple deep-sea coral habitats were injured...
The chemistry and isotopic composition of waters in the low-enthalpy geothermal system of Cimino-Vico Volcanic District, Italy
Maria Battistel, Shaul Hurwitz, William Evans, Maurizio Barbieri
2016, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (328) 222-229
Geothermal energy exploration is based in part on interpretation of the chemistry, temperature, and discharge rate of thermal springs. Here we present the major element chemistry and the δD, δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr and δ11B isotopic ratio of groundwater from the low-enthalpy geothermal system near the city of Viterbo in the Cimino-Vico...
Occurrence, distribution, and volume of metals-contaminated sediment of selected streams draining the Tri-State Mining District, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas, 2011–12
D. Charlie Smith
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5144
Lead and zinc were mined in the Tri-State Mining District (TSMD) of southwest Missouri, northeast Oklahoma, and southeast Kansas for more than 100 years. The effects of mining on the landscape are still evident, nearly 50 years after the last mine ceased operation. The legacies of mining are the mine...
Changing agricultural practices: Potential consequences to aquatic organisms
Peter J. Lasier, Matthew L. Urich, Sayed M. Hassan, Whitney N. Jacobs, Robert B. Bringolf, Kathleen M. Owens
2016, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (188) 1-17
Agricultural practices pose threats to biotic diversity in freshwater systems with increasing use of glyphosate-based herbicides for weed control and animal waste for soil amendment becoming common in many regions. Over the past two decades, these particular agricultural trends have corresponded with marked declines in populations of fish and mussel...
Collection, processing, and quality assurance of time-series electromagnetic-induction log datasets, 1995–2016, south Florida
Scott T. Prinos, Robert Valderrama
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1194
Time-series electromagnetic-induction log (TSEMIL) datasets are collected from polyvinyl-chloride cased or uncased monitoring wells to evaluate changes in water conductivity over time. TSEMIL datasets consist of a series of individual electromagnetic-induction logs, generally collected at a frequency of once per month or once per year that have been compiled into...
Groundwater-flow model of the northern High Plains aquifer in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming
Steven M. Peterson, Amanda T. Flynn, Jonathan P. Traylor
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5153
The High Plains aquifer is a nationally important water resource underlying about 175,000 square miles in parts of eight states: Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Droughts across much of the Northern High Plains from 2001 to 2007 have combined with recent (2004) legislative mandates...
The estimated six-year mercury dry deposition across North America
Leiming Zhang, Zhiyong Wu, Irene Cheng, L. Paige Wright, Mark L. Olson, David A. Gay, Martin R. Risch, Steven Brooks, Mark S. Castro, Gary D. Conley, Eric S. Edgerton, Thomas M. Holsen, Winston Luke, Robert Tordon, Peter Weiss-Penzias
2016, Environmental Science & Technology (50) 12864-12873
Dry deposition of atmospheric mercury (Hg) to various land covers surrounding 24 sites in North America was estimated for the years 2009 to 2014. Depending on location, multiyear mean annual Hg dry deposition was estimated to range from 5.1 to 23.8 μg m–2 yr–1 to forested canopies, 2.6 to 20.8...
Efficacy of environmental DNA to detect and quantify Brook Trout populations in headwater streams of the Adirondack Mountains, New York
Barry P. Baldigo, Lee Ann Sporn, Scott D. George, Jacob Ball
2016, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (146) 99-111
Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis is rapidly evolving as a tool for monitoring the distributions of aquatic species. Detection of species’ populations in streams may be challenging because the persistence time for intact DNA fragments is unknown and because eDNA is diluted and dispersed by dynamic hydrological processes. During 2015, the...
Flow characteristics and salinity patterns of tidal rivers within the northern Ten Thousand Islands, southwest Florida, water years 2007–14
Amanda Booth, Lars E. Soderqvist
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5158
Freshwater flow to the Ten Thousand Islands estuary has been altered by the construction of the Tamiami Trail and the Southern Golden Gate Estates. The Picayune Strand Restoration Project, which is associated with the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, has been implemented to improve freshwater delivery to the Ten Thousand Islands...
Estimating natural monthly streamflows in California and the likelihood of anthropogenic modification
Daren M. Carlisle, David M. Wolock, Jeanette K. Howard, Theodore E. Grantham, Kurt Fesenmyer, Michael Wieczorek
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1189
Because natural patterns of streamflow are a fundamental property of the health of streams, there is a critical need to quantify the degree to which human activities have modified natural streamflows. A requirement for assessing streamflow modification in a given stream is a reliable estimate of flows expected in the...
