Courtesy of Timothy Fegel
Located in the south fork of the Cache la Poudre River are structures of curious shapes. Made of logs cut from nearby forest stands and mostly submerged in the water, these structures serve to natural processes that once occurred on the landscape in greater frequency.
Recently, Colorado State University researchers have brought together individuals from many different fields of study to determine how attempts to slow water flow are affecting water quality in an area where large wildfires have burned through the watershed.
CSU researchers are monitoring two types of dams that serve to slow streamflow and the transportation of sediment downstream: PALs, or post-assisted log structures, replicate once common occurring tree jams in the waterway; meanwhile, BDAs, or beaver dam analogs, are human-made structures that mimic beaver dams.
CSU researchers are monitoring both types of structures that have been added to waterways and are collecting various data across multiple departments to show water quality conditions before and after these restoration sites have been established.
Aleah Hahn, a doctoral candidate in civil engineering, has used a drone to capture aerial imagery and see how adding wooden structures changes a river’s shape and path.
“Pairing these drone flights with surveying can help us quantify how much sediment is being stored in the river and where,” Hahn said.
Looking at the microbiological effects of these structures is William James, a soil and crop sciences doctoral candidate.
“We want to see phosphorous numbers go down; we want to see sediment numbers go down,” James said. “But we don’t know how that processing occurs, so I’m seeing the microbiology in the streams and in the floodplains to investigate how those transformations, where that nitrogen, where that phosphorous is going.”
James looks at the microbial data in waterways to determine if these microbes are altering or interacting with the stream chemistry. Then ecologists can look at how the presence of these microbes, or the release of new compounds, can affect life at various trophic levels within the environment.
With these structures being so new — added almost a year ago — there’s not enough data to draw long-term conclusions from yet. Research that was conducted prior shows how natural disasters like wildfires play such a large role in downstream water quality, which impacts both city residents who need drinkable water and agricultural workers who need it for crops.
Some of these individuals, despite being in different departments, acknowledged that while they’re excited to see where the research will take them in the coming years and they enjoy the work they’re doing now, there’s an understanding that positions can be competitive.
“I was really lucky to find a sweet opportunity,” James said. “I was looking at how to build connections (and) lecture networks. You know, talk to your professors about research interests.”
Reach Catherine Schadegg at science@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.