Author Archives: Laura Toran

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 →

Sarah Ledford, Jake Diamond, and I published an article on fine resolution monitoring of DO to understand urban stream metabolism.  Check it out in PLOS ONE. This article upsets some of the notions of nutrient impact (it is limited spatially) … Continue reading →

The Research Coordination Network for Carbonate Critical Zones published a summary of our first workshop in EOS. https:eos.org/science-updates/a-new-focus-on-the-neglected-carbonate-critical-zone