The University of Florida Water Institute Wendy Graham, Ph. D., Water Institute Director, Carl...
-
Upload
alaina-jennings -
Category
Documents
-
view
219 -
download
0
Transcript of The University of Florida Water Institute Wendy Graham, Ph. D., Water Institute Director, Carl...
The University of Florida Water Institute
Wendy Graham, Ph. D., Water Institute Director, Carl Swisher Eminent Scholar
UF Water Institute Mission
To bring together talent from throughout the University to address complex water issues through innovative interdisciplinary research, education and outreach programs
Water Institute Goals
Improve basic knowledge of the physical, chemical, and biological processes in aquatic systems (rivers, lakes, estuaries, wetlands, soil and ground waters).
Enhance understanding of the interactions and interrelationships between human attitudes and activities, and aquatic systems
Develop and promote the adoption of improved methodologies for water management and policy development based on a strong foundation of science, engineering, management and law
Water Institute Strategies
Develop partnerships with internal and external stakeholders to identify and prioritize critical water issues requiring interdisciplinary expertise; as well as to provide expertise and support for addressing these issues.
Integrate and strengthen UF water faculty expertise within existing Departments and Centers.
Recruit and train excellent students to pursue careers in water-related science, engineering, policy, planning, and management, bringing with them an interdisciplinary focus
(www.waterinstitute.ufl.edu)
Water Institute Programs:
Biennial Water Institute Symposium
Distinguished Scholar Seminar Series
Peer Review Services & Expert Assistance
Water Institute Graduate Fellows Program
Water Education Program for Public Officials
Program Initiation Fund
Interdisciplinary Research Projects
Examples of Interdisciplinary Water Institute Research Projects:
Impact of Climate Variability and Climate Change on Water Supply Planning: Evaluating Risks, Increasing Resilience: Funded by NOAA
The Santa Fe River Basin Observatory: Exploring linkages between geology, hydrology, ecosystems and humans in a karst terrain: Funded by NSF
Understanding and Predicting the Impact of Climate Variability and Climate Change on Land Use and Land Cover Change via Socio-Economic Institutions in Southern Africa: Funded by NASA
Coupling conflicting response times of human decisions and natural systems in a water-subsidized Pacific MesoAmerica basin: Funded by NSF
Goal: Improve predictive understanding of hydrologic flow paths and travel times; nutrient sources, transport & transformation; and karst evolution and within an eogentic karst basin
The Santa Fe River Basin Observatory: Exploring linkages between geology, hydrology, ecosystems and humans in a karst terrain
Santa Fe River Basin
Research Questions
What are the topographic, geologic and climatic controls on streamflow generation processes and travel time distributions in eogentic karst basins, how do these affect the delivery of ecologically relevant solutes (e.g., C,N,P)?
What are the mechanisms governing coupled C, N, P cycles in in spring-fed rivers?
How do variations in the sources, transport, and mineralization rates of DIC/DOC/CO2 affect carbonate weathering, dissolution and geomorphic evolution of carbonate terrains?
Project Activities
Deploy high resolution sensors to investigate riverine nutrient dynamics and ecosystem metabolism under different hydrogeologic and flow regimesConduct dosing experiments in streams and aquifers to understand effects of DOM lability, DO availability, biological activity and flow regime on carbonate dissolutionDevelop integrated physically-based deterministic and stochastic hydrologic models to investigate streamflow generation processes, travel time distributions, carbonate dissolution, and delivery of nutrients and dissolution products to the river
Hydrologic Modeling Results
Using literature parameter values in integrated land surface- surface-subsurface hydrologic model (ParFlow)• Water balance, groundwater response,
streamflow timing is good• Issues with rate of stream flow
recession, especially after wet conditions
Hydrologic Modeling Results
End Member Mixing Analysis indicates:• Missing component is from groundwater• Large surface water-groundwater exchange
occurs during storm events.• GSA shows exchange is strongly influenced
by magnitude and contrast between porous matrix and conduit permeabilitiies
Particle tracking: Travel Time distributions by storm position
Old water
New water
Old water
Particle tracking: Effects of geology on median age of water
Particle tracking results: Effects of geology on spatial distribution of water source and age
No conduits
conduit k = 600 m/hrNo conduits, random k
Particle age in days 50,000 days~140 years
Future WorkTest sensitivity of findings to model spatial discretization, overland flow physics, conduit representation, degree of small-scale geologic heterogeneity
Develop an extended Kalman filter to optimally estimate spatially distributed model parameters and reduce model prediction uncertainty using streamflow, groundwater and EMMA data
Conduct particle tracking experiments to quantify effect of geologic heterogeneity on streamflow generation areas, travel paths and travel time distributions
Develop (semi-) analytical models to predict travel time distributions in integrated conduit, porous media, stream system.
Spring Ecosystem Metabolism
Flow creates coherent (diel) downstream signals from cooupled ecosystem metabolic processes
• Carbon: Diel O2 for riverine GPP, R (Odum 1956)
• Carbonate Dynamics: Diel Sp Cond. for carbonate precipitation/dissolution
• Nitrogen: Diel NO3 for autotrophic N demand (Heffernan and Cohen 2010)
• Phosphorus: Diel SRP for geochemical and biological P removal
Raw Data: March 2011
Coupled Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles
DIRECT: Net primary production and assimilative uptake of N are strongly correlated and yield plausible C:N
INDIRECT: Uptake due to denitrification is correlated with respiration and previous days’ GPP (short and long term coupling)
GPP (%)
-80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60
Ud
en
(%)
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
SRP Dynamics
P removal due to assimilation and co-precipitation which produce signals that are out of phase
Ecosystem Scale C and P Coupling
Coherent diel [SRP] signal, varying amplitude
Signal is convolution of 2 out-of-phase processes– Calcite co-precipitation (ca. 30% of removal)– Biotic assimilation (ca. 70% of removal)– Combined removal < 10% of total P flux
Calcite-corrected removal yields plausible C:P
P assimilation lags GPP by ca. 8 hours– Signal from the cell to the ecosystem?
Future Work
Improve understanding of nutrient uptake in rivers by using diel signals to estimate nutrient use
Compare nutrient supply and use to better understand nutrient limitation
Evaluate coupled element cycles across the periodic table (e.g., beyond C, N, P)
Improve understanding of the role of rivers in both permanent and transient contaminant removal
Kurz Diagram
Interdisciplinary Research Challenges:
Effectively engaging diverse groups of faculty and students can be difficult : goals, values, vocabularies differ and take time to resolve
Participation is voluntary: the best are busy and don’t need money; must provide intellectually stimulating interactions
Funding is tight, and national sources are extremely competitive: patience and persistence are important
Can be difficult to quantify value added by formal interdisciplinary institutes: technically nothing prevents faculty from self-organizing
Water Institute Accomplishments:
Changing the culture of how faculty and students work together to understand and solve interdisciplinary water-related problems
Facilitating networking both on campus and externally, with proactive focus on building new linkages between social and natural sciences
Providing platform for engaged scholarship on water issues
Serving as a go-to place for peer review and expert assistance for state agencies and legislature
Decreasing transaction costs associated with, and building the portfolio of, interdisciplinary research projects
In summary… the Water Institute Provides…
Decision-makers, regulatory agencies, resource managers, industry and non-governmental organizations help in defining, understanding and solving large-scale interdisciplinary water resource problems
Graduate students, post-doctoral associates, faculty members, and sabbatical fellows an intellectually stimulating environment in which to develop and apply fundamental knowledge to important water resource problems
Employers a pool of well-trained water-related scientists, engineers, planners, and policy-makers.
Questions…. Comments?
Goal: To increase the relevance and usability of climate and sea level rise models and reduce risk associated with water supply planning in Florida
Impact of Climate Variability and Climate Change on Water Supply Planning: Evaluating Risks, Increasing Resilience
Project ActivitiesDevelop a collaborative Working Group comprised of public water suppliers, water resource managers, climate scientists, and hydrologic scientistsEvaluate the practical applicability of current climate data/models predictions at utility relevant space-time scalesEvaluate the usefulness of these data/models for minimizing current and future public water supply risks associated with climate variability/climate change and/or sea level rise
Academic Partners: UF Water Institute ; UF Southeast Climate Consortium ; UF Center for Public Issues Education; FSU COAPS; U Miami RSMASPublic Utilities: Broward County; West Palm Beach; GRU; Miami-Dade County; OUC; Palm Beach County; Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority; Tampa Bay WaterWater Management Districts: SFWMD, SWFWMD; SJRWMD
SEASONAL SCALE PREDICTIONS– Diagnose and improve seasonal predictability and forecast skill for precipitation, temperature and streamflow
SEA LEVEL RISE – Improve understanding of potential impacts of sea level change on coastal aquifers, water resources, and ecosystems
LONG TERM CLIMATE PROJECTIONS–Evaluate the ability of downscaled reanalysis data and retrospective GCM output to reproduce historic climate and hydrologic patterns, and explore implications of future GCM projections on climate and hydrologic patterns
Evaluate the applicability and usefulness of climate data/models/tools for water supply
0 100 200 300 400 5000
20
40
60
80
100
120GobsBCSD_dailySDBCBCSA
distance (km)
vario
gram
(mm
2)