Forecasting landscape effects of Mississippi River diversions on elevation and accretion in Louisiana deltaic wetlands under future environmental uncertainty scenarios
Hongqing Wang, Gregory D. Steyer, Brady R. Couvillion, John M. Rybczyk, Holly J. Beck, William J. Sleavin, Ehab A. Meselhe, Mead A. Allison, Ronald G. Boustany, Craig J. Fischenich, Victor H. Rivera-Monroy
2014, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (138) 57-68
Large sediment diversions are proposed and expected to build new wetlands to alleviate the extensive wetland loss (5,000 km2) affecting coastal Louisiana during the last 78 years. Current assessment and prediction of the impacts of sediment diversions have focused on the capture and dispersal of both water and sediment on...
Geologic setting and stratigraphy of the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site, Snowmass Village, Colorado
Jeff S. Pigati, Ian M. Miller, Kirk R. Johnson, Jeffrey S. Honke, Paul E. Carrara, Daniel R. Muhs, Gary Skipp, Bruce Bryant
2014, Quaternary Research
The geologic setting of the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site is somewhat unusual – the sediments containing the Pleistocene fossils were deposited in a lake on top of a ridge. The lake basin was formed near the Town of Snowmass Village, Colorado when a glacier flowing down Snowmass Creek Valley...
Africa-wide monitoring of small surface water bodies using multisource satellite data: A monitoring system for FEWS NET
Naga Manohar Velpuri, Gabriel B. Senay, James Rowland, James P. Verdin, Henok Alemu
Assefa M. Melesse, Wossenu Abtew, Shimelis G. Setegn, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Nile River Basin
Continental Africa has the highest volume of water stored in wetlands, large lakes, reservoirs, and rivers, yet it suffers from problems such as water availability and access. With climate change intensifying the hydrologic cycle and altering the distribution and frequency of rainfall, the problem of water availability and access will...
Temporal variation in development of ecosystem services from oyster reef restoration
Megan K. LaPeyre, Austin T. Humphries, Sandra M. Casas, Jerome F. La Peyre
2014, Ecological Engineering (63) 34-44
Restoration ecology relies heavily on ecosystem development theories that generally assume development of fully functioning natural systems over time, but often fail to identify the time-frame required for provision of desired functions, or acknowledge different pathways of functional development. In estuaries, a decline of overall habitat quality and functioning has...
Methylmercury production in and export from agricultural wetlands in California, USA: the need to account for physical transport processes into and out of the root zone
Philip Bachand, Sandra M. Bachand, Jacob A. Fleck, Charles N. Alpers, Mark Stephenson, Lisamarie Windham-Myers
2014, Science of the Total Environment (472) 957-970
Concentration and mass balance analyses were used to quantify methylmercury (MeHg) loads from conventional (white) rice, wild rice, and fallowed fields in northern California's Yolo Bypass. These analyses were standardized against chloride to distinguish transport pathways and net ecosystem production (NEP). During summer, chloride loads were both exported with surface...
Thermal-maturity limit for primary thermogenic-gas generation from humic coals as determined by hydrous pyrolysis
Michael Lewan, M.J. Kotarba
2014, AAPG Bulletin (98) 2581-2610
Hydrous-pyrolysis experiments at 360°C (680°F) for 72 h were conducted on 53 humic coals representing ranks from lignite through anthracite to determine the upper maturity limit for hydrocarbon-gas generation from their kerogen and associated bitumen (i.e., primary gas generation). These experimental conditions are below those needed for oil cracking to ensure...
Effects of woody vegetation on overbank sand transport during a large flood, Rio Puerco, New Mexico
Eleanor R. Griffin, Mariela C. Perignon, Jonathan M. Friedman, Gregory E. Tucker
2014, Geomorphology (207) 30-50
Distributions of woody vegetation on floodplain surfaces affect flood-flow erosion and deposition processes. A large flood along the lower Rio Puerco, New Mexico, in August 2006 caused extensive erosion in a reach that had been sprayed with herbicide in September 2003 for the purpose of saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) control. Large...
Maximum magnitude earthquakes induced by fluid injection
Arthur F. McGarr
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (119) 1008-1019
Analysis of numerous case histories of earthquake sequences induced by fluid injection at depth reveals that the maximum magnitude appears to be limited according to the total volume of fluid injected. Similarly, the maximum seismic moment seems to have an upper bound proportional to the total volume of injected fluid....
Coupled hydrological and biogeochemical processes controlling variability of nitrogen species in streamflow during autumn in an upland forest
Stephen D. Sebestyen, James B. Shanley, Elizabeth W. Boyer, Carol Kendall, Daniel H. Doctor
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 1569-1591
Autumn is a season of dynamic change in forest streams of the northeastern United States due to effects of leaf fall on both hydrology and biogeochemistry. Few studies have explored how interactions of biogeochemical transformations, various nitrogen sources, and catchment flow paths affect stream nitrogen variation during autumn. To provide...
Evaluation of wastewater contaminant transport in surface waters using verified Lagrangian sampling
Ronald C. Antweiler, Jeffrey H. Writer, Sheila F. Murphy
2014, Science of the Total Environment (470-471) 551-558
Contaminants released from wastewater treatment plants can persist in surface waters for substantial distances. Much research has gone into evaluating the fate and transport of these contaminants, but this work has often assumed constant flow from wastewater treatment plants. However, effluent discharge commonly varies widely over a 24-hour period, and...
Quantifying the predictive consequences of model error with linear subspace analysis
Jeremy T. White, John E. Doherty, Joseph D. Hughes
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 1152-1173
All computer models are simplified and imperfect simulators of complex natural systems. The discrepancy arising from simplification induces bias in model predictions, which may be amplified by the process of model calibration. This paper presents a new method to identify and quantify the predictive consequences of calibrating a simplified computer...
Compilation of hydrologic data for White Sands pupfish habitat and nonhabitat areas, northern Tularosa Basin, White Sands Missile Range and Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, 1911-2008
C.A. Naus, R. G. Myers, D.K. Saleh, N. C. Myers
2014, Data Series 810
The White Sands pupfish (Cyprinodon tularosa), listed as threatened by the State of New Mexico and as a Federal species of concern, is endemic to the Tularosa Basin, New Mexico. Because water quality can affect pupfish and the environmental conditions of their habitat, a comprehensive compilation of hydrologic data for...
Flood-tracking chart for the Withlacoochee and Little River Basins in south-central Georgia and northern Florida
Anthony J. Gotvald, Brian E. McCallum, Jaime A. Painter
2014, General Information Product 155
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with other Federal, State, and local agencies, operates a flood-monitoring system in the Withlacoochee and Little River Basins. This system is a network of automated river stage stations (ten are shown on page 2 of this publication) that transmit stage data through satellite...
Methow and Columbia Rivers studies: summary of data collection, comparison of database structure and habitat protocols, and impact of additional PIT tag interrogation systems to survival estimates, 2008-2012
Kyle D. Martens, Wesley T. Tibbits, Grace A. Watson, Michael A. Newsom, Patrick J. Connolly
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1016
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) received funding from the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) to provide monitoring and evaluation on the effectiveness of stream restoration efforts by Reclamation in the Methow River watershed. This monitoring and evaluation program is designed to partially fulfill Reclamation’s part of the 2008 Biological Opinion for...
Nutrient load summaries for major lakes and estuaries of the Eastern United States, 2002
Michelle C. Moorman, Anne B. Hoos, Suzanne B. Bricker, Richard B. Moore, Ana María García, Scott W. Ator
2014, Data Series 820
Nutrient enrichment of lakes and estuaries across the Nation is widespread. Nutrient enrichment can stimulate excessive plant and algal growth and cause a number of undesirable effects that impair aquatic life and recreational activities and can also result in economic effects. Understanding the amount of nutrients entering lakes and estuaries,...
Benthic-invertebrate, fish-community, and streambed-sediment-chemistry data for streams in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, Indiana, 2009–2012
David C. Voelker
2014, Data Series 819
Aquatic-biology and sediment-chemistry data were collected at seven sites on the White River and at six tributary sites in the Indianapolis metropolitan area of Indiana during the period 2009 through 2012. Data collected included benthic-invertebrate and fish-community information and concentrations of metals, insecticides, herbicides, and semivolatile organic compounds adsorbed to...
A Great Lakes atmospheric mercury monitoring network: evaluation and design
Martin R. Risch, Donna M. Kenski, Gay, A. David
2014, Atmospheric Environment (85) 109-122
As many as 51 mercury (Hg) wet-deposition-monitoring sites from 4 networks were operated in 8 USA states and Ontario, Canada in the North American Great Lakes Region from 1996 to 2010. By 2013, 20 of those sites were no longer in operation and approximately half the geographic area of the...
Understanding uncertainties in future Colorado River streamflow
Julie A. Vano, Bradley Udall, Daniel Cayan, Jonathan T Overpeck, Levi D. Brekke, Tapash Das, Holly C. Hartmann, Hugo G. Hidalgo, Martin P Hoerling, Gregory J. McCabe, Kiyomi Morino, Robert S. Webb, Kevin Werner, Dennis P. Lettenmaier
2014, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (95) 59-78
The Colorado River is the primary water source for more than 30 million people in the United States and Mexico. Recent studies that project streamf low changes in the Colorado River all project annual declines, but the magnitude of the projected decreases range from less than 10% to 45% by...
Distal facies variability within the Upper Triassic part of the Otuk Formation in northern Alaska
Katherine J. Whidden, Julie A. Dumoulin, M.T. Whalen, E. Hutton, Thomas E. Moore, Stephanie B. Gaswirth
2014, Book chapter, Deposits, architecture, and controls of carbonate margin, slope and basinal settings
The Triassic-Jurassic Otuk Formation is a potentially important source rock in allochthonous structural positions in the northern foothills of the Brooks Range in the North Slope of Alaska. This study focuses on three localities of the Upper Triassic (Norian) limestone member, which form a present-day, 110-km-long, east-west transect in the...
Assessing streamflow sensitivity to variations in glacier mass balance
Shad O’Neel, Eran Hood, Anthony Arendt, Louis C. Sass
2014, Climatic Change (123) 329-341
The mountains ringing the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) receive upwards of 4–8 m yr−1 of precipitation (Simpson et al.2005; Weingartner et al. 2005; O’Neel 2012), much of which runs off into productive coastal waters. The alpine landscape is heavily glacierized, and storage and turnover of water by glaciers substantially influences...
Dynamics of submarine groundwater discharge and associated fluxes of dissolved nutrients, carbon, and trace gases to the coastal zone (Okatee River estuary, South Carolina)
W.P. Porubsky, N.B. Weston, W.S. Moore, C. Ruppel, S.B. Joye
2014, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (131) 81-97
Multiple techniques, including thermal infrared aerial remote sensing, geophysical and geological data, geochemical characterization and radium isotopes, were used to evaluate the role of groundwater as a source of dissolved nutrients, carbon, and trace gases to the Okatee River estuary, South Carolina. Thermal infrared aerial remote sensing surveys illustrated the...
Trends in precipitation, streamflow, reservoir pool elevations, and reservoir releases in Arkansas and selected sites in Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma, 1951–2011
Daniel M. Wagner, Joshua D. Krieger, Katherine R. Merriman
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5240
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) conducted a statistical analysis of trends in precipitation, streamflow, reservoir pool elevations, and reservoir releases in Arkansas and selected sites in Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma for the period 1951–2011. The Mann-Kendall test was used to test for...
Simulation of groundwater flow and saltwater movement in the Onslow County area, North Carolina: predevelopment-2010
Jason M. Fine, Eve L. Kuniansky
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5236
Onslow County, North Carolina, is located within the designated Central Coastal Plain Capacity Use Area (CCPCUA). The CCPCUA was designated by law as a result of groundwater level declines of as much as 200 feet during the past four decades within aquifers in rocks of Cretaceous age in the central...
Trends in major-ion constituents and properties for selected sampling sites in the Tongue and Powder River watersheds, Montana and Wyoming, based on data collected during water years 1980-2010
Steven K. Sando, Aldo V. Vecchia, Elliott P. Barnhart, Roy Sando, Melanie L. Clark, David L. Lorenz
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5179
The primary purpose of this report is to present information relating to flow-adjusted temporal trends in major-ion constituents and properties for 16 sampling sites in the Tongue and Powder River watersheds based on data collected during 1980–2010. In association with this primary purpose, the report presents background information on major-ion...
An ecological basis for future fish habitat restoration efforts in the Huron-Erie Corridor
Darryl W. Hondorp, Edward F. Roseman, Bruce A. Manny
2014, Journal of Great Lakes Research (40) 23-30
This perspective describes the major natural and anthropogenic forces driving change in the abundance and quality of fish habitats in the Huron-Erie Corridor (HEC), the Great Lakes connecting channel comprised of the St. Clair River, the Lake St. Clair, and the Detroit River. Channels connecting the Laurentian Great Lakes discharge...
