Brian Pellerin is the Program Manager for the Next Generation Water Observing Systems (NGWOS) and Water Hazards Programs.
Professional Experience
2017- Branch Chief, Hydrologic Networks Branch, USGS, Observing Systems Division, Reston, Virginia
2016-2017 Research Physical Scientist (RGE), USGS, Office of Water Quality, Reston, Virginia
2009-2016 Research Soil Scientist (RGE), USGS, California Water Science Center, Sacramento
2007-2009 Soil Scientist, USGS, California Water Science Center, Sacramento
2004-2007 National Research Council Post-Doctoral Associate, USGS, California Water Science Center, Sacramento
2000-2004 Graduate Research Assistant, University of New Hampshire
1998-2000 Graduate Research Assistant, University of Maine
1996-1998 Technician Assistant, USDA-Forest Service, Durham, New Hampshire
Education and Certifications
2004 Ph.D., Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, University of New Hampshire, Durham. Dissertation: The influence of urbanization on runoff generation and stream chemistry in Massa
2000 M.S., Plant, Soil and Environmental Science, University of Maine, Orono. Thesis: Inferences from soil chemical properties on linkages between soil and surface water in Maine forested waters
1998 B.S., Environmental Science (Soil Science minor), University of New Hampshire, Durham
Science and Products
Integrated Water Science (IWS) Basins
Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS)
Next Generation Water Observing System: Upper Colorado River Basin
Next Generation Water Observing System: Delaware River Basin
Rapid Deployment Gages (RDGs)
USGS Flood Information
Surge, Wave, and Tide Hydrodynamics (SWaTH) Network
USGS Flood Event Viewer: Providing Hurricane and Flood Response Data
Historical Flooding
Assessing the role of winter flooding on baseline greenhouse gas fluxes from corn fields in the Sacramento – San Joaquin Bay Delta
Flood Inundation Mapping (FIM) Program
Improved Monitoring of Water Quality and Pelagic Organism Decline in the Delta with Continuous In Situ Sensor Measurements
Data from the development and testing of a multiparameter standard solution for fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM) and algal fluorescence (fChl) (ver. 2.0, July 2022)
Optical signals of water for prediction of wastewater contamination, human-associated bacteria, and fecal indicator bacteria in surface water of Great Lake tributaries from 2011 to 2016
Data from the development and testing of a multiparameter standard solution for fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM) and algal fluorescence (fChl)
Field techniques for the determination of algal pigment fluorescence in environmental waters—Principles and guidelines for instrument and sensor selection, operation, quality assurance, and data reporting
The use of algal fluorometers by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has become increasingly common. The basic principles of algal fluorescence, instrument calibration, interferences, data quantification, data interpretation, and quality control are given in Hambrook Berkman and Canova (2007). Much of the guidance given for instrument maintenance, data storage, and quality assurance in Wagner and ot
Technical note—Relative variability of selected turbidity standards and sensors in use by the U.S. Geological Survey
Optical properties of water for prediction of wastewater contamination, human-associated bacteria, and fecal indicator bacteria in surface water at three watershed scales
Trihalomethane precursors: Land use hot spots, persistence during transport, and management options
Monitoring the Riverine Pulse: Applying high-frequency nitrate data to advance integrative understanding of biogeochemical and hydrological processes
Temporal variability in nitrate – discharge relationships in large rivers as revealed by high frequency data
U.S. Geological Survey continuous monitoring workshop—Workshop summary report
High frequency data exposes nonlinear seasonal controls on dissolved organic matter in a large watershed
Irrigation as a fuel pump to freshwater ecosystems
Dissolved organic matter compositional change and biolability during two storm runoff events in a small sgricultural watershed
Clearing the waters: Evaluating the need for site-specific field fluorescence corrections based on turbidity measurements
Non-USGS Publications**
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
- Science
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Integrated Water Science (IWS) Basins
The U.S. Geological Survey is integrating its water science programs to better address the Nation’s greatest water resource challenges. At the heart of this effort are plans to intensively study at least 10 Integrated Water Science (IWS) basins — medium-sized watersheds (10,000-20,000 square miles) and underlying aquifers — over the next decade. The IWS basins will represent a wide range of...Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS)
Substantial advances in water science, together with emerging breakthroughs in technical and computational capabilities, have led the USGS to develop a Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS). The USGS NGWOS will provide real-time data on water quantity and quality in more affordable and rapid ways than previously possible, and in more locations.Next Generation Water Observing System: Upper Colorado River Basin
The Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS) provides high-fidelity, real-time data on water quantity, quality, and use to support modern prediction and decision-support systems that are necessary for informing water operations on a daily basis and decision-making during water emergencies. The headwaters of the Colorado and Gunnison River Basins provide an opportunity to implement NGWOS in a...Next Generation Water Observing System: Delaware River Basin
The USGS Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS) provides high-fidelity, real-time data on water quantity and quality necessary to support modern water prediction and decision support systems for water emergencies and daily water operations. The Delaware River Basin was the first NGWOS basin, providing an opportunity to implement the program in a nationally important, complex interstate...Rapid Deployment Gages (RDGs)
Rapid Deployment Gages (RDGs) are fully-functional streamgages designed to be deployed quickly and temporarily to measure and transmit stream stage data in emergency situations.USGS Flood Information
The USGS collects flood data and conducts targeted flood science to help Federal, State, and local agencies, decision makers, and the public before, during, and after a flood. Our efforts provide situational awareness, drive predictive models, inform infrastructure design and operation, undergird floodplain mapping, assist flood constituent/load quantification, and facilitate flood impact...Surge, Wave, and Tide Hydrodynamics (SWaTH) Network
During large coastal storms, the storm surge and waves are the main cause of destruction and landscape change, transporting saline water, sediment, and debris inland. The USGS, in collaboration with stakeholders, has constructed a national Surge, Wave, and Tide Hydrodynamics (SWaTH) Network for the Atlantic, Eastern Pacific, and Central Pacific. SWaTH monitors and documents the height, extent, and...USGS Flood Event Viewer: Providing Hurricane and Flood Response Data
During large, short-term floods, the USGS collects additional data to help document these high-water events. This data is uploaded to the USGS Short-Term Network (STN) for long-term archival, and served out to the public through the USGS Flood Event Viewer (FEV) which provides convenient, map-based access to storm-surge and other event-based data.Historical Flooding
The USGS provides practical, unbiased information about the Nation's rivers and streams that is crucial in mitigating hazards associated with floods. This site provides information about the USGS activities, data, and services provided during regional high-flow events, such as hurricanes or multi-state flooding events. The USGS response to these events is typically managed by the National Flood...Assessing the role of winter flooding on baseline greenhouse gas fluxes from corn fields in the Sacramento – San Joaquin Bay Delta
Understanding the magnitude and variability of baseline greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the Sacramento – San Joaquin Bay Delta is critical for current and future land management. For example, strategies that maximize carbon sequestration in soils and plants while minimizing unintended consequences such as GHG emissions are likely to produce both economic and environmental benefits for the...Flood Inundation Mapping (FIM) Program
Floods are the leading cause of natural-disaster losses in the U.S. More than 75 percent of declared Federal disasters are related to floods, and annual flood losses average almost $8 billion with over 90 fatalities per year. Although the amount of fatalities has declined due to improved early warning systems, economic losses continue to rise with increased urbanization in flood-hazard areas.Improved Monitoring of Water Quality and Pelagic Organism Decline in the Delta with Continuous In Situ Sensor Measurements
Newly-developed, commercially-available sensors permit real-time collection of water quality data that may help identify ecosystem processes that affect the health of pelagic food webs in the Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta. In particular, the simultaneous measurement of nutrients, organic matter and algal abundance along with the basic water quality variables such as temperature and salinity -... - Data
Data from the development and testing of a multiparameter standard solution for fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM) and algal fluorescence (fChl) (ver. 2.0, July 2022)
Optical sensors measuring fluorescence of non-biological sources (e.g., dissolved organic matter, wastewater, hydrocarbons, fluorescent dyes, etc.; hereafter referred to as fDOM) are increasingly used in water quality studies because they provide proxy measurements for a variety of contaminants and constituents of concern including metals, wastewater effluent, and DOM (measured in the lab as dissoOptical signals of water for prediction of wastewater contamination, human-associated bacteria, and fecal indicator bacteria in surface water of Great Lake tributaries from 2011 to 2016
Data are from water samples collected from tributaries of the Great Lakes at three different drainage basin scales, including 1). watershed scale: 8 tributaries of the Great Lakes, 2). subwatershed scale: 5 locations from the greater Milwaukee, Wisconsin area, and 3). small scale: 213 storm sewers and open channel locations in three subwatersheds within the Great Lakes Basin including the Middle BData from the development and testing of a multiparameter standard solution for fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM) and algal fluorescence (fChl)
Optical sensors measuring fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM) are increasingly being used in water quality studies because they provide proxy measurements for dissolved organic matter concentrations (DOC). Similarly, chlorophyll-a (chl-a) fluorescence sensors have gained popularity as a means to measure phytoplankton concentration, biomass, and even primary productivity using various appro - Multimedia
- Publications
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Field techniques for the determination of algal pigment fluorescence in environmental waters—Principles and guidelines for instrument and sensor selection, operation, quality assurance, and data reporting
The use of algal fluorometers by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has become increasingly common. The basic principles of algal fluorescence, instrument calibration, interferences, data quantification, data interpretation, and quality control are given in Hambrook Berkman and Canova (2007). Much of the guidance given for instrument maintenance, data storage, and quality assurance in Wagner and ot
AuthorsGuy M. Foster, Jennifer L. Graham, Brian A. Bergamaschi, Kurt D. Carpenter, Bryan D. Downing, Brian A. Pellerin, Stewart A. Rounds, John Franco SaracenoTechnical note—Relative variability of selected turbidity standards and sensors in use by the U.S. Geological Survey
The challenges associated with field measurements of turbidity are well known and result primarily from differences in reported values that depend on instrument design and the resulting need for reporting units that are specific to those designs. A critical challenge for making comparable turbidity measurements is the selection and use of appropriate turbidity standards for sensor calibration. TheAuthorsGuy M. Foster, Lindsey R. King, John D. Jastram, John K. Joiner, Brian A. Pellerin, Jennifer L. Graham, Thomas J. WilliamsOptical properties of water for prediction of wastewater contamination, human-associated bacteria, and fecal indicator bacteria in surface water at three watershed scales
Relations between spectral absorbance and fluorescence properties of water and human-associated and fecal indicator bacteria were developed for facilitating field sensor applications to estimate wastewater contamination in waterways. Leaking wastewater conveyance infrastructure commonly contaminates receiving waters. Methods to quantify such contamination can be time consuming, expensive, and ofteAuthorsSteven R. Corsi, Laura A. DeCicco, Angela Hansen, Peter L. Lenaker, Brian A. Bergamaschi, Brian A. Pellerin, Debra Dila, Melinda Bootsma, Susan Spencer, Mark A. Borchardt, Sandra L. McLellanTrihalomethane precursors: Land use hot spots, persistence during transport, and management options
To meet drinking water regulations, rather than investing in costly treatment plant operations, managers can look for ways to improve source water quality; this requires understanding watershed sources and fates of constituents of concern. Trihalomethanes (THMs) are one of the major classes of regulated disinfection byproducts, formed when a specific fraction of the organic carbon pool—referred toAuthorsRobert S. Eckard, Brian A. Bergamaschi, Brian A. Pellerin, Tamara E. C. Kraus, Peter J. HernesMonitoring the Riverine Pulse: Applying high-frequency nitrate data to advance integrative understanding of biogeochemical and hydrological processes
Widespread deployment of sensors that measure river nitrate (NO3-) concentrations has led to many recent publications in water resources journals including review papers focused on data quality assurance, improved load calculations, and better nutrient management. The principal objective of this paper is to review and synthesize studies of high-frequency NO3- data that have aimed to improve undersAuthorsDouglas A. Burns, Brian A. Pellerin, Matthew P. Miller, Paul Capel, Anthony J. Tesoriero, Jonathan M. DuncanTemporal variability in nitrate – discharge relationships in large rivers as revealed by high frequency data
Little is known about temporal variability in nitrate concentration responses to changes in discharge on intraannual time scales in large rivers. To investigate this knowledge gap, we used a six‐year data set of daily surface water nitrate concentration and discharge averaged from near‐continuous monitoring at U.S. Geological Survey gaging stations on the Connecticut, Potomac, and Mississippi RiveAuthorsMargaret Zimmer, Brian A. Pellerin, Douglas A. Burns, Gregory Paul PetrochenkovU.S. Geological Survey continuous monitoring workshop—Workshop summary report
Executive SummaryThe collection of high-frequency (in other words, “continuous”) water data has been made easier over the years because of advances in technologies to measure, transmit, store, and query large, temporally dense datasets. Commercially available, in-situ sensors and data-collection platforms—together with new techniques for data analysis—provide an opportunity to monitor water quantiAuthorsDaniel J. Sullivan, John K. Joiner, Kerry A. Caslow, Mark N. Landers, Brian A. Pellerin, Patrick P. Rasmussen, Rodney A. SheetsHigh frequency data exposes nonlinear seasonal controls on dissolved organic matter in a large watershed
We analyzed a five year, high frequency time series generated by an in situ fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM) sensor installed near the Connecticut River’s mouth, investigating high temporal resolution DOM dynamics in a larger watershed and longer time series than previously addressed. We identified a gradient between large, saturating summer fDOM responses to discharge and linear, subduAuthorsMatthew Shultz, Brian A. Pellerin, George Aiken, Joseph W. Martin, Peter RaymondIrrigation as a fuel pump to freshwater ecosystems
We generated a detailed time series of total dissolved hydrolyzable amino acids (DHAA) in a watershed dominated by irrigated agriculture in northern California, USA to investigate the roles of hydrologic and seasonal changes on the composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM). DHAA are sensitive indicators of the degradation state and reactivity of DOM. DHAA concentrations ranged from 0.55 to 9.9AuthorsSandrine Matiasek, Brian A. Pellerin, Robert G.M. Spencer, Brian A. Bergamaschi, Peter J. HernesDissolved organic matter compositional change and biolability during two storm runoff events in a small sgricultural watershed
Agricultural watersheds are globally pervasive, supporting fundamentally different organic matter source, composition, and concentration profiles in comparison to natural systems. Similar to natural systems, agricultural storm runoff exports large amounts of organic carbon from agricultural land into waterways. But intense management of upper soil layers, waterway channelization, wetland and riparAuthorsRobert S Eckard, Brian A. Pellerin, Brian A. Bergamaschi, Philip A. M. Bachand, Sandra M. Bachand, Robert G. M. Spencer, Peter J. HernesClearing the waters: Evaluating the need for site-specific field fluorescence corrections based on turbidity measurements
In situ fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM) measurements have gained increasing popularity as a proxy for dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in streams. One challenge to accurate fDOM measurements in many streams is light attenuation due to suspended particles. Downing et al. (2012) evaluated the need for corrections to compensate for particle interference on fDOM measurements uAuthorsJohn Franco Saraceno, James B. Shanley, Bryan D. Downing, Brian A. PellerinNon-USGS Publications**
Oczkowski AJ, BA Pellerin, CW Hunt, WM Wollheim, CJ Vörösmarty and TC Loder III. 2006. The role of snowmelt and spring rainfall in inorganic nutrient fluxes from a large temperate watershed, the Androscoggin River basin (Maine and New Hampshire). Biogeochemistry, 80: 191-203.Wollheim WM, BA Pellerin, CJ Vörösmarty and CS Hopkinson. 2005. Nitrogen retention in urbanizing headwater catchments. Ecosystems, 8: 871-884.Pellerin BA, WM Wollheim, CS Hopkinson, WH McDowell, CJ Vörösmarty, MW Williams and ML Daley. 2004. Role of wetlands and developed land use on dissolved organic nitrogen concentrations and DON / TDN in northeastern U.S. rivers and streams. Limnology and Oceanography, 49: 910-918.Pellerin BA, IJ Fernandez, SA Norton and JS Kahl. 2002. Soil aluminum distribution in the near-stream zone at the Bear Brook Watershed in Maine. Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 134: 189-204.**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.