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2017
- January
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Justin Hughes
"How the Army Corps of Engineers Regulates Our Water Resources,"
Tuesday, January 24, 2017.
Kansas City District Regulatory Project Manager Justin Hughes explains the many roles the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plays in permitting, regulation and development mitigation throughout the country and in the Kansas City area. Many development projects involving our rivers and streams require permitting or approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
- February
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Nicholas P. Money, Ph.D.
“The Ameoba in the Room & the Fungi in the Sky”
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Faith in our senses has led to fundamental misunderstandings about the meaning of life. We see an elephant but the amoeba in the mud beneath its feet is more important for the health of the planet. We miscast ourselves too, regarding Homo sapiens as the principal marvel of creation. In fact, we are complex ecosystems, part animal part microbe, with trillions of bacteria in our gut that fuel our metabolism and even influence our thoughts. In this presentation, Professor Nicholas Money offers an overview of the microbial hegemony on earth and describes his recent research linking fungal spores to rainfall.
Nicholas P. Money, PhD, is an Anglo-American gentleman of letters and professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is an expert on fungal growth and reproduction. Nicholas has authored a number of popular science books that celebrate the diversity of the microbial world, including “Mr. Bloomfield’s Orchard” (2002), and “The Amoeba in the Room” (2014). His first novel, “The Mycologist: The Diary of Bartholomew Leach, Professor of Natural Philosophy,” is a comedy of errors and will be published in 2017.
- March
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Diana Papoulias, PhD.
“Film & Discussion &emdash; Exxpedition &emdash; Making the Unseen Seen,"
Tuesday, March 28, 2017.
Diana Papoulias was part of an all-women crew that sailed the Atlantic Ocean sampling for distribution and environmental impacts of plastic on our oceans. This video is a screening of the film about her expedition, followed with an update on the science and a discussion with the audience.
- April
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Caroline Elliott
“Probing the depths of the Big Muddy,"
Tuesday, April 25th, 2017.
The Big Muddy is deep and mysterious. One can’t just look down and see what is on the bottom the way you can in a clear Ozark stream. Scientists from the US Geological Survey at the Columbia Environmental Research Center have developed a variety of tools to see through the murky river and watch what is happening on the bottom. They use precise measurements to watch and measure the migration of sand dunes and we can see details like rocky outcrops and large trees on the bottom of the river. Through the use of sonar they image fish like the pallid sturgeon as they swim upstream and even spawn in fast deep areas near the bottom of the river.
USGS Geologist Caroline Elliott reveals what she’s learned about the hidden world of the bottom of the Missouri River, and share images of this murky and shifting environment. Caroline’s research is part of the Comprehensive Sturgeon Project. Her team is measuring bedload transport rates and mapping out the parts of the river that are moving and parts of the river channel that are stable. The research questions for pallid sturgeon recruitment and survival involve determining if the places where pallid sturgeon are currently spawning in the Missouri River are stable enough to support successful incubation of sturgeon embryos. When pallid sturgeon spawn they release eggs that adhere to rocky substrates in the river and scientists think these eggs require stable substrates for four to eight days before they hatch. Other questions related to bed and sand dune movement involve understanding how sturgeon move upstream through the river during their pre-spawning migrations and how drifting invertebrates many bottom-dwelling fish feed on move along the bed of the river. The USGS geomorphologists use sonar, specifically a multibeam echosounder and survey-grade GPS to map the bottom of the river. They use an acoustic Doppler current profiler to map velocity flow fields in the river channel and several types of sonar and underwater cameras to view fish and sediment in the river. They’ve made measurements at the bottom of the river in many places along the 811 miles of the Lower Missouri River downstream from Gavins Point Dam and on the Yellowstone River, a Missouri River tributary upstream in Montana and North Dakota.
- May
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Dave Heimann, USGS
“Where’s the Mud? Understanding Sediment,"
Tuesday, May 23, 2016.
The movement of sediment plays a huge role in the ecology and hydrology of the Missouri River. With bank stabilization and massive upstream reservoirs blocking sediment flow, the Lower Missouri River carries about 1/5 of the sediment load that it did historically. Dave Heimann will look deeper at where that sediment is in the system, and how that effects other aspects of the river.
- June
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Greg Poleski
"Next Level Missouri River Water Trail?"
Tuesday, June 27, 2017 .
The Missouri River Water Trail is an excellent online reference for experienced and wanna-be paddlers on the Big Muddy. Published by the Mo. Dept. of Natural Resources, this online resource gives paddling tips, geographic references, access points and more. The MR340 proves that a broader vision of the Missouri River as a regional as well as local transportation and adventure route is a very real possiblity.
Greg Poleski is a founding member of Greenway Network. He is the organizing host for the Big Muddy Speaker Series in St. Charles , the annual River Soundings symposium, the Pedal Paddle Series and the Confluence Conservation Crew. He is currently a board member of the Mississippi River Water Trail Association and is a guide for Big Muddy Adventures. He was awarded Missouri River Relief’s “2016 Missouri River Hero Award”.
