Research

Restored riffle in Plum Creek, Kent, OH. Photo by A. Jefferson, September 2012.

Stormwater wetland in Charlotte, NC. Photo by A. Jefferson, December 2011.

Funded by NSF’s Environmental Engineering program from 2011-2013, this project is in collaboration with Sara McMillan, Sandra Clinton, and Christina (Naomi) Tague. We are using a combination of monitoring and modeling to understand the cumulative, downstream effects of stormwater control structures on urban stream hydrology, biogeochemistry, and ecology. Among the questions I am seeking to answer with this project are: “How does the spatial pattern of land development and stormwater control within a watershed affect the hydrology and nutrient export in urban streams?” “Is there a critical threshold for the percent of watershed area treated by stormwater structures in order to produce meaningful hydrological and ecological benefits of stormwater management?” and “How do different types of stormwater control measures affect temperature surges in urban streams?”. Some of the preliminary results of the project will be presented at the Geological Society of America conference in November 2012 and stay tuned for more great stuff coming out of our work.

Our forested, unrestored stream during a tracer injection, March 2012. Photo by A. Jefferson.

Funded by the NC Water Resources Research Institute, Sandra Clinton, Craig Allan, and I have been investigating how stream restoration alters patterns of transient storage in forested and urban streams. Our goal is to separately quantify surface transient storage (e.g., pools) and hyporheic exchange and understand how the two types of storage lead to ecological and water quality differences between streams. Our funding ends in December 2012, and we’ll next be presenting the preliminary results of our work at the Geological Society of America meeting in November.

Bridging the Conceptual Divide Between Theoretical and Applied Environmental Chemistry
This project, funded by NSF’s DUE TUES, began in September 2012 and will run until 2015. PIs on the project are Anne Jefferson, Liz Griffith, Joe Ortiz, and David Dees. We will be developing curriculum that uses water isotope data for several upper level Earth Science classes. We will be developing curriculum that enables students will run the Picarro Water Isotope Analyzer (in my lab) and analyze their own data in an effort to improve student understanding of course material. We will also be exploring ways to transfer our curricular activities to institutions that do not have isotope analytical capabilities. If you are a student at Kent State, you can become involved in the project by taking one of the classes in which we will use the new curriculum. If you are a faculty member at another university and would like to test our materials (either with your own isotope analyzer or without), please contact us.