IWSS UPDATE & INITIATIVES: THE WEST RUN WATERSHED PROGRAM

DIRECTORJason A. Hubbart, Ph.D.

ADMINISTRATION, STAFF AND PROGRAM LEADERSLaura Tinney; Dr. Elliott Kellner; Dr. Evan Kutta; Dr. Paul Kinder

Spring Conference of the Institute of Water Security and Science:Advances in Water Resource Science and Management in West Virginia and the Northeastern U.S.

February 20-21, 2018

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The Institute of Water Security and Science promotes all activities that improve water resources awareness, management and security:• Identifies key needs and innovations in water resources• Broadens outreach and service to state and Federal agencies, landowners and managers• Designs and develops new techniques and methods• Validates best practices that advance water

resources science, stewardship, policy and human health

• Fosters broad integrated interdisciplinary participation in water resources research

• Trains tomorrow’s water resources professionals• Improves public awareness of water resources issues

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Who We Are

Dr. Elliott KellnerAssociate Director

Dr. Jason HubbartDirector

Dr. Evan KuttaProgram ManagerClimate Sciences

Dr. Paul KinderProgram Director

Geospatial Analytics

Laura TinneyProgram Coordinator

Chris BurneyGraduate Research

Assistant (Ph.D.)

Pramesh TakhachheGraduate Research

Assistant (Ph.D.)

Rivkah NisanGraduate Research Assistant (Masters)

Fritz PetersenGraduate Research Assistant (Masters)

Now Hiring:

Ph.D. GRA

Now Hiring:

Science Advisor

Now Hiring:Project Manager, Grants Admin

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Additional IWSS Productivity (2017)• IWSS generated 13 peer-reviewed journal articles • IWSS leadership convened or chaired 5 symposia / conferences• IWSS leadership authored 16 invited (oral) presentations, and lead or co-authored 15

additional oral and poster presentations.• Surpassed $1m in annual expenditures and collaborated (variously) in obtaining >$3 m

funded grants• 2017: Multiple events were organized, sponsored or co-sponsored

• Co-sponsor: Northeast Regional Engagement Workshop (REW) as part of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (2/9/2017)

• Co-sponsor and Organizer: Gendered Vulnerabilities: How Water Shapes Education and Labor for Dalit Women in Kerala, India seminar by Dr. Sera Mathew

• Sponsor and Organizer: IWSS Spring Symposium: Past, Present, and Future Needs in Agriculture and Natural Resources

• Co-sponsor and Organizer: Stakeholder-Driven Nutrient Modeling for the Chesapeake Bay seminar by Gary Shenk • Co-sponsor: Friends of Karst Mini Symposium (IWSS was co-sponsor)

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• Appalachian Freshwater Initiative

• WVU Reedsville Farm

• WVU Reymann Memorial Farm

• Climatic Geosciences Program

• Geospatial Analytics Program

• West Run Watershed Program

Projects

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Appalachian Freshwater Initiative• NSF EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive

Research) Project (Award Number OIA-1458952)

• Statewide research team focused on understanding and detecting the ecological and biological effects of contaminants in water under varying climate change scenarios.

• Three core research areas (Sensors, Complexity, Modeling)

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Objective 1: Chemical, Physical, and Biological Water Quality Detection (Sensors)

Al+3 U+6 Mn+2

Representative Inorganics Representative Organics

17β-estradiol Buprenorphine Atrazine

Bin WangMU

Philippe GeorgelMU

Eric BloughMU

Hasan KocMU

Molecular Sensing Bio-Sensing Mass Spectrometry

Carmen DamareWVSU

DNAPb+2/Se+4/+6

Ligand development Aptamer

development

West Virginia EPSCoR RII Track1 | Gravitational Wave Astronomy and the Appalachian Freshwater Initiative

Michael Norton MU

Michael FultzWVSU

Dorothy VesperWVU

Todd PettyWVU

Lance LinWVU

Ernest SekabungaWVSU

Dorothy VesperWVU

Jason HubbartWVU

Mine Drainage Wastewater

Carmen DamareWVSU

Nutrients

Metals (Mn, Fe, Al)

OpioidsSewage Dissolved carbon

Endocrine Disruptors

Brian AntonsenMU

Nadja SpitzerMU

Carmen DamareWVSU

Characterizing and managing complex

contaminant mixtures

Characterizing biological response to complex contaminants

David HuberWVSU

Gary SchultzMU

Observed mixtures

Objective 2: Molecular to

Watershed Scale Complexity Mindy

ArmsteadMU

Lab-based physiological, behavioral, and survival

Gerald HankinsWVSU

Todd PettyWVU

Jim AndersonWVU

Field-based community response

Nicolas ZegreWVU

Todd PettyWVU

Robert BurnsWVU

Jack SmithMU

Sridhar MalkaramWVSU

Todd PettyWVU

Cyber modeling/data infrastructure

Hydrology and climate

Common contaminants Public perception

Biological response

Objective 3: Modeling of Toxicity and Biological Impacts

West Virginia EPSCoR RII Track1 | Gravitational Wave Astronomy and the Appalachian Freshwater Initiative

Tony SzwilskiMU

Mike StragerWVU

GIS and spatial infrastructure

WVU Reedsville Farm• Collaborative project between the WV Conservation Agency,

Monongahela Conservation District, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and WVU

• Part of an $8 million rehabilitation of the Upper Deckers Creek Site 1 Dam in Preston County

• WVU to provide hydrologic, ecological, climate, and water quality monitoring

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WVU Reymann Memorial Farm

• 990-acre farm in Wardensville, Hardy County

• Located in Chesapeake Bay Watershed• Main areas of research and testing:

• Beef cattle and poultry research• Bull Evaluation Program• Sheep production research • Field crop testing

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Climatic Geosciences ProgramPurpose is to identify current and emerging climate-influenced, socio-economic opportunities and improve awareness and preparation for climatic events that threaten human lives and property• Advance climate knowledge, science, and policy by improving

the quality and quantity of climate monitoring infrastructure in WV• Investigate how changing climate variables may alter exchanges

of energy and mass (i.e. water) between the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere

• Raise awareness of emerging climate-influenced, socio-economic opportunities to increase prosperity of West Virginia citizens

Program Manager: Dr. Evan Kutta

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Geospatial Analytics ProgramThe IWSS GAP, in strategic partnership with the Natural Resource Analysis Center (NRAC), offers GIS and remote sensing tools, techniques, and expertise that support water related initiatives: • Collaborative grant writing and research:

• Airborne drone-based remote sensing, mapping, and modeling support for water resource assessments and monitoring

• Drone (ROV) assessments and monitoring of underwater environments • Water resource geospatial decision support systems • Identification and mapping of water resource vulnerabilities to landscape

change • Geospatial support for stream, wetland, and riparian conservation and

restoration planning and design.

Program Manager: Dr. Paul Kinder

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West Run Watershed (WRW) Program• West Run Watershed: Morgantown,

West Virginia• Area = ~26km2

• Mixed-land-use watershed • 42% forest, 18% agriculture, and

35% mixed industrial-coal mining-urban development

• N = 22 Gauging Sites• N = 3 Climate Stations

Figure by Fritz Petersen: http://www.forh2o.net/people.html

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WRW Collaborative MissionMission: To provide a unique field infrastructure for hillslope to landscape-scale research on short- and long-term ecosystem dynamics in a contemporary mixed-land-use Appalachian watershed. • The study design (scale-nested and paired experimental watershed study design)

facilitates process-based research assessing the role of external drivers including forest management, agriculture, mining, industry, urbanization (and other land use practices), climate change and variability and long-range pollutant transport in surface and ground water resources.

• Overarching objectives of the WRW Program• Provide state-of-the-art infrastructure for experimental and hypothesis-driven research• Maintain a collection of high-quality, long-term climatic, biogeochemical, hydrological, and environmental data• Support the development of models and guidelines for research, policy, and management and human health and

prosperity in West Virginia and elsewhere.

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West Run Collaborators and Select Projects• Participants:

• Davis College• Statler College• Eberly College• Reed College• More soon…

• Currently 15 scientists engaged, and growing

• We can accomplish more Together. Lets collaborate!

• Select Current Projects• Microbial Ecology• Geochemistry• Physical Hydrology• Hydrogeomorphology• Climatology• Shallow Ground Water• Pathogens, Nutrients,

Sediment• Economics of Water• Citizen Science

WRW: Opportunities• Research (just about any kind)

• IWSS can contribute core data and physical process understanding

• IWSS maintains the study design: Heavily instrumented EWSD • An opportunity to collaboratively ask the right questions

• Provides a Basis for Collaborative Adaptive Management• Stakeholder trust, support, and engagement

• What complex nagging questions need answers• What data are needed / necessary?• How do we want contemporary watersheds to function and

support natural resources?

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IWSS Plans (2018)• Sponsor a great conference!• Support multiple small symposia / conferences• Advance science and management (pubs in submission) • Hold organized, sponsored or co-sponsored workshops• Increase the number of single PI and collaborative grant proposals submitted• Expand and grow the IWSS Grants Office mission

• Facilitate the grant seeking, writing, submission, and post-award administration processes

• Continue to fulfill all mission components of the IWSS

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Interested in Learning More?• West Run Watershed: https://iwss.wvu.edu/projects/west-run-watershed

• Institute Website: www.IWSS.wvu.edu

• Lab Website: www.forh2o.net

THANK YOU!Acknowledgments: Support provided by the National Science Foundation under Award Number OIA-1458952, the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch project 1011536, and the West Virginia Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. Results presented may not reflect the views of the sponsors and no official endorsement should be inferred. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Special thanks are due to many scientists of the Interdisciplinary Hydrology Laboratory.

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Poster Presentations• Quantifying Suspended Sediment of a Mixed-Land-Use Appalachian Watershed (Rivkah

Nisan, et al.)• Spatiotemporal Variability of Stream Stage in a Small Mixed-Land-Use Watershed of

Appalachia (Pramesh Takhachhe, et al.)• Characterization of Sub-Watershed-Scale Stream Chemistry Regimes in an Appalachian

Mixed-Land-Use Watershed (Elliott Kellner, et al.) • Agricultural Opportunities in Appalachia’s Changing Climate: A Case Study of West

Virginia (Evan Kutta, et al.)• Stream sediment microbial community function is sensitive to alterations in water

chemistry associated with watershed land use (Chansotheary Dang, et al.)• Relationship Between E. coli and Land Use Activities in the West Run Watershed (Fritz

Petersen, et al.)

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