Water resources management has shifted from flow regulation applications designed to protect publ... more Water resources management has shifted from flow regulation applications designed to protect public health to applications that include restoration of natural flow regimes and protection of aquatic ecosystems. The ecological flow regime uses a regime-based approach that considers hydrologic variability instead of focusing on identifying flows or flow targets for aquatic ecosystems. It determines environmental flow by embracing the multitude of species within an ecosystem rather than emphasizing a single species. In addition, the ecological flow regime recognizes that flow magnitude, duration, frequency, timing, and predictability must be incorporated into any flow management strategy. This paper provides a multi-objective approach to integrating ecosystem and human needs in water resources management. The ecological flow regime analysis provides a surrogate for ecosystem needs in analyzing the trade-offs with human water usage. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA II) is used to find the Pareto set of operating rules for evaluation of reservoir operation for the Dahan River basin in Taiwan. It provides decision makers with the trade-offs between shortages in water available for human needs and ecological flow regime maintenance.
: Brillouin's equation (H) for species diversity from information theory is to be preferred f... more : Brillouin's equation (H) for species diversity from information theory is to be preferred for the purposes of applied ecology over the equation of Shannon (H′) or the more commonly used approximate equation (H″). By its use, the difficult problem of delimiting the extent of the community being sampled in a stream survey can be avoided. Moreover, Brillouin's equation gives the exact diversity of the fully censused collection, whreas Shannon's diversity can only be approximated with a biased estimator. If we regard a sample as a message from the environment to the ecologist, Brillouin's equation is the proper one for computing its diversity. The product moment correlation coefficient between Brillouin's H for the total number of individuals from a group of samples and for randomly chosen subsets of 100 individuals from each sample was nearly as high as the correlation between H and H″ based on the total samples. This indicates that small sample sizes may give a useful diversity index. Replicated subsamples show that much smaller samples than are normally used can discriminate between communities from polluted and unpolluted environments. The use of smaller samples should reduce the cost of stream surveys.
Biological a c t i v i t y i n shallow streams is dominated by biof ilms which a r e attached t o... more Biological a c t i v i t y i n shallow streams is dominated by biof ilms which a r e attached t o the ~u r f a c e e of the streambed. Although biofilm k i n e t i c models a r e well developed and a r e e u c c e s s f u l l y a p p l i e d t o b i o l o g i c a l treatment procese, they cannot be applied d i r e c t l y t o predict water q u a l i t y i n shallow streams, because the area and mass-transport aspects of streambed biofilms a r e complicated and not defined. Theref ore, the main purpose of t h i s s t u d y was t o develop area and mass-transport functions f o r cobble-and gravel-lined streambeds. An a r t i f i c i a l stream was used t o grow biofilms and conduct k i n e t i c experiments on the biofilm u t i l i z a t i o n of an e a s i l y degraded sugar. Media s i z e (i. e. , cobble or gravel) and flow velocity were varied over a wide range of values t y p i c a l t o shallow streams. Water velocity had short-term and long-term e f f e c t s on the r a t e of contaminant removal. The short-term e f f e c t s were r e l a t e d t o increased mass-transport k i n e t i c s f o r higher flow v e l o c i t i e s , while the long-term e f f e c t ? a l s o included increased s u r f a c e colonization by biofilm. The cobble streambed was more s e n s i t i v e t o short-term change? i n water velocity than wa? the gravel bed, and i t gave f a s t e r removal k i n e t i c s. Equations t o p r e d i c t t h e mass t r a n s f e r coeff i c i e n t e were appropriate f o r more than one biof i l m communi t y , as long as t h e same medium s i z e was used. The simulations from t h e water quality model? c o~t a i n i n g the biof i l m reaction term were markedly d i f f e r e n t from the simulations from t r a d i t i o n a l water-quality models t h a t use only suspendedorganism k i n e t i c s .
Critical Transitions in Water and Environmental Resources Management, Jun 25, 2004
Regulators have realized the need for ecosystem-based water resources management that goes beyond... more Regulators have realized the need for ecosystem-based water resources management that goes beyond the typical focuses on flood protection and water quality control. Understanding and incorporating the connections between hydrology and ecology is important in furthering holistic watershed-scale resources protection. This paper describes the characterization of in-channel habitat mosaics, which result from the interactions between flow and physical channel features, in providing flow-specific areas of refuge and connectivity through a second-order agricultural stream. Fish communities are used to compare the dynamic nature of habitat mosaics at different reach locations. Analyses of the communities illustrate the role of mosaic characterization in understanding the importance of hydrologic connectivity in watershed management and stream restoration. The results of this study promote understanding of the links between physical and ecological processes, as well as the effects of source areas, habitat suitability, and mosaic dynamics on fish communities
Toxicity testing is an essential tool for assessing the effects of, and fate of, many low-concent... more Toxicity testing is an essential tool for assessing the effects of, and fate of, many low-concentration toxicants in wastewater treatment systems. Toxicity testing can be divided into two parts: diagnostic toxicology evaluates the toxicity of a contaminant, effluent, or process, and toxicological engineering bases engineering design on the removal or production of toxicity. This paper presents six recent advancements in diagnostic toxicology and toxicological engineering identified by members of the Specialty Group on Hazard Assessment and Control of Environmental Contaminants. They are: (1) an ecological framework for applying toxicity testing, (2) biological early warning systems for on-line detection of toxic inputs, (3) inplant testing to detect and mitigate a toxic upset, (4) methods for rapid and cost-effective detection of genotoxins, (5) an approach for determining what discharged component must be controlled to eliminate an ecosystem disturbance, and (6) an application of process kinetics to design biological processes that are resistant to toxic upsets.
Abstract A physical-hydraulic model of bank modifications for the mitigation of habitat losses in... more Abstract A physical-hydraulic model of bank modifications for the mitigation of habitat losses in rivers altered for barge navigation was investigated. Results indicate that the proposed modifications would be compatible with existing uses and could provide a significant increase in habitat diversity, thereby enhancing fisheries. Mitigation efforts such as this could prove to be valuable and costeffective if integrated into the planning stage of water resource project development.
World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2007, May 11, 2007
There has been an effort in the recent years to reverse the damage in stream ecosystems produced ... more There has been an effort in the recent years to reverse the damage in stream ecosystems produced by the transformation of the natural landscapes into agricultural and urban land uses. Although many studies address hydrologic, hydraulic, and water quality changes in streams associated with land use change, there is still a need to relate land use change to shifts in species to identify specific causes of ecosystem changes observed. Starting in the late 1800's the landscape in Champaign County, east central Illinois, has been modified from a natural wet prairie to productive agricultural land. And modification of the streams has included channelization and dredging. This paper will assess the ecological consequence of land use and channel change by analyzing change in fish communities. The interpretation of community change will use an autecological approach, which assists in identifying relationships between habitat change and fish habitat requirements, and therefore support watershed management and restoration design.
Minimum flow recommendations can be improved by analyzing the natural habitat variability in loti... more Minimum flow recommendations can be improved by analyzing the natural habitat variability in lotic environments. Habitat modeling techniques such as the Incremental Methodology can be combined with stream flow records to generate habitat frequency curves that are useful in determining instream flow needs.
... CE Database Search | Descriptions | Search Tips | Subject Heading List. Time-Scale Toxic Effe... more ... CE Database Search | Descriptions | Search Tips | Subject Heading List. Time-Scale Toxic Effects in Aquatic Ecosystems. by Edwin E. Herricks , M.ASCE , Ian Milne , and Ian Johnson pp. 353-374 Purchase Information Permissions for Reuse ...
This document is also available from the Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Techni... more This document is also available from the Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center at actlibrary.tc.faa.gov. U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration NOTICE This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The United States Government assumes no liability for the contents or use thereof. The United States Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturer's names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the objective of this report. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the funding agency. This document does not constitute FAA Aircraft Certification policy. Consult the FAA sponsoring organization listed on the Technical Documentation page as to its use. This report is available at the Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center's Full-Text Technical Reports page: actlibrary.tc.faa.gov in Adobe Acrobat portable document format (PDF).
Thousands of miles of streams in the Appalachian area alone are affected by acid drainage from co... more Thousands of miles of streams in the Appalachian area alone are affected by acid drainage from coal mines no longer in use. This study investigates the effect of such mine drainage on the numbers and varieties of organisms that live on the bottom of the streams. Experiments for the study were carried out in Mill Creek, a tributary of the Roanoke River, and in two streams in Pennsylvania that receive acid mine drainage, Indian Creek and Little Scrubgrass Creek. Data collected determine the time and distance needed for artificial and natural recovery of the bottom-stream population. These data can be used to select proper rehabilitation procedures and to help locate mining sites that will least affect the watershed of the area around coal mines.
Brillouin's equation (H) for species diversity is preferred to other measures from informatio... more Brillouin's equation (H) for species diversity is preferred to other measures from information theory because it is not biased and does not require unrealistic assumptions about the populations being sampled. Diversities of small replicated samples give a better indication of environmental differences between stations than single large samples. Species diversity may be partitioned hierarchically either according to the categories of the taxonomic hierarchy or any other hierarchy. Taxonomic hierarchical diversity reveals components of diversity at each taxonomic level. For several examples, generic diversity revealed nearly as much about community structure as species diversity, suggesting that discriminating higher taxa rather than identifying species can be often used in aquatic ecology, with savings of time and money. Hierarchial diversities of classifications based on functional morphology and trophic group analysis appear to be promising for applied work and worthy of further investigation.
Water resources management has shifted from flow regulation applications designed to protect publ... more Water resources management has shifted from flow regulation applications designed to protect public health to applications that include restoration of natural flow regimes and protection of aquatic ecosystems. The ecological flow regime uses a regime-based approach that considers hydrologic variability instead of focusing on identifying flows or flow targets for aquatic ecosystems. It determines environmental flow by embracing the multitude of species within an ecosystem rather than emphasizing a single species. In addition, the ecological flow regime recognizes that flow magnitude, duration, frequency, timing, and predictability must be incorporated into any flow management strategy. This paper provides a multi-objective approach to integrating ecosystem and human needs in water resources management. The ecological flow regime analysis provides a surrogate for ecosystem needs in analyzing the trade-offs with human water usage. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA II) is used to find the Pareto set of operating rules for evaluation of reservoir operation for the Dahan River basin in Taiwan. It provides decision makers with the trade-offs between shortages in water available for human needs and ecological flow regime maintenance.
: Brillouin's equation (H) for species diversity from information theory is to be preferred f... more : Brillouin's equation (H) for species diversity from information theory is to be preferred for the purposes of applied ecology over the equation of Shannon (H′) or the more commonly used approximate equation (H″). By its use, the difficult problem of delimiting the extent of the community being sampled in a stream survey can be avoided. Moreover, Brillouin's equation gives the exact diversity of the fully censused collection, whreas Shannon's diversity can only be approximated with a biased estimator. If we regard a sample as a message from the environment to the ecologist, Brillouin's equation is the proper one for computing its diversity. The product moment correlation coefficient between Brillouin's H for the total number of individuals from a group of samples and for randomly chosen subsets of 100 individuals from each sample was nearly as high as the correlation between H and H″ based on the total samples. This indicates that small sample sizes may give a useful diversity index. Replicated subsamples show that much smaller samples than are normally used can discriminate between communities from polluted and unpolluted environments. The use of smaller samples should reduce the cost of stream surveys.
Biological a c t i v i t y i n shallow streams is dominated by biof ilms which a r e attached t o... more Biological a c t i v i t y i n shallow streams is dominated by biof ilms which a r e attached t o the ~u r f a c e e of the streambed. Although biofilm k i n e t i c models a r e well developed and a r e e u c c e s s f u l l y a p p l i e d t o b i o l o g i c a l treatment procese, they cannot be applied d i r e c t l y t o predict water q u a l i t y i n shallow streams, because the area and mass-transport aspects of streambed biofilms a r e complicated and not defined. Theref ore, the main purpose of t h i s s t u d y was t o develop area and mass-transport functions f o r cobble-and gravel-lined streambeds. An a r t i f i c i a l stream was used t o grow biofilms and conduct k i n e t i c experiments on the biofilm u t i l i z a t i o n of an e a s i l y degraded sugar. Media s i z e (i. e. , cobble or gravel) and flow velocity were varied over a wide range of values t y p i c a l t o shallow streams. Water velocity had short-term and long-term e f f e c t s on the r a t e of contaminant removal. The short-term e f f e c t s were r e l a t e d t o increased mass-transport k i n e t i c s f o r higher flow v e l o c i t i e s , while the long-term e f f e c t ? a l s o included increased s u r f a c e colonization by biofilm. The cobble streambed was more s e n s i t i v e t o short-term change? i n water velocity than wa? the gravel bed, and i t gave f a s t e r removal k i n e t i c s. Equations t o p r e d i c t t h e mass t r a n s f e r coeff i c i e n t e were appropriate f o r more than one biof i l m communi t y , as long as t h e same medium s i z e was used. The simulations from t h e water quality model? c o~t a i n i n g the biof i l m reaction term were markedly d i f f e r e n t from the simulations from t r a d i t i o n a l water-quality models t h a t use only suspendedorganism k i n e t i c s .
Critical Transitions in Water and Environmental Resources Management, Jun 25, 2004
Regulators have realized the need for ecosystem-based water resources management that goes beyond... more Regulators have realized the need for ecosystem-based water resources management that goes beyond the typical focuses on flood protection and water quality control. Understanding and incorporating the connections between hydrology and ecology is important in furthering holistic watershed-scale resources protection. This paper describes the characterization of in-channel habitat mosaics, which result from the interactions between flow and physical channel features, in providing flow-specific areas of refuge and connectivity through a second-order agricultural stream. Fish communities are used to compare the dynamic nature of habitat mosaics at different reach locations. Analyses of the communities illustrate the role of mosaic characterization in understanding the importance of hydrologic connectivity in watershed management and stream restoration. The results of this study promote understanding of the links between physical and ecological processes, as well as the effects of source areas, habitat suitability, and mosaic dynamics on fish communities
Toxicity testing is an essential tool for assessing the effects of, and fate of, many low-concent... more Toxicity testing is an essential tool for assessing the effects of, and fate of, many low-concentration toxicants in wastewater treatment systems. Toxicity testing can be divided into two parts: diagnostic toxicology evaluates the toxicity of a contaminant, effluent, or process, and toxicological engineering bases engineering design on the removal or production of toxicity. This paper presents six recent advancements in diagnostic toxicology and toxicological engineering identified by members of the Specialty Group on Hazard Assessment and Control of Environmental Contaminants. They are: (1) an ecological framework for applying toxicity testing, (2) biological early warning systems for on-line detection of toxic inputs, (3) inplant testing to detect and mitigate a toxic upset, (4) methods for rapid and cost-effective detection of genotoxins, (5) an approach for determining what discharged component must be controlled to eliminate an ecosystem disturbance, and (6) an application of process kinetics to design biological processes that are resistant to toxic upsets.
Abstract A physical-hydraulic model of bank modifications for the mitigation of habitat losses in... more Abstract A physical-hydraulic model of bank modifications for the mitigation of habitat losses in rivers altered for barge navigation was investigated. Results indicate that the proposed modifications would be compatible with existing uses and could provide a significant increase in habitat diversity, thereby enhancing fisheries. Mitigation efforts such as this could prove to be valuable and costeffective if integrated into the planning stage of water resource project development.
World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2007, May 11, 2007
There has been an effort in the recent years to reverse the damage in stream ecosystems produced ... more There has been an effort in the recent years to reverse the damage in stream ecosystems produced by the transformation of the natural landscapes into agricultural and urban land uses. Although many studies address hydrologic, hydraulic, and water quality changes in streams associated with land use change, there is still a need to relate land use change to shifts in species to identify specific causes of ecosystem changes observed. Starting in the late 1800's the landscape in Champaign County, east central Illinois, has been modified from a natural wet prairie to productive agricultural land. And modification of the streams has included channelization and dredging. This paper will assess the ecological consequence of land use and channel change by analyzing change in fish communities. The interpretation of community change will use an autecological approach, which assists in identifying relationships between habitat change and fish habitat requirements, and therefore support watershed management and restoration design.
Minimum flow recommendations can be improved by analyzing the natural habitat variability in loti... more Minimum flow recommendations can be improved by analyzing the natural habitat variability in lotic environments. Habitat modeling techniques such as the Incremental Methodology can be combined with stream flow records to generate habitat frequency curves that are useful in determining instream flow needs.
... CE Database Search | Descriptions | Search Tips | Subject Heading List. Time-Scale Toxic Effe... more ... CE Database Search | Descriptions | Search Tips | Subject Heading List. Time-Scale Toxic Effects in Aquatic Ecosystems. by Edwin E. Herricks , M.ASCE , Ian Milne , and Ian Johnson pp. 353-374 Purchase Information Permissions for Reuse ...
This document is also available from the Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Techni... more This document is also available from the Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center at actlibrary.tc.faa.gov. U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration NOTICE This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The United States Government assumes no liability for the contents or use thereof. The United States Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturer's names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the objective of this report. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the funding agency. This document does not constitute FAA Aircraft Certification policy. Consult the FAA sponsoring organization listed on the Technical Documentation page as to its use. This report is available at the Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center's Full-Text Technical Reports page: actlibrary.tc.faa.gov in Adobe Acrobat portable document format (PDF).
Thousands of miles of streams in the Appalachian area alone are affected by acid drainage from co... more Thousands of miles of streams in the Appalachian area alone are affected by acid drainage from coal mines no longer in use. This study investigates the effect of such mine drainage on the numbers and varieties of organisms that live on the bottom of the streams. Experiments for the study were carried out in Mill Creek, a tributary of the Roanoke River, and in two streams in Pennsylvania that receive acid mine drainage, Indian Creek and Little Scrubgrass Creek. Data collected determine the time and distance needed for artificial and natural recovery of the bottom-stream population. These data can be used to select proper rehabilitation procedures and to help locate mining sites that will least affect the watershed of the area around coal mines.
Brillouin's equation (H) for species diversity is preferred to other measures from informatio... more Brillouin's equation (H) for species diversity is preferred to other measures from information theory because it is not biased and does not require unrealistic assumptions about the populations being sampled. Diversities of small replicated samples give a better indication of environmental differences between stations than single large samples. Species diversity may be partitioned hierarchically either according to the categories of the taxonomic hierarchy or any other hierarchy. Taxonomic hierarchical diversity reveals components of diversity at each taxonomic level. For several examples, generic diversity revealed nearly as much about community structure as species diversity, suggesting that discriminating higher taxa rather than identifying species can be often used in aquatic ecology, with savings of time and money. Hierarchial diversities of classifications based on functional morphology and trophic group analysis appear to be promising for applied work and worthy of further investigation.
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