Author Archives: Laura Toran

For the Urban Critical Zone project funded by NSF, I am collaborating with the Dust Critical Zone Team.  Jeff Munroe at Middlebury College sent me some dust collectors, which I have installed around Philadelphia.  Stay tuned for results. Dust collector … Continue reading →

One task this summer and fall is to calibrate some turbidity loggers in streams to suspended sediment sampling. It means guessing when a storm is going to hit and how often to sample.  Grad student Ashleigh and I hit it … Continue reading →

The Temple team joined with University of Maryland (Mong-Han Huang, Karen Prestegaard and students) to conduct seismic surveys along Pennypack Creek.  We visited 4 sites in each of the geologic provinces.   University of Maryland, dropping off their equipment at … Continue reading →

Kyle Collins, Ashleigh Kirker, Naomi Morgan, Jon Nyquist, Gina Pope, Sarah Beganskas           Three members are leaving the hydro group this month.  Naomi Morgan, who finished her MS last month, accepted a position at the Michigan … Continue reading →

I recently accepted a position as one of three Executive Editors for the journal, Groundwater.  Working with the editor-in-chief, Leonard Konikow, we assign reviewers and make editorial decisions. My very first paper was published in Groundwater (Isotopes in Groundwater Investigations, … Continue reading →

Naomi Morgan defended her MS Thesis April 3.   Her work on DUAL ISOTOPE ANALYSIS OF DENITRIFICATION IN STORMWATER BASINS compared three stormwater basins and laboratory experiments to look for denitrification using nitrate isotopes.  She found that it occurred where anoxic … Continue reading →

Going out in the field during the winter, it is clear that I am the first human out on the stream. But the wildlife activity is clear in the snowprints.       I enjoyed opening up the brochure for … Continue reading →

Enough said: Concordia University Student Finds Out Professor Was Teaching Course Posthumously The Verge  (2/4, Chin) reports that “three weeks into his online class on art history, Concordia University sophomore Aaron Ansuini had a question about one of the recorded lectures.” … Continue reading →

We started examining historic data from the USGS/PWD stations monitored for the Urban CZ NSF project.  Comparing long term records at the Pine Rd station showed an increase in both conductivity and pH from 2010 to 2017, suggesting increased impacts … Continue reading →

A new paper on urban stream temperatures was recently accepted by Hydrological Processes, co-authored with Sarah Beganskas. We found that impervious cover did not predict max temperatures across our sites although it did predict temperature surges during storms.  However, these … Continue reading →