Earth Sciences Commons^™

The Legacy Of Contamination By Lead Smelters In Missouri, Robert S. Armstrong

MSU Graduate Theses

Missouri has a rich history of lead mining. In the smelting process lead particles are emitted, which may be toxic to plants and animals. This study focuses on two primary lead smelters, Herculaneum and Glover, in Missouri. Smelting operations have ceased at these two sites, and unlike Herculaneum, Glover has no reported lead concentrations. Findings from air and sediments of these two sites were compared to background conditions and to each other. Thirty-three samples were collected from Herculaneum and Glover (thirty samples and three replicates) and eleven samples (ten samples and one replicate) for background. For Herculaneum sediment, lead levels …

Effects Of Slope And Defoliation Intensity On The Effectiveness Of Desert Wheatgrass For Reduced Runoff And Soil Erosion Under Simulated Rainfall, Haitao Zuo, Juying Wu

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

No abstract provided.

Plant And Soil Responses To Sediment Deposition And Nutrient Enrichment In Healthy, Deteriorating, And Newly Created Coastal Marshes In Barataria Basin, Louisiana: Implications For Mississippi River Sediment Diversions, Gina N. Groseclose

LSU Master's Theses

To offset wetland loss in the Mississippi River Delta, sediment diversions that will re-introduce river water and sediment into wetlands are being planned for the lower Mississippi River. River diversions will also deliver high nutrient loads, which may reduce belowground plant productivity, reducing inputs of organic matter important for marsh accretion to keep pace with sea-level rise. However, belowground productivity responses to the combinatory effects of sediment and nutrients are unknown. To test the hypotheses that nutrient enrichment and sediment deposition interact to influence vegetation structure, belowground plant productivity and decomposition, and surface accretion, a field experiment was implemented in …

Using The Electromagnetic Induction Survey Method To Examine The Depth To Clay Soil Layer (Bt Horizon) In Playa Wetlands, Yuan Xue, Zhenghong Tang, Qiao Hu, Jeff Drahota

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Purpose Sediment accumulation has been and continues to be a significant threat to the integrity of the playa wetland ecosystem. The purpose of this study was to determine the vertical depth to the clay soil layer (Bt horizon) and thus to calculate the thickness of sediments accumulated in playa wetlands.

Materials and methods This study used the electromagnetic induction (EMI) survey method, specifically EM38-MK2 equipment, to measure the vertical depth to the clay soil layer at the publicly managed wetlands in the Rainwater Basin, Nebraska, USA.

Results and discussion The results indicated that the depth to the clay soil layer …

Development Of A Hydrodynamic And Sediment Transport Model For Green Bay, Lake Michigan, Bahram Khazaei

Theses and Dissertations

Sediment dynamics are strongly linked with biogeochemical and physical changes in estuarine systems. Understanding the links between sediment processes and ecosystem responses is necessary for the restoration of degraded systems. Located in Northern US, and one of the largest freshwater estuaries on earth, Green Bay is a distinct example of these degraded systems. Rapid development and anthropogenic activities increased nutrient loading rates into the bay and led to a major disruption of the pre-existing biogeochemical regimes in the ecosystem. Contaminated and nutrient-rich sediments were discharged to the bay by the Fox River for almost half a century. Green Bay’s seasonal-, …

Sedimentary Dynamics And Water Quality In Floodplains Of The Lower Mississippi River Near Natchez, Mississippi, During The 2018 And 2019 Floods, Jansen Costello

Master's Theses

The Lower Mississippi River (LMR) near Natchez, Mississippi, experienced intervals of major flooding during the 2018 and 2019 water years. While federal agencies sample sediment and water quality in the main LMR channel, little is known about sedimentary dynamics, water quality, and nutrient concentrations of the overbank water column within the embanked LMR floodplain. These data are needed to support ecological floodplain restoration efforts and provide context for downstream concerns including sediment delivery to coastal zones and hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico.

This study monitored the overbank flood pulses and associated sediment deposition along the LMR embanked floodplain during …

Impacts Of Seagrass Dynamics On The Coupled Long‐Term Evolution Of Barrier‐Marsh‐Bay Systems, I.R.B. Reeves, L. J. Moore, E. B. Goldstein, A. B. Murray, Matthew L. Kirwan

VIMS Articles

Seagrass provides a wide range of economically and ecologically valuable ecosystem services, with shoreline erosion control often listed as a key service, but can also alter the sediment dynamics and waves within back‐barrier bays. Here we incorporate seagrass dynamics into an existing barrier‐marsh exploratory model, GEOMBEST++, to examine the coupled interactions of the back‐barrier bay with both adjacent (marsh) and nonadjacent (barrier island) subsystems. While seagrass reduces marsh edge erosion rates and increases progradation rates in many of our 288 model simulations, seagrass surprisingly increases marsh edge erosion rates when sediment export from the back‐barrier basin is negligible because the …

Hudson River Estuary Tidal Marsh Sediment Data, Brian Yellen, Jonathan Woodruff

Data and Datasets

This repository contains data from sediment cores collected at six tidal wetland complexes that are located within the Hudson River Estuary. The sites include Stockport Marsh, Esopus Delta, Tivoli North Bay, Tivoli South Bay, Vanderburgh Cove, and Iona Island Marsh. A variety of core collection tools and methods were used to collect uncompacted records, including gouge coring, Russian peat coring, and piston push coring, with the method determined by coring environment. The general workflow for cores included (1) splitting; (2) Itrax XRF scanning; (3) subsampling cores ~10 cm spacing; (4) drying and burning samples for percent water, organic, and mineral …

Deep Sea Sediments Of The Arctic Central Basin: A Potential Sink For Microplastics, Colleen Mcmaken

Scientific Communication News

No abstract provided.

Tracing Source Contributions To Assess Spatial Patterns Of Erosion In A Mixed Land Use Environment: Otter Creek Catchment, Fort Knox, Kentucky, Cara Peterman

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

There is an inherent difficulty in predicting source contributions of fine-grained fluvial sediment in mixed land-use watersheds. Over a 56-week period, the spatial and temporal variability in sediment-source contributions and water quality was monitored at three sites along Otter Creek in Hardin and Meade counties, Kentucky (USA). The 203-km² study area drains rural and agricultural lands and includes Fort Knox Army Post’s tracked-vehicle training areas. The main objectives for sediment source apportionment were to 1) identify and differentiate characteristics of civilian and military source soils to Otter Creek and 2) to apportion sediment at locations along Otter Creek to …