Publications

The quality and quantity of organic matter (OM) in a river system directly affects ecosystem health; thus, managers benefit from an in-depth understanding of the drivers and sources of OM. In the Snake River, a highly altered river-reservoir system in the semi-arid western United States, OM production and loading are key drivers of reservoir anoxia, which leads to several deleterious...

In 2023, the U.S. Geological Survey developed a national inventory of water bottling facilities for the United States, including information about locations, water sources, water use, and a collection of other attributes. The purpose of the inventory was to provide information about water bottling facilities needed to assess and improve understanding of local-, regional-, and national...

Degraded physical habitat is a common stressor affecting river ecosystems and typically addressed in the United States (US) through a regulatory focus on sediment. However, a narrow regulatory focus on sediment may overlook other aspects of physical habitat and the processes for its creation, maintenance, and degradation. In addition, there exist few “ready-to-use” regional assessments...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) operates a National Water Quality Network (NWQN) to monitor trends in groundwater quality and assess emerging contaminants of concern. It is a “network of networks” with 81 subnetworks being sampled on a decadal time scale. Each year, eight of the subnetworks are sampled. Subnetworks have 20–30 wells each and include studies of domestic supply wells or...

Tidal wetland restoration to benefit at-risk fish species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Suisun marsh has gained momentum over the past decade, much of it in response to mitigation requirements for the State Water Project and Central Valley Project. In fall 2023, the Department of Water Resources and the State Water Contractors convened a symposium, entitled Delta-Suisun Tidal...

A Research Topic on the microbiology of hydrocarbon and gas storage reservoirs has far reaching industrial applications. In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in understanding microbial communities in subsurface energy reservoirs, such as coal, oil, and shale beds. This area of research has broadened to include gas storage reservoirs for hydrogen and CO2. Scientists are...

Both carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) are methods to limit future global temperature rise and ocean acidification. CCS sequesters (stores) carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from industrial sources thereby preventing the CO2 from reaching the atmosphere. The captured CO2 is injected into underground geologic reservoirs or is converted into stable industrial...

What is Citizen Science? Citizen science programs provide a means for Federal and non-Federal government agencies to make science more engaging, transparent, and accessible by partnering with the public for the purpose of problem solving, data collection, and monitoring. Public volunteers become directly involved in local research, thereby engaging in scientific projects. The public has...

Rationale Vein calcite in Devils Hole has been precipitating continuously in oxygen-isotope equilibrium at a constant temperature for over 500 000 years, providing an unmatched δ18O paleoclimate time series. A substantial issue is that coeval calcite (based on matching δ18O values) has uranium-series ages differing by 12 000 years. Methods An unparalleled high-accuracy δ18O chronology...

Site 11 is a former landfill at North Chevalier Field Disposal Area in Operable Unit 2 at Naval Air Station Pensacola, in northwest Florida. Site 11 is adjacent to Bayou Grande, a shallow, tidally influenced, saline estuary of the Pensacola Bay watershed. Federal and Florida regulators have expressed concern that contaminants detected in groundwater beneath the inland parts of Site 11...

The Colorado River drains about 8% of the conterminous United States, provides water for 40 million people, and is one of the most overallocated rivers in the world. As the upper Colorado River Basin (UCOL) contributes an estimated 92% of the total basin natural streamflow, knowledge of the location and amount of surface water withdrawals in the UCOL is important for managing the...

Lateral variability is a fundamental feature of channel-shoal estuaries, and exchanges between the channel and shoal can play an important role in the dynamics of the ecosystem in each region. This lateral exchange of biomass interacts with vertical structure and variability, particularly in the channel, to define algal biomass accumulation in the estuary. In this paper, we investigate...