The university has two Slocum Gliders deployed and neither are functioning correctly in the open ocean.

The team first lost communication with its AUV Challenger just as it was crossing the Prime Meridian.  It has been several days since last contact with the glider.

Rutgers second ocean-crossing AUV, Silbo, then developed an issue with its ballast pump, which keeps the glider “flying” up and down the water column.  The failure has the glider stuck on the ocean’s surface at the mercy of the currents.

The RV Knorr is near Silbo, so Rutgers scientists will be working with the research crew on board to repair and redeploy Silbo, if possible.

Image: The Rutgers glider shortly after deployment near South Africa (Credit: Rutgers/I-COOL)

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Studies have found that cases of asthma, wheeze and upper respiratory infections appear to be more common among people living near concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, that can typically house more than 2,000 livestock animals. But the associations that these studies draw between CAFOs and health problems have relied on proximity to the facilities rather than quantitative measurements of potential contaminants, according to Brian Pavilonis, a postdoctoral fellow with the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute at Rutgers University.

“There is this feeling that, ‘Well, it looks like an association, but we don’t really know what’s causing it,’” Pavilonis said. “There have been a lot of people that want to get at how we can effectively measure exposure near CAFOs. ”

One hurdle to quantifying the airborne pollutants around these facilities is the high startup costs of the direct-read instruments used to measure gases like hydrogen sulfide. These tools also need a constant source of power to run, which can be a challenge in the rural environments surrounding CAFOs.

“They’re sited, specifically, in the middle of nowhere,” Pavilonis said. “So there are no power outlets out there. Also, a CAFO is about the size of a football field, so it’s very hard to site a lot of direct-reading instruments around CAFO.”

But Pavilonis has been working with a device that could work around those obstacles. As a graduate student at the University of Iowa, he spend around two years monitoring hydrogen sulfide around Iowa feeding operations with Radiello passive samplers. The results of the study were recently published online by the journal Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts.

The samplers are relatively inexpensive and work without electricity. The gas diffuses through the sampler body and attaches to an absorbent cartridge, where it reacts to form a stable compound that can be quantified through simple lab analysis.

The research focused on hydrogen sulfide–known for its rotten egg smell–because it’s a contaminant generated by the waste stored on site. On its own, the gas can at low levels exacerbate asthma and cause shortness of breath, nasal irritation and other respiratory complaints. It’s also useful as a surrogate measurement for other air pollutants associated with hog manure, Pavilonis said.

For the first phase of the study, the researchers installed samplers at eight locations in a grid around a single facility that Pavilonis said was fairly representative of CAFOs across the U.S. The facility stored liquid waste in a lagoon, a pit without overhead containment.

Hydrogen sulfide concentrations over the seven-month sampling period were highly variable, Pavilonis said.

“Right near the lagoon, you could have measurements over two weeks up to 50, 60 parts per billion,” he said. “And two or three hundred feet away you’re getting almost right at the limit of detection.”

In a second phase of the study’s monitoring, a single sampler was installed at the fence line of 13 CAFOs, along with two more at schools near feeding operations. The concentrations at the schools were generally low, while the highest concentration was found at the facility permitted to house the largest volume of animals among those sampled.

But the number of animals in a facility isn’t always a good predictor of pollutant levels, Pavilonis said.

“It’s really hard to understand why concentrations at different CAFOs are different,” he said. “Manure management is a huge part of how much hydrogen sulfide is produced.”

The study is an early look at the potentially of passive samplers to monitor CAFOs, and it suggests that there is still work to be done to understand how the measurements are affected by environmental conditions like temperature. But they appear to show potential to get scientists and regulators closer to quantifying air pollutants around these facilities.

“And that’s why I went into this [study],” Pavilonis said. “How can people use new tools to monitor different contaminants near CAFOs?”

Top image: A passive sampler housed under a section of rain gutter measures hydrogen sulfide near an Iowa CAFO (Credit: Brian Pavilonis)

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“Calibration is quite easy. It’s a simple 3-point process,” said Ryan Grilliot, product manager. “Place it in the solution, wait for the millivolt readings to stabilize, then press calibrate.”

The sensor is calibrated at 7 pH, 4 pH and 10 pH. After telling the sensor to associate a specific millivolt reading with the target pH level, users go on to the next calibration point. All calibration can be completed using the WQSensors software that comes free with the sensor.

The software contains a substantial collection of informational libraries – including useful references like the periodic table of the elements, water’s properties at various temperatures and a guide on fish. It also has mechanical and electrical unit converters.

“The software is free, so you can use it for information referencing,” said Grilliot, noting it is fully compatible with Windows XP and Windows 7 32-bit.

The sensor sets itself apart from other NexSens WQSensors with a deep blue housing. It’s filled with a gel to ward off crystal formation and maintain proper sensor performance. The housing, while colorful, is made of a resilient hardened plastic that helps protect the sensor in case of an accidental drop.

The USB cable included with the device is about six feet long and makes it possible to obtain readings without meters, batteries or other power supplies.

“It’s a good low-cost solution,” said Grilliot. “The sensors are plug-and-play. Open up WQSensors, plug in your sensor and begin taking readings.”

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The Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council is seeking volunteers to monitor lakes in Michigan’s Emmet, Charlevoix, Antrim and Cheboygan counties.

Volunteers will contribute to a database used to aid lake management for 25 lakes at the top of Michigan’s mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula.

Volunteers for the project must monitor their assigned lake once a week. A boat is required for data collection.

Image: Little Traverse Bay is among the water bodies in need of volunteer monitors (Credit: bagaball, via Flickr)

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Rain from March through the end of April transported 210 tons of dissolved phosphorus into the Maumee River, which enters Lake Erie. About 120 tons of phosphorus typically enters the river during the two-month timeframe.

Runoff of phosphorus into the Maumee River and into Lake Erie was one of the main causes for a record algal bloom in 2011.

A combination of weather conditions also factored into the 2011 record bloom.

The 2011 algal bloom in Lake Erie from Kelley’s Island. (Credit: T. Joyce/NOAA GLERL)

The post High spring nutrient loads could fuel big Lake Erie algal bloom appeared first on Environmental Monitor.

Between 1979 and 2006, Lake Superior’s temperature increased by 2.5 degrees Celsius due to global warming. The lake’s temperature increase was one of the most drastic in North America during that span.

The increase has affected Lake Superior’s siscowet lake trout, a species that favors cold waters. Using data compiled from computer models and standard temperature measurements, researchers estimate that siscowet lake trout have lost about 20 percent of their habitat because of the warming.

Image: Grand Sable Dunes on Lake Superior (Credit: NOAA)

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This 30-year, 100-site monitoring effort has to design sensor infrastructure that can withstand droughts and floods, ice cover and fires, and the occasional grazing cow.

“Several of the sites that we’re based at are working farms,” said Charlotte Roehm, a senior scientist with NEON. “So we have to take into account effects of animal foraging and similar challenges in those areas.”

NEON aspires to monitor ecological change in a diversity of terrestrial and aquatic systems across the U.S. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the program plans to collect 30 years of data to help investigate environmental effects of issues like climate change, land use and invasive species.They’ll collect data at more than 100 sites through both long-term sensor stations and field sampling initiatives.

Sensors at 36 of those sites will be installed in a mix of lakes and streams from Puerto Rico to Alaska.

“We received our construction funds last year, so we’ve only just started constructing this year,” Roehm said. “We’re planning on having two sites coming up in the next six months for installation into operation.”

Though NEON is still in its early stages of observation and installation, the program’s working groups have been busy planning and designing the infrastructure that will support the suite of off-the-shelf sensors they’ll be installing at each site.

One challenge they face is designing sensor mounts that will allow the instruments to collect standardized measurements in wildly different landscapes across the continent, Roehm said. They need to install sensors in high alpine streams in Colorado in such a way that it won’t bias data when compared with, say, the sensors in Alaskan systems that have only a few months of ice free water each year.

A staff gauge on Florida’s Barco Lake, a future NEON aquatic site (Credit: Charlotte Roehm)

They’ll also be also working in streams that occasionally dry out, which can disrupt some sensors. They’re experimenting with flow-through cell techniques to offset that.

And in a flashy system like Sycamore Creek in Arizona, the sensor infrastructure will have so be strong enough resist being swept away by sudden strong storms.

“This is a typical desert environment where we have these major storms that go through can essentially wipe everything out,” Roehm said. “So we go through a whole set of reviews with the systems engineering and engineering groups here. We look at stability and strength of our structures for these different sites.”

Each stream study site will feature a multiparameter sonde at two locations in the channel. The sondes will measure temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, pH, conductivity and CDOM. Additional instruments will include nutrient analyzers, photosynthetically active radiation sensors and pressure transducers to calculate discharge.

Lake sites will have sondes at their inlets and outlets, along with a profiling buoy in the open water.

In addition to the water quality sensors, each site will have a meteorological station, groundwater wells with continuous measurements of temperature, water level and conductivity, and a camera taking one photo a day to track phenology and ice-on and ice-off dates.

The data from all the sites, including around 60 terrestrial sites, will be wirelessly telemetered back to NEON headquarters. From there, it will undergo quality control and assurance procedures before being released to the public.

“The goal of NEON is to provide freely available data to the public and allow the community to build on the infrastructure” Roehm said. “Hopefully, we’ll be running for 30 years, so it’s exciting to be part of this endeavor and see it develop over the next few years.”

Top image: A prototype sensor mount for a NEON stream site (Credit: NEON)

The post National Ecological Observatory Network develops aquatic sensor stations across U.S. appeared first on Environmental Monitor.

Satellite data shows that last summer, 98 percent of the Greenland Ice Sheet’s surface melted, as opposed to the normal rate of melting, which is around 50 percent.

Additionally, air and snow temperature data obtained from meteorological stations in the region show that from 1982 to 2011, area surface temperatures increased annually six times faster than the global average.

Scientists believe that the melting in the region could have global ramifications on climate and sea level changes.

Image: Greenland Ice Sheet (Credit: Christine Zenino, Wikimedia Commons)

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The lab’s instruments will be stationed along a volcano off the Pacific Northwest coast and will give researchers from around the country the ability to monitor activity two miles below the ocean’s surface through the use of video cameras, seismic monitors and other gauges.

The lab is unique from other deep-sea research initiatives because it will be able to provide continuous data through the use of 600 miles of permanent cables.

Researchers will begin to install the hardware this July. The lab is expected to be completed by 2015.

Image: The Pacific Ocean from Diamond Head Crater (Credit: Daniel Ramirez, Wikimedia Commons)

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The nanoparticles consist of tiny rust specks that can be combined with fluids used in natural gas drilling. Researchers can impart unique magnetic signatures to these particles to assign each drilling company its own signature particle fingerprint.  Researchers would then be able to either hold particular companies responsible or rule them out as sources of pollution depending on a water sample’s chemistry.

In the past, it has been difficult for scientists to conclusively link groundwater contamination to fracking since many pollutants typically found in fracking fluids can also occur naturally in the environment.

Image: Hydraulic fracturing drill rig in Pennsylvania (Credit: Environmental Protection Agency)

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