Earth Sciences Commons^™

Sulfur For High Rainfall Pastures In Western Australia, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

Sulfur deficiency can substantially reduce pasture yield on sandy soils, particularly in wet years where the sulfate form of sulfur leaches below the root zone of pasture plants, making it unavailable.

This information applies specifically to high rainfall pastures (over 600mm average annual rainfall) in the south-west of Western Australia.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development recommends basing fertiliser decisions on good evidence (soil and tissue test results)

Tissue Sampling And Analysis For High Rainfall Pastures In Western Australia, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

Tissue testing helps identify nutrient deficiencies that impact plant health. In high rainfall areas ( > 600 mm), pastures are highly productive and have greater demand for both macro- and micronutrients. Micronutrient status is best assessed through plant tissue, as soil levels are difficult to measure accurately.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development recommends tissue testing to assess the effectiveness of fertiliser and soil testing programs, and diagnose emerging macronutrient and micronutrient deficiencies that could cause production losses.

Environmental Impact Of Nitrogen And Phosphorus Fertilisers In High Rainfall Pasture Areas Of Western Australia, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

The most commonly used nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers in the high rainfall (>600mm annual average) south-west of Western Australia can be leached into the groundwater and washed into waterways, resulting in serious environmental and economic damage.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development recommends regular soil testing and consultation with FertCare-accredited advisers to reduce leaching losses and increase profit from added nutrients.

Forecasting Precipitation In Cuba Using Graph Based Deep Learning, Taufiqul Islam

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses

Daily precipitation forecasting remained a challenging problem in regions characterized by strong spatial heterogeneity, nonlinear atmospheric dynamics, and intermittent rainfall behavior. Cuba represented a particularly complex case due to the combined influence of tropical cyclones, easterly waves, mesoscale convective systems, and orographic effects, which produced highly variable rainfall patterns in both space and time. Conventional statistical and machine-learning models typically treated stations independently and therefore overlooked spatial dependencies that strongly influenced rainfall variability across the island.

This study developed a spatiotemporal deep-learning framework for daily precipitation forecasting across 40 spatial nodes in Cuba using data from 1979 to 2023. The …

Constraining The Tectono-Climatic Evolution Of The Northern Rocky Mountains: Insights From Volcanic Glass, Leaf Water, And Leaf Wax Hydrogen Isotopes, Rijumon Nandy

Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertations

The Eocene-Oligocene period in the North American Cordillera represents a period of great intrigue with complex interactions among tectonics, climate, and surface processes. Although this period is generally associated with synorogenic extension associated with gravitational collapse of the Cordillera, the paleotopographic history remains debated. Existing studies offer conflicting interpretations, suggesting either sustained elevations or modest uplift during this time. Notably, recent reconstructions based on volcanic glass δD values have proposed renewed uplift during the early Oligocene, which needs to be tested with a more extensive and robust dataset. Concurrently, global cooling and aridification during this interval may have been amplified …

Hydrogeochemical And Redox Controls On Nitrate And Arsenic Co-Occurrence In The Western Kansas High Plains Aquifer (Usa): A Composite Health Risk Assessment And The Case For Risk-Informed Private Well Governance, Jonathan Kuffour Owusu

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Fifty-one private domestic wells across western Kansas were sampled to quantify nitrate and arsenic occurrence, identify geochemical controls, and evaluate carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risks for adult and child receptors in a region where groundwater serves as the primary drinking water source with no routine regulatory oversight. Samples were analyzed for major ions, nutrients, and trace elements by ICP-MS, ion chromatography, and UV-Vis spectrophotometry. Shapiro-Wilk testing confirmed non-normal distributions for both contaminants; inter-county comparisons were therefore conducted using Kruskal-Wallis tests with Dunn's post-hoc correction. Health risk was quantified via chronic daily intake (CDI), hazard quotient (HQ), HQ-based Water Quality Index …

Spatiotemporal Dynamics Of Mountain Front Recharge Flow Paths And Their Contribution To Alluvial Aquifer Water Supply, Mikaela Bollag-Miller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Mountain Front Recharge (MFR) is a critical recharge source for alluvial basin aquifers throughout the Intermountain West, yet the spatial and temporal dynamics of distinct recharge pathways remain poorly constrained. This study investigates the seasonal and spatial dynamics of MFR pathways and evaluates their impact on the Missoula Aquifer, a sole-source alluvial aquifer in western Montana, USA. MFR includes both surface-water inflows from mountain areas and Mountain Block Recharge (MBR), the groundwater contribution to the basin aquifer. A valley-scale water balance was employed to estimate first-order contributions and temporal fluctuations of MBR flow paths. A three-layer steady-state MODFLOW groundwater model …

High Algal Biomass Is Decoupled From Metabolism In The Gallatin River, Cora Mae Steinbach

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Assessing eutrophication in rivers is difficult compared to lakes and coastal waters, because most algal biomass occurs on the riverbed and flows interact and co-vary with production (Biggs and Close, 1989; Bernhardt et al., 2018). Riverine eutrophication is typically assessed using algal biomass and water column nutrients (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2000), but biomass is highly variable and labor-intensive to measure, while nutrient concentrations often underestimate enrichment due to rapid biological uptake (Dodds and Smith, 2016). Reach-scale river metabolism can help evaluate long-term functional change in rivers recovering from nutrient enrichment (Arroita et al., 2019; Jankowski et al., 2021; Diamond …

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.

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 …

Characterizing A Low-Gradient Stream In Central Illinois As Gaining Or Losing And Observing Seasonal Changes In This Behavior, Eric Timothy Brunner

Theses and Dissertations

While the seasonal behaviors of low-gradient streams have been studied, the behavior of surface water and groundwater interactions within low-gradient streams in glaciated terrain is not fully understood. A third order, low-gradient glacial stream with a saturated riparian buffer in central Illinois was studied to determine the direction of flow between the surface water and groundwater. The goals of this study were to determine 1) whether the stream was gaining or losing water, and 2) whether the gaining or losing nature of the stream-aquifer system changes seasonally. At both an upgradient and downgradient location, two wells were installed: one in …

Assessing Glacial Mass Change And Its Impact On Water Resources In Parts Of The Himalayas Using Satellite Remote Sensing, Kriti Panta

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates long-term changes in terrestrial water storage and their impact on hydrological processes in glacier-fed regions of Nepal. The study focuses on the central to eastern Himalayan region, including major river basins within the Koshi system. Multiple datasets, including the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE follow-on (GRACE-FO) missions satellite data, the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) products, and in situ streamflow data, were used for the period 2002–2019. Terrestrial Water Storage Anomaly (TWSA) derived from GRACE data shows a strong decreasing trend over time, indicating significant water storage loss across the study area. Soil …

Assessing Dissolved Organic Matter Sources And Dynamics In Urban Stormwater: Implications For Greenhouse Gases, Harper W. Schmalz

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Stormwater management ponds (SWMPs) are important aspects of land-use planning and increasingly recognized as active sites of biogeochemical processing that influence carbon cycling; however, little research has investigated the controls on dissolved organic and dissolved inorganic carbon (DOC and DIC) within these systems. This thesis examined the processing and transformations of dissolved carbon between three compartments to support the development of a greenhouse gas (GHG) box-model for urban stormwater ponds, including SWMP sediment, surface water, and vegetation. The objective of this thesis was to assess the biogeochemical processes that govern the rate and transformation of DOC and DIC between these …

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 …

Urban Trees In The Urban Hydrology Cycle, Jorge R. Vera

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In urban forestry, trees provide numerous economic, ecological, and aesthetic benefits to the surrounding community. One of their key roles is intercepting stormwater runoff, reducing flooding risk, and improving water quality. Chapter 1 of this thesis characterized the ecological and economic contributions of urban trees on the Marshall University campus and provides guidance on their management and conservation in the future. Chapter 2 examined how urban tree species modify the urban hydrology cycle by altering the volume and timing of precipitation delivery. In Chapter 1, we inventoried 114 acres of Marshall University's main campus in Huntington, WV, from June 28 …

Early Successional Response To Stream Daylighting In Redwood National And State Parks, Orick, California, Rylee Rawson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In-channel stream restoration projects can act as both disturbance and recovery mechanisms, disrupting existing conditions to reestablish the hydrologic and ecological processes that sustain stream ecosystems. These interventions initiate successional trajectories in which channel form and biological communities reorganize over time. In Redwood National and State Parks (California, USA), the Redwoods Rising initiative restores buried headwater channels by recontouring legacy logging roads and daylighting streams buried by Humboldt crossings. Using the National Park Service Klamath Network wadable stream monitoring protocol, I evaluated nine restored reaches spanning one to five years post-restoration, alongside old-growth reference reaches and available pre-treatment data. I …

An Integrated Approach To Groundwater Management In Northern New Jersey Watersheds, Toritseju Oyen

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Groundwater deterioration has emerged as a pressing global concern, with widespread observations of declining water quality in various regions. The predominant cause of this deterioration is attributed to anthropogenic activities, which are deeply intertwined with daily human practices that contaminate water resources. Over the decades, many forested and wetland areas have been converted mainly for increased urbanization and industrialization use in northern New Jersey. The region’s watershed, already characterized as a low-yield aquifer, is facing deterioration because of continuous change in land cover. Anthropogenic activities aimed at providing solutions to problems, such as food scarcity, icy roads during the winter …

Detecting Prescribed Fire, Haying And Grazing Events Via Remote Sensing To Create Grassland Disturbance Landcovers For The Ring-Necked Pheasant (Phasianus Colchicus), Megan A. Baldissara

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation developed disturbance detection models to fulfill the need for remote sensing landcover products describing grassland structure. The use of landcover products derived from remote sensing is increasing over time in pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) research. Such landcover, however, does not provide relevant pheasant structural habitat information (Chapter 1). Pheasants require tall, high-density grassland for nesting, tall grassland with medium density for brood rearing, and tall grassland for wintering. Time since disturbance can serve as a proxy for structure, as it shapes vegetation by removing biomass and resetting succession. Disturbance is easier to detect than structure with current …

Groundwater Arsenic Contamination In The Oro Grande Wash, Dalila Boice

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study investigates the distribution of naturally occurring arsenic in groundwater within the Oro Grande Wash in San Bernardino County, California. Depth-discrete groundwater quality data were collected over multiple years using nested and Westbay monitoring wells. Water quality results showed higher levels of arsenic in the deeper aquifers, ranging between 600 feet and 1,000 feet below ground surface. Arsenic levels in these regions reached as high as 66 µg/L. At roughly 800 feet and below, water quality data from the wells reveal that arsenic concentrations exceeded the 10 µg/L maximum contaminant level (MCL) in 87% of cases. These data provide …

Seagrass Persistence In The Indian River Lagoon And Lake Worth Lagoon, Florida, Kelly Kibler, Melinda Donnelly, Vincent Encomio, Madison Giuntoli, Manisha Thenuwara, Brice Bennett, Laura Andrade Barron, Mariam Sonbol, Wynter Raine Seppala, Namritha Ramakrishnan, Jennifer Jordan Báez, Beth Orlando, Irene Arpayoglou, Melissa Meisenburg

Indian River Lagoon Shorelines

The spatial dataset: UCF_seagrasspersistence_IRL_LWL.shp was created with support from the Indian River Lagoon National Estuaries Program and Florida Sea Grant. These projects cumulatively led to creation of a living shoreline restoration prioritization model and hydrodynamic habitat suitability models for 1,550 km (963 miles) of estuarine shorelines in Indian River Lagoon (IRL) and Lake Worth Lagoon (LWL). The dataset presented herein represents persistence of seagrass throughout waters of the IRL and LWL.

Locations Of Outfalls In The Indian River Lagoon And Lake Worth Lagoon, Florida, Kelly M. Kibler, Melinda J. Donnelly, Vincent Encomio, Madison Giuntoli, Manisha Thenuwara, Brice Bennett, Laura Andrade Barron, Mariam Sonbol, Wynter Raine Seppala, Namritha Ramakrishnan, Jennifer Jordan Báez, Beth Orlando, Irene Arpayoglou, Melissa Meisenburg

Indian River Lagoon Shorelines

The spatial dataset: UCF_Outfalls_IRL_LWL.shp was created under grants from the Indian River Lagoon National Estuaries Program and Florida Sea Grant. These projects cumulatively led to creation of a living shoreline restoration prioritization model and hydrodynamic habitat suitability models for 1,550 km (963 miles) of estuarine shorelines in Indian River Lagoon (IRL) and Lake Worth Lagoon (LWL).

The dataset presented here includes the location of outfalls identified throughout the study region and general characteristics of the shoreline where they were identified.

Advancing Environmental Monitoring At Verde River Headwaters State Park Through Integrated Remote Sensing Technologies, Ronny Schroeder, Noah Morales, Colton Weeks, Reiner Zimmermann, Erika Podest, Hank Vincent

Sustainability Conference

The establishment of Verde River Headwaters State Park in Chino Valley, Arizona, marks a significant conservation milestone with the acquisition of 734 acres of the historic Del Rio Springs Ranch by the Trust for Public Land in March 2024. Now under the stewardship of Arizona State Parks & Trails (ASPT), this site encompasses Sullivan Lake, Del Rio Springs, critical riparian habitats, and historically significant landmarks including the 1863 Arizona territorial capital and 1920s Fred Harvey Farm structures. This initiative yields substantial benefits, including annual water savings within the Prescott Active Management Area, the extension of the Peavine National Recreation Trail, …

Living Shoreline Prioritization And Hydrodynamic Habitat Suitability Models For Restoration In The Indian River Lagoon And Lake Worth Lagoon, Florida, Kelly M. Kibler, Melinda J. Donnelly, Vincent Encomio, Madison Giuntoli, Manisha Thenuwara, Brice Bennett, Laura Andrade Barron, Mariam Sonbol, Wynter Raine Seppala, Namritha Ramakrishnan, Jennifer Jordan Báez, Beth Orlando, Irene Arpayoglou, Melissa Meisenburg

Indian River Lagoon Shorelines

The spatial dataset: UCF_shorelinemodel_IRL_LWL.shp, was created with support from the Indian River Lagoon National Estuaries Program and Florida Sea Grant. These projects cumulatively led to creation of a living shoreline restoration prioritization model and hydrodynamic habitat suitability models for 1,550 km (963 miles) of estuarine shorelines in Indian River Lagoon and Lake Worth Lagoon.

The dataset presented herein includes:

1. shoreline data from >15,000 transects collected in the field,
2. shoreline wave climate data created through hydrodynamic modeling and frequency analysis of historic data,
3. categorization of potential risk for shoreline boat wake impact,
4. persistence of seagrass within 210 m of the shoreline, …

Final Draft Report - Mapping Pfas In Groundwater Of The West Plains, Spokane County, Washington, 2023-2025, Chad Pritchard

EWU PFAS Research Collection

Since 2017, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been detected in West Plains groundwater. Sampling conducted by Fairchild Air Force Base (FAFB) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have measured PFAS concentrations in private wells that exceed drinking water standards. Two known sources of PFAS have been identified on the West Plains: FAFB and Spokane International Airport (SIA). Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) awarded the City of Medical Lake an area-wide groundwater grant to develop a groundwater model of PFAS contamination in the West Plains, the grant was originally written by Eastern Washington University (EWU) and Spokane County Water Resources …

A Better Great Plains: Bridging The Implementation Gap For A Better Future, David W. Sandahl

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Northern Great Plains is experiencing extensive native grassland loss and landscape degradation, jeopardizing both ecological integrity and the socio-economic systems that rely upon these ecosystems. In an early effort to lessen degradation, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) introduced the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) which generated ecosystem services benefits such as reduced soil erosion, improved water quality, and increased species diversity through the retirement of cropland and rangeland for 10- or 15-year contracts. However, CRP has not fully modernized alongside today’s agriculturalists and adoption remains shaped by an historically fraught socio-political context characterized by deep-seated mistrust between ranchers, …

The Future Intensification Of Hydrological Extremes And Whiplashes In The Contiguous United States Increase Community Vulnerability, Surendra Maharjan, Wenzhao Li, John D. Bolten, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Hydroclimatic whiplash rapid shifts between drought and flood poses growing risks to U.S. communities. Here, we assess historical extremes and future projections using a normalized streamflow metric: the annual mean flow’s deviation from the 1981–2020 average, expressed as a fraction of that average. This metric is applied to United States Geological Survey records and Localized Constructed Analogs downscaled projections under Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 and 8.5. Results reveal sharp regional disparities, with drought deficits exceeding 300% of normal flow during multi-year droughts. By linking hydrologic outcomes with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk Index, we find that counties facing …

Performance Mapping And Weighting For The Evapotranspiration Models Of The Openet Ensemble, M. Reitz, J. M. Volk, T. Ott, M. Anderson, G. B. Senay, F. Melton, A. Kilic, R. Allen, Joshua B. Fisher, A. Ruhoff, A. J. Purdy, J. Huntington

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Evapotranspiration (ET) accounts for the majority of water available from precipitation in the terrestrial water cycle, and improvements to the accuracy, resolution, and coverage of ET data can enhance hydrologic models and assessments. The OpenET collaboration of six remotely sensed ET modeling teams has demonstrated that an ensemble approach to ET estimation generally provides improved accuracy relative to individual ensemble members. The performance of individual models has been shown to vary by land cover type and climate zone, but a thorough study of the variables that influence model performance differences has not yet been conducted. In this paper, we model …

Groundwater-Dependent Ecosystems In Southeastern Utah: An Integrated Analysis Of Hydrology, Ecology, And Landscape Change, Colten Lay

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

In Southeastern Utah, springs play a critical role in sustaining groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs) in a semi-arid environment. However, they remain understudied and face growing threats from climate change, land use modifications, and hydrologic alterations. This study addresses knowledge gaps in spring occurrence, hydrologic function, and ecological condition by integrating field surveys, remote sensing, and geospatial analysis across multiple spatial scales. It provides a comprehensive assessment of spring hydrology, water quality, and ecological conditions using field surveys, remote sensing, and GIS analysis to establish a foundational baseline of GDE resources in the region. I applied a multi-scale monitoring approach across the …

Dream Pilot Project: Analysis Of Groundwater Development At Six Villages In Ethiopia, Lindsay K. Gordon

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This study presents a hydrogeologic assessment of the Distributed Renewable Energy Agriculture Modalities (DREAM) pilot project, an ongoing groundwater development initiative in rural Ethiopia. This project integrates solar-powered groundwater infrastructure across six villages to improve water access, agricultural productivity, and economic stability.

Fourteen production wells were installed at Murche, four at Dalle, and additional test wells at Murche, Dalle, Chefe Kora, and Huluku. Transmissivity values and the number of wells at Murche suggest that local water needs are currently being met. In contrast, fewer wells were drilled at Dalle. This reflects the high cost of well construction relative to yield, …

Multiscale Drivers Of Water Level Fluctuations And Nutrient Availability In Small Intermittent Reservoirs In The Us Midwest, Uchechukwu Vitus Chinatu Ogbenna

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Reservoir dynamics are often captured by fluctuations in water surface elevation, which reflect a complex interplay of hydrologic inputs, climatic conditions, land use influences, and management operations. While water level fluctuations (WLFs) in large regulated systems have been widely studied, the drivers and implications of WLFs in small reservoirs, particularly those fed by intermittent streams, remain poorly understood. Here, we examined the temporal dynamics of WLFs and their relationship with nutrient availability in nine small reservoirs in the U.S. Midwest using daily records from 1985 to 2022. We used water level classification from modified Zscore and transition matrices to assess …