Location: Water Quality and Ecology Research
Project Number: 6060-13660-009-033-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Nov 1, 2024
End Date: Oct 30, 2029
Objective:
This project aims to build on the success of this collaboration by building an extensive database of diatom and bacterial assemblage data across an enlarged area that includes all drainages of the Mississippi River, including the Delta region, within Mississippi. This data will be used to identify useful integrative measures for monitoring water quality and ecosystem responses to implementation of agricultural best management practices and establish scientific support for developing realistic water quality improvement goals for the region. Specific objectives include:
1) Use previously collected physical and chemical data to quantify spatial and temporal variability of conditions that drive primary productivity, respiration, and ultimately dissolved oxygen dynamics among Delta streams.
2) Conduct new field and experimental studies that measure potentially more sensitive ecological response measures across field sites that represent environmental gradients in an expanded Mississippi River drainage that includes Delta streams. These measures may include including diatom community structure, bacterial community structure, and stream metabolism.
3) Conduct field studies that systematically evaluate sediment sampling protocols to determine best practices for accurately characterizing microbial communities for the purposes of evaluating stream condition and water quality.
4) Identify stressor-response relationships between water quality and valued ecological attributes (measures of ecological structure, function, ecosystem services) among streams representing observed nutrient enrichment gradient within the larger Mississippi River drainage landscape (within Mississippi) that can be used for assessing change in water quality or ecosystem services in Mississippi.
Approach:
1) Defined environmental gradients identified among drainages of the Mississippi River in Mississippi (1) will serve as a backdrop for collecting data on new, potentially more sensitive indicators of stream ecosystem structure (diatom assemblages), function (stream metabolism, nutrient limitation, extracellular enzyme activity, or services (nutrient uptake, denitrification). Additional mesocosm resources available through USDA-ARS may be used for experimental studies to confirm field results. This work will require additional capacity which will be met by combining funds provided by USGS and MDEQ with additional funds from USDA-ARS to support a two-year post doc position, located at the National Sedimentation Lab in Oxford, MS. This position will be co-advised by J(ARS) and (USGS) and will be responsible for leading field studies, performing analysis, presenting results, and coauthoring manuscripts with Co-PIs.
2) Proposed postdoc funding will be routed through DOE ORISE program with each agency (USGS, ARS) contributing 50% of annual costs for salary, benefits.