Digital Commons Network^™

Supporting Data – T-3 Stream Stage And Streambed Well Data, Mclean County, Il, April 12, 2025 To November 1, 2025, Eric Wade Peterson, Eric Brunner

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Between April 12, 2025, and November 1, 2025, observation wells at the T-3 site in central Illinois were monitored at an upstream and downstream site along the stream. A conductivity, depth, and pressure (CTD) sensor inside each well collected continuous in-situ measurements for the water column height (mm), the water temperature (°C), and the water conductance (mS/cm). The available dataset provides in-situ readings every 15-minutes from seven (7) locations: upstream stream, streambed, and shallow aquifer, downstream stream, streambed, and shallow aquifer, and Well 12, and provides the air temperature.

Þingmúli Revisited: New Zircon-Based Perspectives On Rhyolite Petrogenesis In Iceland, Tenley J. Banik, Tamara L. Carley, Cameron D. Essex, Gabriella M. Montano

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Þingmúli (Thingmuli), an extinct volcano in eastern Iceland, has long been an archetype for fractional crystallization of tholeiitic basalt to produce rhyolite. However, a recent re-examination of Þingmúli suggests that some silicic magmas were produced under more oxidizing conditions from a combination of magma mixing and assimilation, thereby indicating two petrogenetic pathways. We present the first zircon-based analyses from Þingmúli to evaluate the extent to which the zircon record corroborates these recent findings. Zircon U-Pb age dates of ~ 8.5–10 Ma agree with published whole-rock and regional values. Zircon ε_Hf ranges from ~ + 13.6 to 16.3; zircon δ …

Analyzing A Benchtop Model Of Combined Heat Power To An Industrial Scale, Chase Steven Carlton, Ashley Leach, Andrew Martin-Biggs, Tessa Wilker

UNH URC Open (2026 and after)

Analyzing a Benchtop Model of Combined Heat Power to an Industrial Scale

Climate Change Effects On Biomass And Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are Ameliorated By Nontoxic Endophytes In Southeastern Usa Transition Zone Tall Fescue Pastures, Rebecca Kay Mcgrail, Jonathan D. Moore, A. Elizabeth Carlisle, Jim A. Nelson, Rebecca L. Mcculley

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: The plant–microbe interaction between tall fescue and its endophyte Epichloë coenophiala can affect ecosystem responses to changing rainfall patterns and increasing temperatures. Endophyte-infected (E+) stands often exhibit improved stress tolerance and differing soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to endophyte-free (E−) stands. However, it is unknown if mammalian nontoxic endophyte (NTE) strains introduced into some tall fescue cultivars confer differing stress tolerances or reduce soil GHG emissions.

Methods: We quantified the impact of fescue-NTE symbioses in Jesup and Texoma on biomass and GHG emissions in response to increased temperature (+3°C) and altered precipitation (50% lengthened interval between events) using …

A Global Synthesis Of Fragipan Silicon Concentrations And Relationships With Soil Physicochemical Properties As A Function Of Soil Parent Materials, Christopher Shepard

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Fragipans are dense, brittle subsurface horizons that restrict root growth and limit water-holding capacity. A common factor in these soils is a binding agent, potentially either phyllosilicate clay bridging, amorphous aluminosilicate/silica, or silica sorbed to Fe oxides. Others have suggested that no binding agent is present within these soil horizons and that the arrangement of individual particles is solely responsible for these horizons. In this article, a secondary data synthesis was utilized to demonstrate that silicon (Si) accumulation is a key pedogenic process in loess-derived fragipan horizons, but not in all fragipans. The average dithionite-extractable Si (Si_d) content …

Modeling The Development Of Keyhole Passage Morphology, Charlotte Boehme

2026 Research Poster Competition

Cave passage morphology is an important indicator of the hydrological conditions under which a cave passage was formed. Keyhole passages are a commonly occurring type of passage morphology that consists of a round, wide top with a smaller canyon incised in the bottom of the passage. These passages typically indicate a shift from fully water-filled to partially water-filled conditions. There are multiple mechanisms by which such a transition can occur, and little is understood about which of these mechanisms is most common, or whether aspects of keyhole passage morphology may indicate the primary formation mechanism. CaveCHAMP is a physically based …

Chronostratigraphy Using Stable Carbon Isotopes Of The Elliot Formation, South Africa, Aidan Del Pino

2026 Research Poster Competition

The Elliot Formation in South Africa preserves a fossil-bearing record spanning the Late Triassic–Early Jurassic, a time marked by significant environmental changes related to the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) and the end-Triassic extinction event. Despite its importance, the Elliot Formation remains poorly constrained due to limited chronostratigraphic markers. Chronostratigraphy is the branch of geology that correlates and dates rock units in time, allowing researchers to arrange these rock units into a chronological sequence. Globally, the Triassic–Jurassic boundary is characterized by a pronounced negative carbon isotope excursion linked to CAMP volcanism and the end Triassic extinction event. This C-isotope excursion …

The Effects Of Overwash On Barrier Island Evolution And Building A Barrier Island Measure Of Resistance, Beth Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

Barrier islands are critical for coastal communities, as they serve as a natural buffer against storm surge, waves, and the effects of rising sea levels, protecting life and property. These islands continuously evolve due to both normal and severe environmental conditions; global warming makes it increasingly difficult to predict the evolution of these islands due to increases in storm frequency and intensity. We present a cellular model of barrier island evolution consisting of biotic and abiotic processes including the effects of vegetation, wind, ocean currents, and gravity. The model is used to predict the future evolution of barrier islands off …

Origin Of The World-Class Eagle, Eagle East, And Tamarack Ni-Cu-Pge Deposits And Comparative Analysis With Other Midcontinent Rift- And Siberian Trap-Related Intrusions, Robert M. Nowak

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The 1.1 Ga Mesoproterozoic Midcontinent rift hosts the Eagle, Eagle East, and Tamarack Ni-Cu-PGE deposits and Embayment Prospect. These deposits are hosted by ultramafic igneous rocks and have some of the highest Ni-Cu grades on Earth. We use new bulk-rock data and published datasets (bulk-rock, mineral chemistry, and isotopic analyses) to examine major, minor, and trace element trends of both Midcontinent rift-related alkaline and tholeiitic intrusions. In addition, we compare the geochemical data to local kimberlite-hosted lower-crustal xenoliths and local igneous (Archean) and sedimentary (Paleoproterozoic) country rocks. We found the peridotite magma compositions dominantly consist of primitive mantle compositions with …

Report 17—Revisions To The Articles Of Organization And Procedure Of The Commission On Stratigraphic Nomenclature Of The Americas, Lynn T. Dafoe, Robert B. Macnaughton, Marie-Perre Aubry, Carlton E. Brett, James R. Lehane, Fernando Núñez-Useche, Randall C. Orndorff, Frank Brunton, Lucy E. Edwards, Richard H. Fluegeman, Howard Harper, Robert Matthew Joeckel, Norman P. Lasca, B. H. Tew

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

Several revisions to the Articles of Organization and Procedure for the North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature have been adopted following the 75th, 79th, and 80th annual meetings of the Commission in 2020, 2024 and 2025, respectively. Of these, the most substantial change was revision of Article III regarding membership composition of the Commission and the addition of new member organizations from Central and South America and the Caribbean region. As a result, the Commission also voted to change its name to be more inclusive of the expanding membership, with approval of the name: Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature of the …

Impact Of Land Use On Soil Properties, Clay Mineralogy, And Behavior Of Ammonium Across A Precipitation Gradient, Isabel Delamater

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Like soil texture, clay mineralogy is considered a permanent or inherent characteristic of soils reflecting the influence of soil forming factors over long periods of time. Despite the importance of clay mineralogy in providing ecosystem services, much remains unknown about whether land use (native grassland sod versus no-tillage) can modify clay mineralogy under short periods of time. Furthermore, in no-tillage agroecosystems, lower crop yields are often ascribed to immobilization of added N fertilizer where inorganic nitrogen (such as ammonium) is converted to organic nitrogen. The possible role of clay mineralogy in retaining added ammonium has been overlooked in no-tillage systems. …

Examining The Spatial Variability Of Summer Heat In New York City Using Landsat Land Surface Temperature, Ryan Kabir

Dissertations and Theses

Extreme heat is the leading weather-related cause of death in the United States, and in New York City (NYC) approximately 370 heat-related deaths occur annually on average. The spatial distribution of surface heat exposure across NYC is highly uneven, low-income neighborhoods and communities of color consistently face higher temperatures, yet the intraurban spatial structure of land surface temperature (LST) during heatwave events has not been systematically characterized at high resolution. The New York City Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment (NPCC4) identifies this as an explicit research gap, noting that its own projections, based on global climate models downscaled to …

Climate Change Impacts On Hydrology In The Upper James Watershed, Imiya Mudiyanselage Chathuranika, Dalya Ismael

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Hydrological modeling of the Upper James Watershed (UJW), Virginia, is critical for predicting water availability, flood management, agriculture, ecosystem protection, and hydropower production under increasing climate change. The Hydrologic Engineering Center-Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) is applied to evaluate climate change impacts on key hydrological components within the watershed. Future climate conditions were assessed for the near (NF: 2026-2050), mid (MF: 2051-2075), and far (FF: 2076-2100) periods using three Global Climate Models (GCMs) under Shared Socioeconomic Pathways SSP 2-4.5 and SSP 5-8.5. Climate data were bias-corrected using the Linear Scaling Method (LSM) and used to drive the HEC-HMS model. Results project …

Understanding How Erosion And Unit Thickness Alter The Deformation Of Fold-Thrust Belts, Kaitlyn E. Gallis, Caroline M. Burberry

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

When a collision of two tectonic plates occurs, fold thrust belts develop, which are widely recognized as the most common mode in which the crust accommodates shortening. Most analog models do not consider erosion when documenting fold thrust belt formation. The lack of experiments on this topic means there are limited consistent studies on the relationship between erosion and deformation. Preliminary experiments suggest that the typical forward breaking thrust sequence is altered by eroding the hinterland, something this experiment series aims to prove or disprove. The new contribution of this work is a systematic evaluation of the variation in initial …

Changepoint Analyses Confirms Global Tropical Cyclone Frequency Decline, Michael Wehner, Thomas Fisher, Norou Diawara, Robert Lund

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Changes in tropical cyclone frequencies as the climate warms is a topic of significant current debate [1, 2]. There is no accepted theory of how tropical cyclogenesis might respond to a warmer ocean-atmosphere system as multiple controlling factors exist [3–7]. Anthropogenic warming of surface ocean temperatures due to increased greenhouse gas concentrations [8] increases the potential for tropical cyclogenesis [9–11]; however, realized cyclogenesis also requires an initial local disturbance [12–16] to develop. Most multi-decadal tropical cyclone permitting climate models (i.e. resolutions of 15-50km) exhibit frequency decreases in warmer climates, despite the increase in tropical cyclogenesis potential [17–25]. In this paper, …

Remediation Impacts Metal Concentrations And Metal Tolerant Bacteria In Soils Of The Missouri Tri-State Mining District, Ophelia R. Pettington

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

After over 100 years of Zn and Pb mining in the Tri-State mining district (TSMD), former mines continue to be sources of metals. Metal contaminated soils can be remediated using plant-microbe interactions. Plants manipulate their microbiome and recruit microbes to increase metal tolerance. Remediating bacteria are site-specific and identifying native microbes can accelerate remediation efforts. Studies relating microbes and metal concentrations in remediated areas in the TSMD are scarce. I collected root and bulk zone soils associated with Andropogon virginicus from remediated and non-remediated sites in Webb City, MO. I used 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to evaluate the bacterial …

Flood-Regime Shifts Across The Lower Midwest, Usa: Identifying Patterns Through Flood Magnitude–Frequency Analysis And Clustering, Kaiser Mostafiz

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Flood regimes describe how flood behavior changes in magnitude, recurrence, and occurrence through time. Changes in these flood characteristics can affect flood hazards, river systems, infrastructure, and floodplain management. This thesis examines flood-regime change across the Lower Midwest, focusing on Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri from 1961 to 2020. Records from 1,452 U.S. Geological Survey gaging stations were initially compiled, and 208 stations were retained after screening for record availability and analytical consistency. Flood-regime change was evaluated between two 30-year study periods: Period 1 (1961–1990) and Period 2 (1991–2020). The analysis combined Log-Pearson Type III flood-frequency analysis using L-moments in …

A Geospatial Assessment Of Groundwater Salinization In A Multi-Aquifer System: Durango, Mexico, Juan Lopez-Sierra

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Groundwater salinization poses a critical environmental concern for water resource sustainability in arid and semi-arid regions. This study evaluates spatial and temporal patterns of groundwater salinity across the state of Durango, Mexico, using total dissolved solids (TDS), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), as salinity indicators and nitrate-nitrogen (NO₃–N) as an anthropogenic indicator. Groundwater quality data were obtained from (CONAGUA), a Mexican water agency. To assess salinity variations with respect to time, while minimizing interannual sampling bias, two multi-year sampling periods were selected: 2012-2013, and 2020-2021. Final datasets consisted of 122 wells for 2012–2013 and 131 wells for 2020–2021. The wells were …

Considerations For Assigned Water After Expiration Of The 2007 Guidelines, Kathryn Sorensen, Sarah Porter, Anne Castle, John Fleck, Eric Kuhn, Jack Schmidt, Katherine Tara

The Traveling Wilburys of the Colorado River

As Colorado River supplies and demands reach razor-thin margins, new tools to provide adaptive capacity will play a critical role in sustaining communities across the West. We must reduce our consumption of water, while finding ways to cushion the impact. One of the most innovative tools for doing this, developed over the last two decades, is “Assigned Water” - giving users the ability to store conserved water earmarked for their own future use. Originally developed as “Intentionally Created Surplus” in the 2007 Colorado River Interim Guidelines, Assigned Water has been revised and expanded through U.S. Mexico Treaty Minutes and as …

Modeling The Effects Of Subsurface Tile Drainage On Atrazine And Nitrate Transport In Till Soils Of Iowa, Madison Hobbs

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Tile drainage design influences groundwater flow pathways, residence time, and agrochemical transport in agricultural soils. This study evaluates how differences in drainage design affect subsurface flow behavior and contaminant transport in glacial till soils. A groundwater model was developed to compare conventional and controlled drainage systems with a shallow drainage system, and particle tracking was used to examine flow paths and residence times.

The results show that tile drainage creates distinct shallow and deeper flow pathways. In the conventional and controlled model, 88% of particles were captured by drains, while 12% reached the general head boundary. The shallow system drains …

Using Low-Cost Sensors For Source Attribution And Health Assessment: An Air Quality Study In Brownsville, Texas, Sai Deepak Pinakana, Kabir Bahadur Shah, Daniel Jaffe, Juan L. Gonzalez, Owen Temby, Gabriel Ibarra-Mejia, Amit U. Raysoni

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Air quality monitoring remains a challenge in areas lacking or having sparse federal monitoring infrastructure, posing significant barriers to public health research. This study demonstrates the usage of low-cost sensors in addressing gaps in air quality monitoring, source attribution, and health risk assessment in a Brownsville, TX neighborhood impacted by emissions from a barite and celestite mineral processing unit. PM2.5 concentrations were measured using PurpleAir sensors deployed across three residential locations, with the site nearest to the processing unit recording a 24-h averaged PM2.5 concentration of 25.12 μg/m3—approximately 2.79 times higher than the nearest Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) …

Assessment Of Local Amplification Causes At Coastal Strong Motion Stations With Elevated Ground Motion Residuals From The 2024 Tewksbury, New Jersey Earthquake, Patrick Daniele

Open Access Master's Theses

Elevated ground motion amplitudes at individual stations are commonly observed in earthquake datasets, yet the physical causes of these residuals are often not explicitly identified. This study investigates two seismic monitoring stations in southeastern New York that recorded amplified motions during the 2024 Mw 4.8 Tewksbury, New Jersey earthquake. A consistent set of established geophysical methods -- including multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW), passive ambient noise arrays (MAM), stochastic inversion, horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) analysis, and directional spectral ratio techniques -- was applied to directly characterize site conditions and identify the mechanisms contributing to amplification.

Results show that elevated …

Short-Term Response Mechanisms Of Water Quantity And Quality Of Daihai Lake Under Temperature-Driven Changes, Hao Zhang, Xiaohong Shi, Xianhua Li, Junping Lu, Ruizhong Gao, Xixi Wang, Shuhao Zhang, Longmei Xie, Yu Liu

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Temperature-driven mechanisms involving complex feedback and lag that affect the evolution of hydrological processes and ecological functions in cold- and arid-region lakes represent a core scientific issue in current hydrology and lake ecology research. In this study, based on month-scale temperature and environmental factor data from Daihai Lake in Inner Mongolia from January to December 2023, statistical methods (redundancy analysis, Tukey's test analysis, correlation analysis, structural equation modeling), time series analysis methods (dynamic time warping), and machine learning methods (random forest) were combined. A hierarchical and phased response framework was constructed that encompassed driver identification, path tracing, lag characterization, and …

Flood-Season Surface Water-Groundwater Interactions Across Distinct Geomorphic Units In A Yellow River Great Bend Tributary Basin, Yinlong Wang, Ruizhong Gao, Debin Jia, Xixi Wang, Tingxi Liu, Xiaomin Liu, Shiming Bai

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Surface water-groundwater interactions are complex in the Great Bend region of the Yellow River. Clarifying water exchange and source differences among geomorphic units is important for understanding regional hydrological processes and improving water resources management. In this study, the Wulanmulun River Basin, a typical tributary of the Yellow River, was selected as the study area. A total of 90 water samples were collected, including 25 river water samples, 43 groundwater samples, and 22 precipitation samples. Gibbs diagrams, multivariate statistical analysis, PMF, and MixSIAR models were used to investigate the hydrochemical and isotopic characteristics, source contributions, and transformation relationships of surface …

Plant Practices And Community At The Heart Of Hopewell: Paleoethnobotany At The Overly Site And Beyond, Abigail Deewaard

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Paleoethnobotanical analyses of Ohio Hopewell habitation sites in past decades have shed light on the subsistence practices, settlement patterns, and environmental management of Indigenous peoples engaged in what archaeologists describe as the Hopewell phenomenon. However, comparatively less attention has been paid to the social dimensions of plant use, particularly at habitation sites in the Scioto Hopewell region. Hopewell is an archaeological term that refers to the Middle Woodland (ca. 100 BCE–400 CE) network of interregional relationships across eastern North America characterized by long-distance exchange, monumental earthwork construction, and ceremonial practices including the honoring of ancestors. This thesis applies a social …

Sedimentological And Geochemical Investigation Of The Origin Of Upper Pennsylvanian Black Shales, East-Central Appalachian Basin, Tyler Hickey

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In the east-central Allegheny foreland basin, laminated black shales overlying Upper Pennsylvanian Glenshaw Fm. coal seams record paleoenvironmental conditions associated with the termination of peat swamp deposition before, during, and after the Carboniferous Coal Forest Collapse (CCFC), a major paleobotanical evolutionary event during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA) that contributed to extinction of lepidodendrons near the Desmoinesian-Missourian boundary (~306 Ma). Previous investigations of the CCFC commonly implicate an episode of aridification during intensification of LPIA glaciation that stressed the lepidodendrons beyond their ecological tipping point; however, the cause of this aridification is unclear. An investigation of Glenshaw Fm. black …

Bridging The Gap: Evaluating Gnss-Derived Total Water Storage As A Groundwater Monitoring Tool In The Colorado River Basin, Michelle Lee Barton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Groundwater resources in the Colorado River Basin are critically stressed yet remain under-monitored and under-regulated, creating urgent need for reliable, continuous observations at multiple spatial scales. This study evaluates the performance of the University of Montana Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) terrestrial water storage dataset as a tool for bridging groundwater monitoring gaps across the Upper and Lower Colorado River Basins between 2006 and 2024. We compare GNSS-derived total water storage and groundwater storage estimates against NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite observations and in-situ groundwater well measurements at regional and sub-regional scales. We employ a Bayesian autoregressive …

Integrated Seismic And Sequence Stratigraphic Analysis Of The Abu Madi Formation, Baltim Field, Nile Delta, Egypt, Nouran Mostafa Eissa, Mostafa Toni, Alhussein Adham Basheer, Amr Talaat, Amir Ismail

Trends in advanced sciences and technology

Despite the economic significance of the Messinian Abu Madi Formation as a primary gas reservoir target in the Nile Delta Basin, a high-resolution, field-scale integration of seismic sequence stratigraphy with quantitative petrophysical characterization remains lacking for the Baltim area. This study addresses this gap by presenting an integrated seismic sequence stratigraphic and petrophysical analysis of the Upper Miocene Abu Madi Formation within the prolific Baltim gas fields, offshore Nile Delta, Egypt. The objectives are to characterize its depositional architecture, delineate reservoir distribution, and assess hydrocarbon potential. The workflow synthesizes well log data from five key wells with a grid of …

Swimming In Uncertainty: Filling Data Gaps And Providing An Educational Platform For Beach Water Quality At Tybee Island, Georgia, Lukas Roberson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

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Swimming in beaches water contaminated with high levels of bacteria can make you sick. Current monitoring at the public beaches on Tybee Island consists of weekly monitoring and enumeration of fecal indicator bacteria that takes 24 hours for results. If the number of bacteria exceed regulatory limits, a public health advisory is issued, and affected waters are retested until …

High-Resolution Mapping Of Soil Moisture Variation Using Uas Thermal And Multispectral Imagery, Jackline Amma Timah

Theses and Dissertations

In agricultural landscapes, soil moisture regulates hydrologic partitioning, nutrient transport and water quality, land-atmosphere energy exchange that shapes local climate, and ecosystem resilience. However, traditional monitoring approaches, such as in-situ sensors and satellite imagery, often lack the spatial resolution required to capture fine-scale soil moisture variability. This study evaluated whether unmanned aerial system (UAS)-derived thermal, multispectral, and terrain variables can capture fine-scale spatial variability in volumetric water content (VWC) within an SRB in central Illinois.

High-resolution imagery was collected and paired with 50 field-measured VWC observations. Land surface temperature (LST), vegetation indices (NDVI and NDRE), spectral bands, and slope were …