Hydrology Commons^™

Proceedings Of The 12th Research Symposium At Mammoth Cave National Park, Pat Kambesis Editor, Lee Anne Bledsoe Editor, Ana K. Celis Editor

Mammoth Cave Research Symposia

Proceedings of the 12th Research Symposium at Mammoth Cave National Park: Celebrating 100 Years of Scientific Research & Resource Management in the Mammoh Cave Region.

Rain-On-Snow Event Climatology And Hydrological Impacts In The Connecticut River Watershed, Samuel Davidson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Rain-on-snow events, characterized by rain falling on existing snowpack, have the potential to bring about significant hydrological and environmental impacts including snowmelt, flooding, landslides, and other natural hazards. Despite prior evidence suggesting the Connecticut River Watershed has endured socioeconomic and environmental setbacks due to rain-on-snow events in the past, limited prior research has been performed on the role of rain-onsnow events within the region’s hydroclimatology. Gaining a deeper understanding of the occurrence and impacts of such events would provide valuable insights for risk and water resource managers. The purpose of this research was to create a climatology of rain-on-snow events …

Caves, Calculus, And Climate Change: Measuring And Modeling The Discharge Of Biz Falls In Mammoth Cave National Park, Ava Lich

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Climate change poses a significant global challenge, with increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide as a primary driver of rising temperatures and environmental disruptions. Karst systems, such as those in South-Central Kentucky, play a role in sequestering atmospheric CO₂ through the dissolution of limestone, a process that forms unique landscapes while mitigating climate impacts. This study investigates the discharge dynamics of Cascade River in Great Onyx Cave to enhance understanding of the relationship between hydrology and carbon sequestration in karst environments. A barrel weir equipped with pressure transducers was employed to collect and measure water flow, and Torricelli’s law was …

Landuse And Microplastic Transport In Karst Groundwater Of South-Central Kentucky, Katie Norman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Groundwater in karst areas is susceptible to contamination from various sources of pollution. Microplastics are a prevalent source of pollution entering groundwater. This study examines karst groundwater in three areas of investigation. One point of interest is an area that is impacted by urban activities, the Lost River Groundwater Basin, which includes water drainage from the City of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Another study location is Great Onyx (GO) Spring, which is a part of the Great Onyx Groundwater Basin located in Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, and that is relatively unimpacted by urban activities. The third point of interest is …

Western Kentucky University Stormwater Utility Survey 2024, Warren Campbell

SEAS Faculty Publications

The main goal of this survey is to identify as many U.S. Stormwater Utilities (SWUs) as possible. Because many stormwater professionals do not have the time to respond to questionnaires, our primary method of identification was Internet searches. We searched key terms such as “stormwater utility,” “stormwater fee,” and “drainage fee.” We scoured online municipal codes such as Municode, AmLegal, Sterling, LexisNexis, General Code, and others. We searched through many city web websites to find utilities. We have also had many people contact me to update fees and identify new utilities. However, the data primarily comes from Internet sources and …

Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment And Dye Trace Of War Fork River In Daniel Boone National Forest, Will Hemenover

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Daniel Boone National Forest plays a key role in preserving much of Kentucky’s karst regions, natural resources including timber, mineral deposits, and biodiversity, including over 300 species of concern. The health of these environments is determined by surface and groundwater streams in the forest, and karst systems are an integral environment where these systems are active. War Fork, a tributary to the Kentucky River in Jackson County, Kentucky, is a remote and understudied hydrologic system in the Daniel Boone National Forest that contains recreational and logging land uses. Due to karst areas being susceptible to contamination because of rapid water …

Landscape/Atmosphere Interactions And Carbon-Dioxide Dynamics In The Great Onyx Groundwater Basin, Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, Meghan Raines

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

An increase in atmospheric CO2 since the Industrial Revolution has altered rates of global climate change and has motivated a need to better quantify the flux of carbon between Earth’s reservoirs. Attempts to quantify the exchange of atmospheric carbon between sources and sinks have led to an increasing interest in the terrestrial landscape, including the continental carbon sink associated with carbonate-mineral dissolution. This research sought to better inform an understanding of karst landscapes and their relationship with global climate change through carbon cycling. The study utilized high-resolution data collection of pH, temperature, and specific conductance of waters in the Cascade …

A Predictive Flood Model For Urban Karst Groundwater Systems, Trayson Lawler

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Urban karst environments are often plagued by groundwater flooding, which occurs when water rises from the subsurface to the surface through the underlying caves and other karst features. The heterogeneity and interconnectedness of karst systems often makes them very unpredictable, especially during intense storm events; urbanization exacerbates the problem with the addition of many impervious surfaces. Residents in such areas are frequently disturbed and financially burdened by the effects of karst groundwater flooding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers limited protection to citizens living near flood-prone areas as they primarily focus on the areas near surface bodies of water. …

Hydrological Dynamics Of Surface-Groundwater Interactions Between Major Springs Of Mammoth Cave And The Green River, Kentucky, Usa, Matthew Cecil

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Mammoth Cave is an iconic example of the cave and karst systems that underlie over 50% of the United States and provide around 13% of the world’s population with water resources. These environmental features are vulnerable to drought, pollution, and human impacts. The complex hydrological regime of the Mammoth Cave system has been studied in the past, but there are improvements and updates that can be made to the past research. The dynamics of the surface-groundwater system, particularly reversals of the Green River and how it backfloods into the cave, are some examples. Echo River and River Styx Springs provide …

Bibliography, Chris Groves

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by Chris Groves.

Bibliography, Leslie North

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by Leslie North.

Investigating Epikarst Recharge Dynamics Under Agricultural Landuse Using Hydrometeorological And Isotopic Tracers, Austin Shane Deering

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Epikarst systems have complex recharge – discharge processes in telogenetic karst systems, including highly variable storage, flowpaths, and mixing dynamics. This research aimed to characterize the epikarst zone using hydrogen and oxygen isotopic tracers of these processes within south-central Kentucky’s Crumps Cave system located in the Pennyroyal Sinkhole Plain. Data and statistical analyses were applied to highresolution rainfall (RF), lysimeter (10 cm, 20 cm, 30 cm depths), and an epikarst Waterfall 1 (WF1) isotope data collected on a weekly basis between 2011-2018. These data were coupled with WF1 discharge measurements and weather station data collected at Crumps Cave Preserve during …

An Adaptive Hazard Planning And Mitigation Framework For Responding To Urban Contamination In Karst Aquifer Systems, James Edward Troxell

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Environmental hazards in karst regions are damaging and often go unnoticed until an issue has escalated to a point of affecting life or property. The field of emergency and environmental contamination response lacks planning or preparedness focused on remediating groundwater contamination in karst systems. A lack of preplanning before an incident can lead to confusion, delayed response, and the inability to remediate the contaminant. Due to the rapid movement of contaminants through urban karst groundwater aquifers, an efficient response plan that leverages localized data in a GIS should be developed and maintained in order to adequately respond. The objective of …

Atmosphere/Landscape Co2 Interactions In Mammoth Cave National Park: Hydrochemistry Of Cascade River, Great Onyx Cave, Jessica Williams

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

High-resolution analysis of water/CO₂/carbonate rock geochemistry was conducted at the Great Onyx Groundwater Basin in Mammoth Cave National Park. The purpose of this work has been to undertake hydrochemical characterization of the karst groundwater in Cascade River, the largest cave stream in the upper level of Great Onyx Cave, which is below a relatively pristine karst landscape.

Hydrochemical monitoring of Cascade River at Biz Falls using field, laboratory, and high-resolution electronic data-sonde measurements has provided a detailed picture of the stream’s behavior with respect to the transport and influence of carbon dioxide in the surface and groundwater system …

Antibiotic Resistant Gene Concentrations In Bacteria In Groundwater From Agricultural Waste, Koji Barnaby

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The overuse of antibiotics has led to an increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria since some antibiotics are sent into the wastewater system by waste produced by both humans and agriculture, making exposure to these bacteria more likely. The evolution of these bacteria in groundwater is of particular concern, as groundwater is used as a source of drinking water, and infections by these bacteria would be more difficult to treat. There are no policies in place to monitor or regulate antibiotic resistance bacteria in groundwater, leaving the threat to public health unknown. The study area of Crumps Cave in Smiths Grove, …

Application Of Excitation-Emission Matrices To Fluorescent Dye Tracing Of Groundwater Flow, Cayla M. Baughn

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Fluorescent dye tracing of groundwater is a technique employed particularly in carbonate rock karst regions to examine karst hydrology by mapping underground flow paths. It is important to understand the hydrology of karst environments because solutionally-enlarged conduits may allow the rapid influx of contaminants into the groundwater system. Fluorescent dye tracing involves the injection of a fluorescent dye into an appropriate injection site (sinking streams, sinkholes, or even through soil flushed with water) and is followed by sampling at sites where the dye may be recovered (typically springs). Various methods exist by which sampling may occur, but all methods ultimately …

Impacts Of Forest Management And Timber Harvest Practices On Karst Critical Zone Processes In Tongass National Forest, Alaska, Anna Gwendolyn Harris

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study characterizes the throughfall, hydrogeochemistry, dissolution rates, and carbon sources of two proximate temperate rainforest cave systems within the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska (Tongass). Study sites include: an old-growth forest, characterized by having never been logged (containing Walkabout Cave system); and a previously logged – within thirty years, second-growth forest (containing Zina Cave system). Precipitation data were recorded over a five-month period at 10-minute intervals, to understand the effects of throughfall between the altering old and second-growth canopies. At each major spring for the two cave systems, high-resolution data were collected from June 29 through November 21, …

Hydrogeochemical Characterization And Speleogenesis Of Sistema Huautla In Oaxaca, Mexico, Fernando Hernandez

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Sierra Mazateca, Mexico is home to Sistema Huautla, the deepest cave in the Western hemisphere with 1,560 meters of depth and 90 kilometers of passage, including 26 entrances distributed in a high-relief, karstified terrain, within the Sistema Huautla Karst Groundwater Basin. Exploration of the cave has generated research questions about its evolution and geomorphology given the different vadose and phreatic zones impacted by tectonic and incision processes. Dye traces during this study of Cueva de La Peña Colorada confirmed it is a fossil resurgence of the cave system. An additional cave, Cueva Elysium, was connected hydrologically in 2019, expanding the …

Geochemical Flux Analysis Of Glacial River Runoff For Sólheimajökull, Iceland, Jessica Garrison

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Geochemical fluxes in aqueous studies are an essential component of research to understand weathering and changes in a hydrologic system. These data can indicate any discrepancies, outliers, or gradual changes in a water environment to gain information on pollutants, carbon cycles, biological input, etc. Glacial melt is the majority of the surface water present throughout the country. The melting amount is increasing with the temperatures, which can be monitored by the changes in geochemical flux during increased discharge in glacial rivers. A high-resolution data set of Sόlheimajökull Glacier in Iceland was used to determine how changing climatic conditions for the …

Influence Of Spring Flow Reversals On Cave Dissolution In A Telogenetic Karst Aquifer, Mammoth Cave, Ky, Chelsey Kipper

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

An often overlooked connection between karst groundwater systems and surface water is spring flow reversal, the flow of river water into karst springs caused by changes in hydraulic gradient. Karst aquifers are subject to the intrusion of river water when the hydraulic head of a base level river is higher than the hydraulic head of a base level spring. When this occurs, the flow out of the spring reverses, allowing river water to enter base level conduits. River water thus becomes a source of recharge into karst basins, transporting both valuable nutrients and harmful contaminants into karst aquifers. The rapid …

An Urban Karst Aquifer Resource Evaluation And Monitoring Toolbox, Rachel Anne Kaiser

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In urban karst areas, such as the City of Bowling Green, Kentucky and the Tampa Bay Metropolitan Area, groundwater quality faces a variety of threats. The development of residential, commercial, and industrial landuse types allows for a wide variety of groundwater pollutants to enter the karst groundwater systems. Various different models and indices have attempted evaluative approaches to identify issues in urban karst areas, but the methods vary by location and lack a focus on urban karst groundwater quality. There also exists a lack of a data-driven approach that is able to capture short- and long-term changes in threats to …

Analysis Of Permaculture’S Water Conservation And Crop Supporting Abilities, Hannah Chaney

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In the Middle East, virtually all agriculturally viable land is under high threat of desertification due to poor land and resource management and climate change. Mulching using straw flakes (straw mulch permaculture) is a method commonly used in successful dry land permaculture projects in the Middle East. We proposed that straw mulch permaculture would increase the amount of soil moisture during dry periods and that this method would not impact the growth and survival of the crop. In order to test this hypothesis, we took soil samples from plots with and without straw mulch permaculture in Bowling Green, KY and …

Ua66/8/2 Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Geography & Geology Centers & Institutes, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Centers and Institutes administered by the Geography & Geology Department. Including:

• Center for Cave & Karst Studies
• Center for Local Government Services
• Hoffman Environmental Research Institute
• Kentucky Climate Center
• Resources Management Institute
• Small Public Water System Technology Center

Ua66/8/1 Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Geography & Geology Events, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created for Geography & Geology department events.

Monitoring And Evaluating The Influences Of Class V Injection Wells On Urban Karst Hydrology, James Adam Shelley

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The response of a karst aquifer to storm events is often faster and more severe than that of a non-karst aquifer. This distinction is often problematic for planners and municipalities, because karst flooding does not typically occur along perennial water courses; thus, traditional flood management strategies are usually ineffective. The City of Bowling Green (CoBG), Kentucky is a representative example of an area plagued by karst flooding. The CoBG, is an urban karst area (UKA), that uses Class V Injection Wells to lessen the severity of flooding. The overall effectiveness, siting, and flooding impact of Injection Wells in UKA’s is …

Controls On Speleogenesis In The Upper-Mississippian Pennington Formation On The Western Cumberland Plateau Escarpment, Hali Steinmann

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Much of the pioneering work on caves of the Cumberland Plateau (province spanning Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia) has been stratigraphically located within the Mississippian Bangor and Monteagle Limestones, wherein some of the region’s largest and most spectacular caves occur. Of interest to the understanding of this karst landscape, but severely underrepresented in the literature thereof, are caves and karst features in a heterogeneous sequence of clastics and carbonates known collectively as the Pennington Formation (Upper Mississippian). This work consisted of a regional study of Pennington caves on the western Cumberland Plateau escarpment (Alabama and Tennessee), and a case study …

Shower Atomization, Chirag Ayappa Ravishankar,

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The research will help to design a shower for Dr. Chelson’s shelter, which can control the water flow, pressure and duration of the shower, which optimizes the utilization of water. The showers could be used in drought-hit areas where water is very scarce, as daily sanitation needs are necessary to keep a person safe and healthy without wasting water. The report from, World Health Organization shows that showers consume the most water. A timed shower could help resolve this issue through eliminating the wastage. Eco-friendly environmentalists may also be attracted to the showers, as their main purposes are to save …

Characterizing South American Mesoscale Convective Complexes Using Isotope Hydrology, Kyle J. Hogancamp

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Mesoscale convective complexes (MCCs) over subtropical South America contribute an average annual volume of precipitation equal to approximately seven km3 and occur with an average regularity in the region, with more than 30 per warm season. Isotopic characteristics of precipitation, such as δ2H and δ18O values, provide information that can be used to identify unique processes and sources related to precipitation events. The largest database of isotope characteristics of precipitation within the region is the Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP), which provides varying temporal resolution data from stations around the world, including subtropical South America.

Using this database, …

Undergraduate Research Projects Help Promote Diversity In The Geosciences, De'etra Young, Shannon R. Trimboli, Rick S. Toomey, Thomas Byl

Mammoth Cave Research Symposia

No abstract provided.

Citizen Science At Mammoth Cave National Park: Integrating Research And Education, Shannon R. Trimboli

Mammoth Cave Research Symposia

No abstract provided.