Mississippi River Corridor Research Articles

Modeling future land cover and water quality change in Minneapolis, MN, USA to support drinking water source protection decisions

AbstractContinued alteration of the nitrogen cycle exposes receiving waters to elevated nitrogen concentrations and forces drinking water treatment services to plan for such increases in the future. We developed four 2011–2050 land cover change scenarios and modeled the impact of projected land cover change on influent water quality to support long‐term planning for the Minneapolis Water Treatment Distribution Service (MWTDS) using Soil Water and Assessment Tool. Projected land cover changes based on relatively unconstrained economic growth led to substantial increases in total nitrogen (TN) loads and modest increases in total phosphorus (TP) loads in spring. Changes in sediment, TN, and TP under two “constrained” growth scenarios were near zero or declined modestly. Longitudinal analysis suggested that the extant vegetation along the Mississippi River corridor upstream of the MWTDS may be a sediment (and phosphorus) trap. Autoregressive analysis of current (2008–2017) chemical treatment application rates (mass per water volume processed) and extant (2001–2011) land cover change revealed that statistically significant increases in chemical treatment rates were temporally congruent with urbanization and conversion of pasture to cropland. Using the current trend in chemical treatment application rates and their inferred relationship to extant land cover change as a bellwether, the unconstrained growth scenarios suggest that future land cover may present challenges to the production of potable water for MWTDS.

Rethinking our chemical legacy and reclaiming our planet

Rethinking our chemical legacy and reclaiming our planet

Pipeline Logic and Culpability: Establishing a Continuum of Harm for Sacrifice Zones

This article builds on the concept of Energy Sacrifice Zones, which has been used as a heuristic for areas negatively impacted by environmental degradation and/or pollution that harms nearby residents for broader economic gains elsewhere. Environmental justice scholars have since the 1980s identified urban “fence-line” communities as Sacrifice Zones, such as those along the industrialized Mississippi River corridor downstream of Baton Rouge, La., where public health and property values are impacted by plant emissions. More recent scholarship has identified analogous dispossession in coastal Louisiana, where indigenous and communities of color suffer environmental degradation and land loss from oil industry practices. Coastal oil and gas operations have left behind thousands of miles of pipelines, canals and subsiding oil fields that have accelerated marsh desiccation and land loss. This article argues that both inland and coastal areas of Louisiana are being sacrificed by the fossil fuel industry on a continuum of harm along pipelines from wellheads to inland plants. Oil wells, refineries, and petrochemical plants exist as nodes along a single line of production and manufactured demand for petroleum-based products, which also litter waterways and oceans. Such a continuum establishes a single Sacrifice Zone that conjoins multiple sites. Harmed communities need not be adjacent to one another to be considered logically contiguous and, therefore, subject to consideration of collective harm as long as they are linked by the material infrastructure that connects fossil fuel extraction, production and distribution. This zone of harm, once established, could be used to inform decision makers with more accurate and complex pictures of social and public health costs of industrial emissions and practices, particularly when considering proposals for plant expansions or new facilities. They may also be used to determine legal culpability in restitution claims by communities bearing the burden of the carbon economy.

Microbial mechanisms and ecosystem flux estimation for aerobic NOy emissions from deciduous forest soils

Reactive nitrogen oxides (NOy; NOy = NO + NO2 + HONO) decrease air quality and impact radiative forcing, yet the factors responsible for their emission from nonpoint sources (i.e., soils) remain poorly understood. We investigated the factors that control the production of aerobic NOy in forest soils using molecular techniques, process-based assays, and inhibitor experiments. We subsequently used these data to identify hotspots for gas emissions across forests of the eastern United States. Here, we show that nitrogen oxide soil emissions are mediated by microbial community structure (e.g., ammonium oxidizer abundances), soil chemical characteristics (pH and C:N), and nitrogen (N) transformation rates (net nitrification). We find that, while nitrification rates are controlled primarily by chemoautotrophic ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), the production of NOy is mediated in large part by chemoautotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). Variation in nitrification rates and nitrogen oxide emissions tracked variation in forest communities, as stands dominated by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) trees had greater N transformation rates and NOy fluxes than stands dominated by ectomycorrhizal (ECM) trees. Given mapped distributions of AM and ECM trees from 78,000 forest inventory plots, we estimate that broadleaf forests of the Midwest and the eastern United States as well as the Mississippi River corridor may be considered hotspots of biogenic NOy emissions. Together, our results greatly improve our understanding of NOy fluxes from forests, which should lead to improved predictions about the atmospheric consequences of tree species shifts owing to land management and climate change.

State Conservation Efforts of Seasonal Wetlands along the Mississippi River

Since a 2001 US Supreme Court decision that permanently altered the federal protection of non-navigable waters, scientists and policy-makers have struggled to determine whether state agencies are conserving wetlands and which wetlands no longer receive protection. Subsequent court cases have also made protection of non-navigable waters difficult as the regulatory definition of “navigable waters” continues to change. This study compares regulations and the administrative actions of ten states along the Mississippi River corridor to protect and conserve isolated wetlands. It uses GIS methodology to determine differences in wetland area change for a twenty-year period, and compares past and recent wetland destruction and wetland buffer zone loss using nationally established Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) categories. The results show that conservation of the wetlands and buffer zones have only been successful in places where agricultural area or urban sprawl did not statistically increase. The findings indicate that some biological functions and ecological values of federal wetlands have been conserved by a few state agencies and local governments that have clarified the regulations about small, ephemeral, and seasonal wetlands. The study highlights the need for trustworthy data for sensitive or at risk wetlands so that conservation stakeholders have robust evidence for developing appropriate mitigation policies and implementation strategies.

Vibrant Photography: Photographs, actants and political ecology

Jane Bennett’s thesis in Vibrant Matter argues that we need to find ways to acknowledge and engage with the agency of all factors that create ecologies and environments, including non-human actants. This essay argues that Richard Misrach and Kate Orff’s project Petrochemical America signals some important strategies that are useful for developing visual political ecologies and understanding non-human actants, including the non-living. Although some of the images are typical scenes of environmental devastation, human and social links are made to foster the understanding that we are looking at an image of ecology rather than nature ravaged. In addition to the titles of images, captions and overall contextualization of the project, Kate Orff’s team SCAPE produce a series of diagrams called Throughlines that situate the subject of petrochemical creation and its impact in the Mississippi River corridor. The cumulative impact of Misrach’s photographic approach, combined with the effective and systematic linking of his images to other forms of relevant information by Kate Orff, produces an understanding of environment as not only inextricably linked to human activity and habitation, but which also contains differing agencies constituting a broader ecology.

Songbird Use of Floodplain and Upland Forests along the Upper Mississippi River Corridor during Spring Migration

Abstract. The Upper Mississippi River is thought to provide important stopover habitat for migrating landbirds because of its north-south orientation and floodplain forests. The river flows through the Driftless Area of southwestern Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota where forests are plentiful, yet forests of the floodplain and Driftless Area uplands differ greatly in landscape setting, tree species composition, and topography. We compared landbird assemblages in these upland and floodplain forests over three springs, 2005–2007, using line-transect surveys at randomly selected areas in and within 16 km of the floodplain. We found more species of both transient and locally breeding migrants per survey in floodplain than in upland forest. Detections of transient neotropical migrants did not differ statistically by habitat. Detections of locally breeding neotropical and temperate-zone migrants and transient temperate-zone migrants were greater in floodplain than in upland forest. Between floodplain and up...

An Incomplete Solution: Oil and Water in Louisiana

June 2012 The Journal of American History 91 A series of major calamities in recent years has placed the national spotlight on the lower Mississippi River industrial complex—a sinuous arrangement of petrochemical plants and working-class communities set amid the sugarcane fields on the alluvial floodplain. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged offshore oil rigs and onshore refineries in 2005, caused oil releases, and increased gasoline prices, thereby exposing the region’s significant position in the energy economy. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon event showcased the environmental costs of extractive activities; and the near-record Mississippi River flood of 2011 disrupted waterborne commerce and raised the specter of levee failures. As those events displayed, this nationally prominent ensemble of industries occupies a location susceptible to a host of environmental forces and a place where industrial activities have produced dramatic consequences. Testing the environment’s capacity to absorb human impacts has been going on for decades and has left enduring traces on the Louisiana landscape. Erection of petroleum refineries in this region began in the first decade of the twentieth century, during a time of almost nonexistent environmental regulation. Yet, even in the early decades of petrochemical growth, the state, its citizens, and industry acknowledged both human safety risks and environmental threats posed by the arrival of this new enterprise. Industry took the position that self-regulation would minimize personal, property, and environmental harm. Government bodies largely consented to this approach until calamities revealed the accumulating human and environmental costs that had turned the lower Mississippi River corridor into an environmental “sacrifice zone.” That term derives from the study of traditional agricultural practices where cultivators deliberately degraded one area to increase productivity in another area, but scholars have begun using the term in explicitly accusatory ways to refer to areas degraded by modern industrial societies in the pursuit of economic and military gain. Environmental degradation in the lower Mississippi River industrial complex was not the result of a coordinated assault; rather it reflected negligent behavior by industries and government authorities. And significantly, those behaviors defied what contemporary trade literature presented as good industry practice. Sacrifice zone here refers to the result of disconnected actions that over time had An Incomplete Solution: Oil and Water in Louisiana

Woody biomass in the U.S. Cornbelt? Constraints and opportunities in the supply

The U.S. is clearly entering a new era of liquid fuel production; one that will be characterized by increasing degrees of renewable raw materials. Woody biomass is an especially compelling feedstock choice where available. Significant questions, however, exist regarding the potential of some landscapes to provide this feedstock. In an effort to answer these questions, we performed an exploratory spatial assessment of woody biomass production and supply capabilities in two-ecoregions Mississippi River corridor within the US Cornbelt. We used existing forest/timber inventories and conducted in-depth interviews with large regional sawmills to understand the accessibility of woody biomass from natural forests, availability of and general costs associated with woody biomass in the existing timber industry, and potential for production from short-rotation woody crop plantations. On an annual basis, taking into account only the annual net growth of non-sawlog species the Midwest Driftless Area currently produces 3.14 times the raw material required by a hypothetical facility using one-half million dry tons of woody biomass per year. Although allocated over a larger area, the Central Dissected Till Plain produces 3.94 times the required material. Throughout the entire region there would be an additional lower bound estimate of 107,000 dry Mg from easily transportable sawmill residues. The ecological state of US Cornbelt forests stand to gain from a developed market for woody biomass as proper woodland management to harvest trees, preserve wildlife, and reduce risk from disease, pests, and invasive species typically involves harvesting the low-value trees that will by and large drive the woody biomass system.

Expanding the US Cornbelt Biomass Portfolio: Forester Perceptions of the Potential for Woody Biomass

With the strong emergence of the bioeconomy in the US, there is growing interest in the ability of biomass production systems to meet the legislated demand for cellulosic biofuels. While corn grain will continue to comprise the primary feedstock for biofuel in the Cornbelt, it is unlikely that a single biomass feedstock will suit all the needs of an evolving bioenergy market; thus, the potential contribution of woody biomass should be considered. To meet informational needs, we conducted structured interviews with state-employed professional foresters along the Mississippi River corridor in five Corn Belt states (Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin). Foresters were queried regarding the types of woody materials available, ecological considerations, the likely silvicultural systems that might support a biomass market, and their experiences with landowner management decisions as related to removing currently low-value material. Results suggest noteworthy interest in expanded woody biomass market systems within our study area. Furthermore, substantial opportunities exist to capture trimmings, small-diameter, and low-quality material in conjunction with on-going intermediate stand treatments or sawtimber harvests that are common in the region; capturing social and economic value while potentially contributing to long-term forest health. Costs for removing this material are estimated to range between $185–494/ha ($75–200/ac) depending on site conditions and accessibility. Such a wide range in costs (and therefore break-even biomass prices) suggests that some properties throughout the study region may be priced out of the market, at least in the initial stages of market development. Markets are distinctly lacking at present, however, and our interviewees suggested that market-pull will be required to organize a well-rounded infrastructure to harvest, process, store, and transport woody materials. This and future studies will be significant because they inform the enhancement of agricultural prosperity on small-to-medium farms and contribute to regional and national energy goals in ways that ideally improve, rather than diminish, the ecosystem services provided by woodlands in rowcrop-dominated landscapes.

Environmental impact assessment of different design schemes of an industrial ecosystem

Industrial ecosystem is an important approach for sustainable development. In an industrial ecosystem, a group of industries are inter-connected through mass and energy exchanges for mutual benefits. However, some mass and energy exchange activities may cause unexpected environmental impacts. Therefore, it is vital to evaluate the environmental impacts of the symbiosis in order to provide a clear guidance for the decision-makers and stakeholders. The agro-chemical complex in the Lower Mississippi River Corridor with thirteen chemical and petrochemical industries emits huge amount of carbon dioxide. A bi-level design methodology is used to reconfigure this complex for utilizing surplus carbon dioxide. By using a superstructure-based approach, a new design scheme for this industrial ecosystem is proposed. In this paper, an LCA-type environmental impact assessment of different design schemes for this complex is conducted using the software TRACI, a tool developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). This analysis compares various environmental impacts of different designs and identifies the potential trade-offs in different environmental impact categories. This information provides deep insight about the environmental sustainability of industrial ecosystems and facilitates the development of the most eco-effective symbiosis for recycle, reuse and resource conservation.

Phylogeography and post‐glacial colonization patterns of the rainbow darter, Etheostoma caeruleum (Teleostei: Percidae)

AbstractAim To examine the effects of historical climate change and drainage isolation on the distribution of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b genetic variation within the rainbow darter, Etheostoma caeruleum (Percidae: Etheostomatinae).Location Eastern North American streams including tributaries to the Mississippi River, Great Lakes, Potomac River and Hudson Bay drainages.Methods Parsimony analyses, Bayesian analyses and haplotype networks of mitochondrial DNA sequences.Results Four major clades were recovered from sampled populations of E. caeruleum. Three of four clades are distributed in the western portion of the species’ range (primarily west of the Mississippi River). Samples from this region do not form a monophyletic group, and sequences often vary greatly between samples from adjacent stream systems (up to 7.2% divergence). A basal clade includes samples from the White River system in the Ozark Highlands. The northern Ozarks–upper Midwest clade includes samples from Missouri River tributaries and the upper Midwest (Hudson Bay, upper Mississippi River, and western Lake Michigan drainage). The eastern clade is composed of individuals from the Ohio River, Great Lakes and Potomac River. The Mississippi River corridor clade includes samples from middle and lower Mississippi River tributaries.Main conclusions The four major clades of E. caeruleum are deep allopatric lineages with well‐defined boundaries and have additional phylogeographical structure within each clade. The Ozark Highlands have the greatest levels of diversity relative to distributional area, with marked cytochrome b subdivisions between adjacent stream systems. Samples from previously glaciated areas do not have a subset of the cytochrome b diversity found in unglaciated areas, but four separate source areas are identified based on phylogenetic analyses. Dispersal into previously glaciated areas followed several known glacial outlets and, based on sequence divergence between populations, may have occurred during different glacial or interglacial stages. The disjunct distribution and cytochrome b pattern of E. caeruleum in the Mississippi River corridor clade is consistent with late Pleistocene and Recent changes in the course and characteristics of the middle and lower Mississippi River. Phylogeographical boundaries between clades of E. caeruleum correspond to independent sources of biogeographical information and provide insight into historical stream drainage relationships, post‐glacial colonization and drainage isolation patterns.

Development and integration of new processes consuming carbon dioxide in multi-plant chemical production complexes

Fourteen new energy-efficient and environmentally acceptable catalytic processes have been identified that can use excess high-purity carbon dioxide as a raw material available in a chemical production complex. The complex in the lower Mississippi River Corridor was used to show how these new plants could be integrated into this existing infrastructure using the chemical complex analysis system. Eighty-six published articles of laboratory and pilot plant experiments were reviewed that describe new methods and catalysts to use carbon dioxide for producing commercially important products. A methodology for selecting the new energy-efficient processes was developed based on process operating conditions, energy requirements, catalysts, product demand and revenue, market penetration and economic, environmental and sustainable costs. Based on the methodology for selecting new processes, 20 were identified as candidates for new energy efficient and environmentally acceptable plants. These processes were simulated using HYSYS, and a value-added economic analysis was evaluated for each process. From these, 14 of the most promising were integrated in a superstructure that included plants in the existing chemical production complex in the lower Mississippi River corridor (base case). The optimum configuration of plants was determined based on the triple bottom line that includes sales, economic, environmental and sustainable costs using the chemical complex analysis system. From 18 new processes in the superstructure, the optimum structure had seven new processes including acetic acid, graphite, formic acid, methylamines, propylene and synthesis gas production. With the additional plants in the optimal structure the triple bottom line increased from $343 million per year to $506 million per year and energy use increased from 2,150 TJ/year to 5,791 TJ/year. Multicriteria optimization has been used with Monte Carlo simulation to determine the sensitivity of prices, costs, and sustainability credits/cost to the optimal structure of a chemical production complex. In essence, for each Pareto optimal solution, there is a cumulative probability distribution function that is the probability as a function of the triple bottom line. This information provides a quantitative assessment of the optimum profit versus sustainable credits/cost, and the risk (probability) that the triple bottom line will meet expectations. The capabilities of the chemical complex analysis system have been demonstrated, and this methodology could be applied to other chemical complexes in the world for reduced emissions and energy savings. The system was developed by industry–university collaboration, and the program with users manual and tutorial can be downloaded at no cost from the LSU Mineral Processing Research Institute’s website http://www.mpri.lsu.edu.

Enhancing Agriculture?s Potential to Sequester Carbon: A Framework to Estimate Incentive Levels for Reduced Tillage

The objectives of this study are to develop and test a framework to estimate the cost of enhancing agriculture’s potential as a carbon sink through the implementation of reduced tillage productive systems. A major factor inhibiting the adoption of reduced tillage practices is the additional risk perceived by farmers and its effect on net revenues. The expected utility model provides a useful means for evaluating risk–return tradeoffs of agricultural production systems. Incentive levels required to induce implementation of reduced tillage practices are calculated using estimated certainty equivalents. The framework developed is applied to eight case studies across the United States. Results indicate that in the Corn Belt, the required incentive payment for corn/soybeans would have to be $10.20 and $8.30 per acre for poorly drained and well-drained soils, respectively. Continuous corn incentive payments for poorly drained soils were found to be $40.40 and $26.70 for well-drained soils. In the central Great Plains, an incentive level of $14.60 per acre was required for continuous sorghum. Although the mean yields for conventional and reduced tillage practices are fairly close in this case, the higher costs associated with no-till sorghum result in the high incentive level. In the wheat/fallow and wheat/sorghum/fallow rotations of the western Great Plains, the yields associated with no-till were higher than intensive till. Thus, incentive levels near $6.00 per acre are the result of higher costs of no-till in these rotations. In the Mississippi River Corridor region, results show that the switch from corn/soybean to the same no-till rotation would require an incentive level of $7.90 per acre.

A prototype system for economic, environmental and sustainable optimization of a chemical complex

A prototype of a chemical complex analysis system has been developed and used to demonstrate optimization of a chemical complex. The system incorporates economic, environmental and sustainable costs, and solves a MINLP for the best configuration of plants. It was applied to expanding production of sulfuric and phosphoric acid capacities and to evaluating heat recovery options at a major chemical company, and the results were compared to the company's case study. The system selected the better of two sites for required new phosphoric and sulfuric acids production capacities and selected, sited, and sized the optional heat-recovery and power-generation facilities. System capability was demonstrated by duplicating and expanding the industrial case study. A second application of the prototype was based on an agricultural chemical complex with ten multiple plant production units as found in the Baton Rouge–New Orleans, Mississippi river corridor. The optimal configuration of units was determined based on economic, environmental and sustainable costs. A comparison of the current configuration with the optimal one was made, and sensitivity to cost and prices was analyzed. The profit increased about 7.8% from the base case to the optimal solution. Also, environmental cost declined about 17%, and sustainability costs increased about 1.5%. These results illustrated the capability of the system to select an optimum configuration of plants in an agricultural chemical complex and to incorporate economic, environmental and sustainable costs. A brief sensitivity study gave predictable results and demonstrated additional capabilities of the system.

MODEL ESTIMATES OF REGIONAL NITRIC OXIDE EMISSIONS FROM SOILS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

Efforts to reduce tropospheric ozone (O3) pollution in the southeastern United States by reducing emissions of volatile organic compounds have had only modest success, and attention is now being drawn to sources of nitrogen oxide (NOx), which is the other major precursor of photochemical production of O3. Emissions of nitric oxide (NO) from the soils of this region are poorly known. In this study, we adapt the CASA model of terrestrial-ecosystem productivity and trace-gas emissions to make spatially gridded, monthly estimates of NO emissions from soils for a nine-state region of the southeastern United States. Gridded input data layers to the model include temperature, precipitation, solar surface radiation, soil texture, land cover, fertilizer sales by county, and normalized-difference vegetation index. Total N gas emissions are modeled as proportional to the rates of gross N mineralization and fertilizer N input. The relative proportional emissions of NO, N2O, and N2 are determined by soil water content. The model estimates 126 × 109 g NO-N/yr emitted from soils for the entire nine-state area. Agricultural soils emit two-thirds of the total but cover only ∼17% of the land area. Highest NO emissions occur along the cultivated Mississippi River corridor, southern Alabama–Georgia, and the Carolina coastal plain. Simulated emissions fall within the range of commonly reported values for temperate forests and cultivated fields, and the regional estimates are probably accurate within a factor of 2. Compared to NOx emissions from industrial, transportation, and utility sectors, soil emissions are ∼10% of total regional emissions. However, the soil source could be a significant fraction of local NOx in rural agricultural areas, where emissions from fertilized fields usually range from 300 to 900 mg NO-N·m−2·yr−1. Fertilizer management could be an effective O3-abatement strategy in some rural agricultural areas, although this possibility and general uncertainties in the soil source of NO should not be grounds to delay other O3-abatement strategies for the much larger, nonsoil NOx sources in the region.