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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...

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...

Changing Arctic climate may alter freshwater ecosystems as a result of warmer surface waters, longer open-water periods, reduced wintertime lake ice growth, and altered hydrologic connectivity. This study aims to characterize zooplankton community composition and size structure in the context of hydrologic connectivity and ice regimes in Arctic lakes. Between...

Widespread land use change in coastal ecosystems has led to a decline in the amount of habitat available for fish and wildlife, lower production of ecosystem goods and services, and loss of recreational and aesthetic value. This has prompted global efforts to...

Hennig Brandt's discovery of phosphorus (P) occurred during the early European colonization of the Chesapeake Bay region. Today, P, an essential nutrient on land and water alike, is one of the principal threats to the health of the bay. Despite widespread implementation of best management practices across the Chesapeake Bay...

Digital flood-inundation maps for a 6.7-mile reach of Joachim Creek, De Soto, Missouri, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the city of De Soto and Jefferson County, Missouri. The flood-inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Program website at <a...

The costs of invasive species in the United States alone are estimated to exceed US$100 billion per year so a critical tactic in minimizing the costs of invasive species is the development of effective, early-detection systems. To this end, we evaluated the efficacy of adding environmental (e)DNA surveillance to the...

The interpretation of geophysical survey results to answer hydrologic, engineering, and geologic questions is critical to diverse problems for management of water, energy, and mineral resources. Although geophysical images provide valuable qualitative insight into subsurface architecture and conditions, translating geophysical images into quantitative information (e.g., saturation, concentration, and hydraulic properties)...

River channelization and artificial levees have decreased the hydrologic connectivity of river-floodplain systems around the world. In response, restoration through enhancing connectivity has been advocated to improve the functions of floodplains, but uncertain benefits and the possibility of phosphate release from re-flooded soils has limited implementation. In this study, we...

Optimal hydrograph separation (OHS) uses a two-parameter recursive digital filter that applies specific conductance mass-balance constraints to estimate the base flow contribution to total streamflow at stream gages where discharge and specific conductance are measured. OHS was applied to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) stream gages across the conterminous United States...

Accurate forecasts of the streamflow expected during late spring and summer in the Upper Klamath River Basin in southern-central Oregon and northern California are used by water management agencies to balance water allocations for agriculture, aquatic habitat, and hydropower-production needs. Streamflow forecasts are also used by irrigation farmers for...

De facto reuse is increasingly being studied among the variety of stressors that are relevant to drinking water systems that obtain their source water from surface waters. De facto reuse may influence the levels and types of precursors relevant to formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs) in surface water systems. DBPs such as trihalomethanes...

Model estimated monthly water balance (WB) components (i.e., potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration, and runoff [R]) for 848 United States (U.S.) Geological Survey 8-digit hydrologic units located in the Mississippi River Basin (MRB) are used to examine the temporal and spatial variability of the MRB WB for water years 1901 through...

Reliable tools are needed by farmers and managers to estimate and mitigate impacts of altered hydrology and degraded water quality downstream of agricultural areas. The Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Model (WEBMOD) (Webb and Parkhurst 2017) was used to simulate daily variations of hydrology and water quality for 5 square kilometers...

Understanding the drivers and timescales over which groundwater quality changes informs groundwater management, use, and protection. To better understand timescales of water-quality change over short (daily to monthly) and long (seasonal to decadal) timescales, the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Enhanced Trends Network (ETN) program instrumented and sampled...

The Santa Fe Group aquifer is an important source of water to communities within the Middle Rio Grande Basin, including the Albuquerque-Rio Rancho metropolitan area and Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. In November 1999, Kirtland Air Force Base personnel observed fuel-stained soils at the Bulk Fuels Facility on the...

We examined the impacts of changes in land cover and soil conditions on the flow regime of the upper Delaware River Basin using the Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources (WATER). We simulated flows for two periods, circa 1600 and 1940, at three sites using the same temperature and precipitation...

Southeastern Utah has a long history of oil and gas production. Two new hydrocarbon extraction wells have been proposed several miles northeast of the town of Bluff, Utah. In response to concern about the impacts of oil and gas extraction in the area on drinking-water quality, this study provides groundwater...

Executive SummaryThe South Atlantic Water Science Center Strategic Science Planning Team has developed a unified strategic science plan to guide the science vision of the South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC) in response to the merging of the Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina Water Science Centers. This plan proposes...

Large-scale wetland restoration often focuses on repairing the hydrologic connections degraded by anthropogenic modifications. Of these hydrologic connections, groundwater discharge is an important target, as these surface water ecosystem control points are important to thermal stability, among other ecosystem services. However, evaluating the effectiveness of the restoration activities on establishing...

The Albuquerque Basin, located in central New Mexico, is about 100 miles long and 25–40 miles wide. The basin is hydrologically defined as the extent of consolidated and unconsolidated deposits of Tertiary and Quaternary age that encompasses the structural Rio Grande Rift between San Acacia to the south and Cochiti...

For many years, marshes in the coastal areas from Texas to Louisiana have served as critical habitat for Anas fulvigula, the mottled duck. Mottled ducks are a priority species in the Texas/Louisiana Gulf Coast area and have been affected by critical habitat reduction. In recent years, mottled duck habitats have...

Glacial ice is a significant influence on local climate, hydrology, vegetation, and wildlife. We mapped a complete set of glacier areas from the Little Ice Age (LIA) using very high-resolution satellite imagery (30-cm) within Glacier National Park, a region that encompasses over 400,000 hectares. We measured glacier change across the...

The hydrothermal systems associated with the restless high-threat volcanoes at Lassen and Long Valley, California, each release large amounts of arsenic (As) to surface waters – ~6 and ~8 metric tons/yr, respectively. The hydrothermal As output can increase during volcanic unrest,...

Runoff in steep channels is capable of transitioning into debris flows with hazardous implications for downstream communities and infrastructure, particularly in alpine landscapes with minimal vegetation and areas recently disturbed by wildfire. Here, we derive thresholds for the initiation of runoff‐generated debris flows based on critical...