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Richard Webb

Rick Webb is a research hydrologist with the Earth System Processes Division in the U.S. Geological Survey's Water Resources Mission Area.

Biography

Rick grew up on the shores of the Atlantic and later the Great Lakes. Beaches, jellyfish, hurricanes, and alewive dieoffs all left indelible memories that helped shape Rick's career studying waters both salty and fresh. As an undergraduate physical scientist working for NOAA, Rick deployed current meters in Lake Erie. After graduating with a BS in marine geology in 1982, Rick landed on the island of Puerto Rico for a two week vacation. The two week vacation turned into an eighteen year tenure with the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Geological Survey during which he studied anthropogenic impacts on coastal waters and upland watersheds. In 1999, Rick and his family moved to Denver, Colorado to better understand fundamental processes driving water and solutes through watersheds from the continental divide to tropical rain forests. Current projects include Reaction-Transport Modeling in Groundwater and Watershed Systems and the Shingobee Headwaters Aquatic Ecosystems Project (SHAEP).

Career Plans and Objectives

As a steward of the environment, I work with colleagues to understand the processes that 1) shape the surface of the earth and 2) change the composition of the water. This information can then be used to evaluate and manage our limited resources. Most challenging is the need to compile and synthesize a wide array of data from multiple sources. This may involve state-of-the-art signal processing or using a sextant to better locate a study site. My background and interests are centered on the premise of understanding the global picture while attempting to solve local problems in our streams, rivers, lakes and oceans.

Education

  • Master of Science in Physical Oceanography (received, May 1987) Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies University of Michigan (Regent's Fellowship awarded both years)
     
  • Bachelor of Science in Oceanography - Geological Option (received, May 1982) Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences College of Engineering University of Michigan

Science and Products

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A boat docked near the Shingobee Headwaters research station.

Shingobee Headwaters Aquatic Ecosystems Project (SHAEP)

The Shingobee Headwaters Aquatic Ecosystems Project (SHAEP) brings together scientists from the USGS along with students and professors from universities in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and California for a unique study opportunity. This diverse group of scientists research the physical, chemical, and biological processes of lakes, wetlands, and streams at local and watershed scales.
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Water Resources
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Shingobee Headwaters Aquatic Ecosystems Project (SHAEP)

The Shingobee Headwaters Aquatic Ecosystems Project (SHAEP) brings together scientists from the USGS along with students and professors from universities in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and California for a unique study opportunity. This diverse group of scientists research the physical, chemical, and biological processes of lakes, wetlands, and streams at local and watershed scales.
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Seepage meter efficiency in highly permeable settings source data (2020)

Efficiency of seepage meters, long considered a fixed property associated with the meter design, is not constant in highly permeable sediments. Instead, results from this study indicate that efficiency varies substantially with seepage-bag fullness, duration of bag attachment, depth of meter insertion into the sediments, and seepage velocity. Efficiency also varies substantially in response to var
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Water Resources

Long-term hydrological and biological data from Williams and Shingobee Lakes, north-central Minnesota

The Shingobee Headwaters Aquatic Ecosystem Project is a long-term, multi-disciplinary monitoring and research study of a 28-square-kilometer headwaters watershed in north-central Minnesota that began in 1978. Emphasis is on processes related to hydrology, limnology, geochemistry, and watershed ecology and the land-water and atmosphere-water interfaces. Lakes are a substantial focus and integrator
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Water Resources
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Variable seepage meter efficiency in high-permeability settings

The efficiency of seepage meters, long considered a fixed property associated with the meter design, is not constant in highly permeable sediments. Instead, efficiency varies substantially with seepage bag fullness, duration of bag attachment, depth of meter insertion into the sediments, and seepage velocity. Tests conducted in a seepage test tank filled with isotropic sand with a hydraulic conduc
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Water Resources

Holistic assessment of occurrence and fate of metolachlor within environmental compartments of agricultural watersheds

Background: Metolachlor [(RS)-2-Chloro-N-(2-ethyl-6-methyl-phenyl)-N-(1-methoxypropan-2-yl)acetamide] and two degradates (metolachlor ethane-sulfonic acid and metolachlor oxanilic acid) are commonly observed in surface and groundwater. The behavior and fate of these compounds were examined over a 12-year period in seven agricultural watersheds in the United States. They were quantified in air, rai
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Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center

Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Model (WEBMOD), user’s manual, version 1

The Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Model (WEBMOD) uses the framework of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Modular Modeling System to simulate fluxes of water and solutes through watersheds. WEBMOD divides watersheds into model response units (MRU) where fluxes and reactions are simulated for the following eight hillslope reservoir types: canopy; snowpack; ponding on impervious surfaces; O-horiz
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Water Resources

PRMS-IV, the precipitation-runoff modeling system, version 4

Computer models that simulate the hydrologic cycle at a watershed scale facilitate assessment of variability in climate, biota, geology, and human activities on water availability and flow. This report describes an updated version of the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System. The Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System is a deterministic, distributed-parameter, physical-process-based modeling system d

Potential climate change effects on water tables and pyrite oxidation in headwater catchments in Colorado

A water, energy, and biogeochemical model (WEBMOD) was constructed to simulate hydrology and pyrite oxidation for the period October 1992 through September 1997. The hydrologic model simulates processes in Loch Vale, a 6.6-km² granitic watershed that drains the east side of the Continental Divide. Parameters describing pyrite oxidation were derived sulfate concentrations measured in pore water and

Observing, studying, and managing for change: Proceedings of the Fourth Interagency Conference on Research in the Watersheds

These proceedings contain the abstracts, manuscripts, and posters of presentations given at the Fourth Interagency Conference on Research in the Watersheds—Observing, Studying, and Managing for Change, held at the Westmark Hotel in Fairbanks, Alaska, September 26–30, 2011. The conference was jointly hosted by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service.Watersheds face resource impa
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Water Resources

Simulation of branched serial first-order decay of atrazine and metabolites in adapted and nonadapted soils

In the present study a branched serial first-order decay (BSFOD) model is presented and used to derive transformation rates describing the decay of a common herbicide, atrazine, and its metabolites observed in unsaturated soils adapted to previous atrazine applications and in soils with no history of atrazine applications. Calibration of BSFOD models for soils throughout the country can reduce the
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Water Resources, National Water Quality Laboratory

Agronomic and environmental implications of enhanced s-triazine degradation

Novel catabolic pathways enabling rapid detoxification of s-triazine herbicides have been elucidated and detected at a growing number of locations. The genes responsible for s-triazine mineralization, i.e. atzABCDEF and trzNDF, occur in at least four bacterial phyla and are implicated in the development of enhanced degradation in agricultural soils from all continents except Antarctica. Enhanced d

Using a coupled groundwater/surface-water model to predict climate-change impacts to lakes in the Trout Lake Watershed, northern Wisconsin

A major focus of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Trout Lake Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB) project is the development of a watershed model to allow predictions of hydrologic response to future conditions including land-use and climate change. The coupled groundwater/surface-water model GSFLOW was chosen for this purpose because it could easily incorporate an existing groundwater flo
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Water Resources, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Planning for an uncertain future - Monitoring, integration, and adaptation

The 6.7 billion human inhabitants of the earth have the ability to drastically alter ecosystems and the populations of species that have taken eons to evolve. By better understanding how our actions affect the environment, we stand a better chance of designing successful strategies to manage ecosystems sustainably. Toward this end, the Third Interagency Conference on Research in the Watersheds (IC
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Ecosystems, Water Resources, Fort Collins Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Identifying Hydrologic Processes in Agricultural Watersheds Using Precipitation-Runoff Models

Understanding the fate and transport of agricultural chemicals applied to agricultural fields will assist in designing the most effective strategies to prevent water-quality impairments. At a watershed scale, the processes controlling the fate and transport of agricultural chemicals are generally understood only conceptually. To examine the applicability of conceptual models to the processes actua
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Water Resources, Colorado Water Science Center

Potential effects of runoff, fluvial sediment, and nutrient discharges on the coral reefs of Puerto Rico

Coral reefs, the foundation and primary structure of many highly productive and diverse tropical marine ecosystems, have been degraded by human activity in much of the earth's tropical oceans. To contribute to improved understanding of this problem, the potential relation between river sediment and nutrient discharges and degradation of coral reefs surrounding Puerto Rico was studied using streamf

PHREEQC Version 3

PHREEQC Version 3 is a computer program for speciation, batch-reaction, one-Ddmensional transport, and inverse geochemical calculations.

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Water Resources

PHAST - A Computer Program for Simulating Groundwater Flow, Solute Transport, and Multicomponent Geochemical Reactions

PHAST Is a computer program for simulating groundwater flow, solute transport, and multicomponent geochemical reactions.

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Water Resources

Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Model (WEBMOD)

The Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Model (WEBMOD) uses the framework of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Modular Modeling System (MMS) to simulate fluxes of water and solutes through watersheds. WEBMOD divides watersheds into model response units (MRU) where fluxes and reactions are simulated for several hillslope reservoir types.

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Water Resources, Water Resources

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