RII Track-2 FEC: Sensing and Educating the Nexus to Sustain Ecosystems (SENSE). A Kentucky-West Virginia Partnership

Murray State University, Murray KY

Investigators

Abstract

Non-technical Description This project will expand and enhance the surface-water sensing capabilities across Kentucky and West Virginia, providing a foundation for understanding the impacts of agricultural and hydropower production on water quality, particularly as it relates to harmful algal blooms. It will bring together experts in engineering and aquatic ecology, involving five research groups from three universities in the two states, jointly motivated to develop more sustainable water, food, and energy systems. Using a surface water-quality sensing network and supporting data visualization and modeling capabilities, the project will address three research questions: 1) What are the interconnections among water quality issues relative to increasing agricultural production, changing land-use patterns, climate change, energy production, and ecosystem dynamics across Kentucky and West Virginia?s aquatic environments? 2) What are the environmental, physical, and biogeochemical features leading to water-quality changes and how might advanced technologies be applied to better understand and monitor those changes? and 3) How might modeling and management scenarios of land use, nutrient loading, and water-control systems operate in concert to reduce degradation of systems at local and basin scales? Along with its research focus, the project will work to enhance and diversify the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce in Kentucky and West Virginia and support the professional development of early-career faculty. Technical Description The research team will focus on the environmental drivers associated with the formation and propagation of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms. Extensive in situ sensing infrastructure will be installed at two hydropower-producing water bodies and along two watersheds in regions with heavy agricultural land use. Thirty-three new instruments will be acquired and deployed to monitor nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), inorganic carbon, dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, turbidity, conductivity, algal pigment and cell numbers, water flow parameters, and meteorology. Cyberinfrastructure upgrades will be included to allow near real-time data collection and visualization. Analyses will focus on identifying the presence, extent, and timing of the harmful algal blooms as they relate to the measured parameters.