Publications

The transition from drifting free embryo to exogenously feeding larvae has been identified as a potential life-stage bottleneck for the endangered Missouri River pallid sturgeon. Previous studies have indicated that river regulation and fragmentation may contribute to the mortality of larval pallid sturgeon by reducing the extent of free-flowing river available to free embryos to...

Questions Does the presence of herbaceous vegetation affect the establishment success of mangrove tree species in the transition zone between subtropical coastal mangrove forests and marshes? How do plant–plant interactions in this transition zone respond to variation in two primary coastal environmental drivers? Location Subtropical coastal region of the southern United States. Methods

The Illinois River is the largest river in Illinois and is the primary contributing watershed for nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended-sediment loading to the upper Mississippi River from Illinois. In addition to streamflow, the following water-quality constituents were monitored at the Illinois River at Florence, Illinois (U.S. Geological Survey station number 05586300), during May 2012...

Information concerning the availability, use, and quality of water in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, is critical for proper water-supply management. The purpose of this fact sheet is to present information that can be used by water managers, parish residents, and others for stewardship of this vital resource. Information on the availability, past and current use, use trends, and...

This report documents the process of developing and refining conceptual ecological models (CEMs) for linking river management to pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) population dynamics in the Missouri River. The refined CEMs are being used in the Missouri River Pallid Sturgeon Effects Analysis to organize, document, and formalize an understanding of pallid sturgeon population...

In managing fish populations, especially at-risk species, realistic mathematical models are needed to help predict population response to potential management actions in the context of environmental conditions and changing climate while effectively incorporating the stochastic nature of real world conditions. We provide a key component of such a model for the endangered pallid sturgeon

Traditionally, the Iowa Department of Transportation has used the Iowa Runoff Chart and single-variable regional-regression equations (RREs) from a U.S. Geological Survey report (published in 1987) as the primary methods to estimate annual exceedance-probability discharge (AEPD) for small (20 square miles or less) drainage basins in Iowa. With the publication of new multi- and single...

Studies in Iowa have long documented the vulnerability of wells with less than 50 feet (15 meters) of confining materials above the source aquifer to contamination from nitrate and various pesticides. Recent studies in Wisconsin have documented the occurrence of viruses in untreated groundwater, even in wells considered to have little vulnerability to contamination from near-surface...

Most models evaluated by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate change estimate projected increases in temperature and precipitation with rising atmospheric CO2 levels. Researchers have suggested that increases in CO2 and associated increases in temperature and precipitation may stimulate vegetation growth and increase evapotranspiration (ET), which acts as a cooling mechanism, and on a...

Bathymetric and velocimetric data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Transportation, in the vicinity of 8 bridges at 7 highway crossings of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers on the periphery of Missouri from June 3 to 11, 2014. A multibeam echosounder mapping system was used to obtain channel-bed elevations for river reaches...

The Lake Michigan Diversion Accounting (LMDA) system has been developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District (USACE-Chicago) and the State of Illinois as a part of the interstate Great Lakes water regulatory program. The diverted Lake Michigan watershed is a 673-square-mile watershed that is comprised of the Chicago River and Calumet River watersheds. They originally...

The Rhode Island Water Resources Board (RIWRB) is concerned that the demand for water may exceed the available public water supply in central and southern Rhode Island. Although water is often assumed to be plentiful in Rhode Island because of abundant rainfall, an adequate supply of water is not always available everywhere in the state during dry periods. Concerns that water demand may...