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Monitoring discharge in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal is critical for the accounting done by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of the diversion of water from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River Basin by the State of Illinois. The primary streamgage used for this discharge monitoring, the Chicago...

We sampled juvenile wild Steelhead Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss in headwater streams of the Wind River, WA, to characterize population attributes and investigate life-history metrics, particularly migratory patterns, and early life-stage survival. We used passive integrated transponder (PIT) tagging and a series of instream PIT-tag interrogation systems (PTISs) to track juveniles...

The Atchafalaya River Basin is the largest remaining forested wetland in the contiguous United States. Since 1960, dredging and channel erosion in the Basin have resulted in changes to the hydrologic connectivity that have not been quantified. Analyses were conducted to determine the hydraulic and geomorphic factors that have changed...

Since they were first introduced to the United States more than 50 years ago, invasive carp have rapidly colonized rivers of the Mississippi River Basin, with detrimental effects on native aquatic species. Their continued range expansion, and potential for subsequent invasion of the Great Lakes, has led to increased concern...

Over recent decades, the South Branch of the Potomac River, WV, has experienced fish kills and episodes of suppressed health in adult fishes that have spanned small stretches to nearly 120 km of contiguous habitat. Although factors such as endocrine disruption, chemical contaminants, and infectious agents have been detected, no...

Ecosystem structure of wetlands in managed floodplains depends on hydrological processes controlled by geomorphology and water management. Overlapping effects of direct modifications and geomorphic adjustments to management can combine to trigger changes to floodplain ecosystem structure. We examined the case of woody vegetation encroaching into the depressional Catahoula Lake, Louisiana,...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Savannah Valley Utility District, evaluated the groundwater hydrology of the Valley and Ridge carbonate rock aquifer in northeastern Hamilton, southern Meigs, and northwestern Bradley Counties, Tennessee, from 2007 through 2009. The evaluation included, and built on, the results of test drilling conducted...

Land management decisions need context about how landscapes will respond to different circumstances or actions. As ecologists’ understanding of nonlinear ecological dynamics has evolved into state-and-transition models (STMs), they have put more emphasis on defining and mapping the soil, geomorphological, and climate...

Water resource managers are faced with difficult decisions on how to satisfy human water needs while maintaining or restoring riverine ecosystems. Decision sciences have developed approaches and tools that can be used to break down difficult water management decisions into their component parts. An essential aspect of these approaches is...

Hatchery-origin white sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus in the lower Columbia River, Canada are approaching puberty, and describing the reproductive structure of the population is critical to determine if they are capable of contributing to spawning events in the wild, a key management uncertainty. Few studies have compared the accuracy of available tools (histology,...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the City of Grandview, Missouri, assessed flooding of the Little Blue River at Grandview resulting from varying precipitation magnitudes and durations and expected land-cover changes. The precipitation scenarios were used to develop a library of flood-inundation maps that included a 3.5-mile reach...

Least Terns (Sternula antillarum) are known to forage away from nesting colonies, yet little information is available about movement rates and distances. We used VHF transmitters and a network of datalogging receivers to monitor movements of 23 Least Terns on the central Platte River, Nebraska,...

To quantify fine-scale Kootenai River white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) staging and spawning habitat selection and preference within a recently restored reach of the Kootenai River, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, integrated acoustic telemetry data with two-dimensional hydraulic model simulations within a...

Degradation of lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) spawning areas in the Detroit River, Maumee Bay, and western Lake Erie reefs and shoals has been identified as a contributing factor to Lake Erie’s population collapse in the 1950s. This decline prompted the United States and Canada to take steps to improve...

Understanding the population structure of invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) in the Great Lakes basin is essential for an effective control program. We review knowledge of lake connectivity, dispersal during the parasitic stage, and results from phenotypic, demographic, and genetic...

Bar-tailed Godwits Limosa lapponica baueri breed in Alaska and spend the nonbreeding season primarily in eastern Australia and New Zealand. Long-term declines spurred recent surveys at nonbreeding sites that yielded a revised population estimate of ~126,000 godwits. We conducted aerial surveys for Bar-tailed Godwits in 2018 and 2019 at pre-migratory...

The Asian fish tapeworm (Schyzocotyle acheilognathi syn. Bothriocephalus acheilognathi) (AFT) is an invasive parasite that can infect many species of fish, although most hosts are primarily members of Cyprinidae. Pathogenicity has most often been reported in aquaculture settings in fry and fingerling stages of carp (Cyprinus spp.). More recently, it...

The ability of native fish to establish self-sustaining populations when reintroduced to vacant habitats is variable. We evaluated factors that potentially affect the reintroduction success of juvenile Colorado River Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii pleuriticus that were reintroduced to an isolated watershed and were experiencing suboptimal survival and recruitment. We conducted a 3-year...

Between July 2011 and February 2013, the City of Cedar Rapids observed water level declines in their horizontal collector wells approaching 11 meters. As a result, pumping from these production wells had to be halted, and questions were raised about the reliability of the alluvial aquifer under future drought conditions....

The U.S. Geological Survey mined data from a variety of national and state agencies including USGS, Oregon Water Resources Department, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Washington Department of Ecology, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Portland State University, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A comprehensive dataset of streamflow, stage, and...

The Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum was formed in 1973 to coordinate salinity control efforts among the States in the Colorado River Basin, including Wyoming. The Colorado River Salinity Control Act of 1974 (Public Law 93–320) authorized “the construction, operation, and maintenance of certain works in the Colorado River...

New geochronologic and paleomagnetic data from the North American Midcontinent Rift (MCR) reveal the synchronous emplacement of the Beaver River diabase, the anorthosite xenoliths within it, and the Greenstone Flow—one of the largest lava flows on Earth. A U-Pb zircon date of 1091.83  0.21 Ma...

The Black River flows through southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas to its confluence with the White River in Arkansas. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates Clearwater Dam on the Black River and a series of dams in the White River Basin primarily for flood control. In this study, the...

Floods play a critical role in geomorphic change, but whether peak magnitude, duration, volume, or frequency determines the resulting magnitude of erosion and deposition is a question often proposed in geomorphic effectiveness studies. This study investigated that question using digital elevation model differencing to compare and...

Nutrients that have gradually accumulated in soils, groundwaters, and river sediments in the United States over the past century can remobilize and increase current downstream loading, obscuring effects of conservation practices aimed at protecting water resources. Drivers of storage accumulation and release of nutrients are poorly understood at the spatial...