Watershed Sciences and Engineering Program

Bucknell Center for Sustainability and the Environment

AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS

Macroinvertebrate communities

River health and ecology

Aquatic ecologists Matt McTammany and Sean Reese are studying insect, crayfish, and mussel communities in the Susquehanna River to gain new insight into the river's ecology and overall health.

TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS

Forests and Meadows

Native and Invasive Plant Communities

Botanist Chris Martine and students are exploring the forests and meadows throughout the Susquehanna region, including several studies assessing the impact of invasive species such as Japanese Knotweed on native riparian plant communities.

FLUVIAL PROCESSES

Valley morphology
and river bedforms

Physical processes and aquatic habitat

Jessica Newlin and Benjamin Hayes are mapping river valley and channel features in the Susquehanna River valley for clues to its geologic and anthropogenic history.

Catchment Hydrology

The Hydrologic Cycle

Land Surface-Atmosphere Boundary Layer

Richard Crago and students explore the complex dynamics of watershed hydrology and river hydraulics, looking especially at evapotranspiration processes and water budgets in a nonstationary climate

Environmental Engineering

Slurry Wall Technology

NSF-sponsored field station underway

Remediating groundwater contamination requires innovative geotechnical engineering solutions. Mike Malusis, Jeff Evans, and Rob Jacob are designing and installing our own instrumented slurry wall that can be used for teaching and research for decades to come.

WATERSHED ASSESSMENTS

Stream-landscape connections

Geomorphic controls on stream habitat

Jessica Newlin, Ben Hayes, and Sean Reese are studying Pennsylvania watersheds that have been dammed and logged for two centuries and assessing their impact on native brook trout habitats today.

Watershed Mapping and Modeling

Geospatial Terrain Analyses

Complex geospatial models are being developed to analyze geologic, soils,and hydroclimatic processes on a landscape scale. The models help interpret historic records and predict possible future outcomes."

Computer Engineering

Wireless sensor networks

Alan Marchiori is leading teams of computer science and electrical engineering students design and build multi-parameter hydroclimatic sensor networks that use low-cost microprocessors and wireless communication devices to measure and transmit weather, flow, and water quality.

Natural Disasters

Catastrophic Flooding

Climate and fluvial systems in disequilbrium

The September 2011 floods from Tropical Storms Irene and Lee caused catastrophic flood in north-central Pennsylvania. Craig Kochel, Ben Hayes, and Jessica Newlin are studying the impact of such extreme weather events on streams, bridges, and communities.

RESTORATION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Abandoned Mine Discharge

Carl Kirby has been studying the geochemistry of the acidic discharge of metal-laden waters from abandoned coal mines in Pennsylvania. He is using these findings to design and build limestone wetlands that passively treat the contaminated discharges and improve water quality downstream.

AQUATIC ECOLOGY

Amphibians in the river

Hellbender biology and conservation

Mizuki Takahashi and students are using aquatic mesocosms and eDNA molecular analyses to study the ecology and evolution of hellbenders and other amphibians. Their work extends from the Susquehanna watershed to other regions around the world.

project profile

Miller Run Stream Restoration

Daylighting streams and creating off-channel wetlands on Bucknell's campus.

"The stream was once diverted underground through a culvert, but now flows through a natural channel shaded by native plants, with wetlands to capture and filter stormwater runoff."

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Susquehanna River Symposium

"The Spirit of Two Great Rivers: The Susquehanna and Delaware"

Bucknell is celebrating its 12th annual River Symposium on November 10 & 11, 2017.

Visit the symposium website

GROUNDWATER HYDROLOGY

Karst Aquifers and Springs

Ellen Herman is studying the flow of water and sediment from sinkholes and streams, through underground caves, fractures, and aquifer conduits, and back to the surface as springs. A significant portion of the land's surface is underlain by karst aquifers, which are especially vulnerable to pollution.

LONGITUDINAL WATERSHED ASSESSMENTS

Water Quality and River Health

Temporal and Spatial Variations

Since 2009 we have been monitoring water quality and flow conditions in the Susquehanna River to assess temporal and spatial variability in the river's metabolism and productivity.

Click on the top menus to view current conditions in the river at Milton or Danville, PA.

LONGITUDINAL RIVER ASSESSMENTS

Real-Time Water Quality Monitoring

We are monitoring water quality at several locations in the Susquehanna River and developing software and hardware solutions that stream the data back to campus, store it in archival databases, and display it visually in dashboards and websites such as above.

RESTORATION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Passive Treatment Systems

Treating agricultural runoff

Matthew Higgins has partnered with the Union County Conservation District to design and construct wetlands that capture runoff from two different farms.

Restoration Science and Engineering

Gravel Mine Reclamation

Much of the Susquehanna River valley is pock-marked by old gravel pits, used to mine the sand and gravel deposited by the glacio-fluvial outwash deposits. Most are ecologically barren and remain as deep isolated pools. Ben Hayes and Richard Crago are working with a local mining company to actively create wetland habitat in the gravel pit as mining commences.

Bucknell is one of a few universities in the United States with a major river that borders its campus.

The Susquehanna River is the lifeline of central Pennsylvania and the Chesapeake Bay and has long been cherieshed by Bucknell's faculty, students, and alumni.

The Watershed Sciences and Engineering Program connects people to the river and it builds upon Bucknell's existing strengths in science and engineering by creating new watershed-based teaching, research, and outreach activities.

Its faculty, staff, and students also partner with local, state, and federal organizations on watershed research, stewardship, and conservation projects.

Connecting students to our watershed
by taking the classroom outdoors

Our Courses

298.

Stream Restoration

Scientific principles to integrate physical and biological approaches to stream restoration in watershed management. This team-taught field course highlights developing restoration plans for local streams.

299.

Watershed Systems Science

Watersheds regulate water flow and ecosystem health on our landscape. Team-taught field course integrating physical, chemical, and biological processes in watersheds, using the Susquehanna and tributaries

300.

Bucknell on the Susquehanna

A 3- to 4-week field-intensive sojourn throughout the Susquehanna watershed, from its glaciated headwater regions to its mouth at the Atlantic Oceon at the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States. Travel across the country to explore the Cascades, Olympic Peninsula, and the Puget Sound, the second largest estuary. Compare and contrast the cultures, history, landforms, ecology, and environmental issues facing these two important regions of the world.

Community Outreach Event

Susquehanna River Symposium

"HEALTHY RIVERS, HEALTHY COMMUNITIES"

Visit the symposium website

Friday, October 18, 2019 - 7 PM to 10 PM
Saturday, October 19, 2018 - 8 AM to 4:30 PM

Elaine Langone Center
Bucknell University

Social Media

Restoring Miller Run — News '15 http://t.co/mQOkrJxWxc
— Watershed Sciences (@BucknellWSE) October 14, 2015

Summer Research: Revealing a Riverbed — Bucknell University http://t.co/CKgwqfzMqT via @BucknellU #bucknellwse
— Watershed Sciences (@BucknellWSE) October 15, 2015

Did You Know?

The Watershed Sciences and Engineering Program offers summer research projects for students in biology, geology, civil and environmental engineering, computer science, environmental studies, geography, and history.

We developed a stream restoration plan for Miller Run that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and PA Department of Environmental Protection used to restore a large section of the stream that used to flow underground through a pipe buried beneath our golf course driving range.

Each fall, we offer the Susquehanna River Symposium, which attracts hundreds of students and faculty from over 12 colleges throughout the Susquehanna and Chesapeake Bay region.

Our mission is four-fold:
(1) enrich our watershed-based teaching,
(2) develop new interdisciplinary research,
(3) offer community outreach events, and
(4) help serve the university.

Our faculty and staff provide close, personal attention to students in the classroom, laboratory, and in the field. They are active researchers who involve students in their work.

Since it began as the "Susquehanna River Initiative" in 2005, the Watershed Sciences and Engineering Program has brought in over $1.4 million dollars in external funding, which it uses to offer new courses, fund new research, and establish field research stations on the Susquehanna River and nearby wetlands and streams.

Faculty and Staff Spotlight

Meet all the contributing faculty and staff

program director

Benjamin Hayes

"I'm fascinated by the geology, hydrology, and ecology of streams and wetlands. Getting to explore these systems with Bucknell students and faculty is fabulous."

• fluvial geomorphology and river hydraulics
• wetlands hydrology and restoration
• impacts of land use and climate change

More about Ben

project scientist

Sean Reese

"I grew up on the Susquehanna and have been studying the natural history and aquatic ecology of big rivers all my life."

• freshwater mussels
• mid-Atlantic fisheries
• aquatic ecosystems
• river diving

More about Sean

associate professor

Matthew McTammany

"Rivers are complicated, but what makes them complicated also makes them fascinating." I'm currently exploring:

• stream ecology and river metabolism
• carbon and nutrient dynamics in ecosystems
• ecosystem restoration and management
• human impact on aquatic ecosystems

More about Professor McTammany

assistant professor

Jessica Newlin

"Our watersheds are impacted by climate change and a growing demand for water. Good science and engineering studies are critical to finding solutions." My interests include:

• fluvial hydraulics and geomorphology
• impacts of land use and climate change
• groundwater and surface water interactions

More about Professor Newlin

professor

R. Craig Kochel

"Understanding Earth's complex hydroclimatic and surfical processes is critical to interpreting the past and predicting the future of any given watershed." My interests include:

• geomorphology and surficial processes
• catchment hydrology and flooding
• groundwater and surface water interactions

More about Professor Kochel

What Does Our Program Offer?

We asked students and faculty what they liked best
about the watershed sciences engineering program.

Studying the impact an invasive crayfish specieshas on aquatic marcrophytes and benthic invertebrates. I got to work outside all summer and help other students in the field too.
Sean DuBois ’16biology

Getting access to the program's stream gaging networks and weather station to use real hydroclimatic data in my classes, and getting Senior Design students involved with local stream and wetland restoration projects.
Richard Crago, Ph.D. Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Conducting both laboratory and field studies of crayfish diets in the Susquehanna and electrofishing one of its tributary streams.
Edward Carrington ’16biology

It helps connect my interests to the mission of a much bigger interdisciplinary research program on campus. I feel more significant.
Matthew McTammany, Ph.D.Associate Professor of Biology

Getting to work on a research boat on the river all summer, then presenting my work at a national conference.
Erin Cox ’15civil & environmental engineering

It provides a scholarly nexus for interdisciplinary studies of aquatic ecology, fluvial processes and landscape change.
R. Craig Kochel, Ph.D.Professor of Geology

Studying endangered mussels in Buffalo Creek, a tributary to the Susquehanna River.
Michael Huffner ’14biology

Connecting to a team of scientists and engineers studying complex, watershed-scale processes and river hydraulics.
Jessica Newlin, Ph.D., P.E.Assistant Professor
Civil & Environmental Engineering

Creating New Opportunities

research

Laboratory and Field Research

Numerous opportunities exist for laboratory research on campus and field studies on local streams and wetlands or on the Susquehanna River or Chesapeake Bay.
Even as undergraduates, students conducting research projects with faculty may have papers published in top-ranked scientific journals or present papers at professional conferences.

teaching

Our Classrooms Are Outdoors

Educational pladdling sojourns down the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay
Special wetland, lake, and river classes for courses in biology, geology, and civil and environmental engineering.
Real-world projects for students majoring in the humanities, sciences, engineering and management.

Experience

Gain valuable experience

using hydroaccoustical instruments to measure flow hydraulics
using side-scanning sonar to map river bedforms
conducting benthic surveys of lakes and rivers to assess freshwater mussel and snail communities
electrofishing streams to survey fish communities

Watershed Sciences and Engineering Program

Take a closer look

Mailing Address