Introducing “<i>The Integrator</i>”: A novel technique to monitor environmental flow systems

González‐Pinzón, Ricardo; Dorley, Jancoba; Regier, Peter; Fluke, James; Bicknell, Kelsey; Nichols, Justin; Khandelwal, Aashish; Wolf, Emily J; Caruana, Sarah N.; Horn, David Van

doi:10.1002/lom3.10322

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Therefore, it is crucially important to employ recent technological advances in aquatic monitoring tools to document the impacts of wildfires. These include multi-parameter sensors 23 , 53 , unattended sampling methods 54 , 55 , autonomous vehicles 56 , 57 , near-real-time modeling 58 , and machine learning 59 , 60 , to collect and interpret high-frequency data in near real-time.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildfires increasingly impact western US fluvial networks

et al. 2021

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Wildfires are increasing globally in frequency, severity, and extent, but their impact on fluvial networks, and the resources they provide, remains unclear. We combine remote sensing of burn perimeter and severity, in-situ water quality monitoring, and longitudinal modeling to create the first large-scale, long-term estimates of stream+river length impacted by wildfire for the western US. We find that wildfires directly impact ~6% of the total stream+river length between 1984 and 2014, increasing at a rate of 342 km/year. When longitudinal propagation of water quality impacts is included, we estimate that wildfires affect ~11% of the total stream+river length. Our results indicate that wildfire activity is one of the largest drivers of aquatic impairment, though it is not routinely reported by regulatory agencies, as wildfire impacts on fluvial networks remain unconstrained. We identify key actions to address this knowledge gap and better understand the growing threat to fluvial networks, water security, and public health risks.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildfires increasingly impact western US fluvial networks

et al. 2021

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“…The selection of such methods depends on the physical site characteristics and conditions, the equipment available and preservation needed for specific analyses, and the safety of the field personnel (U. S. Geological Survey, 2006). To help reduce costs associated with the purchase and maintenance of semicontinuous sondes and long-term grab sampling, technologies like The Integrator (González-Pinzón et al, 2019) and lower cost sensors could be used to generate comparable data at more affordable costs. Table 3 presents key references to methods used in grab sampling and standard analyses.…”

Section: Field Deployment Of Equipment and Grab Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a general protocol for rapid response research on water quality disturbances and its application for monitoring the largest wildfire recorded in New Mexico, USA

Tunby¹,

Nichols²,

Kaphle³

et al. 2023

Front. Water

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Anthropogenic and natural disasters (e.g., wildfires, oil spills, mine spills, sewage treatment facilities) cause water quality disturbances in fluvial networks. These disturbances are highly unpredictable in space-time, with the potential to propagate through multiple stream orders and impact human and environmental health over days to years. Due to challenges in monitoring and studying these events, we need methods to strategize the deployment of rapid response research teams on demand. Rapid response research has the potential to close the gap in available water quality data and process understanding through time-sensitive data collection efforts. This manuscript presents a protocol that can guide researchers in preparing for and researching water quality disturbance events. We tested and refined the protocol by assessing the longitudinal propagation of water quality disturbances from the 2022 Hermit's Peak—Calf Canyon, NM, USA, the largest in the state's recorded history. Our rapid response research allowed us to collect high-resolution water quality data with semi-continuous sensors and synoptic grab sampling. The data collected have been used for traditional peer-reviewed publications and pragmatically to inform water utilities, restoration, and outreach programs.

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“…This limits the utility of these sensors in large rivers, arid‐land rivers, and coastal areas, where increased in‐channel and lateral flows bring and resuspend fine sediments that physically clog, interfere, or block the communication between sensor components responsible for signal emission and reception. This status quo and other logistical challenges associated with conducting research in larger fluvial subsystems have contributed to fundamental knowledge gaps regarding the mechanistic behavior of nutrient and organic matter dynamics along fluvial networks (i.e., from headwaters to the ocean), such as the role of physical characteristics, the impact of resource supply, quality, and stoichiometric constraignts (the molar ratios of essential limiting nutrients including C, N, and P), and how these factors vary over time and space, considering anthropogenic disturbance regimes (Tank et al 2008; Marce and Armengol 2009; Aguilera et al 2013; Hall et al 2013; González‐Pinzón et al 2015, 2019; Mortensen et al 2016).…”

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confidence: 99%

Introducing the Self‐Cleaning FiLtrAtion for Water quaLity SenSors (SC‐FLAWLeSS) system

Khandelwal

González‐Pinzón

Regier

et al. 2020

Limnology & Ocean Methods

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Sensor‐based, semicontinuous observations of water quality parameters have become critical to understanding how changes in land use, management, and rainfall‐runoff processes impact water quality at diurnal to multidecadal scales. While some commercially available water quality sensors function adequately under a range of turbidity conditions, other instruments, including those used to measure nutrient concentrations, cease to function in high turbidity waters (> 100 nephelometric turbidity units [NTU]) commonly found in large rivers, arid‐land rivers, and coastal areas. This is particularly true during storm events, when increases in turbidity are often concurrent with increases in nutrient transport. Here, we present the development and validation of a system that can affordably provide Self‐Cleaning FiLtrAtion for Water quaLity SenSors (SC‐FLAWLeSS), and enables long‐term, semicontinuous data collection in highly turbid waters. The SC‐FLAWLeSS system features a three‐step filtration process where: (1) a coarse screen at the inlet removes particles with diameter > 397 μm, (2) a settling tank precipitates and then removes particles with diameters between 10 and 397 μm, and (3) a self‐cleaning, low‐cost, hollow fiber membrane technology removes particles ≥ 0.2 μm. We tested the SC‐FLAWLeSS system by measuring nitrate sensor data loss during controlled, serial sediment additions in the laboratory and validated it by monitoring soluble phosphate concentrations in the arid Rio Grande river (New Mexico, U.S.A.), at hourly sampling resolution. Our data demonstrate that the system can resolve turbidity‐related interference issues faced by in situ optical and wet chemistry sensors, even at turbidity levels > 10,000 NTU.

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Introducing “The Integrator”: A novel technique to monitor environmental flow systems

Cited by 5 publications

References 33 publications

Wildfires increasingly impact western US fluvial networks

Wildfires increasingly impact western US fluvial networks

Development of a general protocol for rapid response research on water quality disturbances and its application for monitoring the largest wildfire recorded in New Mexico, USA

Introducing the Self‐Cleaning FiLtrAtion for Water quaLity SenSors (SC‐FLAWLeSS) system

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