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Publications

The list below includes official USGS publications and journal articles authored by New England Water Science Center scientists. The USGS Pubs Warehouse link provides access to all USSG publications.

Filter Total Items: 1076

Hydrogeology and interactions of groundwater and surface water near Mill Creek and the Herring River, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 2017–18

Groundwater levels and stream stage were monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Friends of Herring River, at 19 sites in the Mill Creek Basin, a tributary of the Herring River in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, on outer Cape Cod, to provide baseline data prior to a proposed restoration of tidal flow to the Herring River estuary at the Cape Cod National Seashore. Tidal flow in t
Authors
John R. Mullaney, Janet R. Barclay, Kaitlin L. Laabs, Katherine D. Lavallee

Passive seismic survey of sediment thickness, Dasht-e-Nawar basin, eastern Afghanistan

Exploration of water resources is needed for public supply, extraction of mineral resources, and economic development in Afghanistan. Remotely-sensed data are useful for identifying the general nature of surface sediments, however, “boots on the ground” geophysical surveys or drilling programs are needed to quantify the thickness of sediments or aquifers. The nature of such investigations presents
Authors
Thomas J. Mack

2020 drought in New England

Below average and infrequent rainfall from May through September 2020 led to an extreme hydrologic drought across much of New England, with some areas experiencing a flash drought, reflecting its quick onset. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recorded record-low streamflow and groundwater levels throughout the region. In September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (2020) declared Aroostook Count
Authors
Pamela J. Lombard, Janet R. Barclay, Dee-Ann E. McCarthy

Simulated water-table and pond-level responses to proposed public water-supply withdrawals in the Hyannis Ponds Wildlife Management Area, Barnstable, Massachusetts

The glacial kettle ponds in the Hyannis Ponds Wildlife Management Area in Barnstable, Massachusetts, support a community of rare and endangered plants. The ponds are hydraulically connected to the unconfined aquifer that underlies Cape Cod. The plants are adapted to the rise and fall of water levels in the ponds as the water table fluctuates in response to seasonal and year-to-year natural changes
Authors
Denis R. LeBlanc, Timothy D. McCobb, Jeffrey R. Barbaro

Time scales of arsenic variability and the role of high-frequency monitoring at three water-supply wells in New Hampshire, USA

Groundwater geochemistry, redox process classification, high-frequency physicochemical and hydrologic measurements, and climate data were analyzed to identify controls on arsenic (As) concentration changes. Groundwater was monitored in two public-supply wells (one glacial aquifer and one bedrock aquifer), and one bedrock-aquifer domestic well in New Hampshire, USA, from 2014 to 2018 to identify ti
Authors
James R. Degnan, Joseph P. Levitt, Melinda Erickson, Bryant C. Jurgens, Bruce D. Lindsey, Joseph D. Ayotte

Evaluating associations between environmental variables and Escherichia coli levels for predictive modeling at Pawtuckaway Beach in Nottingham, New Hampshire, from 2015 to 2017

From 2015 through 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services studied occurrences of high levels of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria at the Pawtuckaway State Park Beach in Nottingham, New Hampshire. Historic data collected by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental
Authors
James F. Coles, Kathleen F. Bush

Nitrogen budgets of the Long Island Sound estuary

Nitrogen (N) inputs to coastal ecosystems have significant impacts on coastal community structure. In N limited systems, increases in N inputs may lead to excess productivity and hypoxia. Like many temperate estuaries, Long Island Sound (LIS), a major eastern U.S. estuary, is a N limited system which has experienced seasonal hypoxia since the 1800s. This study is the first effort to constrain the
Authors
Penny Vlahos, Michael Whitney, Christina Menniti, John R. Mullaney, Jonathan Morrison, Yan Jia

Instructions for running the analytical code PAT (Purge Analyzer Tool) for computation of in-well time of travel of groundwater under pumping conditions

IntroductionUnderstanding the optimal time needed to purge a well while pumping to collect a representative groundwater sample requires an understanding of groundwater flow in wells (in-well flow). Parameters that affect in-well flow include the hydraulic properties of the aquifer, well construction, drawdown from pumping, and pump rate. The time of travel relative to in-well flow is affected by t
Authors
P.T. Harte, B. J. Huffman, Tomas Perina, Herb Levine, Daewon Rojas-Mickelson

Soil aggregates as a source of dissolved organic carbon to streams: An experimental study on the effect of solution chemistry on water extractable carbon

Over the past two decades, headwater streams of the northern hemisphere have shown increased amounts of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), coinciding with decreased acid deposition. The exact nature of the mechanistic link between precipitation composition and stream water DOC is still widely debated in the literature. We hypothesize that soil aggregates are the main source of stream water DOC and th
Authors
Malayika M. Cincotta, Julia N. Perdrial, Aaron Shavitz, Arianna Libenson, Maxwell Landsman, Nicolas Perdrial, Jesse Armfield, Thomas Adler, James B. Shanley

Resolving a paradox—high mercury deposition, but low bioaccumulation in northeastern Puerto Rico

At a “clean air” trade winds site in northeastern Puerto Rico, we found an apparent paradox: atmospheric total mercury (THg) deposition was highest of any site in the USA Mercury Deposition Network, but assimilation into the local food web was quite low. Avian blood THg concentrations (n = 31, from eight species in five foraging guilds) ranged widely from 0.2 to 32 ng g−1 (median of 4.3 ng g−1). W
Authors
James B. Shanley, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, Oksana P. Lane, Wayne J. Arendt, Steven J. Hall, William H. McDowell

Hysteretic response of solutes and turbidity at the event scale across forested tropical montane watersheds

Concentration-discharge relationships are a key tool for understanding the sourcing and transport of material from watersheds to fluvial networks. Storm events in particular provide insight into variability in the sources of solutes and sediment within watersheds, and the hydrologic pathways that connect hillslope to stream channel. Here we examine high-frequency sensor-based specific conductance
Authors
Adam S. Wymore, Miguel C. Leon, James B. Shanley, William C. McDowell

Low streamflow trends at human-impacted and reference basins in the United States

We present a continent-scale exploration of trends in annual 7-day low streamflows at 2482 U.S. Geological Survey streamgages across the conterminous United States over the past 100, 75, and 50 years (1916–2015, 1941–2015 and 1966–2015). We used basin characteristics to identify subsets of study basins representative of reference basins with streamflow relatively free from human effects (n = 259),
Authors
Robert W. Dudley, Robert M. Hirsch, Stacey A. Archfield, Annalise G. Blum, Benjamin Renard