MRI: Acquisition of Hydrodynamic Equipment and a Laser Grain Size Analyzer to Investigate the Lake Erie Seiche and Its Impact on Sedimentation in the Buffalo River

该主要研究仪器（MRI）计划奖为设备的采购提供支持，以支持布法罗河下游和尚普兰湖受双向流动影响的地区的水文和沉积物动力学研究。 拟购买的具体设备包括：1）多台声学多普勒海流剖面仪、地面气象传感器包、底层水温传感器和相关硬件，以便在布法罗河下游沿着初步安装五套声学多普勒海流剖面仪/地面气象传感器观测系统; 2）一套水深剖面系统; 3）一套基于激光衍射的粒度分析系统。 获得这些仪器将支持对控制沉积和底表面形态的物理过程的研究（例如，犁沟）在下游的布法罗河，这是由于湖风驱动的假潮效应表现出类似河口动力学的水动力行为。 来自佛蒙特州布法罗州立学院和米德尔伯里学院的专业人员将把观测数据纳入布法罗河和尚普兰湖的水文和沉积床型动态模型。 布法罗河受到工业废水的严重影响，底部沉积物隔离了大量有害的无机和有机化合物。 在了解沉积物沉积和迁移的水动力方面取得的进展对补救工作产生了影响。 布法罗州立学院（BSC）是一所西班牙裔本科院校，米德尔伯里学院是佛蒙特州的一所文科院校，拥有活跃的本科研究项目。

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program award provides support for the acquisition of equipment to support research on the hydro and sediment dynamics of the lower reaches of the Buffalo River and within Lake Champlain in areas impacted by bi-directional flows. Specific equipment to be purchased includes: 1) multiple acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP), surface meteorologic (MET) sensor packages, bottom water temperature sensors and associated hardware to initially install five ADCP/MET observational systems along the reach of the lower Buffalo River; 2) a bathymetric profiling system; and 3) a laser diffraction based grain size analysis system. The acquisition of these instruments will support research on the physical processes that control sedimentation and bottom surface morphology (e.g., furrows) in the lower reaches of the Buffalo River, which due to lake wind-driven seiche effects exhibits hydrodynamic behavior analogous to estuarine dynamics. PIs from Buffalo State College and Middlebury College in Vermont will incorporate observational data into models for hydro and sedimentary bedform dynamics in the Buffalo River and Lake Champlain. The Buffalo River is heavily impacted by industrial effluents and bottom sediments sequester a large variety of deleterious inorganic and organic compounds. Advances in understanding of the hydrodynamic forcing of sedimentary deposition and transport have ramifications for remediation efforts. Buffalo State College (BSC) is a Hispanic serving undergraduate institution, and Middlebury College is a liberal arts institution in Vermont with active undergraduate research programs.