Dr. Shope has been with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality since 2016. His primary roles include evaluating biogeochemical metal transformations in the San Juan River watershed and using scripting languages to automate the biennial Integrated Report to the EPA. He has also been active in regional salinity loading , using dissolved gasses and environmental tracers for groundwater transport and residence time estimation, quantifying flow and transport, and development of watershed-scale rainfall-runoff models throughout the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB). Dr. Shope has continued to assess recession characteristics, baseflow contributions, hydrologic partitioning, meteorological observation density and distribution, and to better characterize the uncertainty associated with different methods. While at the USGS, he was part of the Mapping and Modeling team of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program. His work focused on using a multi-model approach to simulate groundwater flow and transport and to characterize redox behavior and lag times through age dating distributions. Prior to the USGS, Chris was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the TERRECO group at the University of Bayreuth in Bavaria Germany. This research focused on interdisciplinary watershed modeling along the DMZ in South Korea. Phone: (+01) 801-908-5025 Address: Christopher L. Shope
Hydrologist/NAWQA Flowpath Modeler
US Geological Survey
2329 Orton Circle
Salt Lake City, UT 84119. USA
Intensive agricultural practices implemented to secure increased crop yields have potentially neg... more Intensive agricultural practices implemented to secure increased crop yields have potentially negative environmental effects due to the generation of sediment and nutrients from agricultural fields. The monsoon climate and current agricultural practices on mountainous landscapes of the Haean catchment in South Korea have significantly affected water quality by transporting sediment and nutrients to downstream water bodies. The aim of this study is to suggest strategies for a permanent reduction of sediment and nitrate from this catchment through an efficient application of best management practices (BMPs). We applied three BMPs; split fertilizer application (SF), winter cover crop cultivation (CC), and a combination of the two (SFCC) to major dryland crops (cabbage, potato, radish and soybean) in order to investigate their effectiveness at the catchment scale through the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. We found that the SF scenario reduced nitrate pollution while sediment and crop yield did not change relative to the baseline (BL) scenario. The application of the CC scenario reduces both sediment and nitrate load while crop yields increased. The combination of split fertilization and cover cropping (SFCC) showed the highest positive effect on reducing sediment and nitrate and increasing crop yields compared to a single application. We estimated the variability in the effectiveness of BMPs for major crop types and could demonstrate that specific sites and crop types, such as soybean, were less influential in reducing sediment and nitrate loads. Those sites and crops could be considered for additional BMP measures to mitigate water deterioration by target pollutants. Recommendations for BMP applications should also consider minor crops and other land use types in order to reduce overall water pollution and efficiently improve crop yields in this catchment.
Characterization of precipitation is critical in quantifying distributed catchment-wide discharge... more Characterization of precipitation is critical in quantifying distributed catchment-wide discharge. The gauge network is a key driver in hydrologic modeling to characterize discharge. The accuracy of precipitation is dependent on the location of stations, the density of the network, and the interpolation scheme. Our study examines 16 weather stations in a 64 km2catchment. We develop a weighted, distributed approach for gap-filling the observed meteorological dataset. We analyze five interpolation methods (Thiessen, IDW, nearest neighbor, spline, and ordinary Kriging) at five gauge densities. We utilize precipitation in a SWAT model to estimate discharge in lumped parameter simulations and in a distributed approach at the multiple densities (1, 16, 50, 142, and 300 stations). Gauge density has a substantial impact on distributed discharge and the optimal gauge density is between 50 and 142 stations. Our results also indicate that the IDW interpolation scheme was optimum, although the ...
Abstract Military shooting range soils contaminated by heavy metals have been subjected to remedi... more Abstract Military shooting range soils contaminated by heavy metals have been subjected to remediation efforts to alleviate the detrimental effects of exposure on humans and the surrounding environment. Waste materials can be used as cost-effective soil amendments ...
ABSTRACT Sustainability challenges are transforming science and its role in society. Achieving su... more ABSTRACT Sustainability challenges are transforming science and its role in society. Achieving sustainable use of resources that best supports human well-being requires wise planning of land use and management practices at landscape to regional scales. At regional scale, supportive services from natural resource use are of two types: locally derived via ecosystem production processes (cf. agriculture and forest products, etc.) and integratively derived via regional landscape response (cf. water supply). Research in the International Biological Program (IBP) demonstrated that modification in local ecosystem services (accompanying altered land use, due to agricultural intensification, or due to climate change) are associated with changes in land-surface to atmosphere gas exchange (water, carbon and trace gas emissions), in nutrient cycles and turnover, in the seasonal course of soil resource stores, in resource use efficiencies, and in the export of nutrients and carbon into river systems. Researchers at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in North Carolina summarized integrative changes in services that accompany land use and climate change, stating that "the quantity, timing, and quality of streamflow provide an integrated measure of the success or failure of land management practices." The international consortium project TERRECO (Complex Terrain and Ecological Heterogeneity; www.bayceer.uni-bayreuth.de/terreco) focuses on linking (1) spatial patterns in local ecosystem performance in complex terrain of the Soyang Lake Watershed, the largest reservoir system in South Korea, with (2) integrated ecosystem services derived from Soyang Lake, and with (3) economic evaluations of the services supplied. Field-based meteorology, plant production, soil physics, solute and sediment transport, hydrology, social behavior, and economic assessments are used to parameterize a suite of models that describe landscape and regional level flow networks for carbon, water, and nutrients, but in addition monetary flows associated with gains and losses in ecosystem services. The description is embedded within a framework which examines the trade-offs between agricultural intensification versus yield of high quality water to reservoirs for drinking water supply. The models also quantify hypothetical changes in flow networks that would occur in the context of climate, land use and social change scenarios. The research is viewed as a critical step in shaping the context for interactions between environmental scientists and resource managers. A project partnership is currently being built with agencies that have the mission to carry out land use planning and to advise in policy making. A common interest is found among TERRECO project participants and agency planners in evaluating scenarios to quantify the effects of land use decisions possibly made in compliance with stakeholder demands.
ABSTRACT An important prerequisite to better understand the transport of nutrients and contaminan... more ABSTRACT An important prerequisite to better understand the transport of nutrients and contaminants across the river-aquifer interface and possible implications for biogeochemical transformations is to accurately characterize and asses the exchange fluxes. In this study we investigate how monsoonal precipitation events and the resulting variability in river discharge affect the dynamics of river-aquifer exchange and the corresponding flux rates. We evaluate potential impacts of the investigated exchange fluxes on local water quality. Hydraulic gradients along a piezometer transect were monitored at a river reach in a small catchment in South Korea, where the hydrologic dynamics are driven by the East-Asian Monsoon. We used heat as a tracer to constrain river-aquifer exchange fluxes in a two-dimensional flow and heat transport model implemented in the numerical code HydroGeoSphere, which was calibrated to the measured temperature and total head data. To elucidate potential effects of river-aquifer exchange dynamics on biogeochemical transformations at the river-aquifer interface, river water and groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for dissolved organic carbon (DOC), nitrate (NO3) and dissolved oxygen saturation (DOsat). Our results illustrate highly variable hydrologic conditions during the monsoon season characterized by temporal and spatial variability in river-aquifer exchange fluxes with frequent flow reversals (changes between gaining and losing conditions). Intense monsoonal precipitation events and the associated rapid changes in river stage are the dominant driver for the observed riverbed flow reversals. The chemical data suggest that the flow reversals, when river water high in DOC is pushed into the nitrate-rich groundwater below the stream and subsequently returns to the stream may facilitate and enhance the natural attenuation of nitrate in the shallow groundwater.
ABSTRACT The linkage between hydrologic dynamics and the delivery of nitrate and DOC (dissolved o... more ABSTRACT The linkage between hydrologic dynamics and the delivery of nitrate and DOC (dissolved organic carbon) to streams was studied in the Haean catchment, a mixed land-use mountainous catchment in South Korea. Three monsoonal precipitation events were analyzed, which varied in total rainfall amount (39–70 mm) and intensities (mean: 1.6–5.6 mm h−1), by high-resolution (2–4 h interval) stream water-quality sampling along the topographic elevation gradient of the catchment, from an upland deciduous forest stream, over areas intensively used for agriculture (dryland farming and rice paddies) down to the catchment outlet. The dynamics of river-aquifer exchange were investigated at two piezometer transects at mid and lower elevations. DOC and nitrate sources and their transport pathways to the receiving surface waters differed between the forested and the agricultural stream site. In the forest stream, elevated DOC concentrations (max: 3.5 mgC l−1) during precipitation events were due to hydrologic flushing of soluble organic matter in upper soil horizons, with a strong dependency on pre-storm wetness conditions. Nitrate contributions to the forested stream occurred along shallow subsurface transport pathways. At the agricultural sites stream DOC concentrations were considerably higher (max: 23.5 mgC l−1) supplied from adjacent rice paddies. The highest in-stream nitrate concentrations (max: 4.1 mgN l−1) occurred at river reaches located in the lower agricultural part of the catchment, affected by groundwater inputs. Groundwater nitrate concentrations were high (max: 7.4 mgN l−1) owing to chemical fertilizer leaching from dryland fields forced by monsoonal rainfalls. Overall, this study demonstrates that the hydrologic dynamics resulting from the monsoonal climate drive the in-stream DOC dynamics in the forested 1st-order catchment whereas sources and mobilization of DOC in downstream agricultural areas are mainly controlled by the prevailing land-use type and irrigation management. Nitrate dynamics in higher order agricultural streams and their connected aquifers reflect combined effects of land-use type and monsoonal hydrology.
ABSTRACT Although soil erosion and leaching can transfer a substantial portion of the annual terr... more ABSTRACT Although soil erosion and leaching can transfer a substantial portion of the annual terrestrial carbon (C) increment to aquatic systems, little is known about rapid changes in the amount and characteristics of soil organic C exported from mountainous watersheds during storm events. To trace short-term changes in sources and characteristics of soil organic C exported during storm events, we investigated storm-induced changes in concentrations of particulate and dissolved organic C (POC and DOC) and the stable isotope composition of suspended sediment (SS) in a mountainous, mixed land-use watershed in north-ern South Korea. Biweekly stream sampling in a headwater forest stream and a watershed outlet receiv-ing agricultural runoff showed that concentrations of SS and POC were higher in the watershed outlet. In both the forest stream and outlet, POC concentrations were lower than DOC concentrations during base-flow, but increased rapidly with rising discharge during intense storms, resulting in higher peak POC con-centrations than peak DOC concentrations. When d 13 C and d 15 N were compared between SS and potential source soils during three storm events, SS d 13 C and d 15 N in the forest stream were similar to forest floor d 13 C and d 15 N. SS d 13 C and d 15 N in the watershed outlet reflected the contribution from forest and crop-land mineral soils during peak flow, with sand-size SS displaying increasing d 13 C and d 15 N with rising rainfall intensity. The results suggest that storm pulses of POC can be a transient, but dominant pathway of hydrologic C export overwhelming DOC export and that POC sources and characteristics can rapidly change corresponding to varying rainfall intensity. Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Intensive agricultural practices implemented to secure increased crop yields have potentially neg... more Intensive agricultural practices implemented to secure increased crop yields have potentially negative environmental effects due to the generation of sediment and nutrients from agricultural fields. The monsoon climate and current agricultural practices on mountainous landscapes of the Haean catchment in South Korea have significantly affected water quality by transporting sediment and nutrients to downstream water bodies. The aim of this study is to suggest strategies for a permanent reduction of sediment and nitrate from this catchment through an efficient application of best management practices (BMPs). We applied three BMPs; split fertilizer application (SF), winter cover crop cultivation (CC), and a combination of the two (SFCC) to major dryland crops (cabbage, potato, radish and soybean) in order to investigate their effectiveness at the catchment scale through the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. We found that the SF scenario reduced nitrate pollution while sediment and crop yield did not change relative to the baseline (BL) scenario. The application of the CC scenario reduces both sediment and nitrate load while crop yields increased. The combination of split fertilization and cover cropping (SFCC) showed the highest positive effect on reducing sediment and nitrate and increasing crop yields compared to a single application. We estimated the variability in the effectiveness of BMPs for major crop types and could demonstrate that specific sites and crop types, such as soybean, were less influential in reducing sediment and nitrate loads. Those sites and crops could be considered for additional BMP measures to mitigate water deterioration by target pollutants. Recommendations for BMP applications should also consider minor crops and other land use types in order to reduce overall water pollution and efficiently improve crop yields in this catchment.
Characterization of precipitation is critical in quantifying distributed catchment-wide discharge... more Characterization of precipitation is critical in quantifying distributed catchment-wide discharge. The gauge network is a key driver in hydrologic modeling to characterize discharge. The accuracy of precipitation is dependent on the location of stations, the density of the network, and the interpolation scheme. Our study examines 16 weather stations in a 64 km2catchment. We develop a weighted, distributed approach for gap-filling the observed meteorological dataset. We analyze five interpolation methods (Thiessen, IDW, nearest neighbor, spline, and ordinary Kriging) at five gauge densities. We utilize precipitation in a SWAT model to estimate discharge in lumped parameter simulations and in a distributed approach at the multiple densities (1, 16, 50, 142, and 300 stations). Gauge density has a substantial impact on distributed discharge and the optimal gauge density is between 50 and 142 stations. Our results also indicate that the IDW interpolation scheme was optimum, although the ...
Abstract Military shooting range soils contaminated by heavy metals have been subjected to remedi... more Abstract Military shooting range soils contaminated by heavy metals have been subjected to remediation efforts to alleviate the detrimental effects of exposure on humans and the surrounding environment. Waste materials can be used as cost-effective soil amendments ...
ABSTRACT Sustainability challenges are transforming science and its role in society. Achieving su... more ABSTRACT Sustainability challenges are transforming science and its role in society. Achieving sustainable use of resources that best supports human well-being requires wise planning of land use and management practices at landscape to regional scales. At regional scale, supportive services from natural resource use are of two types: locally derived via ecosystem production processes (cf. agriculture and forest products, etc.) and integratively derived via regional landscape response (cf. water supply). Research in the International Biological Program (IBP) demonstrated that modification in local ecosystem services (accompanying altered land use, due to agricultural intensification, or due to climate change) are associated with changes in land-surface to atmosphere gas exchange (water, carbon and trace gas emissions), in nutrient cycles and turnover, in the seasonal course of soil resource stores, in resource use efficiencies, and in the export of nutrients and carbon into river systems. Researchers at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in North Carolina summarized integrative changes in services that accompany land use and climate change, stating that "the quantity, timing, and quality of streamflow provide an integrated measure of the success or failure of land management practices." The international consortium project TERRECO (Complex Terrain and Ecological Heterogeneity; www.bayceer.uni-bayreuth.de/terreco) focuses on linking (1) spatial patterns in local ecosystem performance in complex terrain of the Soyang Lake Watershed, the largest reservoir system in South Korea, with (2) integrated ecosystem services derived from Soyang Lake, and with (3) economic evaluations of the services supplied. Field-based meteorology, plant production, soil physics, solute and sediment transport, hydrology, social behavior, and economic assessments are used to parameterize a suite of models that describe landscape and regional level flow networks for carbon, water, and nutrients, but in addition monetary flows associated with gains and losses in ecosystem services. The description is embedded within a framework which examines the trade-offs between agricultural intensification versus yield of high quality water to reservoirs for drinking water supply. The models also quantify hypothetical changes in flow networks that would occur in the context of climate, land use and social change scenarios. The research is viewed as a critical step in shaping the context for interactions between environmental scientists and resource managers. A project partnership is currently being built with agencies that have the mission to carry out land use planning and to advise in policy making. A common interest is found among TERRECO project participants and agency planners in evaluating scenarios to quantify the effects of land use decisions possibly made in compliance with stakeholder demands.
ABSTRACT An important prerequisite to better understand the transport of nutrients and contaminan... more ABSTRACT An important prerequisite to better understand the transport of nutrients and contaminants across the river-aquifer interface and possible implications for biogeochemical transformations is to accurately characterize and asses the exchange fluxes. In this study we investigate how monsoonal precipitation events and the resulting variability in river discharge affect the dynamics of river-aquifer exchange and the corresponding flux rates. We evaluate potential impacts of the investigated exchange fluxes on local water quality. Hydraulic gradients along a piezometer transect were monitored at a river reach in a small catchment in South Korea, where the hydrologic dynamics are driven by the East-Asian Monsoon. We used heat as a tracer to constrain river-aquifer exchange fluxes in a two-dimensional flow and heat transport model implemented in the numerical code HydroGeoSphere, which was calibrated to the measured temperature and total head data. To elucidate potential effects of river-aquifer exchange dynamics on biogeochemical transformations at the river-aquifer interface, river water and groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for dissolved organic carbon (DOC), nitrate (NO3) and dissolved oxygen saturation (DOsat). Our results illustrate highly variable hydrologic conditions during the monsoon season characterized by temporal and spatial variability in river-aquifer exchange fluxes with frequent flow reversals (changes between gaining and losing conditions). Intense monsoonal precipitation events and the associated rapid changes in river stage are the dominant driver for the observed riverbed flow reversals. The chemical data suggest that the flow reversals, when river water high in DOC is pushed into the nitrate-rich groundwater below the stream and subsequently returns to the stream may facilitate and enhance the natural attenuation of nitrate in the shallow groundwater.
ABSTRACT The linkage between hydrologic dynamics and the delivery of nitrate and DOC (dissolved o... more ABSTRACT The linkage between hydrologic dynamics and the delivery of nitrate and DOC (dissolved organic carbon) to streams was studied in the Haean catchment, a mixed land-use mountainous catchment in South Korea. Three monsoonal precipitation events were analyzed, which varied in total rainfall amount (39–70 mm) and intensities (mean: 1.6–5.6 mm h−1), by high-resolution (2–4 h interval) stream water-quality sampling along the topographic elevation gradient of the catchment, from an upland deciduous forest stream, over areas intensively used for agriculture (dryland farming and rice paddies) down to the catchment outlet. The dynamics of river-aquifer exchange were investigated at two piezometer transects at mid and lower elevations. DOC and nitrate sources and their transport pathways to the receiving surface waters differed between the forested and the agricultural stream site. In the forest stream, elevated DOC concentrations (max: 3.5 mgC l−1) during precipitation events were due to hydrologic flushing of soluble organic matter in upper soil horizons, with a strong dependency on pre-storm wetness conditions. Nitrate contributions to the forested stream occurred along shallow subsurface transport pathways. At the agricultural sites stream DOC concentrations were considerably higher (max: 23.5 mgC l−1) supplied from adjacent rice paddies. The highest in-stream nitrate concentrations (max: 4.1 mgN l−1) occurred at river reaches located in the lower agricultural part of the catchment, affected by groundwater inputs. Groundwater nitrate concentrations were high (max: 7.4 mgN l−1) owing to chemical fertilizer leaching from dryland fields forced by monsoonal rainfalls. Overall, this study demonstrates that the hydrologic dynamics resulting from the monsoonal climate drive the in-stream DOC dynamics in the forested 1st-order catchment whereas sources and mobilization of DOC in downstream agricultural areas are mainly controlled by the prevailing land-use type and irrigation management. Nitrate dynamics in higher order agricultural streams and their connected aquifers reflect combined effects of land-use type and monsoonal hydrology.
ABSTRACT Although soil erosion and leaching can transfer a substantial portion of the annual terr... more ABSTRACT Although soil erosion and leaching can transfer a substantial portion of the annual terrestrial carbon (C) increment to aquatic systems, little is known about rapid changes in the amount and characteristics of soil organic C exported from mountainous watersheds during storm events. To trace short-term changes in sources and characteristics of soil organic C exported during storm events, we investigated storm-induced changes in concentrations of particulate and dissolved organic C (POC and DOC) and the stable isotope composition of suspended sediment (SS) in a mountainous, mixed land-use watershed in north-ern South Korea. Biweekly stream sampling in a headwater forest stream and a watershed outlet receiv-ing agricultural runoff showed that concentrations of SS and POC were higher in the watershed outlet. In both the forest stream and outlet, POC concentrations were lower than DOC concentrations during base-flow, but increased rapidly with rising discharge during intense storms, resulting in higher peak POC con-centrations than peak DOC concentrations. When d 13 C and d 15 N were compared between SS and potential source soils during three storm events, SS d 13 C and d 15 N in the forest stream were similar to forest floor d 13 C and d 15 N. SS d 13 C and d 15 N in the watershed outlet reflected the contribution from forest and crop-land mineral soils during peak flow, with sand-size SS displaying increasing d 13 C and d 15 N with rising rainfall intensity. The results suggest that storm pulses of POC can be a transient, but dominant pathway of hydrologic C export overwhelming DOC export and that POC sources and characteristics can rapidly change corresponding to varying rainfall intensity. Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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