Blog

  • screenshot of journal title and abstract
    September 27, 2023
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    Content Author
    Dr. Pete Moore

    The Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) has just published an OpenAccess paper by former M.S. student Forrest Williams (M.S. Environmental Science, 2019) and other AGL members and collaborators. The article, entitled Sediment and phosphorus contributions from eroding banks in a large intensively managed watershed in western Iowa, United States, outlines the implementation of the AGL-developed tool AIMM in quantifying net erosion associated with channel migration in the river network of the Nishnabotna River.

  • August 28, 2023
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    Content Author
    Dr. Pete Moore

    Long time AGL member and undergraduate research assistant extraordinaire Lilly Welsh (B.S., 2023) presented her Honors project poster at the Honors poster session, 5/3/23. Lilly's project, which began as a collaboration with 2022 AGL graduate Elle Schleisman, used cores from a dozen trees at the Whiterock Conservancy (Coon Rapids, IA) and Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge (Prairie City, IA) to explore the sensitivity of black walnut trees (Juglans nigra) to water availability in both upland and floodplain forests. 

    See Lilly's poster here for more details. Congrats to Lilly on a well-done project!

  • December 20, 2022
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    Content Author
    Dr. Pete Moore

    Jade Allen is the newest AGL graduate, having successfully defended her M.S. thesis on December 19, 2022. Jade's thesis, entitled Streambank Erosion Over Time and Space, includes two components. The first is a synthesis of 10 years of erosion pin data from Onion Creek, a 3rd-order stream just northwest of Ames. The second component is a preliminary analysis of the effects of streambank stabilization structures on lateral channel migration at multiple scales, an analysis that focused on the West Nishnabotna River in southwest Iowa. Jade has already landed and started to get her feet wet in her next job, working with the cultural and natural resource team at Impact7G just down the road from us in Johnston. Congrats, Jade!

  • September 6, 2022
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    Content Author
    Dr. Pete Moore

    Tanner Bonham is AGL's newest graduate alum, having successfully defended his M.S. thesis entitled Hydraulic Geometry Relationships and the Development of Bankfull Regional Curves for Iowa Streams. Tanner's defense took place on August 12th. One key result of Tanner's research was the recommendation that urban (>10% impervious surface in the basin) and non-urban streams be treated separately in regional curves. He showed a statistically-significant increase in channel size (especially width and cross-sectional area) in urban compared to non-urban streams. Tanner's regional curves have already been incorporated into the latest version of the Iowa River Restoration Toolbox. Look for a journal article in the coming year providing more details.

  • Map of harmonized landform regions
    September 6, 2022
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    Content Author
    Dr. Pete Moore

    A new open-access article published in the Journal of Maps presents a new map of landform regions for the portion of the Central Lowlands physiographic province that was glaciated in the past 1 million years.

  • Graph of cross-sectional area as a function of drainage area
    August 21, 2021
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    Content Author
    Dr. Pete Moore

    By Tanner Bonham on June 3, 2021

    Stream restoration is an increasingly common technique used by local, state, federal, and private landowners and organizations to stabilize and improve the biological integrity of impaired channels. This process generally includes restoring a channel's geomorphic pattern and shape to be in dynamic equilibrium where it neither aggrades nor degrades. Therefore, a healthy and functioning stream should exhibit geomorphic stability while providing clean and abundant habitat for fish, waterfowl, and other aquatic organisms.

  • iowas_nature_places_landforms
    August 9, 2021

    In addition to the main publication on Iowa's Landforms and Geology (pdf), Pete and co-authors Beth Caissie and Matt Graesch Prepared a Places to Visit supplementary map and document that highlights several places across the state of Iowa where the public can visit and explore some of the rocks and landforms mentioned in the main article. Check out the document and explore for yourself!

  • August 9, 2021

    A new paper by Pete in online journal Frontiers in Earth Science examines the feedbacks between ablation and supraglacial debris movement that affect both how debris-covered glaciers melt over long periods of time and how they construct distinct landforms. This paper is part of a special issue focused on Debris-Covered Glaciers: Formation, Governing Processes, Present Status and Future Directions.

  • iowas_nature_paleogeographic_map_80_ma_iowa_late_cretaceous
    July 6, 2021

    Pete co-authored a new general-audiences publication on Iowa's Landforms and Geology (pdf) as part of the Iowa's Nature series, produced by ISU Extension and Outreach. The Iowa's Nature series represents a complete update to the 1990's publication series by the Iowa Association of Naturalists, and includes ten articles covering numerous aspects of Iowa's natural history and resources. Co-authors on the Landforms and Geology article were Dr. Beth Caissie, now of the United States Geological Survey, and Matt Graesch of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

  • August 6, 2020

    AGL postdoc Bridget Livers Gonzalez and coauthors from UC-Boulder and Colorado State University have published a new article in Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. Their study evaluates several common methods for estimating the wood volume and porosity (or empty space) in log jams, and provides recommendations for best practices in the future. Congrats Bridget!

  • July 1, 2020

    The first paper from AGL alum Forrest Williams's M.S. thesis is now available on the web! This paper describes the tool (called AIMM, for Aerial Imagery Migration Model) that Forrest developed in ArcPy and ArcGIS to combine aerial imagery and LiDAR datasets to estimate the net volume change of sediment in dynamic river and stream networks. The paper discusses all the gory details of what goes into AIMM, and then demonstrates it's use in the South Fork Iowa River watershed.

  • December 3, 2019

    Congratulations to Joshua McDanel for successfully defending his Masters thesis the week before Thanksgiving! Joshua worked on a collaborative project between the Applied Geomorphology Lab and the Geospatial Laboratory for Soil Informatics in Agronomy. His work focused on mapping the catchments of closed depressions throughout the glaciated upper Midwest using digital soil data in GIS.

  • elevation change on Mount Rainier's glaciers
    July 27, 2019

    This post is a bit later than I would've liked, but nevertheless seems an appropriate one to wind up this hot month of July.

  • July 22, 2019

    The Department of Natural Resource Ecology & Management (NREM) at Iowa State University is seeking applications for two graduate assistantship (M.S.) positions starting January or May, 2020. Ideal candidates for both positions would have a Bachelor’s degree in biology, geoscience, civil or environmental engineering, or environmental science. Both projects will be jointly supervised by Dr. Pete Moore and Dr. Tom Isenhart and can be pursued as part of an M.S. degree in Environmental Science, Geology, or Fisheries Biology.

  • May 7, 2019

    Congrats to Sally for successfully defending her M.S. thesis this morning! Sally shared her research about relationships between riparian vegetation and stream channel morphology across Iowa to a full house and did a great job. Next she's off to Hawaii, where she's secured a position as a hydrologist with the USGS! Congrats Sally!

  • April 18, 2019

    Research from former AGL grad student Theresa Groth, summer researcher Leah Nelson, and Pete was published this week in Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research. The paper grew out of summer fieldwork completed in 2013-2014 on Emmons Glacier, which has a blanket of rock debris covering much of its terminus. We measured the impact of that rock debris on ice melt during a ten-day period in the summer of each of those years, confirming that thicker debris inhibits ablation more than thin debris but also promotes more warming of the debris surface.

  • April 10, 2019

    Congratulations to M.S. student Forrest Williams for a successful defense on Tuesday 4/9! Forrest worked with Pete and Tom Isenhart to develop a tool for estimating the extent and magnitude of streambank erosion for large watersheds. The automated method Forrest developed uses a band index (NDWI) from aerial photos to classify water in successive images, identify pixels that changed between years, and extract elevation differences from a LiDAR-derived DEM to compute net inputs of sediment (and by extension, Phosphorus -- which we have measured in soil cores) to the river from channel migration.

  • stoten_graphic
    January 31, 2019

    The second paper from Billy Beck's dissertation is now in print in Science of the Total Environment. Titled Changes in lateral floodplain connectivity accompanying stream channel evolution: Implications for sediment and nutrient budgets, this study used channel cross-sections measured first in 1998 and re-measured again in 2014 as the basis for a simple hydraulic model.

  • November 27, 2018

    In mid-November, we began moving our field equipment and lab resources into new real estate in Science II room 641. Along with this move, Pete has moved his office to the room across the hall, 642. From this higher perch, we have a much better perspective on the local landscape. Drop by for a visit when you have a chance!

  • pinkney
    August 2, 2018

    Congratulations and thanks to James Pinkney, Jr., for successfully completing his summer George Washington Carver research internship with the Applied Geomorphology Lab and the Geospatial Lab for Soil Informatics! James joined us during his summer break from the University of Maryland - Eastern Shore, where he is a rising sophomore majoring in Environmental Chemistry.

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