Author Archives: Laura Toran

I was asked to testify about the impacts of road salts on area streams for the Philadelphia City Council, who are considering alternative strategies for de-icing. Road salt has contributed to a steady increase in chloride concentrations in area streams, … Continue reading →

This month grad student Bojan Milinic and I collected urban soil cores for PNNLs 1000 Soils campaign. The researchers are trying to understand carbon cycling and soil microbiology and needed an urban site to include in their study. We collected … Continue reading →

Collaboration with the College of Engineering (COE) produced a paper in Water Research on nitrate degradation in bioretention columns.  We used nitrate isotopes to distinguish between dilution in immobile zones and actual degradation of nitrate in anaerobic storage zones, a … Continue reading →

I’m not sure if it is just dilution or dilution plus infiltration along the meander installed at Conklin Recreation center, but it is nice to see the drop in conductivity (an indicator of road salt) from the upstream (US) to … Continue reading →

I put on a paper bag to demonstrate lift for my drone class — faster flow over the top of the paper strips lifts it.  The things we do to help students learn!

PhD student Ashleigh Kirker had a lot of visitors to her poster at the AGU Fall 2021 meeting.  She presented on her surface runoff modeling with GSSHA.

  The National Science Foundation encourages engagement of young students in science   I had a beautiful fall day to take a group of high school students to Pennypack Creek to show them how stream banks are altered and learn … Continue reading →

  How do you get a snapshot of water quality along 20 miles of the Pennypack Creek? A lot of people, a lot of stream walking, and a lot of sample filtering… a hearty team of volunteers from Temple University … Continue reading →

    What used to be McKinley Branch of Jenkintown Creek became McKinley Pond. Beavers created a new habitat and made it hard to find the temperature sensor we were using to monitor the creek. Instead of 10 cm deep water, … Continue reading →

The Temple Ambler Campus was hit by an EF2 tornado (est 130 mph winds).  The tornado blew the roof off several buildings on campus and devastated an old growth forest that was part of the campus field station (see drone … Continue reading →