Spring 2020 Resources and Publications
A range of water resources materials are now available virtually. Created by the WRC and Extension water teams, these resources are intended for homeowners, professionals and everyone in between. The website will be regularly updated as additional resources in drinking water, stormwater and watersheds are developed.
Innovation as a policy strategy for natural resource protection
Jeffrey M. Peterson
Natural Resource Modeling Volume 32, Issue 3 2019
Growing global food demands place major strains on water resources, including quality impairments and increased water scarcity. Drawing on the largely separate bodies of literature on externalities and technological innovation, this article develops a dynamic framework to explore the long‐term impacts of alternative policy approaches to the agricultural impacts on water resources.
Healthier soil, layer by layer
Source, March 2020
Anna Cates, Minnesota’s first state soil health specialist, is on a mission to standardize soil health measures for the northern Midwest. As an Extension soil scientist in the Minnesota Office for Soil Health, a collaborative initiative between the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources and the University of Minnesota Water Resources Center, Cates collaborates with state agencies, local individuals and University researchers.
Last fall, Cates and Hava Blair, University of Minnesota Ph.D. candidate, completed the first year of a two-year soil sampling effort. “This project is not just about science. We work directly with people on their farms, so communication is very important,” says Cates.
Impact of variable rate nitrogen and reduced irrigation management on nitrate leaching for potato
Bohman, B.J., C.J. Rosen and D.J Mulla
Journal of Environmental Quality, 2020
Nitrogen (N) loss from cropping systems has important environmental implications, including contamination of drinking water with nitrate. A 2‐yr study evaluated the effects of six N rate, source, and timing treatments, including a variable rate (VR) N treatment based on the N sufficiency index approach using remote sensing, and two irrigation rate treatments, including conventional and reduced rate, on nitrate leaching, residual soil nitrate, and plant N uptake for potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Russet Burbank) production in 2016 and 2017 on a Hubbard loamy sand.
Regional measurements and spatial/temporal analysis of CDOM in 10,000+ optically variable Minnesota Lakes using Landsat 8 imagery
Olmanson, L.G., B.P. Page, J.C. Finlay, P. L. Brezonik, M. E. Bauer, C. G. Griffin and R. M. Hozalski
Science of The Total Environment, 2020
Information on colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) is essential for understanding and managing lakes but is often not available, especially in lake-rich regions where concentrations are often highly variable in time and space. We developed remote sensing methods that can use both Landsat and Sentinel satellite imagery to provide census-level CDOM measurements across the state of Minnesota, USA, a lake-rich landscape with highly varied lake, watershed, and climatic conditions. We evaluated the error of satellite derived CDOM resulting from two atmospheric correction methods with in situ data, and found that both provided substantial improvements over previous methods.
Factors Influencing the Distribution of Invasive Hybrid (Myriophyllum Spicatum x M. Sibiricum) Watermilfoil and Parental Taxa in Minnesota
Eltawely, J.A., R.M. Newman and R. A Thum
Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum L.) hybridizes with the native northern watermilfoil (M. sibiricum Kom.), which raises new issues regarding management strategies to control infestations. To determine the distribution of hybrid (and coincidentally Eurasian and northern) watermilfoil in Minnesota, we sampled lakes across the state during 2017–2018 for watermilfoil. A total of 62 lakes were sampled, spanning a range of sizes and duration of invasion.
Nutrient cycling in the Lower St. Lawrence Estuary: Response to environmental perturbations
Jutras, M., A. Mucci, B. Sundby, Y. Grattpm, and S. Katsev
Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 2020
We investigated the response of nutrient cycling in the Lower St. Lawrence Estuary (LSLE) to perturbations, using a linear three-box model that reflects summer stratification. The model is used to (i) test the sensitivity of each layer’s nutrient concentration (fixed-nitrogen, phosphorus, and silica) to perturbations in nutrient and water volume inputs to the LSLE, (ii) compute the response time of the system to a new steady state following a perturbation, and (iii) estimate the amount of oxygen consumed by respiration as bottom waters are advected through the LSLE.