Dr. James E. Almendinger, Senior Scientist

Ph.D., University of Minnesota (Ecology), 1988
B.A., Ohio Wesleyan University (Botany), 1978

Phone: 651-433-5953 ext. 19
email:

Research Interests

Water is the common thread that runs through virtually all of my research interests, which may be summarized as the use of hydrology as a tool to answer ecological and paleoecological questions.

• Hydrobiological survey of western Mongolia
  My most exciting project revolves around our 2004-05 expeditions to western Mongolia to survey the biodiversity of small aquatic organisms. This was truly a voyage of discovery to search for new species of diatoms (a type of algae), ostracodes (a type of crustacean), and chironomids (a type of insect). My role was to characterize the water chemistry of the lakes, streams, and springs where these organisms live.
• Human impacts on watershed hydrology
  Humans change the watershed surface tremendously by building cities, farming, and logging. These landscape-scale changes alter the way water moves from the watershed into receiving waters such as streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands, which can become degraded from increased loads of silt, nutrients, or toxic materials. Recent projects include studies of how watershed urbanization can affect trout streams, how erosion has increased in the upper Mississippi River Basin as a consequence of human impacts during the last 200 years, and how anthropogenic mercury is transformed in wetlands and lakes into toxic forms that bioaccumulate in the food chain. Our current focus is to use the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), which is a watershed computer modeling program developed by the USDA, to identify appropriate management scenarios to reduce nonpoint-source pollution (sediment and nutrients) reaching the St. Croix River.
• Quaternary paleoecology and paleoclimatology
  Lake sediments accumulate annually and record a history of watershed and climate conditions. Analysis of cores of lake sediment therefore can provide "signals" of past conditions. However, interpreting these signals is not always straightforward. I use various hydrologic computer models to help us understand how lakes, groundwater, watershed conditions, and climate are linked so that we can go back in time and infer past conditions from the signals left behind in the sediments.
• Wetland hydrology
  Wetlands lie at the interface between land and water. Many of the plants depend on specific hydrologic conditions, including water level, fluctuation, and chemistry. Groundwater is an important component, as it directly contacts virtually all of the plants in the wetland. I use various tools, often miniature wells pounded into the wetland, to demonstrate how groundwater influences the wetland and to infer the source of that groundwater.

Representative Publications

(See also reports to funding agencies available as pdf document on our web site)

Jeremiason, J.D., D.R. Engstrom, E.B. Swain, E.A. Nater, B.M. Johnson, J.E. Almendinger, B.A. Monson, and R.K. Kolka. 2006. Sulfate addition increases methylmercury production in an experimental wetland. Environmental Science and Technology 40: 3800-3806.

Clark, J.S., E.C. Grimm, J.J. Donovan, S.C. Fritz, D.R. Engstrom, and J.E. Almendinger. 2002. Drought cycles and landscape responses to past aridity on prairies of the northern Great Plains, USA. Ecology 83(3): 595-601.

Engstrom, D.R., S.C. Fritz, J.E. Almendinger, and S. Juggins. 2000. Chemical and biological trends during lake evolution in recently deglaciated terrain. Nature 408:161-166.

Balogh, S.J., D.R. Engstrom, J.E. Almendinger, M.L. Meyer, and D.K. Johnston. 1999. A history of mercury loading in the upper Mississippi River reconstructed from the sediments of Lake Pepin. Environmental Science and Technology 33: 3297-3302.

Almendinger, J.E. 1999. A method to prioritize and monitor wetland restoration for water-quality improvement. Wetlands Ecology and Management 6:241-251.

Almendinger, J.E., and J.H. Leete. 1998. Regional and local hydrogeology of calcareous fens in the Minnesota River Basin, U.S.A. Wetlands 18: 184-202.

Almendinger, J.E., and J.H. Leete. 1998. Peat characteristics and ground-water geochemistry of calcareous fens in the Minnesota River Basin, U.S.A. Biogeochemistry 43: 17-41.

Almendinger, J.E. 1994. The travel-time ellipse: an approximate zone of transport. Journal of Hydrology 161: 365-373.

Almendinger, J.E. 1993. A groundwater model to explain past lake levels at Parkers Prairie, Minnesota, USA. The Holocene 3: 105-115.

Digerfeldt, G., S. Björck, and J.E. Almendinger. 1992. Reconstruction of past lake levels and their relation to groundwater hydrology in the Parkers Prairie sandplain, west-central Minnesota. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 94: 99-118.

Jacobson, H.A., J.E. Almendinger, and S. Hobbie. 1992. Influence of terrestrial vegetation on sediment-forming processes in kettle lakes of west-central Minnesota. Quaternary Research 38: 103-116.

Almendinger, J.E. 1990. Groundwater control of closed-basin lake levels under steady-state conditions. Journal of Hydrology 112: 293-318.

Perlinger, J.A., J.E. Almendinger, N.R. Urban, and S.J. Eisenreich. 1987. Groundwater geochemistry of aquifer thermal energy storage: long-term test cycle. Water Resources Research 23: 2215-2226.

Almendinger, J.C., J.E. Almendinger, and P.H. Glaser. 1986. Topographic fluctuations across a spring fen and raised bog in the Lost River Peatland, northern Minnesota. Journal of Ecology 74:393-401.