Publications

Groundwater in northwestern Louisiana is a valuable resource needed for expanding public-supply needs as well as possible energy development needs arising from Haynesville Formation natural-gas production. The Red River alluvial and the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifers are two of the most important and heavily pumped aquifers in northwestern Louisiana; however, little documentation of the...

Running Reelfoot Bayou (RRB) is the outlet canal of Reelfoot Lake, the largest natural lake in Tennessee. RRB is not able to contain discharge from Reelfoot Lake greater than the bankfull discharge of 28 m3/s (1000 ft3/s), which typically occurs at the beginning of the growing season (April–June). Historically, the planting of crops has been delayed until flooding subsides and cropland...

This study focused on optimizing the placement of shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands for pixel-level estimation of fractional crop residue cover (fR) for the upcoming Landsat Next mission. We applied an iterative wavelength shift approach to a database of crop residue field spectra collected in Beltsville, Maryland, USA (n = 916) and computed generalized two- and three-band spectral indices...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (MBCI), conducted a baseline assessment of the physical, chemical, and biological quality of selected streams and rivers within and contiguous to the Pearl River Community (PRC) in 2017 and 2018. The MBCI is a federally recognized tribe with territories in Mississippi and Tennessee. MBCI Tribal...

Preliminary models for gate operations at the new outlet control structure for Reelfoot Lake were developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, using calibrated ratings of the lift gates, to support the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in managing lake level. In 2018, the old structure at the outlet of Reelfoot Lake was buried and lake level control was transferred to a new structure. The...

In 2019, the Maryland Department of Agriculture's Winter Cover Crop Program introduced a delayed termination incentive (after May 1) to promote springtime biomass accumulation. We used satellite imagery calibrated with springtime in situ measurements collected from 2006–2021 (n = 722) to derive biomass estimates for Maryland fields planted to cereal cover crop species (286,200 ha total...

Little is known about water movement, volume, or residence time (RT), and how those characteristics affect sediment trapping efficiency (TE) and dissolved oxygen concentrations (DO) in the United States' largest remaining bottomland hardwood swamp, the Atchafalaya River Basin. To better understand these dynamics, this study used bathymetry, lidar, and stage records to determine volumes...

Land subsidence is a settling, sinking, or collapse of the land surface. In the southeastern United States, subsidence is frequently observed as sinkhole collapse in karst environments, wetland degradation and loss in coastal and other low-lying areas, and inundation of coastal urban communities. Human activities such as fluid extraction, mining, and overburden alteration can cause or...

Coastal wetlands are not only among the world’s most valued ecosystems but also among the most threatened by high greenhouse gas emissions that lead to accelerated sea level rise. There is intense debate regarding the extent to which landward migration of wetlands might compensate for seaward wetland losses. By integrating data from 166 estuaries across the conterminous United States, we...

Regeneration and survival of forested wetlands are affected by environmental variables related to the hydrologic regime. Climate change, specifically alterations to precipitation patterns, may have outsized effects on these forests. In Tennessee, USA, precipitation has increased by 15% since 1960. The goal of our research was to assess the evidence for whether this change in...

The magnitude of ecosystem services provided by winter cover crops is linked to their performance (i.e., biomass and associated nitrogen content, forage quality, and fractional ground cover), although few studies quantify these characteristics across the landscape. Remote sensing can produce landscape-level assessments of cover crop performance. However, commonly employed optical...

The primary focus of this study was to document cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc concentrations in selected streams near the U.S. Army Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) and Fort Polk Military Reservation and to compare those values to Federal and State aquatic-life criteria guidelines. The acute aquatic-life criteria used for this study are as follows: the U.S. Environmental...