Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Publications

All of our publications are accessible through the USGS Publication Warehouse. Publications by scientists of the Oregon Water Science Center are listed below.

Filter Total Items: 751

Assessment of Columbia and Willamette River flood stage on the Columbia Corridor Levee System at Portland, Oregon, in a future climate

To support Levee Ready Columbia’s (LRC’s) effort to re-certify levees along the Columbia and Willamette Rivers and remain accredited, two 2-dimensional hydraulic models, Adaptive Hydraulics and Delft3D-Flexible Mesh, were used to simulate the effects of plausible extreme high water during the 2030 to 2059 period. The Columbia River was simulated from Bonneville Dam, situated at river mile (RM) 145
Authors
Susan A. Wherry, Tamara M. Wood, Hans R. Moritz, Keith B. Duffy

Toxicokinetics of imidacloprid-coated wheat seeds in Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) and an evaluation of hazard

Birds are potentially exposed to neonicotinoid insecticides by ingestion of coated seeds during crop planting. Adult male Japanese quail were orally dosed with wheat seeds coated with an imidacloprid (IMI) formulation at either 0.9 mg/kg body weight (BW) or 2.7 mg/kg BW (~3 and 9% of IMI LD50 for Japanese quail, respectively) for 1 or 10 days. Quail were euthanized between 1 and 24 h post-exposure
Authors
Thomas G. Bean, Michael S. Gross, Natalie K. Karouna-Renier, Paula F. P. Henry, Sandra L. Schultz, Michelle Hladik, Kathryn Kuivila, Barnett A. Rattner

Effects of urban multi-stressors on three stream biotic assemblages

During 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment(NAWQA) project assessed stream quality in 75 streams across an urban disturbance gradient within the Piedmont ecoregion of southeastern United States. Our objectives were to identify primary instream stressors affecting algal, macroinvertebrate and fish assemblages in wadeable streams. Biotic communities were surveyed
Authors
Ian R. Waite, Mark D. Munn, Patrick W. Moran, Christopher P. Konrad, Lisa H. Nowell, Michael R. Meador, Peter C. Van Metre, Daren Carlisle

Critical review: Grand challenges in assessing the adverse effects of contaminants of emerging concern on aquatic food webs

Much progress has been made in the past few decades in understanding the sources, transport, fate, and biological effects of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in aquatic ecosystems. Despite these advancements, significant obstacles still prevent comprehensive assessments of the environmental risks associated with the presence of CECs. Many of these obstacles center around the extrapolation o
Authors
Elena Nilsen, Kelly L. Smalling, Lutz Ahrens, Meritxell Gros, Karina S. B. Miglioranza, Yolanda Picó, Heiko L. Schoenfuss

Landscape controls on the distribution and ecohydrology of central Oregon springs

Small springs in semiarid landscapes are essential for maintaining aquatic biodiversity and supporting livestock grazing operations. However, little is known about controls on the distribution and physical characteristics of small springs, the aquatic species they support, or their sensitivity to disturbance. We address this information gap in the Crooked River subbasin, a tributary of the Deschut
Authors
Zach Freed, Allison Aldous, Marshall W. Gannett

Preface to historic and paleoflood analyses: New perspectives on climate, extreme flood risk, and the geomorphic effects of large floods

Paleofloods are flood events that occurred prior to instrumented records that are discerned from sedimentary evidence. Historic floods are flood events that predate the instrumented record that have been reconstructed based on evidence provided by historical sources. This special issue presents papers on historic and paleoflood analyses that stemmed from the 5th International Paleoflood Symposium
Authors
Lisa Davis, Tessa M. Harden, Samuel E. Muñoz, Jeanne E. Godaire, Jim E. O'Connor

Estimating river discharge with swath altimetry: A proof of concept using AirSWOT observations

The forthcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission will provide global measurements of the free surface of large rivers, providing new opportunities for remote sensing‐derived estimates of river discharge in gaged and ungaged basins. SWOT discharge algorithms have been developed and benchmarked using synthetic data but remain untested on real‐world swath altimetry observat
Authors
Stephen Tuozzolo, Greg D. Lind, Brandon Overstreet, Joseph F. Mangano, Mark A Fonstad, M. Hagemann, R.P.M. Frasson, K Larnier, P.-A. Garambois, J. Monnier, M. Durand

Conceptualizing ecological responses to dam removal: If you remove it, what's to come?

One of the desired outcomes of dam decommissioning and removal is the recovery of aquatic and riparian ecosystems. To investigate this common objective, we synthesized information from empirical studies and ecological theory into conceptual models that depict key physical and biological links driving ecological responses to removing dams. We define models for three distinct spatial domains: upstre
Authors
J. Ryan Bellmore, George R. Pess, Jeffrey J. Duda, Jim E. O'Connor, Amy E. East, Melissa M. Foley, Andrew C. Wilcox, Jon J. Major, Patrick B. Shafroth, Sarah A. Morley, Christopher S. Magirl, Chauncey W. Anderson, James E. Evans, Christian E. Torgersen, Laura S. Craig

Spatially referenced models of streamflow and nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended-sediment transport in streams of the southwestern United States

Given the predicted imbalance between water supply and demand in the Southwest region of the United States, and the widespread problems with excessive nutrients and suspended sediment, there is a growing need to quantify current streamflow and water quality conditions throughout the region. Furthermore, current monitoring stations exist at a limited number of locations, and many streams lack strea
Authors
Daniel R. Wise, David W. Anning, Olivia L. Miller

Spatially referenced models of streamflow and nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended-sediment loads in streams of the Pacific region of the United States

Although spatial information describing the supply and quality of surface water is critical for managing water resources for human uses and for ecological health, monitoring is expensive and cannot typically be done over large scales or in all streams or waterbodies. To address the need for such data, the U.S. Geological Survey developed SPAtially Referenced Regression On Watershed attributes (SPA
Authors
Daniel R. Wise

Updates to the suspended sediment SPARROW model developed for western Oregon and northwestern California

A SPARROW (SPAtially Related Regressions On Watershed attributes) model that was previously developed for western Oregon and northwestern California was updated using advancements in the SPARROW software and refinements to the input data. As was the case for the original model calibration, the updated models used the NHD Plus Version 2 as a hydrologic framework and relied on the same estimates of
Authors
Daniel R. Wise

Probability of streamflow permanence model (PROSPER): A spatially continuous model of annual streamflow permanence throughout the Pacific Northwest

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed the PRObability of Streamflow PERmanence (PROSPER) model, a GIS raster-based empirical model that provides streamflow permanence probabilities (probabilistic predictions) of a stream channel having year-round flow for any unregulated and minimally-impaired stream channel in the Pacific Northwest region, U.S. The model provides annual predictions for
Authors
Kristin Jaeger, Roy Sando, Ryan R. McShane, Jason B. Dunham, David Hockman-Wert, Kendra E. Kaiser, Konrad Hafen, John Risley, Kyle Blasch