Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Water Quality Responses To A Semi-Arid Beaver Meadow In Boise, Idaho, Luise Bayer Winslow

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Beavers have been instrumental in shaping the North American riverine landscape. However, land use change and beaver trapping have caused large decreases in beaver populations, resulting in fundamental changes to river morphology, hydrology, and biogeochemical function. Effective river restoration and remediation of arid western rivers relies on a comprehensive interpretation of how beaver activity influences water quantity and quality. In this study, I compared two stream reaches with and without beaver dams in a semi-arid watershed, to quantify the effects of beaver activity on hydrology and biogeochemistry. Within each reach, I combined dilution gauging and stream tracer experiments to determine …

Chamoli Disaster: Pronounced Changes In Water Quality And Flood Plains Using Sentinel Data, Sansar Raj Meena, Akshansa Chauhan, Kushanav Bhuyan, Ramesh P. Singh

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The Himalayan rivers are vulnerable to devastating flooding caused by landslides and outbreak of glacial lakes. On 7 February 2021, a deadly disaster occurred near the Rishi Ganga Hydropower Plant in the Rishi Ganga River, killing more than 100 people. During the event, a large volume of debris and broken glacial fragments flooded the Rishi Ganga River and washed away the Rishi Ganga Hydropower plant ongoing project. This study presents the impact of the Chamoli disaster on the water quality of Rishi Ganga River in upstream near Tapovan and Ganga River in downstream near Haridwar through remote sensing data. Five …

Biochar Applications To The Remediation Of Lead And Polychlorinated Biphenyl Contaminated Water, Victory Itua Igberase

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the performance of biochar materials as adsorbents to remove Pb and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) in aqueous solutions. Batch adsorption and column experiment packed with biochar and geomaterials (pumice) in 1:1 volume ratio was evaluated to address the efficacy of biochar in removing Pb while only batch adsorption was employed for PCB removal with biochar materials. Overall, PT biochars performed the best (42–53 mg g−1) followed by BE biochars (10–32 mg g−1) and AB biochars (17–27 mg g−1) while high temperature biochars were favored in terms of maximum Pb adsorption capacity. Column Pb breakthrough showed similar results, with …

Heavy Metal Contamination In Drinking Water And Its Connection To Superfund Site Related Environmental Injustice, Emily Caruso

Honors Theses

Equal access to clean, potable drinking water is crucial for our society’s health and advancement. In 2014, the infamous water crisis in Flint, Michigan, shed light on the widespread water quality issues impacting numerous communities in America. In response to the Flint water crisis, Union College established the Union College Water Initiative, providing free drinking water analyses to the public. This initiative aims to raise awareness and educate people by analyzing heavy metals commonly found in drinking water—specifically lead, copper, and zinc.

As a part of this initiative, I collected over 300 cold drinking water samples from residences, schools, and …

Development Of A Python Library To Facilitate Wqx Dataset Exchanges, Jonathan Musselwhite, Fernando Rojano

Presentations

The assistance of programming tools to speed up the exchange of water quality datasets are necessary. These tools reduce and simplify the steps currently needed to transfer datasets from water quality monitoring stations to public databases. Here it is presented a library developed in Python that programmatically covers the steps related to the upload of datasets following the framework of the Water Quality Exchange (WQX) of the US EPA. This library is mainly characterized by its ability to efficiently connect and transfer data formatted as CSV or XLSX files via the WQX to the National STORET Data Warehouse by mostly …

Evaluating Impacts Of Anthropogenic Disturbance To Wetland Water Quality Functions, Sindupa De Silva, Jim Anderson, Jason A. Hubbart, Michael P. Strager, Elliott Kellner, Christopher T. Rota, Elizabeth A. Byers

Presentations

Wetland ecosystems play fundamental roles in regulating our freshwater resources, yet they are not comprehensively protected from degradation and loss. West Virginia, USA has wetlands across diverse landscapes and geography that feed into both the Chesapeake Bay and Gulf of Mexico. The state is also comprised of diverse anthropogenic land-use practices. We are assessing 200 wetlands over 2 years to evaluate how anthropogenic disturbance impact wetland water quality functions. Select water quality parameters (20), and relative diversity and abundance of vegetation and macroinvertebrates will be used as bioindicators. They will be compared with GIS assessments of watershed land cover/ land-use …

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 …

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, J. Derek Loftis, Peter W. Bernhardt

OES Faculty Publications

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 …

The Quantitative Assessment Of Pond Scum: An Examination Of The Biogeochemistry Of Phosphorus Cycling In The Belgrade Lakes, Abbey M. Sykes

Honors Theses

The internal recycling phosphorus in freshwater lake bottom sediments represents a significant source of hypolimnetic phosphorus (P) release for many of Maine’s lakes. In summer months, Maine lakes often thermally stratify and the lake hypolimnion develops anoxia, leading to a reduction in redox potential at the sediment-water interface. These reducing conditions facilitate the reductive dissolution of ferric iron, and, since phosphorus is often present in freshwater lake sediments as solid FeOOH-PO₄ complexes, results in release of soluble phosphorus into the water column. Our current study presents field and laboratory data from sediment fractionation extractions designed to quantify concentrations of …