Browsing by Subject "hydrology"

Now showing 1 - 12 of 12
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    Characterization of streams and rivers in the Minnesota River Basin Critical Observatory: water chemistry and biological field collections, 2013-2016
    (2017-09-06) Dolph, Christine, L.; Hansen, Amy, T.; Kemmitt, Katie, L.; Janke, Ben; Rorer, Michelle; Winikoff, Sarah; Baker, Anna; Boardman, Evelyn; Finlay, Jacques, C.; dolph008@umn.edu; Dolph, Christine, L.
    This dataset was collected to inform the Water, Sustainability and Climate Minnesota River Basin Observatory, and was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1209402 Water, Sustainability and Climate (WSC) – Category 2, Collaborative: Climate and human dynamics as amplifiers of natural change: a framework for vulnerability assessment and mitigation planning. The dataset contains point locations, watershed areas and water quality information for 231 ditch, stream, river and wetland sites located in the Le Sueur River, Chippewa River, Cottonwood River, Cannon River, Wantonwan River and Blue Earth River basins of Minnesota. Study sites ranged in size from 1st order ditches and streams to an 8th order river. Each of these sites was sampled at least once between 2013-2016 (most sites were sampled multiple times) for one or more of the following parameters: 1) water chemistry (total dissolved nitrogen, nitrate-N, nitrite-N, ammonium-N, particulate nitrogen, soluble reactive phosphorus, total dissolved phosphorus, particulate phosphorus, total phosphorus, dissolved organic carbon, dissolved inorganic carbon, particulate carbon, chlorophyll a, total suspended solids, volatile suspended solids, delta-H-2 and delta-O-18 stable isotopes of site water, specific UV absorbance (SUVA) of site water, fluorescence index (FI) of site water); 2) stable isotopes (delta-C-13, delta-N-15, delta-H-2) of invertebrate consumers, particulate carbon and potential food sources; 3) denitrification rates and characteristics of benthic sediment in agricultural drainage ditches; and 4) stream discharge. This dataset also includes spatial data files containing study site locations and watershed areas delineated for each site.
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    City of Minnetonka Watershed Analysis
    (Resilient Communities Project, University of Minnesota, 2012) Alapati, Gayatri; Baldwin, Patrick; Bogg, Karen; Dunsmoor, Josh; Kaczmarek, Hagen; Kalinosky, Paula; Liddle, Patrick; Mazack, Jane; Niebuhr, Spencer; Taraldsen, Matt; Winzenburg, Lucas; Wynia, Molly
    This project was completed as part of the 2012-2013 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Minnetonka. To identify strategies for improving water quality in Minnetonka lakes, the City needed more reliable information about the sources and amounts of potential biological and chloride contamination in the watersheds, as well as the avenues of transit for these contaminants from upland areas to the city's water bodies. Minnetonka project lead and water resources engineer Liz Stout worked with a team of students in 5295 to design a methodology for determining biomass loads within an identifiable tree canopy, and create a geodatabase of transit and flow properties within Minnetonka’s infrastructure. The students' final report and presentation are available.
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    Computer Programs in Hydrology
    (Water Resources Research Center, University of Minnesota, 1972-01) Bowers, C. Edward; Larson, Steven P.; Pabst, Arthur
    Many computer programs in the field of hydrology are developed each year and are playing an increasingly important part in both research and design activities in hydrology. Many of these programs are available for use by other agencies, organizations, and individuals. The study of which this report is a part was undertaken to review available programs in hydrology and to provide information on representative programs. Information ranging from the title only of the program to listings, source decks, and documentation was reviewed for about 200 programs. Of these, 25 were selected for operation on a CDC 6600 computer and/or preparation of an abstract. The report discusses problems associated with adapting programs to a given computer and with understanding the technical procedure on which the program was based.
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    Continuation of Studies on the Hydrology of Ponds and Small Lakes
    (Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, 1971) Allred, E. R.; Manson, P. W.; Schwartz, G. M.; Golany, Pinhas; Reinke, J. W.
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    Data for Impacts of beaver dams on low-flow hydrology and hydraulics, Knife River, Minnesota
    (2021-06-07) Gran, Karen B; Behar, Hannah; Burgeson, Emma; Dymond, Salli; Dumke, Josh; Teasley, Rebecca; kgran@d.umn.edu; Gran, Karen B
    These data were collected as part of a two-year investigation into the impacts of beaver dam removal on low-flow hydrology and hydraulics in the Knife River, Minnesota, USA. Eight sub-basins were monitored for two years, organized as four pairs of sub-basins. The study focused on small headwater sub-basins, with areas ranging from 1.58 to 6.4 km2. In 2018, all of the study basins had active beaver dams. In 2019, the beavers were removed and dams notched in half of the sub-basins, one half of each of the four pairs. Data collection continued throughout the 2019 season measuring impacts post-dam removal.
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    Effects of Agricultural Drainage on Aquatic Ecosystems: A Review
    (2009) Blann, Kristen, L.; Anderson, James, L.; Sands, Gary, R.; Vondracek, Bruce
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    Hydrologic Responses to Beaver Dam Removal in the Knife River Watershed
    (2022-09) Burgeson, Emma
    The hydrologic changes undergone during beaver dam construction and removal are profound and important to the health of aquatic organisms. The alteration of low-flows post-beaver dam removal was addressed here through a paired watershed study in the Knife River watershed on the north shore of Lake Superior, MN. Stream gages and piezometers measuring shallow groundwater levels were monitored for two summers to determine impacts of beaver dam removal on groundwater levels and volumetric discharge downstream. Water samples were taken for isotopic analysis and analyzed for differences in source-water contributions before and after beaver dam removal. A new procedure for analyzing changes to low-flow hydrology was created by combining three common methods of defining a low-flow threshold. This new procedure was used to determine the change in time each stream spent under low-flow conditions; removing the beaver dam was found to increase the amount of time spent in these conditions in all watershed pairs except one upland pair. Watershed characteristics including topography, substrate, and channel slope all played roles in controlling the amount of surface and subsurface storage in each sub-watershed. The upland watersheds comprised of low-order, low gradient, alluvial channels had significant decreases in groundwater levels post-beaver dam removal. The lower watersheds with smaller subsurface storage capacity did not have any significant differences in groundwater levels post-beaver dam removal. Patterns of groundwater contribution to the streams were also analyzed, but data were limited to snapshots in time.
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    Hydronomic Analysis of Forest Management Alternatives for Environmental Quality: A Case Study of Itasca County
    (Water Resources Research Center, University of Minnesota, 1975-08) Clausen, John C.; Mace, Arnett C.; O'Hayre, Arthur P.
    The objective of this investigation was to develop a methodology that integrates water use and environmental quality parameters into an economic system to evaluate forest management alternatives. The input-output technique was the general methodology used for integrating water use. Direct and direct-plus-indirect water use coefficients (total withdrawn and consumptive) were determined for each of the 34 economic sectors in Itasca County, Minnesota. An example was developed from the harvesting alternatives of clearcutting, strip cuts, and selection cuts. A zero water use coefficient was used for timber production, under water surplus conditions, and the water required was 44 million gallons. This value was low in relation to the increased water yield. Under assumed water scarcity situations, the water use coefficient was 175,560 gallons/dollar of output for timber production, and the water required became 16.2 billion gallons which was much greater than the increased water yield.
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    MORPHOLOGICAL, PHENOLOGICAL, AND TRANSPIRATIONAL DIFFERENTIATION IN POPULATIONS OF QUERCUS MACROCARPA AND QUERCUS RUBRA
    (2024-05) Bergen, Erin
    The characteristics and consequences of climate change are unfolding with unprecedented speed worldwide, and few places are changing faster than northern Minnesota. This study takes a unique approach to quantifying arboreal variation in physical plant traits and plant water use in the context of climate change. Two populations, northern and southern, of two species, Quercus macrocarpa and Quercus rubra, were grown in a common garden experiment at a northern field site and compared for climatic suitability. Traits that are known to have adaptive value, such as growth, leaf attributes, and phenological traits, were measured and compared. In addition, the transpiration rates of these populations were captured via portable rapid evapotranspiration chamber for comparison. Trees in a forested watershed can be responsible for up to 70% of the ecosystem’s water loss. Population-level differentiation in transpiration has ramifications for water cycling and may be an important but understudied consideration in climate-forward forest management practices. Rather than struggling in an adverse environment, these two species maintained their cohorts well, indicating that climate shifts have created hospitable long-term conditions for these species. There was genetic differentiation between the two populations for each species for traits that are important for climate adaptation. These differences were especially strong for fall phenology traits and notable for physiological traits linked to water use adaptation, such as specific leaf area. Importantly, measured transpiration varied at a population level for both species. In late August 2020 and 2021, Q. macrocarpa populations significantly differed in their transpiration rate and therefore water use. Furthermore, in a year with more water stress, Q. rubra also demonstrated significant population differentiation in midsummer transpiration. This suggests true population differences, a pattern that may become more evident over time or if additional sites from the original experiment are measured. A model constructed using field precipitation, discharge, and transpiration measurements demonstrated that each population for each species would have a unique impact on the discharge of the Stewart River. This study is one of the known few to demonstrate population differentiation in tree transpiration rates, particularly in Q. macrocarpa and Q. rubra. Taken altogether, this study demonstrates that northern populations may be falling out of alignment with local climate, at the cost of lost growth opportunities and greater winter stresses at the margins of the growing season, and that tree cover can have distinct impacts on ecosystem water balances even at a population scale. This presents an opportunity to counteract the desynchronization of climate shifts with local adaptations, especially in heavily forested regions such as northern Minnesota, and highlights the need for further investigation of water use impacts of trees chosen for planting.
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    Proceedings: 8th Annual Water Resources Seminar Groundwater Resources and Development November 24 and 25, 1975.
    (Water Resources Research Center, University of Minnesota, 1976-05) Water Resources Research Center
    This publication is the proceedings of a Conference on groundwater. Topics include issues and trends in groundwater use, occurrence and quality of groundwater in Minnesota, monitoring of groundwater, stormwater as a potential contaminant, and regional approaches to groundwater management.
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    Response of boreal peatland ecosystems to global change: A remote sensing approach
    (2017-08) McPartland, Mara
    Global climate change is expected to result in anywhere from two to four degrees of warming, with consequences for terrestrial ecosystems. The rate of climate change is disproportionally greater at high latitudes, resulting in landscape-scale effects on the composition, structure, and function of arctic and boreal ecology. Remote sensing offers scientists the ability to track large-scale changes through the detection of biophysical processes occurring in terrestrial ecosystems. In this research, I measured the response of boreal peatland ecosystems to a suite of different climate-related drivers including increased temperature, elevated carbon dioxide levels, and hydrologic change. Working within large-scale ecosystem manipulation experiments, I used passive remote sensing to measure the response of two different types of boreal peatlands, a rich fen and an ombrotrophic bog, to simulated climate change. Chapter 1 describes my research on the use of hyperspectral remote sensing to examine changes in the composition and biodiversity of peatlands in response to long-term experimental manipulation. Chapter 2 details my findings on using simple remote sensing techniques to detect changes in peatland ecosystem productivity in response to warming, elevated carbon dioxide, and hydrologic change. Through this work, I demonstrate that remote sensing can be used to characterize the response of a range of different ecosystem properties to global change.
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    Using Water Budgets and Isotope Analysis to Explore Water Availability in Low Flow Conditions: Hartley Pond Case Study
    (2024) Olbertz, Madison
    Quantifying seasonal changes to the volume and timing of water flowing through a reservoir provides valuable information for responsible resource management. Hartley Pond is a reservoir in Duluth, Minnesota, that is formed by a dam on Tischer Creek. Solar forcing to the reservoir elevates the summer water temperature to a level that is unhealthy for native Brook Trout. One option to address this impairment involves decoupling the stream from the pond. Tischer Creek would flow alongside the pond and maintain a natural water temperature while Hartley Pond would be fed by groundwater and excess streamflow during storm events. For this to work, water inputs from these sources must be high enough to sustain the pond without stream inputs under low flow conditions. To answer questions about the volume and sources of water discharge into and out of Hartley Pond, I built water budgets during low flow conditions in late summer. Streamflow, groundwater, precipitation, evaporation, runoff, and pond volume data were collected to build monthly water budgets for June, July, and August 2023. Accompanying stable isotope analysis of stream, pond, and groundwater samples refined elements of the water budget. Results from the water budget show that inputs into Hartley Pond are dominated by streamflow. Isotope analysis supports the finding that evaporation outputs are greater than groundwater inputs. Therefore, the plan to disconnect the stream from the pond may not be viable because the hydrologic integrity of the pond cannot be maintained through low flow conditions without streamflow inputs. Information gained from the water budget will help local resource managers create a feasible restoration project for Hartley Pond that meets community and environmental needs.