The Environmental Science and Design Symposium, formerly the Land and Water Symposium, is a multidisciplinary forum that promotes the exchange of ideas related to the resiliency of natural and built systems. This year’s theme, Complexity of Environmental Legacies, reflects the challenges of developing sustainable systems in landscapes transformed by decades of modification and contamination. Speakers from a wide range of disciplines (fashion, geology, geography, architecture, and ecology) will address topics related to urban, sustainability, restoration, and the integration of design with biological systems.
Browse the Environmental Science and Design Research Initiative 2019 Collections
« Previous | 7 - 12 of 56 | Next »
Comparative analysis of treatment efficiency of PPCPs in wastewater and drinking water plant in Northeastern Ohio
03/21/2019Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are one group of Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) that have the potential to impact water quality and human health. Currently, PPCP monitoring and reporting is not mandatory according to state or federal laws, and more often water treatment plants are not directed to remove PPCPs This study monitored and compared treatment efficiencies of separate drinking water and wastewater treatment plants (DWTP and WWTP) in Northeastern Ohio, focusing on their ability to remove PPCPs. This study also examined if environmental variables have a role in altering PPCP concentrations in water treatment plants. Samples were collected from the Sandusky Water Treatment Facility and Kent wastewater reclamation plant in the summer of 2018. PPCPs were determined using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (HPLC-MS). Screening for antibiotic-resistant bacteria from source water was also conducted using LB agar plates. The concentration of nutrients and environmental variables, including soluble reactive phosphate (SRP), nitrate, ammonia, total nitrogen, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and chlorophyll-a, were measured using standard methods. Chlorophyll-a and nitrate concentrations were comparatively higher at the point of discharge in the Kent WWTP compared to the source water at the DWTP in Sandusky. Future work will involve monitoring PPCP concentrations in water treatment plants with different treatment processes (e.g., UV, biofiltration, ozone) to better understand the efficacy of filtration techniques in successful removal of these contaminants from water systems.Comparing Stream Nitrate Concentrations in Baseflow and Stormflow Conditions across Urban Watersheds
03/21/2019Degraded water quality is common in urban streams due to increased impervious surface cover, which can input stormwater runoff directly into the stream. Nitrate, which enters streams from sewage inputs or runoff from fertilizer and atmospheric deposition, is a common contaminant in urban watersheds. Nitrate concentrations can vary throughout a stream network due to land cover and urban infrastructure influences including proximity to sewer lines and stream burial. Three urban watersheds (5-15 km2) in Summit County, Ohio with similar impervious surface cover, but spatially variable land cover metrics to understand urbanization on nitrate concentrations. Biweekly sampling of 26 sites between October 2017 and October 2018 was accompanied by 5-minute conductivity and water level data, as well as storm event sampling in August and September 2018. Baseflow concentrations showed that nitrate has higher concentrations and more variation between sampling locations in the summer (2-9 mg/L), with little variation in the winter (<2 mg>/L). During storm events, nitrate concentrations changed in response to water level, with generally lower concentrations at high water level due to dilution. Nitrate concentrations varied at baseflow and stormflow between watersheds, possibly due to differences in land cover metrics. Understanding water quality response to discharge provides greater insight into the mechanisms affecting urban water quality, allowing managers to better predict impairment and target land use and stormwater actions that will improve water quality.Differentiation of Harmful Algal Bloom Signatures in the Indian River Lagoon by Remote Sensing
03/21/2019Located along the east coast of Florida, the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) is a shallow-marine estuary that extends along 240 km of coastline. Historically, freshwater flowing into the IRL has transported high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from agricultural fertilizers and septic systems. As a result, eutrophic waters have driven the growth of various types of harmful algal blooms (HABs). Previous remote sensing research has focused on monitoring water quality by identifying the spectral characteristics of color producing agents (CPAs) associated with HABs through the use of ocean color chlorophyll-a algorithms. The ability to reliably distinguish CPAs of HABs, color dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and suspended sediment within water bodies through remote sensing techniques has become critically important for monitoring regional water quality. Recent statistical techniques for processing Landsat 8 and Sentinel 3 imagery have expanded retrievals beyond chlorophyll-a and corrected for atmospheric interferences. The Kent State spectral decomposition method, a type of Varimax-rotated Principal Component Analysis (VPCA), is used to process visible reflectance spectra (400-700nm) from multispectral and hyperspectral imaging systems. The VPCA decomposition describes the total percentage of variability of CPAs mixed in the water column and determines the leading spectral components of the satellite image that contribute to the overall signal. We identify these leading spectral components obtained from this analysis with lab measured reflectance spectra, such as brown tide cultures, A. lagunensis, to qualitatively assess areas of the IRL which have relatively high or low proportions of CPAs over time. Results using the VPCA method have identified A. lagunensis constituents within the Banana River region of the IRL and have since been validated with in-situ biovolume and water quality measurements.Do different green roof substrates, plant communities, and mycorrhizal fungi impact water runoff quality and quantity?
03/21/2019A major goal of green infrastructure is the reduction of stormwater in the urban and suburban landscape, which is accomplished by the design—particularly the growing substrate and plants within it. Engineered growth substrate is often used because it is a known quantity that can hold specific volumes of water while still being lightweight. Natural growth substrate (soil) is a more unknown quantity but has the benefit of being able to support more plant species and introduce native soil organisms into the system. The interactions between growth substrate, plant, and soil biota have the potential to be able to bring additional benefits to the urban environment besides just stormwater reduction, such as air and water purification, and providing biological habitat. This study aims to examine how different types of substrate, plants, and the addition of soil organisms called mycorrhizal fungi impact the quality and quantity of stormwater. Located at the Cleveland Industrial Innovation Center, 39 different square meter plots were built on a low height roof. Three different substrate types: a bioretention grade soil, a worm casting compost, and a conventional engineered media (RoofliteTM) were used in combination with two separate plant communities, a native prairie and a designed community. Half of these were inoculated with symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi and the other half were left uninoculated. Water runoff was collected bi-monthly over the course of a year and total N and P content were measured. Preliminary analyses show that substrate type had a very significant effect on the volume of water runoff, while plant communities significantly impacted the amount of nitrogen runoff. All the treatments showed high amounts of phosphorus runoff, which could potentially impact downstream water quality if not addressed. However, further analyses on the plants, substrate, and soil biota are still in progress and the information may help improve green roof health and functioning.Ecotone effects on flying invertebrate communities in a temperate hardwood forest
03/21/2019Transitional areas between ecosystems, called ecotones, are areas of biotic and abiotic change often leading to differences in plant communities and soil conditions. Invertebrate communities taking advantage of surrounding plant and soil conditions are likely to structure their own communities around favored resources. Flying invertebrates have the unique advantage of avoiding ground obstacles giving them a larger range to gather and utilize resources. As a result, flying invertebrate communities should be less strictly structured based on surrounding plant communities or abiotic factors. To test this, we conducted a survey of the flying invertebrate communities to compare to existing tree and soil surveys. We used baited traps to collect invertebrates during 4 separate collection time points, preserved samples in ethanol, and then sight-identified to lowest practical taxonomic level. This study was conducted in Jennings Woods, a temperate hardwood forest in NE Ohio comprised of unique ecosystems – riparian, upland, and bottomland forests – separated by elevational gradients, each with its own particular soil parameters. We found that, in general, the flying invertebrate community is not structured around the tree community nor the soil, as expected. However, community structure did show a relation to ecosystem type. We also found that diversity and richness were significantly different between ecosystems and dates. This suggests that there are ecosystem and time differences structuring flying invertebrate communities, but they are not limited by the surrounding soil and tree communities.Epidemiology of Staphylococci collected from Boston-area wild rodents
03/21/2019As Staphylococcus aureus strains evolve and gain resistance to antibiotics, the risk of bidirectional transmission of resistant strains between humans and animals increases. The objective of this study was to identify and type S. aureus among wild rodents in Boston, Massachusetts, to examine their genetic relationship to common human and animal isolates. A total of 168 bacterial isolates collected from 45 Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) in Boston proper were analyzed. Polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the mecA and PVL genes. All S. aureus isolates were spa typed. A subset of isolates was characterized via multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). All S. aureus isolates were tested for antibiotic susceptibility. Overall prevalence of S. aureus was 11.9% (20/168). Of all S. aureus, 5.0% (1/20) were MRSA (based on detection of the mecA gene which encodes methicillin-resistance) and 95.0% (19/20) were methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA). All isolates tested resistant to benzylpenicillin. Two isolates were resistant to erythromycin and one isolate was resistant to four antibiotics, including oxacillin. Of the 20 isolates, 75.0% (15/20) were spa type t933. MLST results to date show that these are sequence type (ST) 1094. Additional molecular testing is ongoing. Our results indicate that wild rats from Boston, MA are carriers of S. aureus. Additional study is needed to examine the distribution of t933/ST1094, an uncommon strain previously found in ewes in Tunisia. Further research is warranted to identify and characterize lineages of S. aureus strains in order to minimize the risk of Staphylococcal infection from city rodents.