Murphy, J.C., G.M. Hornberger, and R.G. Liddle, 2014, Concentration–discharge relationships in the coal mined region of the New River basin and Indian Fork sub-basin, Tennessee, USA. Hydrological Processes 28: 718-728.
Jennifer Murphy
Jenny is a hydrologist with the USGS, Central Midwest Water Science Center. Much of her work focuses on characterizing and understanding water-quality trends in the Nation's streams and rivers. Jenny also leads a team of scientists working to develop a proxy for harmful algal blooms in rivers.
Biography
Education:
- B.A., Geology, Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, 2006
- M.S., Earth and Environmental Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, 2011
Professional Experience:
- 2020-Present, Hydrologist, USGS, Central Midwest Water Science Center, DeKalb, Illinois
- 2010-2020, Hydrologist, USGS, Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, Nashville, TN
- Summer 2007, Field Geologist, US Forest Service, Lewis and Clark National Forest, Great Falls, MT
- 2006-2007, Research Assistant, USGS, Eastern Mineral Resources, Reston, VA
Jenny has played an important role is characterizing water-quality trends with the Weighted Regressions on Time, Season and Discharge (WRTDS) model at >1,000 sites across the country using an extensive multi-agency dataset. Jenny's additional trends work includes looking at nitrate in the Mississippi River Basin, sediment in the lowermost Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers, and water quality in streams and rivers in the Delware River Basin. Additionally, Jenny has worked on projects ranging from the evaluation of best management practices in small agricultural drainages, to characterizing and understanding ecological flows, estimating water use at thermoelectric powerplants, and harmonizing multisource data. Her current interests are in trend studies, causal attribution of these trends, and exploring the influence of streamflow on water quality.
CURRENT & PAST PROJECTS
- Co-lead of multisource surface water-quality trends task as part of the IWAAs Delaware River Basin Regional Pilot
- NAWQA Surface Water Status and Trends team (Causal Analysis team lead)
- Evaluating agricultural best management practices in northwestern MS
- Ecological flows in the Cumberland and Tennessee River Basins
- Water-quality trends in the Mississippi River Basin
- Water use at thermoelectric powerplants
- Water quality in the lowermost Mississippi and Atchafalya Rivers
Science and Products
Date published: April 26, 2021
Status: Active Integrated Water Availability Assessments: Delaware River Basin
Integrated Water Availability Assessments examine water supply, use, and availability. In the Delaware River Basin, which serves over 13 million people, water availability can be affected by drought, river temperature, salinity, and more. The Delaware River Basin IWAAs will investigate these and other water quantity, quality, and use issues to assess available water and how it changes over...
Attribution: Water Resources
Date published: September 17, 2018
Status: Active Water-Quality Trends
Is water quality getting better or worse? Answering this deceptively simple question has been a fundamental objective of the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Project’s research. Learn about trends in contaminants in the nation’s streams and rivers, trends in contaminants that collect in the bed sediment of streams and lakes, and changes in the quality of the nation’s groundwater.
Contacts: Barbara Mahler
Attribution: Water Resources, National Water Quality Program
Date published: January 8, 2013
Environmental Flow Research in the Tennessee River Basin
The objective of this project is to improve understanding of how alteration of streamflow characteristics affects the ecological health of rivers and streams in Tennessee. Initial efforts are aimed at identifying critical streamflow characteristics and providing a set of statistical tools and analytical approaches for the prediction of these characteristics. Application of these tools will...
Contacts: Rodney R Knight, Jennifer Murphy
Date published: February 18, 2021
Data to Incorporate Water Quality Analysis into Navigation Assessments as Demonstrated in the Mississippi River Basin
This data release includes estimates of annual and monthly mean concentrations and fluxes for nitrate plus nitrite, orthophosphate and suspended sediment for nine sites in the Mississippi River Basin (MRB) produced using the Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS) model (Hirsch and De Cicco, 2015).
Attribution: Central Midwest Water Science Center
Date published: December 3, 2020
Water-quality trends for rivers and streams in the Delaware River Basin using Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS) models, Seasonal Kendall Trend (SKT) tests, and multisource data, Water Year 1978-2018 (input data)
The datasets provided here are the input data used to run the Seasonal Kendall Trend (SKT) tests and Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS) models. SKT tests use "annualSamplingFreqs_allSites.csv" and "wqData_screenedSitesAll.csv" which includes, for all site-parameter combinations, information on annual sampling frequencies and the screened water-qual
Attribution: Central Midwest Water Science Center
Date published: September 25, 2019
Multisource surface-water-quality data for the Delaware River Basin
Jointly managed by multiple states and the federal government, there are many ongoing efforts to characterize and understand water quality in the Delaware River Basin (DRB). Many State, Federal and non-profit organizations have collected surface-water-quality samples across the DRB for decades and many of these data are available through the National Water Quality Monitoring Council's W
Attribution: Water Resources
Date published: January 1, 2019
Hydrologic event-based water-quality and streamflow data for three oxbow tributaries in northwestern Mississippi, 2007-2016
For about 10 years, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has monitored water quality and streamflow in three agricultural drainage ditches in an effort to evaluate the influence of best management practices on water quality. These ditches are small tributaries to oxbow lakes located in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain of northwestern Mississippi--two sites (LWSR and LWT2) drain to Lake Washi
Attribution: Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center
Date published: April 1, 2018
Annual estimates of suspended-sediment concentration and load to support trend analysis on the Mississippi River and Atchafalaya River, 1980-2015
This data release contains annual estimates of suspended-sediment concentration and load for the Mississippi River, St. Francisville site and the Atchafalaya River, Melville site from 1980-2015. Annual estimates and flow-normalized estimates were generated using the Weighted Regressions on Time, Season and Discharge (WRTDS) model. Input data for the model included suspended-sediment con
Attribution: Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center
Date published: January 1, 2018
Water-quality trends and trend component estimates for the Nation's rivers and streams using Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS) models and generalized flow normalization, 1972-2012
Nonstationary streamflow due to environmental and human-induced causes can affect water quality over time, yet these effects are poorly accounted for in water-quality trend models. This data release provides instream water-quality trends and estimates of two components of change, for sites across the Nation previously presented in Oelsner et al. (2017). We used previously calibrated Weigh
Attribution: Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center
Date published: January 1, 2018
Nutrient and streamflow model-input data (1974-2016) and trend results (1987-2016) for selected Lake Erie tributaries
Data provided in this release support the findings in Choquette et al. (2019), utilizing methods for evaluating water-quality and daily-streamflow trends described also in Hirsch and DeCicco (2015 and 2018a) and Hirsch (2018). The trend results and model-input data focus on 10 locations in the Lake Erie watershed that have long-term (20 or more years) water-quality and streamfl
Attribution: Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center
Date published: January 17, 2017
Tracking Water Quality of the Nation's Rivers and Streams
An online graphical data tool provides annual summaries of nutrient and sediment concentrations and loads and streamflow information for 106 sites monitored as part of the USGS National Water-Quality Network for Streams and Rivers.
Attribution: Water Resources, National Water Quality Program
Date published: January 1, 2017
Water-quality and streamflow datasets used in Seasonal Kendall trend tests for the Nation’s rivers and streams, 1972-2012 (output)
In 1991, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began a study of more than 50 major river basins across the Nation as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) project of the National Water-Quality Program. One of the major goals of the NAWQA project is to determine how water-quality conditions change over time. To support that goal, long-term consistent and comparable monitoring has...
Attribution: Water Resources, National Water Quality Program
Date published: January 1, 2017
Water-quality and streamflow datasets used in Seasonal Kendall trend tests for the Nation’s rivers and streams, 1972-2012 (input)
In 1991, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began a study of more than 50 major river basins across the Nation as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) project of the National Water-Quality Program. One of the major goals of the NAWQA project is to determine how water-quality conditions change over time. To support that goal, long-term consistent and comparable monitor
Attribution: Water Resources
Date published: January 1, 2017
Water-quality and streamflow datasets used in Seasonal Kendall trend tests for the Nation’s rivers and streams, 1972-2012 (output)
In 1991, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began a study of more than 50 major river basins across the Nation as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) project of the National Water-Quality Program. One of the major goals of the NAWQA project is to determine how water-quality conditions change over time. To support that goal, long-term consistent and comparable monitor
Attribution: Water Resources
Date published: January 1, 2017
Water-quality and streamflow datasets used in the Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS) models to determine trends in the Nation’s rivers and streams, 1972-2012(output)
In 1991, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began a study of more than 50 major river basins across the Nation as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) project of the National Water-Quality Program. One of the major goals of the NAWQA project is to determine how water-quality conditions change over time. To support that goal, long-term consistent and comparable monitoring has...
Attribution: Water Resources
Year Published: 2021
Incorporating water quality analysis into navigation assessments as demonstrated in the Mississippi River Basin
A description of historical and ambient water quality conditions is often required as part of navigational studies. This paper describes a series of tools developed by the USGS that can aid navigation managers in developing water quality assessments. The tools use R, a statistical software program, and provide methods to retrieve historical...
Kleiss, Barbara; Murphy, Jennifer C.; Mayne, Casey M.; Allgeier, Jake P.; Edmondson, Amanda B.; Ginsberg, Katrina C.; Jones, Keaton E.; Lauth, Timothy J.; Moe, Emily L.; Murphy, Julie W.; Allison, MeadAttribution: Central Midwest Water Science Center
Year Published: 2020
Landscape drivers of dynamic change in water quality of US rivers
Water security is a top concern for social well-being and dramatic changes in the availability of freshwater have occurred as a result of human uses and landscape management. Elevated nutrient loading and perturbations to major ion composition have resulted from human activities and have degraded freshwater resources. This study addresses the...
Stets, Edward G.; Sprague, Lori A.; Oelsner, Gretchen P.; Johnson, Henry M.; Murphy, Jennifer C.; Ryberg, Karen R.; Vecchia, Aldo V.; Zuellig, Robert E.; Falcone, James A.; Riskin, Melissa L.Attribution: New Jersey Water Science Center, Water Resources
Year Published: 2020
A historical look at changing water quality in the Delaware River Basin
In 2019 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) launched a pilot regional Integrated Water Availability Assessment (IWAA) in the Delaware River Basin (fig. 1). IWAA is intended to explore, test, and refine systems and processes for assessing water availability for human and ecological uses and understanding their underlying controls. Water quality plays...
Murphy, Jennifer C.; Shoda, Megan E.Attribution: Pennsylvania Water Science Center, Water Resources
View Citation
Murphy, J.C., and Shoda, M.E., 2020, A historical look at changing water quality in the Delaware River Basin: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2020–3007, 2 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/fs20203007.
Year Published: 2020
Pooling resources across organizations—Multisource water-quality data for the Delaware River Basin
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently launched a pilot Integrated Water Availability Assessment (IWAA) in the Delaware River Basin to explore, test, and refine systems and processes for assessing water availability for human and ecological uses based on water monitoring data. Water-quality monitoring provides citizens, managers, and...
Murphy, Jennifer C.; Shoda, Megan E.View Citation
Murphy, J.C., and Shoda, M.E., 2020, Pooling resources across organizations—Multisource water-quality data for the Delaware River Basin: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2020–3006, 2 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/fs20203006.
Year Published: 2020
Changing suspended sediment in United States rivers and streams: Linking sediment trends to changes in land use/cover, hydrology and climate
Sediment is one of the leading pollutants in rivers and streams across the United States (US) and the world. Between 1992 and 2012, concentrations of annual mean suspended sediment decreased at over half of the 137 stream sites assessed across the contiguous US. Increases occurred at less than 25 % of the sites, and the direction of change was...
Murphy, Jennifer C.
Year Published: 2020
Assessing water-quality changes in agricultural drainages: Examples from oxbow lake tributaries in Mississippi, USA and simulation-based power analyses
Hydrology and water quality (suspended sediment, total nitrogen, ammonia, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, nitrate plus nitrite, and total phosphorus (TP)) were monitored in two small agricultural drainages in northwestern Mississippi to document changes in water quality that coincided with the implementation of BMPs in upstream drainages. Using an event-...
Murphy, Jennifer C.; Hicks, Matthew B.; Stocks, Shane J.
Year Published: 2019
Regional patterns of anthropogenic influences on streams and rivers in the conterminous United States, from the early 1970s to 2012
This paper introduces a dataset containing consistent time-series measurements of anthropogenic activities potentially affecting stream quality across the conterminous United States and summarizes the most noteworthy trends from 61 variables in 16 categories. Data include measures of atmospheric deposition, agricultural production, livestock,...
Falcone, James A.; Murphy, Jennifer C.; Sprague, Lori A.Attribution: Water Resources
Year Published: 2019
Tracking changes in nutrient delivery to western Lake Erie: Approaches to compensate for variability and trends in streamflow
Tracking changes in stream nutrient inputs to Lake Erie over multidecadal time scales depends on the use of statistical methods that can remove the influence of year-to-year variability of streamflow but also explicitly consider the influence of long-term trends in streamflow. The methods introduced in this paper include an extended version of...
Choquette, Anne F.; Hirsch, Robert M.; Murphy, Jennifer C.; Johnson, L.T.; Confesor, R. B.
Year Published: 2019
Water-quality trends in US rivers: Exploring effects from streamflow trends and changes in watershed management
We present a conceptual model that explores the relationship of streamflow trends to 15 water-quality parameters at 370 sites across the contiguous United States (US). Our analytical framework uses discrete water-quality data, daily streamflow records, and a statistical model to estimate water-quality trends between...
Murphy, Jennifer C.; Sprague, Lori A.
Year Published: 2019
Water-quality trends in U.S. rivers, 2002 to 2012: Relations to levels of concern
Effective management and protection of water resources relies upon understanding how water-quality conditions are changing over time. Water-quality trends for ammonia, chloride, nitrate, sulfate, total dissolved solids (TDS), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) were assessed at 762 sites located in the conterminous United...
Shoda, Megan E.; Sprague, Lori A.; Murphy, Jennifer C.; Riskin, Melissa L.Attribution: New Mexico Water Science Center, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center, Water Resources
View Citation
Shoda, M.E., Sprague, L.A., Murphy, J.C., and Riskin, M.L., 2018, Water-quality trends in U.S. rivers, 2002 to 2012: Relations to levels of concern. Science of the Total Environment 650 (2019), p. 2314-2324. doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.377
Year Published: 2018
Suspended-sediment concentrations and loads in the lower Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers decreased by half between 1980 and 2015
The Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS) model was used to derive estimates of suspended-sediment concentration (SSC) and suspended-sediment load (SSL), their dependence on discharge, and their trends with confidence intervals, for one site each on the lowermost Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers. The WRTDS model reduces...
Mize, Scott; Murphy, Jennifer C.; Diehl, Timothy H.; Demcheck, Dennis K.
Year Published: 2017
Methods for computing water-quality loads at sites in the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Network
The U.S. Geological Survey currently (2020) publishes information on concentrations and loads of water-quality constituents at 110 sites across the United States as part of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Network (NWQN). This report details historical and updated methods for computing water-quality loads at NWQN sites. The...
Lee, Casey J.; Murphy, Jennifer C.; Crawford, Charles G.; Deacon, Jeffrey R.Attribution: Kansas Water Science Center, Water Resources, Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program
View Citation
Lee, C.J., Murphy, J.C., Crawford, C.G., and Deacon, J.R, 2017, Methods for computing water-quality loads at sites in the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Network (ver. 1.3, August 2021): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2017–1120, 20 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20171120.
Pre-USGS Publications
Debra Perrone, Jennifer Murphy, and George M. Hornberger (2011), Gaining Perspective on the Water−Energy Nexus at the Community Scale. Environ. Sci. Technol., 2011, 45 (10), pp 4228–4234
DOI: 10.1021/es103230n.
Date published: March 5, 2020
Concentrations of suspended sediment decreasing in many US streams and rivers
A new USGS study reports that landscape management actions across the U.S. aimed at reducing concentrations of suspended sediment in streams and rivers may be seeing some success. Between 1992 and 2012, concentrations of suspended sediment decreased at almost 60% of the 132 U.S. stream sites considered. Sediment...
Attribution: Water Resources, National Water Quality Program