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Much time and money has been spent over the last 40 years in the U.S. by farmers, soil scientists, hydrologists, geomorphologists, engineers, and ecologists attempting to document how agricultural best management practices, natural vegetation in riparian corridors, and stream rehabilitation or bank stabilization reduces sediment yields and improves ecological conditions at watershed outlets. These issues are especially pertinent in the steep erodible landscape of the Driftless Area in southwest Wisconsin, where many miles of world-class spring-fed trout streams remain on state impaired waters lists from excessive sedimentation and degraded habitat even though this area was the birthplace of the conservation movement...
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The high load of suspended sediments in Kansas rivers and reservoirs has raised many concerns about the quality of the state's water supply. Erosion originating in pastures, croplands, gullies and channel-banks accounts for the majority of the suspended sediment load. Pasture and cropland adjacent to river and stream banks without riparian buffers increase de-stabilization allowing for bank deterioration and contribute non-point source pollutants such as fertilizers, pesticides and fecal matter. Determining high-risk areas along rivers and tributaries for either riparian remediation or bank stabilization is part of our research. Using GIS technology with present day and historical aerial images, high risk areas...
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Since the mid 1990's, Lake Erie has experienced seasonal eutrophication. This investigation was designed to look at potential causes for eutrophication in Lake Erie. It was also designed to see if any correlations exist between agriculturally applied fertilizers (including sewage sludge) and cyanobacterial blooms in the Western Basin of Lake Erie that occurred during the months of July, August, and September for the years 1999-2003. An algorithm was used on available LANDSAT Thematic Mapper (TM) frames to monitor phycocyanin growth caused by cyanobacteria. These images were analyzed in conjunction with Maumee River water quality data, planted winter wheat, local weather data, and records of agriculturally applied...
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Sediment and Phosphorous runoff from the Maumee River watershed, with the largest drainage of any of the great lakes watersheds, have been identified as significant contributors to water quality problems in the western basin of Lake Erie. Sediment and nutrient loading have been associated with increased harmful algal blooms and these blooms and sediment impact the most productive fishery in the Great Lakes. We use a calibrated SWAT model and climate model predictions to model the anticipated changes of discharge, sediment and phosphate from the Maumee River, both in terms of total volume and in temporal distribution of discharge. The model was calibrated to flow volume, sediment concentration and P concentrations....
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Both climate and land use changes can affect the sustainability of water resources. Field studies and modeling efforts have provided valuable information regarding the impacts of these changes on surface water and groundwater resources. However, the use of physically-based fully-integrated hydrologic models to explore the entire hydrologic system in a holistic manner under climate and land use change has only just emerged. This type of modeling framework can be used to quantitatively evaluate the impact of both climate and land use changes on surface and subsurface hydrology, contaminant and thermal energy transport, and the interactions between the surface and subsurface flow and transport regimes. In this work,...
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