HR: 1400h
AN: H33C-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Field-testing of a Passive Surface Water Flux Meter for the Direct Measurement of Water and Solute Mass Fluxes
AU: * Atkinson, E C
EM: eatkinso@ufl.edu
AF: Soil and Water Science Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States
AU: Jawitz, J W
EM: jawitz@ufl.edu
AF: Soil and Water Science Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States
AU: Annable, M D
EM: annable@ufl.edu
AF: Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States
AU: Klammler, H
EM: haki@gmx.at
AF: Research Center for Geophysical and Geological Studies, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil
AU: Hatfield, K
EM: khatf@ce.ufl.edu
AF: Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States
AB: The measurement of water and solute mass discharges in surface water flow systems is a fundamental hydrologic task for ecological and economic decision making. However, due to the extensive monetary, labor, and time costs of traditional monitoring devices and methods, many water quality monitoring programs lack the resources necessary to provide comprehensive descriptions of surface water impairments. The Passive Surface Water Flux Meter (PSFM) is a recently developed passive sampling device that measures water and solute fluxes within flowing surface water bodies. Devoid of mechanical components and power supply requirements, the relatively low-maintenance, low-cost design of the PSFM gives it considerable potential as a tool for extensive, large-scale surface water quality characterization and monitoring. The novelty of the PSFM extends to its direct mass-based approach to solute flux measurement, as compared to conventional, indirect concentration-based approaches. During this field-testing campaign, the PSFM was deployed in flowing surface water bodies of north- central Florida. The device contained a dual-packed porous media cartridge that performed simultaneous ion exchange to determine phosphate mass flux and equilibrium tracer desorption to determine water flux within the stream. The PSFM demonstrated accurate measurement of steady-state water and phosphate mass fluxes to within 15% over a range of stream velocities, solute concentrations, and deployment durations. The PSFM design described here was found to perform well in steady-flow conditions. The device was also shown to be effective under transient conditions of limited variability, but full transient testing remains for future work.
DE: 1871 Surface water quality
DE: 1895 Instruments and techniques: monitoring
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly