Steve Lyon

Visit Steve's new PostDoc website: www.hwr.arizona.edu/~slyon

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Steve Lyon’s CV

For Stina: Snowball Movie

What I Do:

·        Field investigations into saturated area formation and water table dynamics

·        Use geostatistics to understand and better represent data trends

·        Develop and implement hydrologic models to allow for effective pollutant and nutrient management

Why I Do It:

There is need for objective identification of pollution sources on the landscape that threaten the health of natural water systems by contributing excess nutrients. Specifically in agricultural regions, this excess of nutrients places the lakes, waterways, and even parts of oceans under threat of eutrophication. The primary nutrient associated with the eutrophication of water systems is phosphorous (P). Since the focus of large-scale farms worldwide is the production of grains, produce, and milk, excess P enters the ecosystem from the land application of both animal manure and chemical fertilizers. This is especially true in the Catskill mountain region of New York State where the rural economy depends on increased productivity of the land by addition of nutrients. The Catskill mountain region provides the world's largest unfiltered source of drinking water for the inhabitants of New York City . Through non-point source (NPS) pollution, the quality of this natural water system along with many others worldwide are directly influenced by land practices on contributing areas. The difficulty in controlling NPS pollution is identification of where to implement management changes on the landscape.

The focus of my PhD research is the identification of saturated region on the landscape at the field scale. This allows for the efficient implementation of best management practices conserving both financial and natural resources. Currently, my research consists of developing field-sampling procedures to measure extent and duration of saturated areas. This aids in the development of spatially distributed, hydrological models and the understanding of nutrient transport in the environment.

Visit the Soil and Water Lab VSA Website