Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

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: 1743

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

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

Organic matter sources and rehabilitation of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (California, USA)

1. The Sacramento San Joaquin River Delta, a complex mosaic of tidal freshwater habitats in California, is the focus of a major ecosystem rehabilitation effort because of significant long-term changes in critical ecosystem functions. One of these functions is the production, transport and transformation of organic matter that constitutes the primary food supply, which may be sub-optimal at trophic
Authors
A.D. Jassby, James E. Cloern

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

Dynamics of nutrient cycling and related benthic nutrient and oxygen fluxes during a spring phytoplankton bloom in South San Francisco Bay (USA)

Benthic oxygen uptake and nutrient releases of N, P and Si were measured weekly at 2 sites in South San Francisco Bay around the 1996 spring bloom. Exchanges across the sediment-water interface were estimated from whole core incubations performed in the laboratory at in situ temperature and in dark. Fluxes changed significantly on a weekly time scale. Over a period of 15 wk the fluxes of dissolved
Authors
C. Grenz, J. E. Cloern, S.W. Hager, B.E. Cole

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

Stable isotope systematics of sulfate minerals

Stable isotope studies of sulfate minerals are especially useful for unraveling the geochemical history of geological systems. All sulfate minerals can yield sulfur and oxygen isotope data. Hydrous sulfate minerals, such as gypsum, also yield oxygen and hydrogen isotope data for the water of hydration, and more complex sulfate minerals, such as alunite and jarosite also yield oxygen and hydrogen i
Authors
Robert R. Seal, Charles N. Alpers, Robert O. Rye

Water movement through a thick unsaturated zone underlying an intermittent stream in the western Mojave Desert, southern California, USA

Previous studies indicated that small amounts of recharge occur as infiltration of intermittent streamflow in washes in the upper Mojave River basin, in the western Mojave Desert, near Victorville, California. These washes flow only a few days each year after large storms. To reach the water table, water must pass through an unsaturated zone that is more than 130 m thick. Results of this study, do
Authors
J. A. Izbicki, J. Radyk, R. L. Michel

Rice pesticide concentrations in the Colusa Basin Drain and the Sacramento River, California, 1990-1993

The pesticides molinate, thiobencarb, and carbofuran are applied to rice (Oryza sativa L.) fields in the Sacramento Valley, California, each year during April through June. These pesticides are of concern because of their adverse effects on water quality and their potential adverse effects on aquatic life. Therefore, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board (CRWQCB) mandated the holding
Authors
K.L. Crepeau, K.M. Kuivila

Macroinvertebrate assemblages on woody debris and their relations with environmental variables in the lower Sacramento and San Joaquin River drainages, California

Data from 25 sites were used to evaluate associations between macroinvertebrate assemblages on large woody debris (snags) and environmental variables in the lower San Joaquin and Sacramento River drainages in California as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water Quality Assessment Program. Samples were collected from 1993 to 1995 in the San Joaquin River drainage and in 1996 and 1997 i
Authors
L. R. Brown, J. T. May

Pesticides in the atmosphere of the Mississippi River Valley, part II: Air

Weekly composite air samples were collected from early April through to mid-September 1995 at three paired urban and agricultural sites along the Mississippi River region of the Midwestern United States. The paired sampling sites were located in Mississippi, Iowa, and Minnesota. A background site, removed from dense urban and agricultural areas, was located on the shore of Lake Superior in Michiga
Authors
W.T. Foreman, M.S. Majewski, D. A. Goolsby, F.W. Wiebe, R.H. Coupe
Was this page helpful?