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Campus Conference

Earth, Air, Water

Monday, September 12, 2016Joe Crowley Student Union, Fourth Floor

The Great Room and Room 402

Abstract Program

Hosted by the Office for the Vice President of Research and Innovation andthe Associate Vice Presdent for Research

www.unr.edu/vpri

Campus Conference: Earth, Air, Water September 12, 2016

Conference Schedule8:30 - 9:00 am Registration and coffee9:00 - 9:05 am Welcome remarks Ana de Bettencourt-Dias, Associate Vice President for Research9:05 - 9:25 am Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio College of Liberal Arts “It is such nice weather outside”……..for a concert!9:25 - 9:45 am Bridget Ayling College of Science Introducing the Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy9:45 - 10:05 am Scotty Strachan College of Science The NevCAN Observatory: Long-Term Baseline Monitoring Across primary Great Basin Life Zones10:05 - 10:25 am Yu Yang College of Engineering Molecular Biogeochemistry for Critical Environmental Issues: Climate Change, Nanomaterial Pollution and Antibiotic Resistance

10:25 - 10:35 am Break

10:35 - 10:55 am Xia Sun College of Science Evaluation of Surface Fluxes in the WRF Model: Case Study for Irrigated Farmland in Rolling Terrain10:55 - 11:15 am Krishna Pagilla College of Engineering Water for People, Planet and Prosperity - Where, How, and Who11:15 - 11:35 am Helen Beeson College of Science Drainage Area Exchange Between River Basins Produces Long-Lived Transient Landscapes11:35 - 11:55 am Adrian Harpold CABNR Mountain Forests: A Critical Natural Resource Under Threat

11:55 am - 1:15 pm Lunch and poster session Lunch: provided for registered participants only Poster presentations: Ronald Breitmeyer, College of Science / Adrian Harpold, CABNR / Bernadette Longo, Orvis School of Nursing / Matthew Strickland, School of Community Health Sciences / HeatherWinslow, College of Science / Bonnie Wood, College of Science

1:15 - 1:35 pm Marcela Loria-Salazar College of Science Spatial Surface PM2.5 Concentration Estimates for Wildfire Smoke Plumes in the Western U.S. Using Satellite Retrievals and Data Assimilation Techniques1:35 - 1:55 pm Isabelle Favre College of Liberal Arts Literature Is In The Air: Italo Calvino and Koulsy Lamko1:55 - 2:15 pm Philipp Ruprecht College of Science Formation of Redox Gradients During Magma Mixing: Extreme Effects of Chemical Potential Gradients

2:25 - 2:45 pm Paula Noble College of Science Paleolimnology-Deciphering Past Environments With Lake Cores2:45 - 3:05 pm John Louie College of Science Nevada ShakeZoning (NSZ): When the Earthquake Happens, How Hard Will it Shake?

3:45 - 3:55 pm Closing remarks Ana de Bettencourt-Dias, Associate Vice President for Research

2:15 - 2:25 am Break

3:05 - 3:25 pm Anna Panorska College of Science Statistical Risk Models for Nature’s Extreme Events3:25 - 3:45 pm Scott Tyler College of Science It’s Almost Like Watching Paint Dry: Measuring the Rate of Antarctic Shelf Glacier Melting

September 12, 2016 Campus Conference: Earth, Air, Water 1

Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio, Associate Professor, Music, College of Liberal Arts

20 minutes of Play & Talk with Associate Professor of Violin & Viola, Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)from Sonate Op. 31, No. 2 for solo violin (1924) • 7’

“Es ist so schönes Wetter drausen” (It is such nice weather outside) I. Leicht bewegte Viertel

IV. Fünf Variationen über das Lied “Komm, lieber Mai” v. Mozart

Kenji Bunch (b. 1973)Sarabande for solo violin (2006) • 4’

Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969)

Polish Caprice for solo violin (1949) • 3’

Michael Daugherty (b. 1954)Viva for solo violin • 3’

Time-based media by Peter Goin

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

“It is such nice weather outside”........for a concert!

Praised as an “expressive and passionate chamber musician” by the San Antonio Express-News, and described as a “violinist who most often takes your breath away” by Gramophone Magazine, Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio enjoys a varied performing and recording career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. Associate Professor of Violin and Viola at the University of Nevada, Reno and mem-ber of the Argenta Trio, she is also Artistic Director of Cactus Pear Music Festival, which she founded in 1997 while serving as Concert-master of the San Antonio Symphony. Previously First Assistant Principal Second Violin of The Cleveland Orchestra, under Christoph von Dohnany, she toured and recorded internationally with this ensemble for eight seasons.

Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has a discography of over seventy-five orchestral and chamber music CDs. Fanfare Magazine described her recent Johannes Brahms: The Violin Sonatas CD, as “play[ing] with immaculate technique, impeccable intonation, lustrous tone, and emotion-al warmth.” Audiophile Review wrote, “Fine readings of great finesse, rich coloring and complete understanding.” Her other releases include Late Dates with Mozart; and Going Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola on the MSR Classics label, and Argenta Trio: The Piano Trios of Felix Mendelssohn on Bridge Records. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. as well as in Mexico, Canada, Estonia, Sweden, Ghana, Italy, Peru and Chile. In 2010, she won the Alan Bible Teaching Excellence Award at UNR and was also appointed Concertmaster of the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra by Music Director Theodore Kuchar. In addition to her active performing career, Stephanie is devoted to teaching serious young violinists, many who have won positions in America’s symphonies and universities.

Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has performed and taught at various festivals including: Music in the Vineyards (CA); Bach, Dancing and Dynamite Society (WI); Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (WA); Nevada Chamber Music Festival (NV); Round Top Festival Institute (TX) and Tuckamore Festival (Newfoundland, Canada). Her chamber music activities have included performances and recordings with such noted artists as William Preucil, Ida Kavafian, James Buswell, Richard Goode, David Schifrin, Walter Trampler, Anne Epperson, Jon Kimura Parker and Gunther Schuller. She is featured in chamber music recordings under the Arabesque, Bridge Records and MSR Classics labels, and her live concert performances are heard on National Public Radio’s Performance Today. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has performed as first violinist with the Miami String Quartet and has been a guest artist with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing at both the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers. She toured Italy with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, toured extensively throughout Ohio with Cleveland’s Myriad, and for ten years performed with the Amici String Quartet, of which she was a founding member. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio studied with and was the graduate assistant to Donald Weilerstein at The Eastman School of Music, where she received her Master of Music degree. Previously she received her Bachelor of Music degree with distinction from Indiana University as a scholarship student of Laurence Shapiro and James Buswell.

2 Campus Conference: Earth, Air, Water September 12, 2016

Introducing the Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy

Bridget Ayling, Associate Professor, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, College of Science

Geothermal energy is a renewable, clean, baseload energy resource and thus has an important role to play in helping the USA achieve a clean energy future. The Great Basin region in the western USA is richly endowed with geothermal resources, which are typically characterized by hot fluids circulating at shallow depths beneath the earthÍs surface. In 2015, there were 24 geothermal power plants operating in Nevada, with an installed capacity of 674 MW, and geothermal energy contributed to approximately 8% of NevadaÍs total electricity generation. Geothermal resources are also being used in direct applications, such as for heating and cooling of buildings. Historically, many geothermal resources in the Great Basin were discovered via obvious surface features including hot springs, mineralized deposits (sinter), thermal features and/or geysers, as well as through accidental discoveries of hot water while drilling for mineral or petroleum resources. There remains great potential for the discovery and development of additional geothermal resources in the Great Basin region, including geothermal systems that have no obvious surface

expression (known as “blind” systems), and Engineered Geothermal Systems (EGS). The Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy (GBCGE) was established at the University of Nevada, Reno in 2000, to work in partnership with the geothermal industry to increase the uptake and development of geothermal resources in the western United States. Mechanisms to achieve this include conducting innovative research, pursing collaborative projects with industry, student projects, outreach activities and training. Research conducted at the GBCGE aims to better understand the geothermal resource potential of Nevada and the broader Great Basin, by investigating the geological factors that control where geothermal resources are located, and developing new approaches for geothermal exploration to increase our discovery of ‘blind’ geothermal systems. In addition, we seek to understand the characteristics of geothermal reservoirs such as their temperature, volumes of fluid, permeability, fluid geochemistry, and fluid flow pathways. These are important factors for optimizing the development and management of conventional and engineered geothermal resources. I will present an overview of the current status of geothermal development in Nevada, and the research activities that the Center is currently involved in.

The NevCAN Observatory: Long-Term Baseline Monitoring Across Primary Great Basin Life Zones

Scotty Strachan, NevCAN Director, Geography, College of Science

Great Basin geography defines Nevada’s semi-arid environment. Dry valleys are contrasted with high mountain ranges that capture crucial precipitation and return a water surplus to lower elevations. Our annual water cycle depends on mountain processes and their interaction with climate, but our historic understanding is limited due to a lack of long-term observations at mid-to-high elevations. Concerns related to water resources and ecosystem responses abound in our region, and what we desperately need for effective planning and management are high-quality long-term baseline datasets from representative zones across all elevations. A recent NSF-EPSCoR-funded cooperative endeavor by the three major NSHE research institutions (UNR, DRI, and UNLV) has established a modern observation network to meet these needs. NevCAN (the Nevada Climate-ecohydrological Assessment Network) is a set of gradient and high-elevation observatories in the Great Basin that monitor atmospheric, hydrologic, and ecologic variables at sub-hourly timesteps. These comprehensive and uniform data are especially valuable when examined over many seasonal cycles. As an example, analysis of precipitation and recent drought (2012-2015) effects on rooting-depth soil moisture and plant response at mid to upper elevations shows that

Great Basin mountains can provide a substantial buffer to regional dryness. Monitoring of deeper drainage for groundwater recharge shows that only the upper elevations made a substantial contribution during the same timeframe. As NevCAN continues to operate, results are demonstrating that long-term monitoring of near-surface processes across elevation gradients and life zones is crucial to understanding climate-water-ecosystem interactions under different seasonal regimes. Sustainability of this network will significantly contribute to our knowledge base of both real-time conditions as well as long-term trends in Great Basin water, weather, and ecology.

ABSTRAC TS - ORAL PRESENTATIONS


Molecular Biogeochemistry for Critical Environmental Issues: Climate Change, Nanomaterial Pollution and Antibiotic Resistance

Yu Yang, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering

In this century, we are facing many grand challenges for sustainable development and environmental stewardship, including climate change, antibiotic resistance development and pollution of engineered nano-materials. To resolve these issues, complete understanding about the biogeochemical reactions for major elements and pollutants is needed. Our research interests are focused on the organic matter-mineral-bacteria interfacial redox reactions. I will present several examples including: 1) the stability of carbon in the redox reactions; 2) microbial degradation and plant uptake of carbon nanotube; 3) organic matter-mediated degradation of antimicrobial agents. Our results demonstrated the importance of iron reduction in the mobilization and transformation of organic carbon. We showed a bacterium able to transform and degrade carbon nanotube, which would improve the treatment of carbon nanotube-polluted waters and prediction of their natural fate. Digestion coupled with Raman and thermal gravimetric analysis was used to analyze the uptake and translocation of carbon nanotube in agricultural plants. Our results also showed

the dual role of natural organic matter in regulating the degradation of antimicrobial agent, as electron shuttle and sequester.

Evaluation of Surface Fluxes in the WRF Model: Case Study for Irrigated Farmland in Rolling Terrain

Xia Sun, Graduate Student, Physics, College of Science

Surface fluxes, serving as sinks or sources of atmospheric pollutants, are crucial parameters in numerical weather prediction models. They contribute to the atmospheric turbulence which is a critical element in the evolution of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and the vertical mixing. Thus simulating the surface fluxes accurately in numerical models is substantial to simulate air pollution events. The Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF), version 3.7.1, is used to simulate surface fluxes near Echo, Oregon, in September 2014. Flux tower observations, from 22 to 28 September (Osibanjo and Holmes, 2016), provide the evaluation dataset for the model assessment. Sensors were mounted at four heights: 1.1m, 2.7m, 4.8m and 7.7m above ground level. Atmospheric turbulence data were measured at 10 Hz using a 3D sonic anemometer and surface fluxes were calculated by eddy-covariance technique. The PBL schemes in WRF differ in assumptions of the transport of energy, mass, and moisture. Land surface process parameterizations are also critical for the simulation of PBL evolution and surface fluxes. Boundary conditions are provided by large-scale initialization forcing data, which have been found to have deficiencies in varying space and time scales. To get the optimal model options with satisfactory evaluation performance, a series of

simulations are conducted based on different combinations of PBL schemes (ACM2, 2007; YSU, 2006; MYJ, 1994), land surface models (Noah LSM, Pleim-Xiu surface layer), and large-scale datasets for boundary conditions (NARR, 32km resolution at 3h intervals; NAM, 12km resolution at 6h intervals). The impact with and without nudging in WRF is also discussed. We also analyze the difference of model performance with MODIS versus USGS for land surface input data. Four model domains with 45 vertical levels are used in the simulation, with horizontal grid spacing of 13.5, 4.5, 1.5 and 0.5km. To evaluate the WRF performance on surface flux simulations under varying sets of schemes, the bias, correlation coefficient, and root-mean-square error between the observation and simulation data is compared among these cases. This study assesses the ability of WRF to simulate surface fluxes and determine the sensitivity to different PBL and land surface schemes.


Water for People, Planet and Prosperity - Where, How, and Who

Krishna Pagilla, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering

Water touches everyone and everything. The story of water supply and pollution control is often unheard. When one turns the tap on, it is taken for granted that water comes and is drinkable. This presentation gives the story of water before and after, and how we engineers and scientists make it happen.

Drainage Area Exchange Between River Basins Produces Long-Lived TransientLandscapes

Helen Beeson, Graduate Student, Geological Sciences and Engineering, College of Science

Cratonic landscapes make up the majority of Earth’s surface and contribute significant quantities of sediment to ocean basins. Previous research on cratonic landscapes has pointed to diverse drivers of relief and rates of erosion in individual river basins, leaving the processes that set the first-order relief structure of tectonically quiescent landscapes poorly constrained. Here we show that erosional competition between river basins may control large-scale morphology in some cratonic landscapes. We use topographic analysis, catchment-averaged denudation rates determined from concentrations of 10Be in modern river sand, and a proxy for the steady-state elevation of river networks, χ, to demonstrate that river basin dynamics, including divide migration and stream capture, drive much of the observed variability in erosion rates and topographic asymmetry in the Ozark dome, a low-elevation, cratonic landscape. We find that high-elevation, low-relief surfaces, often interpreted as relict surfaces, can form in situ as a result of basin dynamics. The positive feedback associated with persistent loss of drainage area has resulted in basins with

long-term erosion rates that are lower than the surrounding landscape and lower than the rate of uplift. These basins have thus lost relief and increased in elevation. The stream-power river incision model predicts landscape response times on the order of 10 Ma, suggesting that landscapes subjected to consistent, low rates of isostatic uplift should be close to steady state after ~ 10 Ma. The Ozarks have not experienced significant tectonic activity since the late Paleozoic, yet, we find that rivers draining the Ozark dome are in geometric disequilibrium and are actively reorganizing. Our results suggest that the persistent exchange of drainage area between adjoining river basins and the concomitant nonuniformity in erosion rates can greatly increase the time-to-steady-state and is a viable mechanism to autogenically produce long-lived transient landscapes.


Mountain Forests: A Critical Natural Resource Under Threat

Adrian Harpold, Associate Professor, Natural Resources and EnvironmentalScience, CABNR

Mountain forests in the Western U.S. rely on snow water for transpiration throughout the year. These forests are critical sources of water for people and ecosystems and large sinks of carbon. Changing snowmelt dynamics and increased forest disturbance threaten water availability. In this talk I will focus on the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada mountains to explore three key subject areas: 1) how snow water dynamics are changing, 2) the importance of soil properties in controlling the response of forests to altered snow water inputs, and 3) the potential to manage forests to retain snowpacks in ways that increase forest health and sustain water resources.

Spatial Surface PM2.5 Concentration Estimates for Wildfire Smoke Plumes in the Western U.S. Using Satellite Retrievals and Data Assimilation Techniques

S. Marcela Loria-Salazar, Graduate Student, Physics, College of Science

Health effects studies of aerosol pollution have been extended spatially using data assimilation techniques that combine surface PM2.5 concentrations and Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) from satellite retrievals. While most of these models were developed for the dark-vegetated eastern U.S. they are being used in the semi-arid western U.S. to remotely sense atmospheric aerosol concentrations. These models are helpful to understand the spatial variability of surface PM2.5 concentrations in the western U.S. because of the sparse network of surface monitoring stations. However, the models developed for the eastern U.S. are not robust in the western U.S. due to different aerosol formation mechanisms, transport phenomena, and optical properties. This region is a challenge because of complex terrain, anthropogenic and biogenic emissions, secondary organic aerosol formation, smoke from wildfires, and low background aerosol concentrations. This research concentrates on the use and evaluation of satellite remote sensing to estimate surface PM2.5 concentrations from AOD satellite retrievals over California and Nevada during the summer months of 2012 and 2013. The aim of this investigation is to incorporate a spatial statistical model that uses AOD from AERONET as well as MODIS, surface PM2.5 concentrations, and land-use regression to characterize

spatial surface PM2.5 concentrations. The land use regression model uses traditional inputs (e.g. meteorology, population density, terrain) and non-traditional variables (e.g. Fire Inventory from NCAR (FINN) emissions and MODIS albedo product) to account for variability related to smoke plume trajectories and land use. The results will be used in a spatially resolved health study to determine the association between wildfire smoke exposure and cardiorespiratory health endpoints. This relationship can be used with future projections of wildfire emissions related to climate change and droughts to quantify the expected health impact.


Literature Is In The Air: Italo Calvino and Koulsy Lamko

Isabelle Favre, Associate Professor, World Languages and Literatures, College of Liberal Arts

Italo Calvino (1923-1985) was an internationally renowned Italian writer, essayist, and journalist. At age 20, he refused to join Mussolini’s mandatory Fascist army and went into hiding. After the war, Calvino wanted to write a book about these dark years, however he needed an appropriate form to suit such a heavy human experience, and thus he became passionate about literary theory because of that obstacle. Much later in 1984, he was invited to present a lecture cycle at Harvard; the resulting book is entitled Lezioni americane. In one of the lectures, Lightness, he insisted that no matter how “heavy” the subject matter might be, literature should remain as light as the air. Most of us didn’t live through WW II like Calvino, but our generations did in fact witness a true genocide in Africa. The question posed by Calvino remains: how does one write about such horror and not produce a piece of “heavy” literature? In order to answer this question, I will consider Koulsy Lamko’s novel The Butterfly of Hills (La Phalène des collines) to demonstrate how good literature can successfully approach difficult topics and remain as light as the

air, and as deep as the sea.

Formation of Redox Gradients During Magma Mixing: Extreme Effects of Chemical Potential Gradients

Philipp Ruprecht, Assistant Professor, Geological Sciences and Engineering, College of Science

Magma mixing is a key process that controls mass transfer in magmatic systems at depth. While mixing is commonly invoked to explain magma evolution within the Earth crust and mantle, it has rarely been studied on the micro- to mm-scale. At this scale, where diffusion is most effective, strong gradients in chemical potential emerge during the juxtaposition of two chemically distinct magmas. How such gradients in chemical potential are removed is mostly unknown for natural magmas, which are chemically complex, multi-element, multi-phase systems.


Paleolimnology - Deciphering Past Environments with Lake Cores

Paula Noble, Professor, Geological Sciences and Engineering, College of Science

Lakes serve as repositories for long-term records of past environmental conditions resulting either from natural climate variability or anthropogenic impacts. Contained within the sediment are a variety of geochemical and paleobiological data that can serve as proxies for environmental reconstruction. The Holocene record from well-dated piston cores in the Lake Tahoe Basin is presented as an example. A transect of 4 cores recovered from Fallen Leaf Lake were dated using AMS14C on plant macrofossils, and analyzed using scanning XRF, C and N elemental and stable isotope measurements, plus diatoms and pollen as paleoclimate proxies. Three large signals are discussed, two of which are driven by climate variability, and the last by anthropogenic effects. The oldest of these three signals occurs at the end of the last glaciation, at the leistocene/Holocene boundary, represented by changes in diatoms, pollen, and organic geochemistry following a period of postglacial lake development. The next signal marks the end of a neopluvial (wet) interval at 3.7 kcal yr BP, and interpreted to be a period of increased snowpack in the upper watershed. The neopluvial signal is supported by multiple proxies, including depleted δ13Corg (-27.5‰) values, negative baseline shifts in TOC and TN, lower C:N, and high abundances of Aulacoseira

subarctica, a winter-early spring diatom. Collectively, these proxies indicate cooler temperatures, enhanced mixing, and/or shortened summer stratification resulting in increased algal productivity and/or suppressed terrestrial runoff. The third signal occurs at the top of the cores, and shows both increased sediment influx, and compositional changes to the lake’s phytoplankton. These changes are interpreted to be driven by anthropogenic influences, specifically land use changes in the surrounding watershed starting ~1900 and accelerating in the 1950’s.

Nevada ShakeZoning (NSZ): When the Earthquake Happens, How Hard Will It Shake?

John Louie, Professor, Seismological Lab, College of Science

Nevada ShakeZoning is our name for the continuing effort at the Seismo Lab to help Nevadans anticipate how much earthquakes could affect their families and communities. We are building the infrastructure to anticipate and forecast shaking intensities before the next damaging earthquake hits a Nevada community. We want every Nevada homeowner, business owner, emergency service, city, county, and State agency to have the information they need to protect their community and their economy from the next earthquake. We need to intelligently anticipate how hard any earthquake could shake us, block by block in our cities and towns. Where are the soft spots, that may be especially dangerous, and expensive to build on? Where are the harder, safer spots, where it would be a waste of money to over-strengthen? There are dozens of dangerously active earthquake faults in Nevada, and many ways each fault can rupture. There are hundreds of scenarios we must compute to get a better picture of the hazards Nevadans need to prepare for. Technical presentations and movie files animating the wave propagation from various earthquake scenarios are available from crack.seismo.unr.edu/NSZ.


Statistical Risk Models for Nature’s Extreme Events

Anna Panorska, Professor, Mathematics and Statistics, College of Science

We present an array of stochastic models for extreme events in weather, climate and hydrology. The research is motivated by the powerful impacts of weather and climate extremes on human life. We describe natural quantification of properties of extremes including their magnitude, maximum and duration, all of which have impact on the human health, life and our environment. Our models provide a path to quantification of risk for natural disasters.

It’s Almost Like Watching Paint Dry: Measuring the Rate of Antarctic Shelf Glacier Melting

Scott Tyler, Professor, Geological Sciences and Engineering, College of Science

Evidence to date indicates that ocean warming and changes in ocean circulation are increasing the rate of melting of many floating Antarctic shelf glaciers. While not impacting sea level directly, shelf glaciers serve as buttressing “corks” to the much larger ice sheets upstream. These ice sheets, in particular the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, contain large volumes of ice above sea level, and their potential collapse into the ocean could raise sea levels by meters over timescales of decades. Monitoring the stability and potential for such catastrophic behavior is challenging and difficult, due to the large scales of the ice shelves, the depth to the melting front (100’s of meters) and the remote environment. We report here on developments of novel fiber-optic based measurements techniques deployed through very small boreholes in the ice shelf, and remaining on station for monitoring for decades. The talk will begin with an overview of the theory of fiber-based temperature sensing (Distributed Temperature Sensing or DTS) and its development as an ice shelf monitoring system. Data from the McMurdo Ice Shelf, collected from 2011-2013 is used to measuring daily melt rate, and corresponds precisely to ice shelf cavity ocean temperatures. The talk will conclude with a brief over of other applications of DTS applications in subglacial lakes, surface and groundwater

hydrology, environmental engineering and atmospheric sciences as well as a short video on the use of drones in environmental sensing.


Evaluation of Uncertainty for Soil Water Characteristic Curve Measurements andImplications for Predicting the Hydro-Mechanical Behavior of Unsaturated Soils

Ronald Breitmeyer, Assistant Professor, Geological Sciences and Engineering, College of Science

Reproducibility of inter-specimen SWCC measurements was quantified for four soil samples collected from the Sagehen Experimental Watershed near Truckee, CA. The hanging column method, the UMS HYPROP apparatus, and the dew point potentiometer method provided measurement of the SWCC. The van Genuchten SWCC function was parameterized using regression on data from 10 HYPROP trials per soil and individual measurements from the hanging column. Variability in water content (θ) was + 0.03 to + 0.13 at any given suction (ψ), indicating random variability in SWCC prediction despite identical specimen preparation. Variability in replicate parameter estimates for a single soil may be greater than 14% of median estimates. This variability could affect strength testing reliant upon replicate specimen preparation. Additionally, this result may impact testing programs that commonly rely upon a single SWCC measurement and subsequent parameterization.

Exacerbations of Asthma Associated with Gas Emissions From a Persistently Active Volcano

Bernadette Longo, Associate Professor, Orvis School of Nursing, Division of Health Sciences

Little is known about asthma epidemiology at volcanoes. Kilauea Volcano’s ongoing 30+ year eruption produces substantial sulfur-rich air pollution called “vog” in nearby island communities. In 2008, volcanic activity and gas emissions intensified, thereby increasing vog in contrast to previous levels. The aim of this study was to assess if vog exposure was associated with higher risk of asthma attacks. This community-based cohort study estimated incidence and relative risk of medical visits for acute exacerbations of asthma (AEA) over a 7-year period capturing low and high exposure time periods. Epidemiologic estimates were standardized for age and gender, revealing a 3-fold elevated risk for AEA in exposed residents. Asthmatic children living near Kīlauea suffered the highest burden of attacks relative to other age groups. Risk also increased concordant with higher exposure and geospatial pattern. This study concludes that vog is hazardous to asthma populations due to increased risk for acute exacerbation. Repeated exacerbations plausibly lead to increased progression of asthma. Therefore, asthmatics living near active volcanoes with

degassing activity should follow asthma management regimes. Public health workers and clinicians need to promote exposure-reducing activities that are evidence based and culturally tailored for the population, as well as feasible for each volcanic setting.

ABSTRAC TS - POSTER PRESENTATIONS


Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter from Traffic in Early Life and Childhood Pneumonia, Bronchiolitis, and Otitis Media

Matthew Strickland, Associate Professor, School of Community Health Sciences, Division of Health Sciences

Exposure to air pollution in early life may increase susceptibility to childhood illness. We estimated associations between exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from traffic and pneumonia, bronchiolitis, and otitis media in the first two years of life. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate the association between primary PM2.5 from traffic emissions, modeled using a research line source dispersion model at 250 meter resolution, and pneumonia, bronchiolitis, and otitis media by age two among 22,517 children from the Kaiser Air Pollution and Pediatric Asthma Study (KAPPA). KAPPA is a historical birth cohort of children born between 2000 and 2010 and insured by Kaiser Permanente Georgia. Exposure to ambient PM2.5 from traffic at a child’s residence was estimated for the first year of life, or until the time of diagnosis or insurance enrollment attrition if that occurred before the first birthday. During follow-up, 2,181 children (10%) were diagnosed with pneumonia, 5,533 children (25%) were diagnosed with bronchiolitis, and 14,374 children (64%) were diagnosed with otitis media. We observed positive

associations between PM2.5 exposure in early life and bronchiolitis (hazard ratio (95% confidence interval): 1.10 (1.05, 1.14) for a change of 1 microgram per cubic meter PM2.5) and otitis media (1.07 (1.04, 1.10)) in models controlling for sex, race, maternal asthma, prenatal smoking, maternal age, maternal education, city region, and neighborhood socioeconomic status. The estimated association of PM2.5 with pneumonia was consistent with no association 1.02 (0.96, 1.09)). Results provide evidence for an association between traffic-related PM2.5 and bronchiolitis and otitis media in the first two years of life.

Petrography and Geochemistry of Peach Spring Tuff Supereruption: Implications for Eruption and Caldera Collapse

Heather Winslow, Graduate Student, Geological Sciences and Engineering, College of Science

The Western US is a tectonically active area that has undergone a dynamic range of subduction and extensional environments. This environment has led to numerous supereruptions (>450 km3) within the last ~ 30 million years. While supereruptions disperse ash hundreds to thousands of kilometers, a significant part of the volume is deposited as intracaldera fill of the eruptive center and in close proximity of the caldera as so-called outflow tuffs. A detailed reconstruction of the eruption sequence of a supereruption requires investigating all of these parts. We specifically studied Peach Spring Tuff (PST) located in the NW corner of Arizona. PST is an 18.8 Ma ignimbrite at supereruption-scale (>600 km3) that erupted from Silver Creek Caldera. It is now exposed as tectonic fragments in Silver Creek, AZ, and near Eagle Peak in the Sacramento Mountains, CA (Ferguson et al 2013). We present petrographic and geochemical information of erupted tuff blocks and their matrix within intracaldera meso- to megabreccia at Eagle Peak and from outflow units.


High Tunnels an Effective Means of Reducing Evapotranspiration and Potential Irrigation Demand

Bonnie Wood, Researcher, Geography, College of Science

High tunnel or hoop houses can offer food producers a viable method for controlling climate variables to increase crop production. Harsh storms, high winds, low temperatures, or extended periods of no precipitation can easily destroy or devalue crops. The ability to protect crops from weather conditions unsuitable for the plant, as well as the demand from consumers for fresh locally grown food year around, has fostered an increase in the use of high tunnels by food producers and private citizens. High tunnel are often used to extend growing seasons and improve crop yield and quality, but they also can increase humidity. Increased humidity inside the high tunnel as opposed to outside the high tunnel suggests that the vapor pressure deficit (VPD) inside the high tunnels is reduced when humidity is high. When VPD is high, more water evaporates and plants use more water through evapotranspiration (ET). This research looks at high tunnels to determine if they are an effective method in reducing ET and potentially irrigation demand. To this end, five meteorological (MET) stations were installed at the Desert Farming Initiative (DFI) in Reno, Nevada. Four of the MET stations were installed in four separate high tunnels and one MET station collects data outside the high tunnels for comparison. The pilot study collected weather

data for the months of October to January and the data indicated that ET was reduced substantially within high tunnels under certain conditions. While these preliminary results suggest that high tunnels may be an effective water conservation tool, additional research is needed to verify these results and determine the best operational guidelines for high tunnel crop production.


PARTICIPANT AND ATTENDEE LIST

Bridget Ayling Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology; College of Science Associate [email protected]

Helen Beeson Geological Sciences and Engineering; College of Science Graduate [email protected]

Ronald Breitmeyer Geological Sciences and Engineering; College of Science Assistant [email protected]

Isabelle Favre World Languages and Literatures; College of Liberal Arts Associate [email protected]

Adrian Harpold Natural Resourcesand Environmental Sciences; CABNR Associate [email protected]

Bernadette Longo Orvis School of Nursing; Division of Health Sciences Associate [email protected]

S. Marcela Loria-Salazar Physics; College of Science Graduate [email protected]

John Louie Nevada Seismological Lab; College of Science [email protected]

Paula Noble Geological Sciences and Engineering; College of Science [email protected]

Krishna Pagilla Civil and Environmental Engineering; College of Engineering [email protected]

Philipp Ruprecht Geological Sciences and Engineering; College of Science Assistant [email protected]

Scotty Strachan Geography; College of Science NevCAN [email protected]

Matthew Strickland School of Community Health Sciences; Associate [email protected] Division of Health Sciences

Xia Sun Physics; College of Science Graduate [email protected]

Scott Tyler Geological Sciences and Engineering; College of Science [email protected]

Heather Winslow Geological Sciences and Engineering; College of Science Graduate [email protected]

Bonnie Wood Geography; College of Science [email protected]

Yu Yang Civil and Environmental Engineering; College of Engineering Assistant [email protected]

Presenters

Peter Goin Art; College of Liberal Arts [email protected]


Attendees

Paula Adkins Geological Sciences and Engineering; College of Science [email protected]

Sesh Commuri NAASIC Technical Director [email protected] Electrical and Biomedical Engineering; College of Engineering Professor

Lyndsey Darrow School of Community Health Sciences; Associate [email protected] Division of Health Sciences

Ana de Bettencourt-Dias OVPRI [email protected] Chemistry; College of Science Professor

David Hanigan Civil and Environmental Engineering; College of Engineering Assistant [email protected]

Sunni Ivey Physics; College of Sciences Postdoctoral [email protected]

Henry Pai Geological Sciences and Engineering; College of Science Postdoctoral Researcher| [email protected] Post-Doctoral Scholar

Rose Petersky Natural Resourcesand Environmental Sciences; CABNR Graduate [email protected]

John Sagebiel Environmental Health and Safety Administrative [email protected]

Chris Sladek Geological Sciences and Engineering; College of Science Development [email protected]

Jon Weiner Natural Resourcesand Environmental Sciences; CABNR Graduate [email protected]

George Wendt School of Community Health Sciences; Administrative [email protected] Division of Health Sciences


Grant Writing WorkshopsArts, Social Sciences &

HumanitiesSeptember 16, 2016

NSF/NIHOctober 7, 2016

Brown Bag SeriesFrom Dissertation to Book

Prof. Emily Hobson, History/GRISeptember 15, 2016

The Impostor SyndromeProf. Sarah Blithe, Communication

StudiesSeptember 29, 2016

Promotion to Full ProfessorProvost Kevin Carmin

October 13, 2016

Best Practices in Effort ReportingMichele Dondanville, OSPA

October 20, 2016

What Happens in an NIH Study Section?

Profs. Christine Cremo and Tom BellOctober 27, 2016

Informal Discussion - Foreign Faculty Members at US

Institutions; Chalanges and Opportunities

Prof. Ana de Bettencourt-Dias, AVPR

November 10, 2016September 12, 2016 Campus Conference: Earth, Air, Water 15

Office for the Vice President of Research and Innovation andthe Associate Vice President for Research

www.unr.edu/vpri

campus conference earth, air, water - university of … conference earth, air, water monday,...

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