Stormwater quality of infrastructure elements in Rapid City, South Dakota, 2016–18
Galen K. Hoogestraat
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5004
As runoff flows over the land or impervious surfaces (paved streets, parking lots, and building roofs), it accumulates debris, chemicals, sediment, and other contaminants that can adversely affect water quality if the runoff discharge remains untreated. Pathogens, commonly measured using fecal indicator bacteria such as Escherichia coli, enterococci, or fecal...
Relating hydroclimatic change to streamflow, baseflow, and hydrologic partitioning in the Upper Rio Grande Basin, 1980 to 2015
Christine Rumsey, Matthew P. Miller, Graham A. Sexstone
2020, Journal of Hydrology (584)
Understanding how changing climatic conditions affect streamflow volume and timing is critical for effective water management. In the Rio Grande Basin of the southwest U.S., decreasing snowpack, increasing minimum temperatures, and decreasing streamflow have been observed in recent decades, but the effects of hydroclimatic changes on baseflow, or groundwater discharge...
Potential groundwater recharge rates for two subsurface-drained agricultural fields, southeastern Minnesota, 2016–18
Erik A. Smith, Andrew M. Berg
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5006
Subsurface drainage is used to efficiently drain saturated soils to support productive agriculture in poorly drained terrains. Although subsurface drainage alters the water balance for agricultural fields, its effect on groundwater resources and groundwater recharge is poorly understood. In Minnesota, subsurface drainage has begun to increase in southeastern Minnesota, even...
A review of Cattail (Typha) invasion in North American wetlands
Sheel Bansal, Brian Tangen, Shane Lishawa, Sue Newman, Douglas Wilcox
2020, Fact Sheet 2019-3076
OverviewCattail (Typha) is an iconic emergent wetland plant found worldwide. By producing an abundance of wind-dispersed seeds, cattail can colonize wetlands across great distances, and its rapid growth rate, large size, and aggressive expansion result in dense stands in a variety of aquatic ecosystems such as marshes, ponds, lakes, and...
Forest vegetation change and its impacts on soil water following 47 years of managed wildfire
Jens Stevens, Gabrielle F. S. Boisrame, Ekaterina Rakhmatulina, Sally E. Thompson, Brandon M. Collins, Scott L. Stephens
2020, Ecosystems (23) 1547-1565
Managed wildfire is an increasingly relevant management option to restore variability in vegetation structure within fire-suppressed montane forests in western North America. Managed wildfire often reduces tree cover and density, potentially leading to increases in soil moisture availability, water storage in soils and groundwater, and streamflow. However, the potential hydrologic...
Hydrologic connectivity determines dissolved organic matter biogeochemistry in northern high-latitude lakes
Sarah Ellen Johnston, Robert G. Striegl, Matthew J. Bogard, Mark M. Dornblaser, David E. Butman, Anne M. Kellerman, Kimberly P. Wickland, David C. Podgorski, Robert G. M. Spencer
2020, Limnology and Oceanography (65) 1764-1780
Northern high‐latitude lakes are undergoing climate‐induced changes including shifts in their hydrologic connectivity with terrestrial ecosystems. How this will impact dissolved organic matter (DOM) biogeochemistry remains uncertain. We examined the drivers of DOM composition for lakes in the Yukon Flats Basin in Alaska, an arid region of low relief that...
Holocene paleofloods and their climatological context, Upper Colorado River Basin, USA
Taojun Liu, Lin Ji, Victor R. Baker, Tessa M. Harden, Michael L. Cline
2020, Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment (44) 727-745
Given its singular importance for water resources in the southwestern U.S., the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) is remarkable for the paucity of its conventional hydrological record of extreme flooding. This study uses paleoflood hydrology to examine a small portion the underutilized, but very extensive natural record of Holocene...
Groundwater availability of the Northern High Plains aquifer in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming
Steven M. Peterson, Jonathan P. Traylor, Moussa Guira
2020, Professional Paper 1864
Executive SummaryThe Northern High Plains aquifer underlies about 93,000 square miles of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming and is the largest subregion of the nationally important High Plains aquifer. Irrigation, primarily using groundwater, has supported agricultural production since before 1940, resulting in nearly $50 billion in sales in...
The Modern Geological Survey; a model for research, innovation, synthjesis: A USGS perspective
Suzette Kimball, Martin B. Goldhaber, Jill S. Baron, Victor F. Labson
2020, Book chapter, Folding and fracturing of rocks: 50 years of research since the seminal text book of J. G. Ramsay
Geological Surveys have long filled the role of providing Earth system science data and knowledge. These functions are increasingly complicated by accelerating environmental and societal change. Here we describe the USGS response to these evolving conditions. Underpinning the USGS approach is the recognition that many of the issues...
A classification of streamflow patterns across the coastal Gulf of Alaska
Christopher J. Sergeant, Jeffrey A. Falke, Rebecca A. Bellmore, J. Ryan Bellmore, Ryan L. Crumley
2020, Water Resources Research (56) 1-17
Streamflow controls many freshwater and marine processes, including salinity profiles, sediment composition, fluxes of nutrients, and the timing of animal migrations. Watersheds that border the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) comprise over 400,000 km2 of largely pristine freshwater habitats and provide ecosystem services such as reliable fisheries for local and global food...
Estimating late 19th century hydrology in the Greater Everglades Ecosystem: An integration of paleoecologic data and models
Frank E. Marshall, Christopher E. Bernhardt, G. Lynn Wingard
2020, Frontiers in Environmental Science (8)
Determining hydrologic conditions prior to instrumental records is a challenge for restoration of freshwater ecosystems worldwide. Paleoecologic data provide this information on past conditions and when these data are used to adjust hydrologic models, allow conditions to be hindcast that may not be directly estimated from the paleo-data alone....
Climate change vulnerability assessment for Pacific Lamprey in rivers of the Western United States
Christina J Wang, Howard A Shaller, Kelly C. Coates, Michael C. Hayes, Robert K Rose
2020, Journal of Freshwater Ecology (35) 29-55
Pacific Lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus) are a native anadromous species that, like salmon, historically returned to spawn in large numbers in watersheds along the west coast of the United States (U.S.). Lamprey play a vital role in river ecosystems and are one of the oldest vertebrates that have persisted over time...
Numerical simulation of groundwater availability in central Moloka‘i, Hawai‘i
Delwyn S. Oki, John A. Engott, Kolja Rotzoll
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5150
Since the 1990s, increased chloride concentrations of water pumped from wells (much of which is used for drinking water) and the effects of withdrawals on groundwater-dependent ecosystems have led to concerns over groundwater availability on the island of Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi. An improved understanding of the hydrologic effects of proposed groundwater...
Climate and human water use diminish wetland networks supporting continental waterbird migration
J.P. Donnelly, Sammy L. King, N.L. Silverman, D. P. Collins, E.M. Carrera-Gonzalez, A. Lafon-Terrazas, J.N. Moore
2020, Global Change Biology (26) 2042-2059
Migrating waterbirds moving between upper and lower latitudinal breeding and wintering grounds rely on a limited network of endorheic lakes and wetlands when crossing arid continental interiors. Recent drying of global endorheic water stores raises concerns over deteriorating migratory pathways, yet few studies have considered these effects at the scale...
Water tracks enhance water flow above permafrost in upland Arctic Alaska hillslopes
Sarah G. Evans, Sarah E Godsey, Caitlin R Rushlow, Clifford I. Voss
2020, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (125)
Upland permafrost regions occupy approximately one third of the Arctic landscape. In upland regions, hydrologic fluxes are influenced by water tracks, curvilinear features on hillslopes that preferentially fill with and route water in response to snowmelt and rainfall when the soil above continuous permafrost thaws in the summer. As continued...
Soil shear strength losses in two fresh marshes with variable increases in N and P loading
R. Eugene Turner, Christopher M. Swarzenski, James E. Bodker
2020, Wetlands (40) 1189-1199
We measured soil shear strength (SSS) from 2009 to 2018 in two hydrologically distinct freshwater marshes dominated by Panicum hemitomon after nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) were applied to the surface in spring. The average SSS averaged over 100 cm depth in the floating and anchored marshes declined up to...
Effects of John Martin Reservoir on water quality and quantity: Assessment by chemical, isotopic, and mass-balance methods
Carleton R. Bern, Michael J. Holmberg, Zachary D. Kisfalusi
2020, Journal of Hydrology X (7) 100051
Water quality and quantity can be influenced by transit through and storage in reservoirs. Assessing such effects can be challenging, however, because of mixing and residence times, and inter-annual net storage and release from both the reservoir itself and surrounding porosity. Here, different methodologies were used to assess the effect...
Evaluation of hydrologic impact of an irrigation curtailment program in the Upper Klamath Lake Basin using Landsat satellite data
Naga Manohar Velpuri, Gabriel Senay, Matthew Schauer, C. Amanda Garcia, Ramesh Singh, MacKenzie Friedrichs, Stefanie Bohms, Jonathan V. Haynes, Terrence D. Conlon
2020, Hydrological Processes (34) 1697-1713
Upper Klamath Lake (UKL) is the source of the Klamath river that flows through southern Oregon and northern California. The UKL basin is home to two endangered species and provides water for 81,000+ ha (200,000+ acres) of irrigation on the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) Klamath Project located downstream...
An agricultural water use package for MODFLOW and GSFLOW
Richard G. Niswonger
2020, Environmental Modeling and Software (125)
The Agricultural Water Use (AG) Package was developed for simulating demand-driven and supply-constrained agricultural water use in MODFLOW and GSFLOW models. The AG Package uses pre-existing hydrologic simulation provided by MODFLOW and GSFLOW. Three options are available for simulating water use...
The use of support vectors from support vector machines for hydrometeorologic monitoring network analyses
William H. Asquith
2020, Journal of Hydrology (583)
Hydrometeorologic monitoring networks are ubiquitous in contemporary earth-system science. Network stakeholders often inquire about the importance of sites and their locations when discussing funding and monitoring design. Support vector machines (SVMs) can be useful by their assigning each monitoring site as either a support or nonsupport vector. A potentiometric surface...
Effects of montane watershed development on vulnerability of domestic groundwater supply during drought
Zeno Levy, Miranda S. Fram, Kirsten Faulkner, Charles N. Alpers, Evelyn M Soltero, Kimberly A. Taylor
2020, Journal of Hydrology (583)
Climate change is expected to reduce recharge to montane aquifers in the western United States, but it is unclear how this will impact groundwater resources in watersheds where intensive surface-water development has disrupted the natural hydrologic regime. To better understand sources of recharge and associated vulnerabilities of groundwater supply in...
Seasonal drivers of chemical and hydrological patterns in roadside infiltration-based green infrastructure
Angela R. Mullins, Daniel J Bain, Erin Pfeil McCullough, Kristina G. Hopkins, S. Lavin, Erin Copeland
2020, Science of the Total Environment (714)
Infiltration-based green infrastructure has become a popular means of reducing stormwater hazards in urban areas. However, the long-term effects of green infrastructure on the geochemistry of roadside environments are poorly defined, particularly given the considerable roadside legacy metal contamination from historic industrial activity and vehicle emissions (e.g., Pb). Most current...
Spatiotemporal variability of modeled watershed scale surface-depression storage and runoff for the conterminous United States
Jessica M. Driscoll, Lauren Hay, Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Roland J. Viger
2020, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (56) 16-29
This study uses the explores the viability of a proxy model calibration strategy through assessment of the spatiotemporal variability of surface-depression storage and runoff generated with the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Hydrologic Model (NHM) infrastructure for hydrologic response units (HRUs; n=109,951) across the conterminous United States (CONUS). Simulated values for...
Conservation–Protection of forests for wildlife in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley
A. Blaine Elliott, Anne Mini, S. Keith McKnight, Daniel J. Twedt
2020, Forests (11)
The nearly ubiquitous bottomland hardwood forests that historically dominated the Mississippi Alluvial Valley have been greatly reduced in area. In addition, changes in hydrology and forest management have altered the structure and composition of the remaining forests. To ameliorate the detrimental impact of these changes on wildlife, conservation plans have...
Inundation exposure assessment for Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands using a high-accuracy digital elevation model
Dean B. Gesch, Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Charles Fletcher, Maria Kottermair, Matthew Barbee, Andrea Jalandoni
2020, Remote Sensing (12)
Majuro Atoll in the central Pacific has high coastal vulnerability due to low-lying islands, rising sea level, high wave events, eroding shorelines, a dense population center, and limited freshwater resources. Land elevation is the primary geophysical variable that determines exposure to inundation in coastal settings. Accordingly, coastal elevation data (with...
