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Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Sediment Dynamics In The Bear River-Mud Lake-Bear Lake System, Patrick Belmont, Mitchell Donovan, Janice Brahney, Lindsay Capito, Zach Burgert Nov 2018

Sediment Dynamics In The Bear River-Mud Lake-Bear Lake System, Patrick Belmont, Mitchell Donovan, Janice Brahney, Lindsay Capito, Zach Burgert

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

The overarching goal of this project was to compile and analyze a variety of existing datasets, and generate several new datasets, to advance our understanding of how the Bear River Mud Lake-Bear Lake system functions, how it has, or is expected to change, identify which components are degraded or vulnerable to degradation, and determine if/where critical data and/or knowledge gaps exist. We conducted a series of analyses to evaluate changes in hydrology and suspended sediment, collected sediment cores from nine locations in Mud Lake to evaluate how sedimentation rates, sediment sources and water quality have changed over time, and utilized …


Characterizing Diatom Biofilms And Their Influence On The Sand Biogeochemistry Of High Energy Beaches, Logan C. Jarrell Oct 2018

Characterizing Diatom Biofilms And Their Influence On The Sand Biogeochemistry Of High Energy Beaches, Logan C. Jarrell

Honors Theses

High energy beaches are among the most dynamic ecological settings on Earth. Compared to mudflats, diatoms of high energy beaches have been more neglected in the literature, particularly true of the intertidal biofilms that form and dissipate with nutrient cycling and light intensity over the tidal cycle. Although short lived, the productivity of these biofilms may be critical to the organic-poor sand. Through sediment coring and subsequent analyses of the uppermost sand of three suspected biofilm stations—non-runnel, runnel crest, and runnel trough—along with seemingly bare sand as a control, this study sought to verify the presence of diatom biofilms and …


Reducing High Flows And Sediment Loading Through Increased Water Storage In An Agricultural Watershed Of The Upper Midwest, Usa, Nate Mitchell, Karthik Kumarasamy, Se Jong Cho, Patrick Belmont, Brent Dalzell, Karen Gran Aug 2018

Reducing High Flows And Sediment Loading Through Increased Water Storage In An Agricultural Watershed Of The Upper Midwest, Usa, Nate Mitchell, Karthik Kumarasamy, Se Jong Cho, Patrick Belmont, Brent Dalzell, Karen Gran

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Climate change, land clearing, and artificial drainage have increased the Minnesota River Basin’s (MRB) stream flows, enhancing erosion of channel banks and bluffs. Accelerated erosion has increased sediment loads and sedimentation rates downstream. High flows could be reduced through increased water storage (e.g., wetlands or detention basins), but quantifying the effectiveness of such a strategy remains a challenge. We used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to simulate changes in river discharge from various water retention site (WRS) implementation scenarios in the Le Sueur watershed, a tributary basin to the MRB. We also show how high flow attenuation can …


Comparative Microbial Community Dynamics In A Karst Aquifer System And Proximal Surface Stream In Northwest Arkansas, Josue Rodriguez Aug 2018

Comparative Microbial Community Dynamics In A Karst Aquifer System And Proximal Surface Stream In Northwest Arkansas, Josue Rodriguez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Northwest Arkansas has well-developed karst systems, with numerous sinking streams and springs. Karst conduits make it easy for contaminants to enter groundwater systems, degrading the water quality and destroying fragile karst ecosystems. With the increase of urbanization, potential threats in the form of fecal contamination may prove to be more of a problem. The purpose of this research is to compare the difference between microbial communities within two different settings, a karst aquifer and a surface stream. The microbial communities within Blowing Spring Cave and Little Sugar Creek were detected and identified in water and sediment samples. Samples were also …


Overpumping Leads To California Groundwater Arsenic Threat, Ryan G. Smith, Rosemary Knight, Scott Fendorf Jun 2018

Overpumping Leads To California Groundwater Arsenic Threat, Ryan G. Smith, Rosemary Knight, Scott Fendorf

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Water resources are being challenged to meet domestic, agricultural, and industrial needs. To complement finite surface water supplies that are being stressed by changes in precipitation and increased demand, groundwater is increasingly being used. Sustaining groundwater use requires considering both water quantity and quality. A unique challenge for groundwater use, as compared with surface water, is the presence of naturally occurring contaminants within aquifer sediments, which can enter the water supply. Here we find that recent groundwater pumping, observed through land subsidence, results in an increase in aquifer arsenic concentrations in the San Joaquin Valley of California. By comparison, historic …


Grain Size Analysis Of Massie’S Creek Near Flax Pond And Community Park, Andrew R. Rivera Apr 2018

Grain Size Analysis Of Massie’S Creek Near Flax Pond And Community Park, Andrew R. Rivera

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

The goal of this research is to better understand the stream bed conditions at the confluence of North Fork and South Fork Massie’s Creek next to Community Park in downtown Cedarville, OH. Stream depth as well as sediment type where determined as a result of field work done for this project. The depth data was then used to create a contour map of the pool behind the low-head dam that defines the lower boundary of the confluence area. Sediment distribution is represented on this map based on laboratory particle size analysis and gross piratical size analysis done in the field. …


The Stability Of Sand Waves In A Tidally-Influenced Shipping Channel, Tampa Bay, Florida, John Willis Gray Mar 2018

The Stability Of Sand Waves In A Tidally-Influenced Shipping Channel, Tampa Bay, Florida, John Willis Gray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tidally-influenced sandwaves are common coastal features present in various settings, including shipping channels. The main shipping channel in Tampa Bay under the Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge (a.k.a. the Skyway Bridge) contains such sandwave bedforms. Between the years 2000 and 2017, these bedforms have been surveyed with multibeam echosounders (MBES) on 21 occasions with ranging coverage and quality of returns. Surveys between 2000 and 2009 used a 300 kHz Kongsberg EM3000; surveys between 2015 and 2017 used a 400 kHz Reson Seabat 7125. For comparable surveys, bathymetry, backscatter, slope, curvature, planform curvature, and profile curvature maps were created and analyzed. …


Expanding The "Active Layer", Peter Ashmore, Sarah Peirce, Pauline Leduc Feb 2018

Expanding The "Active Layer", Peter Ashmore, Sarah Peirce, Pauline Leduc

Geography & Environment Publications

Church and Haschenburger (2017) make helpful distinctions around the issue of defining the active layer, with which we agree. We propose expanding discussion and definition of the ”active layer” in fluvial bedload transport to include the concept of the “morphological active layer”. This is particularly applicable to laterally unstable rivers (such as braided rivers) in which progressive morphological change over short time periods is the process by which much of the bedload transport occurs. The morphological active layer is also distinguished by variable lateral and longitudinal extent continuity over a range of flows and transport intensity. We suggest that the …


Hillslope Coupled Stream Morphology, Flow Conditions, And Their Effects On Detrital Sedimentology In Garnet Canyon, Teton Range, Wyoming, Lisa M. Tranel Jan 2018

Hillslope Coupled Stream Morphology, Flow Conditions, And Their Effects On Detrital Sedimentology In Garnet Canyon, Teton Range, Wyoming, Lisa M. Tranel

Faculty Publications-- Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Characterizing stream erosion in any steep mountain landscape is arduous, but the challenge level increases when the stream flows through a glaciated catchment frequently modified by hillslope debris. Glacial landforms and stochastic mass wasting in alpine systems may interfere with sediment delivery to downstream sites where detrital sediments are often collected to represent upstream bedrock sources. To use detrital sediments as indicators of erosion, we need to understand potential sediment accumulation in flat glaciated reaches or behind rockfall barriers. This study investigates the stream channel in Garnet Canyon, a glaciated catchment located in the central Teton Range, to describe hillslope …


Composition Of Dissolved Organic Matter In Pore Waters Of Anoxic Marine Sediments Analyzed By 1h Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Christina A. Fox, Hussain A. Abdulla, David J. Burdige, James P. Lewicki, Tomoko Komada Jan 2018

Composition Of Dissolved Organic Matter In Pore Waters Of Anoxic Marine Sediments Analyzed By 1h Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Christina A. Fox, Hussain A. Abdulla, David J. Burdige, James P. Lewicki, Tomoko Komada

OES Faculty Publications

Marine sediments are globally significant sources of dissolved organic matter (DOM) to the oceans, but the biogeochemical role of pore-water DOM in the benthic and marine carbon cycles remains unclear due to a lack of understanding about the molecular composition of DOM. To help fill this knowledge gap, we used 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to examine depth variability in the composition of pore-water DOM in anoxic sediments of Santa Barbara Basin, California Borderland. Proton detected spectra were acquired on whole samples without pre-concentration to avoid preclusion of any DOM components from the analytical window. Broad unresolved resonance (operationally …


The Effects Of Forecasted Climate Change On Mass Wasting Susceptibility In The Nooksack River Basin, Kevin Knapp Jan 2018

The Effects Of Forecasted Climate Change On Mass Wasting Susceptibility In The Nooksack River Basin, Kevin Knapp

WWU Graduate School Collection

The Nooksack River in Whatcom County, Washington­ is an essential fresh water resource for industry, agriculture, municipalities and serves as vital fish habitat. Like many mountainous watersheds in the western Cascades, the Nooksack Basin is susceptible to shallow mass wasting and debris flows because of its steep slopes, young glaciated terrain, and storms with high intensity precipitation. Understanding how projected reductions in snowpack and increased winter rainfall will affect mass-wasting susceptibility in the Nooksack basin is important, because sediment produced mass wasting will jeopardize valuable aquatic and fish habitat, increase flooding risk in the Nooksack River, and affect estuarine and …