past STUDENT-LED RESEARCH
Each year, the Montana Water Center awards Montana graduate students with financial support through an annual Water Resource Fellowship Program. To learn more about the past Montana Water Center Fellows, please read about their work below.
2023 STUDENT FELLOWS
stephanie Ayotte: TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL VARIATION OF MICROBIAL COMMUNITY DYNAMICS RELATED TO NITROGEN REMOVAL IN CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS
In wastewater treatment, microorganisms are key to the removal and transformation of nutrients, particularly nitrogen. Niche interactions between microorganisms play an important functional role in the development of in-situ biofilm but are not thoroughly characterized in many engineered systems. Nitrogen removal requires symbiosis of various organisms but has the potential to emit large quantities of nitrous oxide (N2O) gas under non-ideal conditions. N2O is a potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential nearly 300 times stronger than carbon dioxide. Additionally, N2O is a relatively inert gas, ensuring slow degradation and long-term effects to the global atmosphere. This research focuses on microscale effects in established biofilm communities in a pilot-scale constructed wetland and their relation to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Our efforts will aim to understand, characterize, and correlate the microbial metabolisms with N2O production to facilitate future research aimed at GHG mitigation and enhanced nutrient removal. Constructed Wetlands are an inexpensive form of natural wastewater treatment, requiring little to no external energy, needing minimal maintenance, and having higher resilience to changes in nutrient loading than lagoon or pond systems. Constructed Wetlands have the potential to replace failing and obsolete systems across rural America, enhancing wastewater treatment and improving water quality. However, expansion of this technology has been limited in the United States. This research additionally hopes to expand the understanding and practical limits of Constructed Wetlands as a green technology for wastewater treatment.
Stephanie grew up in coastal southern Maine where she developed a passion for protecting natural ecosystems. After graduating with a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Maine in 2020, she pursued a graduate degree at Montana State University. Currently, Stephanie is an Environmental Engineering PhD candidate in the department of Civil Engineering where she studies nature-based solutions for domestic wastewater treatment. Her research has focused primarily on greenhouse gas emissions and microbial community dynamics in treatment wetlands.
ERIN BJORKLuND: Water Conflict & Cooperation in Montana: Trends Across the State
Climate change is predicted to decrease freshwater resources while water demands intensify, posing a variety of challenges in the western United States. Drought alone, heightens the supply and demand imbalance for freshwater, increasing the potential for local conflict. However, conflict is not the only plausible outcome; heightened water demands can also create space for cooperation. Although the potential for water conflict may be growing, preliminary studies on water cooperation and conflict tell a different story; internationally, instances of cooperation over shared water far outweigh instances of conflict. The western United States has faced a wide range of challenges as water demands rise and, in some places, overall available freshwater decreases. However, few studies have examined the prevalence of water cooperation or conflict in western states, including Montana. As the impacts of a multi-year drought continues to plague Montana citizens, a question arises: does drought and other water issues promote Montanans to respond with more cooperation or conflict over shared water resources? Therefore, this research will reveal water conflict and cooperation trends in Montana to help water managers and decision-makers predict, monitor, and proactively manage future conflicts and promote cooperation.
Erin Bjorklund is a MSc student in the department of Earth Sciences at Montana State University with a focus in human geography and environmental social science. Erin’s primary research interests lie in the socio-environmental connection between freshwater resources and local communities. She is passionate about multi-disciplinary research and building community partners through local collaboration.
lila rickenbaugh: Assessment of Water Availability for Irrigation within the Elevational Gradient of a Mountainous Catchment in Southwestern Montana
As many critical agricultural regions around the world rely on water stored in mountainous snowpack for irrigation, our current and future ability to grow food is threatened by more frequent, severe, and extended snow droughts. As such, water resource managers will need more efficient and accurate methods to characterize the snowmelt cycle and forecast water availability. In my research I am integrating in-situ and remotely sensed data to assess the relative contributions of groundwater and current season’s snowmelt to irrigation supply in a montane catchment in Southwestern Montana. I am utilizing stable water isotope ratios (H2 and O18) to compare weekly samples of stream water at low elevation to monthly samples of snow and groundwater. To understand the timescale on which snow contributes to stream water I am analyzing satellite-derived Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. This provides approximate dates of snowpack warming, ripening, and importantly, runoff onset at discrete locations in the watershed. Combined, these analyses will provide estimates of where and when irrigation water originated for agricultural land in the Paradise Valley.
Lila grew up in Bozeman where she developed her love of the mountains and her curiosity for large-scale ecosystem processes. She earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and philosophy from Dartmouth College. After graduating in 2020 she returned to Bozeman and worked for a local business helping agricultural producers across the state to reduce their dependence on chemical fertilizer. Through this work she was directly exposed to the effects of drought on food production, and was motivated to study snow as a resource for irrigators. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in the earth science department at MSU.
dylan white: The influence of nutrients on the accumulation of dissolved, colloidal, and particulate metals in a stream food web
Globally, streams and rivers have become impaired due to excess trace metals and nutrient inputs. Understanding the ecosystem effects of trace metal and phosphorus contamination is complicated because their bioavailability changes based on their form. Contaminant form is commonly described in terms of size fraction using an operational definition based on what passes through a filter (200, 450, or 700 nm). Everything that passes through the filter is defined as dissolved and bioavailable, while everything that remains on the filter is termed particulate. However, this is a poorly characterized definition as there are many small colloidal-sized(1 – 1000 nm) particles in the “dissolved” category, which are reactive and sorb toxic metals, phosphorus, and organic contaminants. Colloidal particles can facilitate the transport of sorbed elements and alter the fate and bioavailability of those contaminants. Additionally, algal blooms, stimulated by nutrients, can affect metal accumulation in river food webs. Algal biofilms accumulate trace metals; however, it is unclear how the increased primary productivity of algal blooms affects the accumulation and trophic transfer of metal contamination. Understanding how algal blooms and colloidal particles affect the accumulation of metals in periphyton and aquatic invertebrates will help researchers better understand contaminant fate and transport and help managers focus remediation efforts.
Dylan White is a Ph.D. student at the University of Montana. His research describes the presence, form, and fate of colloidal particles in Upper Clark Fork River, a mining and agriculture affected river. Broadly, he is interested in how anthropogenic stressors affect aquatic ecosystems. When not working on his research, you might find him “surveying” the watershed from one of the many bike trails or skin tracks in the five valleys surrounding Missoula.
madisan Chavez: Assessing groundwater Pfas contamination from abandoned waste disposal sites on the Crow reservation (Rural water Research Fellowship)
The Crow Reservation is in south central Montana and drained by watersheds including the Bighorn River, Little Bighorn River, and Pryor Creek. The Little Bighorn River (LBHR) has its headwaters in Wyoming just south of the Montana border and runs through three towns on the reservation. The Crow (Apsaalooke) Tribe has a deep-rooted history surrounding the LBHR, relying on it for cultural practice and healing, yet water quality in the LBHR and its tributaries has been steadily degraded over the past 40 years. Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are a family of 12,000+ synthetic chemicals and emerging environmental contaminants which have been in use since the 1950s. They are harmful to humans, wildlife, and aquatic life. In humans they accumulate in our blood, liver, kidneys, and brain, and bind to tissue proteins. They are so toxic the EPA is developing new regulatory standards to limit PFAS in public water supplies. PFAS are found in landfill and wastewater treatment plant effluent, and are known to leach readily in the environment. This research will investigate the following question: Do PFAS from abandoned waste disposal sites leach and/or contaminate water quality and impact the residents along the Little Bighorn River and their quality of life? Working with tribal elders to identify abandoned waste disposal sites, which are potential sources of PFAS contamination for groundwater, drinking water wells, and surface water in the LBHR, this project will testing groundwater at sites within and outside of the LBHR floodplain to assess PFAS contamination and transport in these areas. This research will complement the PFAS work already being conducted on the Crow Reservation by USGS Environmental Health Program scientists, Kelly Smallings and Paul Bradley.
Chavez was born and raised on the Crow Reservation; she is an enrolled member of the Crow nation, and is also Northern Cheyenne, Ogalala Lakota Sioux, and Mexican. Chavez graduated from Montana State University-Billings with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies with a Minor in Earth Science. She is starting her first year in the Land Resources and Environmental Science (LRES) master’s program at MSU. Chavez is eager to apply her work toward improving water quality for the Crow (Apsaalooke) community, and specifically in working with the Crow Environmental Health Steering Committee (CEHSC) and other young Crow women in the Biawaatchache Collective.