Hydrology Commons^™

Extremely High Diversity Of Sulfate Minerals In Caves Of The Irazú Volcano (Costa Rica) Related To Crater Lake And Fumarolic Activity, Andrés Ulloa, Fernando Gázquez, Aurelio Sanz-Arranz, Jesús Medina, Fernando Rull, José María Calaforra, Guillermo E. Alvarado, María Martínez, Geoffroy Avard, J. Maarten De Moor, Jo De Waele

International Journal of Speleology

The caves of the Irazú volcano (Costa Rica), became accessible after the partial collapse of the NW sector of the Irazú volcano in 1994, offering the opportunity to investigate active minerogenetic processes in volcanic cave environments. We performed a detailed mineralogical and geochemical study of speleothems in the caves Cueva los Minerales and Cueva Los Mucolitos, both located in the northwest foothills of the main crater. Mineralogical analyses included X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy, while geochemical characterization used Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) coupled to Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). In addition, measurements of environmental parameters in the caves, cave ...

Conservation And Survey Division. Generalized Soil Map Of Nebraska

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Groundwater Regions In Nebraska

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Drip Water Measurements From Carlsbad Cavern: Implications Towards Paleoclimate Records Yielded From Evaporative-Zone Stalagmites, Victor J. Polyak, Jessica B.T. Rasmussen, Yemane Asmerom

International Journal of Speleology

Stalagmites can host numerous potential climate proxies (stable and radiogenic isotopes, trace elements, annual and non-annual banding, grayscale, growth hiatuses, mineral assemblage). Reproducibility and/or integration of proxy results between one or more stalagmites will become increasingly important, and ideally, climate records generated by multiple stalagmites from the same cave or cave room are expected to be near-identical. The reality is that stalagmites from the same cave room can yield differing results to some degree, especially in cave environment zones that are evaporative. Our drip water study in an evaporative shallow-depth cave environment in Carlsbad Cavern shows that adjacent drip ...

Column Tests Of Nitrate Breakthrough Behavior In Subsurface Sediments To Understand Transport In The Root-Zone, Rebecca Sally Haworth, Emma Rose Goodwin

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Annagnps For Simulating The Inundation Of Drained And Farmed Potholes In The Prairie Pothole Region Of Iowa, Pawan Upadhyaya, L. O. S. Pruski, Amy Kaleita, Michelle L. Soupir

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Publications

Closed surface depressions, also known as “potholes” play an important role in the hydrologic cycle and provide multiple environmental services including flood mitigation, water quality improvements and wildlife habitat. In the Prairie Pothole Region, which covers approximately 715,000 km2, including parts of three Canadian provinces (Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta) and five states in the U.S. (Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota, and Montana), these potholes are typically farmed and are a dominant feature in the landscape. In this study, we evaluate the Annualized Agriculture Non-Point Source (AnnAGNPS) model for simulating the inundation behavior of two farmed potholes, termed ...

Calibration Parameter Selection And Watershed Hydrology Model Evaluation In Time And Frequency Domains, Karthik Kumarasamy, Patrick Belmont

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Watershed scale models simulating hydrological and water quality processes have advanced rapidly in sophistication, process representation, flexibility in model structure, and input data. With calibration being an inevitable step prior to any model application, there is need for a simple procedure to assess whether or not a parameter should be adjusted for calibration. We provide a rationale for a hierarchical selection of parameters to adjust during calibration and recommend that modelers progress from parameters that are most uncertain to parameters that are least uncertain, namely starting with pure calibration parameters, followed by derived parameters, and finally measured parameters. We show ...

Use Of Floodscape Mapping To Assess Changes In Inundation Frequency Of The Upper Mississippi River, Jeffrey L. Swanson

Celebration of Learning

As an alternative to probability-based maps, DeJager (and others) reconceptualized floodplain mapping using the notion of “floodscapes” (DeJager et al., 2015). A floodscape map is developed using daily stage data and high-resolution topography to create maps that depict the average number of days of inundation (per year or growing season). Floodscape maps reveal intricate and continuous patterns of high-frequency flows that are critically important to floodplain ecological functioning. DeJager found significant correlations between floodscape inundation and riparian vegetation patterns but single floodscape maps only provide snapshots in time. This current research develops and utilizes multiple floodscape maps to quantify changes ...

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Effects Of Urbanization, Mesophication And Prescribed Burns On Oak Woodlands In The Chicago Metropolitan Area, Chad Populorum

Celebration of Learning

Urban expansion has had devastating impacts on forest ecosystems, especially within the past century. Human attempts to dominate nature have diminished natural disturbance regimes, which have maintained the biodiversity and historic composition of these ecosystems. Fires have been a prominent force in maintaining the structure of oak, hickory and other heliophytic (sun loving and fire-adapted) forest systems. Human induced fire suppression has led to mesophication across North America. Mesophication is the transition from drier conditions with open canopies to wetter conditions with closed canopies. These new conditions decrease the survival rates of these important species and begin to favor mesophytic ...

Results Of Test-Hole Drilling For Observation Well Planning In The Lower Loup Natural Resources District, Spring 2017, Douglas R. Hallum P.G., Sue Olafsen Lackey, Steven S. Sibray

Conservation and Survey Division

The High Plains Aquifer underlies much of Nebraska. It is the primary source of groundwater within the Lower Loup Natural Resources District (LLNRD) of central Nebraska. Water derived from the aquifer is an important natural resource for the area and supplies water for recreation, wildlife and agriculture, as well as domestic, municipal, and industrial uses. Falling spring water levels measured in existing observation and irrigation wells have raised concerns about possible changes in water availability, groundwater-surface water relationships and water quality in the area, prompting the LLNRD to propose test holes and the collection of additional groundwater data in the ...

Modified Kernel Density Estimators For Gridded Estimation Of Precipitation Climatologies, Gregory Benton

Applied Mathematics Graduate Theses & Dissertations

Estimation of gridded precipitation is a major point of interest in climatological and hydro- logical research. Using a novel approach based around kernel density estimation we attempt to improve on a currently available estimators of gridded precipitation in both accuracy and under- standing uncertainty in predictions by generating robust precipitation climatologies. The method is constructed and validated using the United States Historical Climatology Network dataset covering the continental United States with sparse and irregular observation stations and accurate probability distributions that capture seasonal variance in the data are generated. Spatial estimates of local climatologies at arbitrary locations, both in and ...

A Comparative Study Of The Role Of Values In Reasoning About Socio-Hydrological Issues In Undergraduate Students From Developed And Developing Countries, Destini Petitt

Dissertations & Theses in Natural Resources

In a world that is becoming increasingly connected and exploited, it is essential to understand how students’ values influence socio-scientific reasoning, particularly when dealing with complex, multifaceted, ever-connected water-related issues. This research strives to better understand stakeholder reasoning to provide teachers and decision-makers with ways to implement those stakeholders’ ideals into choices about complex socio-hydrological issues. Moreover, with 96% of research behavioral research being conducted on peoples from developed countries – who only represent 17% of the world’s population – this study strives to understand how peoples from developing countries – who represent 83% of the world’s population – reason. For this ...

Investigating Mechanisms Of Hydraulic Conductivity Transience In Sandy Streambeds, Wilhelm Fraundorfer

Dissertations & Theses in Natural Resources

Streambed hydraulic conductivity (K) is known to be spatially and temporally heterogeneous, but few attempts to understand the controls on temporal variability have been made. This study documents temporal K transience and demonstrates how hydraulic, geophysical, and sedimentological methods can be combined to understand the processes that give rise to changes in streambed K. Falling head permeameter tests and slug tests were conducted to determine vertical K (K_v) and K (slug test K), respectively. These tests were repeated three times over a twelve-week period on the same grid at a depth of 0.5 meters below the bed of ...

Using Landlab, A Fine Scale Biogeography Model, To Measure The Sustainability Of Semi-Arid Vegetation In A Changing Climate, Lucy Gelb

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The distribution of vegetation in water-limited ecosystems is a product of complex and nonlinear interactions between climatic forcings (e.g., precipitation, temperature, solar radiation) and the underlying geomorphic template, which includes topography, geology, and soils. Changes in climate, particularly in precipitation and temperature, can dramatically alter the organization of vegetation. This is especially true in ecotones such as our area of study: the semi-arid transition between Great Basin shrub-steppe ecosystems and the coniferous forests of the Northern Rockies. Understanding and predicting how the spatial composition of terrestrial vegetation communities will change in these ecosystems is critical to predicting important future ...

Applications Of Reservoir Limnology Theory And Steady-State Modeling To Eutrophication Management In Beaver Lake, Arkansas, Matthew Rich

Theses and Dissertations

Reservoir limnology theory predicts that phytoplankton biomass (PB) is greatest in riverine-transition zones and least in lacustrine zones leading to an inverse pattern in water clarity. These theoretical patterns were utilized to create a statistical model of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), an indicator of PB, and Secchi transparency (ST), an indicator of Chl-a, in Beaver Lake, Arkansas, a 12,800-ha reservoir, in order to hindcast historical conditions. Sampling for Chl-a, ST, and photic depth occurred semimonthly at 12 locations along a 78-km transect from the river inflow to the dam during the 2015 growing season. The ratio of Chl-a and ST measured ...

Floods, Drying, Habitat Connectivity, And Fish Occupancy Dynamics In Restored And Unrestored Oxbows Of West Central Iowa, Usa, Jesse R. Fischer, Bryan D. Bakevich, Colin P. Shea, Clay L. Pierce, Michael C. Quist

Natural Resource Ecology and Management Publications

1. In the agricultural landscape of the Midwestern USA, waterways are highly altered. Oxbows are among the few remaining off‐channel habitats associated with streams, supporting fish assemblages that include the endangered Topeka shiners Notropis topeka in portions of their remaining range. Oxbow restorations seek to increase the number and quality of oxbows for Topeka shiners. For oxbows to provide optimal habitat, periods of isolation from streams and connection with streams during floods are necessary.

2. Water levels and patterns of drying and hydrological connectivity between 12 oxbows and their neighboring streams in West Central Iowa were continuously monitored from ...

The Impact Of Land Use On Nitrate-N Movement And Storage In The Vadose Zone Of The Hastings’ Whpa, Craig Adams

Dissertations & Theses in Natural Resources

Nebraska has one of the largest agricultural economies in the United States and relies heavily on irrigation and fertilizer application to maintain crop yields. Over-irrigation and continuous application of nitrogen (N) in many areas has led to accumulation of nitrate-N in soils and sediments throughout the state’s vadose zone. Because nitrate-N is both persistent and mobile, groundwater concentrations in many areas of Nebraska and other agriculturally intensive states are increasing. Nitrate-N contamination of public and private drinking water supplies that utilize groundwater are of particular concern. Vadose zone sampling is an important method for rapidly assessing the effect of ...

A Hydrologic And Hydraulic Analysis Of Massie’S Creek Gorge, Greene County, Oh, Using Hec-Ras, Joshua W. Perez

The Research and Scholarship Symposium

Massie’s Creek is a small tributary of the Little Miami River, located in southwest Ohio near the village of Cedarville. For approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) it flows westward through the Indian Mound Reserve Park, an area which occasionally undergoes flooding. In the first ½ mile (0.8 km) of the park, the stream is confined by a deep gorge, 40 feet (12 m) or more tall, and quickly flattens to a meandering stream through the rest of the park. The present study describes the application of HEC-RAS with the integration of ArcGIS for steady flow analyses ...

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

The Research and Scholarship Symposium

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 ...

Reconstructing Late Holocene Paleofloods Along The Middle Tennessee River And Exploring Links With Climate And Land Use, Lance Stewart

Scholars Week

Sediment stored in floodplains and low alluvial terraces along the middle Tennessee River reflects flood frequency and magnitude during the past ca. 2800 years. This study uses the stratigraphy, sedimentology, and geochronology of three alluvial terraces to infer past flooding and explore links with climate change and anthropogenic land-use practices. Four sites located on different geomorphic landforms adjacent to the Tennessee River preserve records of at least 11 major flood events from 2780 ± 185 BP to 100 ± 10 BP. Buried soils at three sites are older than ca. 1380 BP and suggest a relatively recent period of landscape stability compared ...