Water and Life
Photo collage of water flow interacting with plants and fish

Biological considerations are important when considering the overall health of watersheds, lakes, and streams. Using unique facilities like SAFL's Outdoor StreamLab and the EcoFlume, SAFL researchers are able to conduct a wide range of experiments and field campaigns that look to better understand the interactions between physical, chemical, and biological stream processes. Projects that include observing young life stages of endangered fish in a laboratory environment, bringing in native mussels to study how they respond to differences in flow and sediment concentrations, working to understand the best environmental conditions under which wild rice can grown, and even mapping the swimming signatures of microalgae to determine how to promote the best biofuel production are but a small subset of examples of how SAFL research looks to promote healthier lakes, rivers, and streams.

SAFL Affiliated Faculty
Xue Feng
Jacques Finlay
Miki Hondzo
Crystal Ng

SAFL Researchers
Matt Hernick
Jessica Kozarek

Read more about SAFL water and life related projects/research:
(filter "Water and Life" if needed)

Water and Life

MINUHET software tool available for practitioners to better assess temperature impacts of stormwater runoff in trout streams

Posted

MINUHET is a stand-alone software tool use to simulate the flow of stormwater surface runoff and its associated heat content through a small watershed. Interested practitioners can download the software on this page.

Photo of the SAFL ecoflume from above, during USGS fish experiments
Lakes, Rivers, and Groundwater, Water and Life

SAFL team designs flume to support juvenile fish studies

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The United States Geological Survey (USGS) tasked SAFL researchers with the design of a race-track style flume, with the geometry and hydraulic conditions for early life stages of pallid sturgeon, an ancient but endangered fish species which historically inhabited the Missouri and lower Mississippi rivers