Publications

Introduction Water is an important resource in the arid southwest region of the United States where there is a limited supply of surface water and groundwater. In the Death Valley regional groundwater flow system (DVRFS) in southern Nevada and eastern California, groundwater is the main source of supply for agricultural, commercial, and domestic water needs. For over four decades, the...

Relatively few discharging playas in western United States extensional basins have high concentrations of lithium (Li) and calcium (Ca) in the basin-center brines. However, the source of both these ions is not well understood, and it is not clear why basins in close proximity within the same extensional trough have notably different concentrations of Li and Ca. In the Barstow-Bristol...

In an effort to determine contaminant presence, concentrations, and movement from a low‐level radioactive waste (LLRW) burial disposal site to ecosystems in the surrounding area, a study was developed to assess concentrations of per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and tritium. To complete this assessment small mammals, vegetation, soil, and...

Using traditional high-flow purge methods for long-term water quality monitoring of deep groundwater wells can be expensive, affect contaminant migration, and produce excessive volumes of discharge water that can be difficult to manage. The use of low-flow pumping methods and depth discrete bailers (DDBs) can reduce the cost of sampling deep groundwater wells. In general, using different...

Groundwater flow and development were characterized in four groundwater basins of the Death Valley regional flow system in Nevada and California with calibrated, groundwater-flow models. Natural groundwater discharges in the Furnace Creek, Lower Amargosa, and Saratoga Spring areas were defined and distributed consistently with a revised hydrogeologic framework. This simplified...

Several decades ago, deteriorating water quality and clarity in Lake Tahoe prompted the initiation of environmental programs in the Lake Tahoe basin. Data on seasonal sediment loads from tributary streams, and nutrient loads from surrounding streams and groundwater aquifers, were needed to document the causes of this deterioration, the local and regional effectiveness of environmental...

What does climate change mean for snow-fed river basins? Climate change poses unique challenges in snow-fed river basins across the western United States because the majority of water supply originates as snow (Dettinger, Udall, & Georgakakos, 2015). In the Sierra Nevada, recent observations include changes in snow accumulation and snowmelt, and shifts in peak streamflow timing (Barnhart...

The rate of groundwater flow past underground nuclear testing areas in Yucca Flat at the Nevada National Security Site, southern Nevada, was estimated using results from the ER-6-1-2 main multiple-well aquifer test (MWAT), done during February 5–July 23, 2004. Drawdowns in 13 observation wells were evaluated from pumping in well ER-6-1-2 main and used as observations in a regional...

At the request of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is releasing with this open-file report (OFR) a previously unpublished review and comparison of two numerical models for Tule Desert, Nevada. The original review was performed in spring 2013, and only minor editorial revisions were made in the current (2019) OFR for clarity and to reformat the...

Despite extensive efforts to maximize ground coverage and improve upscaling functions within core validation sites (CVS) of the NASA Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) mission, spatial averages of point-scale soil moisture observations often fail to accurately capture the true average of the reference pixels. Therefore, some level of pixel-scale sampling error from in situ observations...

In desert landscapes, flooding can result in dramatic changes to streams. However, the frequency, magnitude, and geomorphic effects of floods in such environments are less understood compared to wetter environments (Tooth, 2000). In desert landscapes, steep slopes and sparse vegetation result in runoff and flashy flood peaks, often lasting for only a few hours. Many floods are the result...

Conservation of montane meadows is a high priority for land and water managers given their critical role in buffering the effects of climate variability and their vulnerability to increasing temperatures and evaporative demands. Recent advances in cloud computing have provided new opportunities to examine ecological responses to climate variability over the past few decades, and at large...