Groundwater / Surface-Water Interaction

Studying lakes provides an improved understanding of lake ecosystem dynamics and valuable information that helps lead to sound lake-management policies. The USGS collects hydrologic data in lake settings, studies water and nutrient budget development, conducts source-loading analysis, explores groundwater interactions, and performs lake water-quality modeling.

Groundwater is an important water resource. The USGS collects information on the quality and quantity of groundwater and conducts advanced modeling of groundwater flow and groundwater/surface-water systems. The USGS also evaluates the effects of water-use, land-use, and climate change on groundwater, surface-water, and the ecosystems that rely on them.

Artificial subsurface drainage is being increasingly utilized on agricultural land in southeast Minnesota. This region is underlain by thinner glacial deposits than are found in the historically drained areas of the State. Due to these thinner deposits, drainage in this area may have a greater impact on recharge to the underlying bedrock aquifers, a critical resource to the region.

Resource managers can use assessments of past and future land use to make science-based decisions. This project characterizes how changes in land use can change groundwater and surface-water flows in the St. Louis River Basin, MN. The USGS is constructing a set of groundwater models to simulate groundwater/surface-water interactions and evaluate how water flows have changed.

The TC Chamberlin Modeling Center provides one-stop access to advanced computing so no project is limited by a lack of computer power. The Center can provide hardware access, assistance with migration and implementation, and training. We also develop, test, and disseminate state-of-the-art computational and analytical techniques and tools so models can be more effectively used in decision-making.

This project monitors groundwater level, groundwater temperature and precipitation at hourly intervals at a long-term network of sites throughout Minnesota. These data are collected from surficial and buried aquifers and can be used to estimate groundwater recharge and assist water-availability assessments. Data are corrected to manual measurements at least twice per year and are available through...

Little St. Germain Lake, Wis., consists of four main basins separated by narrows. This study monitored lake water quality, identified phosphorus sources, determined spatial and temporal distribution of oxygen, evaluated the effectiveness of winter aeration systems, and modeled groundwater/lake-water interactions.

Anvil Lake is a relatively shallow, high-quality lake whose water level has dropped dramatically in recent years, adversely affecting the recreational and aesthetic values of the lake. The USGS is developing detailed water and phosphorus budgets, determining groundwater contributions, modeling likely responses to changes in phosphorus loading, and assessing the effect of climate on water quality.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Michigan Bacteriological Research Laboratory (MI-BaRL) conducts ecological studies on the structure and function of eubacterial and archeal communities in the environment. Studies of this type give us basic information about the composition and functionality of different microbial communities and allow us to investigate the effects that natural and anthropogenic...

USGS initiated the Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB) program to understand the processes controlling water, energy, and biogeochemical fluxes over a range of temporal and spatial scales, and the effects of atmospheric and climatic variables. Trout Lake is one of five small, geographically and ecologically diverse watersheds representing a range of hydrologic and climatic conditions.