Ned Fetcher College of Science and Engineering Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 nedfetcher@ncx.com
Dale Bruns College of Science and Engineering Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766
Joseph Graney Center for Integrated Watershed Studies, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902
Kenneth Klemow College of Science and Engineering Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766
Steven Rier Department of Biological and Allied Health Sciences Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA 17815
Karen Salvage Center for Integrated Watershed Studies, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902
John Titus Center for Integrated Watershed Studies, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902
William Toothill College of Science and Engineering Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766
Weixing Zhu Center for Integrated Watershed Studies, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902
The Susquehanna Watershed Gradient Study is intended to investigate the interactions between land use, climate change, and position in the watershed as drivers of water quality and quantity in the Susquehanna River Basin. In the coming decades, urbanization is expected to increase in the Basin at the expense of agricultural land uses. At the same time global climate change is expected to result in changes in precipitation patterns in Susquehanna River Basin as well as changes in snow cover. Existing models of water quality assume a consistent impact of land-use on water quality independent of location within the Susquehanna River basin. The project will test this assumption by monitoring water ecology and aquatic ecosystem processes at selected watersheds with similar land-use characteristics in the Upper Susquehanna Sub Basin and compare them to watersheds with similar patterns of land-use in the Lower Sub Basin. NEON resources will be used to collect meteorological and atmospheric deposition data, real-time information on water quality and quantity, patterns of land-use, and measures of ecosystem functioning. The Chesapeake Bay Program Community Watershed Model will be used to simulate land use effects on hydrology and water quality in the selected watersheds. Undergraduate and graduate students from Binghamton University, Bloomsburg University, and Wilkes University will assist in modeling and making measurements of ecosystem status such as macroinvertebrate abundance.