Publication Notices

Notifications of New Publications Released by ERDC

Contact Us

      

  

    866.362.3732

   601.634.2355

 

ERDC Library Catalog

Not finding what you are looking for? Search the ERDC Library Catalog

Results:
Category: Publications: Environmental Laboratory (EL)
Clear
  • Proceedings from the Soft Substrate Island Design Workshop

    Abstract: This report summarizes the activities of the Soft Substrate Design Workshop held virtually on 08 September 2021. The 28 participants from federal, state, local, and academic organizations discussed designing and constructing islands with soft sediments in inland waterways. They were introduced to the US Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Engineering With Nature® (EWN®) initiative and the vision for Tri-County Planning Commission (Peoria, Illinois). An overview of collaborative projects using landscape architecture and EWN principles was provided. The focus of discussion was on two primary waterways, the Upper Mississippi River System, and Illinois River. Participants discussed their experience associated with designing and constructing islands with and on soft sediments prior to breakout sessions to discuss specific design and contracting elements. The groups were brought together to discuss design techniques that could be implemented in the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois River systems.
  • A Review of Algal Phytoremediation Potential to Sequester Nutrients from Eutrophic Surface Water

    Abstract: Harmful algal blooms (HABs) and coastal hypoxic zones are evidence of cultural nutrient enrichment affecting public health and water supplies, aquatic ecosystem health, and economic well-being in the United States. Recognition of the far-reaching impacts of Midwest agriculture has led to establishing nutrient reduction objectives for surface waters feeding the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Erie, and many smaller water bodies. Municipal nutrient enrichment impacts have been addressed by increasing levels of sewage treatment and waste management through the Clean Water Act era, but HABs rebounded in the 1990s because of non-point source nutrient enrichment. HAB control and treatment includes watershed and waterbody treatments to reduce loading and address outbreaks. Systems to remove nutrients from impaired waters are expensive to build and operate. This review of algal production systems summarizes emerging algal water treatment technologies and considers their potential to effectively sequester nutrients and atmospheric carbon from hundreds of eutrophic reservoirs and DoD wastewater treatment facilities while producing useful biomass feedstock using solar energy. Algal water treatment systems including open ponds, photobioreactors, and algal turf scrubbers® can be used to grow biomass for biofuel, wastewater treatment, and commercial products. This review recommends continuing research on surface water nutrient reduction potential with algal turf scrubber productivity pilot studies, preliminary site design, and biomass utilization investigations.
  • Spatial Screening for Environmental Pool Management Opportunities

    Abstract: US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) reservoir projects significantly alter river ecosystem structure and function. Each project adheres to a defined set of operating rules to achieve primary objectives, which typically include flood risk management, hydropower, or navigation along with ancillary objectives for drinking water/irrigation, recreation, and natural resources management. Environmental flows (E-Flows) planning under the Sustainable Rivers Program has demonstrated new opportunities for environmental pool management (EPM; Theiling et al. 2021a, 2021b) that have no negative impact on other reservoir functions. In some locations, water level drivers can be managed to improve ecological outcomes, like wetlands, waterbirds, reptiles, and water quality, by altering the magnitude, timing, frequency, and duration of pool level changes that affect riparian and shoreline plant communities. Reservoirs with large delta areas may provide particularly important wetland or riparian habitat management along avian migratory pathways or in wildlife conservation regions (Johnson 2002). These large deltas can be identified and characterized using available satellite imagery, which along with water level habitat drivers available in hydrology databases, can be used to identify USACE reservoirs with good potential for EPM. A spatial analysis of USACE reservoirs capable to support EPM can be developed utilizing estimates of water occurrence, transition, and seasonality as well as surface elevation data derived from satellite imagery to assess geomorphology drivers. USACE water management records can be used to assess wetland drivers. Nationwide screening will be broken down into ecoregions to establish the anticipated geographic range of variation for wetland and riparian habitat drivers. Southwestern US reservoirs, for example, will have much different hydrology and fauna than Midwest and Eastern US reservoirs.
  • Review of Riparian Models for Assessing Ecological Impacts and Benefits

    BACKGROUND: Riparian zones are key transitional ecosystems between upland and aquatic zones, and these systems are often degraded due to both land use change and stream processes (e.g., deforestation and water impoundments and/or diversions). These important ecosystems require restoration because of the many benefits they provide ranging from providing habitat for diverse species to promoting water quality. Restoration practitioners, regulators, and researchers require riparian assessment methods and models to efficiently guide mitigation and restoration planning. This technical note (TN) compiles a subset of existing riparian tools and evaluates them relative to model objectives, modeling approach, and input variables. Findings are synthesized into a gap analysis of these models to inform future riparian model development and improve riparian assessment.
  • Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Tracer Dyes Potential for Monitoring Herbicide Spray Distribution

    Purpose: Chemical control of nuisance aquatic vegetation has long been the most widely utilized management tool due to its high level of efficacy, limited environmental impacts, and relatively low cost. However, unprecise application of herbicides can lead to uncontrolled invasive plants and unintended management costs. Therefore, precision herbicide delivery techniques are being developed to improve invasive plant control and minimize impacts to non-target plants. These technological advancements have the potential to enhance aquatic ecosystem protection from invasive species while reducing associated management costs. Despite the benefits of using registered herbicides for aquatic plant control in efforts to restore aquatic habitats, their use is often misunderstood and opposed by public stakeholders. This can lead to significant challenges related to chemical control of nuisance aquatic vegetation. Thus, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Districts seek improved methods to monitor and quantify the distribution (i.e., amount of herbicide retained on plant foliage compared to those deposited into the water column) of herbicides applied in aquatic systems. Monitoring herbicide movement in aquatic systems can be tedious and costly using standard analytical methods. However, since the inert fluorescent tracer dye Rhodamine WT (RWT) closely mimics product movement in the aquatic environment it has been used as a cost-effective surrogate for herbicides tracing.
  • Rapid Algae Flotation Techniques

    Abstract: Some harmful algae produce mucilage or extracellular polymeric substances useful for flotation. This study evaluated natural polysaccharides to determine effects on algal flotation with DAF. Food-grade gums (xanthan gum, guar gum, gum arabic, gellan gum, and diutan gum) were tested with cyanobacteria cultures singly and in combination with commercial flocculants (including Tramfloc 222 and Tramfloc 300). Gum arabic alone had no effect when evaluated at concentrations between 10 mg/L and 5,000 mg/L. However, the combination of gum arabic and Tramfloc 300 yielded higher algal flocculation than Tramfloc 300 alone. The combination of xanthan gum (anionic) and guar gum (cationic) did not perform at the level of the combined xanthan gum and Tramfloc 222 in either flocculation or flotation of algae. Tramfloc 222 and xanthan gum; however, yielded effective flocculation seemingly resistant to changes in interfering factors such as turbulence, pH, and temperature. Furthermore, the combination of xanthan gum and Tramfloc 222 provided the most effective flotation and flocculation independent of pH effects. The results suggest that anionic polysaccharides can be used to increase the efficacy of cationic coagulants such as Tramfloc 222.
  • Beneficial Use of Dredged Material: A Workshop to Explore Engineered Drainage Soils for Stormwater Management

    PURPOSE: Beneficial use of dredged material in engineered soils is an alternative to achieve environmental and economic sustainability for waterway operations. Engineered soils can combine navigation and environmental dredging with municipal and commercial waste streams to create a valuable commercial soil product while reducing public operating costs, creating economic opportunity, and creating better soil products for lower cost. The need, opportunities, and challenges to establishing an Illinois Waterway-based commercial soil industry were explored by river, highway, stormwater, environmental resource managers, and industry experts in a workshop in Peoria, IL, on 4–5 September 2019.
  • A Regional Guidebook for Applying the Hydrogeomorphic Approach to Assessing Wetland Functions of Forested Riverine Wetlands in Alluvial Valleys of the Piedmont Region of the United States

    Abstract: The Hydrogeomorphic (HGM) approach is used for developing and applying models for the site-specific assessment of wetland functions. It was initially designed for use in the context of the Clean Water Act Section 404 Regulatory Program permit review process to analyze project alternatives, minimize impacts, assess unavoidable impacts, determine mitigation requirements, and monitor the success of compensatory mitigation. However, a variety of other potential uses have been identified, including the design of wetland restoration projects, projecting ecological outcomes, developing success criteria and performance standards, and adaptive monitoring and management of wetlands. This guidebook provides an overview of the HGM approach including classification and characterization of the principal alluvial riverine wetlands identified in the Piedmont physiography. Eight potential subclasses of Piedmont wetlands, including Headwater, Low- and Mid-gradient Riverine, Floodplain Depression, Footslope Seeps, Flats, Precipitation Depressions, and Fringe wetlands were recognized. However, the occurrence of Flats, Precipitation Depressions, and Fringe wetlands in the Piedmont, are uncommon and not generally associated with alluvial riverine systems which is the subject of this Guidebook. Detailed HGM assessment models and protocols are presented for the five most common Piedmont riverine subclasses: Headwater, Low- and Mid-gradient Riverine, Floodplain Depression, and Footslope Seep. For each wetland subclass, the guidebook presents (a) the rationale used to select the wetland functions considered in the assessment process, (b) the rationale used to select assessment models, and (c) the functional index calibration curves developed from reference wetlands used in the assessment models. The guidebook outlines an assessment protocol for using the model variables and functional indices to assess each wetland subclass. The appendices provide field data collection forms. In addition, an automated spreadsheet model is provided to make calculations.
  • During Nearshore Event Vegetation Gradation (DUNEVEG): Geospatial Tools for Automating Remote Vegetation Extraction

    Abstract: Monitoring and modeling of coastal vegetation and ecosystems are major challenges, especially when considering environmental response to hazards, disturbances, and management activities. Remote sensing applications can provide alternatives and complementary approaches to the often costly and laborious field-based collection methods traditionally used for coastal ecosystem monitoring. New and improved sensors and data analysis techniques have become available, making remote sensing applications attractive for evaluation and potential use in monitoring coastal vegetation properties and ecosystem conditions and changes. This study involves the extraction of vegetation metrics from airborne lidar and hyperspectral imagery (HSI) collected by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) National Coastal Mapping Program (NCMP) to quantify coastal dune vegetation characteristics. A custom geoprocessing toolbox and associated suite of tools were developed to allow inputs of common NCMP lidar and imagery products to help automate the workflow for extracting prioritized dune vegetation metrics in an efficient and repeatable way. This study advances existing coastal ecosystem knowledge and remote sensing techniques by developing new methodologies to classify, quantify, and estimate critical coastal vegetation metrics which will ultimately improve future estimates and predictions of nearshore dynamics and impacts from disturbance events.
  • Microseira wollei (M. wollei) Blooms in Freshwater Ecosystems in Lake St. Clair (Michigan, USA)–Impacts and Possible Management Approaches

    PURPOSE: The proliferation and shoreline accumulation of the filamentous biphasic cyanobacterium, Microseira wollei (M. wollei) (previously classified as Lyngbya wollei), have become an increasing problem in the Great Lakes, both for aesthetic reasons and its potential to harbor harmful bacteria and pathogens (Vijayavel et al. 2013). Occurrences have been reported and studies have also been conducted in the southeastern US where M. wollei has become a nuisance in recent years and is known to produce toxins (Hudon et al. 2014). Reports of M. wollei proliferations in the eastern US have been identified in the Manitoba lakes (Macbeth 2004), in Lake Erie from Maumee Bay (Bridgeman and Penamon 2010), in Lake St. Clair near Detroit (Vijayavel et al. 2013), and throughout the St Lawrence River (Vis et al. 2008; Lévesque et al. 2012). M. wollei has become a serious nuisance for marinas, public beaches, and lakefront property owners. In addition, M. wollei appears to have the ability to produce a wide range of toxins, but the conditions promoting their production, type, and concentration are poorly known (Hudon et al. 2014). Occurrences of large algal mats matching characteristics of M. wollei have been observed along the northwest shore and nearshore waters of the beach at Lake St. Clair dating back to 2010. To date, a comprehensive study detailing the potential impacts M. wollei has on freshwater ecosystems in the Great Lakes River, particularly Lake St. Clair is lacking. Further, management solutions are not well understood. This technical note (TN) reviews the potential causes of M. wollei blooms and their ecological impacts on aquatic systems and assesses the management options available to eliminate or minimize the impacts of these blooms.