Spotlight
Summer 2007 Back to Spotlight home page
WOW! The sensation of discovery: faculty research and creativity
By Richard Sleezer
The primary focus for ESU faculty is teaching, but we also participate in significant individual and group research projects. Since joining the ESU faculty in 1998 my research has been focused on three areas: 1) Characterization of and non-point source pollution potential assessment for important aquifers in central Kansas, 2) Assessing the impacts of small artificial water bodies (i.e. ponds) on surface water and sediment budgets, 3) Attempting to help solve problems associated with the global carbon cycle, soil erosion, and the so-called ‘missing sink’ for atmospheric carbon dioxide. All of these research projects have utilized geographic information systems (GIS) technology to study spatially variable (varies by location) data.
During my dissertation research I began studying the High Plains Aquifer in central Kansas and my particular focus has been on a subset of this aquifer called the Equus Beds. The Equus Beds Aquifer is particularly important for Kansas because it provides irrigation water for farming as well as all or part of the drinking water for Wichita, Newton, McPherson, Hutchinson, and many other smaller towns in central Kansas. Although we have been studying the geologic materials that make up this critical aquifer for more than 100 years, we still struggle to adequately describe the bedrock topography at the base of the aquifer, the stratigraphy of the Quaternary deposits that make up this aquifer, and the soils that overly it. I am currently working on a project with the Kansas Geological Survey to better characterize the bedrock topography at the base of the Equus Beds Aquifer. The results of this project will allow us to more accurately calculate the volume of water contained in this important aquifer.
Since 2003 I have been involved with a number of research projects that have utilized historical air photos (1930s to present) to study environmental change through time (i.e. temporal change). We began by using these data to assess temporal changes in the number of ponds and pond characteristics in drainage basins in eastern Kansas for a NASA/EPSCoR funded project in 2003 and 2004, but the technique has proved to have many other applications and led to additional projects funded by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Each of these projects has involved scanning old air photos available in various formats and converting them to GIS data layers. These data layers can then be used to assess temporal changes in the number of ponds in a landscape, changes in forest cover, changes in stream channel patterns, changes in urban land use, delineation of abandoned hazardous waste sites, or changes in any other feature identifiable in an air photo.
In recent years I have worked with a group of researchers the core of which include Robert Buddemeier from the Kansas Geological Survey, Steve Smith from the Department of Ecology, Centro de Investigacion Cientifica y de Educacion Superior de Ensenada (CICESE), Mexico, and William Renwick from the Department of Geography, Miami University (Ohio). Collectively we have been working with each other and with other researchers across the U.S. and Europe to solve a seemingly simple problem. We know how much carbon dioxide was in the atmosphere before the industrial revolution. We know how much fossil fuel we have burned in the past 150 years or so. The problem is that we cannot accurately account for all of the carbon dioxide that we have introduced into the atmosphere. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations should actually be higher than they are. Various researchers have been looking for this so-called ‘missing sink’ for atmospheric carbon in various locations (e.g. the oceans, northern coniferous forests, etc.), but so far even after 20+ years of study we have not been successful in determining where this carbon is located. Our research group has come to the conclusion based on mass balance model analysis that a significant portion of the carbon sink can be accounted for by soil erosion and subsequent deposition in ponds, floodplains, alluvial fans, and behind terraces, and additions of carbon to soils at eroded sites.
Almost all of the research projects mentioned above have been accomplished with the help of ESU undergraduate and/or graduate students. These students have been the beneficiaries of practical experience using GIS and remote sensing techniques to help solve real-world scientific problems. They have also received financial support through various grant-funded projects. Several of these students have also been coauthors on presentations given at national and international meetings. In addition, graduate student research has grown out of these projects. Examples of publications, presentations, and theses related to these research projects are listed below.
Read one of Sleezer's published pieces on soil carbon by clicking here.
Last Updated April 17, 2008