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Jeff Houser, PhD

Jeff Houser

Experience

2003 – present: Research Ecologist, U.S. Geological Survey Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center.   

2004 – present: Adjunct, Department of Biology, University of Wisconsin—La Crosse.

2001- 2003: Postdoctoral Research Associate—Stream Ecology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Research Interests

Aquatic ecology, large rivers, ecosystem metabolism, carbon and nutrient cycling, biogeochemistry, food webs, applied ecology, ecosystem restoration

Professional Societies

American Society of Limnology and Oceanography; Society for Freshwater Science; Mississippi River Research Consortium

Education and Certifications

  • Ph.D. in Zoology – University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2001

  • M.S. in Zoology – University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1998

  • B.S. in Biology – Wake Forest University, 1994

Science and Products

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Map depicting the estimated area suitable in hectares for submersed aquatic vegetation in pool 4

Understanding constraints on submersed vegetation distribution in a large, floodplain river: the role of water level fluctuations, water clarity and river geomorphology

Aquatic vegetation is a key component of large floodplain river ecosystems. In the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS), there is a long-standing interest in restoring aquatic vegetation in areas where it has declined or disappeared. To better understand what constrains vegetation distribution in large river ecosystems and inform ongoing efforts to restore submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV), we...
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Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Mississippi River
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Understanding constraints on submersed vegetation distribution in a large, floodplain river: the role of water level fluctuations, water clarity and river geomorphology

Aquatic vegetation is a key component of large floodplain river ecosystems. In the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS), there is a long-standing interest in restoring aquatic vegetation in areas where it has declined or disappeared. To better understand what constrains vegetation distribution in large river ecosystems and inform ongoing efforts to restore submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV), we...
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USGS science for a changing world logo

National Stream Summarization: Standardizing Stream-Landscape Summaries

As research and management of natural resources shift from local to regional and national scales, the need for information about aquatic systems to be summarized to multiple scales is becoming more apparent. Recently, four federally funded national stream assessment efforts (USGS Aquatic GAP, USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] StreamCat, and
By
Community for Data Integration (CDI)
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National Stream Summarization: Standardizing Stream-Landscape Summaries

As research and management of natural resources shift from local to regional and national scales, the need for information about aquatic systems to be summarized to multiple scales is becoming more apparent. Recently, four federally funded national stream assessment efforts (USGS Aquatic GAP, USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] StreamCat, and
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Continuous water quality sensor data from the main channel and a backwater of the Upper Mississippi River from 2015-2018

This dataset includes high-frequency sensor data collected during four consecutive summers from buoys deployed at main channel and backwater sites in Pool 8 of the Upper Mississippi River from 2015-2018. It also includes the event-specific concentration-discharge metrics (hysteresis and slope) calculated by combining the water quality sensor data with discharge data from a nearby USGS gage in Wino
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Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center

2006-2009 Phytoplankton data collected in the Mississippi River Navigation Pools 8, 13, and 26

The dimensions of each organism were measured with a Whipple grid and the biovolume was estimated using the simplest geometric shape (e.g., cylinder, cone, sphere, etc.) that best fit the shape of each taxon. Shapes were assigned according to Hillebrand et al. (1999). Biovolume was calculated for the first five organisms/counting units of each taxon identified in a sample. The average biovolume wa
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Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Image: USGS Employee At Work
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USGS Employee At Work
Filter Total Items: 16

River geomorphology affects biogeochemical responses to hydrologic events in a large river ecosystem

Shifts in the frequency and intensity of high discharge events due to climate change may have important consequences for the hydrology and biogeochemistry of rivers. However, our understanding of event-scale biogeochemical dynamics in large rivers lags that of small streams. To fill this gap, we used high-frequency sensor data collected during four consecutive summers from a main channel and backw
Authors
Taryn Waite, Kathi Jo Jankowski, Denise Bruesewitz, Molly Van Appledorn, Megan Johnston, Jeffrey N. Houser, Douglas Baumann, Barbara Bennie
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center

Ecological status and trends of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers

Executive SummaryThis report assesses the status and trends of selected ecological health indicators of the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) based on the data collected and analyzed by the Long Term Resource Monitoring element of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program, supplemented with data from other sources. This report has four objectives: providing a brief introduction of the UM
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center

Resisting-accepting-directing: Ecosystem management guided by an ecological resilience assessment

As anthropogenic influences push ecosystems past tipping points and into new regimes, complex management decisions are complicated by rapid ecosystem changes that may be difficult to reverse. For managers who grapple with how to manage ecosystems under novel conditions and heightened uncertainty, advancing our understanding of regime shifts is paramount. As part of an ecological resilience assess
Authors
Kristen L. Bouska, Nathan R. De Jager, Jeffrey N. Houser
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center

Warmer winters increase the biomass of phytoplankton in a large floodplain river

Winters are changing rapidly across the globe but the implications for aquatic productivity and food webs are not well understood. In addition, the degree to which winter dynamics in aquatic systems respond to large-scale climate versus ecosystem-level factors is unclear but important for understanding and managing potential changes. We used a unique winter data set from the Upper Mississippi Rive
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Kathi Jo Jankowski, Jeffrey N. Houser, Mark D. Schuerell, Adrianne P Smits
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center

Understanding constraints on submersed vegetation distribution in a large, floodplain river: The role of water level fluctuations, water clarity and river geomorphology

Aquatic vegetation is a key component of large floodplain river ecosystems. In the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS), there is a long-standing interest in restoring aquatic vegetation in areas where it has declined or disappeared. To better understand what constrains vegetation distribution in large river ecosystems and inform ongoing efforts to restore submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV), we d
Authors
Alicia Carhart, John Kalas, James T. Rogala, Jason J. Rohweder, Deanne C. Drake, Jeffrey N. Houser
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center

Conceptualizing alternate regimes in a large floodplain-river ecosystem

Regime shifts –persistent changes in the structure and function of an ecosystem - are well-documented in many ecosystems but remain poorly understood in floodplain-river ecosystems. We apply a resilience perspective to large floodplain-river ecosystems by presenting three examples of plausible sets of alternate regimes that are relevant to natural resource management interests within the Upper Mis
Authors
Kristen L. Bouska, Jeffrey N. Houser, Nathan R. De Jager, Deanne C. Drake, Scott F. Collins, Caniel K. Gibson-Reniemer, Meredith A. Thomsen
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center

Light exposure along particle flowpaths in large rivers

Sunlight is a critical resource in aquatic systems driving photosynthesis, photodegradation of organic matter and contaminants, animal behavior, and the activity of human pathogens. In rivers, solutes, materials, and organisms are turbulently mixed across the water column during downstream transport and exposed to highly variable sunlight. However, there are no measurements of suspended particles'
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John R. Gardner, Scott H. Ensign, Jeffrey N. Houser, Martin W. Doyle
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center

Applying concepts of general resilience to large river ecosystems: A case study from the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers

Large floodplain-river ecosystems are often highly modified to provide services that society desires, yet these modifications can limit an ecosystem’s ability to adapt to changing conditions. The adaptive capacity of an ecosystem, its general resilience, is a conceptual framework for considering how a system will respond to such changes. We sought to apply aspects of three general resilience princ
Authors
Kristen L. Bouska, Jeffrey N. Houser, Nathan R. De Jager, Molly Van Appledorn, James T. Rogala
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Indicators of ecosystem structure and function for the Upper Mississippi River System

This report documents the development of quantitative measures (indicators) of ecosystem structure and function for use in a Habitat Needs Assessment (HNA) for the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS). HNAs are led periodically by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program, which is the primary habitat restoration program on the UMRS. The UMRR Program hel
Authors
Nathan R. De Jager, James T. Rogala, Jason J. Rohweder, Molly Van Appledorn, Kristen L. Bouska, Jeffrey N. Houser, Kathi Jo Jankowski
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center

Limited nitrate retention capacity in the Upper Mississippi River

The Mississippi River and other large rivers have the potential to regulate nitrogen export from terrestrial landscapes, and thus mitigate eutrophication in downstream aquatic ecosystems. In large rivers, human-constructed impoundments and connected backwaters may facilitate nitrogen removal; however, the capacity of these features is poorly quantified and incompletely incorporated into model fram
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Luke C. Loken, John T. Crawford, Mark M. Dornblaser, Robert G. Striegl, Jeffrey N. Houser, Peter A Turner, Emily H. Stanley
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Water Resources Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Developing a shared understanding of the Upper Mississippi River: the foundation of an ecological resilience assessment

The Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) is a large and complex floodplain river ecosystem that spans the jurisdictions of multiple state and federal agencies. In support of ongoing ecosystem restoration and management by this broad partnership, we are undertaking a resilience assessment of the UMRS. We describe the UMRS in the context of an ecological resilience assessment. Our description artic
Authors
Kristen L. Bouska, Jeffrey N. Houser, Nathan R. De Jager, Jon S. Hendrickson
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center

Patchiness in a large floodplain river: Associations among hydrology, nutrients, and fish communities

Large floodplain rivers have internal structures shaped by directions and rates of water movement. In a previous study, we showed that spatial variation in local current velocities and degrees of hydrological exchange creates a patch-work mosaic of nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations and ratios in the Upper Mississippi River. Here, we used long-term fish and limnological data sets to test the h
Authors
Nathan R. De Jager, Jeffrey N. Houser
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
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Nutrients in Upper Mississippi May be Damaging La Crosse-Area Waters

High concentrations of nutrients from the Upper Mississippi River may be causing harmful algae and duckweed growth in some La Crosse-area lakes and...
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