Anderson Ranch wetlands hydrologic characterization in Taos County, New Mexico
Amy E. Galanter, Zachary M. Shephard, Pamela Herrera-Olivas
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1100
The Anderson Ranch property (study area), located in Taos County, north-central New Mexico, was transferred from Chevron Mining, Inc. (CMI) to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as part of a Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) court-ordered settlement. The study area supports freshwater emergent wetlands and freshwater ponds....
Integration of eDNA-based biological monitoring within the US Geological Survey’s national streamgage network
David S. Pilliod, Matthew Laramie, Dorene McCoy, Scott Maclean
2019, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (55) 1505-1518
This study explores the feasibility and utility of integrating environmental DNA (eDNA) assessments of species occurrences into the United States (U.S.) Geological Survey’s national streamgage network. We used an existing network of five gages in southwest Idaho to explore the type of information that could be gained as well as...
Water resources on Guam—Potential impacts of and adaptive response to climate change
Stephen B. Gingerich, Adam G. Johnson, Sarah N. Rosa, Mathieu D. Marineau, Scott Wright, Lauren E. Hay, Matthew J. Widlansky, John W. Jenson, Corinne I. Wong, Jay L. Banner, Melissa L. Finucane, Victoria W. Keener
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5095
The goals of this joint U.S. Geological Survey, University of Hawaiʻi, University of Guam, University of Texas, and East-West Center study were to (1) provide basic understanding about water resources for U.S. Department of Defense installations on Guam and (2) assess the resulting effect of sea-level rise and a changing...
Multivariate analysis of hydrochemical data for Jewel Cave, Wind Cave, and surrounding areas
Andrew J. Long, James B. Paces, William G. Eldridge
2019, Natural Resource Report NPS/JECA/NRR—2019/1883
Jewel Cave National Monument and Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota contain two of the six longest caves worldwide. These caves contain subterranean lakes that are important points of intersection between the water table of the Madison aquifer and the caves. During 2015 to 2017, several subterranean lakes were...
Scenarios of climate adaptation potential on protected working lands from management of soils
Kristin B. Byrd, P. Alvarez, Benjamin Sleeter, Lorraine E. Flint, D. Richard Cameron, J. Creque
2019, Environmental Research Letters (14)
Management of protected lands may enhance ecosystem services that conservation programs were designed to protect. Practices that build soil organic matter (SOM) on agricultural lands also increase soil water holding capacity, potentially reducing climatic water deficit (CWD), increasing actual evapotranspiration (AET) and increasing groundwater recharge (RCH). We developed nine...
Characterization and load estimation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from selected Rio Grande tributary stormwater channels in the Albuquerque urbanized area, New Mexico, 2017–18
Zachary M. Shephard, Kathleen E. Conn, Kimberly R. Beisner, Alanna D. Jornigan, Christina F. Bryant
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1106
In cooperation with the New Mexico County of Bernalillo, the U.S. Geological Survey characterized potential polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) concentration and estimated loading into the Rio Grande from watersheds that are under the county’s jurisdiction. Water and sediment samples were collected in 2017–18 from six sites within four stormwater drainage basins...
The hydrologic system of the south Florida peninsula—Development and application of the Biscayne and Southern Everglades Coastal Transport (BISECT) model
Eric D. Swain, Melinda A. Lohmann, Carl R. Goodwin
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5045
The Biscayne and Southern Everglades Coastal Transport (BISECT) model was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey under the Greater Everglades Priority Ecosystem Studies Initiative to evaluate, both separately and in conjunction, the likely effects on surface-water stages and flows, hydroperiod, and groundwater levels and salinity in south Florida of (1)...
Exploring silica stoichiometry on a large floodplain riverscape
Joanna C. Carey, Kathi Jo Jankowski, Paul Julian, Lienne Sethna, Patrick Thomas, Jason J. Rohweder
2019, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (7)
Freshwater ecosystems are critical zones of nutrient and carbon (C) processing along the land-sea continuum. Relative to our understanding of C, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) cycling within the freshwater systems, the controls on silicon (Si) cycling and export are less understood. Understanding Si biogeochemistry and its coupled biogeochemical processing...
Regional-scale associations between indicators of biological integrity and indicators of streamflow modification
Daren M. Carlisle, Theodore E. Grantham, Ken Eng, David M. Wolock
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1088
Although streamflow is widely recognized as a controlling factor in stream health, empirical relations between indicators of anthropogenic modification of streamflow and ecological indicators have been elusive. The objective of this report is to build upon specific findings reported in recent publications by providing a library of empirical models that...
Middle Pleistocene formation of the Rio Grande Gorge, San Luis Valley, south-central Colorado and north-central New Mexico, USA: Process, timing, and downstream implications
Chester A. Ruleman, Adam M. Hudson, Ren A. Thompson, Daniel P. Miggins, James B. Paces, Brent M. Goehring
2019, Quaternary Science Reviews (223)
The Rio Grande is the fourth longest river in North America extending over 3,000 km from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. The Pleistocene evolution of this river from individual subbasins into a coalesced fluvial system has been long debated. Herein, we constrain the middle Pleistocene evolution of the...
Monitoring plans for Louisiana’s system-wide assessment and monitoring program (SWAMP). Version IV
Scott Hemmerling, Melissa M. Baustian, Harris Bienn, Alyssa Dausman, Alaina Grace, Lauren Grimley, Adrian McInnis, Michael Vingiello, Huy Vu, Shaye Sable, Britt Gentile, Phillip Lafargue, Ann Hijuelos, Sarai Piazza, Camille Stagg, Richard C Raynie, Edward Haywood, Syed Khalid
2019, Report
The System-Wide Assessment and Monitoring Program (SWAMP) has been envisioned as a long-term monitoring program to ensure a comprehensive network of coastal data collection activities is in place to support the development, implementation, and adaptive management of the coastal protection and restoration program within coastal Louisiana. The Coastwide Reference Monitoring...
Characterization and evaluation of controls on post-fire streamflow response across western U.S. watersheds
Samuel Saxe, Terri S. Hogue, Lauren E. Hay
2019, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (22) 1221-1237
This research investigates the impact of wildfires on watershed flow regimes, specifically focusing on evaluation of fire events within specified hydroclimatic regions in the western United States, and evaluating the impact of climate and geophysical variables on response. Eighty-two watersheds were identified with at least 10 years of continuous pre-fire...
Physically based estimation of rainfall thresholds triggering shallow landslides in volcanic slopes of southern Italy
F. Fusco, P. De Vita, Benjamin B. Mirus, Rex L. Baum, V. Allocca, R. Tufano, D. Calcaterra
2019, Water (11)
On the 4th and 5th of March 2005, about 100 rainfall-induced landslides occurred along volcanic slopes of Camaldoli Hill in Naples, Italy. These started as soil slips in the upper substratum of incoherent and welded volcaniclastic deposits, then evolved downslope according to debris avalanche and debris flow mechanisms. This specific...
Energetic status and bioelectrical impedance modeling of Arctic grayling Thymallus arcticus in interior Alaska Rivers
Jeffrey A. Falke, Lauren T. Bailey, Kevin M. Fraley, Michael J. Lunde, Andrew D. Gryska
2019, Environmental Biology of Fishes (102) 1337-1349
The energetic status of fishes represents energy stored as protein and lipids and reflects the ability of an individual to reproduce, migrate, and transition through life stages, ultimately influencing survival. However, traditional measurement methods, while highly accurate, are time consuming, expensive, and lethal, and nonlethal methods...
A multi-indicator spatial similarity approach for evaluating ecological restoration scenarios
Ruscena Wiederholt, Rajendara Paudel, Yogesh Khare, Stephen E. Davis III, G.M. Naja, Stephanie Romanach, L. Pearlstine, Thomas Van Lent
2019, Landscape Ecology (34) 2557-2574
ContextThe greater Everglades region in Florida (USA) is an area of wetlands that has been altered and reduced to 50% of its original area and faces multiple threats. Spatial landscape analysis can help guide a large and complex ecosystem restoration process, involving billions of dollars...
Projected warming disrupts the synchrony of riparian seed dispersal and snowmelt streamflow
Laura G. Perry, Patrick B. Shafroth, Lauren Hay, Steven L. Markstrom, Andrew R. Bock
2019, New Phytologist (225) 693-712
• Globally, spring phenology and abiotic processes are shifting earlier with warming. Differences in the magnitudes of these shifts may decouple the timing of plant resource requirements from resource availability. In riparian forests across the northern hemisphere, warming could decouple seed dispersal from snowmelt peak streamflow, thus reducing moisture and...
Evaluation of chemical and hydrologic processes in the eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer based on results from geochemical modeling, Idaho National Laboratory, eastern Idaho
Gordon W. Rattray
2019, Professional Paper 1837-B
Nuclear research activities at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) produced liquid and solid chemical and radiochemical wastes that were disposed to the subsurface resulting in detectable concentrations of some waste constituents in the eastern Snake River Plain (ESRP) aquifer. These waste constituents may affect the...
Drought-mediated extinction of an arid-land amphibian: Insights from a spatially explicit dynamic occupancy model
Erin R Zylstra, Don E. Swann, Blake R. Hossack, Robert J Steidl
Erin L. Muths, editor(s)
2019, Ecological Applications (29)
Understanding how natural and anthropogenic processes affect population dynamics of species with patchy distributions is critical to predicting their responses to environmental changes. Despite considerable evidence that demographic rates and dispersal patterns vary temporally in response to an array of biotic and abiotic processes, few applications of metapopulation theory have...
Floodplains provide important amphibian habitat despite multiple ecological threats
Meredith Holgerson, Adam Duarte, Marc Hayes, Michael J. Adams, Julie A. Tyson, Keith Douville, Angela Strecker
2019, Ecosphere (10)
Floodplain ponds and wetlands are productive and biodiverse ecosystems, yet they face multiple threats including altered hydrology, land use change, and non‐native species. Protecting and restoring important floodplain ecosystems requires understanding how organisms use these habitats and respond to altered environmental conditions. We developed Bayesian models to evaluate occupancy of...
Updating estimates of low-streamflow statistics to account for possible trends
Annalise G. Blum, Stacey A. Archfield, Robert M. Hirsch, Richard M Vogel, Julie E. Kiang, Robert W. Dudley
2019, Hydrologic Sciences Journal (6) 1404-1414
Accurate estimators of streamflow statistics are critical to the design, planning, and management of water resources. Given increasing evidence of trends in low-streamflow, new approaches to estimating low-streamflow statistics are needed. Here we investigate simple approaches to select a recent subset of the low-flow record to update...
Back to the future: Rebuilding the Everglades
Fred H. Sklar, James M. Beerens, Laura A. Brandt, Carlos A. Coronado-Molina, Steven M Davis, Tom Frankovich, Christopher Madden, Agnes McLean, Joel C. Trexler, Walter Wilcox
2019, Book chapter, The Coastal Everglades: The Dynamics of Social-Ecological Transformation in the South Florida Landscape
Society values landscapes that are engrained in cultural tradition and have a rich connection with human history. As such, there has been a concerted effort to look at the pristine past and develop plans to move the past into the future. However, bringing the past back is constrained by hysteretic...
Hydrologic balance, water quality, chemical-mass balance, and geochemical modeling of hyperalkaline ponds at Big Marsh, Chicago, Illinois, 2016–17
Amy M. Gahala, Robert R. Seal, II, Nadine M. Piatak
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5078
Hyperalkaline (pH greater than 12) ponds and groundwater exist at Big Marsh near Lake Calumet, Chicago, Illinois, a site used by the steel industry during the mid-1900s to deposit steel- and iron-making waste, in particular, slag. The hyperalkaline ponds may pose a hazard to human health and the environment. The...
Flood-inundation maps for a 23-mile reach of the Medina River at Bandera, Texas, 2018
Namjeong Choi, Frank L. Engel
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5067
In 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Bandera County River Authority and Groundwater District and the Texas Water Development Board, studied floods through the period of record to create a library of flood-inundation maps for the Medina River at Bandera, Texas. Digital flood-inundation maps for a...
The hydrologic benefits of wetland and prairie restoration in western Minnesota—Lessons learned at the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge, 2002–15
Timothy K. Cowdery, Catherine A. Christenson, Jeffrey R. Ziegeweid
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5041
Conversion of agricultural lands to wetlands and native prairie is widely viewed as beneficial because it can restore natural ecological and hydrologic functions. Some of these functions, such as reduced peak flows and improved water quality, are often attributed to restoration; however, such benefits have not been quantified at a...
SUTRA, a model for saturated-unsaturated, variable-density groundwater flow with solute or energy transport—Documentation of generalized boundary conditions, a modified implementation of specified pressures and concentrations or temperatures, and the lake capability
Alden M. Provost, Clifford I. Voss
2019, Techniques and Methods 6-A52
Version 3.0 of the SUTRA groundwater modeling program offers three new capabilities: generalized boundary conditions, a modified implementation of specified pressures and concentrations or temperatures, and lakes. Two new types of “generalized” boundary conditions facilitate simulation of a wide range of hydrologic processes that interact with the groundwater model, such...
