Edward Stets
Edward (Ted) Stets is a Research Ecologist with the USGS in Mounds View, MN. He studies water quality and environmental change mostly in freshwater systems. His expertise includes biogeochemistry, data analysis, statistical methods, trend analysis, and project management. Ted is currently involved with projects nationally (NAWQA, IWP) and focused in the Upper Mississipi and Boulder Creek, CO.
Biography
B.S. - 1996, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, Biological Sciences / Environmental Sciences
M.S. - 2001, University of South Alabama, Dauphin Island, AL, Marine Sciences
Ph.D. - 2007, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, Ecology
| 2019-Present | Research Ecologist, Water Mission Area | Mounds View, MN |
| 2017-2019 | Research Ecologist, Water Mission Area | Boulder, CO |
| 2011-2017 | Research Ecologist, National Research Program | Boulder, CO |
| 2009-2011 | Ecologist, National Research Program | Boulder, CO |
| 2007-2009 | Post-doctoral Fellow, National Academy of Sciences | Boulder, CO |
Selected Publications
Stackpoole, S.M., E.G. Stets, and L.A. Sprague. (2019) Variable impacts of contemporary versus legacy agricultural phosphorus on US river water quality. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116, pp. 20562-20567, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1903226116.
Savoy, P., A.P. Appling, J.B. Heffernan, E.G. Stets, J.S. Read, J.W. Harvey, and E.S. Bernhardt. (2019) Metabolic rhythms in flowing waters: An approach for classifying river productivity regimes. Limnology and Oceanography, vol. 64, pp. 1835-1851, https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.11154.
Oelsner, G.P., and E.G. Stets. (2019) Recent trends in nutrient and sediment loading to coastal areas of the conterminous U.S.: Insights and global context. Science of the Total Environment, vol. 654, pp. 1225-1240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.437.
Bernhardt, E. S., J. B. Heffernan, N. B. Grimm, E. H. Stanley, J. W. Harvey, M. Arroita, A. P. Appling, M. J. Cohen, W. H. McDowell, R. O. Hall, J. S. Read, B. J. Roberts, E. G. Stets, and C. B. Yackulic. (2018). The metabolic regimes of flowing waters. Limnology and Oceanography, vol. 63, pp. S99-S118, https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.10726.
Stets, E. G., C. J. Lee, D. A. Lytle, and M. R. Schock (2018). Increasing chloride in rivers of the conterminous U.S. and linkages to potential corrosivity and lead action level exceedances in drinking water. Science of the Total Environment, vol. 613, pp. 1498-1509, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.07.119.
Jenni, K. E., M. B. Goldhaber, J. L. Betancourt, J. S. Baron, R. S. Bristol, M. Cantrill, P. E. Exter, M. J. Focazio, J. W. Haines, L. E. Hay, L. Hsu, V. F. Labson, K. D. Lafferty, K. A. Ludwig, P. C. Milly, T. L. Morelli, S. A. Morman, N. T. Nassar, T. R. Newman, A. C. Ostroff, J. S. Read, S. C. Reed, C. D. Shapiro, R. A. Smith, W. E. Sanford, T. L. Sohl, E. G. Stets, A. J. Terando, D. E. Tillitt, M. A. Tischler, P. L. Toccalino, D. J. Wald, M. P. Waldrop, A. Wein, J. F. Weltzin, and C. E. Zimmerman (2017). Grand challenges for integrated USGS science—A workshop report. Report 2017-1076, Reston, VA., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20171076.
Stets, E. G., D. Butman, C. P. McDonald, S. M. Stackpoole, M. D. DeGrandpre, and R. G. Striegl (2017). Carbonate buffering and metabolic controls on carbon dioxide in rivers. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 31:663-677, https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20171076.
Crawford, J. T., L. C. Loken, E. H. Stanley, E. G. Stets, M. M. Dornblaser, and R. G. Striegl (2016). Basin scale controls on CO2 and CH4 emissions from the Upper Mississippi River. Geophysical Research Letters 43:1973-1979. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL067599.
Hall, E.K., D.O. Schoolmaster Jr., A.M. Amado, E.G. Stets, J.T. Lennon, L. Domine, J.B. Cotner. (2016) Scaling relationships among drivers of aquatic respiration: from the smallest to the largest freshwater ecosystems. Inland Waters, vol. 6(1), pp. 1-10, doi: 10.5268/IW-6.1.839.[Link]
Butman, D., S.M. Stackpoole, E.G. Stets, C.P. McDonald, D.W. Clow, and R.G. Striegl. (2015) Aquatic carbon cycling in the conterminous United States and implications for terrestrial carbon accounting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 113 (1), pp. 58-63, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1512651112. [Link]
Stets EG, Kelly VJ, Crawford CG (2014) Long-term trends in alkalinity in large rivers of the conterminous US in relation to acidification, agriculture, and hydrologic modification. Science of the Total Environment, 488–489, 280-289.doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.04.054. [Download File]
Striegl, R.G., M.M. Dornblaser, C.P. McDonald, J.A. Rover, and E.G. Stets. (2012). Carbon dioxide and methane emissions from the Yukon River system. vol. 26, GB0E05, doi:10.1029/2012GB004306. [Link]
Stets, E.G., V.J. Kelly, W. Broussard, T. Smith, and C.G. Crawford. (2012). Century-scale perspective on water quality in selected river basins of the conterminous United States. U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5225, 120p. [Link]
McDonald, C.P., J.A. Rover, E.G. Stets, and R.G. Striegl. (2012). The regional abundance and size distribution of lakes and reservoirs in the United States and implications for estimates of global lake extent. Limnology and Oceanography, vol. 57, pp. 597-606, doi: 10.4319/lo.2012.57.2.0597. [Link]
Stets, E.G., T.C. Winter, D.O Rosenberry, and R.G. Striegl. (2010). Quantification of surface water and groundwater flows to open- and closed-basin lakes in a headwaters watershed using a descriptive oxygen stable isotope model. Water Resources Research, vol 46, W03515, doi: 10.1029/2009WR007793. [Link]
Stets, E.G., R.G. Striegl, D.O. Rosenberry, G.R. Aiken, and T.C. Winter. (2009). Hydrologic support of carbon dioxide flux revealed by whole-lake carbon budgets. Journal of Geophysical Research, Series G: Biogeosciences, vol. 114, G01008, doi: 10.1029/2008JG000783. [Link]
Stets, E.G. and J.B. Cotner. (2008). The influence of dissolved organic carbon on bacterial phosphorus uptake and bacteria-phytoplankton dynamics in two Minnesota lakes. Limnology and Oceanography, vol. 53, pp. 137-147. [Link]
Science and Products
Water Quality Across Regional Stream Networks: The Influence of Land Cover and Land Use, Climate, and Biogeochemical Processing on Spatiotemporal Variance
Land cover and land use (LC/LU), climate, and biogeochemical processing are significant drivers of water quality in streams and rivers over broad scales of space and time. As LC/LU and climate continue to change we can expect changes in water quality. This project seeks to understand the drivers of spatial and temporal variability in water quality across scales using new and existing data to...
Connections between Forested and Urban Landscapes and Implications for Water Supply
Interactions between forested and urban landscapes can lead to reciprocal effects that have substantial impacts on water supply and ecology. Air pollution from urban and forested landscapes can be deposited on adjacent forests, while forest disturbance, such as wildfires and floods, can remobilize those contaminants. Additionally, pollutants from legacy land use (e.g., mining) can also be...
U.S. Rivers Show Few Signs of Improvement from Historic Nitrate Increases
A recent U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study provides a rare glimpse into how nitrate levels in 22 large rivers across the Nation have changed during the past 65 years. Despite the stabilization of nitrogen inputs in recent decades, there is no evidence of widespread decrease in nitrate levels in rivers.
Continental-scale overview of stream primary productivity, its links to water quality, and consequences for aquatic carbon biogeochemistry
Streams and rivers have a limited spatial extent, but are increasingly recognized as key components of regional biogeochemical cycles. The collective metabolic processing of organisms, known as ecosystem metabolism, is centrally important to nutrient cycling and carbon fluxes in these environments, but is poorly integrated into emerging biogeochemical concepts. This line of inquiry lags behind...
Network controls on mean and variance of nitrate loads from the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico
Excessive nitrate loading to the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) has caused widespread hypoxia over many decades. Despite recent reductions in nitrate loads observed at local scales, decreases in nitrate loading from the MRB to the GoM have been small (1.58 % during 2002-2012) with a low level of analytical confidence in this trend. This work seeks to...
Crawford, John T.; Stets, Edward G.; Sprague, Lori A. Metabolic rhythms in flowing waters: An approach for classifying river productivity regimes
Although seasonal patterns of ecosystem productivity have been extensively described and analyzed with respect to their primary forcings in terrestrial and marine systems, comparatively little is known about these same processes in rivers. However, it is now possible to perform a large‐scale synthesis on the patterns and drivers of river...
Savoy, Philip; Bernhardt, Emily S.; Appling, Alison P.; Heffernan, James B.; Stets, Edward G.; Read, Jordan S.; Harvey, Judson Recent trends in nutrient and sediment loading to coastal areas of the conterminous U.S.: Insights and global context
Coastal areas in the U.S. and worldwide have experienced massive population and land use changes contributing to significant degradation of coastal ecosystems. Excess nutrient pollution causes coastal ecosystem degradation, and both regulatory and management efforts have targeted reducing nutrient and sediment loading to coastal rivers. Decadal...
Oelsner, Gretchen P.; Stets, Edward G. The metabolic regimes of 356 rivers in the United States
A national-scale quantification of metabolic energy flow in streams and rivers can improve understanding of the temporal dynamics of in-stream activity, links between energy cycling and ecosystem services, and the effects of human activities on aquatic metabolism. The two dominant terms in aquatic metabolism, gross primary production (GPP) and...
Appling, Alison P.; Read, Jordan S.; Winslow, Luke A.; Arroita, Maite; Bernhardt, Emily S.; Griffiths, Natalie A.; Hall, Robert O.; Harvey, Judson W.; Heffernan, James B.; Stanley, Emily H.; Stets, Edward G.; Yackulic, Charles B. Influence of climate on alpine stream chemistry and water sources
The resilience of alpine/subalpine watersheds may be viewed as the resistance of streamflow or stream chemistry to change under varying climatic conditions, which is governed by the relative size (volume) and transit time of surface and subsurface water sources. Here, we use end‐member mixing analysis in Andrews Creek, an alpine stream in Rocky...
Foks, Sydney; Stets, Edward G.; Singha, Kamini; Clow, David W. The metabolic regimes of flowing waters
The processes and biomass that characterize any ecosystem are fundamentally constrained by the total amount of energy that is either fixed within or delivered across its boundaries. Ultimately, ecosystems may be understood and classified by their rates of total and net productivity and by the seasonal patterns of photosynthesis and respiration....
Bernhardt, Emily S.; Heffernan, Jim B.; Grimm, Nancy B.; Stanley, Emily H.; Harvey, Judson; Arroita, M.; Appling, Alison P.; Cohen, M.J.; McDowell, William H.; Hall, R.O.; Read, Jordan S.; Roberts, B.J.; Stets, Edward G.; Yackulic, Charles B. Increasing chloride in rivers of the conterminous U.S. and linkages to potential corrosivity and lead action level exceedances in drinking water
Corrosion in water-distribution systems is a costly problem and controlling corrosion is a primary focus of efforts to reduce lead (Pb) and copper (Cu) in tap water. High chloride concentrations can increase the tendency of water to cause corrosion in distribution systems. The effects of chloride are also expressed in several...
Stets, Edward G.; Lee, Casey J.; Lytle, Darren A.; Schock, Michael R.
Grand challenges for integrated USGS science—A workshop report
Executive SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a long history of advancing the traditional Earth science disciplines and identifying opportunities to integrate USGS science across disciplines to address complex societal problems. The USGS science strategy for 2007–2017 laid out key challenges in disciplinary and interdisciplinary arenas,...
Jenni, Karen E.; Goldhaber, Martin B.; Betancourt, Julio L.; Baron, Jill S.; Bristol, R. Sky; Cantrill, Mary; Exter, Paul E.; Focazio, Michael J.; Haines, John W.; Hay, Lauren E.; Hsu, Leslie; Labson, Victor F.; Lafferty, Kevin D.; Ludwig, K.A.; Milly, Paul C. D.; Morelli, Toni L.; Morman, Suzette A.; Nassar, Nedal T.; Newman, Timothy R.; Ostroff, Andrea C. ; Read, Jordan S.; Reed, Sasha C.; Shapiro, Carl D.; Smith, Richard A.; Sanford, Ward E.; Sohl, Terry L.; Stets, Edward G.; Terando, Adam J.; Tillitt, Donald E.; Tischler, Michael A.; Toccalino, Patricia L.; Wald, David J.; Waldrop, Mark P.; Wein, Anne; Weltzin, Jake F.; Zimmerman, Christian E. Carbonate buffering and metabolic controls on carbon dioxide in rivers
Multiple processes support the significant efflux of carbon dioxide (CO2) from rivers and streams. Attribution of CO2 oversaturation will lead to better quantification of the freshwater carbon cycle and provide insights into the net cycling of nutrients and pollutants. CO2 production is closely related to O2consumption because of the...
Stets, Edward G.; Butman, David; McDonald, Cory P.; Stackpoole, Sarah M.; DeGrandpre, Michael D.; Striegl, Robert G.
Water-quality trends in the nation’s rivers and streams, 1972–2012—Data preparation, statistical methods, and trend results
Since passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, Federal, State, and local governments have invested billions of dollars to reduce pollution entering rivers and streams. To understand the return on these investments and to effectively manage and protect the Nation’s water resources in the future, we need to know how and why water quality has been...
Oelsner, Gretchen P.; Sprague, Lori A.; Murphy, Jennifer C.; Zuellig, Robert E.; Johnson, Henry M.; Ryberg, Karen R.; Falcone, James A.; Stets, Edward G.; Vecchia, Aldo V.; Riskin, Melissa L.; De Cicco, Laura A.; Mills, Taylor J.; Farmer, William H. Inorganic carbon loading as a primary driver of dissolved carbon dioxide concentrations in the lakes and reservoirs of the contiguous United States
Accurate quantification of CO2 flux across the air-water interface and identification of the mechanisms driving CO2 concentrations in lakes and reservoirs is critical to integrating aquatic systems into large-scale carbon budgets, and to predicting the response of these systems to changes in climate or terrestrial carbon cycling. Large-...
McDonald, Cory P.; Stets, Edward G.; Striegl, Robert G.; Butman, David Quantification of surface water and groundwater flows to open‐ and closed‐basin lakes in a headwaters watershed using a descriptive oxygen stable isotope model
Accurate quantification of hydrologic fluxes in lakes is important to resource management and for placing hydrologic solute flux in an appropriate biogeochemical context. Water stable isotopes can be used to describe water movements, but they are typically only effective in lakes with long water residence times. We developed a descriptive time...
Stets, Edward G.; Winter, Thomas C.; Rosenberry, Donald O.; Striegl, Robert G.
Nitrate loads entering the Gulf of Mexico have not changed despite reductions at local scales
Reducing delivery of nitrate to the Gulf of Mexico is critical to decreasing the size of the “dead zone”—an area of hypoxia, or low dissolved oxygen—in Louisiana coastal waters. A new USGS study reports that larger, more widespread decreases in nitrate loading to the Gulf are needed to achieve the target levels of a 25% reduction by...