Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1974, Graduate School

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, Civil Engineering

Present day numerical models of water bodies are being called upon to make increasinglyfrequent predictions with elevated accuracy standards and requirements. Such a hydrodynamic prediction system is applied in Lake Erie and its ability to accurately model the Lake water elevations is examined in great detail during the 1999-2000 period to decide whether it complies with the currently acceptable standards set for water elevation forecasting and datum establishment purposes. The core model of the prediction system is the Princeton Coastal Ocean Model (POM) that is applied in both its 3D and 2D versions to test whether: a) the 3D calculations predict better the near shore surge amplitudes and b) the 2D calculations provide the accuracy level required by datum determination studies. The model is evaluated at the near-shore lake regions using observed data acquired from 14 land stationed water elevation gages and at the off-shore lake regions using observed data acquired from the Topex/Poseidon water level observation system. Because calculations of water elevations from altimetry data are still impeded by the need for a reliable geoid model, water elevations generated by the POM are pre-processed to provide water surface anomalies to be compared against water surface anomalies provided by the altimetric water level observation system. Upon the complete evaluation of the prediction system initial set up, the following questions are also addressed: a) what is the best method for accounting for the hydrological variations in the lake water levels; b) how does the meteorological data frequency of observation, the consistency of all the meteorological data parameters, and the meteorological station density and distribution over the lake affect the system predictive ability; and c) what is the best interpolation method for gridding the observed meteorological data. The results showed an improvement of the overall model's predictive ability and a better performance especially (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD

In 2019, The Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) was voted onto the city charter of Toledo, Ohio. The charter amendment made it possible for citizens of the city of Toledo to sue polluters on behalf of the Lake, effectively giving Lake Erie more standing in court closer to that of legal personhood. A year later, LEBOR was deemed unenforceable by Judge Jack Zouhary, who critiqued it as vague and reaching too far beyond the jurisdiction of Toledo. This dissertation starts from those two critiques, analyzing how LEBOR fell short in 1. specifically connecting to the thousands of years of landscape practices and relations Indigenous residents had developed in the time before the region was colonized and 2. understanding the Lake as a place with a dynamic set of naturecultural relations with deep ties to the watershed and landscape within the jurisdiction of Toledo. This analysis uses theories from spatial rhetoric, placemaking, naturecultural critique, Indigenous scholarship, and postcolonial studies focused on the U.S. to understand why these shortcomings occurred and how future activist composers can possibly benefit from avoiding them. At the center of the analysis is an oral history composed using only the words of the activists in order to ground the work in their more immediate context. The dissertation concludes by evaluating how my analysis of LEBOR can be applied to teaching writing in and outside of the classroom and to scientific research projects that may otherwise be falling short in their connection with the public connected to the knowledge they gather and the organisms and entities they research.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2015, History

The bicentennial of the War of 1812 has reinvigorated interest in the conflict, but there are still elements of this war which remain unplumbed. Within the locality of the Great Lakes region, using diaries, journals, and letters as my main primary sources, I explore how gender dynamics established by whites prior to the War of 1812 influenced a mindset that said women were incapable of fruitful participation in warfare. In contrast to those who argue that women's participation in the War of 1812 was extraordinary, I argue that women participated by any means that they were permitted. Although this participation occasionally flew in the face of traditional gender boundaries, many women aided in war efforts through everyday means, though they ultimately received little acknowledgment because their actions were reinterpreted through a lens of domesticity. My research shows that women were a significant part of the War of 1812, despite gendered thinking which regulated them to the role of the victim.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering

As catchments become increasingly impervious, urban stormwater pollutant loads, erosional force, and flooding increases. The practice of stormwater management is critical environmental protection that became regulated by the US federal government in the 1970s. With the need to attenuate peak flow rates and reduce the excess stormwater volumes generated from impervious catchments, stormwater control measures (SCMs) were developed such as stormwater detention basins, retention ponds, drainage ditches, and subsurface stormwater detention. Having a variety of SCMs available provides stakeholders with the ability to target specific aspects of stormwater management, including runoff quantity, runoff quality, or other ecosystem services. Regulations have evolved over time to have a greater emphasis on stormwater quality. As such, SCM design has evolved to address pollutant removal in stormwater. Green infrastructure (GI) practices, also called low impact development (LID) SCMs, have gained popularity for stormwater management since the start of the 21st century and incorporate principles of ecological engineering into stormwater management. Examples of GI include a variety of practices that use infiltration through filter media such as rain gardens, bioretention cells (BRCs), and high rate biofiltration (HRBF), permeable pavements, green roofs, and constructed stormwater wetlands (CSWs). The use of GI has benefits in addition to peak flow, volume, and pollutant reduction such as creating habitat for pollinators, cooling urban spaces, and adding attractive green space. Pollutant removal mechanisms vary between GI practices with some systems providing greater sedimentation and treatment of particulates and some providing greater treatment of dissolved pollutants through microbially-mediated transformation, plant uptake, and/or adsorption. Performance of SCMs varies based on design, site characteristics (e.g. topography, soil texture and infiltration capacity, depth to wa (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2024, Environment and Natural Resources

Millions of migratory birds are funneled through the Great Lakes Region annually and depend on the shoreline habitats for stopover and refueling. The Great Lakes Region also has a high capacity for offshore wind development. Environmental assessments of a proposed experimental six-turbine array located eight miles offshore from Cleveland, Ohio determined that the impact to migratory birds would be low citing that birds avoid crossing the lake, which contrasts previous individual bird tracking studies showing an estimated 70% of birds crossed Lake Erie after stopping over on the lakeshore. The high crossing rate of some species suggests the potential for increased risk of avian collisions with offshore structures if improperly placed. Collisions with anthropogenic structures such as buildings account for upwards of 988 million annual deaths in the United States. Comparatively, turbines account for lower levels of mortality in the U.S. (679 thousand birds), but these estimates likely underrepresent the total impact due to surveying difficulties and data restrictions for industry reports. Additionally, this number is likely to increase with expansion of wind energy in the United States making now a critical time to close knowledge gaps related to offshore wind impact and to ensure proper siting of turbines that minimizes the risk to migratory birds. Understanding lake-crossing behavior and shoreline usage of birds in the region is necessary for predicting risk. Using Lake Erie as the focus for this study, I sought to determine the prevalence of lake-crossing behavior for migratory songbirds by tracking the movement of individuals from inland stopover habitats and identifying high use areas along the shoreline. Using automated radio telemetry and the Motus Wildlife Tracking System, I deployed transmitters on 174 birds from a suite of study species including White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), Swainson's thrush (Catharus ustulatus), Tennessee Warble (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Biological Sciences

Freshwater aquatic ecosystems, including lakes and wetlands, provide habitat for abundant and diverse animal communities, which can have large impacts on nutrient (nitrogen [N] and phosphorus [P]) biogeochemistry. Animals play an important role in nutrient recycling in freshwater ecosystems but are infrequently considered in nutrient management. It is broadly known that animals provide nutrients via excretion and egestion, however, less is known about how animals indirectly influence nutrient retention and release through interacting with aquatic sediments, and how their nutrient contributions shape aquatic communities and ecosystem functions such as primary production. Waterbirds (i.e., ducks, geese, wading birds, cormorants) and benthic invertebrates (i.e., benthic dwelling oligochaete worms, insect larvae such as mayfly and chironomid taxa) are common in Great Lakes aquatic ecosystems, yet their roles in shaping nutrient budgets and loading are often overlooked. The overall focus of this dissertation was to understand how sediment-surface water nutrient dynamics and ecosystem processes are shaped by aquatic animals and different water oxygen conditions in a variety of Great Lakes freshwater aquatic ecosystems. We demonstrate that multiple animal groups can measurably shape nutrient dynamics with implications on other ecosystem functions. In the first study, we investigated multiple internal load contributions, including net ambient and bioturbator-mediated sediment-surface water nutrient exchange, in Sandusky Bay, Lake Erie. We found that invertebrate bioturbation supplied P and N and made up a significant component of net internal fluxes, and internal sources made up a significant proportion of the total P load in this shallow, freshwater embayment. In the second study, we examined how the late-summer hypoxic event in Lake Erie shapes sediment oxygen and redox-sensitive indicators to better understand how hypoxia stressors affect sediment conditions and processe (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2024, Biology

Midwestern North American lakes, including the Laurentian Great Lakes, are experiencing significant increases in water transparency due to invasive Dreissenid mussels and improved watershed management practices. Climate change loss of winter has reduced annual ice cover on the lakes. Increases in water transparency combined with the absence of ice cover in the winter may lead to an increased risk of exposure to damaging ultraviolet radiation (UV), which is known to regulate the early life stages of fish. Despite these potential increases in underwater UV, very little is known of the current day UV transparency throughout the Great Lakes, nor the UV tolerance or mechanisms of protection of the early life stages of a culturally, economically, and ecologically important subfamily of native Great Lakes fish: Coregonine (i.e., Lake Whitefish [Adikameg; Coregonus clupeaformis], Cisco [Otoonapi; C. artedi], and Bloater [C. hoyi]), nor an economically important invasive prey species of fish: Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus). This dissertation investigated 1) the spatial and temporal UV transparency patterns across the Great Lakes, 2) the ability for UV to accelerate the hatching of native Cisco eggs, 3) the UV tolerance, mechanisms of protection, and sublethal consequences of exposure to UV among two life stages, four species and multiple populations of fish and 4) the influence of UV on the vertical distribution of larval Alewife and Bloater within Lake Michigan. Although long-term offshore UV data does not exist, long-term nearshore UV data suggest shallower UV exposure correlated with increasing dissolved organic carbon concentrations. Laboratory experiments revealed that developing Cisco embryos exposed to UV have the potential to hatch 30 days earlier than embryos unexposed to UV, the egg life stage of all native coregonines tested had a higher UV tolerance than the larval life stages, and the UV tolerance among species and populations of the same species varied. Field s (open full item for complete abstract)

MS, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Geography

Snow and ice-covered roads cause numerous issues from slippery pavement to severely reduced visibility and thus can hinder transportation services and impact public safety. Car crashes are one such common occurrence during wintry conditions. While the overall relationship between traffic accidents and adverse weather conditions has been studied by many, little research has been done to quantify the association between repeated small-scale winter weather events and motor vehicle accidents. Findings that have been reported about these accident hotspots have focused more on snow overall than its source or just lake-effect snow exclusively and not in comparison to synoptic-scale systems. This study aims to address the gap in knowledge about how different types of localized winter weather affect the distribution of motor vehicle accidents over space and time, as well as to expand upon past synoptic climatological research on lake-effect snow. Analyses of crashes in Northeast Ohio by winter season weather type concur with past work on the hierarchy of crash risk by precipitation type being, in order from the highest chance of causing an accident to the lowest, experienced during freezing rain, snow, and then rain. Further results reveal how the inconsistent nature of lake-effect snow influences motor vehicle accident frequency with the largest spatiotemporal indicators of elevated relative risk during lake-effect snow occurring when crash counts are broken down by county/county region, road type, and month. In certain scenarios, lake-effect snow may be associated with up to a 20 times greater likelihood of an accident occurring than in clear conditions. These conclusions can provide important information for local and regional transportation officials to improve winter weather roadway management.

PHD, Kent State University, 2023, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Biological Sciences

This dissertation is focused on the direct and indirect effects of micronutrients (Fe, Mo, Mn, Ni, Zn) in combination with macronutrients on algal community composition, growth, toxin production and alkaline phosphatase activity in lakes and streams. To assess the effect of nutrients on phytoplankton and biofilm community functions, a series of macro- and micronutrient enrichment experiments have been used both in situ and within bottle incubations. Quantification of enzyme activity, community composition and metabolic processes alongside growth permits assessment of what processes are limited or driven by these nutrients. By determining the magnitude of effect macro- and micronutrient enrichment has on various aquatic primary producer community processes, this work helps to fill the micronutrient knowledge gap in aquatic ecology and expand our understanding of the underlying physiological mechanisms controlling community and ecosystem level responses.

MS, Kent State University, 2023, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Earth Sciences

Increased blooms of cyanobacteria have been plaguing Lake Erie in recent decades, having profound negative impacts on the regional environment. These blooms deliver organic carbon to the lakebed, which can drive the consumption of oxygen and other oxidants through respiration within sediments. Emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from Lake Erie have been studied but have yet to be directly linked to eutrophication and sedimentary production in the Great Lakes. The hypothesis of this study is that cyanobacterial blooms in Lake Erie are contributing to an increase in methane fluxes from the lake to the atmosphere due to the process of sedimentary methanogenesis. Sediment and pore water data were analyzed from samples collected from two sites in the western basin during the 2021 and 2022 summer months. Findings suggest that methanogenesis is taking place at relatively shallow depths below the lakebed (within 10 centimeters of the sediment water interface). Thus, there is potential for substantial methane release to the water column. The shallow depth of methanogenesis also suggests that oxidants are being rapidly consumed within centimeters of the sediment water interface. The results of this study determined that eutrophication of Lake Erie is most likely contributing to methane production.

BA, Kent State University, 2022, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Geography

The question this paper addresses is whether or not the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) and the State of Ohio are in violation of the Great Lakes Compact for allowing unapproved water to be depleted from the Great Lakes Basin Watershed. This project used two distinct study designs: a legal analysis of the Great Lakes Compact was conducted to interpret the binational agreement as written. Additionally, secondary data analysis was used to extract, extrapolate, aggregate, analyze and then interpret data from the ODNR to investigate whether or not this accord has indeed been violated by examining the quantities of water used to drill and stimulate oil and gas wells in Ohio permitted after December of 2008 when the Compact went into effect. 450 wells were found to have been permitted in the Lake Erie Watershed between December of 2008 and December of 2021. This study has shown that the use of injection wells as a means of disposal for hydraulic fracturing wastewater originally derived from the Lake Erie Watershed is in violation of the spirit of the Great Lakes Compact. There are potentially implications for future litigation to address this violation pending further research.

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Geology

Grass carp, an invasive species moving into the Great Lakes, present deep concerns regarding environmental impact they will have on native plants and fishes. Previous studies utilized otolith microchemistry (Sr:Ca and Ba:Ca) to identify grass carp spawning locations in Lake Erie with limited success due to overlap of the Sr:Ca values under different flow conditions in Sandusky and Maumee Rivers, and uncertainty in the water:otolith Sr:Ca partition coefficient (Whitledge et al., 2021). This study aimed to test the use of strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) to differentiate Sandusky and Maumee Rivers as natal locations for these fish: strontium isotopic ratios are not as strongly affected by flow rate as elemental ratios. Isotopic strontium values were established over a range of flow rates (high flow for spawning, low flow as a control) and these isotopic ratios did not vary significantly over differing flow rates at the same locations (with one exception). Strontium isotope values vary within water samples from the Sandusky River watershed due to changes in bedrock, with a general decrease in the 87Sr/86Sr values (and K concentrations) going downstream in the main channel (and a general increase in Ca, Mg, and Sr) from transitioning shale into dolomitic carbonate bedrock. Strontium isotope values for otoliths (common carp) from impounded upland reservoirs in the region match the strontium isotope values in the water, confirming there is no isotopic fractionation between water and otoliths. Strontium isotope values from core regions of grass carp from Whitledge et al. (2021) were grouped into three apparent clusters (corresponding to Lake Erie, Maumee River, and Sandusky River), and reassigned natal origin of some fish classified by Whitledge et al. (2021). The 87Sr/86Sr values of the Sandusky River otolith cluster were, on average, below Sandusky River water 87Sr/86Sr values, suggesting these fish may have spawned in the Sandusky River, quickly moved into water with l (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science, University of Toledo, 2022, Biology (Ecology)

Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) is a large, invasive herbivore that may harm Lake Erie's ecology and economy. A large-scale, multi-agency collaboration to remove as many Grass Carp as possible from the basin has increased effort every year since 2017. However, removal has fallen short of the Lake Erie Committee's goal of 390 fish per year since its enactment. A biological indicator, such as mortality, can assess changes in population demographics and may provide a more sensitive way than total catch to determine whether control efforts are effective. I modeled mortality rates from 2014-2021 using a multilevel linear model to estimate annual mortality, relative to the overall mean, from the entire time-series of data. The data were grouped by the number of fish in each age class within each year. This analysis suggests that mortality rates increased after 2017. Positive correlations between mortality and the number of fish harvested per year suggest that removal may be driving increases in the mortality rate. This research directly addressed fishery managers needs to better understand Grass Carp population dynamics and supports the adaptive management framework identified in the Lake Erie Grass Carp Adaptive Response Strategy.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Entomology

The Asiatic garden beetle, Maladera formosae (Brenske) (syn. M. castanea [Arrow]), is an annual white grub species that was introduced to North America 100 years ago and quickly established as a pest of turfgrass, ornamentals, and vegetables in the Mid-Atlantic states. Over time, economic damage to these crops by M. formosae became merely sporadic, though its geographic range continued to expand. Now, in 2022, it is reported in at least 25 states and two Canadian provinces. Unexpectedly, in the last 15 years M. formosae emerged as a significant, early-season pest of field corn grown in sandy soils of the Great Lakes region. The beetle overwinters in the soil as a grub and in the spring second and third instars feed on seedling corn roots shortly after planting, causing stand loss that can exceed 40%. Management is difficult and many chemical products used against other annual white grub species are ineffective against M. formosae. Many questions surround the recent emergence of this near-endemic species as a corn pest nearly 100 years after its introduction, and we are hampered in its study by a lack of research techniques designed for use in field crops, and by a lack of understanding of its basic life history in the climate and habitats of this region of the country. The overall goal of this research was to investigate the ecology and management of M. formosae in corn-soybean rotated agricultural systems of the Great Lakes region. At the time M. formosae emerged as a pest in the Great Lakes region, most available literature stemmed from horticultural settings of New York and New Jersey in the 1930s. Scouting for M. formosae grubs is problematic as the grubs are subterranean and adults are nocturnal, and no standardized sampling methods have been developed for the species. To develop sampling methods for grubs in corn-soybean rotated fields, I first evaluated the compact cutter, cup cutter, and wire-mesh bait station. The cup cutter, which takes a smaller but d (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2021, Geography

On February 15th, 2019, Indiana Dunes was elevated to the designation of a U.S. National Park. Along with this designation belongs the credo of the U.S. National Park Service, to conserve such places that are deem naturally, historically, or in so many words ecologically important by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. In 2019, the water level in Lake Michigan was trending above the long term recorded average, and as a result several locations in the National Park sustained damage due to erosion and inundation. Current water levels are receding, but predictions suggest that fluctuations from low to high periods will becomes more frequent and more severe. Acknowledging that this may be a certain outcome, requires a great understanding of the shoreline morphology within the National Park, especially considering such namesake features as the shoreline dunes. This study uses LiDAR data from an era of below average to a period of elevated water level for five areas of interest within Indiana Dunes National Park, to categorize levels of change in the near shore and beach regions, as well as quantify metrics of beach width change. Resulting in several Areas of Interest containing mixed values of dune elevation loss with some gain. Importantly identifying that Mount Baldy and Central Avenue Beach have majorly experienced dune elevation loss where iv gains were not seen based on dune migration. Additional findings include the massive inundation of beach area and substantial loss of foredunes at Portage Beach and the token area of Beach width gain at Beverly Shores (East).

MS, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Earth Sciences

Glacial Lake Maumee (an early ancestor to Lake Erie) developed extensive beach ridges and bars that included an elongate arcuate bar complex at Columbus Grove, OH, that was very similar to the modern Presque Isle flying spit at Erie, PA, in terms of shape, its 10 km length, its shoreline orientation, and its angle from the coast, although it is extremely narrow, distally discontinuous, and extremely thin. The bars consist of relatively fine-grained, poorly sorted, polymodal sediment that has been extensively bioturbated and plowed, although their shapes are well preserved on the modern surface and they retain useful grain size signals regarding depositional processes and settings. Lake floor sediments are primarily very fine to medium silts with secondary clays and minor sands. Bars appear to have accreted in place, locally with lateral expansion but without significant migration or erosion. Vertical successions vary from cryptic upward shoaling and coarsening to quite heterogenous (better seen by extracting peaks rather than using basic descriptive statistics). Bars are thin (commonly <.5 - 1 m), and at least some begin with a marked shift from lake-floor silt to relatively well-developed sands, although rarely as coarse as sand peaks higher in the core. This suggests initiation by extreme waves touching bottom in relatively deep places, and thereby beginning construction of a sand pile that can benefit from progressively weaker waves as it grows upward. The arcuate shape of the bar complex is attributed to waves shoaling against an accretionary bulge in the coastline. However, until the bars start to connect and become continuous, longshore drift is not developed and lateral transport is prohibited, so bar segments grow individually from locally scavenged sand. This lake phase is thought to have been too short-lived to have permitted the bar to mature into a spit and become wide and complicated.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Wright State University, 2021, Environmental Sciences PhD

Attached algae are ubiquitous components of lake benthic habitats wherever sufficient light reaches submerged surfaces. Attached algae interact with heterotrophic bacteria and fungi to form complex biofilms (“periphyton”) that provide a nutritious food source for consumers and influence biogeochemical cycling by regulating redox potential at the sediment-water interface. Despite their ecological importance, there are limited data on the role of periphyton in the Laurentian Great Lakes. I quantified wave exposure and light availability in rocky nearshore habitats in Lake Erie and Lake Huron. Periphyton biomass and productivity in nearshore Lake Erie was very high while algal biomass and productivity in Lake Huron were uniformly low irrespective of depth. Regression modeling demonstrated that wave disturbance and light availability control periphyton biomass and productivity in nearshore areas of the Great Lakes. To better understand how attached algal diversity and abundance vary with depth and substrate, I measured the biomass and composition of sediment algae and periphyton growing on Dreissena across broad depth gradients in Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Sediment and mussel shell algal biomass were greatest around 20 m and declined with depth. Algal photosynthesis on sediments and mussels declined with depth down to approximately 40 m in both lakes. I found that sediments from both lakes were dominated by benthic diatoms and settled phytoplankton. In contrast, mussel shells harbored diverse filamentous algal assemblages. I analyzed the stable isotope signatures of Dreissena tissue and biofilms collected in Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, discovering enrichment of nitrogen isotopic signatures in both organisms with depth. DNA metabarcoding data from Lake Erie revealed that Dreissena biofilms harbor greater abundances of putative nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria than surrounding sediments, suggesting that Dreissena may be hotspots for nitrogen cycling in the Great Lak (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science, University of Toledo, 2021, Biology (Ecology)

Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella, Val.) is an invasive species in the Great Lakes region that may cause ecological damage to the lake ecosystem and harm the region's economy. Grass carp spawning was documented in the Sandusky River, Ohio, in 2015 through targeted egg sampling. Continued egg sampling in the Sandusky River suggested that grass carp spawning is related to discharge and water temperature. In this thesis, I used the egg sampling data from 2014 to 2019 to develop an empirical model to understand the likely conditions related to grass carp spawning. Using a Bayesian approach, I first established the likelihood of spawning as a function of discharge and water temperature. The results suggest that spawning is most likely to occur when discharge is above 10m^3/s and water temperatures below 25℃. Using stream-specific discharge-velocity relationships, the Sandusky River model results were extrapolated to determine the risk of grass carp spawning in eight other tributaries of Lake Erie. The Grand, Maumee, and Cuyahoga rivers in Ohio have the highest risks of spawning. The model provides a mechanism for setting research and management priorities to develop management strategies to prevent the establishment of a spawning grass carp population in Lake Erie. Furthermore, the Bayesian model can be updated with data from another river to incorporate river-specific features to identify likely spawning locations.

MS, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Earth Sciences

Lake effect precipitation occurs when cold air moves across an open body of warm water and water vapor from the lake rises through the air column, causing instability, which leads to precipitation predominantly downwind. The isotopes of hydrogen in water are less sensitive than oxygen isotopes to the kinetic fractionation that occurs during lake evaporation, resulting in a greater than normal excess of deuterium in lake effect or recycled precipitation. A water isoscape shows the spatial distribution of stable water isotopes and, in this study, I studied the isoscape of northeast Ohio to discern where lake effect precipitation affects groundwater and lake hydrology. I investigated a 10,000 km^2 area in northeastern Ohio, where mean annual precipitation ranges from 900-1100 mm and winter snowfall varies from 800 to 2500 mm. Relief in the study area is <200 m. Higher elevation areas near Lake Erie form the primary snowbelt, and the surrounding areas make up the secondary snowbelt. The study area is underlain by glacial deposits and sedimentary rocks. From 13 December 2017 to 22 December 2018, precipitation was collected at 2 locations 50 km apart. One precipitation collector was in the primary snowbelt at Holden Arboretum in Kirtland, while the other precipitation collector was in the secondary snowbelt in Kent. Lake samples were collected from 30 lakes across the study area in May, July and September 2018. Groundwater samples were collected from 47 private wells during 2 sampling events in January and July 2018. River samples were collected from 7 rivers during May, July and September 2018. Twelve groundwater and surface water locations were sampled biweekly along a transect from Kent to Kirtland. All water samples were analyzed for δ18O and δ2H with a Picarro L2130-i. Precipitation in the primary and secondary snowbelts are isotopically similar, but during the winter there is clear indication of storms reaching one area but not both. Precipitation has mark (open full item for complete abstract)