Sources of high-chloride water and managed aquifer recharge in an alluvial aquifer in California, USA
David O’Leary, John A. Izbicki, Loren F. Metzger
2015, Hydrogeology Journal (23) 1515-1533
As a result of pumping in excess of recharge, water levels in alluvial aquifers within the Eastern San Joaquin Groundwater Subbasin, 130 km east of San Francisco (California, USA), declined below sea level in the early 1950s and have remained so to the present. Chloride concentrations in some wells increased...
Combining waterfowl and breeding bird survey data to estimate wood duck breeding population size in the Atlantic Flyway
Guthrie S. Zimmerman, John R. Sauer, Kathy Fleming, William A. Link, Pamela R. Garrettson
2015, Journal of Wildlife Management (79) 1051-1061
We combined data from the Atlantic Flyway Breeding Waterfowl Survey (AFBWS) and the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) to estimate the number of wood ducks (Aix sponsa) in the United States portion of the Atlantic Flyway from 1993 to 2013. The AFBWS is a plot-based survey that covers most...
Water masses, ocean fronts, and the structure of Antarctic seabird communities: putting the eastern Bellingshausen Sea in perspective
Christine A. Ribic, David G. Ainley, R. Glenn Ford, William R. Fraser, Cynthia T. Tynan, Eric J. Woehler
2015, Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography (58) 1695-1709
Waters off the western Antarctic Peninsula (i.e., the eastern Bellingshausen Sea) are unusually complex owing to the convergence of several major fronts. Determining the relative influence of fronts on occurrence patterns of top-trophic species in that area, therefore, has been challenging. In one of the few ocean-wide seabird data syntheses,...
Metallogeny, exploitation and environmental impact of the Mt. Amiata mercury ore district (Southern Tuscany, Italy)
V. Rimondi, L. Chiarantini, P. Lattanzi, M. Benvenuti, M. Beutel, A. Colica, P. Costagliola, F. Di Benedetto, G. Gabbani, John E. Gray, E. Pandeli, G. Pattelli, M. Paolieri, G. Ruggieri
2015, Italian Journal of Geosciences (134) 323-336
The Mt. Amiata mining district (Southern Tuscany, Italy) is a world class Hg district, with a cumulate production of more than 100,000 tonnes of Hg, mostly occurring between 1870 and 1980. The Hg mineralization at Mt. Amiata is younger than 0.3 Ma, and is directly related to shallow hydrothermal...
Limits to benthic feeding by eiders in a vital Arctic migration corridor due to localized prey and changing sea ice
James R. Lovvorn, Aariel R. Rocha, Stephen C. Jewett, Douglas Dasher, Steffen Oppel, Abby Powell
2015, Progress in Oceanography (136) 162-174
Four species of threatened or declining eider ducks that nest in the Arctic migrate through the northeast Chukchi Sea, where anticipated industrial development may require prioritizing areas for conservation. In this nearshore corridor (10–40 m depth), the eiders’ access to benthic prey during the spring is restricted to variable areas of...
Reducing fertilizer-nitrogen losses from rowcrop landscapes: Insights and implications from a spatially explicit watershed model
Eileen McLellan, Keith Schilling, Dale M. Robertson
2015, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (51) 1003-1019
We present conceptual and quantitative models that predict changes in fertilizer-derived nitrogen delivery from rowcrop landscapes caused by agricultural conservation efforts implemented to reduce nutrient inputs and transport and increase nutrient retention in the landscape. To evaluate the relative importance of changes in the sources, transport, and sinks of fertilizer-derived...
Ground-truthing electrical resistivity methods in support of submarine groundwater discharge studies: Examples from Hawaii, Washington, and California
Cordell Johnson, Peter W. Swarzenski, Christina M. Richardson, Christopher G. Smith, Kevin D. Kroeger, Priya M. Ganguli
2015, Journal of Environmental & Engineering Geophysics (20) 81-87
Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is an important conduit that links terrestrial and marine environments. SGD conveys both water and water-borne constituents into coastal waters, where these inflows may impact near-shore ecosystem health and sustainability. Multichannel electrical resistivity techniques have proven to be a powerful tool to examine scales and...
The Penobscot River and environmental contaminants: Assessment of tribal exposure through sustenance lifeways
Valerie Marshall, Daniel Kusnierz, Robert Hillger, Joseph Ferrario, Thomas Hughes, Janet Diliberto, Carl E. Orazio, Robert W. Dudley, Christian Byrne, Richard Sugatt, Sarah Warren, David DeMarini, Adria Elskus, Steve Stodola, Steve Mierzykowski, Katie Pugh, Charles W. Culbertson
2015, Report
EPA in collaboration with the Penobscot Indian Nation, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USF&WS) collectively embarked on a four year research study to evaluate the environmental health of the riverine system by targeting specific cultural practices...
Preserved filamentous microbial biosignatures in the Brick Flat gossan, Iron Mountain, California
Amy J. Williams, Dawn Y. Sumner, Charles N. Alpers, Suniti Karunatillake, Beda A Hofmann
2015, Astrobiology (15) 637-668
A variety of actively precipitating mineral environments preserve morphological evidence of microbial biosignatures. One such environment with preserved microbial biosignatures is the oxidized portion of a massive sulfide deposit, or gossan, such as that at Iron Mountain, California. This gossan may serve as a mineralogical analogue to some ancient martian...
Holocene variability in the intensity of wind-gap upwelling in the tropical eastern Pacific
Lauren T. Toth, Richard B. Aronson, Hai Cheng, R. Lawrence Edwards
2015, Paleoceanography (30) 1113-1131
Wind-driven upwelling in Pacific Panamá is a significant source of oceanographic variability in the tropical eastern Pacific. This upwelling system provides a critical teleconnection between the Atlantic and tropical Pacific that may impact climate variability on a global scale. Despite its importance to oceanographic circulation, ecology, and climate, little is...
Unifying research on the fragmentation of terrestrial and aquatic habitats: patches, connectivity and the matrix in riverscapes
Tibor Eros, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2015, Freshwater Biology (60) 1487-1501
While there is an increasing emphasis in terrestrial ecology on determining the influence of the area that surrounds habitat patches (the landscape ‘matrix’) relative to the characteristics of the patches themselves, research on these aspects in running waters is still rather underrepresented. Here we outline conceptual foundations of matrix...
U.S. Geological Survey science for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative—2014 annual report
Zachary H. Bowen, Cameron L. Aldridge, Patrick J. Anderson, Timothy J. Assal, Timothy T. Bartos, Laura R Biewick, Gregory K. Boughton, Anna D. Chalfoun, Geneva W. Chong, Marie K. Dematatis, Cheryl A. Eddy-Miller, Steven L. Garman, Steve Germaine, Collin G. Homer, Christopher Huber, Matthew J. Kauffman, Natalie Latysh, Daniel J. Manier, Cynthia P. Melcher, Alexander Miller, Kirk A. Miller, Edward M. Olexa, Spencer Schell, Annika W. Walters, Anna B. Wilson, Teal B. Wyckoff
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1091
This is the seventh report produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) to detail annual activities conducted by the USGS for addressing specific management needs identified by WLCI partners. In FY2014, there were 26 projects, including a new one that was completed, two...
StreamStats in Georgia: a water-resources web application
Anthony J. Gotvald, Jonathan W. Musser
2015, Fact Sheet 2014-3027
Summary Part of the mission of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is to provide information on streamflow in the Nation's streams to help understand the Nation's water resources. Streamflow statistics are used by water managers, engineers, scientists, and others to protect people and property during floods and droughts, and to manage,...
Potential for real‐time understanding of coupled hydrologic and biogeochemical processes in stream ecosystems: Future integration of telemetered data with process models for glacial meltwater streams
Diane M. McKnight, Karen D. Cozzetto, James D. S. Cullis, Michael N. Gooseff, Christopher Jaros, Joshua C. Koch, W. Berry Lyons, Roseanna M. Neupauer, Adam N. Wlostowski
2015, Water Resources Research (51) 6725-6738
While continuous monitoring of streamflow and temperature has been common for some time, there is great potential to expand continuous monitoring to include water quality parameters such as nutrients, turbidity, oxygen, and dissolved organic material. In many systems, distinguishing between watershed and stream ecosystem controls can be challenging. The usefulness...
Towards automating measurements and predictions of Escherichia coli concentrations in the Cuyahoga River, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio, 2012–14
Amie M.G. Brady, Meg B. Plona
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5094
Nowcasts are systems that can provide estimates of the current bacterial water-quality conditions based on predictive models using easily-measured, explanatory variables; nowcasts can provide the public with the information to make informed decisions on the risk associated with recreational activities in natural water bodies. Previous studies on the Cuyahoga River...
Germanium: giving microelectronics an efficiency boost
Celestine N. Mercer
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3011
Introduction Germanium is a rare element but is present in trace quantities in most rock types because of its affinity for iron- and organic-bearing materials. The average germanium content of the Earth is about 14 parts per million, but the majority of germanium resides within the Earth’s core (37 parts per...
Electrical properties of methane hydrate + sediment mixtures
Wyatt L. Du Frane, Laura A. Stern, Steven Constable, Karen A. Weitemeyer, Megan M Smith, Jeffery J. Roberts
2015, Journal of Geophysical Research (120) 4773-4783
Knowledge of the electrical properties of multicomponent systems with gas hydrate, sediments, and pore water is needed to help relate electromagnetic (EM) measurements to specific gas hydrate concentration and distribution patterns in nature. Toward this goal, we built a pressure cell capable of measuring in situ electrical properties of multicomponent...
Hydrogeology of the Susquehanna River valley-fill aquifer system in the Endicott-Vestal area of southwestern Broome County, New York
Allan D. Randall, William M. Kappel
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5078
The village of Endicott, New York, and the adjacent town of Vestal have historically used groundwater from the Susquehanna River valley-fill aquifer system for municipal water supply, but parts of some aquifers in this urban area suffer from legacy contamination from varied sources. Endicott would like to identify sites distant...
Evaluating the importance of characterizing soil structure and horizons in parameterizing a hydrologic process model
Benjamin B. Mirus
2015, Hydrological Processes (29) 4611-4623
Incorporating the influence of soil structure and horizons into parameterizations of distributed surface water/groundwater models remains a challenge. Often, only a single soil unit is employed, and soil-hydraulic properties are assigned based on textural classification, without evaluating the potential impact of these simplifications. This study uses a distributed physics-based model...
Effects of high salinity wastewater discharges on unionid mussels in the Allegheny River, Pennsylvania
Kathleen A. Patnode, Elizabeth A. Hittle, Robert Anderson, Lora Zimmerman, John W. Fulton
2015, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (6) 55-70
We examined the effect of high salinity wastewater (brine) from oil and natural gas drilling on freshwater mussels in the Allegheny River, Pennsylvania, during 2012. Mussel cages (N = 5 per site) were deployed at two sites upstream and four sites downstream of a brine treatment facility on the Allegheny...
Source, use and disposition of freshwater in Puerto Rico, 2010
Wanda L. Molina
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3044
Introduction Water diverted from streams and pumped from wells constitutes the main source of water for the 78 municipios of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. A better understanding of water-use patterns is needed, particularly regarding the amount of water used, where and how this water is used and disposed, and how...
Influence of a chlor-alkali superfund site on mercury bioaccumulation in periphyton and low-trophic level fauna
Kate L. Buckman, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, Vivien F. Taylor, Ann T. Chalmers, Hannah J. Broadley, Jennifer L. Agee, Brian P. Jackson, Celia Y. Chen
2015, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (34) 1649-1658
In Berlin, New Hampshire, USA, the Androscoggin River flows adjacent to a former chlor-alkali facility that is a US Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site and source of mercury (Hg) to the river. The present study was conducted to determine the fate and bioaccumulation of methylmercury (MeHg) to lower trophic-level taxa...
Water-quality conditions and suspended-sediment transport in the Wilson and Trask Rivers, northwestern Oregon, water years 2012–14
Steven Sobieszczyk, Heather M. Bragg, Mark A. Uhrich
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5109
In October 2011, the U.S. Geological Survey began investigating and monitoring water-quality conditions and suspended-sediment transport in the Wilson and Trask Rivers, northwestern Oregon. Water temperature, specific conductance, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen were measured every 15–30 minutes in both streams using real-time instream water-quality monitors. In conjunction with the...
Groundwater levels, trends, and relations to pumping in the Bureau of Reclamation Klamath Project, Oregon and California
Marshall W. Gannett, Katherine H. Breen
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1145
The use of groundwater to supplement surface-water supplies for the Bureau of Reclamation Klamath Project in the upper Klamath Basin of Oregon and California markedly increased between 2000 and 2014. Pre-2001 groundwater pumping in the area where most of this increase occurred is estimated to have been about 28,600...
Responses to water depth and clipping of twenty−three plant species in an Indian monsoonal wetland
Beth A. Middleton, Arnold van der Valk, Craig B. Davis
2015, Aquatic Botany (126) 38-47
Responses of species to disturbances give insights into how species might respond to future wetland changes. In this study, species of monsoonal wetlands belonging to various functional types (graminoid and non−graminoid emergents, submersed aquatic, floating−leaved aquatic) varied in their growth responses to water depth and harvesting. We tested the effects...
