Environmental Geosciences

Recent research includes: studies which seek to understand ground-water flow and contaminant transport at multiple scales; environmental site characterization; environmental risk assessment; fate and transport of toxic metals; trace metal chemistry of hydrocarbon source rocks; shallow and deep subsurface characterization (such as monitoring environmental remediation processes and oil/gas exploration) using geophysical techniques; phase changes in biologic calcium phosphate minerals; and phyllosilicate research including the role of clays in oil and gas exploration and production.

Personnel

Richelle M. Allen-King, Hydrogeochemistry, ground-water contaminant transport, nutrients in watersheds, organic pollutants, environmental geochemistry

Tracy Bank, Biogeochemistry, fate and transport of inorganic pollutants, bioremediation, mineral surface interactions with bacteria
Rossman Giese, Mineralogy with emphasis on clay minerals, surface thermodynamic measurements of minerals, interactions with organic minerals, especially biomolecules, properties of natural and synthetic antimicrobial nanoparticles

Zhangshuan (Jason) Hou, Near surface geophysics, geostatistics and stochastic hydrogeology, vadose zone hydrology, climate change

 

Left to Right: Zhangshuan Hou, Tracy Bank, Richelle Allen-King

Front: Rossman Giese

Description

As a research group, our goal is to understand and predict contaminant transport through geologic media. We study inorganic contaminants, such as U and Cr, and organic contaminants, such as pathogenic bacteria and industrial and agricultural chemicals. We study processes at scales ranging from nano to field. We attack these multi-scale problems by coupling cutting edge geochemical and geophysical technologies with traditional field experiences. Students in our research programs also benefit from collaborations with scholars in closely related fields including environmental engineering, geography, and chemistry.

 

Our graduate curriculum  trains students for employment in industry, academia, or government agencies. We emphasize fundamental and advanced geoscience course work in geophysics, geochemistry, and hydrogeology complemented by interdisciplinary offerings to prepare students for their future careers. The majority of our graduate students receive financial sponsorship through research and/or teaching assistantships. During the past five years, the environmental geosciences group has been awarded over $2.5M in extramural research grants and contracts from organizations including NSF, DOE, ACS-PRF and private industry. We are also part of the NSF-funded ERIE Interdisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) program. Graduates of our program are employed as faculty members, consultants, and government scientists.

We are geologists so our research facilities include the magnificent geology around us! Our facilities also include equipment for analysis of solid and aqueous samples including; X-ray diffractometer (XRD), gas chromatographs, total organic carbon (TOC) and total organic nitrogen (TON) analyzers, an ion chromatograph configured for major cations and anions, UV-Vis spectrophotometer, atomic force microscope (AFM) with inverted microscope and epifluorescence, an environmental anaerobic chamber, and a geophysics research lab including a portable engineering seismograph, ground penetrating radar surface and borehole system, subsurface profiling system, soil moisture time domain reflectometry system, and GeoXH subfoot GPS. Students also benefit from many additional facilities available at the South Campus Instrument Center.

 

 

Figure 1 . Former graduate student Lisa Zimmerman analyzes environmental contaminants using the GC/MS.

 

Figure 2 . Dr. Bank and undergrad student Mike Gallisdorfer studying bacterial adhesion with the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM).

 

Figure 3 . Former graduate student Anja Dosen analyzes apatite minerals using XRD.

 

Figure 4 . A backhoe is used to expose an outcrop analogue of sediments of the
well-studied Borden aquifer. allowing faculty and students to develop new
techniques for representing the spatial distributions of properties that
control contaminant transport and remediation

 

Figure 5 . A former graduate student studies spatial heterogeneity in aquifers.

 

Figure 6 . Dr. Hou tests the stream DTS at Chazy River near Plattsburg NY .

 

Figure 7 . PhD student Jeremy Crowley is setting up the distributed temperature sensor (DTS) for a stream survey at Chazy River near Plattsburgh , NY.

 

 

STUDENT AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

We are very proud of the successes of our current and former graduate students! Some highlights of their recent accomplishments include:

 

Current PhD student Jeremy Crowley received a GIScience IGERT Fellowship to study stream water groundwater interactions using distributed temperature sensors (DTS) (2007)

 

Current PhD student Sungwook Choung received a Geological Society of America Research Grant (2008).

 

Recent PhD recipient Dr. Anja Dosen received a UB College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Writing Fellowship to complete her study of structural disorder in apatite minerals (2008).

Former MS student Mike Bower received a UB Geology department Pegrum research award and an American Association of Petroleum Geologists Grant in Aid for his work on colloid stability in non-aqueous fluids.

 

MS student Kylah Wyatt received a Mark Diamond Research Award to study the effect of seasonal groundwater temperatures on arsenic mobility (2009).

 

Current MS student Tom Malizia and his advisor Dr. Tracy Bank received a faculty student research award from National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Lab. They are researching the oxidation state of uranium in hydrocarbon-rich shales from NY and PA.

 

 

Figure 8 . GIScience IGERT Fellowship recipient Jeremy Crowley (right with MS student Anthony Kellogg) (2007).

 

Figure 9 . Current MS student Kylah Wyatt received a Mark Diamond Research Award (2009).

 

Figure 10 . Former MS student Mike Bower received an AAPG Grant-in Aid (2009).

 

Figure 11 . Current MS student Tom Malizia working very hard at NSLS in Brookhaven National Lab.

 

 

 

Allen-King Research:

Aquifer Heterogeneity and Contaminant Transport

My main research interests are understanding and integrating the basic processes which control the fate and transport of contaminants in the environment, particularly in groundwater. Our current understanding of these processes, or lack thereof, limits our ability to predict natural fate and to plan and conduct appropriate remediation of contaminated sites. Most of my current research has to do with transport and/or transformation of organic contaminants, including chlorinated solvents, hydrocarbons, pesticides and recently personal care products. This encompasses a broad range of problems. For example, our group is currently engaged in a study which tests how geologic-process based knowledge can improve our understanding of the composition and variability of aquifer properties as they relate to pollutant transport. In another study, we are investigating the transport pathways by which agricultural chemicals move within and out watersheds. One more example looks at how chemical oxidants used to remediate groundwater contaminants affect and are affected by the natural groundwater system. In addition to field investigation, my research includes laboratory experiments using gas chromatography for analysis of the organic compounds of interest. Analyses of sediments and water can also include: grain size, mineralogy, surface area and fraction organic carbon content; and major cations and anions, and organic carbon content.  

 

Bank Research:

Biogeochemistry

Bacteria affect many geochemical processes including oxidation/reduction reactions and mineral precipitation and dissolution. In the biogeochemistry group we study the role of bacteria and bacterial metabolism in geochemical processes that affect contaminants. We are primarily interested in the transport of U and Cr, and how biological processes affect the oxidation states of these metals, as well as their solubility and toxicity.

 

Giese Research:

Clay Mineralogy

Research includes surface thermodynamic measurements of minerals, interactions with organic minerals, especially biomolecules, properties of natural and synthetic antimicrobial nanoparticles.

 

Hou Research:

Hydrogeophysics

Geophysical (e.g., seismic, electromagnetic, radar) techniques and statistical methods are essential for research related to subsurface characterization. The hydrogeophysics group has particular interests in environmental remediation and risk assessment, oil/gas exploration, CO 2 sequestration, agricultural precision, and optimal water resources utilization.

 

 

Aquifer Heterogeneity and Contaminant Transport:

Contaminant transport in groundwater can be strongly affected by reactions with aquifer materials. But, determining how aquifer sediment heterogeneity at both the grain (and subgrain) and contaminant plume scales vary and affect contaminant movement are simple problems! Our group has taken on these challenges by looking at contaminant reactions to sediments at both small and large scales. Our hypothesis is that the processes that sort sediments into mappable units also create packages of sediments with chemically, as well as physically, distinct properties that affect contaminant transport (Figure 1).

In order to test the hypothesis, we have collected cores of material from below the groundwater table at the Borden site. Then we map the lithology of the scanned cores, and measure the permeability and sorption behavior for the contaminant perchloroethene or PCE (Figure 2).

Figure 3 shows the results of sorption measurements for a wide concentration range alongside components isolated from the sediment. Our model suggests that different components of the sediment control sorption behavior over different concentration ranges.

Figure 4 shows the only map of the distribution of chemical reactivity (as the ln Kd for PCE) for an organic pollutant available, to our knowledge. There is obvious layering of contaminant reactivity that is associated with the layered structure of the aquifer.

If the hypothesis is supported, then mapping sedimentary ithofacies will provide important insights on the variability of aquifer reactivity. We are approaching this aspect of the work by comparing geophysical and sedimentological logs of a cut that we created in the sedimentary materials. This is a collaborative project with geophysicist R. Knight from Stanford University and sedimentologist D. Gaylord from Washington State University. An example of the outcrop that we created as well as one of our many site visitors are presented in Figure 5.