The University of Florida Water Institute

Wendy Graham, Ph. D., Water Institute Director, Carl Swisher Eminent Scholar

UF Water Institute Mission

To bring together talent from throughout the University to address complex water issues through innovative interdisciplinary research, education and outreach programs

Water Institute Goals

Improve basic knowledge of the physical, chemical, and biological processes in aquatic systems (rivers, lakes, estuaries, wetlands, soil and ground waters).

Enhance understanding of the interactions and interrelationships between human attitudes and activities, and aquatic systems

Develop and promote the adoption of improved methodologies for water management and policy development based on a strong foundation of science, engineering, management and law

Water Institute Strategies

Develop partnerships with internal and external stakeholders to identify and prioritize critical water issues requiring interdisciplinary expertise; as well as to provide expertise and support for addressing these issues.

Integrate and strengthen UF water faculty expertise within existing Departments and Centers.

Recruit and train excellent students to pursue careers in water-related science, engineering, policy, planning, and management, bringing with them an interdisciplinary focus

(www.waterinstitute.ufl.edu)

Water Institute Programs:

Biennial Water Institute Symposium

Distinguished Scholar Seminar Series

Peer Review Services & Expert Assistance

Water Institute Graduate Fellows Program

Water Education Program for Public Officials

Program Initiation Fund

Interdisciplinary Research Projects

Examples of Interdisciplinary Water Institute Research Projects:

Impact of Climate Variability and Climate Change on Water Supply Planning: Evaluating Risks, Increasing Resilience: Funded by NOAA

The Santa Fe River Basin Observatory: Exploring linkages between geology, hydrology, ecosystems and humans in a karst terrain: Funded by NSF

Understanding and Predicting the Impact of Climate Variability and Climate Change on Land Use and Land Cover Change via Socio-Economic Institutions in Southern Africa: Funded by NASA

Coupling conflicting response times of human decisions and natural systems in a water-subsidized Pacific MesoAmerica basin: Funded by NSF

Goal: Improve predictive understanding of hydrologic flow paths and travel times; nutrient sources, transport & transformation; and karst evolution and within an eogentic karst basin

The Santa Fe River Basin Observatory: Exploring linkages between geology, hydrology, ecosystems and humans in a karst terrain

Santa Fe River Basin

Research Questions

What are the topographic, geologic and climatic controls on streamflow generation processes and travel time distributions in eogentic karst basins, how do these affect the delivery of ecologically relevant solutes (e.g., C,N,P)?

What are the mechanisms governing coupled C, N, P cycles in in spring-fed rivers?

How do variations in the sources, transport, and mineralization rates of DIC/DOC/CO2 affect carbonate weathering, dissolution and geomorphic evolution of carbonate terrains?

Project Activities

Deploy high resolution sensors to investigate riverine nutrient dynamics and ecosystem metabolism under different hydrogeologic and flow regimesConduct dosing experiments in streams and aquifers to understand effects of DOM lability, DO availability, biological activity and flow regime on carbonate dissolutionDevelop integrated physically-based deterministic and stochastic hydrologic models to investigate streamflow generation processes, travel time distributions, carbonate dissolution, and delivery of nutrients and dissolution products to the river

Hydrologic Modeling Results

Using literature parameter values in integrated land surface- surface-subsurface hydrologic model (ParFlow)• Water balance, groundwater response,

streamflow timing is good• Issues with rate of stream flow

recession, especially after wet conditions

Hydrologic Modeling Results

End Member Mixing Analysis indicates:• Missing component is from groundwater• Large surface water-groundwater exchange

occurs during storm events.• GSA shows exchange is strongly influenced

by magnitude and contrast between porous matrix and conduit permeabilitiies

Particle tracking: Travel Time distributions by storm position

Old water

New water

Old water

Particle tracking: Effects of geology on median age of water

Particle tracking results: Effects of geology on spatial distribution of water source and age

No conduits

conduit k = 600 m/hrNo conduits, random k

Particle age in days 50,000 days~140 years

Future WorkTest sensitivity of findings to model spatial discretization, overland flow physics, conduit representation, degree of small-scale geologic heterogeneity

Develop an extended Kalman filter to optimally estimate spatially distributed model parameters and reduce model prediction uncertainty using streamflow, groundwater and EMMA data

Conduct particle tracking experiments to quantify effect of geologic heterogeneity on streamflow generation areas, travel paths and travel time distributions

Develop (semi-) analytical models to predict travel time distributions in integrated conduit, porous media, stream system.

Spring Ecosystem Metabolism

Flow creates coherent (diel) downstream signals from cooupled ecosystem metabolic processes

• Carbon: Diel O2 for riverine GPP, R (Odum 1956)

• Carbonate Dynamics: Diel Sp Cond. for carbonate precipitation/dissolution

• Nitrogen: Diel NO3 for autotrophic N demand (Heffernan and Cohen 2010)

• Phosphorus: Diel SRP for geochemical and biological P removal

Raw Data: March 2011

Coupled Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles

DIRECT: Net primary production and assimilative uptake of N are strongly correlated and yield plausible C:N

INDIRECT: Uptake due to denitrification is correlated with respiration and previous days’ GPP (short and long term coupling)

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SRP Dynamics

P removal due to assimilation and co-precipitation which produce signals that are out of phase

Ecosystem Scale C and P Coupling

Coherent diel [SRP] signal, varying amplitude

Signal is convolution of 2 out-of-phase processes– Calcite co-precipitation (ca. 30% of removal)– Biotic assimilation (ca. 70% of removal)– Combined removal < 10% of total P flux

Calcite-corrected removal yields plausible C:P

P assimilation lags GPP by ca. 8 hours– Signal from the cell to the ecosystem?

Future Work

Improve understanding of nutrient uptake in rivers by using diel signals to estimate nutrient use

Compare nutrient supply and use to better understand nutrient limitation

Evaluate coupled element cycles across the periodic table (e.g., beyond C, N, P)

Improve understanding of the role of rivers in both permanent and transient contaminant removal

Kurz Diagram

Interdisciplinary Research Challenges:

Effectively engaging diverse groups of faculty and students can be difficult : goals, values, vocabularies differ and take time to resolve

Participation is voluntary: the best are busy and don’t need money; must provide intellectually stimulating interactions

Funding is tight, and national sources are extremely competitive: patience and persistence are important

Can be difficult to quantify value added by formal interdisciplinary institutes: technically nothing prevents faculty from self-organizing

Water Institute Accomplishments:

Changing the culture of how faculty and students work together to understand and solve interdisciplinary water-related problems

Facilitating networking both on campus and externally, with proactive focus on building new linkages between social and natural sciences

Providing platform for engaged scholarship on water issues

Serving as a go-to place for peer review and expert assistance for state agencies and legislature

Decreasing transaction costs associated with, and building the portfolio of, interdisciplinary research projects

In summary… the Water Institute Provides…

Decision-makers, regulatory agencies, resource managers, industry and non-governmental organizations help in defining, understanding and solving large-scale interdisciplinary water resource problems

Graduate students, post-doctoral associates, faculty members, and sabbatical fellows an intellectually stimulating environment in which to develop and apply fundamental knowledge to important water resource problems

Employers a pool of well-trained water-related scientists, engineers, planners, and policy-makers.

Questions…. Comments?

Goal: To increase the relevance and usability of climate and sea level rise models and reduce risk associated with water supply planning in Florida

Impact of Climate Variability and Climate Change on Water Supply Planning: Evaluating Risks, Increasing Resilience

Project ActivitiesDevelop a collaborative Working Group comprised of public water suppliers, water resource managers, climate scientists, and hydrologic scientistsEvaluate the practical applicability of current climate data/models predictions at utility relevant space-time scalesEvaluate the usefulness of these data/models for minimizing current and future public water supply risks associated with climate variability/climate change and/or sea level rise

Academic Partners: UF Water Institute ; UF Southeast Climate Consortium ; UF Center for Public Issues Education; FSU COAPS; U Miami RSMASPublic Utilities: Broward County; West Palm Beach; GRU; Miami-Dade County; OUC; Palm Beach County; Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority; Tampa Bay WaterWater Management Districts: SFWMD, SWFWMD; SJRWMD

SEASONAL SCALE PREDICTIONS– Diagnose and improve seasonal predictability and forecast skill for precipitation, temperature and streamflow

SEA LEVEL RISE – Improve understanding of potential impacts of sea level change on coastal aquifers, water resources, and ecosystems

LONG TERM CLIMATE PROJECTIONS–Evaluate the ability of downscaled reanalysis data and retrospective GCM output to reproduce historic climate and hydrologic patterns, and explore implications of future GCM projections on climate and hydrologic patterns

Evaluate the applicability and usefulness of climate data/models/tools for water supply

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