The Prairie Environmental Process Laboratory is equipped to study environmental processes, especially those linked with water and sediment budgets.
Researchers at the Prairie Environmental Process Laboratory analyze surface water and hydrologic budgets, fluxes and accumulations of sediments across the landscape, and study the interactions between sediment and bacteria. They also analyze ice and snowpack change, study proxy records of past environmental conditions, and make projections of future environmental conditions.
Automated environmental monitoring in-situ (water quality, water quantity, meteorology), three-dimensional water flow fields, water quality analysis (particle-size distribution, mass load, suspended sediments, turbidity, dissolved salts, pH, redox, chlorophyll, freshwater algae), image analysis, geomatics, dendrochronology
Specialized labs and equipment
Equipment | Function |
---|---|
Laser transmissometer LISST-STX | Submersible field/laboratory instrument to measure settling velocity and size-distribution of suspended particles. |
Water quality data sonde YSI-6600-V2 | Submersible field/laboratory instrument to measure mass load/suspended sediments, turbidity, dissolved salts, pH, redox, and chlorophyll. |
Dendrocut Saw | Precision saw for tree ring analysis. |
SonTek Argonaut/SonWave | Submersible/automated acoustic Doppler profiler for monitoring flow and wave spectra. |