Emergent sandbar dynamics in the lower Platte River in eastern Nebraska: methods and results of pilot study, 2011
Jason S. Alexander, Devin M. Schultze, Ronald B. Zelt
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5031
The lower Platte River corridor provides important habitats for two State- and federally listed bird species: the interior least tern (terns; Sternula antillarum athallassos) and the piping plover (plovers; Charadrius melodus). However, many of the natural morphological and hydrological characteristics of the Platte River have been altered substantially by water...
Avian influenza in shorebirds: experimental infection of ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres) with avian influenza virus
Jeffrey S. Hall, Scott Krauss, J. Christian Franson, Joshua L. TeSlaa, Sean W. Nashold, David E. Stallknecht, Richard J. Webby, Robert G. Webster
2013, Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses (7) 85-92
Background: Low pathogenic avian influenza viruses (LPAIV) have been reported in shorebirds, especially at Delaware Bay, USA, during spring migration. However, data on patterns of virus excretion, minimal infectious doses, and clinical outcome are lacking. The ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres) is the shorebird species with the highest prevalence of influenza...
Adaptive management of flows from dams: a win-win framework for water users
Elise R. Irwin
2013, Book chapter, Auburn Speaks: On Water
Alabama is blessed with more than 77,000 miles of rivers and streams that carve through the terrestrial landscape of the state. When you think about it, every road you drive on crosses a river and many of our major cities are located on the bank of a river....
Effects of past and future groundwater development on the hydrologic system of Verde Valley, Arizona
Bradley D. Garner, D. R. Pool
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3016
Communities in central Arizona’s Verde Valley must manage limited water supplies in the face of rapidly growing populations. Developing groundwater resources to meet human needs has raised questions about the effects of groundwater withdrawals by pumping on the area’s rivers and streams, particularly the Verde River. U.S. Geological Survey hydrologists...
Association of toxin-producing Clostridium botulinum with the macroalga Cladophora in the Great Lakes
Chan Lan Chun, Urs Ochsner, Muruleedhara N. Byappanahalli, Richard L. Whitman, William H. Tepp, Guangyun Lin, Eric A. Johnson, Julie Peller, Michael J. Sadowsky
2013, Environmental Science & Technology (47) 2587-2594
Avian botulism, a paralytic disease of birds, often occurs on a yearly cycle and is increasingly becoming more common in the Great Lakes. Outbreaks are caused by bird ingestion of neurotoxins produced by Clostridium botulinum, a spore-forming, gram-positive, anaerobe. The nuisance, macrophytic, green alga Cladophora (Chlorophyta; mostly Cladophora glomerata L.)...
Human effects on the hydrologic system of the Verde Valley, central Arizona, 1910–2005 and 2005–2110, using a regional groundwater flow model
Bradley D. Garner, D. R. Pool, Fred D. Tillman, Brandon T. Forbes
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5029
Water budgets were developed for the Verde Valley of central Arizona in order to evaluate the degree to which human stresses have affected the hydrologic system and might affect it in the future. The Verde Valley is a portion of central Arizona wherein concerns have been raised about water availability,...
Pesticides in Wyoming Groundwater, 2008-10
Cheryl A. Eddy-Miller, Timothy T. Bartos, Michelle L. Taylor
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5064
Groundwater samples were collected from 296 wells during 1995-2006 as part of a baseline study of pesticides in Wyoming groundwater. In 2009, a previous report summarized the results of the baseline sampling and the statistical evaluation of the occurrence of pesticides in relation to selected natural and anthropogenic (human-related) characteristics....
An evaluation of liquid ammonia (ammonium hydroxide) as a candidate piscicide
David L. Ward, R. Morton-Starner, Shaula J. Hedwall
2013, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (33) 400-405
Eradication of populations of nonnative aquatic species for the purpose of reintroducing native fish is often difficult because very few effective tools are available for removing aquatic organisms. This creates the need to evaluate new chemicals that could be used as management tools for native fish conservation. Ammonia is a...
An isotope-dilution standard GC/MS/MS method for steroid hormones in water
William T. Foreman, James L. Gray, Rhiannon C. ReVello, Chris E. Lindley, Scott A. Losche
2013, Book chapter, Evaluating Veterinary Pharmaceutical Behavior in the Environment: ACS Symposium Series
An isotope-dilution quantification method was developed for 20 natural and synthetic steroid hormones and additional compounds in filtered and unfiltered water. Deuterium- or carbon-13-labeled isotope-dilution standards (IDSs) are added to the water sample, which is passed through an octadecylsilyl solid-phase extraction (SPE) disk. Following extract cleanup using Florisil SPE, method...
A compilation of U.S. Geological Survey pesticide concentration data for water and sediment in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta region: 1990–2010
James L. Orlando
2013, Data Series 756
Beginning around 2000, abundance indices of four pelagic fishes (delta smelt, striped bass, longfin smelt, and threadfin shad) within the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta began to decline sharply (Sommer and others, 2007). These declines collectively became known as the pelagic organism decline (POD). No single cause has...
The development and application of a decision support system for land management in the Lake Tahoe Basin—The Land Use Simulation Model
William M. Forney, I. Benson Oldham, Neil Crescenti
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5229
This report describes and applies the Land Use Simulation Model (LUSM), the final modeling product for the long-term decision support project funded by the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act and developed by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Western Geographic Science Center for the Lake Tahoe Basin. Within the context of...
User’s manual for the National Water Information System of the U.S. Geological Survey: Water-Quality System
David H. Dupré, Jonathon C. Scott, Melanie L. Clark, Michael G. Canova, Yvonne E. Stoker
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1054
This user documentation is designed to be a reference for the quality of water (QW) programs within the National Water Information System (NWIS). If you are a new user, the “Introduction” and “Getting Started” sections may be the right place for you to start. If you are an experienced user,...
Detection of environmental DNA of Bigheaded Carps in samples collected from selected locations in the St. Croix River and in the Mississippi River
Jon J. Amberg, S. Grace McCalla, Loren Miller, Peter Sorensen, Mark P. Gaikowski
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1080
The use of molecular methods, such as the detection of environmental deoxyribonucleic acid (eDNA), have become an increasingly popular tool in surveillance programs that monitor for the presence of invasive species in aquatic systems. One early application of these methods in aquatic systems was surveillance for DNA of Asian carps...
Groundwater withdrawals 1976, 1990, and 2000--10 and land-surface-elevation changes 2000--10 in Harris, Galveston, Fort Bend, Montgomery, and Brazoria Counties, Texas
Mark C. Kasmarek, Michaela R. Johnson
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5034
The study area comprising Harris County and parts of Galveston, Fort Bend, Montgomery, and Brazoria Counties in southeastern Texas forms part of one of the largest areas of land-surface-elevation change in the United States. Land-surface-elevation change in the study area primarily is caused by the withdrawal of groundwater. Groundwater withdrawn...
Assessment of historical surface-water quality data in southwestern Colorado, 1990-2005
Lisa D. Miller, Keelin R. Schaffrath, Joshua I. Linard
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5255
The spatial and temporal distribution of selected physical and chemical surface-water-quality characteristics were analyzed at stream sites throughout the Dolores and San Juan River Basins in southwestern Colorado using historical data collected from 1990 through 2005 by various local, State, Tribal, and Federal agencies. Overall, streams throughout the study area...
Review: groundwater in Alaska (USA)
J.B. Callegary, C.P. Kikuchi, Joshua C. Koch, M. R. Lilly, S. A. Leake
2013, Hydrogeology Journal (21) 25-39
Groundwater in the US state of Alaska is critical to both humans and ecosystems. Interactions among physiography, ecology, geology, and current and past climate have largely determined the location and properties of aquifers as well as the timing and magnitude of fluxes to, from, and within the groundwater system. The...
Water-quality conditions, and constituent loads and yields in the Cambridge drinking-water source area, Massachusetts, water years 2005–07
Kirk P. Smith
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5039
The source water area for the drinking-water supply of the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, encompasses major transportation corridors, as well as large areas of light industrial, commercial, and residential land use. Because of ongoing development in the drinking-water source area, the Cambridge water supply has the potential to be affected...
Using the KINEROS2 modeling framework to evaluate the increase in storm runoff from residential development in a semi-arid environment
Jeffrey R. Kennedy, David C. Goodrich, Carl L. Unkrich
2013, Journal of Hydrologic Engineering (18) 698-706
The increase in runoff from urbanization is well known; one extreme example comes from a 13 hectare residential neighborhood in southeast Arizona where runoff was 27 times greater than an adjacent grassland watershed over a forty‐month period from 2005 to 2008. Rainfall‐runoff modeling using the newly‐described KINEROS2 urban element and...
Characteristics of sediment transport at selected sites along the Missouri River during the high-flow conditions of 2011
Joel M. Galloway, Dave L. Rus, Jason S. Alexander
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5006
During 2011, many tributaries in the Missouri River Basin experienced near record peak streamflow and caused flood damage to many communities along much of the Missouri River from Montana to the confluence with the Mississippi River. The large runoff event in 2011 provided an opportunity to examine characteristics of sediment...
The impact of medium architecture of alluvial settings on non-Fickian transport
Yong Zhang, Christopher T. Green, Graham E. Fogg
2013, Advances in Water Resources (54) 78-99
The influence of heterogeneous architecture of alluvial aquifers on non-Fickian transport is explored using the Monte Carlo approach. More than two thousand high-resolution hydrofacies models representing seven groups of alluvial settings are built to test the effects of varying facies proportions, mean length and its anisotropy ratio, juxtapositional tendencies, and...
Use of NMR logging to obtain estimates of hydraulic conductivity in the High Plains aquifer, Nebraska, USA
Katherine Dlubac, Rosemary Knight, Yi-Qiao Song, Nate Bachman, Ben Grau, Jim Cannia, John Williams
2013, Water Resources Research (49) 1871-1886
Hydraulic conductivity (K) is one of the most important parameters of interest in groundwater applications because it quantifies the ease with which water can flow through an aquifer material. Hydraulic conductivity is typically measured by conducting aquifer tests or wellbore flow (WBF) logging. Of interest in our research is the...
Effects of hydrologic connectivity and environmental nariables on nekton assemblage in a coastal marsh system
Sung-Ryong Kang, Sammy L. King
2013, Wetlands (33) 321-334
Hydrologic connectivity and environmental variation can influence nekton assemblages in coastal ecosystems. We evaluated the effects of hydrologic connectivity (permanently connected pond: PCP; temporary connected pond: TCP), salinity, vegetation coverage, water depth and other environmental variables on seasonal nekton assemblages in freshwater, brackish, and saline marshes of the Chenier Plain,...
Spatial variability of the response to climate change in regional groundwater systems -- examples from simulations in the Deschutes Basin, Oregon
Michael S. Waibel, Marshall W. Gannett, Heejun Chang, Christina L. Hulbe
2013, Journal of Hydrology (486) 187-201
We examine the spatial variability of the response of aquifer systems to climate change in and adjacent to the Cascade Range volcanic arc in the Deschutes Basin, Oregon using downscaled global climate model projections to drive surface hydrologic process and groundwater flow models. Projected warming over the 21st century is...
Statistical classification of vegetation and water depths in montane wetlands
Julia L. Sharp, Richard S. Sodja, Mark Greenwood, Donald O. Rosenberry, Jeffrey M. Warren
2013, Ecohydrology (6) 173-181
Relationships between water depths and density of submergent vegetation were studied in montane wetlands using statistical techniques based on clustering and an extension of regression trees. Sago pondweed (Stuckenia pectinata) was associated with lower average water depths than water milfoil (Myriophyllum sibiricum). We detected a nonlinear relationship when average water...
Acute sedimentation response to rainfall following the explosive phase of the 2008-2009 eruption of Chaitén volcano, Chile
Thomas C. Pierson, Jon J. Major, Álvaro Amigo, Hugo Moreno
2013, Bulletin of Volcanology (75)
The 10-day explosive phase at the start of the 2008–2009 eruption of Chaitén volcano in southern Chile (42.83°S, 72.65°W) blanketed the steep, rain-forest-cloaked, 77-km2 Chaitén River drainage basin with 3 to >100 cm of tephra; predominantly fine to extremely fine rhyolitic ash fell during the latter half of the explosive...
