Hydrology Commons^™

Measuring Soil Salinity, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

To make sound decisions on managing saline sites, you need to know the source of salt, how salinisation is occurring, the landscape context, and most importantly, the actual salt concentration of the soil.

The most common 'measures' of salt concentration are actually estimates based on electrical conductivity of a soil and water solution. Soil salt content can be measured in a laboratory by measuring the total dissolved solids in a sample. In the field, salt concentration can also be estimated using electromagnetic induction-based soil sensors.

Excavated Tanks (Farm Dams), Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

Guidelines and information for planning, legal requirements, design, construction and management of excavated tanks for water storage on farm.

Excavated tanks (farm dams) provide effective water storage wherever surface water run-off can be harvested for livestock, crop spraying, irrigation and domestic use on rural properties.

Excavated tanks for rainfall storage are common in the southern agricultural areas of WA.

Well-designed and constructed dams are farm assets, safe and require little maintenance.

Poor design and construction can lead to poor water harvesting and storage, excessive costs, downstream erosion and risks to property and people.

DPIRD recommends that excavated tanks should be …

Pumping Groundwater For Salinity Control In Wa, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

DPIRD recommends that groundwater pumping is used as part of an integrated water and salinity management program.

Groundwater pumping can lower local water tables, recover land for production and reduce the spread of local salinity or to protect high value assets at risk, such as townsites, roads or railway lines. Pump water can be discharged to safe disposal points or used on farm for desalination.

Roaded Catchments In Wa, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

Roaded catchments are earthwork structures designed to increase the amount of run-off from the catchment above a receiving farm dam.

Roaded catchments are lined with clay and compacted to make a smooth surface that reduces infiltration and increases run-off. Roaded catchments should discharge into a silt trap and then into a dam (excavated earth tank). This combined structure should be fenced to exclude livestock.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development recommends that roaded catchments are part of an integrated water and salinity management program.

The information in this page is only a guide – seek expert advice before …

Managing Subsurface Water In Wa, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) recommends that subsurface water management is part of an integrated water and salinity program. An integrated program can help to lower water tables and alleviate problems with waterlogging, rising salinity, and infrastructure damage.

An Automated Machine Learning Approach To The Retrieval Of Daily Soil Moisture In South Korea Using Satellite Images, Meteorological Data, And Digital Elevation Model, Nari Kim, Soo-Jin Lee, Eunha Sohn, Mija Kim, Seonkyeong Seong, Seung Hee Kim, Yangwon Lee

Institute for ECHO Articles and Research

Soil moisture is a critical parameter that significantly impacts the global energy balance, including the hydrologic cycle, land–atmosphere interactions, soil evaporation, and plant growth. Currently, soil moisture is typically measured by installing sensors in the ground or through satellite remote sensing, with data retrieval facilitated by reanalysis models such as the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Reanalysis 5 (ERA5) and the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS). However, the suitability of these methods for capturing local-scale variabilities is insufficiently validated, particularly in regions like South Korea, where land surfaces are highly complex and heterogeneous. In contrast, artificial intelligence …

Rotary Spading To Ameliorate Soil Water Repellence, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

One-off deep cultivation can reduce the severity of soil water repellence by mixing some of the repellent topsoil into the wettable subsoil and bringing wettable subsoil to the surface.

Rotary spading or deep cultivation increases water infiltration by providing pathways for water entry; diluting the water repellent soil with non-repellent soil; increasing the breakdown of soil organic matter causing water repellence; in some soil types, spading and other deep cultivation can lift subsoil with higher clay content to the surface.

Deep cultivation increases the risk of wind and water erosion. To minimise the risk of erosion, follow the guidelines on …

Developing A Controlled Traffic (Tramline) Farming System, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Controlled traffic farming (CTF) is a farming system built on permanent wheel tracks where the crop zone and traffic lanes are permanently separated. It can improve profitability and sustainability.

Implements for seeding, spraying, spreading and harvesting have a particular span, or multiple of it, and all wheel tracks are confined to specific traffic lanes.

CTF increases profit by more yield, better grain quality, improved operation timeliness, and reduced costs. The environment can improve, with less nutrient leaching, less water erosion, better water infiltration, and less greenhouse gas emission. Implementation needs a clear, long-term plan, and prioritisation of soil health.

Another …

Impacts Of Invasive Carp And Their Population Dynamics On Fish Communities In The Missouri River, Joshua F. Kocik

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

Invasive Carp species: Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, Bighead Carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis, Grass Carp Ctenopharyngodon idella, and Black Carp Mylopharyngodon piceus have both potential and realized abilities to negatively impact native species. Specifically, Bighead Carp and Silver Carp as filter feeders have been theorized to be detrimental not only to adult filter-feeding species, but to many fish which rely on plankton and algae in their early-life stages. The impact of Invasive Carp on the overall fish community remains underexplored. The fish communities below Gavins Point Dam (Invasive Carp present) and Fort Randall Dam (Invasive Carp absent) afford the …

Spatiotemporal Plasticity In Reproductive Readiness And Recruitment Of Ichthyoplankton Of Invasive Silver Carp Along A Western Invasion Front, Jessi L. Urichich

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

Individuals of invasive species at the edge of their invasion distribution may exhibit enhanced reproductive capacity and phenotypic plasticity leading to accelerated range expansion. Environmental conditions in highly fluctuating environments at distribution edges may either promote or hinder such reproductive readiness and phenotypic plasticity. Dynamic habitat conditions and periodic disturbances experienced in prairie streams, such as drought (e.g., low-flow, high water temperatures), may potentially reduce suitable spawning environments and ichthyoplankton recruitment of invasive Silver Carp, potentially slowing range expansion or enabling management strategies that reduce abundance in the absence of a reproducing population. Female Silver Carp batch fecundity, Gonadosomatic Index …

Assessing, Restoring, And Centering Social–Ecological Relationships For Advancing Social–Ecological Resilience In The Northern Great Plains Grasslands, Katia Pilar Carranza Bernal

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

The Northern Great Plains grasslands are social-ecological systems that were shaped by evolutionary and Indigenous social-ecological relationships. European colonization disrupted many of these interactions, including the coupling of fire and grazing, and degraded social-ecological resilience, shifting these grasslands to a new state. For those reasons, my research focused on assessing, restoring, and centering evolutionary and Indigenous social-ecological relationships for advancing social-ecological resilience in the Northern Great Plains grasslands. I first performed a study in the Nebraska Sandhillls assessing the potential of patch-burn grazing to support grassland resilience by comparing its effects to those of rotational grazing. Through vegetation and bird …

Effects Of Climate Change On (Semi)-Arid Ecosystems In The Southwestern United States, Charlotte Van Der Nagel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Climate change is considered amongst the most severe threats to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems globally. Ecosystems in the southwestern United States have specifically been impacted by intense drought conditions since 2000. Higher temperatures combined with altered precipitation stresses many ecosystems; however, ecosystem specific responses to such stressors may vary. Here, the effects of climate change on semi-arid ecosystems are analyzed for some of the most vulnerable ecosystems in the southwestern United States: lacustrine, riparian, and dryland ecosystems.

Lakes and reservoirs in arid environments often serve as drinking water sources and recreational areas where high water quality is essential. Climate change …

Populations Of The Stygobiotic Amphipod Palearcticarellus Pusillus (Martynov, 1930) Maintain Genetic Connectivity Between The Mountain Springs And The Deep Bottom Habitats Of Lake Teletskoye (Altai Mountains, Russia), Ivan Marin, Liubov Yanygina, Svetlana Ostroukhova, Dmitry Palatov

International Journal of Speleology

The diversity of underground fauna is often associated with the presence of karst areas, which have extensive underground cavities and connecting channels. Non-karst areas, however, make up a larger portion of the planet’ surface, and our understanding of the distribution and dispersal abilities of underground fauna in these areas currently remains limited. During a recent study of the diversity of stygobiotic crustaceans in the mountain streams of the Kurai Mountain Range (Altai, Russia), a small-sized species of crangonyctid amphipod, Palearcticarellus pusillus (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Crangonyctidae) was found in high-altitude springs. This species has been previously known only from deep-water habitats in …

Population Demography, Occupancy, And Connectivity Of Invasive Bigheaded Carp In The Platte River, Nebraska And Its Tributaries, Blake W. Logan

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

Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix and Bighead Carp H. nobilis, collectively referred to as bigheaded carp, are invasive species in the United States of America that have expanded their range throughout the Missouri River basin in the last three decades. It may be desirable to develop management plans directed at the monitoring, control, or removal of bigheaded carp within the Missouri River basin. However, a knowledge gap exists regarding bigheaded carp ecology in Missouri River tributaries, which may be important for the development of management plans. As such, this study characterized bigheaded carp population demographics, occupancy, and connectivity in …

The Ecosystem As Super-Organ/Ism, Revisited: Scaling Hydraulics To Forests Under Climate Change, Jeffrey D. Wood, Matteo Detto, Marvin Browne, Nathan J.B. Kraft, Alexandra G. Konings, Joshua B. Fisher, Gregory R. Quetin, Anna T. Trugman, Troy S. Magney, Camila D. Medeiros, Nidhi Vinod, Thomas N. Buckley, Lawren Sack

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Classic debates in community ecology focused on the complexities of considering an ecosystem as a super-organ or organism. New consideration of such perspectives could clarify mechanisms underlying the dynamics of forest carbon dioxide (CO₂) uptake and water vapor loss, important for predicting and managing the future of Earth's ecosystems and climate system. Here, we provide a rubric for considering ecosystem traits as aggregated, systemic, or emergent, i.e., representing the ecosystem as an aggregate of its individuals, or as a metaphorical or literal super-organ or organism. We review recent approaches to scaling-up plant water relations (hydraulics) concepts developed for …

Estimating Increased Transient Water Storage With Increases In Beaver Dam Activity, Konrad Hafen, Joseph M. Wheaton, Brett B. Roper, Philip Bailey, William W. Macfarlane, Bethany T. Neilson, Christopher J. Tennant

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Dam building by beaver (Castor spp.) slows water movement through montane valleys, increasing transient water storage and the diversity of residence times. In some cases, water storage created by beaver dam construction is correlated to changes in streamflow magnitude and timing. However, the total amount of additional surface and groundwater storage that beaver dams may create (and, thus, their maximum potential impact on streamflow) has not been contextualized in the water balance of larger river basins. We estimate the potential transient water storage increases that could be created at 5, 25, 50, and 100% of maximum modeled beaver dam capacity …

Surface Water Quality Assessment Of Mingo Creek County Park: The Impacts Of Extractive Industries, Mikayla J. Bayto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Historical and current extraction operations and infrastructure, including natural gas pipelines, conventional and unconventional oil and natural gas drilling, longwall coal mining, and strip coal mining, occur throughout the Mingo Creek watershed of Washington County, Pennsylvania, including Mingo Creek County Park. Mingo Creek and several associated tributaries flow through Mingo Creek County Park, eventually discharging into the Monongahela River. An independent water quality study was conducted from June 2020 through July 2023 in Mingo Creek County Park to determine if historical and current extraction activities impact Mingo Creek and its associated tributaries. Weekly sampling of Mingo Creek and associated tributaries …

Demographic Consequences Of Off-River Nesting For Piping Plover (Charadrius Melodus) And Interior Least Tern (Sternula Antillarum Athalassos) In The Lower Platte River System, Nebraska, Elsa M. Forsberg

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

Piping plovers (Charadrius melodus; hereafter, plovers) and interior least terns (Sternula antillarum athalassos; hereafter, terns) are two avian species that nest along the Lower Platte River system (LPRS) in Nebraska. In the LPRS, river sandbars provide natural nesting habitat, but off-river sites provide substantial nesting habitat especially when sandbar habitat is scarce. Although presumed to be important for the persistence of plovers and terns, off-river habitat is not self-sustaining and predicted to decline. Understanding the vital rates of plovers and terns in the LPRS will inform the role of off- river sites in the future conservation …

Desalination As A Source Of Freshwater, Jacob Pensky

Best Integrated Writing

Jacob Pensky's article deals with technology we use to make saltwater drinkable. Drought-stricken coastal communities need desalination plants, especially as Earth's climate warms, but they are expensive and energy-intensive. This article describes ways to reduce the environmental and monetary costs.

Using Phenology To Unravel Differential Soil Water Use And Productivity In A Semiarid Savanna, Blake Steiner, Russell L. Scott, Jia Hu, Natasha Mcbean, Andrew Richardson, David J. P. Moore

University Administration Publications

Savannas are water-limited ecosystems characterized by two dominant plant types: trees and an understory primarily made up grass. Different phenology and root structures of these plant types complicate how savanna primary productivity responds to changes in water availability. We tested the hypothesis that productivity in savannas is controlled by the temporal and vertical distribution of soil water content (SWC) and differences in growing season length of understory and tree plant functional types. To quantify the relationship between tree, understory, and savanna-wide phenology and productivity, we used PhenoCam and satellite observations surrounding an eddy covariance tower at a semiarid savanna site …

Hydrologic Pathways Of A Northern Hardwood Catchment In The Great Lakes Basin Using End Member Mixing Analysis, Cory C. Burkwald

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This study investigated the seasonality of hydrologic pathways, the role of wetlands in streamflow generation, and how hydrologic pathways affect the export of nutrients by streamflow in the Sturgeon River using endmember mixing analysis. The results indicated that streamflow consists of three main components: shallow subsurface water from wetland soils, shallow groundwater, and surface runoff from precipitation. Snowmelt plays a dominating role in regulating stream water chemistry (~80% volume at peak) during the snowmelt season and likely also after that. Wetland soils store snowmelt, together with rainwater though the fraction is unknown, and then gradually release through summer in the …

A Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Continuum Model To Simulate Seedling Response To Water Stress, Michael Kurt Kendree Jr.

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Most current ecohydrologic models simplify the hydraulics that are at play in plant-water relationships by assuming that the water content within the plant is static. In reality, plants have a relative water content that varies with time in response to environmental stresses. To some extent, variations in plant relative water content are regulated by changes in the osmotic potential of water within plant cells, which contributes to the resilience of plants during periods of water shortage. We present a model that simulates plant water transport and storage within the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. The model incorporates the role of osmotic regulation in …

Submarine Groundwater Discharge At A Mega-Tidal Beach, Raymond D. Craddock, Aaron A. Mohammed, Joseph J. Tamborski, Barret L. Kurylyk

OES Faculty Publications

Tidally influenced groundwater systems in coastal environments represent important mixing zones of fresh groundwater and circulating seawater, manifesting as submarine groundwater discharge (SGD). Water circulation induced by tidal pumping enhances the exchange of chemicals between aquifers and coastal waters and thereby influences the biogeochemistry of coastal zones. Here, we report the results of an SGD field study conducted at a steep, mega-tidal sand and gravel beach along the Canadian coast of the Bay of Fundy, a region with the world's highest tides (semi-diurnal tidal ranges exceeding 10 m). Several physical and geochemical measurement techniques were employed to document the spatiotemporal …

Assessing Stormwater Management Pond Water Quality, Function, And The Potential Biotic Effects To Receiving Waters, Mitchell Elstone

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The use of stormwater management ponds (SWMPs) has been increasing over the past five decades. However, an in-depth understanding of the daily performance of SWMPs and functionality during cold periods is limited. This is in part because mandated monitoring is relatively infrequent, and the assumption that SWMPs are inactive between storm events and during the winter. The goals of this research were to better understand daily stormwater (SW) characteristics, the performance of SWMPs based on current forms of evaluation and assess the potential for SWMP effluent to impact downstream biota. Influent and effluent samples from two SWMPs were collected daily …

Exploring The Consistency Of Flow Regimes Within And Among Ecoregions Of The Southeastern United States, Frank Paul Braun Iv

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Human manipulation of river systems has long been a known contributor to the loss of freshwater biodiversity. By accounting for environmental causes of hydrologic variation among rivers, we can better understand how ecoregion mediates flow regimes and forecast species that may be at risk. Presumably, natural variation associated with ecoregion boundaries exerts strong influence on flow regimes, and may mediate relationships between other features (e.g., land use, dam operations) and hydrology. However, such between-ecoregion variation is poorly investigated, particularly at fine spatial and temporal scales. I characterized 10 hydrologic metrics, representing the five key dimensions of the flow regime (magnitude, …

Measuring And Modeling Riparian Wetland Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity, Nutrient Concentrations And Shallow Groundwater Dynamics In An Appalachian Mixed Land Use Catchment, Bidisha Faruque Abesh

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The paucity of research on accurate predictions of saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat), spatiotemporal analysis of nutrient concentrations relative to water source types (stream and shallow groundwater (SGW)), water flow directions, and land use in riparian wetlands of Appalachian mixed land use catchments underscored the need for this study. Additionally, the lack of SGW flow simulations and stream-SGW interactions using three-dimensional (3D) numerical models (i.e., MODFLOW) in these riparian wetlands further highlighted the research gap. Observed data including soil properties, Ksat, surface water (SW) and SGW levels, and nutrient concentrations, including nitrate (NO3-N), nitrite (NO2-N), ammonium (NH4-N), orthophosphate (PO43-P), total nitrogen …

Groundwater System Characterisation: Fortescue Alluvial Fan, Michael J. Donn, Olga V. Barron, Axel Suckow, Chris Turnadge, John A. Simons, Robert J. Paul, Christopher Schelfhout Dr

Natural resources commissioned reports

This report focuses on groundwater system characterisation in the region north of Newman, based on analysis of pre-existing data and data newly acquired during project activities. Groundwater system characterisation was an important research component supporting the assessment of managed aquifer recharge opportunities, using mine dewatering surplus generated (due to mining below the watertable) at large BHP Billiton Iron Ore operations in the eastern Pilbara mining zone, and aiming to support irrigated agriculture. The assessment area is located north of Ethel Gorge and covers the Upper Fortescue River floodplain and surroundings. The project added much knowledge to this largely ‘data-poor’ region, …

Transforming Agriculture In The Pilbara: Newman Managed Aquifer Recharge (Mar) Feasibility Assessment, Michael J. Donn, Joanne L. Vanderzalm, Olga V. Barron

Natural resources commissioned reports

In the Newman region, DPIRD commissioned an assessment of the potential for managed aquifer recharge (MAR) near Newman using surplus water resulting from mine dewatering as the water supply for irrigated agriculture. The objectives of the MAR assessment were to:

• identify focus area for MAR feasibility assessment within the initial larger area of interest for MAR
• assess the viability of MAR with mine dewater near Newman to support development of irrigated agriculture, in keeping with national and state MAR guidelines
• identify key risks associated with MAR with mine dewater for irrigation supply, and identify knowledge/investigation required to adequately assess risks …

Connecting The Nebraska Water Quality Index To The Aquatic Microbial Community Of The North Platte River Basin, Nebraska, Paula R. Guastello

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

The Nebraska Water Quality Index, under development by the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, summarizes in a single value eight environmental parameters that have been monitored in Nebraska for nearly 20 years. Water quality parameters including those used in the Nebraska Water Quality Index have been shown in previous studies to impact bacterial growth. As such, this index has the potential to correlate with the freshwater microbial community. Here, I relate the Nebraska Water Quality Index to microbial community composition and structure using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequence data collected from the North Platte River Basin, Nebraska. This index …

Pronghorn Survival And Resource Selection In Western Nebraska's Agriculturally Dominated Landscape, Katie Piecora

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

Nebraska’s pronghorn population has been stable over the last decade, yet their presence on the landscape remains a contentious subject amongst private landowners. Conversion of grassland for crop production and increased anthropogenic activity has drastically altered pronghorn behavior throughout their current range, however basic ecology and resource use by pronghorn in Nebraska remains poorly understood. Establishing baseline population metrics and seasonal patterns of resource use for this population at the eastern periphery of the species range is critical to guide management actions. We deployed GPS collars on 110 adult pronghorn to quantify survival, mortality risk, and seasonal resource selection in …