skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


  • NSF Public Access
  • Search Results
  • Anthropogenic Debris Concentrations in the Beargrass Creek Watershed, Louisville, Kentucky: Litter Amounts, Composition, and Potential Conservation Solutions
Title: Anthropogenic Debris Concentrations in the Beargrass Creek Watershed, Louisville, Kentucky: Litter Amounts, Composition, and Potential Conservation Solutions
Beargrass Creek is one of the largest watersheds in Louisville, Kentucky, draining over 60 square miles within Louisville and outpouring into the Ohio River. The creek consists of three branches – the South, Middle, and Muddy forks – each flowing through a variety of residential and commercial areas as well as a multitude of parklands. Despite this creek’s prominence in the city, little research has been done documenting the concentration of anthropogenic debris within its watershed. This study documents man-made debris accumulation at 15 sites located within the Louisville metropolitan area as a continuation of the work conducted by the University of Louisville Aqlan Lab in summer of 2022. The study assesses the debris build-up within the creek and establishes debris patterns in hopes of diminishing future buildups and improving conditions within this Louisville watershed. The amount of litter increased from June 2022 to July 2023, and litter amounts also increased during the summer of 2023. Middle Fork contained the highest total amount of debris, closely followed by South Fork. Plastic bottles, bags, and fragments made up over 70% of total litter, with glass (11%) and lumber (4%) being the second and third highest categories. The most common litter items were plastic bags, foam fragments, and food wrappers. Further analysis is still needed to investigate the magnitude, character, and sources of debris in Beargrass Creek across different seasons.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2152282
PAR ID:
10601062
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
BioOne Digital Library
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of the Kentucky Academy of Science
Volume:
85
Issue:
1
ISSN:
1098-7096
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Applied Spectroscopy)
    Monitoring plastic litter in the environment is critical to understanding the amount, sources, transport, fate, and environmental impact of this pollutant. However, few studies have monitored plastic litter on lakebeds which are potentially important environments for determining the fate and transport of plastic litter in freshwater basins. In this study, a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus was used for litter collection at the lakebed along five transects in Lake Tahoe, United States. Litter was brought to the surface and characterized by litter type. Plastic litter was subsampled, and polymer composition was determined using attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The average plastic litter from the lakebed for the five dive transects was 83 ± 49 items per kilometer. The top plastic litter categories were other plastic litter (plastic litter that did not fall in another category), followed by food containers, bottles <2 L, plastic bags, and toys. These results are in line with prior studies on submerged litter, and intervention approaches or ongoing education are needed. The six polymers most frequently detected in the subsamples were polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene/expanded polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate/polyester, polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyamide. These observations reflect global plastic production and microplastic studies from lake surface water and sediments. We found that some litter subcategories were primarily comprised of a single polymer type, therefore, in studies where the polymer type cannot be measured but litter is categorized, these results could provide an estimate of the total polymer composition for select litter categories. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Environmental Data Initiative)
    We collected this data to better understand the timing of peak benthic cyanobacterial mat occurrence (specifically taxa associated with anatoxin production, Microcoleus and Anabaena) and mat anatoxin concentrations in rivers. We sampled in northern California on the South Fork Eel, Salmon, and Russian Rivers biweekly in 2022, and the Salmon River biweekly and South Fork Eel weekly in 2023. During each sampling event, we conducted benthic cover surveys, measured in-situ water quality parameters (temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity), and collected surface water samples and targeted cyanobacteria samples. In 2022 on all rivers and in 2023 at the Salmon River, we also collected distributed non-targeted periphyton samples to characterize full-reach community compositions. All sampling was completed in 150-m reaches upstream of sensors recording continuous dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and temperature data. We analyzed surface water samples for nitrate, ammonium, soluble reactive phosphate, total dissolved carbon, and dissolved organic carbon. We also analyzed surface water samples from 2022 for major anions (Cl, SO4, Br) and cations (Na, K, Mg, Ca). Targeted-cyanobacteria and non-target periphyton samples were analyzed for anatoxins, relative abundance of algal taxa (via microscopy), ash-free dry mass, and chlorophyll-a. To estimate mean river depth within the dissolved oxygen footprint upstream of sensors, we kayaked portions of the river and collected river depth measurements. We also measured discharge at each river excluding the Salmon River (due to high discharge) and completed pebble counts at the South Fork Eel River to obtain sediment grain size distributions. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; (, NSF Arctic Data Center)
    This dataset contains measurements of river discharge, suspended sediment, and organic carbon fluxes in the Canning River, Alaska during one field campaign from 28 June to 10 July 2022 and a second field campaign from 21 July to 2 August 2023. The purpose of this dataset is to demonstrate the impact of summer convective storms on river suspended sediment and particulate organic carbon fluxes in Arctic Rivers. During the 2022 field campaign, we rafted down the Canning River starting on the upper Canning within the headwaters and ending near the mouth at the Beaufort Sea coast. During this campaign, we selected five locations along the active channel to conduct Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) surveys to measure river discharge and sample the river water for suspended sediment and particulate organic carbon, where T1 is the farthest upstream transect and T5 is the farthest downstream. During the 2023 field campaign, we collected instantaneous river discharge measurements of the Canning River in the headwaters at the Marsh Fork Bench Airstrip, at the Staines Airstrip, and on the Staines branch of the Canning River delta. We observed several thunderstorms during these field campaigns, during which the river water level and suspended load increased dramatically, prompting us to sample river suspended sediment during these events. This dataset includes ADCP measurements of river water discharge, suspended sediment concentrations, particulate and dissolved organic carbon concentrations, woody debris flux measurements, and estimates of instantaneous fluxes. 
    more » « less
  4. ; (, NSF Arctic Data Center)
    In Arctic landscapes, watershed processes are tightly linked to cold temperatures, permafrost, snow, and strong seasonality in precipitation, storage, and runoff. Thus, a rapidly changing Arctic climate will affect watershed function and result in changes to the transport of water, sediment, and nutrients to downstream aquatic and marine ecosystems. There is increasing evidence of hydrologic intensification of the Arctic terrestrial water cycle, fueling inquiry into the hydrologic responses that integrate the varying climate and landscape units. Key to understanding these complex watershed processes is long-term hydrologic monitoring in Arctic Alaska. The goal of this study is to operate and maintain hydroclimate observation stations in the Kuparuk River basin to obtain continuous datasets for the community of Arctic stakeholders. Imnavait Creek is a small (2.2 square kilometers) watershed located in the northern foothills region of Brooks Range and the headwaters of the Kuparuk River. The Kuparuk River flows north through the foothills and coastal plain of Alaska, before discharging into the Beaufort Sea. The gauging station at Imnavait Creek is approximately 3 kilometers south of the Dalton Highway, near MP (milepost) 291. Imnavait Creek parallels the Upper Kuparuk River and enters the Kuparuk River 12 kilometers north of the Water and Environmental Research Center (WERC) Upper Kuparuk gauging station. Streamflow at Imnavait Creek persists throughout the summer months, but during the winter months flow is non-existent. Streamflow in Imnavait Creek has been measured by researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) WERC from 1985 to 2023. This data package contains continuous streamflow data collected by researchers from University of Alaska Fairbanks from 2018-2023. For UAF-WERC historical discharge data for Imnavait Creek (1985-2017) see the data package at https://arcticdata.io/catalog/view/doi%3A10.18739%2FA2K649S9D. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Water Environment Research)
    Abstract Plastic litter is a globally pervasive pollutant. Storms are likely key drivers of plastic transport to oceans, but plastic transport during rising and falling limbs of storm hydrographs is rarely measured. Measurements of plastic movement throughout individual storms will improve watershed models of plastic dynamics. We used cameras to quantify macroplastic movement (i.e., particles > 5 mm) in rivers before, during, and after individual storms (N = 18) at 10 sites within three North American watersheds. Most storms showed no difference in macroplastic transport between rising and falling hydrograph limbs or evidence of hysteresis (transport rate range = 0–236 items/30 min). Total macroplastic exported during storm events was positively related to storm magnitude and was greatest at more urban sites. Thus, macroplastic transport during storms was driven by storm size and land use. The quantitative relationships between macroplastic movement and hydrology will improve discharge‐weighted calculations of macroplastic transport which can benefit modeling, monitoring, and mitigation efforts. Practitioner PointsMacroplastic particles (i.e, > 5 mm) are both retained in urban streams (e.g., in debris dams), and move downstream during baseflow and stormflow conditionsStorm flows are key periods of macroplastic transport: transport rates are higher on both rising and falling limbs of storm hydrographs relative to baseflow.The amount of macroplastics moving during storm flows is positively related to storm intensity.The predictive relationships generated between storm flow and macroplastic transport will improve estimates of annual export, and policies for macroplastic pollution reduction. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email