Migration and wintering areas of American Bitterns (Botaurus lentiginosus) that summer in central North America as determined by satellite and radio telemetry, 1998-2003
Guy Huschle, John E. Toepfer, David C. Douglas
2013, Waterbirds (36) 300-309
Twenty adult male American Bitterns (Botaurus lentiginosus) were marked on summer range in central North America with satellite tracking Platform Transmitter Terminals (PTTs) to document migration routes and wintering range. Nineteen complete fall migration routes were documented for 17 individuals. Of the successful migrations, 63% (n = 12) went to...
The effects of elevated water temperature on native juvenile mussels: implications for climate change
Alissa M. Ganser, Teresa J. Newton, Roger J. Haro
2013, Freshwater Science (32) 1168-1177
Native freshwater mussels are a diverse but imperiled fauna and may be especially sensitive to increasing water temperatures because many species already may be living near their upper thermal limits. We tested the hypothesis that elevated water temperatures (20, 25, 30, and 35°C) adversely affected the survival and physiology of...
Genetic structure, diversity and subspecies status of Gull-billed Terns (Gelochelidon nilotica) from the United States
Mark P. Miller, Thomas D. Mullins, Susan M. Haig
2013, Waterbirds (36) 310-318
Gull-billed Terns (Gelochelidon nilotica) are among the most widespread, yet scarce, Charadriiformes in the world. Two subspecies are recognized in the United States: G. n. aranea breeds along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts and G. n. vanrossemi breeds in the Salton Sea and San Diego Bay of California. Conservation...
Seepage investigations of the Rio Grande from below Leasburg Dam, Leasburg, New Mexico, to above American Dam, El Paso, Texas, 2006-13
D.M. Crilley, A.M. Matherne, Nicole Thomas, S.E. Falk
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1233
Seepage investigations were conducted annually by the U.S. Geological Survey from 1988 to 1998 and from 2004 to 2013 along a 64-mile reach of the Rio Grande from below Leasburg Dam, Leasburg, New Mexico, to above American Dam, El Paso, Texas, as part of the Mesilla Basin monitoring program. Results...
Qualilty, isotopes, and radiochemistry of water sampled from the Upper Moenkopi Village water-supply wells, Coconino County, Arizona
Rob Carruth, Kimberly Beisner, Greg Smith
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1162
The Hopi Tribe Water Resources Program has granted contracts for studies to evaluate water supply conditions for the Moenkopi villages in Coconino County, Arizona. The Moenkopi villages include Upper Moenkopi Village and the village of Lower Moencopi, both on the Hopi Indian Reservation south of the Navajo community of Tuba...
Postwildfire debris-flow hazard assessment of the area burned by the 2013 West Fork Fire Complex, southwestern Colorado
Kristine L. Verdin, Jean A. Dupree, Michael R. Stevens
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1259
This report presents a preliminary emergency assessment of the debris-flow hazards from drainage basins burned by the 2013 West Fork Fire Complex near South Fork in southwestern Colorado. Empirical models derived from statistical evaluation of data collected from recently burned basins throughout the intermountain western United States were used to...
Phreatophytes under stress: transpiration and stomatal conductance of saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) in a high-salinity environment
Edward P. Glenn, Pamela L. Nagler, Kiyomi Morino, Kevin Hultine
2013, Plant and Soil (371) 655-672
Background and aims: We sought to understand the environmental constraints on an arid-zone riparian phreatophtye, saltcedar (Tamarix ramosissima and related species and hybrids), growing over a brackish aquifer along the Colorado River in the western U.S. Depth to groundwater, meteorological factors, salinity and soil hydraulic properties were compared at stress...
Transient calibration of a groundwater-flow model of Chimacum Creek Basin and vicinity, Jefferson County, Washington: a supplement to Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5160
Joseph L. Jones, Kenneth H. Johnson
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1258
A steady-state groundwater-flow model described in Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5160, ”Numerical Simulation of the Groundwater-Flow System in Chimacum Creek Basin and Vicinity, Jefferson County, Washington” was developed to evaluate potential future impacts of growth and of water-management strategies on water resources in the Chimacum Creek Basin. This supplement to that...
Revised shallow and deep water-level and storage-volume changes in the Equus Beds Aquifer near Wichita, Kansas, predevelopment to 1993
Cristi V. Hansen, Jennifer L. Lanning-Rush, Andrew C. Ziegler
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5170
Beginning in the 1940s, the Wichita well field was developed in the Equus Beds aquifer in southwestern Harvey County and northwestern Sedgwick County to supply water to the city of Wichita. The decline of water levels in the aquifer was noted soon after the development of the Wichita well field...
Maturation characteristics and life history strategies of the Pacific Lamprey, Entosphenus tridentatus
Benjamin J. Clemens, Stan van de Wetering, Stacia A. Sower, Carl B. Schreck
2013, Canadian Journal of Zoology (91) 775-788
Lampreys (Petromyzontiformes) have persisted over millennia and now suffer a recent decline in abundance. Complex life histories may have factored in their persistence; anthropogenic perturbations in their demise. The complexity of life histories of lampreys is not understood, particularly for the anadromous Pacific lamprey, Entosphenus tridentatus Gairdner, 1836. Our goals...
Estimating riparian and agricultural evapotranspiration by reference crop evapotranspiration and MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index
Pamela L. Nagler, Edward P. Glenn, Uyen Nguyen, Russell Scott, Tania Doody
2013, Remote Sensing (5) 3849-3871
Dryland river basins frequently support both irrigated agriculture and riparian vegetation and remote sensing methods are needed to monitor water use by both crops and natural vegetation in irrigation districts. We developed an algorithm for estimating actual evapotranspiration (ETa) based on the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from the Moderate Resolution...
Irrigation trends in Kansas, 1991-2011
Joan F. Kenny, Kyle E. Juracek
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3094
This fact sheet examines trends in total reported irrigation water use and acres irrigated as well as irrigation water use by crop type and system type in Kansas for the years 1991 through 2011. During the 21-year period, total reported irrigation water diversions varied substantially from year to year as...
Chuckwalla Valley multiple-well monitoring site, Chuckwalla Valley, Riverside County
Rhett R. Everett
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1221
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, is evaluating the geohydrology and water availability of the Chuckwalla Valley, California. As part of this evaluation, the USGS installed the Chuckwalla Valley multiple-well monitoring site (CWV1) in the southeastern portion of the Chuckwalla Basin. Data collected...
Deriving Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Standards
Peter J. Tango, Richard A. Batiuk
2013, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (49) 1007-1024
Achieving and maintaining the water quality conditions necessary to protect the aquatic living resources of the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries has required a foundation of quantifiable water quality criteria. Quantitative criteria serve as a critical basis for assessing the attainment of designated uses and measuring progress toward meeting...
Evaluation of Pleistocene groundwater flow through fractured tuffs using a U-series disequilibrium approach, Pahute Mesa, Nevada, USA
James B. Paces, Paul J. Nichols, Leonid A. Neymark, Harihar Rajaram
2013, Chemical Geology (358) 101-118
Groundwater flow through fractured felsic tuffs and lavas at the Nevada National Security Site represents the most likely mechanism for transport of radionuclides away from underground nuclear tests at Pahute Mesa. To help evaluate fracture flow and matrix–water exchange, we have determined U-series isotopic compositions on more than 40...
Recreational water quality response to a filtering barrier at a Great Lakes beach
Kasia Przybyla-Kelly, Meredith Nevers, Cathy Breitenbach, Richard L. Whitman
2013, Journal of Environmental Management (129) 635-641
Recent research has sought to determine the off- or onshore origin of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) in order to improve local recreational water quality. In an effort to reduce offshore contamination, a filtering barrier (FB) was installed at Calumet Beach, Lake Michigan, Chicago, IL. A horseshoe-shaped curtain (146 m long,...
Detecting channel riparian vegetation response to best-management-practices implementation in ephemeral streams with the use of spot high-resolution visible imagery
Kendall Vande Kamp, Matthew B. Rigge, Nels H. Troelstrup Jr., Alexander J. Smart, Bruce Wylie
2013, Rangeland Ecology and Management (66) 63-70
Heavily grazed riparian areas are commonly subject to channel incision, a lower water table, and reduced vegetation, resulting in sediment delivery above normal regimes. Riparian and in-channel vegetation functions as a roughness element and dissipates flow energy, maintaining stable channel geometry. Ash Creek, a tributary of the Bad River in...
A new species of Helobdella (Hirudinida: Glossiphoniidae) from Oregon
William E. Moser, Steven V. Fend, Dennis J. Richardson, Charlette I. Hammond, Eric A. Lazo-Wasem, Fredric R. Govedich, Bettina S. Gullo
2013, Zootaxa (3718) 287-294
Helobdella bowermani n. sp. is described from specimens collected in fine sediment of open water benthos of Upper Klamath Lake, Klamath County, Oregon. The new species has pale yellow/buff coloration with scattered chromatophore blotches throughout the dorsal surface, lateral extensions or papillae only on the a2 annulus, dorsal medial row...
Comparison of a karst groundwater model with and without discrete conduit flow
Stephen P. Saller, Michael J. Ronayne, Andrew J. Long
2013, Hydrogeology Journal (21) 1555-1566
Karst aquifers exhibit a dual flow system characterized by interacting conduit and matrix domains. This study evaluated the coupled continuum pipe-flow framework for modeling karst groundwater flow in the Madison aquifer of western South Dakota (USA). Coupled conduit and matrix flow was simulated within a regional finite-difference model over a...
Effects of incubation substrates on hatch timing and success of White Sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) embryos
Michael J. Parsley, Eric Kofoot
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5180
The Kootenai River white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1994 because several decades of failed spawning had put the population at risk of extinction. Natural spawning is known to occur at several locations in the Kootenai River, Idaho, but there is little...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for Texas
William J. Carswell Jr.
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3097
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. For the State of Texas, elevation data are critical for natural resources conservation; wildfire management, planning, and response; flood risk management; agriculture and precision farming; infrastructure...
Understanding water column and streambed thermal refugia for endangered mussels in the Delaware River
Martin A. Briggs, Emily B. Voytek, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, Donald O. Rosenberry, John W. Lane Jr.
2013, Environmental Science & Technology (47) 11423-11431
Groundwater discharge locations along the upper Delaware River, both discrete bank seeps and diffuse streambed upwelling, may create thermal niche environments that benefit the endangered dwarf wedgemussel (Alasmidonta heterodon). We seek to identify whether discrete or diffuse groundwater inflow is the dominant control on refugia. Numerous springs and seeps were...
Oceanographic controls on sedimentary and geochemical facies on the Peru outer shelf and upper slope
Michael A. Arthur, Walter E. Dean
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1105
Concentrations and characteristics of organic matter in surface sediments deposited under an intense oxygen-minimum zone (OMZ) on the Peru margin were mapped and studied in samples from deck-deployed box cores and push cores acquired by submersible on two east-west transects spanning depths of 75 to 1,000 meters (m) at 12°S...
Emergency assessment of post-fire debris-flow hazards for the 2013 Powerhouse fire, southern California
Dennis M. Staley, Gregory M. Smoczyk, Ryan R. Reeves
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1248
Wildfire dramatically alters the hydrologic response of a watershed such that even modest rainstorms can produce dangerous flash floods and debris flows. Existing empirical models were used to predict the probability and magnitude of debris-flow occurrence in response to a 10-year recurrence interval rainstorm for the 2013 Powerhouse fire near...
Emergency assessment of post-fire debris-flow hazards for the 2013 Mountain fire, southern California
Dennis M. Staley, Joseph E. Gartner, Greg M. Smoczyk, Ryan R. Reeves
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1249
Wildfire dramatically alters the hydrologic response of a watershed such that even modest rainstorms can produce dangerous flash floods and debris flows. We use empirical models to predict the probability and magnitude of debris flow occurrence in response to a 10-year rainstorm for the 2013 Mountain fire near Palm Springs,...
