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Jordan L. Wilson

My research interests are in the use of trees to characterize subsurface contamination, measuring the subsurface sampling volume associated with trees, and using trees as indicators of vapor-intrusion risk. My other interests are in chemical fate and transport, Python programming, development of mobile phone applications,  application of microbial source tracking, and groundwater mo

Professional Experience

  • Research Hydrologist, 2013 - Present

  • Adjunct Faculty, Missouri State University, Department of Geography, Geosciences and Planning, 2020-Present

  • Adjunct Assistant Professor, Missouri University of Sciience and Technology, Rolla, MO

Education and Certifications

  • PhD, Missouri Univeristy of Science and Technology-Civil Engineering, 2017

  • MS, Missouri Univeristy of Science and Technology-Environmental Engineering, 2013

  • BS, Missouri Univeristy of Science and Technology-Environmental Engineering, 2011

Science and Products

Floods of June 21–July 1, 2018, in the Floyd River and Little Sioux River Basins, northwestern Iowa

The Floyd River and Little Sioux River Basins in northwestern Iowa flooded on June 21–July 1, 2018, after sustained rainfall on June 14–27, 2018. Within the Floyd River Basin, rainfall totals from June 14 to 21 preceding flooding were 3.01 inches (in.) at Le Mars, 4.50 in. at Orange City, and 7.44 in. at Sheldon. Within the Little Sioux River Basin, rainfall amounts for the 2-week period from June
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Water Resources, Central Midwest Water Science Center

Water-quality distributions in the East Branch Black River near the Chemical Recovery Systems site in Elyria, Ohio, 2021

Autonomous underwater vehicles are uniquely designed to provide spatially dense water-quality data along with bathymetry and velocimetry. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 requested technical assistance from the U.S. Geological Survey in support of ongoing investigations at the Chemical Recovery Systems site to collect spatially dense water-quality and bathymetry data in the East B
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Central Midwest Water Science Center

Aquaculture and Irrigation Water-Use Model (AIWUM) version 1.0—An agricultural water-use model developed for the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, 1999–2017

Water use is a critical and often uncertain component of quantifying any water budget and securing reliable and sustainable water supplies. Recent water-level declines in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP), especially in the central part of the Mississippi Delta, pose a threat to water sustainability. Aquaculture and Irrigation Water-Use Model (AIWUM) 1.0, one of the first national agricultural
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Central Midwest Water Science Center

What can trees tell us about the air we breathe at home?

The air in houses can be affected by bad stuff, called contaminants. Sometimes harmful chemicals enter the air in buildings from nearby contaminated soil and groundwater through cracks or gaps in the foundation – a process known as vapor intrusion. This poses some risk to our health because we spend so much of our time indoors. Currently it’s difficult and expensive to figure out if vapor intrusio
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Central Midwest Water Science Center

Phytoforensics: Trees as bioindicators of potential indoor exposure via vapor intrusion

Human exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) via vapor intrusion (VI) is an emerging public health concern with notable detrimental impacts on public health. Phytoforensics, plant sampling to semi-quantitatively delineate subsurface contamination, provides a potential non-invasive screening approach to detect VI potential, and plant sampling is effective and also time- and cost-efficient. E
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Water Resources, Central Midwest Water Science Center

Contaminant gradients in trees: Directional tree coring reveals boundaries of soil and soil-gas contamination with potential applications in vapor intrusion assessment

Contaminated sites pose ecological and human-health risks through exposure to contaminated soil and groundwater. Whereas we can readily locate, monitor, and track contaminants in groundwater, it is harder to perform these tasks in the vadose zone. In this study, tree-core samples were collected at a Superfund site to determine if the sample-collection location around a particular tree could reveal
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Water Resources, Central Midwest Water Science Center

Tree sampling as a method to assess vapor intrusion potential at a site characterized by VOC-contaminated groundwater and soil

Vapor intrusion (VI) by volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the built environment presents a threat to human health. Traditional VI assessments are often time-, cost-, and labor-intensive; whereas traditional subsurface methods sample a relatively small volume in the subsurface and are difficult to collect within and near structures. Trees could provide a similar subsurface sample where roots act
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Water Resources, Central Midwest Water Science Center

Phytoforensics—Using trees to find contamination

The water we drink, air we breathe, and soil we come into contact with have the potential to adversely affect our health because of contaminants in the environment. Environmental samples can characterize the extent of potential contamination, but traditional methods for collecting water, air, and soil samples below the ground (for example, well drilling or direct-push soil sampling) are expensive
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Water Resources, Central Midwest Water Science Center

Persistence and microbial source tracking of Escherichia coli at a swimming beach at Lake of the Ozarks State Park, Missouri

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) has closed or posted advisories at public beaches at Lake of the Ozarks State Park in Missouri because of Escherichia coli (E. coli) concentration exceedances in recent years. Spatial and temporal patterns of E. coliconcentrations, microbial source tracking, novel sampling techniques, and beach-use patterns were studied during the 2012 recreation
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Water Resources, Central Midwest Water Science Center

Occurrence and origin of Escherichia coli in water and sediments at two public swimming beaches at Lake of the Ozarks State Park, Camden County, Missouri, 2011-13

In the past several years, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources has closed two popular public beaches, Grand Glaize Beach and Public Beach 1, at Lake of the Ozarks State Park in Osage Beach, Missouri when monitoring results exceeded the established Escherichia coli (E. coli) standard. As a result of the beach closures, the U.S. Geological Survey and Missouri University of Science and Techn
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Water Resources, Central Midwest Water Science Center

Non-USGS Publications**

Limmer, M.A., Wilson, J.L., Westenberg, D., Lee A., Siegman, M., Burken, J., 2018, Phytoremediation removal rates of benzene, toluene, and chlorobenzene: International Journal of Phytoremediation, v. 20, no. 7, pp. 666-674.
Wilson, J., Bartz, R., Limmer, M., Burken, J., 2013, Plants as bio-indicators of subsurface conditions: impact of groundwater level on BTEX concentrations in trees: International Journal of Phytoremediation, v. 15, no. 3, pp. 257-267.
Wilson, J.L., 2017, Remedial Investigation of the Vienna Wells Site-Maries County, Missouri, 2011-2016: Volume I: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Remedial Investigation Report, p. 101
Wilson, J.L., 2017, Remedial Investigation of the Vienna Wells Site-Maries County, Missouri, 2011-2016: Volume II: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Remedial Investigation Report, p. 248

**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.

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Waterbody Rapid Assessment Tool (WaterRAT): 3-dimensional Visualization of High-Resolution Spatial Data

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are instruments that collect water-quality, depth, and other data in waterbodies. They produce complex and massive datasets. There is currently no standard method to store, organize, process, quality-check, analyze, or visualize this data. The Waterbody Rapid Assessment Tool (WaterRAT) is aPython application that processes and displays water-quality data with
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Community for Data Integration (CDI)
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Waterbody Rapid Assessment Tool (WaterRAT): 3-dimensional Visualization of High-Resolution Spatial Data

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are instruments that collect water-quality, depth, and other data in waterbodies. They produce complex and massive datasets. There is currently no standard method to store, organize, process, quality-check, analyze, or visualize this data. The Waterbody Rapid Assessment Tool (WaterRAT) is aPython application that processes and displays water-quality data with
Learn More
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Can trees serve as indicators for vapor intrusion?

Trees as bioindicators of potential indoor exposure via vapor intrusion

Scientists wanted to find out if trees can serve as indicators for vapor intrusion.What can trees tell us about the air we breathe at home?Science Journal Kids - Cutting edge peer-reviewed science research adapted for students
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Central Midwest Water Science Center
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Trees as bioindicators of potential indoor exposure via vapor intrusion

Scientists wanted to find out if trees can serve as indicators for vapor intrusion.What can trees tell us about the air we breathe at home?Science Journal Kids - Cutting edge peer-reviewed science research adapted for students
Learn More

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Water-Quality, Bathymetric, and Sonar Measurements in the Black River near Elyria, Ohio, 2021

These datasets were collected in support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 at the Chemical Recovery Site in Elyria, Ohio, within the East Branch Black River on March 22, 2021. Water-quality and bathymetric data were measured and logged at 1-second intervals (AUV_CRS_Combined_032221.csv). Water-quality data collected during eight different missions were measured with a YSI EXO1 s
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Central Midwest Water Science Center

Aquaculture and Irrigation Water-Use Model (AIWUM) Version 1.0 Estimates and Related Datasets for the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, 1999-2017 (ver. 2.0, April 2021)

This data release contains monthly and annual water-use estimates from the Aquaculture and Irrigation Water-Use Model version 1.0 for the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, April 1999 to October 2017. Aquaculture and irrigation estimates contained in this data release are representative of groundwater withdrawal for six different categories: aquaculture, cotton, corn, rice, soybeans, and all other crops.
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Central Midwest Water Science Center

Water-quality data at two unnamed lakes at the National Crude Oil Spill Fate and Natural Attenuation Research Site near Bemidji, Minnesota, 2019

The National Crude Oil Spill Fate and Natural Attenuation Research Site is located near where about 1.7 million liters of crude oil spilled in 1979. Much of the oil spill leached into groundwater which flows towards an unnamed lake at the site. The U.S. Geological Survey Branch of Hydrogeophysics has been working to map the plume's extent on land and into the lake using a variety of geophysical
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Central Midwest Water Science Center

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Water-Quality and Sonar Measurements in Delaware River near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2019

These data sets were created in support of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS) for the Delaware River Basin pilot study (Eberts, Wagner, and Woodside, 2019). The NGWOS utilizes real-time data, improved computational capabilities, and new technologies such as the rapid deployment of unmanned aerial vehicle's (UAV) and autonomous underwater vehicle's (A
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South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)

Waterborne resistivity surveys for streams in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, 2017

This data release has three components for each of the eight stream lengths: 1) a geospatial dataset of the processed data; 2) tabular data of the processed waterborne resistivity profiling data and associated water-quality data; 3) tabular data of the raw waterborne resistivity data and associated water-quality data. In fresh water aquifers, the geoelectric resistivity of earth materials comm
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Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center

Concentrations of tetrachloroethylene in tree-core and passive soil-gas samples and interpolated tetrachloroethylene soil data at the Vienna Wells site, Maries County, Missouri, 2011-2016

This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Data Release contains tree-core, soil-gas, and soil data collected at the Vienna Wells Superfund site in Vienna, Missouri by the U.S. Geological Survey between 2011 and 2016. Concentrations of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) are reported for each sample in each medium. Tree-core sampling was conducted over two days (July 29, 2014 and May 21, 2015). Trees sampled on Jul
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Central Midwest Water Science Center

Tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, and 1,1,2-Trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane concentrations in tree-core, groundwater, and soil samples at the Vienna Wells Site: Maries County, Missouri, 2011-2016

This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Data Release contains tree-core, groundwater, and soil data collected at the Vienna Wells Superfund site in Vienna, Missouri by the U.S. Geological Survey between 2011 and 2016. Concentrations of tetrachloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), and 1,1,2-Trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane (CFC-113) are reported for each location or sample in each medium. Tree-cor
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Central Midwest Water Science Center

Aquaculture and Irrigation Water-Use Model (AIWUM)

Aquaculture and Irrigation Water-Use Model (AIWUM) version 1 with demonstration for the Mississippi Alluvial Plain.
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Central Midwest Water Science Center

Aquaculture and Irrigation Water-Use Model (AIWUM)

Aquaculture and Irrigation Water-Use Model (AIWUM) version 1 with demonstration for the Mississippi Alluvial Plain.
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Central Midwest Water Science Center
Im on a boat
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Science and Products