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Landscape/Atmosphere Interactions And Carbon-Dioxide Dynamics In The Great Onyx Groundwater Basin, Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, Meghan Raines
Landscape/Atmosphere Interactions And Carbon-Dioxide Dynamics In The Great Onyx Groundwater Basin, Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, Meghan Raines
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
An increase in atmospheric CO2 since the Industrial Revolution has altered rates of global climate change and has motivated a need to better quantify the flux of carbon between Earth’s reservoirs. Attempts to quantify the exchange of atmospheric carbon between sources and sinks have led to an increasing interest in the terrestrial landscape, including the continental carbon sink associated with carbonate-mineral dissolution. This research sought to better inform an understanding of karst landscapes and their relationship with global climate change through carbon cycling. The study utilized high-resolution data collection of pH, temperature, and specific conductance of waters in the Cascade …
Hydrological Dynamics Of Surface-Groundwater Interactions Between Major Springs Of Mammoth Cave And The Green River, Kentucky, Usa, Matthew Cecil
Hydrological Dynamics Of Surface-Groundwater Interactions Between Major Springs Of Mammoth Cave And The Green River, Kentucky, Usa, Matthew Cecil
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Mammoth Cave is an iconic example of the cave and karst systems that underlie over 50% of the United States and provide around 13% of the world’s population with water resources. These environmental features are vulnerable to drought, pollution, and human impacts. The complex hydrological regime of the Mammoth Cave system has been studied in the past, but there are improvements and updates that can be made to the past research. The dynamics of the surface-groundwater system, particularly reversals of the Green River and how it backfloods into the cave, are some examples. Echo River and River Styx Springs provide …
A Predictive Flood Model For Urban Karst Groundwater Systems, Trayson Lawler
A Predictive Flood Model For Urban Karst Groundwater Systems, Trayson Lawler
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Urban karst environments are often plagued by groundwater flooding, which occurs when water rises from the subsurface to the surface through the underlying caves and other karst features. The heterogeneity and interconnectedness of karst systems often makes them very unpredictable, especially during intense storm events; urbanization exacerbates the problem with the addition of many impervious surfaces. Residents in such areas are frequently disturbed and financially burdened by the effects of karst groundwater flooding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers limited protection to citizens living near flood-prone areas as they primarily focus on the areas near surface bodies of water. …
Carbon Cycling And Critical Zone Dynamics In An Urbanized Karst Groundwater System, Amy Hourigan
Carbon Cycling And Critical Zone Dynamics In An Urbanized Karst Groundwater System, Amy Hourigan
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations are correlated to rising global temperatures. Investigating the cumulative global carbon cycling processes is important to understand and quantify the global carbon cycle. By investigating basic geochemical parameters, EpCO2, DIC, and δ13CDIC, at four sites along Lost River Cave (LRC), in Bowling Green, Kentucky, concentrations, fluxes and sources of C dissolved in groundwater were determined. Urban karst groundwater systems, compared to more natural karst landscapes, typically exhibit widespread impervious, heat-absorbing surfaces, urban heat island effects, and increased anthropogenic groundwater inputs and localized CO2 emissions. Carbonate hydrogeochemical …
An Integrated Gis & Flood Vulnerability Index Approach To Evaluating Risk & Environmental Equity In Urban Karst Communities, Chloe Cooper
An Integrated Gis & Flood Vulnerability Index Approach To Evaluating Risk & Environmental Equity In Urban Karst Communities, Chloe Cooper
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
This study examines how the usage of an integrated GIS (Geographic Information Systems), flood vulnerability assessment, and management approaches can aid in hazard response planning in karst groundwater systems, particularly in urban environments. In order to also better understand the impacts of flood events on socially vulnerable groups, this research was focused on historically excluded communities. Additionally, place-based vulnerabilities were primarily assessed based upon three main factors in the vulnerability framework and how these components intersect: social, environmental conditions, and economic. By understanding which areas of the City of Bowling Green, an iconic urban karst area, are most vulnerable and …
Application Of Excitation-Emission Matrices To Fluorescent Dye Tracing Of Groundwater Flow, Cayla M. Baughn
Application Of Excitation-Emission Matrices To Fluorescent Dye Tracing Of Groundwater Flow, Cayla M. Baughn
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Fluorescent dye tracing of groundwater is a technique employed particularly in carbonate rock karst regions to examine karst hydrology by mapping underground flow paths. It is important to understand the hydrology of karst environments because solutionally-enlarged conduits may allow the rapid influx of contaminants into the groundwater system. Fluorescent dye tracing involves the injection of a fluorescent dye into an appropriate injection site (sinking streams, sinkholes, or even through soil flushed with water) and is followed by sampling at sites where the dye may be recovered (typically springs). Various methods exist by which sampling may occur, but all methods ultimately …
Impacts Of Forest Management And Timber Harvest Practices On Karst Critical Zone Processes In Tongass National Forest, Alaska, Anna Gwendolyn Harris
Impacts Of Forest Management And Timber Harvest Practices On Karst Critical Zone Processes In Tongass National Forest, Alaska, Anna Gwendolyn Harris
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
This study characterizes the throughfall, hydrogeochemistry, dissolution rates, and carbon sources of two proximate temperate rainforest cave systems within the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska (Tongass). Study sites include: an old-growth forest, characterized by having never been logged (containing Walkabout Cave system); and a previously logged – within thirty years, second-growth forest (containing Zina Cave system). Precipitation data were recorded over a five-month period at 10-minute intervals, to understand the effects of throughfall between the altering old and second-growth canopies. At each major spring for the two cave systems, high-resolution data were collected from June 29 through November 21, …
Hydrogeochemical Characterization And Speleogenesis Of Sistema Huautla In Oaxaca, Mexico, Fernando Hernandez
Hydrogeochemical Characterization And Speleogenesis Of Sistema Huautla In Oaxaca, Mexico, Fernando Hernandez
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Sierra Mazateca, Mexico is home to Sistema Huautla, the deepest cave in the Western hemisphere with 1,560 meters of depth and 90 kilometers of passage, including 26 entrances distributed in a high-relief, karstified terrain, within the Sistema Huautla Karst Groundwater Basin. Exploration of the cave has generated research questions about its evolution and geomorphology given the different vadose and phreatic zones impacted by tectonic and incision processes. Dye traces during this study of Cueva de La Peña Colorada confirmed it is a fossil resurgence of the cave system. An additional cave, Cueva Elysium, was connected hydrologically in 2019, expanding the …
Development Of A Karst Tourism Management Index To Assess Tourism-Driven Degradation Of Protected Karst Sites, Keith R. Semler
Development Of A Karst Tourism Management Index To Assess Tourism-Driven Degradation Of Protected Karst Sites, Keith R. Semler
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
The intent of this research was to create and evaluate a karst tourism management index (KTMI). This index is intended to be a new management tool designed to quantify environmental disturbances caused specifically by tourism activities in karst regions, particularly show caves and springs. In an effort to assess the effectiveness of the index as a management tool in karst terrains, after development, the index was applied to six case study sites. A review of the management policies at each study site was conducted with the use of standard policy critique methods and semistructured interviews with managers at the study …
Controls On Speleogenesis In The Upper-Mississippian Pennington Formation On The Western Cumberland Plateau Escarpment, Hali Steinmann
Controls On Speleogenesis In The Upper-Mississippian Pennington Formation On The Western Cumberland Plateau Escarpment, Hali Steinmann
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Much of the pioneering work on caves of the Cumberland Plateau (province spanning Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia) has been stratigraphically located within the Mississippian Bangor and Monteagle Limestones, wherein some of the region’s largest and most spectacular caves occur. Of interest to the understanding of this karst landscape, but severely underrepresented in the literature thereof, are caves and karst features in a heterogeneous sequence of clastics and carbonates known collectively as the Pennington Formation (Upper Mississippian). This work consisted of a regional study of Pennington caves on the western Cumberland Plateau escarpment (Alabama and Tennessee), and a case study …
Evaluating The Influences Of Karst Hydrogeology On Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms In Kentucky Lakes, Robert T. Schaefer
Evaluating The Influences Of Karst Hydrogeology On Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms In Kentucky Lakes, Robert T. Schaefer
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
A problem exists in Nolin River Lake and Rough River Lake in Kentucky, due to the increasing prevalence of cyanobacterial-based harmful algal blooms (CyanoHABs) and the threats they pose to local communities. These lakes were developed as artificial reservoirs from embankment. Further complicating the issue, the lakes are located within a heavily karstified region and there exists no plan or method currently for monitoring or managing CyanoHABs in a karst region with regard to groundwater inputs to the lake systems or their tributaries. A mixture of techniques and analysis methods was used to determine the best way to monitor and …
Advancing Methods To Measure The Atmospheric Co2 Sink From Carbonate Rock Weathering, Devon Salley Mr.
Advancing Methods To Measure The Atmospheric Co2 Sink From Carbonate Rock Weathering, Devon Salley Mr.
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
With rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations, a detailed understanding of processes that impact atmospheric CO2 fluxes is required. While a sink of atmospheric carbon from the continents to the ocean from carbonate mineral weathering is, to some degree, offset by carbonate mineral precipitation in the oceans, efforts are underway to make direct measurements of these fluxes. Measurement of the continental sink has two parts: 1) measurement of the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) flux leaving a river basin, and 2) partitioning the inorganic carbon flux between the amount removed from the atmosphere and the portion from the bedrock. This study attempted to …
Trophic Dynamic Interactions In A Temperate Karst River, Elizabeth Malloy
Trophic Dynamic Interactions In A Temperate Karst River, Elizabeth Malloy
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Surface streams in karst landscapes are often characterized by high nutrient levels due to incomplete filtration through series of innumerable, below-ground conduits. Seasonal growth of the filamentous alga, Cladophora, is typically associated with nutrient-rich waters. This research compared macroinvertebrate food web structure between riverine reaches with contrasting underlying karst topography, nutrient levels, and Cladophora cover during summer 2012 and autumn 2013. Recent work in these reaches found a high correlation between Cladophora cover and nutrient content, particularly nitrate. Four questions were addressed during this study: 1. Do longitudinal trends in algal and consumer δ13C values relate to decreased DIC availability …
Carbon Cycling Dynamics Inferred From Carbon Isotope Sourcing In A Mid-Latitude Karst-Influenced River, Kegan N. Mcclanahan
Carbon Cycling Dynamics Inferred From Carbon Isotope Sourcing In A Mid-Latitude Karst-Influenced River, Kegan N. Mcclanahan
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
As ever-increasing levels of carbon dioxide alter the chemistry of the Earth’s atmosphere, understanding the global carbon cycle becomes increasingly important. A particularly important component is the riverine carbon cycle, as rivers are the primary conduits for dissolved inorganic carbon from terrestrial watersheds to ocean basins. Stable carbon isotopes (13C/12C) were collected weekly and input into the mixing model IsoSource to delineate seasonal carbon sourcing along two nested basins in the upper Green River System, Kentucky. In the more siliciclastic upstream catchment, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) was primarily derived from soil respiration (34%). Groundwater dissolving carbonate bedrock and carbonate dissolution/precipitation …
Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Regulatory Stormwater Monitoring Protocols On Groundwater Quality In Urbanized Karst Regions, Daniel C. Nedvidek
Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Regulatory Stormwater Monitoring Protocols On Groundwater Quality In Urbanized Karst Regions, Daniel C. Nedvidek
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Non-point pollution from stormwater runoff is one of the greatest threats to water quality in the United States today, particularly in urban karst settings. In these settings, the use of karst features and injection wells for stormwater management results in virtually untreated water being directed into the karst aquifer. Currently, no policies exist specifically to provide water quality protections to karst environments. This study utilized a combination of karst stormwater quality data, along with survey data collected from MS4 Phase II communities, and an analysis of current federal, local, and state water quality regulations, to assess the need for karst-specific …
The Hydrology Of The Carroll Cave-Toronto Springs System: Identifying And Examining Source Mixing Through Dye Tracing, Geochemical Monitoring, Seepage Runs, And Statistical Methods, Benjamin Verlinden Miller
The Hydrology Of The Carroll Cave-Toronto Springs System: Identifying And Examining Source Mixing Through Dye Tracing, Geochemical Monitoring, Seepage Runs, And Statistical Methods, Benjamin Verlinden Miller
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
In karst areas relationships between activities occurring on the surface and the overall health of the subsurface environment are often highly interconnected. However, the complex nature of karst flow systems can often make identification of these connections difficult. Carroll Cave, a large stream cave system located in the central Missouri Ozarks, is known for its biological and speleological significance. A dye tracing project to delineate a Carroll Cave recharge area through dye tracing has identified an area of 18.5 km2 which contributes water to the cave. The water from Thunder River within Carroll Cave was positively traced to eight springs …
An Analysis Of Base-Level Conduit Sedimentation In South Central Kentucky, Ben Tobin
An Analysis Of Base-Level Conduit Sedimentation In South Central Kentucky, Ben Tobin
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
In karst basins, significant amounts of surface-derived sediment can enter into cave systems. The transport and deposition of these sediments in underground streams is a function of flow velocity, sediment supply and passage morphology. Changes in the surface environment can affect the water and sediment supplies to subsurface drainage systems and thus may be reflected in the sedimentary structure, texture and rates of deposition of cave sediments. Cave sediments in two south central Kentucky caves were studied to evaluate a possible, relationship between variations in deposit characteristics and variations in surface changes, including land-use. Samples were collected using coring tubes …
Storm Response And Water Balance Of Temperate Rainforest Karst Watersheds: Tongass National Forest, Alaska, Johanna Kovarik
Storm Response And Water Balance Of Temperate Rainforest Karst Watersheds: Tongass National Forest, Alaska, Johanna Kovarik
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
The Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska contains 2,176 square kilometers of karst. As part of the evolving Tongass Land Management Plan, research into the function of karst systems is crucial in understanding how forest management affects not only karst areas but also surrounding ecosystems. Dye trace and water balance results in two watersheds on the north end of Prince of Wales Island demonstrate the difficulty in containing the effects of management, as water can enter karst catchments from unknown sources at different flow regimes. A dye trace was conducted in Windgate and Canyon Block watersheds. Two sinking streams were …
Hydrochemistry In An Alpine Karst System, Sequoia And Kings Canyon National Parks, California, Joel Despain
Hydrochemistry In An Alpine Karst System, Sequoia And Kings Canyon National Parks, California, Joel Despain
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
This study uses high-resolution, long-term conductivity, temperature, discharge, pH, and laboratory data from 2001 through 2003 from an alpine karst spring located at 2,500 m amsl in Sequoia National Park, California to reveal detailed chemical parameters of this karst system. The data show a system with a pronounced spring run-off, extended periods of base flow quiescence, storm responses tied to precipitation as rain or as snowfall, and clear diurnal and seasonal patterns of discharge. pH and spC values show an inverse relationship to discharge and temperature, which are generally in phase. Total inorganic carbon (TIC) and the fraction of mineral-derived …
Hydrolgeologic Groundwater Sensitivity And Vulnerability Mapping In South Central Kentucky, Andrea Croskrey
Hydrolgeologic Groundwater Sensitivity And Vulnerability Mapping In South Central Kentucky, Andrea Croskrey
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Groundwater sensitivity (Ray and O'dell 1993 a) refers to the inherent ease with which groundwater can be contaminated based on hydrogeologic characteristics. We have developed digital methods for identifying areas of varying groundwater sensitivity for a ten county area of south-central Kentucky relevant to a scale of 1: 24,000. The study area includes extensive limestone karst sinkhole plains, with groundwater that is generally extremely sensitive to contamination. Digitally Vectorized Geologic Quadrangles (DVGQs) were combined with elevation data to both identify hydrogeologic groundwater sensitivity regions and to identify zones of "high risk runoff where contaminants could be transported in runoff from …
Evaluating Uranium Depth Versus Socio-Economic Statistics For Residential Radon Vulnerability In Warren County, Kentucky, Anthony Iovanna
Evaluating Uranium Depth Versus Socio-Economic Statistics For Residential Radon Vulnerability In Warren County, Kentucky, Anthony Iovanna
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Residences in Warren County, Kentucky, are characterized by high levels of residential radon, which is one of the radioactive daughter products of uranium. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), radon exposure causes approximately 22,000 lung cancer deaths in the United States per year. The City of Bowling Green, in Warren County, is underlain by karst, an easily soluble limestone subsurface, which allows radon gas to travel easily through cracks and fissures. Carbonate rocks under Bowling Green are underlain by the Devonian Chattanooga Shale, a low-grade uranium ore and a potential source of radon gas. A digital …