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www.shorelandmanagement.orgIssue # 126

A publication of the University of Minnesota ExtensionWater Resources Team

Fall 2016

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EEnnvviirroonnmmeennttaall SSttaattiissttiiccssDDaattee:: November 10LLooccaattiioonn:: Bunker Hills Activity CenterCCoonnttaacctt:: Shahram Missaghi, 952-221-1333,miss0035@umn.edu

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““SSttaattee ooff tthhee RRiivveerr”” PPrreesseennttaattiioonnDDaattee:: November 15LLooccaattiioonn:: Hastings; Schaar’s Bluff Gathering CenterFFoorr mmoorree iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn:: http://fmr.org/events/2016/11/15/state-river-presentation-hastings

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For the most current calendar items andmore details, visit ww.extension.umn.edu/environment/water/calendar/.

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Meet the Water Resources Team’s newesteducator! Megan Weber joined the team

in April to work on developing the new AquaticInvasive Species Tracker Program.

Megan is a native Minnesotan who was bornin Fergus Falls and graduated from MarshallSenior High School in Marshall, MN. Early on,she was interested in marine biology, so it wasa natural transition for her to migrate toCalifornia for college. She attended theUniversity of California – Santa Cruz and SanJose State University. After receiving her master’s degree in environmental studies, shetook a job with a water district and went towork monitoring for invasive mussels in fresh-water systems. To her surprise, she found thatshe enjoyed working in the freshwater realm,so she returned to Minnesota, where sheworked with Marrone Bio Innovations’ program to test the use of the biopesticideZequanox to control zebra mussels in lakes andinfrastructure.

Although she was enjoying that work, Meganalways felt that she would eventually work inthe public sphere, and when she saw the jobannouncement with the University ofMinnesota, she applied. She was attracted tothe opportunities to work in education andoutreach, to talk to people about invasivespecies, to work with the new MinnesotaAquatic Invasive Species Research Center, andto broaden her work beyond just invasive mussel species.

Megan is finding the development of theAquatic Invasive Species Tracker Program tobe challenging and enjoyable. The TrackerProgram is a citizen science program that willenlist volunteers to collect data that will helpresource managers and researchers determinewhich management tools work best to controlaquatic invasive species. For example, if a lakeis being treated to control Eurasian watermil-foil, volunteers from the Tracker program cancollect data and enter it into a database so thatresearchers can begin to see which treatmentoptions work best in specific situations.

Megan’s office is in the Extension RegionalOffice in Andover. If you would like to contact her, call 763-767-3874 or email mmweber@umn.edu. Welcome Megan!

Since the beginning of agriculture, farmershave prided themselves on leaving

nothing to waste.

A research project funded by AURI,Minnesota Corn Research andPromotion Council and the U.S.Department of Agriculture’s AgriculturalResearch Service (USDA-ARS) couldlead to farmers making use of agricultur-al residue in a device called a denitrifyingbioreactor, which reduces runoff ofnitrate from farm fields.

Bioreactor technology has been developing for a few decades, using woodchips as a medium. The Minnesotaresearch project tested materials evencloser to hand for the average farmer.Initial results show materials like corncobs can be even more effective thanwood chips in reducing nitrate run-off.

The problem with nitrate comes when itescapes from farm fields. Scientistsbelieve that high nitrogen levels in thesurface waters of the Mississippi RiverBasin are a major contributing factor inthe occurrence of a seasonal dead zone inthe Gulf of Mexico, which harms marinelife as well as the fishing and tourismindustries that depend on it.

Since 2011, USDA-ARS agriculturalengineer Gary Feyereisen has built anumber of prototype bioreactors to test the denitrifying potential and flowcharacteristics of barley straw, corn stoverand corn cobs, alongside the more conventional choice of wood chips.

“We found that these materials, corn cobsspecifically, performed better than woodchips,” said Feyereisen. “Ag residues offercarbon in a more labile form than woodchips, a form that’s more easily brokendown and provided to the denitrifyingmicrobes. With wood chips, the carbon istied up in lignins and longer molecularchains, which are harder to break down.

“Unfortunately, the ag residues are goingto be used up quicker. We saw that particularly with barley straw and cornstover. Even after five months they werestarting to be used up, and the rates ofdenitrification were dropping. The resultssuggest that if we could design a modularbioreactor—one that could easily beemptied of the exhausted medium andthen refilled—we could achieve the kindof nitrate reduction we are hoping for.”

Another finding of the research is thatthese agricultural residues perform betterthan wood chips in cold temperatures.

“We know that in the Upper Midwest,especially in Minnesota, much of thefarm field drainage occurs during Apriland May when the ground temperaturesare cold and the water is cold. In placessouth of here, they are not quite as cold,

and they do quite well with wood chip-filled bioreactors. We wanted to seeif there is any advantage to using theseagriculture residues under the cold tem-perature regime,” explains Feyereisen.

Feyereisen and his graduate studentassistants set up bioreactor columns in aroom that could be chilled to 35 degreesFahrenheit.

The reason temperature is a critical factorfor bioreactor performance is that thechemical mechanism for denitrificationis, as the name suggests, a biological one.Microbes establish colonies on the mediainside the bioreactor. Water containingnitrate drains from the farm field andflows through the bioreactor where themicrobes use the nitrate for respirationand convert it to gaseous nitrogen. Thisnitrogen gas is released harmlessly intothe atmosphere, which is 78 percentnitrogen.

“The good news is that agriculturalresidue works better than wood chipsunder those cold weather conditions,”says Alan Doering, senior associate scientist at AURI, who played a support-ing role in Feyereisen’s project—sourcingand preparing the ag residues so that theywould match what a farmer would use.

Feyereisen’s project now moves into afield testing phase. “We are hoping that by using a new modular design for bioreactors, they will be more user-friendly for the farmer,” explainsBecky Philipp, who serves as projectmanager for AURI. “Once the materialhas been depleted, it can be taken out andplaced back on the land. We won’t knowhow well that works until we conduct thefield trials, but we’re hopeful that thespent media will provide organic matterand additional fertility to the soil.”Experts evaluating the adverse effect of nitrate runoff have set a goal of 45 per-cent reduction in nitrate loss from farmfields, Feyereisen notes.

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From Shore to Shore, Issue 1262 Fall 2016

Reprinted with permission from Agricultural Utilization Research Institute, www.auri.org/2016/01/can-agriculture-residue-help-clean-water

Rolf Hagberg Photography/AURI

Rolf Hagberg Photography/AURI

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The University of Minnesota’sExtension Center for Youth

Development offers the 4-H AquaticRobotics program, which builds thecapacity of young people to make a difference in their community. The program gives youth in 4-H clubs,camps and adventures opportunities toapply underwater robotic technology toreal-world water issues through aninquiry-based approach. Through theprogram, youth engage with real-worldissues using remotely operated vehicle(ROV) technology, thus building theiridentity as science learners. Using theunderwater robotics program SeaPerchas a metaphorical “on ramp,”Minnesota 4-H youth currently participate in robotics clubs, citizen science teams, and water quality moni-toring efforts.

The SeaPerch program and its ROVwere developed by MIT Sea Grant andthe Society of Naval Architects and

Marine Engineers. Youth build, adapt,and then navigate the SeaPerch ROVthrough underwater challenges. Theyalso use it in local watersheds, alongwith faculty, adult volunteers, and water resource partners as mentorguides, to explore and learn about Minnesota’s waters.

SeaPerch offers a simple, interactiveplatform that allows students to learnabout myriad subjects. By designingand building their own ROV, studentslearn about engineering. By conductingwater sampling and observing habitat,they learn about biology. They learnabout physics through buoyancy andelectrical wiring, and they learn abouthistory and so much more by studyingthe evolution of ocean exploration.

In addition, they learn scientific andmathematical concepts, strengthen theirability to think like scientists, developskills using related language and tools,and gain positive attitudes about scienceand self. Through Minnesota 4-HAquatic Robotics, youth have theopportunity to become more civicallyengaged and scientifically grounded.

The University of MinnesotaExtension’s 4-H Aquatic Robotics teams have been using the ROVs foraddressing environmental issues intheir communities, like:

• Lake clean up (one team collected 100pop cans off the bottom of the lake)

• Watershed monitoring (creating part-nerships, collecting and submittingdata)

• Lake and river exploration (using theROVs to identify invasive species)

The next area that the 4-H AquaticRobotics program will tackle is invasivespecies education. The program is helping students learn early detectionand monitoring methods for designatedaquatic invasive species in selectedwaters. Then, with SeaPerch ROVs inhand, the youth will work to educatelake homeowners and citizens about the spread of invasive species such asinvasive carp and zebra mussels.

FFaacceebbooookk:: www.facebook.com/MN4HAquaticRobotics

3Fall 2016 From Shore to Shore, Issue 126

Brian McNeill, Extension Educator, Youth Development, 320-589-1711, mcnei006@umn.edu

Brian McNeill

Brian McNeill

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We are excited to announce that the FromShore to Shore newsletter is merging withthe Minnegram, which is the University ofMinnesota Water Resources Center's(WRC) quarterly newsletter of water news.The useful content you've relied on foryears will be available in this mergednewsletter along with articles focused primarily on water-related research from U of M with an emphasis on the work ofresearchers and graduate students from theWRC. The next issue of From Shore toShore (Winter 2017) will be the last. Unlessyou unsubscribe, you will start receivingthe Minnegram beginning with the Spring2017 issue. As with the From Shore toShore newsletter, you are welcome tounsubscribe at any time. Thanks for yourcontinued interest in water issues inMinnesota!

To unsubscribe from the Minnegram,please send a message to Heidi Olson-Manska at olsonh@umn.edu.

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Nominations are open for the MinnesotaClimate Adaptation Awards. The awardsrecognize and celebrate exceptional achieve-ments in leadership, education, research,

policies, and practices that improveresilience and develop, advance, or imple-ment climate adaptation strategies. Awardcategories include individual, organization,institution, and business. The awards will bepresented at the 2017 Climate AdaptationPartnership Conference on May 8, 2017 inSt. Paul, MN. See the nominationsannouncement for details. The deadline tosubmit nominations is March 1, 2017.

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The 2016 Clean Water Summit, “GreenInfrastructure for Clean Water –Rethinking Redevelopment and Retrofits,”was held September 22 at the MinnesotaLandscape Arboretum in Chaska. Thisannual event drew about 200 attendees thisyear, and hosted two keynote speakers:Howard Neukrug, former commissionerand CEO, Philadelphia Water Services(“Driving Innovation in our Cities: NewTrends for the Water Sector – GreenInfrastructure and Beyond”) and Dr. RobertTraver, Director and researcher, VillanovaUrban Stormwater Partnership and theVillanova Center for the Advancement ofSustainability in Engineering (“Discoveriesin Green Infrastructure: Uncovering the Unknown”). Many of the day’s presentations are available online atwww.arboretum.umn.edu/2016cleanwatersummit.aspx.

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From Shore to Shore, Issue 126

www.shorelandmanagement.org

Fall 2016 4

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