Annual Small Grant 2014 Recipients

This year we received twenty creative, innovative grant applications from researchers all over Illinois. In fact, the submissions were so good that we had an incredibly difficult time ranking them. We even went over our deadline for responding to applicants. Finally, after a great deal of anxiety and consultation with our review panel, the following proposals were award small grants. We look forward to sharing the findings of these projects on the blog and our website.

Hydro-meteorological responses to tropical system precipitation in Illinois

Dr. David Changnon and Alex Haberlie, M.S. student

Northern Illinois University

While Illinois precipitation is seldom controlled by tropical weather systems, these events do occur with regular, and potentially destructive, frequency. This study will examine tropical precipitation by focusing on drought, stream flow response, and latent effects on the following warm-season by supplementing climate database entries with stream flow gauge data, local rainfall, soil moisture conditions, and surface hydrology responses.

Anthropogenic litter and microplastic in urban streams: abundance, source, and fate

Dr. Timothy Hoellein and Amanda McCormick, M.S. student

Loyola University Chicago

Microplastics are an abundant and ubiquitous form of anthropogenic litter in waterways, yet no one has measured their presence in river ecosystems. Using six streams draining a variety of land use activities near Chicago, this study will examine the sources and sinks of microplastics in urban streams and the potential ecological impacts of these pollutants.

Year-round wetland microbial activity impacts on nitrogen cycling annual budgets: Is restoration impacting greenhouse gas emissions in wetlands?

Dr. Angela Kent and Natalie Stevenson, Ph.D. student

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Previous studies have indicated that denitrification in wetlands may be less efficient during the winter months and, in restored wetlands, may be incomplete, leading to releases of greenhouse gasses rather than nitrogen gas. Monitoring restored and natural wetlands through the year should help determine what occurs in the nitrogen cycle in restored wetlands and provide insight in planning wetland restoration projects.

Epikarstic groundwater ecosystems in Illinois: a sensitive but unstudied faunal element

Dr. Steven J. Taylor and Scott Cinel, M.S. student

Illinois Natural History Survey and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Illinois epikarstic habitats are found between a soil layer and limestone bedrock, and, while largely unstudied, they are an important component of protecting delicate ecosystems and endangered species. This project will expand water collection methods for epikarstic areas in Illinois, develop a baseline for further Illinois study, and “expand on the groundwater hydrology and subterranean ecology of Illinois’ karst areas.”

Finally, we would like to recognize Dr. Jerry Kavouras for submitting the sole undergraduate project application. We know running a research program at a predominately undergraduate institution is challenging, and we’re excited to partner with him to help his students get experience in water sciences. We hope there are many more undergraduate applicants in the next rounds of Annual Small Grants. 

Changing food webs in Lake Michigan: Dreissena and the microbial loop

Dr. Jerry Kavouras and Erin Cox, undergraduate student

Lewis University  

Zebra mussels have dramatically altered the Great Lakes ecosystems, and they may have altered microbial food chains. A series of laboratory assays will determine if these aquatic invasive species modify the quantity and quality of dissolved organic matter that fuels bacterial secondary production and what possible impacts these changes could have on invaded freshwater systems.

Research Highlights: The Value of Clean Water

Just how much are people willing to give for a dry basement or a healthy stream? University of Illinois economics professor Dr.Amy Ando and her Ph.D. student Catalina Londoño Cadavid sought to answer this question through their IWRC-supported study: “Measuring Public Preferences over Stormwater Outcomes in Illinois: Willingness to Pay and Willingness to Help.”

With its history of stormwater problems, Chicago seemed like the natural place for an Illinois-based researcher to ask this question. And Chicago is also home to a large low-income population, which allowed Ando and Cadavid to add an interesting twist to their research. If people don’t have the ability to pay for relief from stormwater flooding, would they volunteer time to receive some benefits of reduced flooding?

Chicago is starting to employ green infrastructure, or low impact development, as a way to address its persistent struggle with combined sewer overflows during big rainstorms. Features like rain gardens and rain barrels have joined a massive tunnel project, and their presence also means that, in Ando’s words “there are other ways [besides money] for people to contribute, because maybe rain barrels need to be checked or rain gardens need to be weeded.”    

Ando and Cadavid worked with Reed College professor Noelwah Netusil to create a survey to reach 500 Chicago-area residents for their opinions on stormwater-related flooding and environmental damage. Developed with input from Chicago-based nonprofit Center forNeighborhood Technology and Chicago’s Departmentof Water Management, the survey measured residents’ willingness to pay for stormwater improvements with money, volunteer hours, or a combination of the two. Traditionally, Ando explains, consumer choice studies like this use cost as the “lynchpin that translates choice into willingness to pay.” But by using time as a form of payment, the research team was able to push the envelope of economic methods and include the opinions of lower income residents through scenario options that would actually be available to them.  

While Ando and Cadavid originally intended to mail out a survey, when the cost became prohibitive Cadavid proposed Qualtrics. A data collection and research firm, Qualtrics enlists volunteers on survey panels, where they can then opt in or out of a survey opportunity to earn points redeemable for prizes. The survey relies on an online platform, but it also ensures a representative sample of the population is collected and provides computer access to those without. The survey was carried out during the fall and winter of 2012, and the collected respondents’ opinions were a bit unexpected.

Few survey respondents reported any personal experience with stormwater flooding. For example, only 33% of respondents recalled any flooding event in the past year, while less than 6% had experienced four or more flood events. Consequently, few respondents felt that flooding relief was something worth paying for, either with time or money. Rather, greater value was placed on improving environmental attributes like water quality and aquatic health in local streams. People also showed themselves willing to pay much more through in-kind contributions of time than through direct payments of money (if time is valued at people’s wage rates). Ando and Cadavid speculate that this could be driven in part by people gaining value from directly participating in neighborhood improvement projects.

While the final results of the study haven’t been published yet, Cadavid did depend on this study to successfully defend her Ph.D. dissertation this spring and additional findings were presented at national meetings over the summer. As for application of the research, Ando calls that outreach the “fun part” of working in a land-grant university. Not only does she plan to follow up with the original partners who helped develop the survey, but she also intends to use the data to help the U.S. EPA generate more complete estimates of the benefits of green solutions to stormwater problems.

What is a Water Center?

So what is a water center, anyway?

IWRC is part of the National Institute of Water Resources, which is made of 54 water centers in all 50 states and US territories. Water centers are typically run out of land grant universities and are usually headed by faculty at that university. The water centers were founded in 1964 by the U.S. Congress to address the growing need for water research and development in the United States. Keep in mind that this was well before the Clean Water Act and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, so this left the U.S. Geological Survey all alone to do the nation’s water research and monitoring. Consequently, the water centers were a shiny new research effort that were addressing the big problems of the day, like how to clean up water pollution (take a look at our archives to see the breadth of the projects IWRC supported in the early days).

Water centers came under the direction of USGS in the 1980s and continue to receive some federal support to maintain a federal-state partnership. We here in Illinois are run out the same office (and staff) as the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, which means we get to enjoy great collaborations on research without having to leave our office.   

What does a water center do?

The water centers are intended to increase water knowledge and help young scientists and engineers enter water-focused careers. While this varies from center to center, one thing we all do is provide a small grants program out of our base funds. IWRC has titled this program Annual Small Grants, and these grants have resulted in some very interesting projects. Additionally, all water centers provide researchers in their state access to larger grants through the National Competitive Grants program run by the USGS. While the Sequester resulted in no National Competitive Grant awards this year, IWRC has sponsored many funded projects in the past.   

So is IWRC only interested in research?

Besides research funding, IWRC performs outreach and education and liaises with national organizations on Illinois’ behalf. Every two years, we host an Illinois Water conference, which allows anyone interested in water from around the state to present research, share ideas, and make connections. We also host the Private Well Class, which helps well owners safely manage their water supplies, and SmallWaterSupply.org, which provides reliable information for small municipal and tribal water suppliers.

Some new outreach we’ve done this year include planning a drought workshop as part of a professor’s outreach requirements in his grant and some classroom visits to discuss stormwater and recycling. We’ve also sought to make this blog and our twitter feeds a constant source of information and news about Illinois’ water resources and opportunities. If you have ideas of projects we could help you with or have an item you’d like us to highlight, please contact us. We love to hear the water news in Illinois, and we really love to share it.  

Emerging Flame Retardant Contamination in Illinois Fish

Southern Illinois University professor Dr. Da Chen has studied flame retardant contamination all over the world. Thus, when he arrived in Carbondale this past August and confirmed that no such research had been done in Illinois rivers, he submitted a proposal to the Illinois Water Resources Center Annual Small Grants program to study levels of this contaminate in Illinois fish.

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are a group of chemicals added to everyday items like curtains, toasters, and car seats to reduce their flammability. They are also widely produced, and, Dr. Chen explains, most of them are not actually bound to the substances to which they’re added and so “a fraction may escape during production, use, disposal, and recycling [...] and enter the environment.” And, since some types of BFRs have shown environmental persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxic potential, BFRs have “attracted mounting environmental and human health concerns.”  

“We are living in a world surrounded by flame retardant-treated consumer products,” writes Dr. Chen, “but we know so little about the consequence of massive usage of these man-made chemicals. I am interested in understanding their sources, fate, transport, environmental behavior, wildlife and human exposure, and associated impacts.”

Dr. Chen aims to do just that by partnering with the Fish Contaminant Monitoring Program (FCMP) in Illinois, which has been collecting fish all over the state for decades. Having years of data available means that not only can the change in BFR levels over time be measured but potential sources of contamination can also be identified. Dr. Chen and his lab plan to start analyzing samples collected by the FCMP this spring. Dr. Chen says he expects to find BFRs in the fish, since flame retardants are considered a global contaminant, but anticipates that the levels of contamination will depend on locations within rivers.

Dr. Chen’s research findings will be posted to IWRC’s website in April of 2014.