Publications
Browse the map above to filter and view publications by location. All of our publications are available through the USGS Publications Warehouse. USGS publications and journal articles by scientists of the Washington Water Science Center are listed below.
Filter Total Items: 776
Characterizing aquatic habitats for long‐term monitoring of a fourth‐order, regulated river in the Pacific Northwest, USA
A pragmatic approach to the long‐term monitoring of rivers leverages available information with targeted field investigations to address key uncertainties relevant to management decisions. An over‐arching management issue for many rivers is how reservoir operation affects the amount and location of in‐channel sediment and the resulting distribution of aquatic habitats. We integrate remotely acquir
Authors
Christopher P. Konrad, K. Burton, R. Little, Andrew S. Gendaszek, Mark D. Munn, Scott W. Anderson
Morphodynamic evolution following sediment release from the world’s largest dam removal
Sediment pulses can cause widespread, complex changes to rivers and coastal regions. Quantifying landscape response to sediment-supply changes is a long-standing problem in geomorphology, but the unanticipated nature of most sediment pulses rarely allows for detailed measurement of associated landscape processes and evolution. The intentional removal of two large dams on the Elwha River (Washingto
Authors
Andrew C. Ritchie, Jonathan Warrick, Amy E. East, Christopher S. Magirl, Andrew W. Stevens, Jennifer A. Bountry, Timothy J. Randle, Christopher A. Curran, Robert C. Hilldale, Jeffrey J. Duda, Ian M. Miller, George R. Pess, Emily Eidam, Melissa M. Foley, Randall McCoy, Andrea S. Ogston
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Natural Hazards Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Arizona Water Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Washington Water Science Center, Western Fisheries Research Center, Sediment Lab Suite and Carbon Analysis Laboratory
Flood runoff in relation to water vapor transport by atmospheric rivers over the western United States, 1949–2015
Atmospheric rivers (ARs) have a significant role in generating floods across the western United States. We analyze daily streamflow for water years 1949 to 2015 from 5,477 gages in relation to water vapor transport by ARs using a 6 h chronology resolved to 2.5° latitude and longitude. The probability that an AR will generate 50 mm/d of runoff in a river on the Pacific Coast increases from 12% when
Authors
Christopher P. Konrad, Michael D. Dettinger
Influence of sediment chemistry and sediment toxicity on macroinvertebrate communities across 99 wadable streams of the Midwestern USA
Simultaneous assessment of sediment chemistry, sediment toxicity, and macroinvertebrate communities can provide multiple lines of evidence when investigating relations between sediment contaminants and ecological degradation. These three measures were evaluated at 99 wadable stream sites across 11 states in the Midwestern United States during the summer of 2013 to assess sediment pollution across
Authors
Patrick W. Moran, Lisa H. Nowell, Nile E. Kemble, Barbara Mahler, Ian R. Waite, Peter C. Van Metre
Streambed scour of salmon spawning habitat in a regulated river influenced by management of peak discharge
In the Pacific Northwest of the United States, salmon eggs incubating within streambed gravels are susceptible to scour during floods. The threat to egg-to-fry survival by streambed scour is mitigated, in part, by the adaptation of salmon to bury their eggs below the typical depth of scour. In regulated rivers globally, we suggest that water managers consider the effect of dam operations on scour
Authors
Andrew S. Gendaszek, Karl D. Burton, Christopher S. Magirl, Christopher P. Konrad
Hydrologic metrics for status-and-trends monitoring in urban and urbanizing watersheds
Local governmental agencies are increasingly undertaking potentially costly “status-and-trends” monitoring to evaluate the effectiveness of stormwater control measures and land-use planning strategies, or to satisfy regulatory requirements. Little guidance is presently available for such efforts, and so we have explored the application, interpretation, and temporal limitations of well-established
Authors
Derek B. Booth, Christopher P. Konrad
Groundwater data collection for the Quinault Indian Nation, Grays Harbor and Jefferson Counties, Washington
Groundwater data were collected on the Quinault Indian Reservation to provide the Quinualt Indian Nation (QIN) with basic knowledge of the existing wells and springs on the reservation, and to establish a water-level network to be monitored by QIN to begin building a long-term groundwater dataset. The 327 mi2 Quinault Indian Reservation is located within the heavily forested Queets-Quinault waters
Authors
Sue C. Kahle, Elisabeth T. Fasser, Theresa D. Olsen
Suspended sediment, turbidity, and stream water temperature in the Sauk River Basin, western Washington, water years 2012-16
The Sauk River is a federally designated Wild and Scenic River that drains a relatively undisturbed landscape along the western slope of the North Cascade Mountain Range, Washington, which includes the glaciated volcano, Glacier Peak. Naturally high sediment loads characteristic of basins draining volcanoes like Glacier Peak make the Sauk River a dominant contributor of sediment to the downstream
Authors
Kristin L. Jaeger, Christopher A. Curran, Scott W. Anderson, Scott T. Morris, Patrick W. Moran, Katherine A. Reams
Design and methods of the Pacific Northwest Stream Quality Assessment (PNSQA), 2015
In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) project conducted the Pacific Northwest Stream Quality Assessment (PNSQA) to investigate stream quality across the western part of the Pacific Northwest. The goal of the PNSQA was to assess the health of streams in the region by characterizing multiple water-quality factors that are stressors to in-stream aquatic
Authors
Rich W. Sheibley, Jennifer L. Morace, Celeste A. Journey, Peter C. Van Metre, Amanda H. Bell, Naomi Nakagaki, Daniel T. Button, Sharon L. Qi
Suspended-sediment loads in the lower Stillaguamish River, Snohomish County, Washington, 2014–15
Continuous records of discharge and turbidity at a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamgage in the lower Stillaguamish River were paired with discrete measurements of suspended-sediment concentration (SSC) in order to estimate suspended-sediment loads over the water years 2014 and 2015. First, relations between turbidity and SSC were developed and used to translate the continuous turbidity record
Authors
Scott A. Anderson, Christopher A. Curran, Eric E. Grossman
Geomorphic response of the North Fork Stillaguamish River to the State Route 530 landslide near Oso, Washington
On March 22, 2014, the State Route 530 Landslide near Oso, Washington mobilized 8 million cubic meters of unconsolidated Pleistocene material, creating a valley‑spanning deposit that fully impounded the North Fork Stillaguamish River. The river overtopped the 8-meter high debris impoundment within 25 hours and began steadily incising a new channel through the center of the deposit. Repeat topograp
Authors
Scott W. Anderson, Mackenzie K. Keith, Christopher S. Magirl, J. Rose Wallick, Mark C. Mastin, James R. Foreman
Geomorphology and sediment regimes of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams
The geomorphology and sediment regimes of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES) are extremely diverse, owing in large part to the substantial spatiotemporal variability of the associated hydrological regimes. We describe the geomorphological character and sediment transport processes along IRES within the context of four geomorphological zones—upland, piedmont, lowland, and floodout—to
Authors
Kristin Jaeger, Nicholas A. Sutfin, Stephen Tooth, Katerina Michaelides, Michael B. Singer