Coastal wetlands in the Anthropocene
John W. Day, Edward Anthony, Robert Costanza, Douglas Edmonds, Joel Gunn, Charles Hopkinson, Michael E. Mann, James Morris, Michael Osland, Tracy Quirk, Andre S. Rovai, John M Rybczyk, Thomas Spencer, Jessica Stephens, Jaia Syvitski, Robert R. Twilley, Jenneke Visser, John R. White
2024, Annual Review of Environment and Resources (49) 105-135
We review the functioning and sustainability of coastal marshes and mangroves. Urbanized humans have a 7,000-year-old enduring relationship to coastal wetlands. Wetlands include marshes, salt flats, and saline and freshwater forests. Coastal wetlands occur in all climate zones but are most abundant in deltas. Mangroves are tropical, whereas marshes occur...
Appendix D-4: USGS water resource investigations and activities
Daniel C. Thomas
2024, Report, The 2023 annual report of the International Red River Watershed Board
No abstract available....
Declines in brook trout abundance linked to atmospheric warming in Maryland, USA
Nathaniel P. Hitt, Karli M. Rogers, Zachary A. Kelly
2024, Hydrobiology (3) 310-324
Salmonid fishes provide an important indicator of climate change given their reliance on cold water. We evaluated temporal changes in the density of stream-dwelling brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) from surveys conducted over a 36-year period (1988–2023) by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in Eastern North America. Nonparametric trend...
Fall 2024
Katrina Rossos
2024, Newsletter
This issue highlights our long history of outreach on Cape Cod in an article and video. It also features a story about our crest-stage gage network in Vermont, which provisionally hit high-water records during flash floods this summer. Also, we discuss a USGS study that examined trends of extreme low-flows...
Evaluation of the lakes and impoundments drought index for the Massachusetts Drought Management Plan
Travis L. Smith
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5081
The condition of surface water storage in lakes and impoundments is used as an index of drought in the Massachusetts drought management plan. The U.S. Geological Survey visited 28 of these lakes and impoundments at 14 single and multiple waterbody systems to evaluate their appropriateness for characterizing drought. The data...
Statistical analysis of Lake Tahoe secchi depth data
Ramon C. Naranjo
2024, Report
Secchi depth measurements in Lake Tahoe have been collected at a Long-Term Profile (LTP) monitoring site since 1968. Periodic updates in Secchi trend analysis are needed to understand changes in the long-term record, changes in seasonal pattern, and to provide insight into the progress of restoration efforts in improving lake...
Elemental composition and potential toxicity of the riverine macrophyte Podostemum ceratophyllum Michx. reflects land use in eastern North America
James Wood, Lee H. Dietterich, Douglas R. Leasure, Sarah Jantzi, Thomas Maddox, Seth J. Wenger, Jonathan Skaggs, Amy D. Rosemond, Mary Freeman
2024, Science of the Total Environment (954)
Land use influences surface water quality, often alleviating stoichiometric constraints on primary production and altering biogeochemical cycling. However, land use effects on nutrient content and potential trace metal accumulation in aquatic plants remain unclear, and high concentrations of metals and altered nutrient ratios could impact the health of herbivores and...
Fish health altered by contaminants and low water temperatures compounded by prolonged regional drought in the Lower Colorado River Basin, USA
Steven L Goodbred, Reynaldo Patino, David A. Alvarez, Darren Johnson, Deena Hannoun, Kathy R. Echols, Jill Jenkins
2024, Toxics (12)
The goal of this study was to assess health of male Common Carp (carp, Cyprinus carpio) at four sites with a wide range in environmental organic contaminant (EOC) concentrations and water temperatures in Lake Mead National Recreation Area NV/AZ, US, and the potential influence of regional drought. Histological and reproductive...
Estimating groundwater level records using MOVE.1 and computing monthly percentiles from estimated groundwater records in Massachusetts
Elizabeth A. Ahearn, Dee-Ann E. Crozier
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5080
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, performed record extensions on groundwater levels at select wells using the Maintenance of Variance Extension type 1 (MOVE.1) method. The groundwater levels estimated from these record extensions were used to compute monthly percentiles to improve future determinations...
An evaluation of fin ray microchemistry to describe movement of White Sturgeon in the Kootenai River basin: Insights and limitations
Courtnie L. Ghere, Michael C. Quist, Ryan S. Hardy, Malte Willmes, Levi Lewis, Sean Wilson, Troy Smith
2024, Frontiers in Freshwater Science (2)
Introduction: White Sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus in the Kootenai River basin is listed as endangered in the United States and Canada. Declines have been mainly attributed to poor recruitment exacerbated by the environmental effects of Libby Dam in Montana. Reduced primary production downstream of Libby Dam has been identified as one factor limiting...
Evaluation of the lithium resource in the Smackover Formation brines of southern Arkansas using machine learning
Katherine J. Knierim, Madalyn S. Blondes, Andrew Laurence Masterson, Philip A. Freeman, Bonnie McDevitt, Amanda Sha Herzberg, Peng Li, Ciara Mills, Colin A. Doolan, Aaron M. Jubb, Scott Ausbrooks, Jessica Chenault
2024, Science Advances (10)
Global demand for lithium, the primary component of lithium-ion batteries, greatly exceeds known supplies, and this imbalance is expected to increase as the world transitions away from fossil fuel energy sources. High concentrations of lithium in brines have been observed in the Smackover Formation in southern Arkansas (>400 milligrams per...
Trace organic contaminants in U.S. national park surface waters: Prevalence and ecological context☆
Sarah M. Elliott, Kerensa A. King, Aliesha L. Krall, David D. VanderMeulen
2024, Environmental Pollution (362) 125006
Surface water samples were collected from 264 sites across 46 U.S national parks during the period of 2009–2019. The number of sites within each park ranged from 1 to 31 and the number of samples collected within each park ranged from 1 to...
Beyond the wedge: Impact of tidal streams on salinization of groundwater in a coastal aquifer stressed by pumping and sea-level rise
Mary C. Hingst, R.M. Housego, C. He, Burke J. Minsley, Lyndsay B. Ball, Holly A. Michael
2024, Water Resources Research (60)
Saltwater intrusion (SWI) is a well-studied phenomenon that threatens the freshwater supplies of coastal communities around the world. The development and advancement of numerical models has led to improved assessment of the risk of salinization. However, these studies often fail to include the impact of surface waters...
Simulated mean monthly groundwater-transported nitrogen loads in watersheds on the north shore of Long Island Sound, 1993–2022
Janet R. Barclay, Madeleine J. Holland, John R. Mullaney
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5090
Elevated nitrogen loads are pervasive in the Long Island Sound, an estuary that receives freshwater and nutrients from both surface-water and groundwater discharge. Surface-water nitrogen loads to the Long Island Sound are relatively well characterized, but less is known about groundwater-transported nitrogen loads. Prior work on the northern shore of...
Stream nitrate dynamics driven primarily by discharge and watershed physical and soil characteristics at intensively monitored sites: Insights from deep learning
Galen Gorski, Laurel Larsen, Jordan Wingenroth, Liang Zhang, Dino Bellugi, Alison P. Appling
2024, Water Resources Research (60)
We developed a suite of models using deep learning to make hindcast predictions of the 7‐day average backward‐looking nitrate concentration at 46 predominantly agricultural sites across the midwestern and eastern United States. The models used daily observations of discharge and meteorological variables and watershed attributes describing anthropogenic modification to hydrology, nitrogen...
Groundwater quality near the Placerita Oil Field, California, 2018
Jennifer S. Stanton, Matthew K. Landon, David H. Shimabukuro, Justin T. Kulongoski, Andrew G. Hunt, Peter B. McMahon, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Robert Anders, Theron A. Sowers
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5042
Groundwater-quality data and potential fluid-migration pathways near the Placerita Oil Field in Los Angeles County, California, were examined by the U.S. Geological Survey to determine if oil-field fluids (water and gas from oil-producing and non-producing zones) have mixed with groundwater resources. Six of the 13 new groundwater samples collected for...
Factors contributing to pesticide contamination in riverine systems: The role of wastewater and landscape sources
Samuel Adam Miller, Kaycee E. Faunce, Larry B. Barber, Jacob Fleck, Daniel Walter Burns, Jeramy Roland Jasmann, Michelle L. Hladik
2024, Science of the Total Environment (954)
Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharges can be a source of organic contaminants, including pesticides, to rivers. An integrated model was developed for the Potomac River watershed (PRW) to determine the amount of accumulated wastewater percentage of streamflow (ACCWW) and calculate predicted environmental concentrations...
Pesticides in surface water downstream of and near agricultural and developed land in Hawai‘i, 2015–19
Adam G. Johnson, Joseph J. Kennedy, David A. Alvarez
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5071
Pesticides and pesticide degradates (herein referred to as pesticides) in surface water were assessed at 78 sites on 4 Hawaiian Islands (Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Maui, and Island of Hawaiʻi) during 2015–19. Each site was downstream of or near agricultural land, developed land, or both. Most (58) sites were streams; the remaining...
Groundwater-Surface water interactions research: Past trends and future directions
Dylan J. Irvine, Kamini Singha, Barret L. Kurylyk, Martin A. Briggs, Yakub Sebastian, Douglas Tait, Ashley Helton
2024, Journal of Hydrology (644)
Interactions between groundwater and surface water sustain groundwater-dependent ecosystems and regulate river temperature and biogeochemical cycles, amongst many other processes. These interactions occur in freshwater environments including rivers, springs, lakes, and wetlands, and in coastal environments via tidal pumping, submarine groundwater...
Dissolved oxygen monitoring on the Souris River, 2019–23
Joel M. Galloway
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1043
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in partnership with the International Joint Commission installed and operated continuous water-quality monitors at three sites on the Souris River from May 2019 to October 2023. Continuously recorded data included dissolved oxygen (DO), water temperature, and specific conductance at the Souris River near Sherwood, North...
Evaluation and review of ecology-focused stream studies to support cooperative monitoring, Fountain Creek Basin, Colorado
Robert E. Zuellig, Charles F. Wahl, Erin K. Hennessy, Alex Jouney, Paul Foutz
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5074
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Colorado Springs Utilities and Colorado Springs Stormwater Enterprise, synthesized previous studies and evaluated recent monitoring data to understand the distribution of fish and invertebrates in the Fountain Creek Basin and documented response to streamflow, water temperature, and water quality. The goal was to...
Influences of meteorological conditions, runoff, and bathymetry on summer thermal regime of a Great Lakes estuary
Owen M. Stefaniak, Faith Fitzpatrick, Brennan A. Dow, James D. Blount, Daniel J. Sullivan, Paul Reneau
2024, Journal of Great Lakes Research (50)
To better understand the primary drivers of the thermal regime in a Great Lakes estuary, and their implications for local biota, water temperature variations in the Milwaukee Estuary of Lake Michigan were studied between July and October of 2019 using a network of 25 sensors at 18 locations. Like Lake...
The feasibility of using national-scale datasets for classifying wetlands in Arizona with machine learning
Christopher E. Soulard, Jessica J. Walker, Britt Windsor Smith, Jason R. Kreitler
2024, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (49) 4632-4649
The advent of machine learning techniques has led to a proliferation of landscape classification products. These approaches can fill gaps in wetland inventories across the United States (U.S.) provided that large reference datasets are available to develop accurate models. In this study, we tested the feasibility of expediting the classification...
The U.S. Geological Survey National Streamgage Network—2023
Brian E. McCallum
2024, General Information Product 242
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) operated 11,850 continuous surface-water monitoring locations (streamgages) across the United States in 2023. The streamgages provide information on river height and streamflow, typically at 15-minute intervals. This information is then made available to everyone, most of it delivered nearly in realtime on the USGS National...
Groundwater and surface-water interactions in the Lower Duwamish Waterway, Seattle, Washington
Jackson N. Mitchell, Kathleen E. Conn
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5046
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology), conducted a study to describe the current understanding of the regional groundwater system of the lower Duwamish River valley and groundwater and surface-water interactions in the lower Duwamish Waterway. The lower Duwamish Waterway is the...
