Publications

Intensive management of the Missouri River for navigation, flood control, and power generation has resulted in substantial physical changes to the river corridor. Historically, the Missouri River was characterized by a shifting, multithread channel and abundant unvegetated sandbars. The shifting channel provided a wide variety of hydraulic environments and large areas of connected and...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is studying coastal hazards and coastal change to improve our understanding of coastal ecosystems and to develop better capabilities of predicting future coastal change. One approach to understanding the dynamics of coastal systems is to monitor changes in barrier-island subenvironments through time. This involves examining morphological and topographic...

In 1990, the U.S. Congress enacted the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) in response to growing awareness of a land loss crisis in Louisiana. Projects funded by CWPPRA require monitoring and evaluation of project effectiveness, and there is also a need to assess the cumulative effects of all projects to achieve a sustainable coastal environment. In 2003...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of the Army Environmental and Natural Resources Management Office of the U.S. Army Signal Center and Fort Gordon, assessed soil gas, surface water, and soil for contaminants at the Installation Railhead (IR) at Fort Gordon, Georgia, from October 2008 to September 2009. The assessment included delineation of organic...

Understanding of the pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) has increased significantly since the species was listed as endangered over two decades ago. Since 2005, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Columbia Environmental Research Center (CERC) have been engaged in an interdisciplinary research program in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Missouri River...

Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) are characterized by the presence of light-dependent corals and associated communities that are typically found at depths ranging from 30 to 40 m and extending to over 150 m in tropical and subtropical regions. The dominant communities providing structural habitat in the mesophotic zone can be comprised of coral, sponge, and algal species. Because...

Agriculture and urbanization have altered the hydrology and water quality of the coastal wetland complex along the shore of Lake Michigan at the Spring Bluff Nature Preserve and Illinois Beach State Park in northeastern Lake County, Ill., and the adjacent Chiwaukee Prairie State Natural Area in southeastern Wisconsin. Culverts, roads, ditches, and berms installed within the wetland...

This report summarizes comprehensive findings from a 4-year-long field investigation to document baseline environmental conditions in 29 agricultural drains and ponds operated by the Imperial Irrigation District along the southern border of the Salton Sea. Routine water-quality collections and fish community assessments were conducted on as many as 16 sampling dates at roughly quarterly...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the San Antonio River Authority, the Evergreen Underground Water Conservation District, and the Goliad County Groundwater Conservation District, configured, calibrated, and tested a watershed model for a study area consisting of about 2,150 square miles of the lower San Antonio River watershed in Bexar, Guadalupe, Wilson, Karnes...

This report evaluates dissolved noble gas data, specifically helium-3 and helium-4, collected by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the San Antonio Water System, during 2002-03. Helium analyses are used to provide insight into the sources of groundwater in the freshwater/saline-water transition zone of the San Antonio segment of the Edwards aquifer. Sixty-nine dissolved gas...

A deep (more than 2,000 feet) monitoring well was installed in an area being explored for lead and zinc deposits within the Mark Twain National Forest in southern Missouri. The area is a mature karst terrain where rocks of the Ozark aquifer, a primary source of water for private and public supplies and major springs in the nearby Eleven Point National Wild and Scenic River and the Ozark...

The ability of water-resource managers to adapt to future climatic change is especially challenging in coastal regions of the world. The East Coast of the United States falls into this category given the high number of people living along the Atlantic seaboard and the added strain on resources as populations continue to increase, particularly in the Southeast. Increased temperatures...