Environmental Monitoring Commons^™

Characterizing Freshwater Phytoplankton Dynamics With Electro-Optical Remote Sensing, Michael Sayers

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Freshwater lakes are an important component contributing to ecosystem health and biodiversity on local, regional, and global scales. And while lakes only represent <5% of the global surface area, they are often very productive systems which contribute significantly to carbon cycling dynamics and freshwater fish production on a number of spatial scales. Due to the remote location and sheer size of some of these lakes it has proven difficult to adequately document changes in water quality. Significant challenges exist to adequately monitor water quality, and in particular phytoplankton dynamics, over large spatial and temporal scales using traditional in situ methods. Satellite electro-optical remote sensing offers a potential tool to provide better characterization of phytoplankton dynamics for a variety of freshwater systems. This work resulted in an approach to quantify global summer phytoplankton abundance using a newly developed remote sensing derived chlorophyll-a product. This product was also used in conjunction with a newly created carbon fixation model to assess global freshwater phytoplankton production which provided new insights into the role freshwater systems play in the …

Influence Of Land Cover And Soil Moisture Based Brown Ocean Effect On An Extreme Rainfall Event From A Louisiana Gulf Coast Tropical System, Udaysankar S. Nair, Eric Rappin, Emily Foshee, Warren Smith, Roger A. Pielke Sr., Rezaul Mahmood, Jonathan L. Case, Clay B. Blankenship, Marshall Shepherd, Joseph A. Santanello, Dev Niyogi

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Extreme flooding over southern Louisiana in mid-August of 2016 resulted from an unusual tropical low that formed and intensified over land. We used numerical experiments to highlight the role of the ‘Brown Ocean’ effect (where saturated soils function similar to a warm ocean surface) on intensification and it’s modulation by land cover change. A numerical modeling experiment that successfully captured the flood event (control) was modified to alter moisture availability by converting wetlands to open water, wet croplands, and dry croplands. Storm evolution in the control experiment with wet antecedent soils most resembles tropical lows that form and intensify over …

The Total Solar Eclipse Of 2017: Meteorological Observations From A Statewide Mesonet And Atmospheric Profiling Systems, Rezaul Mahmood, Megan Schargorodski, Eric Rappin, Melissa Griffin, Patrick Collins, Kevin Knupp, Andrew Quilligan, Ryan Wade, Kevin Cary, Stuart Foster

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

A total solar eclipse traversed 37 the continental United States on August 21, 2017. It 38 was the first such event in 99 years and provided a rare opportunity to observe the atmospheric response from a variety of instrumented observational platforms. This paper discusses the high quality observations collected by the Kentucky Mesonet (www.kymesonet.org), a research-grade meteorological and climatological observation network consisting of 72 stations and measuring air temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, solar radiation, wind speed, and wind direction. The network samples the atmosphere, for most variables, every three seconds and then calculates and records observations every five minutes. During …

Irrigation Impacts On Minimum And Maximum Surface Moist Enthalpy In The Central Great Plains Of The Usa, Tianyi Zhang, Rezaul Mahmood, Xiaomao Lin, Roger A. Pielke Sr.

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Agricultural activities notably alter weather and climate including near-surface heat content. However, past research primarily focused on dry bulb temperature without considering the role of water vapor (dew point temperature) on surface air heat content. When using dry bulb temperature trends to assess these changes, for example, not including concurrent trends in absolute humidity can lead to errors in the actual rate of warming or cooling. Here we examined minimum and maximum surface moist enthalpy, which can be expressed as “equivalent temperature.” Using hourly climate data in the Central Great Plains (Nebraska and Kansas) from 1990 to 2014, the averages …

Enhancing Acis Maps: Increasing Usability Through A Gis Portal, Natalie Umphlett, Warren Pettee, Bill Sorensen, Crystal J. Stiles

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

The High Plains Regional Climate Center (HPRCC) is one of six NOAA Regional Climate Centers (RCCs) in the United States that aims to provide timely climate data and information to the public for cost-effective decision-making. As part of a three-tiered approach to climate services, the RCCs address needs on the national, regional, state, and local scales for a variety of sectors including agriculture, energy, natural resource management, research, transportation, and water resources. Working together, the RCCs develop and disseminate a wide range of valueadded climate products and services.

One of the HPRCC’s most popular products is the Applied Climate Information …

Conducting A Drought-Specific Thira (Threat And Hazard Identification And Risk Assessment): A Powerful Tool For Integrating All-Hazard Mitigation And Drought Planning Efforts To Increase Drought Mitigation Quality, Elliot Wickham, Deborah J. Bathke, Tarik Abdel-Monem, Tonya K. Bernadt, Denise Bulling, Lisa M. Pytlikzillig, Crystal J. Stiles, Nicole Wall

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

In the United States, drought is the second costliest natural disaster, which leads to the need for increased drought mitigation efforts over time. However, drought planning has lagged behind other hazard mitigation efforts, which is likely due to the lack of a national drought planning policy. Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requires all jurisdictions have a hazard mitigation plan (HMP) to receive pre-disaster mitigation funds, drought has only recently been a requirement in HMPs. In 2012, Nebraska witnessed its worse drought in recent history, which exposed the gaps in drought planning effectiveness at all jurisdictional levels. To address …

Spatiotemporal Dynamics Of Nitrogen And Carbon Biogeochemistry In A Wetland-Stream Sequence, Patrick E. Hurley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Studies of aquatic ecosystems often segregate streams from the influential ponds, lakes, and wetland zones that act as important transitions between terrestrial and fluvial systems. Across the aquatic landscape, these zones interact to form linked ecosystems that function as discrete nutrient processing domains, shifting biogeochemical signals due to spatial and temporal variability in hydrologic and biologic controls. Using a mass-balance approach, we profiled nutrient dynamics along a 23-km wetland-stream sequence over three seasons. Hydrologic, morphologic, and biologic conditions, as well as landscape attributes, were quantified to determine potential controls on biogeochemical cycling in a tributary of the Upper Clark Fork …

Assessing The Spatial And Temporal Variability Of The Detroit River And Harmful Algal Blooms In Western Lake Erie, Angela W. Yu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Despite efforts to reduce the occurrence of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in western Lake Erie, blooms recur annually due to agricultural runoff, storms with high winds and heavy rains, and weak lake circulation patterns. The influence from river inputs on the spatial and temporal characteristics of HABs remains relatively unknown. The Detroit River, which contributes about 80% of the basin's total inflow can have a large influence on the spatial and temporal distribution of the bloom. To understand this, optically classified imagery, in situ water measurements, and meteorological and river discharge observations were compiled and synthesized to examine the spatiotemporal …

Droughtscape, Winter 2019, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

From the Director

Drought intensified in California and Nevada, eased elsewhere

Year in Review: Drought spread and intensified in the West; record precipitation in the East

Drought impact summary for 4th quarter 2018

Drought impact summary 2018

Five states began drought plan updates in 2018

New web-based form makes submitting drought observations easier

FEMA risk assessment process tailored for drought

Upcoming events

Decomposing A Watershed’S Nitrate Signal Using Spatial Sampling And Continuous Sensor Data, Evan Clare

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Watershed features, physiographic setting, geology, climate, and hydrologic processes combine to produce a time-variant nutrient concentration signal at the watershed outlet. Anthropogenic influences, such as increased agricultural pressures and urbanization, have increased overall nutrient loadings delivered to the fluvial network. The impact of such increased nutrient loadings on Kentucky’s drinking water remains a potential threat to the region.

By coupling spatial sampling of nitrate concentrations in surface water with contemporary nutrient and water quality sensor technology, a decomposition of the Upper South Elkhorn watershed’s nitrate signal and an estimation of source timing and loading in the watershed was completed. The …

Improved Drought Resilience Through Continuous Water Service Monitoring And Specialized Institutions—A Longitudinal Analysis Of Water Service Delivery Across Motorized Boreholes In Northern Kenya, Nick Turman-Bryant, Corey L. Nagel, Lauren Stover, Christian Muragijimana, Evan A. Thomas

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increasing frequency and severity of drought is driving increased use of groundwater resources in arid regions of Northern Kenya, where approximately 2.5 million people depend on groundwater for personal use, livestock, and limited irrigation. As part of a broader effort to provide more sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene services in the region, we have collected data related to site functionality and use for approximately 120 motorized boreholes across five counties. Using a multilevel model to account for geospatial and temporal clustering, we found that borehole sites, which counties had identified as strategic assets during drought, ran on average about 1.31 …

Environmental Forensic Characterization Of Former Rail Yard Soils Located Adjacent To The Statue Of Liberty In The New York/New Jersey Harbor, Diane Hagmann, Michael A. Kruge, Matthew Chi-Hymn Cheung, Maria Mastalerz, José Luis Gallego, Jay Prakash Singh, Jennifer Krumins, Xiaona N. Li, Nina M. Goodey

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Identifying inorganic and organic soil contaminants in urban brownfields can give insights into the adverse effects of industrial activities on soil function, ecological health, and environmental quality. Liberty State Park in Jersey City (N.J., USA) once supported a major rail yard that had dock facilities for both cargo and passenger service; a portion remains closed to the public, and a forest developed and spread in this area. The objectives of this study were to: 1) characterize the organic and inorganic compounds in Liberty State Park soils and compare the findings to an uncontaminated reference site (Hutcheson Memorial Forest); and 2) …

Island Invasion: The Silent Crisis In Hawaii, Sophia Janssen

Pomona Senior Theses

Keeping out invasive species may, upon first review, seem like a trivial environmental cry from ecologists and deep environmentalists; a belated wish to return to an undeveloped world where nature was pristine. However invasive species create problems that impact all of us and can have far more severe consequences than changing a stunning landscape. These problems are heightened in islands like Hawaii, where the fragile ecosystems have developed over centuries of evolution and adaptation. The introduction of a disease-carrying mosquito can put the people of Hawaii at risk to many vector-born illnesses and create an epidemic, taking human life. The …

Modeling The Flow Of Hall Creek, Humboldt County, California Using Visualizing Ecosystem Land Management Assessments (Velma) And Calculating The Channel Forming Flow Using The Effective Discharge Calculation, Ethan A. Luckens

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Due to wide spread stream degradation across the globe, there is great potential for restoring stream and riverine habitat. Land managers often lack necessary information about the stream discharges of ungauged watersheds. This lack of data makes designing stream restoration projects in ungauged watersheds more difficult. This is especially true when trying to determine the channel-forming flow, the discharge that will support a stable channel geometry. In this study, the channel-forming flow was approximated using effective flow. Effective flow is the level of flow that transports to the greatest amount of sediments. One method for calculating effective flow is to …

Cosmic Ray Sensors For The Continuous Measurement Of Arctic Snow Accumulation And Melt, Anton Jitnikovitch

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In the Arctic, winter persists for much of the year, resulting in a hydrological system that is primarily regulated by snow and snowmelt runoff, and has important implications on vegetation, animals, and on the thermal regime of the active layer and permafrost. Snow water equivalent (SWE) measurements such as remote sensing techniques provide coarse resolution data, while snow surveys and snow-pits are labour intensive, have limited spatial coverage and do not provide a continuous reading. Over the last few decades, cosmic ray sensors (CRS) have been proposed as a way to provide much improved snow data, but few studies have …

Using Paleolimnology To Establish Baseline Conditions For Metal Contaminants In Advance Of Proposed Mining To Inform A Northern Community-Led Aquatic Monitoring Program, Tłı̨Chǫ Lands, Northwest Territories, Canada., James Telford

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Marian Watershed Stewardship Program (MWSP), a community-driven aquatic ecosystem monitoring program, was developed by the Tłı̨chǫ Government to address concerns regarding the cumulative impacts of multiple potential stressors. In particular, the MWSP aims to develop methods that will be effective for detecting potential pollution from the proposed cobalt-gold-copper-bismuth NICO mine within Tłı̨chǫ Lands. In collaboration with the MWSP, paleolimnological methods and geochemical normalization are used to establish pre-mine baselines of lake sediment metals concentrations in the Marian River watershed prior to mine development. This baseline framework can be used to assess for pollution from surficial sediment once the mine …

Development And Application Of Hydrological And Limnological Monitoring In Lake-Rich Landscapes Of Canada’S Subarctic National Parks, Hilary Emma White

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Arctic and subarctic environments are being adversely influenced by human-caused climate change across our entire planet. Canada’s northern freshwater ecosystems are influenced by a variety of environmental stressors and are particularly sensitive to climate change, since small shifts in climate have the potential to substantially alter their hydrological, limnological, and biogeochemical conditions. Some other indirect effects on northern freshwater landscapes are the expansion of vegetation as well as changes in wildlife and waterfowl populations and distribution. It is, therefore, critical to understand the observed and predicted influences of climate change and other environmental stressors on these northern freshwater environments dominant …

Seasonality Of Nitrogen Balances In A Mediterranean Climate Watershed, Oregon, Us, Jiajia Lin, Jana E. Compton, Scott G. Leibowitz, George Mueller-Warrant, William Matthews, Stephen H. Schoenholtz, Daniel M. Evans, Rob A. Coulombe

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

We constructed a seasonal nitrogen (N) budget for the year 2008 in the Calapooia River Watershed (CRW), an agriculturally dominated tributary of the Willamette River (Oregon, U.S.) under Mediterranean climate. Synthetic fertilizer application to agricultural land (dominated by grass seed crops) was the source of 90% of total N input to the CRW. Over 70% of the stream N export occurred during the wet winter, the primary time of fertilization and precipitation, and the lowest export occurred in the dry summer. Averaging across all 58 tributary subwatersheds, 19% of annual N inputs were exported by streams, and 41% by crop …

Preface: Earth Observation For Integrated Water And Basin Management: Challenges For Adaptation To A Changing Environment, María J. Polo, Maria P. González-Dugo, Christopher M.U. Neale

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Integrated river basin management involves a sound knowledge of water and land interactions, and impacts from and feedbacks to human activity. Remote sensing has been an efficient and increasingly promising means of gathering direct information of the Earth surface, as well as information on water and energy fluxes. The recent generation of high-resolution sensors offers a huge potential for monitoring, assessing, and modelling our changing environment in a context of uncertainty about how future climate conditions will affect the current water resource and basin management framework. Moreover, large amounts of data are now available posing a challenging opportunity to the …

Riverbank Filtration Impacts On Post Disinfection Water Quality In Small Systems—A Case Study From Auburn And Nebraska City, Nebraska, Matteo D'Alessio, Bruce Dvorak, Chittaranjan Ray

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Small water systems can experience a fluctuating quality of water in the distribution system after disinfection. As chlorine is the most common disinfectant for small systems, the occurrence of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) represents a common problem for these systems. Riverbank filtration (RBF) can be a valuable solution for small communities located on riverbanks. The objectives of this study were to evaluate (i) the improvements in water quality at two selected RBF systems, and (ii) the potential lower concentrations of DBPs, in particular, trihalomethanes (THMs), in small systems that use RBF. Two small communities in Nebraska, Auburn and Nebraska City, using …

Mercury In Big Cypress Bayou And Caddo Lake Watersheds In Marion And Harrison Counties Texas, Joseph Watkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Caddo Lake has been included on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality 303(d) list for impairment due to mercury (Hg) content since 1996. One of the primary tributaries, Big Cypress Bayou, flows across Eocene-aged rocks and sediments associated with the Wilcox Group; the Wilcox is of interest because it contains lignite coal, which has a direct link to mercury. Previous research has focused on dry deposition from fossil fuel combustion as the primary source of mercury but has not addressed the potential watershed contribution to mercury concentrations in Caddo Lake.

Big Cypress Bayou flows through Harrison and Marion counties in …

Flow Analysis Through Collectorwell Laterals: A Case Study From Sonoma County Water Agency, California, Matteo D'Alessio, John Lucio, Ernest Williams, Donald Seymour, Jay Jasperse, Chittaranjan Ray

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The Sonoma County Water Agency (SWCA) uses six radial collector wells along the Russian River west of Santa Rosa, to provide water for several municipalities and water districts in north-western California. Three collector wells (1, 2, and 6) are located in the Wohler area, and three collector wells (3, 4, and 5) are located in the Mirabel area. The objective of this paper is to highlight the performance of the three collector wells located in the Mirabel area since their construction. The 2015 investigation showed a lower performance of Collectors 3 and 4 compared to their original performances after construction …

Assessing The Feasibility Of Soil Infiltration Trenches For Highway Runoff Control On The Island Of Oahu, Hawaii, Martina Sobotkova, Jaromir Dusek, Ghasem Alavi, Laxman Sharma, Chittaranjan Ray

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The coastal waters of Hawaii are extremely important for recreation as well as for the health of the marine environment. Non-point source pollution from storm runoff poses a great threat to surface water quality in Hawaii. The State of Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) includes infiltration trenches as a best management practice (BMP) option to reduce pollution caused by stormwater runoff. HDOT guidelines state that the implementation of BMPs is needed to reduce sediment and pollutant loads to streams and the ocean. In this study, the suitability of soils adjacent to highways on Oahu for the siting of infiltration trenches …

Coupling Between Land–Ocean–Atmosphere And Pronounced Changes In Atmospheric/Meteorological Parameters Associated With The Hudhud Cyclone Of October 2014, Akshansa Chauhan, Rajesh Kumar, Ramesh P. Singh

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

India is vulnerable to all kinds of natural hazards associated with land, ocean, biosphere, atmosphere, and snow/glaciers. These natural hazards impact large areas and the population living in the affected regions. India is surrounded by ocean on three sides and is vulnerable to cyclonic activities. Every year cyclones hit the east and west coasts of India, affecting the population living along the coasts and infrastructure and inland areas. The extent of the affected inland areas depends on the intensity of the cyclone. On 12 October 2014, a strong cyclone “Hudhud” hit the east coast of India that caused a high …

Preface: Workshop On Pesticide Exposure Assessment Paradigm For Non-Apis Bees, Richard Bireley, Shannon Borges, Karina Cham, David Epstein, Kristina Garber, Connie Hart, Wayne Hou, Alessio Ippolito, Jens Pistorius, Veronique Poulsen, Keith Sappington, Thomas Steeger

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Since the mid-2000s, increased annual losses of honey bee (Apis mellifera L., Hymenoptera: Apidae) colonies and declines in some species of non-Apis bees have been reported (Biesmeijer et al. 2006, NRC 2007). These losses, particularly with respect to honey bees, have been associated with multiple factors including pesticides, pathogens (viruses, fungi, bacteria), pests (primarily the parasitic mite Varroa destructor Anderson and Trueman [Arachnida: Parasitiformes: Varroidae]), poor nutrition, and bee management practices acting in combination (vanEngelsdorp et al. 2008, 2009; Ratnieks et al. 2010). Because of the role that bees play in providing pollination services to natural and agricultural-based ecosystems, …

Energy Demand And Water Footprint Study Of An Agricultural Machinery Industry, Mantoam E,J., Mesfin Mekonnen, T.L. Romanelli

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The intensification of agricultural production systems demands power, supplied by agricultural machinery, besides more agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and seeds. Agricultural mechanization provides increase in the global production of food, fiber and bioenergy; and it brought economic benefits to producers, but causing larger energy consumption. Energy embodiment in agricultural machinery has been done in earlier studies, but data usually are from car industry. This study aimed to determine the energy demand and water footprint in a plant that assembles five types of agricultural machinery from a multinational manufacturer located in Piracicaba municipality in Sao Paulo state, Brazil. That …

Umphlett Qci Dec 2018, Natalie A. Umphlett

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Highlights for the Basin

Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies

Mountain Snowpack

Water Resources and Drought

Agriculture

Temperature

Precipitation

Groundwater Hydrogeolgy And Hydrochemistry Of Karst Springs In The Eastern Peninsula Of Fort Hood Military Installation, William Scribner Welles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The eastern peninsula of Fort Hood Military Installation is underlain by a complex karst spring network. These springs are a primary water source in a protected habitat for endangered songbirds, which has only recently begun to be fully investigated. These Fredericksburg Group springs express both epigenetic and hypogenetic karst signatures. The study area is part of a paleo reef trend, a hydraulically disconnected segment of the northern section of the Edwards Aquifer. This study utilized standard ion index values, repeated measures, and principal component analyses on the chemical profiles of six perennial springs to classify spring water sources and their …

Improving Sinkhole Mapping Using Lidar Data And Locating Sinkhole Hotspots In Johnson City, Tn, Kingsley Fasesin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Predicting infrastructure damage and economic impact of sinkholes requires high accuracy mapping distribution and development. The study mapped sinkholes and sinkhole hotpsots in Johnson City, TN using LiDAR-derived Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and a database of known sinkholes which were matched to LiDAR-derived depressions. For all matched depressions (n = 404), three metrics were calculated: circularity index, ratio of length to width of the Minimum Bounding Rectangle (MBR) and percent coverage of the MBR by the depression, and 3,634 new sinkholes were identified. Newly developed hotspots were identified in north Johnson City and other areas in the south near the …

Keeping Pace With Relative Sea Level Rise: Marsh Platform Monitoring Shows Minimal Sediment Deficit Along The Louisiana Coast, Kelly Marie Sanks

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent reports estimate that the marshes of the Mississippi Delta receive just 30% of the sediment necessary to sustain current land area1. An extensive monitoring campaign by the USGS and LCPRA provides direct measurements of sediment accumulation, subsidence rates, and deposit characteristics along the coast over the past 10 years2, allowing us to directly evaluate this sediment balance. By interpolating bulk density, organic fraction, and vertical accretion rates from 273 sites, a direct measurement of organic and inorganic sediment accumulation can be made. Results show that a total of 82 MT/year of sediment is delivered to the coast. Using a …