Geomorphology: Changing the scholarly sources landscape with geology students

Find out how we changed the landscape for geology students from a popular sources wasteland to a lush garden of scholarly sources through a library instruction intervention. Data from before and after the library instruction will be shared, showing student growth from Wikipedia in first drafts to meeting ACRL Information Literacy Standards for Science through the use of scholarly sources in the final paper. The library instruction activity, learning outcomes, and assessment components are included

Guidebook for Omaha\u27s Urban Geology and Anthropocene Nebraska Well Drillers 2022 Field Trip

This geologic field trip focus is somewhat atypical but arguably reflects an ongoing evolution within the geosciences. Instead of traveling out into rural settings to look at outcrops and the stratigraphy exposed, or rural landforms and their geologic history, this field trip is focused on built and engineered environments in the Omaha area and the ‘modified’ associated geologic processes such as surface and groundwater flow, weathering, and soil formation. The ongoing evolution includes an increase in a multidisciplinary system science approach and is driven by a need to address environmental and resource management challenges using new tools and conceptual frameworks. One example is the concept of the critical zone, the zone encompassing the vegetation canopy down to groundwater. This framework is crucial to understanding endeavors at Glacier Creek Preserve and provides an example of an application of a system science approach and the role that technology plays. These topics are also part of the environmental geology courses we teach at UNO where we explore the interplay between geologic knowledge and human endeavors.https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/geoggeolfacbooks/1006/thumbnail.jp

Multi-criteria analysis of landslide susceptibility, Afghanistan

This presentation was given as part of the GIS Day@KU symposium on November 16, 2016. For more information about GIS Day@KU activities, please see http://gis.ku.edu/gisday/2016/.Landslides are among the most destructive forces of nature. Estimating susceptibility through modeling is an essential tool for planning and mitigation efforts. Some regions, however, are too dangerous or lack the capacity to develop extensive inventories for rigorous analyses. Remote sensing and GIS allow for initial risk assessment and hazard planning. Data derived primarily from remote sensing, or developed before and during war efforts of the last few decades were used for this study of landslide susceptibility in Afghanistan.Platinum Sponsors: KU Department of Geography and Atmospheric Science. Gold Sponsors: Enertech, KU Environmental Studies Program, KU Libraries. Silver Sponsors: Douglas County, Kansas, KansasView, State of Kansas Data Access & Support Center (DASC) and the KU Center for Global and International Studies

Natural and anthropogenic processes contributing to metal enrichment in surface soils of central Pennsylvania

Metals in soils may positively or negatively affect plants as well as soil micro-organisms and mesofauna, depending on their abundance and bioavailability. Atmospheric deposition and biological uplift commonly result in metal enrichment in surface soils, but the relative importance of these processes is not always resolved. Here, we used an integrated approach to study the cycling of phosphorus and a suite of metals from the soil to the canopy (and back) in a temperate watershed. The behavior of elements in these surface soils fell into three categories. First, Al, Fe, V, Co, and Cr showed little to no enrichment in the top soil layers, and their concentrations were determined primarily by soil production fluxes with little influence of either atmospheric inputs or biological activity. Second, P, Cu, Zn and Cd were moderately enriched in surface soils due to a combination of atmospheric deposition and biological uplift. Among the metals we studied, Cu, Zn and Cd concentrations in surface soils were the most sensitive to changes in atmospheric deposition fluxes. Finally, Mo and Mn showed strong enrichment in the top soil layer that could not be explained strictly by either current atmospheric deposition or biological recycling processes, but may reflect both their unique chemistry and remnants of past anthropogenic fluxes. Mn has a long residence time in the soil partly due to intense biological uplift that retains Mn in the top soil layer. Mo, in spite of the high solubility of molybdate, remains in the soil because of strong binding to natural organic matter. This study demonstrates the need to consider simultaneously the vegetation and the soils to understand elemental distribution within soil profiles as well as cycling within watersheds

Shale weathering rates across a continental-scale climosequence

A transect of sites has been established in North America and England as part of the Critical Zone Exploration Network (CZEN) to investigate the rates of soil formation across a climate gradient. Sites reported here are all underlain by an organic-poor, iron-rich Silurian-age shale, providing a constant parent material lithology from which soil is forming. This climosequence includes relatively cold and wet sites in Wales, New York and Pennsylvania, with temperature increasing to the south in Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama. Puerto Rico provides a warm/wet end member for the transect, although this site does not lie on the same shale formation as the Appalachian Mountain sites. Geochemical, mineralogical, and cosmogenic isotope analyses are being completed similarly at all sites to allow direct comparisons and eventual modelling of the weathering processes. Preliminary results from Wales, Pennsylvania and Virginia show soils become more sodium-depleted and the depth to bedrock is significantly deeper at the wet/warm site in Virginia. The fraction of Na lost relative to parent material composition at each site varies linearly as a function of mean annual temperature. Overall, results from the transect will promote a better understanding of how climate changes and human activities impact soil formation rates

Shale weathering rates across a continental-scale climosequence

A transect of sites has been established in North America and England as part of the Critical Zone Exploration Network (CZEN) to investigate the rates of soil formation across a climate gradient. Sites reported here are all underlain by an organic-poor, iron-rich Silurian-age shale, providing a constant parent material lithology from which soil is forming. This climosequence includes relatively cold and wet sites in Wales, New York and Pennsylvania, with temperature increasing to the south in Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama. Puerto Rico provides a warm/wet end member for the transect, although this site does not lie on the same shale formation as the Appalachian Mountain sites. Geochemical, mineralogical, and cosmogenic isotope analyses are being completed similarly at all sites to allow direct comparisons and eventual modelling of the weathering processes. Preliminary results from Wales, Pennsylvania and Virginia show soils become more sodium-depleted and the depth to bedrock is significantly deeper at the wet/warm site in Virginia. The fraction of Na lost relative to parent material composition at each site varies linearly as a function of mean annual temperature. Overall, results from the transect will promote a better understanding of how climate changes and human activities impact soil formation rates

Biotic controls on solute distribution and transport in headwater catchments

Solute concentrations in stream water vary with discharge in patterns that record complex feedbacks between hydrologic and biogeochemical processes. In a comparison of headwater catchments underlain by shale in Pennsylvania, USA (Shale Hills) 5 and Wales, UK (Plynlimon), dissimilar concentration-discharge behaviors are best explained by contrasting landscape distributions of soil solution chemistry – especially dissolved organic carbon (DOC) – that have been established by patterns of vegetation. Specifically, elements that are concentrated in organic-rich soils due to biotic cycling (Mn, Ca, K) or that form strong complexes with DOC (Fe, Al) are spatially heteroge- 10 neous in pore waters because organic matter is heterogeneously distributed across the catchments. These solutes exhibit non-chemostatic “bioactive” behavior in the streams, and solute concentrations either decrease (Shale Hills) or increase (Plynlimon) with increasing discharge. In contrast, solutes that are concentrated in soil minerals and form only weak complexes with DOC (Na, Mg, Si) are spatially homogeneous in pore waters 15 across each catchment. These solutes are chemostatic in that their stream concentrations vary little with stream discharge, likely because these solutes are released quickly from exchange sites in the soils during rainfall events. Differences in the hydrologic connectivity of organic-rich soils to the stream drive differences in concentration behavior between catchments. As such, in catchments where soil organic matter (SOM) is dom- 20 inantly in lowlands (e.g., Shale Hills), bioactive elements are released to the stream early during rainfall events, whereas in catchments where SOM is dominantly in uplands (e.g., Plynlimon), bioactive elements are released later during rainfall events. The distribution of vegetation and SOM across the landscape is thus a key component for predictive models of solute transport in headwater catchments

Solute Fluxes Through Restored Prairie and Intensively Managed Critical Zones in Nebraska and Iowa

Agricultural activities in the Midwestern United States have potentially altered geochemical fluxes within the critical zone (CZ) compared to native prairie systems that previously dominated the region. To quantify the impact of agricultural land use on soil and stream solute behavior, we are studying two watersheds in the region: Glacier Creek Preserve (GCP) in eastern Nebraska and the Intensively Managed Landscapes Critical Zone Observatory (IML-CZO) in eastern Iowa. Both watersheds were initially under agricultural land use for over 100 years, but part of each watershed was restored to prairie 20 – 50 years ago. Soils at both sites formed in thick Peoria loess (≥6 m) overlying glacial till with similar mean annual temperatures (∼10∘C) but slightly higher mean annual precipitation in Iowa (89 cm) compared to Nebraska (78 cm). At both sites, soil pore water and precipitation were collected every 2–4 weeks to measure anions, cations, and alkalinity; stream waters draining either restored prairie or agriculture were sampled similarly in Nebraska. Both soil moisture content and electrical conductivity were consistently higher in the upper one meter of agricultural soils compared to prairie soils in Nebraska, implying slower drainage and higher solute concentrations in the agricultural soils. At both sites, soil pore water Ca2+ and Mg2+ concentrations and annual fluxes were significantly higher in agricultural soils compared to restored prairie. Conversely, streams draining restored prairie have significantly higher Ca2+and Mg2+ concentrations than the agricultural streams. Fluxes from agricultural streams, however, were higher than the prairie, pointing to a potential dilution effect of runoff from the agricultural land use. These observations lead to a conceptual model where deeply infiltrating water in restored prairie soils interacts with minerals present deeper in the soil before reaching the stream whereas in agricultural soils water does not infiltrate as deeply and thus experiences more shallow flowpaths to the stream. Furthermore, changes in geochemical and hydrologic fluxes have been realized in just a few decades since switching land use from agriculture to prairie. Thus, intensive agricultural land use may alter soil function and solute transport to streams compared to critical zones hosting tallgrass prairie vegetation

Solute Fluxes Through Restored Prairie and Intensively Managed Critical Zones in Nebraska and Iowa

Agricultural activities in the Midwestern United States have potentially altered geochemical fluxes within the critical zone (CZ) compared to native prairie systems that previously dominated the region. To quantify the impact of agricultural land use on soil and stream solute behavior, we are studying two watersheds in the region: Glacier Creek Preserve (GCP) in eastern Nebraska and the Intensively Managed Landscapes Critical Zone Observatory (IML-CZO) in eastern Iowa. Both watersheds were initially under agricultural land use for over 100 years, but part of each watershed was restored to prairie 20 – 50 years ago. Soils at both sites formed in thick Peoria loess (≥6 m) overlying glacial till with similar mean annual temperatures (∼10°C) but slightly higher mean annual precipitation in Iowa (89 cm) compared to Nebraska (78 cm). At both sites, soil pore water and precipitation were collected every 2–4 weeks to measure anions, cations, and alkalinity; stream waters draining either restored prairie or agriculture were sampled similarly in Nebraska. Both soil moisture content and electrical conductivity were consistently higher in the upper one meter of agricultural soils compared to prairie soils in Nebraska, implying slower drainage and higher solute concentrations in the agricultural soils. At both sites, soil pore water Ca2+ and Mg2+ concentrations and annual fluxes were significantly higher in agricultural soils compared to restored prairie. Conversely, streams draining restored prairie have significantly higher Ca2+ and Mg2+ concentrations than the agricultural streams. Fluxes from agricultural streams, however, were higher than the prairie, pointing to a potential dilution effect of runoff from the agricultural land use. These observations lead to a conceptual model where deeply infiltrating water in restored prairie soils interacts with minerals present deeper in the soil before reaching the stream whereas in agricultural soils water does not infiltrate as deeply and thus experiences more shallow flowpaths to the stream. Furthermore, changes in geochemical and hydrologic fluxes have been realized in just a few decades since switching land use from agriculture to prairie. Thus, intensive agricultural land use may alter soil function and solute transport to streams compared to critical zones hosting tallgrass prairie vegetation