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Tamara Wood

Tammy Wood is a Scientist Emeritus at the USGS Oregon Water Science Center.

 

As a Hydrologist at the Oregon Water Science Center I perform applied research in hydrology and water quality that informs management of natural resources in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. My work is varied, encompassing river hydraulics, limnology of lakes and reservoirs, quantifying the availability of water resources, and characterizing the quality of those resources. The themes connecting all my work are the use of state-of-the-art modeling techniques tailored to each problem, and the data collection necessary to properly build and assess performance of those models. 

 

Education and Certifications

  • B.S. Mechanical Engineering (1982), Union College, Schenectady, New York

  • M.S. Physical Oceanography (1987), Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

  • Ph.D. Environmental Science and Engineering (1993), Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, nstitute of Environmental Health, Oregon Health & Science University), Portland, Oregon

Science and Products

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Three scale morphologies of common carp (Cyprinus carpio)

Malheur Lake Light Transmission Study

The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge provides habitat for a variety of highly valued ecosystem services, including shorebirds, waterfowl, and a diversity of other wildlife species.
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Oregon Water Science Center
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Malheur Lake Light Transmission Study

The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge provides habitat for a variety of highly valued ecosystem services, including shorebirds, waterfowl, and a diversity of other wildlife species.
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boat on bank of Columbia River

Future Climate Effects on Columbia and Willamette River Levees

USGS research directly helps local public agencies that are responsible for the design and maintenance of the levees that surround the northern Portland metropolitan area with the goal of protecting life and property in the event of flooding from the Columbia and Willamette Rivers that surround the city.
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Oregon Water Science Center
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Future Climate Effects on Columbia and Willamette River Levees

USGS research directly helps local public agencies that are responsible for the design and maintenance of the levees that surround the northern Portland metropolitan area with the goal of protecting life and property in the event of flooding from the Columbia and Willamette Rivers that surround the city.
Learn More
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Wood River, Oregon

Klamath Basin Studies

In 1992, the USGS began studying possible causes for the change in trophic status of Upper Klamath Lake. Since then research has expanded to include groundwater, geomorphology, streamflow forecasting, and fish ecology.
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Oregon Water Science Center
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Klamath Basin Studies

In 1992, the USGS began studying possible causes for the change in trophic status of Upper Klamath Lake. Since then research has expanded to include groundwater, geomorphology, streamflow forecasting, and fish ecology.
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USGS scientist collecting samples at Crater Lake, Oregon

Future Water Clarity and Dissolved Oxygen in Crater Lake

Warming air temperature may change water temperature and water column mixing in Oregon’s Crater Lake over the next several decades, potentially impacting the clarity and health of the iconic lake.
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Oregon Water Science Center
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Future Water Clarity and Dissolved Oxygen in Crater Lake

Warming air temperature may change water temperature and water column mixing in Oregon’s Crater Lake over the next several decades, potentially impacting the clarity and health of the iconic lake.
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Photosynthetically Active Radiation Measurements Collected at Malheur Lake, OR, 2017-2018

The USGS measured photosynthetically active radiation (PAR, wavelength between 400 and 700 nanometers) at Malheur Lake, Oregon, as vertical profiles and as continuous measurements at a fixed depth, in 2017 and 2018. Malheur Lake is a large, shallow, turbid lake located in southeastern Oregon that fluctuates widely in surface area in response to yearly precipitation and climatic cycles. High suspen
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Oregon Water Science Center

Water surface elevations recorded by submerged water level loggers along the upper Deschutes River, Oregon, between Benham and Dillon Falls, Summer, 2016

Water-surface elevations were recorded by 17 submerged water level loggers between March and October, 2016 along a 3 kilometer reach of the upper Deschutes River, Oregon. 15 water level loggers were installed along the channel margins and 2 loggers were placed in off-channel wetland ponds. Submerged depths recorded at each logger were converted to water surface elevations using real-time kinematic
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Oregon Water Science Center
Filter Total Items: 41

Implications of water, sediment, and nutrient budgets for the restoration of a shallow, turbid lake in semiarid southeastern Oregon

Malheur Lake is the largest lake in the endorheic Harney Basin in southeastern Oregon. Since the 1990s, Malheur Lake—which averages depths of about 1 meter—has been in a degraded, turbid state lacking submergent and emergent vegetation. The goals of this study were to identify the major sources of sediment and nutrients to Malheur Lake to determine the importance of managing nutrients for lake res
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Cassandra D. Smith, Tamara M. Wood
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Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center

Future climate-induced changes in mixing and deep oxygen content of a caldera lake with hydrothermal heat and salt inputs

Vertical profiles of temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen in Crater Lake, a caldera lake in the Oregon Cascade Range that receives hydrothermal inputs of heat and salt, were simulated with a 1-dimensional model. Twelve Global Circulation Models and two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) were used to develop boundary conditions from 1950 to 2099. The model simulated the ventilation
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Tamara M. Wood, Susan Wherry, Sebastiano Piccolroaz, Scott F Girdner
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Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center

Light attenuation and erosion characteristics of fine sediments in a highly turbid, shallow, Great Basin Lake—Malheur Lake, Oregon, 2017–18

Malheur Lake is a large, shallow, turbid lake in southeastern Oregon that fluctuates widely in surface area in response to yearly precipitation and climatic cycles. High suspended-sediment concentrations (SSCs) likely are negatively affecting the survival of aquatic plants by reducing the intensity of solar radiation reaching the plants, thus inhibiting photosynthesis. This study was designed to d
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Tamara M. Wood, Cassandra D. Smith
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Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center

Use of boosted regression trees to quantify cumulative instream flow resulting from curtailment of irrigation in the Sprague River basin, Oregon

A boosted regression trees (BRT) approach was used to estimate the amount by which streamflow is increased when irrigation is regulated (curtailed) upstream of a streamgage on the Sprague River in southern-central Oregon. The BRT approach differs from most other approaches that require baseline conditions for comparison, where those baseline conditions are determined from past observations by sear
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Tamara M. Wood
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Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center

Annual variations in microcystin occurrence in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, based on high-throughput DNA sequencing, qPCR, and environmental parameters

Cyanobacteria-dominated blooms in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, create poor water quality and produce microcystins that may be detrimental to local wildlife and human health. Genetic tools, including high-throughput DNA sequencing and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), have been shown to improve the identification and quantification of key groups associated with these blooms over more tr
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Sara L. Caldwell Eldridge, Tamara M. Wood
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Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center

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
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Susan A. Wherry, Tamara M. Wood, Hans R. Moritz, Keith B. Duffy
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Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center

A metabolism-based whole lake eutrophication model to estimate the magnitude and time scales of the effects of restoration in Upper Klamath Lake, south-central Oregon

A whole lake eutrophication (WLE) model approach for phosphorus and cyanobacterial biomass in Upper Klamath Lake, south-central Oregon, is presented here. The model is a successor to a previous model developed to inform a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for phosphorus in the lake, but is based on net primary production (NPP), which can be calculated from dissolved oxygen, rather than scaling up a
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Susan A. Wherry, Tamara M. Wood
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Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center

Simulation of deep ventilation in Crater Lake, Oregon, 1951–2099

The frequency of deep ventilation events in Crater Lake, a caldera lake in the Oregon Cascade Mountains, was simulated in six future climate scenarios, using a 1-dimensional deep ventilation model (1DDV) that was developed to simulate the ventilation of deep water initiated by reverse stratification and subsequent thermobaric instability. The model was calibrated and validated with lake temperatur

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Tamara M. Wood, Susan A. Wherry, Sebastiano Piccolroaz, Scott F Girdner
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Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center, Crater Lake

Revision and proposed modification for a total maximum daily load model for Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon

This report presents Phase 2 of the review and development of the mass balance water-quality model, originally developed in 2001, that guided establishment of the phosphorus (P) total maximum daily load (TMDL) for Upper Klamath and Agency Lakes, Oregon. The purpose of Phase 2 was to incorporate a longer (19-year) set of external phosphorus loading data into the lake TMDL model than had originally
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Susan A. Wherry, Tamara M. Wood, Chauncey W. Anderson
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Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center

Statistical analysis of the water-quality monitoring program, Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, and optimization of the program for 2013 and beyond

Upper Klamath Lake in south-central Oregon has become increasingly eutrophic over the past century and now experiences seasonal cyanobacteria-dominated and potentially toxic phytoplankton blooms. Growth and decline of these blooms create poor water-quality conditions that can be detrimental to fish, including two resident endangered sucker species. Upper Klamath Lake is the primary water supply to
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Sara L. Caldwell Eldridge, Susan A. Wherry, Tamara M. Wood
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Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center

Particle-tracking investigation of the retention of sucker larvae emerging from spawning grounds in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon

This study had two objectives: (1) to use the results of an individual-based particle-tracking model of larval sucker dispersal through the Williamson River delta and Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, to interpret field data collected throughout Upper Klamath and Agency Lakes, and (2) to use the model to investigate the retention of sucker larvae in the system as a function of Williamson River flow, win
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Tamara M. Wood, Susan A. Wherry, David C. Simon, Douglas F. Markle
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Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center

Simulation and validation of larval sucker dispersal and retention through the restored Williamson River Delta and Upper Klamath Lake system, Oregon

A hydrodynamic model with particle tracking was used to create individual-based simulations to describe larval fish dispersal through the restored Williamson River Delta and into Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. The model was verified by converting particle ages to larval lengths and comparing these lengths to lengths of larvae in net catches. Correlations of simulated lengths with field data were mode
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Tamara M. Wood, Heather A. Hendrixson, Douglas F. Markle, Charles S. Erdman, Summer M. Burdick, Craig M. Ellsworth
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Oregon Water Science Center, Western Fisheries Research Center, Klamath Falls Field Station (KFFS)
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A Warming Climate Could Alter the Ecology of the Deepest Lake in the United States

Warming air temperature is predicted to change water temperature and water column mixing in Oregon’s Crater Lake over the next several decades...

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