The College of Arts and Sciences

Sarah Ledford

PhD Student Earth Sciences

Advisor: Laura Lautz

Research and Teaching Interests

My personal research focuses on Meadowbrook Creek, NY. It is a first-order stream that goes through the City of Syracuse and exhibits symptoms of ‘urban stream syndrome’ including a flashy hydrograph, altered geomorphology, and elevated contaminant concentrations. In its most downstream section, however, the stream emerges from channelization to a wide floodplain where it is allowed to meander. This change to a heterogeneous geomorphology that reconnects the stream to its floodplain may help improve the surface water quality by increasing the residence time of water in the subsurface and thus also increase the natural attenuation of nutrients.  However, while the increased residence time in the hyporheic zone and groundwater may increase denitrification, large amounts of road salt applied to City roads throughout the winter may be stored in the groundwater and slowly released to the stream year-round, causing a continuous plateau of high concentrations of sodium and chloride levels.  I am using this downstream section as a proxy for a reconstructed stream to investigate the potential restoration effect of urban streams that are reconnected to their floodplain to improve surface water quality while also quantifying negative effects. I am currently working on collecting a longitudinal, temporal profile of the streams by conducting sampling biweekly starting in the spring 2012 through at least the fall, and perhaps into the winter.

Teaching

EAR 105 recitations (5): Fall, 2011

EAR 102 labs (3): Spring, 2012

Publications

Ledford, S.H. and D.P. Gillikin, 2010. The influence of mill dam ponds on the biogeochemistry of small streams. GSA Abstracts with Programs Paper No: 169156. Northeastern Section (45^th Annual) and Southeastern Section (59^th Annual) Joint Meeting (13-16 March 2010).