Environmental Health and Protection Commons^™

Multi-Scaled Approaches For Protecting Montana's Watersheds And Water Resources, Elizabeth Yoder

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

The central theme carried among my four portfolio pieces is: using scientific and governmental approaches to conserve watershed health. For the purposes of this portfolio, I define watershed health as a very general term that describes the state of water quantity and quality that is available for human and ecosystem needs in a watershed. I see each of my portfolio pieces focusing on a different scale and method (i.e., science or government, including different levels of government, local, state and federal) for conserving watershed health. My first portfolio piece reviews water quality degradation caused by pharmaceuticals and personal care products …

Distribution And Condition Of Stony Corals In The Veracruz Reef System National Park: A Management Perspective, Mauricio López Padierna

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The Veracruz Reef System (VRS) is located in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. It is comprised of 28 coral reefs in various stages of development and conservation. They are protected under the Parque Nacional Sistema Arrecifal Veracruzano National Park created in 1992. There are many threats to the reefs of the VRS, including the Port and city of Veracruz, which hosts half a million inhabitants and Mexico’s oldest active port. The inhabitants of Veracruz have used reef resources for thousands of years, as evidenced in archaeological sites on Sacrificios island, and constructions throughout the city, most notably in the San …

Influence Of Internal Variability On Population Exposure To Hydroclimatic Changes, Justin S. Mankin, Daniel Viviroli, Mesfin Mekonnen, Arjen Y. Hoekstra, Radley M. Horton, Jason E. Smerdon, Noah S. Diffenbaugh

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Future freshwater supply, human water demand, and people’s exposure to water stress are subject to multiple sources of uncertainty, including unknown future pathways of fossil fuel and water consumption, and ‘irreducible’ uncertainty arising from internal climate system variability. Such internal variability can conceal forced hydroclimatic changes on multi-decadal timescales and near-continental spatial-scales. Using three projections of population growth, a large ensemble from a single Earth system model, and assuming stationary per capita water consumption, we quantify the likelihoods of future population exposure to increased hydroclimatic deficits, which we define as the average duration and magnitude by which evapotranspiration exceeds precipitation …

A Critical Analysis Of The Direct Effects Of Dredging On Fish, Amelia S. Wenger, Euan S. Harvey, Shaun K. Wilson, Christopher A. Rawson, Stephen J. Newman, Douglas Clarke, Benjamin J. Saunders, Nicola Browne, Michael J. Travers, Jennifer L. Mcilwain, Paul L A Erftemeijer, Jean-Paul A. Hobbs, Dianne L. Mclean, Martial Depczynski, Richard D. Evans

Fisheries Research Articles

Dredging can have significant impacts on aquatic environments, but the direct effects on fish have not been critically evaluated. Here, a meta-analysis following a conservative approach is used to understand how dredging-related stressors, including suspended sediment, contaminated sediment, hydraulic entrainment and underwater noise, directly influence the effect size and the response elicited in fish across all aquatic ecosystems and all life-history stages. This is followed by an in-depth review summarizing the effects of each dredging-related stressor on fish. Across all dredging-related stressors, studies that reported fish mortality had significantly higher effect sizes than those that describe physiological responses, although indicators …

The Giving Trees: The (Un)Sustainability Of Palm Oil In Indonesia, Amber Rosche

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Palm oil is the main source of cooking oil for much of Africa, Asia and Brazil. Due to the increasingly high demand for palm oil, countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia have cleared millions of acres of tropical rainforests to create space for oil palm plantations. This deforestation has led to extreme environmental and social concerns such as the burning of peatlands, the endangerment of a number of species, including the Sumatran Tiger, rhinos and orangutans, and the displacement of native populations. Indonesia is the world’s largest consumer and producer of palm oil, producing almost half of the world’s supply …

Complex Interactive Effects Of Water Mold, Herbicide, And The Fungus Batrachochytrium Dendrobatidis On Pacific Treefrog Hyliola Regilla Hosts, John M. Romansic, James E. Johnson, R. Steven Wagner, Rebecca H. Hill, Christopher A. Gaulke, Vance T. Vredenburg, Andrew R. Blaustein

Biology Faculty Scholarship

Infectious diseases pose a serious threat to global biodiversity. However, their ecological impacts are not independent of environmental conditions. For example, the pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), which has contributed to population declines and extinctions in many amphibian species, interacts with several environmental factors to influence its hosts, but potential interactions with other pathogens and environmental contaminants are understudied. We examined the combined effects of Bd, a water mold (Achlya sp.), and the herbicide Roundup® Regular (hereafter, Roundup®) on larval Pacific treefrog Hyliola regilla hosts. We employed a 2 wk, fully factorial laboratory experiment with 3 …

Factors That Influence Vital Rates Of Seaside And Saltmarsh Sparrows In Coastal New Jersey, Usa, Samuel G. Roberts, Rebecca A. Longenecker, Matthew A. Etterson, Katharine J. Ruskin, Chris S. Elphick, Brian J. Olsen, W. Gregory Shriver

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

As saltmarsh habitat continues to disappear, understanding the factors that influence the population dynamics of saltmarsh breeding birds is an important step in the conservation of these declining species. Using 5 yrs (2011–2015) of demographic data, we evaluated and compared apparent adult survival and nest survival of Seaside (Ammodramus maritimus) and Saltmarsh (A. caudacutus) sparrows at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey, USA. We determined the effect of site management history (unditched vs. ditched marshes) on adult and nest survival to aid in prioritizing future management or restoration actions. Apparent adult …

Environmental Challenges In Central And Eastern Europe, Bernhard Hennig

Superfund Research Center Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Emerging Roles Of Xenobiotic Detoxification Enzymes In Metabolic Diseases, Michael C. Petriello, Jessie B. Hoffman, Andrew J. Morris, Bernhard Hennig

Superfund Research Center Faculty Publications

Mammalian systems have developed extensive molecular mechanisms to protect against the toxicity of many exogenous xenobiotic compounds. Interestingly, many detoxification enzymes, including cytochrome P450s and flavin-containing monooxygenases, and their associated transcriptional activators [e.g. the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR)], have now been shown to have endogenous roles in normal physiology and the pathology of metabolic diseases. This mini-review will focus on two such instances: the role of flavin-containing monooxygenase 3 (FMO3) in the formation of the cardiometabolic disease biomarker trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) and the role of AhR as a sensor of endogenous ligands such as those generated by the gut microbiota. Understanding …

Estimating Seasonal Variation In Condition Of Yellow Perch, Emily Anne Powers

Biology Graduate Theses

Research has shown that Yellow Perch Perca flavescens, found throughout lakes and streams of North America, are good indicators of environmental health. Due to the correlation between fish condition and ecosystem health it is essential to reliably estimate condition to better manage our fisheries. Therefore, the study objectives were to measure the seasonal changes in adult Yellow Perch percent dry weight (PDW), and compare the reliability of bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and morphometric-based estimates of condition. The seasonal fluctuations in average monthly PDW were measured over a two- year period and were sinusoidal in shape with peaks in August 2015 …

An Open-Sourced Statistical Application For Identifying Complex Toxicological Interactions Of Environmental Pollutants, Jordan T. Perkins, Michael C. Petriello, Li Xu, Arnold J. Stromberg, Bernhard Hennig

Superfund Research Center Faculty Publications

The rising number of chemicals that humans are exposed to on a daily basis, as well as advances in biomonitoring and detection technologies have highlighted the diversity of individual exposure profiles (complex body burdens). To address this, the toxicological sciences have begun to shift away from examining toxic agents or stressors individually to focusing on more complex models with multiple agents or stressors present. Literature on interactions between chemicals is fairly limited in comparison with dose-response studies on individual toxicants, which is largely due to experimental and statistical challenges. Experimental designs capable of identifying these complex interactions are often avoided …

Impact Of Nutrition On Pollutant Toxicity: An Update With New Insights Into Epigenetic Regulation, Jessie B. Hoffman, Michael C. Petriello, Bernhard Hennig

Superfund Research Center Faculty Publications

Exposure to environmental pollutants is a global health problem and is associated with the development of many chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. There is a growing body of evidence that nutrition can both positively and negatively modulate the toxic effects of pollutant exposure. Diets high in proinflammatory fats, such as linoleic acid, can exacerbate pollutant toxicity, whereas diets rich in bioactive and anti-inflammatory food components, including omega-3 fatty acids and polyphenols, can attenuate toxicant-associated inflammation. Previously, researchers have elucidated direct mechanisms of nutritional modulation, including alteration of nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) signaling, …

Recent Advances On Iron Oxide Magnetic Nanoparticles As Sorbents Of Organic Pollutants In Water And Wastewater Treatment, Angela M. Gutierrez, Thomas D. Dziubla, J. Zach Hilt

Superfund Research Center Faculty Publications

The constant growth in population worldwide over the past decades continues to put forward the need to provide access to safe, clean water to meet human needs. There is a need for cost-effective technologies for water and wastewater treatment that can meet the global demands and the rigorous water quality standards and at the same maximizing pollutant efficiency removal. Current remediation technologies have failed in keeping up with these factors without becoming cost-prohibitive. Most recently, nanotechnology has been sought as the best alternative to increase access to water supplies by remediating those already contaminated and offering ways to access unconventional …

An Analysis Of The Economic And Environmental Impact Of The U.S. Epa's Brownfields Program In New York And New Jersey From 2009 To 2014 Using Gis, Schenine Mitchell, Cindy Wang, Karmin Chong, Angelo Lampousis

Publications and Research

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) as part of its mission to protect human health and the environment has developed a Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative designed to empower States, communities and other stakeholders in economic development to work collaboratively to in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up and sustainably reuse brownfields. In order to effectively carry out the mission of the Brownfields Program, all ten regions share in the same goal of redeveloping brownfields. In this project we explore correlations between median household income and Brownfields funding (i.e., Phase I/Phase II assessments and clean-up grants). …

Air Exchange Rates And Alternatuve Vapor Entry Pathways To Inform Vapor Intrusion Exposure Risk Assessments, Rivka Reichman, Mohammadyousef Roghani, Evan J. Willett, Elham Shirazi, Kelly G. Pennell

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Vapor intrusion (VI) is a term used to describe indoor air (IA) contamination that occurs due to the migration of chemical vapors in the soil and groundwater. The overall vapor transport process depends on several factors such as contaminant source characteristics, subsurface conditions, building characteristics, and general site conditions. However, the classic VI conceptual model does not adequately account for the physics of airflow around and inside a building and does not account for chemical emissions from alternative “preferential” pathways (e.g. sewers and other utility connections) into IA spaces. This mini-review provides information about recent research related to building air …

Nutrient Contamination From Non-Point Sources: Dissolved Phosphate In Surface And Subsurface Waters At Eku Meadowbrook Farm, Madison County, Kentucky, Hunter R. Evans, Reid E. Buskirk, Walter S. Borowski, Jonathan M. Malzone

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Farms are non-point sources for nutrient contaminants that drain into watersheds and contribute to eutrophication and other environmental problems. Eastern Kentucky University’s Meadowbrook Farm raises both crops and livestock, causing dissolved phosphorus in the form of orthophosphate (PO₄^3-) from fertilizer and animal manure to enter surface and subsurface waters, eventually flowing into Muddy Creek, a tributary of the Kentucky River.

We sampled surface water, springs, and water from French drains that emanate from the farm, and also sampled Muddy Creek waters from May through August 2016. Typically, 1 to 2 days after sampling, we colorimetrically measured dissolved …

Nutrient Contamination From Non-Point Sources: Dissolved Nitrate And Ammonium In Surface And Subsurface Waters At Eku Meadowbrook Farm, Madison County, Kentucky, Reid E. Buskirk, Hunter R. Evans, Walter S. Borowski, Jonathan M. Malzone

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Agricultural activities often contaminate watersheds with excess nutrients leading to poor water quality and eutrophication. We assayed dissolved nutrient levels in surface and subsurface waters of Eastern Kentucky University’s Meadowbrook Farm in order to assess levels of dissolved nutrients leaving its farmland and draining into the Muddy Creek watershed. The Farm raises both crops and livestock so that nutrient sources include fertilizer and manure. We sampled springs, runoff, and subsurface pipe drainage as well as Muddy Creek on six days from May to August 2016 under a variety of weather conditions. Using established, standard colorimetric methods, we measured nitrate (NO …

Collective Litigation Of Environmental Rights In Colombia: An Empirical Study, Ángela María Páez-Murcia, Everaldo Lamprea-Montealegre, Catalina Vallejo-Piedrahita

Public Administration Faculty Research

This paper presents the results of an empirical study that systematized environmental judicial opinions handed down by Colombia’s highest administrative Court —Consejo de Estado— over a 17-year period (1998-2015). Thanks to a research grant, the authors and a team of coders systematized, using state-of-the art content analysis methodologies, more than 250 opinions handed down by Colombia’s highest administrative Court. The results presented in this paper show the most important trends of collective environmental litigation in Colombia: types of plaintiffs and defendants; type of environmental resources involved in the case; plaintiffs’ success rates; most litigious regions and cities; overall effects of …

Murray Energy Corporation V. Mccarthy, Sarah M. Danno

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Holding that the widespread effects of environmental regulation on the coal industry constituted sufficient importance, the Northern District of West Virginia ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct analysis on employment loss and plant reduction resulting from regulatory effects. In admonishing the EPA’s inaction, the court ruled that the Agency had a non-discretionary duty to evaluate employment and plant reduction. Furthermore, the court held that the EPA’s attempt to put forth general reports in place of required evaluations was an invalid attempt to circumvent its statutory duty.

2017 Spring Engr333 Project Assignment, Matthew K. Heun

ENGR 333

The Spring 2017 ENGR333 project focused on campus energy consumption.

I asked the students “Can you construct a fine-grained, bottom-up electricity demand model that predicts the annual electricity consumption for the dormitories (section A) and the PE complex (section B) for each year of the last decade with an accuracy of ±2%?”

Customer

The customer for this project was Jack Phillips, Assistant Director (Mechanical) at Calvin’s Physical Plant.

The Palos Verdes Kelp Restoration Project, Tom Ford

Faculty Pub Night

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Initial Aquifer Conditions On Economic Benefits From Groundwater Conservation, T. Foster, N. Brozovic, A. P. Butler

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Worldwide, there is growing recognition of the need to reduce agricultural groundwater use in response to rapid rates of aquifer depletion. To date, however, few studies have evaluated how benefits of conservation vary along an aquifer’s depletion pathway. To address this question, we develop an integrated modeling framework that couples an agro-economic model of farmers’ field-level irrigation decisionmaking with a borehole-scale groundwater flow model. Unique to this framework is the explicit consideration of the dynamic reductions in well yields that occur as an aquifer is depleted, and how these changes in intraseasonal groundwater supply affect farmers’ ability to manage production …

Nitrogen Sustainability: Impediments To Action And Communication, Eric E. Jorgensen

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

“Sustainability” is widely used to imply the presence of explicit consideration of environmentally friendly needs and that high societal-value is placed on those needs. However, it is abundantly clear after 30 years that talking about sustainability and achieving it are two entirely different things. The core concept underlying sustainability is that current human practices and activities be conducted so as to not degrade prospects for future generations. With nitrogen, conflicts about sustainability in-theory and sustainability in-practice are close to the surface because of nitrogen’s central role in food production and economic activity. Measures of nitrogen inputs commonly range as high …

Toxicity Of Fluorescent Tracers And Their Degradation Byproducts, Philippe Gombert, Hugues Biaudet, René De Sèze, Pascal Pandard, Jean Carré

International Journal of Speleology

Tracer tests are frequently used to delineate catchment area of water supply springs in karstic zones. In the karstic chalk of Normandy, the main tracers used are fluorescent: uranine, sulforhodamine B, naphtionate, and Tinopal®. In this area, a statistical analysis shows that less than half of the injected tracers joins the monitored restitution points and enters the drinking water system where they undergo chlorination. Most of the injected tracers is absorbed in the rock matrix or is thrown out of the aquifer via karstic springs: then it can join superficial waters where it is degraded due to the sun and …

Aquacrop-Os: An Open Source Version Of Fao’S Crop Water Productivity Model, T. Foster, N. Brozovic, A. P. Butler, C. M. U. Neale, D. Raes, P. Steduto, E. Fereres, T. C. Hsiao

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Crop simulation models are valuable tools for quantifying crop yield response to water, and for devising strategies to improve agricultural water management. However, applicability of the majority of crop models is limited greatly by a failure to provide open-access to model source code. In this study, we present an open-source version of the FAO AquaCrop model, which simulates efficiently water-limited crop production across diverse environmental and agronomic conditions. Our model, called AquaCrop-OpenSource (AquaCrop-OS), can be run in multiple programming languages and operating systems. Support for parallel execution reduces significantly simulation times when applying the model in large geospatial frameworks, for …

In-Situ Observation And Transport Modelling Of Arsenic In Gangetic Plain, India, Pankaj Kumar Gupta, Pranjay Joshi, Jahangeer

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The focus of this study is to investigate the arsenic movement and impacts on the residual concentrations on groundwater pollution load. The Gangetic plain area in the Ballia, Uttar Pradesh is selected as study area, which is also reported to extreme arsenic pollution in soil-water system. A modelling approach is developed to assess the arsenic flux in partially saturated zone using data of soil texture, soil hydraulic properties and stratigraphy. Soil type, slope, and land-use cover is considered for estimating the transient flux at the top boundary from daily precipitation and evapotranspiration data of the study area. Solute transport in …

Paid To Pump: How A Tax Credit Could Discourage Conservation Of The High Plains Aquifer, S. Polzkill,, A. Stejskal, H. Wilke, Anna Wistrom, Katherine E. B. Gibson, Mindy J. Spiehs, Nicholas Brozovic

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

In 1965’s United States v. Shurbet case, an irrigator from Texas asserted his claim for a depletion tax deduction for groundwater pumped from the High Plains Aquifer. He argued that the unique conditions of the southern High Plains region - a plateau where the shallow aquifer is recharged only through precipitation at a slow rate - meant the groundwater resource would be depleted in time. The state argued that groundwater was not fundamentally an exhaustible natural deposit, but the Supreme Court concluded the tax deduction was appropriate given the “peculiar” conditions in the area. It was stated the decision was …

Pathways To Increasing Farmer-Led Investments In Sustainable Agricultural Water Management In Sub-Saharan Africa, Douglas J. Merrey, Peter G. Mccornick, Molly C. Nance

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Without a transformative leap forward in the use of irrigation, Africa will continue falling short in the struggle to feed its growing population, improve its people’s nutrition, grow its economies, adapt to the impacts of climate change, and eliminate poverty. While Africans must lead this transformation for it to be successful, the international community can help African countries substantially increase the use of more productive and sustainable water management practices and unlock the potential of farmer-led irrigated agriculture. Achieving highly productive irrigated agricultural systems in Africa requires an enabling environment that facilitates the full engagement of farmers, public and private …

Evaluating Trophic Rewilding As A Conservation Technique, Aaron Sieve

Biology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

The focus for this paper is to define specifically trophic rewilding, determine its efficacy as a conservation technique, and explore ways to lessen one of its key limitations. Trophic rewilding is the conservation technique whereby an extirpated keystone species or ecosystem engineer is reintroduced into a degraded habitat to restore ecological function by triggering trophic cascades. The technique is evaluated through analysis of the concepts of trophic cascades and ecosystem engineers. Key limitations of trophic rewilding are that a lack of population control in reintroduced may cause issues, that many times not enough is known about trophic cascades to be …

Malta : Natural Freshwater Resources, Lisamarie Pereira

Global Public Health

The aim of this paper is to discuss Malta’s struggle with limited natural freshwater resources. Malta currently uses aquifers to obtain natural freshwater. For over a decade, aquifers have been under pressure from over-abstraction. Due to this issue, Malta has not been able to obtain enough natural freshwater for agriculture and basic living. The biggest risk due to over-abstraction is retrieving a smaller volume of freshwater. In Malta’s attempted interventions, the biggest issue is the Maltese government’s misconceptions. The Maltese government believes the country has unlimited natural freshwater resources. Due to this misconception, nothing is being done to actively fix …