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: 1808
Effects of montane watershed development on vulnerability of domestic groundwater supply during drought Effects of montane watershed development on vulnerability of domestic groundwater supply during drought
Climate change is expected to reduce recharge to montane aquifers in the western United States, but it is unclear how this will impact groundwater resources in watersheds where intensive surface-water development has disrupted the natural hydrologic regime. To better understand sources of recharge and associated vulnerabilities of groundwater supply in this setting, we made a detailed...
Authors
Zeno Levy, Miranda S. Fram, Kirsten Faulkner, Charles N. Alpers, Evelyn M Soltero, Kimberly A. Taylor
Formation and prevention of pipe scale from acid mine drainage at Iron Mountain and Leviathan Mines, California, USA Formation and prevention of pipe scale from acid mine drainage at Iron Mountain and Leviathan Mines, California, USA
Pipelines carrying acid mine drainage (AMD) to treatment plants commonly form pipe scale, an Fe(III)-rich precipitate that forms inside the pipelines and requires periodic and costly cleanout and maintenance. Pipelines at Iron Mountain Mine (IMM) and Leviathan Mine (LM) in California carry acidic water from mine sources to a treatment plant and have developed pipe scale. Samples of scale...
Authors
Kate M. Campbell, Charles N. Alpers, D. Kirk Nordstrom
DGMETA (version 1)—Dissolved gas modeling and environmental tracer analysis computer program DGMETA (version 1)—Dissolved gas modeling and environmental tracer analysis computer program
DGMETA (Dissolved Gas Modeling and Environmental Tracer Analysis) is a Microsoft Excel-based computer program that is used for modeling air-water equilibrium conditions from measurements of dissolved gases and for computing concentrations of environmental tracers that rely on air-water equilibrium model results. DGMETA can solve for the temperature, salinity, excess air, fractionation of...
Authors
Bryant C. Jurgens, J. K. Böhlke, Karl Haase, Eurybiades Busenberg, Andrew G. Hunt, Jeffrey A. Hansen
Quantifying erosion rates by using terrestrial laser scanning at Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park, Nevada County, California, 2014–17 Quantifying erosion rates by using terrestrial laser scanning at Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park, Nevada County, California, 2014–17
The abandoned hydraulic mine pit at Malakoff Diggins near Grass Valley, California, can produce large volumes of eroded sediment transportable by storm runoff. Sediment-laden water discharged from the pit is a major source of heavy metals to Humbug Creek and the South Yuba River. To develop a comprehensive sediment budget for the Malakoff Diggins mine pit and identify sources of sediment...
Authors
James F. Howle, Charles N. Alpers, Alfred J. Ward, Sandra Bond, Jennifer A. Curtis
Stream corridor sources of suspended sediment and phosphorus from an agricultural tributary to the Great Lakes Stream corridor sources of suspended sediment and phosphorus from an agricultural tributary to the Great Lakes
Fine-grained sediment and phosphorous are major contaminants in the Great Lakes and their tributaries. Plum Creek, Wisconsin (92 km2), a tributary to the Lower Fox River, has a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) requiring reductions of suspended sediment and phosphorus loading by 70% and 77%, respectively. In 2016-18, an integrated sediment fingerprinting and stream corridor-based sediment...
Authors
Faith A. Fitzpatrick, James D. Blount, Leah Kammel, David L. Hoover, Allen C. Gellis, Barbara C. Scudder Eikenberry
Determination of study reporting limits for pesticide constituent data for the California Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Program Priority Basin Project, 2004–2018—Part 1: National Water Quality Schedules 2003, 2032, or 2033, and 2060 Determination of study reporting limits for pesticide constituent data for the California Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Program Priority Basin Project, 2004–2018—Part 1: National Water Quality Schedules 2003, 2032, or 2033, and 2060
The California Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Program Priority Basin Project (GAMA-PBP) is a long-term cooperative project designed to assess the quality of groundwater resources used for public and domestic drinking water supplies in the State of California, to monitor and evaluate changes to that quality, to investigate the human and natural factors controlling water...
Authors
Miranda S. Fram, Sylvia V. Stork
Deglacial water-table decline in Southern California recorded by noble gas isotopes Deglacial water-table decline in Southern California recorded by noble gas isotopes
Constraining the magnitude of past hydrological change may improve understanding and predictions of future shifts in water availability. Here we demonstrate that water-table depth, a sensitive indicator of hydroclimate, can be quantitatively reconstructed using Kr and Xe isotopes in groundwater. We present the first-ever measurements of these dissolved noble gas isotopes in groundwater...
Authors
Alan M. Seltzer, Jessica Ng, Wesley R. Danskin, Justin T. Kulongoski, Riley Gannon, Martin Stute, Jeffery P. Severinghaus
Exposure and potential effects of pesticides and pharmaceuticals in protected streams of the US National Park Service southeast Region Exposure and potential effects of pesticides and pharmaceuticals in protected streams of the US National Park Service southeast Region
Globally protected areas offer refugia for a broad range of taxa including threatened and endangered species. The United States National Park Service (NPS) manages public lands to preserve biodiversity, but increasing park visitation and development of surrounding landscapes increase exposure to and effects from bioactive contaminants. The risk (exposure and hazard) to NPS protected...
Authors
Paul M. Bradley, Kristin M. Romanok, Jeffrey R. Duncan, William Battaglin, Jimmy Clark, Michelle Hladik, Bradley Huffman, Luke Iwanowicz, Celeste A. Journey, Kelly Smalling
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Contaminant Biology, Environmental Health Program, Toxic Substances Hydrology, California Water Science Center, Colorado Water Science Center, Eastern Ecological Science Center, New Jersey Water Science Center, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)
Pesticide mixtures in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, 2016–17: Results from year 2 of the Delta Regional Monitoring Program Pesticide mixtures in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, 2016–17: Results from year 2 of the Delta Regional Monitoring Program
The Delta Regional Monitoring Program was developed by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board in response to the decline of pelagic fish species in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta that was observed in the early 2000s. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Delta Regional Monitoring Program, has been responsible for collecting and analyzing surface-water...
Authors
Matthew D. De Parsia, Emily E. Woodward, James L. Orlando, Michelle L. Hladik
Observations of the spawning ecology of the imperiled Clear Lake Hitch Lavinia exilicauda chi Observations of the spawning ecology of the imperiled Clear Lake Hitch Lavinia exilicauda chi
Migrations for the purposes of reproduction are widely documented across the animal kingdom and are particularly common in fishes and other aquatic organisms (Dingle 2014). One important migration strategy in fishes is potamodromy, which is the movement from one location to another entirely within freshwater (Morais and Daverat 2016). Thurow (2016) estimated that worldwide there are
Authors
Frederick V. Feyrer
History and sources of co-occurring pesticides in an abstraction well unravelled by age distributions of depth specific groundwater samples History and sources of co-occurring pesticides in an abstraction well unravelled by age distributions of depth specific groundwater samples
When groundwater-based drinking water supply becomes contaminated, the timing and source of contamination are obvious questions. However, contaminants often have diffuse sources and different contaminants may have different sources even in a single groundwater well, making these questions complicated to answer. Age dating of groundwater has been used to reconstruct contaminant travel...
Authors
Rasmus Jakobsen, Klaus Hinsby, Jens Aamand, Peter van der Keur, Jacob Kidmose, Roland Purtschert, Bryant Jurgens, Jurgen Sultenfuss, Christian N. Albers
Review of and recommendations for monitoring contaminants and their effects in the San Francisco Bay−Delta Review of and recommendations for monitoring contaminants and their effects in the San Francisco Bay−Delta
Legacy and current-use contaminants enter into and accumulate throughout the San Francisco Bay−Delta (Bay−Delta), and are present at concentrations with known effects on species important to this diverse watershed. There remains major uncertainty and a lack of focused research able to address and provide understanding of effects across multiple biological scales, despite previous and...
Authors
Richard E Connon, Simone Hasenbein, Susanne M. Brander, Helen C. Poynton, Erika B Holland, Daniel Schlenk, James Orlando, Michelle L. Hladik, Tracy K. Collier, Nathaniel L Scholz, John P Incardona, Nancy D. Denslow, Amro Hamdoun, Sascha Nicklisch, Natalia Garcia-Reyero, Edward J. Perkins, Evan P Gallagher, Xin Deng, Dan Wang, Stephanie Fong, Richard S Breuer, Mehrdad Hajibabei, James B Brown, John K Colbourne, Thomas M Young, Gary Cherr, Andrew Whitehead, Anne E. Todgham