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Impacts Of Lake Elevation Decline On Tui Chub, A Critical Forage Species For Lahontan Cutthroat Trout In Pyramid Lake, Nevada, Usa, Sarah Barnes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Lake level decline affects lakes worldwide, changing the availability and character of nearshore habitat used by fish to spawn, and increasing total dissolved solids (TDS), similar to salinity, a factor that negatively impacts fish health. Lake level decline can affect different lakes in different ways, but typically when lake level declines significantly, there is less nearshore habitat overall, and what nearshore habitat remains has less diverse habitat for fish. We investigated whether both impacts of lake level decline may be causing declines of Tui Chub Siphateles bicolor, a large minnow native to Pyramid Lake that spawns in nearshore habitat. …

Use Of An Autonomous Surface Vehicle To Collect High Spatial Resolution Water Quality Data At Lake Wateree, Sc, Archana Venkatachari, Annie Bourbonnais, Ibrahim Salman, Ioannis Rekleitis, Alberto Quattrini Li, Kathryn L. Cottingham, Holly A. Ewing, Denise Bruesewitz, Emily Arsenault, Quin Shingai

Journal of South Carolina Water Resources

Freshwater resources including lakes and reservoirs are increasingly threatened by harmful cyanobacterial blooms (HCBs). The scarcity of high spatial and temporal resolution data presents challenges for monitoring, predicting, and managing these blooms. Autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) equipped with water quality sensors represent a powerful tool to obtain high-resolution spatial data at Lake Wateree (LW), South Carolina (SC). LW is a hydroelectric reservoir commonly covered with extensive blooms of the benthic cyanobacteria Microseira (Lyngbya) wollei and Phormium sp., with the thickest mats in shallow coves.

The main objective of this study was to determine the best speed and duration of loiter …

Volume 9, Issue 2 - 2024 Special Issue

Journal of South Carolina Water Resources

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Assessing Wastewater Treatment In Yopal Colombia Using Gis, Leydi P. Puerto Bohorquez

Master's Projects and Capstones

The amount of wastewater has surged alongside population growth, urbanization, and economic development, which can influence the wastewater treatment process, especially in the treatment capacity, particularly in developing countries. In Colombia, the low coverage of Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) leads to a complex environmental issue. This has threatened water quality and aquatic ecosystems of waterbodies that receive this type of water by increasing disease prevalence and creating hypoxic conditions. To determine how a WWTP could impact water quality, it was necessary to understand the treatment process and the physicochemical parameters being monitored. The focus is to answer the central research …

Post-Wildfire Effects On A Headwater Stream In The San Bernardino National Forest, Kelley Giron

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Southern California has experienced prolonged drought conditions that have supported frequent wildfires that adversely impact ecosystems, natural resources, and human development. A primary consequence of these events is the impact on water quality and quantity. Of equal concern is evaluating how diverse land use configurations within a watershed can alter the physio-chemical properties of headwater reaches where drought and wildfire conditions are prevalent. To better understand the extent to which wildfires impact water quality and quantity across a headwater watershed, this study investigates wildfire impacts from the 2021 South Fire to Lytle Creek, a headwater stream of the Santa Ana …

Proceedings Of The 21st Annual Urban Ecology & Conservation Symposium (2023), Lori Hennings

Urban Ecosystem Research Consortium of Portland/Vancouver

These proceedings document the agenda and abstracts for presentations and posters from the 21st annual conference organized by the Urban Ecosystem Research Consortium of Portland/Vancouver (UERC). The UERC is a consortium of people from various universities and colleges, state and federal agencies, local governments, non-profit organizations and independent professionals interested in supporting urban ecosystem research and creating an information-sharing network of people that collect and use ecological data in the Portland/Vancouver area. The annual conference has an open call for abstracts. The UERC organizing committee selects the final oral and poster presentations, along with 2 invited keynote presentations.

Spatial Dimensions Of Water Quality Value In New England River Networks, Robert J. Johnston, Klaus Moeltner, Seth Peery, Tom Ndebele, Zhenyu Yao, Stefano Crema, Wilfred M. Wollheim, Elena Besedin

Economics

Households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for water quality improvements—representing their economic value—depends on where improvements occur. Households often hold higher values for improvements close to their homes or iconic areas. Are there other areas where improvements might hold high value to individual households, do effects on WTP vary by type of improvement, and can these areas be identified even if they are not anticipated by researchers? To answer these questions, we integrated a water quality model and map-based, interactive choice experiment to estimate households’ WTP for water quality improvements throughout a river network covering six New England states. The choice …

A Descriptive Study Of Well Water Contaminants In Georgia From 2010-2022, Angelique Willis

Public Health Theses

Introduction: Safe, reliable, and clean drinking water sources are a basic necessity; however, chemical contamination of private wells has plagued Georgia. More than 1.7 million individuals in Georgia rely on private wells for drinking water; nonetheless, wells are not under mandated regulations as municipal water supplies. Well water can contain chemical contaminants such as arsenic, uranium, lead, nitrate-nitrogen, and radon that can impact health when above the federal Maximum Contaminant Limit (MCL). In Georgia, previous studies suggested that the variation of soil and rock in a physiographic province (region) plays an essential role in the quality of private well water. …

Five Years Measuring The Muck: Evaluating Interannual Variability Of Nutrient Loads From Tidal Flooding, Alfonso Macías-Tapia, Margaret R. Mulholland, Corday R. Selden, J. Derek Loftis, Peter W. Bernhardt

OES Faculty Publications

Due to sea level rise, tidal flooding is now common in low-lying coastal systems around the world. Yet, the contribution of tidal flooding to non-point source nutrient loads and their impact on the quality of adjacent waters remains poorly constrained. Here, we quantified dissolved nutrient loading and Enterococcus abundance during annual autumnal king tides (i.e., perigean spring tides), between 2017 and 2021, in a sub-watershed of the lower Chesapeake Bay. To calculate nutrient loading from tidal flooding, we used geospatial inundation depths from a street-level hydrodynamic model to estimate floodwater volumes during each of the five sampling events and the …

Importance Of Risk And Hazard Assessment Of River Projects In India, Jitesh N. Vyas, Supriya Nath, R. B. Deogade

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Rivers are the lifeline for every country as they provide water for proliferation, sustenance and propagation of life since time immemorial. With increasing population pressure, water demand increased for drinking, irrigation, and industrial consumption. This water deficit required utilization of available water resources in the best possible manner through various hydrological projects like construction of dams, weirs, barrage, etc. There is a disparity in water availability between north and south India as most of the perennial rivers are situated in the north while seasonal rivers in south India. To resolve this disproportionate distribution and to maintain the balance of water …

Identifying Associations Between Human-Environmental Factors And Water Quality Trends Observed At Perennial Headwater Streams Of The San Bernardino National Forest, California, Anna Frey

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Anthropogenic factors related to landscape activities, infrastructure, and alterations, coupled with severe climatic fluctuations (i.e., droughts and extreme hydrological events) are increasingly impairing the quality of surface water resources across multiple geographic scales, warranting the need for comprehensive investigations of the cumulative effects of human-environmental stressors at multiple scales within a watershed. This study assessed three perennial headwater streams of the San Bernardino National Forest, California. The streams were tested for one year from October 2019 to September 2020 for conductivity, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, turbidity, temperature, ammonium (NH₄+), nitrate (NO₃-), total coliform (TC), Escherichia coli …

Studying Suspended Sediment Concentrations In The South Chickamauga Creek Of Chattanooga, Tn Using Satellite Imagery, Digital Image Processing, And Numeric Modeling, Abigail Faxon

Honors Theses

In recent years, Hamilton County, TN has experienced extensive urban growth. According to US Census data, Hamilton County welcomed more than 33,000 new residents in the last decade. There is increased concern about the environmental sustainability of Chattanooga’s urban growth because significant impervious surface development has taken place along the South Chickamauga Creek. This leaves the creek subject to increased urban runoff, which often carries sediments with different municipal pollutants. Thus, monitoring turbidity in the stream water is important to determine the sustainability of urban development in Chattanooga, TN. In this research, we have compared the viability of using different …

Modeling Water Quantity And Quality Nonlinearities For Watershed Adaptability To Hydroclimate Extremes In Agricultural Landscapes, Juan Carlos Jaimes-Correa, Francisco Muñoz-Arriola, Shannon Bartelt-Hunt

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Changing water supplies and demands, inherent to climate fluctuations and human activities, are pushing for a paradigm shift in water management worldwide. The occurrence of extreme hydrometeorological and climate events such as extended wet periods and droughts, compounded with contaminants, impair the access to water resources, demanding novel designs, construction, and management across multiple hydrologic scales and biogeochemical processes. A constraint to studying hydrologic and biogeochemical disturbances and improving best management practices for water quantity and quality at the watershed scale resides in the suitable monitoring, data availability, and the creation of frameworks. We hypothesize that streamflow and contaminants, simulated …

Development Of A Cyberinfrastructure For Assessment Of The Lower Rio Grande Valley North And Central Watersheds Characteristics, Linda Navarro, Ahmed Mahmoud, Andrew Ernest, Abdoul Oubeidillah, Jessica Johnstone, Ivan Rene Santos Chavez, Christopher Fuller

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Lower Laguna Madre (LLM) is designated as an impaired waterway for high concentrations of bacteria and low dissolved oxygen. The main freshwater sources to the LLM flow from the North and Central waterways which are composed of three main waterways: Hidalgo/Willacy Main Drain (HWMD), Raymondville Drain (RVD), and International Boundary & Water Commission North Floodway (IBWCNF) that are not fully characterized. The objective of this study is to perform a watershed characterization to determine the potential pollution sources of each watershed. The watershed characterization was achieved by developing a cyberinfrastructure, and it collects a wide inventory of data to identify …

Effects Of Tidal Flooding On Estuarine Biogeochemistry: Quantifying Flood-Driven Nitrogen Inputs In An Urban, Lower Chesapeake Bay Sub-Tributary, Alfonso Macías-Tapia, Margaret R. Mulholland, Corday R. Selden, Jon Derek Loftis, Peter W. Bernhardt

VIMS Articles

Sea level rise has increased the frequency of tidal flooding even without accompanying precipitation in many coastal areas worldwide. As the tide rises, inundates the landscape, and then recedes, it can transport organic and inorganic matter between terrestrial systems and adjacent aquatic environments. However, the chemical and biological effects of tidal flooding on urban estuarine systems remain poorly constrained. Here, we provide the first extensive quantification of floodwater nutrient concentrations during a tidal flooding event and estimate the nitrogen (N) loading to the Lafayette River, an urban tidal sub-tributary of the lower Chesapeake Bay (USA). To enable the scale of …

Regional Water Quality Data Viewer Tool: An Open-Source To Support Research Data Access, Danisa Dolder

Theses and Dissertations

Water quality data collection, storage, and access is a difficult task and significant work has gone into methods to store and disseminate these data. We present a tool to disseminate research in a simple method that does not replace but extends and leverages these tools. In the United States, the federal government maintains two systems to fill that role for hydrological data: the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Information System (NWIS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Storage and Retrieval System (STORET), since superseded by the Water Quality Portal (WQP). The Consortium of the Universities for the Advancement …

Coastal Natural And Nature-Based Features (Nnbfs) Ranked: Co-Benefits For Coastal Buildings And Target Areas For The Creation Of New Or Restoration Of Nnbfs In Coastal Virginia, Pamela Mason, Jessica Hendricks, Julie Herman

Data

Community resilience to storm-driven coastal flooding is improved with the presence of natural and nature-based features (NNBFs) such as wetlands, wooded areas, living shorelines, and beaches. These natural and created features can provide multiple benefits for a local community, including mitigating the impacts of storm surge and sea-level rise and allowing communities to take advantage of programmatic incentive programs like FEMA’s Community Rating System and nutrient reduction crediting.

As part of a NOAA-funded project NA17NOS4730142, an exportable geospatial protocol and NNBF ranking methodology was developed with the goal of incentivizing the protection and creation of NNBFs across Chesapeake Bay localities …

Epa Applications To Identify Headwater Watershed Changes And Best Management Practices In The San Bernardino National Forest, Sandra Ukaru

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The human-environmental landscape influences water quality across highly variable spatiotemporal scales. One such example is the human-environmental landscape in California, which has changed dramatically over the past several decades leading to a multitude of environmental issues including the reduction and impairment of water resources. This study compares surface water quality at four headwater streams in the San Bernardino National Forests using multiple assessment tools including in situ data, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPAs) Model My Watershed Tool and multiple databases within a GIS framework. These collective efforts enabled headwater watershed landscape changes and the extent of impacts to soil erosion …

Development Of A Cyberinfrastructure For Assessment Of The Lower Rio Grande Valley North And Central Watersheds Characteristics, Linda Isabel Navarro Navarro

Theses and Dissertations

Due to an increase in urbanization in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV), there have been substantial modifications to hydrology causing a decline in water quality to the Laguna Madre watershed. The major concern is the inflow of freshwater from the North and Central waterways released to the Lower Laguna Madre which is designated as an impaired watershed for high concentrations of bacteria and low dissolved oxygen. The objective of this study is to perform a watershed characterization to determine potential pollution sources of each watershed by developing a cyberinfrastructure and collect a wide inventory of data. The objective will …

Filtering Out The Effects Of Zebra Mussels: Climate, Land Use, And Water Clarity In Minnesota Lakes, Kristina Linder

Pomona Senior Theses

Since their discovery in 1988, zebra mussels have colonized bodies of water across the United States. Having ecological and economic implications, zebra mussels have made noticeable changes in the lakes they inhabit. One of these specific impacts is altered lake water clarity.

Using data collected by agencies and monitoring programs, this research utilizes regression analysis to examine factors impacting water clarity, and to see how zebra mussels work in conjunction with these factors. The analysis indicates that zebra mussel growth and precipitation have a positive relationship with increased water clarity, while air temperature has a negative relationship with water clarity. …

A Geochemical And Statistical Investigation Of The Big Four Springs Region In Southern Missouri, Jordan Jasso Vega

MSU Graduate Theses

The Big Four Springs region hosts four major first-order magnitude springs in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. These springs are Big Spring (Carter County, MO), Greer Spring (Oregon County, MO), Mammoth Spring (Fulton County, AR), and Hodgson Mill Spring (Ozark County, MO). Based on historic dye traces and hydrogeological investigations, these springs drain an area of approximately 1500 square miles and collectively discharge an average of 780 million gallons of water per day. The rocks from youngest to oldest that are found in Big Four Springs region are the Cotter and Jefferson City Dolomite (Ordovician), Roubidoux Formation (Ordovician), Gasconade Dolomite …

Analysis Of The Impacts Of The Soberanes Wildfire On Stream Ecosystems, Jessie M. Doyle, Mikaela Bogdan, John R. Olson

AES Faculty Publications and Presentations

Wildfires within the western United States are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude but our understanding of how they impact coastal streams is limited. The 2016 Soberanes Wildfire provided an opportunity to determine which biotic and abiotic factors were most impacted by the fire occurring on the California Central Coast. Water quality, benthic macroinvertebrate samples and habitat measurements were taken both before and after the fire. We observed an increase in the levels of phosphorus 4 months and 8 months post-fire which may have contributed to observed increases in microalgae growth. There was a complete loss of shredders in …

Probabilistic Approach To Water, Sediment, And Nutrient Connectivity For Advancing Watershed Modelling, David Tyler Mahoney

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

The goal of this dissertation is to represent the spatial and temporal domains of water, sediment, and nutrient flux and pathways within fluvial and watershed settings. To complete this goal, we integrate connectivity theory into watershed model structures to simulate water, sediment, and nutrient movement at the fundamental unit they occur. Fluvial-based sediment and nutrient flux is an important driver of global sediment and nutrient budgets, and the quantification of which serves as an ongoing challenge to limnologists, engineers, and watershed managers. Watershed models have been richly developed over the past century, but are currently restrained by problems related to …

Use Of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing To Estimate Water Quality, Mbongowo J. Mbuh

Geography & Geographic Information Science Faculty Publications

Approximating and forecasting water variables like phosphorus, nitrogen, chlorophyll, dissolved organic matter, and turbidity are of supreme importance due to their strong influence on water resource quality. This chapter is aimed at showing the practicability of merging water quality observations from remote sensing with water quality modeling for efficient and effective monitoring of water quality. We examine the spatial dynamics of water quality with hyperspectral remote sensing and present approaches that can be used to estimate water quality using hyperspectral images. The methods presented here have been embraced because the bluegreen and green algae peak wavelengths reflectance are close together …

Unconventional Gas Extraction In Southwestern Pennsylvania: Complaints, Production, And Water Quality, Dannielle Pratt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dramatic rise in unconventional oil and gas extraction in Pennsylvania has presented a challenge to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in managing regulatory required data, and the uniformity of public access via their online databases. This study analyzed over a decade of all the oil and gas complaints and unconventional gas production in Washington County. Of the 1,811 wells drilled between 2004 and 2018, 1,683 are producing, 74 are plugged, 52 regulatory inactive, and 2 abandoned. The PADEP received 10,389 complaints from 2004 to 2018. Only 2,420 of 4,489 water quality complaints were resolved within the legally required …

Evaluation Of A Sequential Pond System For Detention And Treatment Of Runoff At Skypark, Santa's Village, Elizabeth Caporuscio

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Understanding the extent to which human activities impact surface water resources has become increasingly important as both human population growth and related landscape changes impact water quality and quantity across varying geographical scales. Skypark, Santa’s Village is a 233.76-acre tourism-based outdoor recreation area located in Skyforest, California residing within the San Bernardino National Forest. The park is situated at Hooks Creek, the headwaters of the Mojave River Watershed, and is characterized by a diverse landscape that includes forest cover and human development, including impervious surfaces, a restored meadow, and recreational trails. In 2016, Hencks Meadow was considered degraded by human …

Nutrient Transport And Storage In A Karst Spring-Reservoir System During Baseflow, Missouri Ozarks, Heather A. Moule

MSU Graduate Theses

Urban and agricultural land uses are important sources of nitrogen and phosphorus which, if in excess, can cause eutrophication in lakes and rivers. There have been few studies of nutrient transport and storage in karst spring and reservoir connected stream systems draining the Missouri Ozarks. This study aims to link the baseflow nutrient contributions of Sanders Spring to downstream reservoir outflow and the Headwaters South Dry Sac River Watershed in Springfield, Missouri. Water samples were collected seasonally and analyzed for total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and several other water quality parameters. Discharge was also monitored to calculate water and …

The Integrated Comet-Wq Tool For Crop Field Water Quality Assessment, Yao Zhang, Mark Easter, Kevin Brown, Mark Layer, Sohba Velayudhan, Stephen Williams, Keith Paustian

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

A new development of the COMET-Farm platform (originally designed for farm and ranch carbon and greenhouse gas accounting) now includes the APEX (Agricultural Policy / Environmental eXtender) simulation model for water quality assessment at farm/small watershed scale. This web-based tool uses a geospatial graphical user interface (GUI) to help agricultural producers, land managers and other users identify their fields/area of interest and compare the impacts of different management scenarios on nitrogen and phosphorus losses, sediment losses, and crop yields in addition to the carbon and greenhouse gas accounting in the original COMET-Farm decision support tool. The platform provides a number …

Environmental Assessment Of Road Brining And Injection Wells For Disposal Of Oil And Gas Liquid Waste, Marissa Madia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dramatic increase in oil and gas drilling operations in Pennsylvania over the last decade has presented a challenge for their wastewater disposal (e.g., flowback, produced water). Currently, these fluids are treated in permitted brine treatment plants or exported out of state to deep injection well facilities. In Pennsylvania, road brining for dust control is permitted for conventional well brines, and permits for three injection wells for unconventional brines are pending. This study focused on water quality impacts due to road brining in Farmington Township (45 samples) and ground and surface water in Grant Township (41 samples) prior to the …

Development Of Application Software For Water System Data Management, Visualization, And Analysis With The Shiny Framework, Nicholas Zinck

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

A comprehensive watershed protection plan includes the collection of water quality, meteorological, and hydrological data. Large amounts of data can be difficult to manage if proper systems are not put in place for data management. Poor data management can be detrimental and may result in data loss, poor quality data, or underutilized data due to the lack of an efficient process of querying, visualizing, and analyzing data. Database software is a great solution to store and organize large datasets, yet database software often lack data visualization and analysis tools. Commonly, databases are paired with an outside application specialized for data …