Mark Grismer | University of California, Davis (original) (raw)

Papers by Mark Grismer

A nine-month field study has been conducted to assess the occurrence of seepage and potential gro... more A nine-month field study has been conducted to assess the occurrence of seepage and potential groundwater contamination from a 90-acre drainwater evaporation pond. Pond water balances and point seepage measurements described the temporal and spatial variation of seepage. Pond seepage impacts on shallow groundwater elevations and salinity appeared to be negligible.

This report presents the results of an ecological risk analysis of emissions from two oil shale t... more This report presents the results of an ecological risk analysis of emissions from two oil shale technologies, Paraho and TOSCO-II. Because both technologies have no aqueous discharges, only waste leachates and air pollutants are considered. The formation of leachate from wastewater-moistened spent shale and the transport of the leachate to the nearest well and creek were modeled. The contaminated creek

Hydrological Sciences Journal-journal Des Sciences Hydrologiques, 2012

Land management and its effects on water quality are a concern where regulatory agencies work to ... more Land management and its effects on water quality are a concern where regulatory agencies work to establish sediment and/or nutrient loadings. Runoff and erosion measurement in the field and modelling at the catchment scale are often the only means of generating realistic data and results for subsequent analyses. As such, it is critical to link local-scale field measurements associated with the range of land uses or soil restoration efforts with the catchment-scale sediment loading. A distributed hydrological model with locally-derived, slope-dependent sediment yield (erodibility) equations developed from rainfall simulation (RS) studies at the 1-m2 scale across the Tahoe basin, USA, is employed to determine the runoff-dependent scaling factors (SFs) necessary to predict daily stream sediment loading from the forested uplands. Data from three “paired”, adjacent, west-shore Lake Tahoe tributary catchments are considered for the period 1994–2004 at time scales ranging from daily to annual. At all time scales, the SF was dependent on runoff (R), particularly at smaller values, but was readily simplified as an approximately inverse square-root function. Optimized SF–runoff regressions for each watershed were equivalent when modified by ratios of watershed area. As a result, a single daily SF–runoff equation was determined (through minimization of sediment load prediction errors) that could be successfully applied to all three watersheds with an accuracy consistent with the predictive error associated with any one of the watersheds alone. Sensitivity analyses indicated that sediment loading predictions were more sensitive to the SF–runoff equation coefficient rather than the exponent. Annual sediment load prediction errors of ˜30% might be expected for low or high runoff years. Editor D. Koutsoyiannis Citation Grismer, M.E., 2012. Erosion modelling for land management in the Tahoe basin, USA: scaling from plots to forest catchments. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 57 (5), 878–900.La gestion des terres et ses effets sur la qualité de l'eau sont des préoccupation à propos desquelles les organismes de réglementation travaillent à établir les charges sédimentaires et / ou les charges d'éléments nutritifs. Les mesures du ruissellement et de l'érosion in situ et la modélisation à l'échelle du bassin versant sont assez souvent les seuls moyens d'obtenir des données réalistes et des résultats pour des analyses ultérieures. Il est donc essentiel de relier les mesures de terrain à l'échelle locale, associées à toute une gamme d'utilisations des terres ou d'efforts de restauration des sols, avec la charge en sédiments à l'échelle du bassin versant. Un modèle hydrologique distribué, fondé sur des équations d'érodabilité locale fonction de la pente, établies à partir de simulation de pluie (SP) à l'échelle du m2 dans le bassin du lac Tahoe a été utilisé pour déterminer les facteurs d'échelle dépendant du ruissellement (FE) nécessaires pour prévoir les charges journalières de sédiments fluviatiles provenant des hautes terres boisées. Les données de trois bassins versants «jumelés» adjacents, affluents de la côte ouest du lac Tahoe, ont été retenues pour la période 1994–2004 à des échelles de temps allant du jour à l'année. A toutes les échelles de temps le FE dépend du ruissellement (R), en particulier pour les petites valeurs, mais peut facilement s'exprimer de façon simplifiée comme une fonction inverse de sa racine carrée. Les régressions optimisées entre FE et R pour chaque bassin versant sont équivalentes lorsqu'elles sont modifiées par un facteur fonction de l'aire du bassin versant. En conséquence, une seule équation de régression journalière FE-R a été déterminée (en minimisant des erreurs de prévision de la charge sédimentaire), qui pourra être appliquéeavec succès aux trois bassins versants, avec une précision compatible avec l'erreur de prévision associée à l'un quelconque des bassins versants pris isolément. Les analyses de sensibilité indiquent que les prévisions de charge sédimentaire étaient plus sensibles au coefficient de l'équation FE–R qu'à son exposant. On peut estimer à ˜30% l'erreur de prévision de la charge sédimentaire annuelle pour des années sèches ou humides.

Agricultural Water Management, 2008

Performance improvement of existing irrigation projects has been a major concern in international... more Performance improvement of existing irrigation projects has been a major concern in international irrigation development. Activities for irrigation project improvement usually involve not only infrastructure (hardware) improvement but also changes in management. However, the impact of management improvement on irrigation performance has not been sufficiently verified because, in most cases, (a) irrigation project evaluation is done qualitatively, and (b) management improvement is implemented simultaneously with hardware improvement. Therefore, the impact of management improvement needs to be evaluated quantitatively and separately from hardware. This research attempts to quantify effects of management and hardware improvements on irrigation project performance, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). First, an AHP model for irrigation project evaluation was developed by using internal process indicators of the rapid appraisal process. Secondly, the AHP model was applied for scoring 16 irrigation projects dealt with in FAO Water Reports 19. Then, finally, effects of the evaluation factors (e.g. managing entities, hardware, water delivery services) on irrigation project performance were analyzed by changing weights of the evaluation factors and comparing correlations between AHP model scores and crop yields. The research showed the potential and effectiveness of AHP application to irrigation project evaluation. Also, it revealed that the quality of water delivery service had a significant impact on crop production. Analysis through correlation did not imply significant relationships among water delivery services, management and hardware. However, it is inferred from the result that there would be still more room to improve the AHP model toward better evaluation of the irrigation project by adding more internal process indicators to the model.

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 2009

Catena, 2009

Application of organic soil amendments to disturbed soil has been shown to improve aggregate stab... more Application of organic soil amendments to disturbed soil has been shown to improve aggregate stability and reduce soil susceptibility to erosion. Employing ultrasonic aggregate stability assessment techniques described earlier [Fristensky, A. and Grismer, M.E., 2008. A simultaneous model for ultrasonic aggregate stability assessment. Catena, 74: 153–164.], we assess the effect of two experimental organic soil amendments – a compost and a woodchip mulch incorporated at a rate of 2000–6000 kg ha− 1 N-equivalence – on soil aggregation and aggregate stability at four drastically disturbed sites within the Lake Tahoe Basin, USA. Experimental plots were established 1–3 years prior to testing. The soils were of granitic or volcanic origin, and disturbed by either ski run or road development. Soil treatments were observed to significantly (p < 0.05) increase both aggregation (300% average increase) and ultrasonic aggregate stability (600% average increase) relative to the untreated soil. However, at the two sites disturbed by ski run development, the control treatment (tilling and surface application of pine–needle mulch) performed comparably to the two incorporated compost treatments, suggesting that the effects of the experimental amendments on aggregation were negligible at these sites, or their effective duration was shorter than the evaluation period.Rainfall simulations (72–120 mm h− 1) were performed on the treatment plots, and results were compared with the ultrasonic aggregate stability indices. Significant (p < 0.05) positive correlations were obtained between the measurements of aggregate instability and indices of soil susceptibility to runoff, including steady-state infiltration rate (measured values between 1 and 120 mm h− 1), and the level of kinetic energy of applied rainfall at which runoff commences (EBR, measured values between 12 and 224 J m− 2). However, no correlation was found between the ultrasonic aggregate stability indices and observed soil erosion variables. Interestingly, positive relationships (p < 0.05) were observed between both infiltration rate and EBR and the proportion of 2–20 μm and < 2 μm particles liberated from the largest aggregates detected in each soil. Our results suggest that ultrasonic aggregate stability indices may be useful indicators of soil susceptibility to runoff and erosion under rainfall.

Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering-asce, 2001

Land Degradation & Development, 2008

Runoff sediment from disturbed soils in the Lake Tahoe Basin has resulted in light scattering, ac... more Runoff sediment from disturbed soils in the Lake Tahoe Basin has resulted in light scattering, accumulation of nutrients, and subsequent loss in lake clarity. Little quantified information about erosion rates and runoff particle-size distributions (PSDs) exists for determining stream and lake loading associated with land management. Building on previous studies using rainfall simulation (RS) techniques for quantifying infiltration, runoff, and erosion rates, we determine the dependence and significance of runoff sediment PSDs and sediment yield (SY, or erodibility) on slope and compare these relationships between erosion control treatments (e.g., mulch covers, compost, or woodchip incorporation, plantings) with bare and undisturbed, or ‘native’ forest soils. We used simulated rainfall rates of 60–100 mm h−1 applied over replicated 0·64 m2 plots. Measured parameters included time to runoff (s), infiltration and runoff rates (mm h−1), SY (g mm−1 runoff), and average sediment concentration (SC, g L−1) as well as PSDs in runoff samples. In terms of significant relationships, granitic soils had larger particle sizes than volcanic soils in bulk soil and runoff samples. Consequently, runoff rates, SCs, and SYs were greater from bare volcanic as compared to that from bare granitic soils at similar slopes. Generally, runoff rates increased with increasing slope on bare soils, while infiltration rates decreased. Similarly, SY increased with slope for both soil types, though SYs from volcanic soils are three to four times larger than that from granitic soils. As SY increased, smaller particle sizes are observed in runoff for all soil conditions and particle sizes decreased with increasing slope. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Catena, 2008

Aggregate stability is a difficult to quantify, complex soil property. Ultrasonic processing of s... more Aggregate stability is a difficult to quantify, complex soil property. Ultrasonic processing of soil–water suspensions enables quantifiable and readily reproducible assessment of the level of mechanical energy applied to soil aggregates. Here, we present a method of investigating the stability and comminution of soil aggregates by simultaneously modeling the redistribution of particles throughout any arbitrarily-selected set of soil particle-size intervals as ultrasonic energy is applied to a soil–water suspension. Following model development, we demonstrate its application to 5 particle-size subgroups (0.04–2000 μm) of a Dystroxerept subject to 12 levels of ultrasonic energy between 0 and 5800 J g− 1 (750 mL− 1). Laser granulometry was used for particle-size distribution (PSD) analysis, providing precise, non-disruptive measurements of changes in the volume of PSD subgroups in both the microaggregate (< 250 μm; 3 subgroups) and macroaggregate (> 250 μm; 2 subgroups) fractions throughout ultrasonic treatment. Two groups of aggregates were detected exhibiting significantly (p < 0.05) different ultrasonic stability: a group composed exclusively of macroaggregates ranging 250–2000 μm in size, and a finer, relatively stable group ranging 20–1000 μm. The PSD of particles liberated from two aggregate groups significantly (p < 0.05) differed: the coarser, less-stable group liberated 13% clay (0.04–2 μm), 53% fine silt (2–20 μm), and 34% coarse silt and sand (20–250 μm); while the finer, more-stable group liberated 26% clay and 74% fine silt. The ultrasonic energy required to disrupt 25%, 50%, and 75% of all aggregates within a given PSD interval significantly (p < 0.05) differed between all selected intervals, showing a trend of declining stability with increasing particle-size. Both the flexibility of the proposed model and the extension of ultrasonic stability assessment to simultaneous analysis of both microaggregate and macroaggregate subgroups can facilitate broader application of ultrasonic methods to soil processes related research.

Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering-asce, 1994

Journal of Environmental Quality, 1988

Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering-asce, 1991

A nine-month field study has been conducted to assess the occurrence of seepage and potential gro... more A nine-month field study has been conducted to assess the occurrence of seepage and potential groundwater contamination from a 90-acre drainwater evaporation pond. Pond water balances and point seepage measurements described the temporal and spatial variation of seepage. Pond seepage impacts on shallow groundwater elevations and salinity appeared to be negligible.

This report presents the results of an ecological risk analysis of emissions from two oil shale t... more This report presents the results of an ecological risk analysis of emissions from two oil shale technologies, Paraho and TOSCO-II. Because both technologies have no aqueous discharges, only waste leachates and air pollutants are considered. The formation of leachate from wastewater-moistened spent shale and the transport of the leachate to the nearest well and creek were modeled. The contaminated creek

Hydrological Sciences Journal-journal Des Sciences Hydrologiques, 2012

Land management and its effects on water quality are a concern where regulatory agencies work to ... more Land management and its effects on water quality are a concern where regulatory agencies work to establish sediment and/or nutrient loadings. Runoff and erosion measurement in the field and modelling at the catchment scale are often the only means of generating realistic data and results for subsequent analyses. As such, it is critical to link local-scale field measurements associated with the range of land uses or soil restoration efforts with the catchment-scale sediment loading. A distributed hydrological model with locally-derived, slope-dependent sediment yield (erodibility) equations developed from rainfall simulation (RS) studies at the 1-m2 scale across the Tahoe basin, USA, is employed to determine the runoff-dependent scaling factors (SFs) necessary to predict daily stream sediment loading from the forested uplands. Data from three “paired”, adjacent, west-shore Lake Tahoe tributary catchments are considered for the period 1994–2004 at time scales ranging from daily to annual. At all time scales, the SF was dependent on runoff (R), particularly at smaller values, but was readily simplified as an approximately inverse square-root function. Optimized SF–runoff regressions for each watershed were equivalent when modified by ratios of watershed area. As a result, a single daily SF–runoff equation was determined (through minimization of sediment load prediction errors) that could be successfully applied to all three watersheds with an accuracy consistent with the predictive error associated with any one of the watersheds alone. Sensitivity analyses indicated that sediment loading predictions were more sensitive to the SF–runoff equation coefficient rather than the exponent. Annual sediment load prediction errors of ˜30% might be expected for low or high runoff years. Editor D. Koutsoyiannis Citation Grismer, M.E., 2012. Erosion modelling for land management in the Tahoe basin, USA: scaling from plots to forest catchments. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 57 (5), 878–900.La gestion des terres et ses effets sur la qualité de l'eau sont des préoccupation à propos desquelles les organismes de réglementation travaillent à établir les charges sédimentaires et / ou les charges d'éléments nutritifs. Les mesures du ruissellement et de l'érosion in situ et la modélisation à l'échelle du bassin versant sont assez souvent les seuls moyens d'obtenir des données réalistes et des résultats pour des analyses ultérieures. Il est donc essentiel de relier les mesures de terrain à l'échelle locale, associées à toute une gamme d'utilisations des terres ou d'efforts de restauration des sols, avec la charge en sédiments à l'échelle du bassin versant. Un modèle hydrologique distribué, fondé sur des équations d'érodabilité locale fonction de la pente, établies à partir de simulation de pluie (SP) à l'échelle du m2 dans le bassin du lac Tahoe a été utilisé pour déterminer les facteurs d'échelle dépendant du ruissellement (FE) nécessaires pour prévoir les charges journalières de sédiments fluviatiles provenant des hautes terres boisées. Les données de trois bassins versants «jumelés» adjacents, affluents de la côte ouest du lac Tahoe, ont été retenues pour la période 1994–2004 à des échelles de temps allant du jour à l'année. A toutes les échelles de temps le FE dépend du ruissellement (R), en particulier pour les petites valeurs, mais peut facilement s'exprimer de façon simplifiée comme une fonction inverse de sa racine carrée. Les régressions optimisées entre FE et R pour chaque bassin versant sont équivalentes lorsqu'elles sont modifiées par un facteur fonction de l'aire du bassin versant. En conséquence, une seule équation de régression journalière FE-R a été déterminée (en minimisant des erreurs de prévision de la charge sédimentaire), qui pourra être appliquéeavec succès aux trois bassins versants, avec une précision compatible avec l'erreur de prévision associée à l'un quelconque des bassins versants pris isolément. Les analyses de sensibilité indiquent que les prévisions de charge sédimentaire étaient plus sensibles au coefficient de l'équation FE–R qu'à son exposant. On peut estimer à ˜30% l'erreur de prévision de la charge sédimentaire annuelle pour des années sèches ou humides.

Agricultural Water Management, 2008

Performance improvement of existing irrigation projects has been a major concern in international... more Performance improvement of existing irrigation projects has been a major concern in international irrigation development. Activities for irrigation project improvement usually involve not only infrastructure (hardware) improvement but also changes in management. However, the impact of management improvement on irrigation performance has not been sufficiently verified because, in most cases, (a) irrigation project evaluation is done qualitatively, and (b) management improvement is implemented simultaneously with hardware improvement. Therefore, the impact of management improvement needs to be evaluated quantitatively and separately from hardware. This research attempts to quantify effects of management and hardware improvements on irrigation project performance, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). First, an AHP model for irrigation project evaluation was developed by using internal process indicators of the rapid appraisal process. Secondly, the AHP model was applied for scoring 16 irrigation projects dealt with in FAO Water Reports 19. Then, finally, effects of the evaluation factors (e.g. managing entities, hardware, water delivery services) on irrigation project performance were analyzed by changing weights of the evaluation factors and comparing correlations between AHP model scores and crop yields. The research showed the potential and effectiveness of AHP application to irrigation project evaluation. Also, it revealed that the quality of water delivery service had a significant impact on crop production. Analysis through correlation did not imply significant relationships among water delivery services, management and hardware. However, it is inferred from the result that there would be still more room to improve the AHP model toward better evaluation of the irrigation project by adding more internal process indicators to the model.

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 2009

Catena, 2009

Application of organic soil amendments to disturbed soil has been shown to improve aggregate stab... more Application of organic soil amendments to disturbed soil has been shown to improve aggregate stability and reduce soil susceptibility to erosion. Employing ultrasonic aggregate stability assessment techniques described earlier [Fristensky, A. and Grismer, M.E., 2008. A simultaneous model for ultrasonic aggregate stability assessment. Catena, 74: 153–164.], we assess the effect of two experimental organic soil amendments – a compost and a woodchip mulch incorporated at a rate of 2000–6000 kg ha− 1 N-equivalence – on soil aggregation and aggregate stability at four drastically disturbed sites within the Lake Tahoe Basin, USA. Experimental plots were established 1–3 years prior to testing. The soils were of granitic or volcanic origin, and disturbed by either ski run or road development. Soil treatments were observed to significantly (p < 0.05) increase both aggregation (300% average increase) and ultrasonic aggregate stability (600% average increase) relative to the untreated soil. However, at the two sites disturbed by ski run development, the control treatment (tilling and surface application of pine–needle mulch) performed comparably to the two incorporated compost treatments, suggesting that the effects of the experimental amendments on aggregation were negligible at these sites, or their effective duration was shorter than the evaluation period.Rainfall simulations (72–120 mm h− 1) were performed on the treatment plots, and results were compared with the ultrasonic aggregate stability indices. Significant (p < 0.05) positive correlations were obtained between the measurements of aggregate instability and indices of soil susceptibility to runoff, including steady-state infiltration rate (measured values between 1 and 120 mm h− 1), and the level of kinetic energy of applied rainfall at which runoff commences (EBR, measured values between 12 and 224 J m− 2). However, no correlation was found between the ultrasonic aggregate stability indices and observed soil erosion variables. Interestingly, positive relationships (p < 0.05) were observed between both infiltration rate and EBR and the proportion of 2–20 μm and < 2 μm particles liberated from the largest aggregates detected in each soil. Our results suggest that ultrasonic aggregate stability indices may be useful indicators of soil susceptibility to runoff and erosion under rainfall.

Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering-asce, 2001

Land Degradation & Development, 2008

Runoff sediment from disturbed soils in the Lake Tahoe Basin has resulted in light scattering, ac... more Runoff sediment from disturbed soils in the Lake Tahoe Basin has resulted in light scattering, accumulation of nutrients, and subsequent loss in lake clarity. Little quantified information about erosion rates and runoff particle-size distributions (PSDs) exists for determining stream and lake loading associated with land management. Building on previous studies using rainfall simulation (RS) techniques for quantifying infiltration, runoff, and erosion rates, we determine the dependence and significance of runoff sediment PSDs and sediment yield (SY, or erodibility) on slope and compare these relationships between erosion control treatments (e.g., mulch covers, compost, or woodchip incorporation, plantings) with bare and undisturbed, or ‘native’ forest soils. We used simulated rainfall rates of 60–100 mm h−1 applied over replicated 0·64 m2 plots. Measured parameters included time to runoff (s), infiltration and runoff rates (mm h−1), SY (g mm−1 runoff), and average sediment concentration (SC, g L−1) as well as PSDs in runoff samples. In terms of significant relationships, granitic soils had larger particle sizes than volcanic soils in bulk soil and runoff samples. Consequently, runoff rates, SCs, and SYs were greater from bare volcanic as compared to that from bare granitic soils at similar slopes. Generally, runoff rates increased with increasing slope on bare soils, while infiltration rates decreased. Similarly, SY increased with slope for both soil types, though SYs from volcanic soils are three to four times larger than that from granitic soils. As SY increased, smaller particle sizes are observed in runoff for all soil conditions and particle sizes decreased with increasing slope. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Catena, 2008

Aggregate stability is a difficult to quantify, complex soil property. Ultrasonic processing of s... more Aggregate stability is a difficult to quantify, complex soil property. Ultrasonic processing of soil–water suspensions enables quantifiable and readily reproducible assessment of the level of mechanical energy applied to soil aggregates. Here, we present a method of investigating the stability and comminution of soil aggregates by simultaneously modeling the redistribution of particles throughout any arbitrarily-selected set of soil particle-size intervals as ultrasonic energy is applied to a soil–water suspension. Following model development, we demonstrate its application to 5 particle-size subgroups (0.04–2000 μm) of a Dystroxerept subject to 12 levels of ultrasonic energy between 0 and 5800 J g− 1 (750 mL− 1). Laser granulometry was used for particle-size distribution (PSD) analysis, providing precise, non-disruptive measurements of changes in the volume of PSD subgroups in both the microaggregate (< 250 μm; 3 subgroups) and macroaggregate (> 250 μm; 2 subgroups) fractions throughout ultrasonic treatment. Two groups of aggregates were detected exhibiting significantly (p < 0.05) different ultrasonic stability: a group composed exclusively of macroaggregates ranging 250–2000 μm in size, and a finer, relatively stable group ranging 20–1000 μm. The PSD of particles liberated from two aggregate groups significantly (p < 0.05) differed: the coarser, less-stable group liberated 13% clay (0.04–2 μm), 53% fine silt (2–20 μm), and 34% coarse silt and sand (20–250 μm); while the finer, more-stable group liberated 26% clay and 74% fine silt. The ultrasonic energy required to disrupt 25%, 50%, and 75% of all aggregates within a given PSD interval significantly (p < 0.05) differed between all selected intervals, showing a trend of declining stability with increasing particle-size. Both the flexibility of the proposed model and the extension of ultrasonic stability assessment to simultaneous analysis of both microaggregate and macroaggregate subgroups can facilitate broader application of ultrasonic methods to soil processes related research.

Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering-asce, 1994

Journal of Environmental Quality, 1988

Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering-asce, 1991