Hydrology Commons^™

Bioassessment Of A Drinking Water Reservoir Using Plankton: High Throughput Sequencing Vs. Traditional Morphological Method, Wanli Gao, Zhaojin Chen, Yuying Li, Yangdong Pan, Jingya Zhu, Shijun Guo, Lanqun Hu, Jin Huang

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Drinking water safety is increasingly perceived as one of the top global environmental issues. Plankton has been commonly used as a bioindicator for water quality in lakes and reservoirs. Recently, DNA sequencing technology has been applied to bioassessment. In this study, we compared the effectiveness of the 16S and 18S rRNA high throughput sequencing method (HTS) and the traditional optical microscopy method (TOM) in the bioassessment of drinking water quality. Five stations reflecting different habitats and hydrological conditions in Danjiangkou Reservoir, one of the largest drinking water reservoirs in Asia, were sampled May 2016. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis showed …

Ncer Assistance Agreement Annual Progress Report For Grant #83582401 - Assessment Of Stormwater Harvesting Via Manage Aquifer Recharge (Mar) To Develop New Water Supplies In The Arid West: The Salt Lake Valley Example, Ryan Dupont, Joan E. Mclean, Richard C. Peralta, Sarah E. Null, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The aims of the original proposed project remain the same, that is, to test the hypothesis that Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) for stormwater harvesting is a technically feasible, socially and environmentally acceptable, economically viable, and legally feasible option for developing new water supplies for arid Western urban ecosystems experiencing increasing population, and climate change pressures on existing water resources. The project is being carried out via three distinct but integrated components that include: 1) Monitoring of existing distributed MAR harvesting schemes involving a growing number of demonstration Green Infrastructure (GI) test sites; 2) Integrated stormwater/vadose zone/groundwater/ ecosystem services modeling; and …

Econometric Estimation Of Groundwater Depth Change For The High Plains Aquifer, Jonathan R. Sims

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This article presents a new method for estimating changes in depth to groundwater at a yearly, county level and incorporates these estimates as the dependent variable of econometric models for the High Plains aquifer. The High Plains (Ogallala) aquifer underlies eight states in the central United States and is the primary source of irrigation water for this large food producing region. The stock of groundwater is a finite, non-renewable resource with minimal recharge in most areas. Many fields of study, including hydrology and agricultural economics, are interested in depth to groundwater changes because they serve as a proxy for estimating …

Do Advisors Perceive Climate Change As An Agricultural Risk? An In-Depth Examination Of Midwestern U.S. Ag Advisors’ Views On Drought, Climate Change, And Risk Management, Sarah P. Church, Michael Dunn, Nicholas Babin, Amber Saylor Mase, Tonya Haigh, Linda Stalker Prokopy

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Through the lens of the Health Belief Model and Protection Motivation Theory, we analyzed interviews of 36 agricultural advisors in Indiana and Nebraska to understand their appraisals of climate change risk, related decision making processes and subsequent risk management advice to producers. Most advisors interviewed accept that weather events are a risk for US Midwestern agriculture; however, they are more concerned about tangible threats such as crop prices. There is not much concern about climate change among agricultural advisors. Management practices that could help producers adapt to climate change were more likely to be recommended by conservation and Extension advisors, …

Variability In Methane Emissions From West Siberia's Shallow Boreal Lakes On A Regional Scale And Its Environmental Controls, Aleksandr F. Sabrekov, Benjamin R.K. Runkle, Mikhail V. Glagolev, Irina E. Terentieva, Victor M. Stephanenko, Oleg R. Kotsyurbenko, Shamil S. Maksyutov, Oleg S. Pokrovsky

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Small lakes represent an important source of atmospheric CH4 from northern wetlands. However, spatiotemporal variations in flux magnitudes and the lack of knowledge about their main environmental controls contribute large uncertainty into the global CH4 budget. In this study, we measured methane fluxes from small lakes using chambers and bubble traps. Field investigations were carried out in July–August 2014 within the West Siberian middle and southern taiga zones. The average and median of measured methane chamber fluxes were 0.32 and 0.30 mgCH4 m−2 h−1 for middle taiga lakes and 8.6 and 4.1 mgCH4 m−2 h−1 for southern taiga lakes, respectively. …

The Application Of Aem To Mapping The Aquifer And Groundwater Characteristics Of The La Grange Groundwater Area, Wa, David Annetts, Tim Munday, Richard J. George Dr, Nicholas J. Wright, Gregory Paul Raper, Kevin Cahill

Natural resources commissioned reports

This report describes the interpretation of a large airborne electromagnetic data survey that was designed to aid characterisation of groundwater systems in the La Grange groundwater allocation area which lies south of Broome, Western Australia. Characterisation of these systems is critical to developing policy around water use in the region, especially for the development of agriculture. This report is the second of two reports and it is designed to refine surfaces which are used as inputs to groundwater models. The volume defined by these surfaces viz. the seawater intrusion in the west, the top of the Jarlemai siltstone and the …

The Effects Of Urbanization On Nitrogen Processing In Urban Streams, Peter Francissen, Dr. Kevin Geedey, Dr. Michael Reisner

Celebration of Learning

Urban stream syndrome is described as the deterioration of stream health in an urbanized watershed and is associated with the loss of ecosystem services, which in turn degrades downstream environments. One key symptom of the urban stream syndrome is reduced processing of inorganic nitrogen. Previous research suggests that as urbanization increases and water quality decreases, the uptake length (Sw) of inorganic N increases. This indicates that the stream is increasing the export of N downstream compared to in situ incorporation of N into the ecosystem. We measured uptake length (Sw) of NO3, using a pulse addition method, along 9 different …

Integration Of Hydrogeophysical Datasets For Improved Water Resource Management In Irrigated Systems, Catherine E. Finkenbiner

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

Water scarcity is predicted to be the major limitation to increasing agronomic outputs to meet future food and fiber demands. With the agricultural sector accounting for 80 – 90% of all consumptive water use and an average water use efficiency (WUE) of less than 45%, major advances must be made in irrigation water management. Precision agriculture, specifically variable-rate irrigation (VRI) and variable-speed irrigation (VSI) systems, offers the technologies to address and manage for infield variability and incorporate that into management decisions. The major limitation to implementing this technology often lies in the management of spatial datasets and the development of …

Nutrient Loading Reduction In A Tile Drained Agricultural Watershed Through Watershed-Scale Cover Cropping: A High Resolution Analysis, Benjamin Gerald Bruening

Theses and Dissertations

Nutrient pollution originating from agricultural regions in the Midwest is a serious issue, leading to pollution of drinking water sources as well as large hypoxic zones in the Gulf of Mexico. The source of much of this contamination has been shown to be runoff from agricultural fields in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. One method that has been shown to reduce this pollution from the Upper Mississippi River Basin is the planting of winter cover crops. Winter cover crops such as rye and tillage radish have been shown to significantly reduce nitrate exported from agricultural fields, even in tile-drained watersheds …

Creating A Scaling Relationship Between Peak Discharge And Drainage Area To Identify Tile Drainage Inputs Into An Agricultural Stream, Ryan Plath

Theses and Dissertations

Tile drains have been shown to contribute to high levels of nitrate in agricultural streams. Locations of tile drains on a watershed scale, however, are often unknown due to tile drains being located on many separate parcels of private property. This study evaluates the ability of a methodology, using scaling relationships between discharge and drainage area, for locating areas of large tile drainage contribution to Money Creek, in McLean County, Illinois. Additionally, this study examines the difference in scaling relationships and physical stream hydrology between tileflow and no-tileflow conditions. Eight stream sites were created in the watershed, that recorded stage …

Delta‐Flux: An Eddy Covariance Network For A Climate‐Smart Lower Mississippi Basin, Benjamin R. K. Runkle, James R. Rigby, Michele L. Reba, Saseendran S. Anapalli, Joydeep Bhattacharjee, Ken W. Krauss, Lu Liang, Martin A. Locke, Kimberly A. Novick, Ruixiu Sui, Kosana Suvocarev, Paul M. White Jr.

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Networks of remotely monitored research sites are increasingly the tool used to study regional agricultural impacts on carbon and water fluxes. However, key national networks such as the National Ecological Observatory Network and AmeriFlux lack contributions from the Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB), a highly productive agricultural area with opportunities for soil carbon sequestration through conservation practices. The authors describe the rationale to create the new Delta‐Flux network, which will coordinate efforts to quantify carbon and water budgets at seventeen eddy covariance flux tower sites in the LMRB. The network structure will facilitate climate‐smart management strategies based on production‐scale and …

U.S. Drought Monitor, January 17, 2017, Richard Tinker

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for January 17, 2017 (1/17/17) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, January 10, 2017, David Miskus

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for January 10, 2017 (1/10/17) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, January 3, 2017, David Miskus

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for January 3, 2017 (1/3/17) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Local To Global: Developing Solutions And Creating Impacts. Annual Report Fy 2017, Robert B. Daugherty Water For Food Global Institute

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Administrative Materials

FOREWORD - Hank M. Bounds, President, University of Nebraska

PREFACE - Peter G. McCornick, Executive Director

Focus Areas: Where we are headed We are committed to helping the world efficiently use its limited freshwater resources to ensure food security for current and future generations. The diversity of projects and activities in this report reflects the complexity of the challenges we face in achieving this goal through technical and policy research, education and communication. Our research and policy development efforts are focused within five areas to maximize the expertise of DWFI staff, our colleagues at the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) …

Upscaling Stem To Community-Level Transpiration For Two Sand-Fixing Plants: Salix Gordejevii And Caragana Microphylla, Limin Duan, Yang Li, Xue Yan, Tingxi Liu, Xixi Wang

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The information on transpiration is vital for sustaining fragile ecosystem in arid/semiarid environment, including the Horqin Sandy Land (HSL) located in northeast China. However, such information is scarce in existing literature. The objectives of this study were to: (1) measure sap flow of selected individual stems of two sand-fixing plants, namely Salix gordejevii and Caragana microphylla, in HSL; and (2) upscale the measured stem-level sap flow for estimating the community-level transpiration. The measurements were done from 1 May to 30 September 2015 (i.e., during the growing season). The upscaling function was developed to have one dependent variable, namely sap …

Assessing Responses Of Betula Papyrifera (Paper Birch) To Climate Variability In A Remnant Population Along The Niobrara River In Nebraska Through Dendroecological And Remote Sensing Techniques, Evan Bumann

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

Remnant populations of the boreal species Betula papyrifera, found along north-facing canyons and river banks of the Niobrara River Valley in north-central Nebraska, represent one of the southernmost distributions of the species in North America. Although, the species has persisted in the Great Plains after the Wisconsin Glaciation due to the local topography and microclimatic conditions, canopy dieback has been reported in recent years, which is believed to be attributed to temperature change. Therefore, the goals of this research are to: 1) use dendroecological techniques, or the study of tree rings to assess the responses B. papyrifera to intra- and …

Fluvial-Lacustrine Processes Shaping The Landforms Of The Distal Paraguay Fluvial Megafan, Edward Limin Lo

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Tropical wetlands such as the Pantanal help regulate global biogeochemical cycles, but climate change is modifying these environments. Controls on environmental changes can potentially be assessed from ancient, well-dated lacustrine sedimentary records. An integrated field and laboratory approach was undertaken to study the limnogeology of Lake Uberaba in the northern Pantanal, and test whether the lake has preserved a reliable record of environmental change in its strata. This study was designed to understand how the basin accumulates sediment and to assess its sensitivity to hydroclimatic variability. The data showed that modern Lake Uberaba is a highly dynamic, freshwater fluvial-lacustrine basin. …

Influence Of Topography And Moisture And Nutrient Availability On Green Alder Function On The Low Arctic Tundra, Nt, Katherine Louise Black Ms., Jennifer Lynn Baltzer Dr.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Arctic has warmed by at least 3^°C over the past 50 years and this rapid warming is expected to continue. Climate warming is driving the proliferation of shrubs across the tundra biome with implications for energy balance, climate, hydrology, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity. Changes in tundra plant water use attributable to shrub expansion are predicted to increase evapotranspirative water loss which may amplify local warming and reduce run-off. However, little is known about the extent to which shrubs will enhance evapotranspirative water loss in these systems. Direct measures of shrub water use are needed to accurately predict …

A Comparison Of Benthic Macroinvertebrate Assemblages Between Perennial And Intermittent Headwater Streams Of The Mattole River In Northern California, Usa, Mason S. London

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Intermittent streams are common throughout the world and comprise 60% or more of total river lengths in the conterminous United States. Despite their prevalence, intermittent streams are understudied, particularly first-order headwater streams, which are vital for maintaining the function, health and biotic diversity of river networks. In June 2016, I sampled five intermittent and five perennial headwater streams in the Mattole River watershed in northwestern coastal California, USA, to compare benthic macroinvertebrate (BMI) assemblages between intermittent and perennial streams. BMI samples were collected using a 500µm mesh D-net at eight randomly located riffles along a 150-m reach, and then composited, …

U.S. Drought Monitor, December 27, 2016, Brad Rippey

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for December 27, 2016 (12/27/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

The Relationship Between Lead In Groundwater And Elementary School Students' Academic Performance In Missouri, Lynnette Xiangling Li

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Lead exposure can come from various sources, e.g., lead mines, industrial areas, and lead based paint. Missouri has more than 4,128 lead mines. Lead is a neurotoxin. The objectives of the study were to investigate i) the spatial relationship between lead mines and lead distribution in groundwater, ii) the statistical impact of lead in groundwater on students' Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) scores, and iii) the geographic variations of lead's impact on students' MAP scores. Geographic Information Science spatial analysis tools were used to analyze the concentration of lead in groundwater within school districts in Missouri. Regression analysis was utilized to …

How Do Designers Of The Built Environment Attempt To Make Ecological Sustainability Sensory Legible?, Carly L. Bartow

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper attempts to provide a theoretical framework for making ecosystem function and ecologically sustainable design more perceptible or sensible to people through architecture and the built environment. Design features of the Bertschi School Science Wing and the Bullitt Center in Seattle, Washington are incorporated to illustrate the sensory legibility of ecological sustainability criteria.The criteria are available to designers to help educate a building's occupants on environmentally sustainable design and motivate more sustainable behavior.

Ncer Assistance Agreement Annual Progress Report For Grant #83582401 - Assessment Of Stormwater Harvesting Via Manage Aquifer Recharge (Mar) To Develop New Water Supplies In The Arid West: The Salt Lake Valley Example, Ryan Dupont, Joan E. Mclean, Richard C. Peralta, Sarah E. Null, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The aims of the original proposed project remain the same, that is, to test the hypothesis that Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) for stormwater harvesting is a technically feasible, socially and environmentally acceptable, economically viable, and permittable option for developing new water supplies for arid Western urban ecosystems experiencing increasing population, and climate change pressures on existing water resources. The project is being carried out via three distinct but integrated components that include: 1) Monitoring of existing distributed Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) harvesting schemes involving a growing number of demonstration Green Infrastructure (GI) test sites; 2) Integrated stormwater/vadose zone/groundwater/ ecosystem services …

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 22, 2016, Richard R. Heim Jr.

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of the United States for November 22, 2016 (11/22/16) plus: United States crop areas experiencing drought (map), approximate percentage of crop located in drought by state (bar graph), and the percentage of crop area located in drought over the past 52 weeks (line graph) for corn, soybeans, hay, cattle, and winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 15, 2016, Richard R. Heim Jr.

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 15, 2016 (11/15/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 8, 2016, Deborah J. Bathke

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 8, 2016 (11/8/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 1, 2016, Deborah J. Bathke

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 1, 2016 (11/1/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Identifying Groundwater - Dependent Wetlands Of The Broome Sandstone Aquifer In The La Grange Groundwater Area, Nicholas Wright, Richard J. George Dr, Robert Paul, Paul Raper

Resource management technical reports

This report identifies wetlands that are likely to be dependent on the Broome Sandstone aquifer within the La Grange groundwater allocation area. The Broome Sandstone aquifer is the dominant groundwater resource in the area. With potential agricultural growth of this area, it is necessary to understand, monitor and manage the aquifer and its dependent wetlands. This report describes how we created a watertable surface that was used to identify wetlands and to determine which of the previously mapped wetlands are likely to be sourced from the Broome Sandstone aquifer. A watertable surface was created from 148 points taken from bore …

U.S. Drought Monitor, October 25, 2016, David Simeral

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for October 25, 2016 (10/25/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.