Rebecca M Kreiling, PhD
I am a riverine ecologist with research interests in nutrient cycling and river-floodplain connectivity. My current projects focus on the capability of managing rivers and their floodplains for nutrient removal.
Biography
Education:
2019 PhD, Interdisciplinary River Science, University of New England, New South Wales, Australia
2003 M.S., Biology, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse
2001 B.S., Biology-Environmental Concentration, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse
Science and Products
Nutrient Cycling in Aquatic Ecosystems
Nitrogen and phosphorus are plant essential nutrients that are currently in excess in many aquatic ecosystems due to runoff from urban and agricultural areas. In high amounts, these nutrients are detrimental to aquatic ecosystem health, because elevated nutrients promote excessive growth or “blooms” of algae and other nuisance species. Many species that cause blooms can produce toxins which...
Nutrient cycling in agricultural watersheds of the Great Lakes
Nutrient Cycling in Aquatic Ecosystems
Nutrients lost from agricultural areas in watersheds of the Great Lakes cause harmful algal blooms and hypoxia in some areas of the Great Lakes. Substantial efforts are being made in these watersheds to...
Nutrient retention on the Upper Mississippi River Floodplain
Nutrient Cycling in Aquatic Ecosystems
Rivers have a natural capacity to improve water quality when they are connected to their natural floodplains and are not overloaded with sediment and nutrient runoff. Where rivers have been disconnected...
HABs: Characterizing Zones of High Potential Nutrient Cycling in Agricultural Catchments
River sediments have the capacity to remove nutrients from the water column which lowers the nutrient load to downstream water bodies. The objectives of this project were to characterize rates of sediment nitrogen removal and phosphorus retention in river networks draining agricultural watersheds and to assess how land use and land management actions affect these rates. This information is...
Land use effects on sediment nutrient processes in a heavily modified watershed using structural equation models
Contemporary land use can affect sediment nutrient processes in rivers draining heavily modified watersheds; however, studies linking land use to sediment nutrient processes in large river networks are limited. In this study, we developed and evaluated structural equation models (SE models) for denitrification and phosphorus retention capacity to...
Kreiling, Rebecca; Thoms, Martin C.; Bartsch, Lynn A.; Larson, James H.; Christensen, Victoria Complex response of sediment phosphorus to land use and management within a river network
Rivers affected by anthropogenic nutrient inputs can retain some of the phosphorus (P) load through sediment retention and burial. Determining the influence of land use and management on sediment P concentrations and P retention in fluvial ecosystems is challenging because of different stressors operating at multiple spatial and temporal scales....
Kreiling, Rebecca; Thoms, Martin C.; Bartsch, Lynn A.; Richardson, William B.; Christensen, Victoria G. Denitrification in the river network of a mixed land use watershed: Unpacking the complexities
River networks have the potential to permanently remove nitrogen through denitrification. Few studies have measured denitrification rates within an entire river network or assessed how land use affect rates at larger spatial scales. We sampled 108 sites throughout the network of the Fox River watershed, Wisconsin, to determine if land use...
Kreiling, Rebecca; Richardson, William B.; Bartsch, Lynn A.; Thoms, Martin C.; Christensen, Victoria G. Sediment oxygen demand: A review of in situ methods
Sediment oxygen demand (SOD) plays a fundamental role in biological and chemical processes within the benthic layer of a water body. Land use, including agricultural land use, can affect SOD. However, a wide variety of approaches have been used for in situ SOD chamber construction and data collection, and modelers frequently use SOD values from...
Coenen, Erin N.; Christensen, Victoria G.; Bartsch, Lynn; Kreiling, Rebecca; Richardson, William B. Evaluating potential effects of bigheaded carps on fatty acid profiles of multiple trophic levels in large rivers of the Midwest, USA
Recent work indicates that the establishment of bigheaded carps (Hypophthalmichthys spp.) in the United States has led to a reduction in condition of native planktivores and may detrimentally affect other trophic levels by altering the base of aquatic food webs. We used fatty acids to evaluate potential effects of bigheaded carps on taxa from...
Fritts, Andrea; Knights, Brent C.; LaFrancois, Toben; Vallazza, Jon; Bartsch, Lynn A.; Bartsch, Michelle R.; Richardson, William B.; Bailey, Sean; Kreiling, Rebecca; Karns, Byron Spatial and temporal variance in fatty acid and stable isotope signatures across trophic levels in large river systems
Fatty acid and stable isotope signatures allow researchers to better understand food webs, food sources, and trophic relationships. Research in marine and lentic systems has indicated that the variance of these biomarkers can exhibit substantial differences across spatial and temporal scales, but this type of analysis has not been completed for...
Fritts, Andrea; Knights, Brent C.; Lafrancois, Toben D.; Bartsch, Lynn A.; Vallazza, Jon; Bartsch, Michelle R.; Richardson, William B.; Karns, Byron N.; Bailey, Sean; Kreiling, Rebecca Beyond the edge: Linking agricultural landscapes, stream networks, and best management practices
Despite much research and investment into understanding and managing nutrients across agricultural landscapes, nutrient runoff to freshwater ecosystems is still a major concern. We argue there is currently a disconnect between the management of watershed surfaces (agricultural landscape) and river networks (riverine landscape). These landscapes...
Kreiling, Rebecca M.; Thoms, Martin C.; Richardson, William B. Long-term decreases in phosphorus and suspended solids, but not nitrogen, in six upper Mississippi River tributaries, 1991–2014
Long-term trends in tributaries provide valuable information about temporal changes in inputs of nutrients and sediments to large rivers. Data collected from 1991 to 2014 were used to investigate trends in total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), nitrate (NO3–N), soluble-reactive P (SRP), and total suspended solids (TSS) in the following...
Kreiling, Rebecca; Houser, Jeffrey N. Effects of flooding on ion exchange rates in an Upper Mississippi River floodplain forest impacted by herbivory, invasion, and restoration
We examined effects of flooding on supply rates of 14 nutrients in floodplain areas invaded by Phalaris arundinacea (reed canarygrass), areas restored to young successional forests (browsed by white-tailed deer and unbrowsed), and remnant mature forests in the Upper Mississippi River floodplain. Plant Root Simulator ion-exchange probes...
Kreiling, Rebecca; De Jager, Nathan R.; Whitney Swanson; Eric A. Strauss; Meredith Thomsen Wetland management reduces sediment and nutrient loading to the upper Mississippi River
Restored riparian wetlands in the Upper Mississippi River basin have potential to remove sediment and nutrients from tributaries before they flow into the Mississippi River. For 3 yr we calculated retention efficiencies of a marsh complex, which consisted of a restored marsh and an adjacent natural marsh that were connected to Halfway Creek, a...
Kreiling, Rebecca M.; Schubauer-Berigan, Joseph P.; Richardson, William B.; Bartsch, Lynn; Hughes, Peter E.; Strauss, Eric A. The evaluation of a rake method to quantify submersed vegetation in the Upper Mississippi River
A long-handled, double-headed garden rake was used to collect submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV) and compared to in-boat visual inspection to record species presence at 67 individual sites. Six rake subsamples were taken at each site and a rake density rating was given to each species collected in the subsamples. Presence at the site, frequency of...
Yin, Yao; Kreiling, Rebecca M. Summer nitrate uptake and denitrification in an upper Mississippi River backwater lake: The role of rooted aquatic vegetation
In-stream nitrogen processing in the Mississippi River has been suggested as one mechanism to reduce coastal eutrophication in the Gulf of Mexico. Aquatic macrophytes in river channels and flood plain lakes have the potential to temporarily remove large quantities of nitrogen through assimilation both by themselves and by the attached epiphyton....
Kreiling, Rebecca; Richardson, William B.; Cavanaugh, J.C.; Bartsch, Lynn