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 |
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...
Nitrate in streams during winter low‐flow conditions as an indicator of legacy nitrate
Winter low‐flow (LF) conditions in streams provide a potential opportunity to evaluate the importance of legacy nitrate in catchments due to the dominance of slow‐flow transport pathways and lowered biotic activity. In this study, the concentration, flux, and trend of nitrate in streams during winter low‐flow conditions were analyzed at 320 sites...
Johnson, Henry M.; Stets, Edward G. Landscape drivers of dynamic change in water quality of US rivers
Water security is a top concern for social well-being and dramatic changes in the availability of freshwater have occurred as a result of human uses and landscape management. Elevated nutrient loading and perturbations to major ion composition have resulted from human activities and have degraded freshwater resources. This study addresses the...
Stets, Edward G.; Sprague, Lori A.; Oelsner, Gretchen P.; Johnson, Henry M.; Murphy, Jennifer C.; Ryberg, Karen R.; Vecchia, Aldo V.; Zuellig, Robert E.; Falcone, James A.; Riskin, Melissa L. Influence of land use and region on glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid in streams in the USA
Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the United States for agricultural and non-agricultural weed control. Many studies demonstrate possible effects of glyphosate and its degradate AMPA on human and ecological health. Although glyphosate is thought to have limited mobility in soil, it is found year-round in many rivers and streams...
Medalie, Laura; Baker, Nancy T.; Shoda, Megan E.; Stone, Wesley W.; Meyer, Michael T.; Stets, Edward G.; Wilson, Michaelah C. Calcite precipitation in Lake Powell reduces alkalinity and total salt loading to the Lower Colorado River Basin
Reservoirs can retain and transform carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and silica, but less is known about their effects on other biogeochemically relevant solutes. The salinization of freshwater ecosystems is a growing concern in many regions, and the role of reservoirs in salinity transport is an important research frontier. Here, we examine how a...
Deemer, Bridget; Stets, Edward G.; Yackulic, Charles B. 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. Alkalinity in tidal tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay
Despite the important role of alkalinity in estuarine carbon cycling, the seasonal and decadal variability of alkalinity, particularly within multiple tidal tributaries of the same estuary, is poorly understood. Here we analyze more than 26,000 alkalinity measurements, mostly from the 1980s and 1990s, in the major tidal tributaries of the...
Najjar, Raymond G.; Herrmann, Maria; Friedman, Jaclyn R.; Friedrichs, Marjorie A.M.; Harris, Lora A.; Shadwick, Elizabeth H.; Stets, Edward G.; Woodland, Ryan J. Variable impacts of contemporary versus legacy agricultural phosphorus on US river water quality
Phosphorus (P) fertilizer has contributed to the eutrophication of freshwater ecosystems. Watershed-based conservation programs aiming to reduce external P loading to surface waters have not resulted in significant water-quality improvements. One factor that can help explain the lack of water-quality response is remobilization of accumulated...
Stackpoole, Sarah M.; 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.
Water quality of rivers has changed dramatically in human-dominated landscapes of the United States
Human activities have markedly changed the water quality of rivers in the past few decades according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey—concentrations of some water- quality constituents have increased while others have decreased.
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...
USGS Release: Large Rivers in U.S. are Becoming Less Acidic
Several large rivers in the U.S. are less acidic now, due to decreasing acidic inputs, such as industrial waste, acid mine drainage, and atmospheric deposition.