The drying regimes of non-perennial rivers and streams
Adam N. Price, C. Nathan Jones, John C. Hammond, Margaret Zimmer, Samuel Zipper
2021, Geophysical Research Letters (48)
The flow regime paradigm is central to the aquatic sciences, where flow drives critical functions in lotic systems. Non-perennial streams comprise the majority of global river length, thus we extended this paradigm to stream drying. Using 894 USGS gages, we isolated 25,207 drying events from 1979 to 2018, represented by...
Increasing hydroperiod in a karst-depression wetland based on 165 years of simulated daily water levels
Jennifer M. Cartwright, William J. Wolfe
2021, Wetlands (41)
The hydrology of seasonally inundated depression wetlands can be highly sensitive to climatic fluctuations. Hydroperiod—the number of days per year that a wetland is inundated—is often of primary ecological importance in these systems and can vary interannually depending on climate conditions. In this study we re-examined...
Approaches for assessing long-term annual yields of highway and urban runoff in selected areas of California with the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM)
Gregory E. Granato, Paul J. Friesz
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5043
The California Department of Transportation, commonly known as CalTrans, and other municipal separate storm sewer system permittees in California as well as other State departments of transportation nationwide need information about potential loads and yields (loads per unit area) of constituents of concern in stormwater runoff and discharges from stormwater...
Chemical connectivity and multi-element composition of groundwater in depressional wetlands
Yuxiang Yuan, Xiaoyan Zhu, David M. Mushet, Matthew J. Solensky, Marinus L. Otte
2021, Wetlands (41)
Little is known about the element composition of groundwater along flow paths between wetlands. What is known is based on a few major elements, such as Na and Ca. We examined the spatial and temporal variation of elements in a depressional-wetland, groundwater-flow system in the Prairie...
HydroMet: A new code for automated objective optimization of hydrometeorological thresholds for landslide initiation
Jacob L. Conrad, Michael D. Morphew, Rex L. Baum, Benjamin B. Mirus
2021, Water (13)
Landslide detection and warning systems are important tools for mitigation of potential hazards in landslide prone areas. Traditionally, warning systems for shallow landslides have been informed by rainfall intensity-duration thresholds. More recent advances have introduced the concept of hydrometeorological thresholds that are informed not only by rainfall, but also by...
Borehole analysis, single-well aquifer testing, and water quality for the Burnpit well, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota
William G. Eldridge, Galen K. Hoogestraat, Steven E. Rice
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5059
Mount Rushmore National Memorial (hereafter referred to as “the memorial”), in western South Dakota, is maintained by the National Park Service (NPS) and includes 1,278 acres of land in the east-central part of the Black Hills. An ongoing challenge for NPS managers at the memorial is providing water from sustainable...
Water-level data for the Albuquerque Basin and adjacent areas, central New Mexico, period of record through September 30, 2020
Elaiya R. Jurney, Meghan T. Bell
2021, Data Series 1139
The Albuquerque Basin, located in central New Mexico, is about 100 miles long and 25–40 miles wide. The basin is hydrologically defined as the extent of consolidated and unconsolidated deposits of Tertiary and Quaternary age that encompasses the structural Rio Grande Rift between San Acacia to the south and Cochiti...
Reconstruction of an extreme flood hydrograph and morphodynamics of a meander bend in a high-peak discharge variability river (Powder River, USA)
Massimiliano Ghinassi, John A. Moody
2021, Sedimentology (68) 3549-3576
Understanding of morphodynamic processes associated with large-scale floods has recently improved following significant advances of modern technologies. Nevertheless, a clear link between flood discharge and in-channel sedimentation processes remains to be resolved. The hydrological and geomorphological data available for the meandering Powder River (Montana, USA) since...
Surficial geology of the northern San Luis Valley, Saguache, Fremont, Custer, Alamosa, Rio Grande, Conejos, and Costilla Counties, Colorado
Chester A. Ruleman, Theodore R. Brandt
2021, Scientific Investigations Map 3475
The San Luis Valley and associated underlying basin of south-central Colorado and north-central New Mexico is the largest structural and hydrologic basin of the Rio Grande Rift and fluvial system. The surrounding San Juan and Sangre de Cristo Mountains reveal evidence of widespread volcanism and transtensional tectonism beginning in...
Sea-level rise vulnerability of mangrove forests on the Micronesian Island of Pohnpei
Karen M. Thorne, Kevin Buffington
2021, Fact Sheet 2021-3030
IntroductionThe mangrove forests across the Federated States of Micronesia provide critical resources and contribute to climate resilience. Locally, mangrove forests provide habitat for fish and wildlife, timber, and other cultural resources. Mangrove forests also protect Micronesian communities from tropical cyclones and tsunamis, providing a buffer against powerful waves and winds....
Hydrology of annual winter water level drawdown regimes in recreational lakes of Massachusetts, United States
Jason R. Carmignani, Allison H. Roy, Jason Stolarski, Todd Richards
2021, Lake and Reservoir Management (37) 339-359
Annual winter water level drawdown (WD) is a common lake management strategy to maintain recreational value by controlling nuisance macrophytes and preventing ice damage to shoreline infrastructure in lakes of the northeastern United States. The state of Massachusetts provides general guidelines for lake managers to implement and practice WDs. However,...
Demography of the Oregon spotted frog along a hydrologically modified river
Jennifer Rowe, Adam Duarte, Christopher Pearl, Brome McCreary, Patricia Haggerty, John Jones, Michael J. Adams
2021, Ecosphere (12)
Altered flow regimes can contribute to dissociation between life history strategies and environmental conditions, leading to reduced persistence reported for many wildlife populations inhabiting regulated rivers. The Oregon spotted frog (Rana pretiosa) is a threatened species occurring in floodplains, ponds, and wetlands in the Pacific Northwest...
Permafrost thaw in northern peatlands: Rapid changes in ecosystem and landscape functions
David Olefeldt, Liam Hefferman, Miriam C. Jones, A. Britta Sannel, Claire C. Treat, Merritt R. Turetsky
2021, Book chapter, Ecosystem collapse and climate change
Peatlands within the northern permafrost region cover approximately 2 million km2 and are characterized by organic soils that can be several meters thick, and a fine-scale mosaic of permafrost and non-permafrost landforms interspersed by shallow ponds and lakes. Ongoing permafrost thaw is transforming these peatlands, causing abrupt changes to their morphology,...
Assessment of a conservative mixing model for the evaluation of constituent behavior below river confluences, Elqui River Basin, Chile
Catalina Rossi, Jorge Oyarzun, Pablo Pasten, Robert L. Runkel, Jorge Núñez, Denisse Duhalde, Hugo Maturana, Eduardo Rojas, José L. Arumí, Daniela Castillo, Ricardo Oyarzun
2021, River Research and Applications (37) 967-978
Fate and transport modeling of water-borne contaminants is a data demanding and costly endeavor, requiring considerable expes such, it becomes important to know when a complex modeling approach is required, and when a simpler approach is adequate. This is the main objective herein, where a conservative mixing model is used...
Enhanced terrestrial runoff during Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 on the North Carolina Coastal Plain, USA
Christopher M Lowery, Jean Self-Trail, Craig Barrie
2021, Climate of the Past (17) 1227-1242
A global increase in the strength of the hydrologic cycle drove an increase in the flux of terrigenous sediments into the ocean during the Cenomanian–Turonian Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2) and was an important mechanism driving nutrient enrichment and thus organic carbon burial. This global change is primarily known from isotopic...
Extensibility of U-net neural network model for hydrographic feature extraction and implications for hydrologic modeling
Larry V. Stanislawski, Ethan J. Shavers, Shaowen Wang, Zhe Jiang, E. Lynn Usery, Evan Moak, Alexander Duffy, Joel Schott
2021, Remote Sensing (13)
Accurate maps of regional surface water features are integral for advancing ecologic, atmospheric and land development studies. The only comprehensive surface water feature map of Alaska is the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). NHD features are often digitized representations of historic topographic map blue lines and may be outdated. Here we...
Permeable groundwater pathways and tritium migration patterns from the HANDLEY underground nuclear test, Pahute Mesa, Nevada
Tracie R. Jackson
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5032
The HANDLEY nuclear test was detonated at about 2,700 feet below the water table on March 26, 1970, in Pahute Mesa, south-central Nevada. Measured tritium concentrations in boreholes ER-20-12 and PM-3 indicate that a shallow tritium plume has migrated more than 1 mile (mi) downgradient from the HANDLEY test...
Evaluation of techniques for mitigating snowmelt infiltration-induced landsliding in a highway embankment
Eric Hinds, Ning Lu, Benjamin B. Mirus, Jonathan W. Godt, Alexandra Wayllace
2021, Engineering Geology (291)
Infiltration-induced landslides threaten transportation infrastructure around the world, and impose both direct costs through repair and remediation work and indirect costs through lost economic activity. Therefore, finding the most cost-effective techniques to mitigate slope failures that can impact critical infrastructure links is desirable. The Straight Creek landslide, which affects a...
Land use change influences ecosystem function in headwater streams of the Lowland Amazon Basin
Kathi Jo Jankowski, Linda A. Deegan, Christopher Neill, HIllary L. Sullivan, Paulo Ilha, Leonardo Maracahipes-Santos, Nubia C.S. Marques, Marcia N. Macedo
2021, Water (13)
Intensive agriculture alters headwater streams, but our understanding of its effects is limited in tropical regions where rates of agricultural expansion and intensification are currently greatest. Riparian forest protections are an important conservation tool, but whether they provide adequate protection of stream function in these areas of rapid tropical agricultural...
Movement of sediment through a burned landscape: Sediment volume observations and model comparisons in the San Gabriel Mountains, California, USA
Francis K. Rengers, Luke A. McGuire, Jason W. Kean, Dennis M. Staley, Mariana Dobre, Peter R. Robichaud, Tyson Swetnam
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research (126)
Post-wildfire changes to hydrologic and geomorphic systems can lead to widespread sediment redistribution. Understanding how sediment moves through a watershed is crucial for assessing hazards, developing debris flow inundation models, engineering sediment retention solutions, and quantifying the role that disturbances play in landscape evolution. In this study,...
Streambank erosion and related geomorphic change in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, California
Stephen B. DeLong, Alexandra J. Pickering, Timothy Kuhn
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5025
Landscape change in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, California, was characterized using data derived from four lidar surveys: one airborne survey in 2006 and three terrestrial surveys in 2016, 2017, and 2018. These surveys were used to generate a better quantitative understanding of changes associated with fluvial processes along the...
Hippopotamus movements structure the spatiotemporal dynamics of an active anthrax outbreak
Keenan Stears, Melissa H. Schmitt, Wendy Christine Turner, Douglas J. McCauley, Epaphras A. Muse, Halima Kiwango, Daniel Matheyo, Benezeth M. Mutayoba
2021, Ecosphere (12)
Globally, anthrax outbreaks pose a serious threat to people, livestock, and wildlife. Furthermore, environmental change can exacerbate these outbreak dynamics by altering the host–pathogen relationship. However, little is known about how the quantitative spatial dynamics of host movement and environmental change may affect the spread of Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent...
Use of the MODFLOW 6 water mover package to represent natural and managed hydrologic connections
Eric D. Morway, Christian D. Langevin, Joseph D. Hughes
2021, Groundwater (59) 913-924
The latest release of MODFLOW 6, the current core version of the MODFLOW groundwater modeling software, debuted a new package dubbed the “mover” (MVR). Using a generalized approach, MVR facilitates the transfer of water among any arbitrary combination of simulated features (i.e., pumping wells, stream, drains,...
The biophysical role of water and ice within permafrost nearing collapse: Insights from novel geophysical observations
Stephanie R. James, Burke J. Minsley, Jack McFarland, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Colin W. Edgar, Mark Waldrop
2021, JGR Earth Surface (126)
The impact of permafrost thaw on hydrologic, thermal, and biotic processes remains uncertain, in part due to limitations in subsurface measurement capabilities. To better understand subsurface processes in thermokarst environments, we collocated geophysical and biogeochemical instruments along a thaw gradient between forested permafrost and collapse-scar bogs at the Alaska Peatland...
Integrated hydrology and operations modeling to evaluate climate change impacts in an agricultural valley irrigated with snowmelt runoff
Wesley Kitlasten, Eric D. Morway, Richard G. Niswonger, Murphy Gardner, Jeremy T. White, Enrique Triana, David J. Selkowitz
2021, Water Resources Research (57)
Applying models to developed agricultural regions remains a difficult problem because there are no existing modeling codes that represent both the complex physics of the hydrology and anthropogenic manipulations to water distribution and consumption. We apply an integrated groundwater – surface water and hydrologic river operations model...
