Publications
The following list of California Water Science Center publications includes both official USGS publications and journal articles authored by our scientists.
Filter Total Items: 1724
Distribution of algae in the San Joaquin River, California, in relation to nutrient supply, salinity and other environmental factors
1. The taxonomic composition and biomass of the phytoplankton and the taxonomic composition of the phytobenthos of the San Joaquin River and its major tributaries were examined in relation to water chemistry, habitat and flow regime. Agricultural drainage and subsurface flow contribute to a complex gradient of salinity and nutrients in this eutrophic, 'lowland type' river.2. Because of light-limit
Authors
H.V. Leland, L. R. Brown, D. K. Mueller
Combined use of remote sensing and continuous monitoring to analyse the variability of suspended-sediment concentrations in San Francisco Bay, California
Analysis of suspended-sediment concentration data in San Francisco Bay is complicated by spatial and temporal variability. In situ optical backscatterance sensors provide continuous suspended-sediment concentration data, but inaccessibility, vandalism, and cost limit the number of potential monitoring stations. Satellite imagery reveals the spatial distribution of surficial-suspended sediment conc
Authors
C.A. Ruhl, D. H. Schoellhamer, R. P. Stumpf, C.L. Lindsay
Ecogeochemistry of the subsurface food web at pH 0–2.5 in Iron Mountain, California, U.S.A.
Pyrite oxidation in the underground mining environment of Iron Mountain, California, has created the most acidic pH values ever reported in aquatic systems. Sulfate values as high as 120 000 mg l−1 and iron as high as 27 600 mg l−1 have been measured in the mine water, which also carries abundant other dissolved metals including Al, Zn, Cu, Cd, Mn, Sb and Pb. Extreme acidity and high metal concent
Authors
Eleanora I. Robbins, Teresa M. Rodgers, Charles N. Alpers, D. Kirk Nordstrom
Modeling residual aquifer-system compaction--Constraining the vertical hydraulic diffusivity of thick aquitards
No abstract available.
Authors
Michelle Sneed, Michael T. Pavelko, Devin L. Galloway
Environmental factors influencing the distribution and salvage of young delta smelt: a comparison of factors occurring in 1996 and 1999
The delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) is listed as a threatened species under both the Federal Endangered Species Act (FESA) and the California Endangered Species Act. Through formal consultation under Section 7 of the FESA, USBR and DWR received a Biological Opinion from the USFWS, which allows for the incidental take of delta smelt arising through operation of the Central Valley Project and
Authors
Matthew Nobriga, Zach Hymanson, Rick Oltmann
Primary food resources in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a complex mosaic of tidal freshwater habitats, is now a focus of ecosystem rehabilitation because of changes in critical functions associated with its geographic location at the landestuary interface. One of these functions is the production, transport, and transformation of organic matter that constitutes the “primary food supply,” that is, the food supply
Authors
Alan D. Jassby, James E. Cloern
Integrating chemical, water quality, habitat, and fish assemblage data from the San Joaquin River drainage, California
No abstract available.
Authors
Larry R. Brown, Charles R. Kratzer, Neil M. Dubrovsky
Exposure of delta smelt to dissolved pesticides in 1998 and 1999
Delta smelt is a threatened species in the San Francisco Bay Estuary. Pesticide toxicity is a possible cause for the need to list this fish (Bennett and Moyle 1996; Moyle and others 1996). Numerous pesticides are transported into the estuary from area rivers (MacCoy and others 1995). However, there are minimal data to document the presence, or absence, of pesticides within delta smelt habitat, esp
Authors
G. Edward Moon, Kathryn Kuivila, Catherine A. Ruhl, David H. Schoellhamer
Methods for accurate estimation of net discharge in a tidal channel
Accurate estimates of net residual discharge in tidally affected rivers and estuaries are possible because of recently developed ultrasonic discharge measurement techniques. Previous discharge estimates using conventional mechanical current meters and methods based on stage/discharge relations or water slope measurements often yielded errors that were as great as or greater than the computed resid
Authors
M.R. Simpson, R. Bland
Spatial and temporal variability of picocyanobacteria Synechococcus sp. in San Francisco Bay
We collected samples monthly, from April to August 1998, to measure the abundance of autotrophic picoplankton in San Francisco Bay. Samples taken along a 160-km transect showed that picocyanobacteria (Synechococcus sp.) was a persistent component of the San Francisco Bay phytoplankton in all the estuarine habitats, from freshwater to seawater and during all months of the spring-summer transition.
Authors
X. Ning, J. E. Cloern, B.E. Cole
Sediment yield following severe volcanic disturbance - A two-decade perspective from Mount St. Helens
Explosive volcanic eruptions perturb water and sediment fluxes in watersheds; consequently, posteruption sediment yields can exceed pre-eruption yields by several orders of magnitude. Annual suspended-sediment yields following the catastrophic 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption were as much as 500 times greater than typical background level, and they generally declined nonlinearly for more than a deca
Authors
J. J. Major, T. C. Pierson, R.L. Dinehart, J. E. Costa
Metal-sulfate salts from sulfide mineral oxidation
The observation of “efflorescences,” or the flowering of salts, associated with periods of dryness in soils, in closed-basin lakes, in rock outcrops, and in mines and mine wastes has been noted since early antiquity. The formation of metal-sulfate salts, in connection with the mining of metals, was a phenomenon well known to the early Greek and Roman civilizations. Alum, most commonly potash alum
Authors
J.L. Jambor, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Charles N. Alpers