Arkansas Water Plan Update Moves Forward After First Phase Completion

Cossatot River (Robert Thigpen-Flickr)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark — The Arkansas Department of Agriculture, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), has completed the first phase of the Arkansas Water Plan (AWP) update as directed by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Executive Order 23-27. Completion of Phase I marks a significant milestone in the preparation and development of a comprehensive program for the orderly development and management of the state’s water and related land resources that will benefit all Arkansans.  
 
“Every Arkansan deserves access to safe, reliable drinking water. My administration’s ongoing review and update of our Arkansas Water Plan is key to that goal,” said Governor Sanders. “Completion of Phase I of our plan review is an important milestone and I look forward to moving on quickly to Phase II while we continue making needed investments statewide.”
 
“Governor Sanders has been the most proactive Governor in the country in addressing water issues,” said Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward. “From signing Executive Order 23-27 that initiated an update to the Arkansas Water Plan, to initiating a statewide levee inventory and analysis to prepare for and mitigate future flooding events, to addressing critical groundwater issues for our state’s agriculture industry and administering over $2.5 billion in water development projects in all 75 counties across the state.  There is no Governor that has devoted more time and effort to address water issues and ensure that Arkansas is set up for success for many years to come.” 
 
Phase I required a comprehensive review of the existing Arkansas Water Plan to determine areas of significant change to be reevaluated or updated. Completion of Phase I included a total of seven stakeholder meetings that were held across the state from March to May 2024. Additionally, citizens were encouraged to provide feedback through a stakeholder survey. The Department used this data to better understand the state’s current water needs and to develop the goals for the Arkansas Water Plan update. 
 
Completion of Phase I identified the following six goals for the Arkansas Water Plan Update:

• Provide drinking water that supports public health and well-being.

• Provide water that supports environmental and economic benefits to the state and supports interstate agreements.

• Use the best available science, data, tools, practices, and technologies to support water resource planning and management for current and future needs.

• Maintain and improve water supply, wastewater, stormwater, and flood control infrastructure and plan for future infrastructure needs.

• Maintain, protect, and improve water quality to support designated uses of waterbodies.

• Reduce the impacts of future flooding events on people, property, infrastructure, industry, agriculture, and the environment.

 The update to the Arkansas Water Plan is being completed in two phases. Phase II is scheduled to begin before the end of the 2024 calendar year.

Lake Fayetteville monitoring reveals peak months for harmful algal blooms

By John Lovett
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Five years of water quality monitoring at Lake Fayetteville is shedding light on the cycles of waterborne nutrients and bacteria-produced toxins, offering a better way to measure the risk to recreational users.

WATER QUALITY — Brad Austin, research scientist with the Arkansas Water Resources Center, monitors the water quality as part of studies on Lake Fayetteville (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Paden Johnson)

Water quality scientists with the Arkansas Water Resources Center, a part of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, have been examining cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms, or HABs, in the 194-acre body of water since 2018. The lake was created in 1949 to supply the city’s water, but is now used for fishing, kayaking and other recreational uses.

“It’s a small watershed and recreational lake that is heavily influenced by human activity,” said Brian Haggard, director of the Arkansas Water Resources Center and a professor of biological and agricultural engineering. “Now, the watershed is urban, with still some agricultural lands, so it provides a unique opportunity to study a system that has become hypereutrophic.”

Hypereutrophic means the water has high concentrations of nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen. While these are necessary for plant growth, when there’s too much, they can spark a “bloom” — an explosive growth of cyanobacteria, which can produce toxins like microcystin. 

“Microcystins are the most studied cyanobacterial toxins, and many species of cyanobacteria can produce this toxin under certain conditions,” Haggard said. “There is a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus that can be released from the lake bottom, which might influence when cyanobacteria produced toxins.”

The nutrients which drive cyanobacterial growth can come from the watershed, especially during storm events which transport nutrients to the lake, he explained. However, the “legacy” nutrients, or nutrients stored within the lake bottom, can also drive harmful algal blooms and toxin production by the cyanobacteria.

Haggard said long-term monitoring of Lake Fayetteville offers practical guidance for people who use the lake, especially kayakers and dog owners, to avoid exposure to microcystins, which can make both people and animals sick.

Even though the City of Fayetteville, which owns the lake, put up a sign recognizing the potential for toxic cyanobacterial blooms, Haggard envisions a more comprehensive and data-driven approach.

“What we would like to move towards is something similar to what the forest service uses for fire risk,” Haggard said. “Are there some parameters we can measure rather easily that can help let us know if the chance of elevated toxins is high?”

Haggard said that expensive toxin analyses could be replaced by simple measurements such as water temperature and the fluorescence of phycocyanin, a pigment used for photosynthesis by cyanobacteria. These more cost-effective measurements could be used as a proxy to decide on whether the microcystin toxin concentration is too high in the lake for safe recreational use.

Since the Arkansas Water Resources Center began routine monitoring at the lake, microcystin has been observed in measurable concentrations greater than the reporting limit of 0.3 micrograms per liter throughout the year. In 2019, microcystin concentrations were measured up to 15 micrograms per liter at the lake — nearly double the recommended limit for contact in a recreational water.

Findings over five years

Haggard and his team at the Arkansas Water Resources Center published a study last year in the Journal of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers examining a subset of the monitoring data taken in summer 2020 at Lake Fayetteville. The study is titled “Microcystin shows thresholds and hierarchical structure with physiochemical properties at Lake Fayetteville, Arkansas, May through September 2020.”

“Lakes with HABs often have a pattern to when toxins are elevated, and Lake Fayetteville tends to have greater total microcystins during late spring, early summer and then again in fall,” Haggard said. “These peaks in total microcystin coincide with natural hydrodynamics of the lake, that is stratification – when the warm and cold layers set up – and turnover – when those layers remix bring nutrients from the bottom waters up to the upper layers.

“It’s not always this simple, but this has been the pattern at Lake Fayetteville. The cyanobacteria seem to produce more toxins during these periods.”

All lakes with deep enough water experience “turnover.” During the spring, the surface water warms when the deep water stays cooler. However, “when the colder water down there is not mixing with the surface any longer, you can lose all the oxygen.”

When the oxygen is gone or limited, a group of bacteria called facultative anaerobes use nitrates to “breathe,” removing nitrogen from the lake bottom waters through a process called denitrification. After the nitrate is gone, these bacteria seek manganese and iron to metabolize for energy.

Once the bacteria move to manganese and iron, they’re dissolving manganese and iron oxides in the sediments, which have phosphorus and ammonium and other things attached to them, Haggard explained. When metabolizing the manganese and iron, the anaerobic bacteria free up phosphorus and ammonium that goes into the lake bottom water and further builds nutrients.

“In the fall, when the lake mixes, this can bring nutrients up into the water,” Haggard said. “This happens when we see the fall peak in cyanobacterial toxins.”

Haggard’s co-authors on the microcystin thresholds study included Erin Grantz and Brad Austin with the Arkansas Water Resources Center; former graduate students Abbie Lasater with the University of Arkansas biological and agricultural engineering department, and Alyssa Ferri with the crop, soil and environmental sciences department; Nicole Wagner with the biology department at Oakland University; and Thad Scott with the biology department and Center for Reservoirs and Aquatic System Research at Baylor University.

Toxin-risk framework

CASE STUDY — Lake Fayetteville offers scientist with the Arkansas Water Resources Center a case study in an urban lake once mostly surrounded by agricultural land. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Paden Johnson)

Members of Haggard’s team also recently published a peer-reviewed paper in the journal of the University Council on Water Resources. The paper focused on developing a strategy to help inform recreational users of Lake Fayetteville when total microcystins might be elevated. The study is titled “Chlorophyll and phycocyanin raw fluorescence may inform recreational lake managers on cyanobacterial HABs and toxins: Lake Fayetteville case study.” It is this initial study that the Arkansas Water Resources Center is building on to help create a toxin-risk framework like that used to warn of fire danger in forests.

“The goal is to help inform the recreational users when the risk of cyanobacterial HABs that might be producing elevated toxins is low, medium, high and very high,” Haggard said. “This way the signage about cyanobacterial HABs and toxins can be updated on a more timely basis, and it does not become a static sign that people often disregard.”

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

Restoration volunteers remove 526 pounds of trash from Buffalo National River watershed site

By the U of A System Division of Agriculture

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Even the country’s first National River can find itself the unfortunate victim of illegal dumping, especially as it winds its way through some of the most scenic areas of Arkansas.

On Feb. 22, members of the Cooperative Extension Service and the Nature Conservancy, along with local landowners and volunteers, removed 526 pounds of illegally dumped trash in the upper reaches of the Buffalo National River watershed. The site was located along Highway 21, near Smith Creek Nature Preserve. 

TAKING OUT THE TRASH — On Feb. 22, members of the Cooperative Extension Service and the Nature Conservancy, along with local landowners and volunteers, removed 526 pounds of illegally dumped trash in the upper reaches of the Buffalo National River watershed. The site was located along Highway 21, near Smith Creek Nature Preserve. (Image courtesy John Pennington.) 

The dumpsite was found as part of a litter audit — part of the Buffalo River Watershed Enhancement Project — conducted by the Cooperative Extension Service. Part of the project’s mission is to conduct outreach throughout the watershed area and foster support for the Buffalo River Watershed Management Plan, which will in turn improve water quality in the watershed.

John Pennington, extension water quality educator for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said the dumpsite audit showed that the largest percentage of trash by weight was metal, followed by tires, hazardous paper waste and plastic. E-waste, textiles and furniture, glass and wood were also found. Approximately 70 percent of the waste removed from the cleanup was recycled. Cash for the recycled metal totaled $15, which will be put into local 4-H litter removal and recycling efforts.

“The dumpsite we cleaned up was not old or historic like some dumpsites,” Pennington said. “This dumpsite, like many other dumping sites around the state was newer. It will be interesting to see if the dumpsite continues to be used now that it has been cleaned up. The ongoing litter audit throughout the watershed will be able to monitor the littering and dumping rate in the areas.”

The 2023 Buffalo River litter index audit examined eight publicly accessible locations, spanning from the headwaters along Highway 21 down to the Rush access point. It revealed that tires and textiles were the largest items of trash found by weight, with hazardous waste paper, glass, metal and plastic being commonly found. 

“The good news is that all but one of the locations surveyed had less than a pound of trash found at each of them,” Pennington said. “The low amount of trash found at most litter audit sites is likely due to the efforts of local landowners, the National Park Service and visitors doing their part to keep the watershed healthy and clean.”

To participate in future litter audit or voluntary water quality improvement activities as part of the Buffalo River Watershed Enhancement Project, visit https://www.uaex.uada.edu/environment-nature/water/buffalo-river-project.aspx.

The Cooperative Extension Service has partnered with multiple agencies and organizations, including lead partner The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, Arkansas Forestry Division, Buffalo River Conservation District, Searcy County Agricultural Conservation Cooperative, Searcy County and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The partnership project makes hundreds of thousands of dollars in conservation practice funding available to landowners participating in the project each year. To learn more, and if you are a landowner in need of conservation assistance funding, contact your local NRCS service provider and sign up for the Buffalo River Watershed Enhancement Project.

For more information on water quality, watersheds, Arkansas Watershed Stewards Program or the Buffalo River Watershed Regional Conservation Program, check in with your local county extension office.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu/. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.

Phosphorus runoff studies show importance of stable banks, cover crops

By John Lovett
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Spring rains are great for flowers and kayakers, but the season also prompts concern about algae bloom-causing phosphorus runoff into drinking water sources.

WATER QUALITY — Jacqueline Todd, left, and Ireyra Tamayo conduct water quality tests from sampels taken in the Beaver Lake watershed as part of ongoing water quality studies with Shannon Speir, assistant professor of water quality with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. (U of A System photo)

Spring streamflow delivery to Beaver Lake has increased over the past 20 years, delivering more nutrients to the reservoir and increasing the risk of algae blooms during the summer, according to an analysis of U.S. Geological Survey data by Ireyra Tamayo, an environmental, soil, and water science student at the University of Arkansas.

Tamayo is a student of Shannon Speir, assistant professor of water quality in the department of crop, soil and environmental sciences with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. Her lab's undergraduate students are conducting studies on the watershed as part of an unofficial partnership with the Beaver Watershed Alliance and the Beaver Water District.

“They are really interested in knowing this information,” Speir said. “This was a relatively easy analysis we could do with publicly available data, so we volunteered to jump in and do it.”

Speir said she has shared the information with the groups, and her lab's team has continued to do studies to assist in long-range planning efforts to mitigate phosphorus runoff. Phosphorus runoff can lead to algae blooms in bodies of water, which decreases available oxygen for aquatic life.

There are concerns about streambank erosion and increased streamflow in the Beaver Lake watershed because phosphorus binds to floating sediments that creeks carry into the lake.

Tamayo's study looked at the changing delivery of streamflow and water runoff from four tributaries of Beaver Lake: the White River; West Fork of the White River; War Eagle Creek; and Richland Creek.

The Beaver Lake watershed includes all the tributaries that run into the primary source of drinking water for northwest Arkansas. Speir said the potential for phosphorus runoff in the area prompted her and her students’ water quality studies of the tributaries in rural areas.

“Beaver Lake is still in good health and much of the work is centered around preventing the balance from shifting toward conditions that may cause harmful algal blooms,” Speir said. “Once algal blooms start happening, it's hard to turn the dial back and stop them from happening.”

Using publicly available streamflow data from the U.S. Geological Survey, Tamayo calculated streamflow discharge and runoff changes and compared runoff across the four tributaries over the past 20 years. She also explored seasonal changes in average discharge among the four tributaries.

The study showed that, in general, Richland Creek had the highest runoff to Beaver Lake over the study period, and War Eagle Creek had the lowest runoff. She observed variable trends in average discharge by season across the four tributaries. The most consistent increase in average streamflow occurs in the spring.

“Climate change is affecting the hydrological cycle, increasing global temperatures and changing precipitation patterns,” the study states. “As rain events become more frequent and intense, they are expected to yield higher streamflow and larger peak flows. The increased sediment and nutrient delivery to sensitive downstream systems could lead to water quality problems, such as eutrophication and harmful algal blooms.”

Eutrophication is when excess nutrients accumulate in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to runoff from the land, and causes a dense growth of algae and death of animal life from lack of oxygen.

“This was our first cut, but from that, we can start building more management and actionable outcomes,” Speir added.

Student researchers from the Speir's water quality resarch team include Jacob Major, junior; Deo Scott, senior; Lilly A. Stults, senior; Ireyra Tamayo, senior; and Jacqueline Todd, junior. Brynnen Beck and Claire Meara, both sophomores, have also recently joined Speir’s team. All the undergraduates are environmental soil and water science majors in the crop, soil and environmental sciences department.

Erosion and biological impacts on phosphorus 

EROSION IMPACT — Jacob Major collects samples from a Beaver Lake watershed tributary. (U of A System photo)

Jacob Major’s study highlighted the importance of creek bank stability. Major concluded in his water quality study of Richland Creek and Brush Creek that “sediment-associated phosphorus from bank erosion may serve as a critical downstream phosphorus source to Beaver Lake.”

Major's study found higher total phosphorus levels in Richland Creek but higher dissolved phosphorus in Brush Creek. Richland Creek runs through mostly forestland and about 40 percent pastureland. Brush Creek runs through mostly pastureland and about one-third forestland.

Speir noted that the higher concentrations of total phosphorus in Richland Creek could be because of more organic materials like leaf litter in the stream. Soluble reactive phosphorus, however, is more troublesome because the nutrient is more available to create algal blooms downstream.

Major's study won first place in March for undergraduates in the student poster competition at the Arkansas Discovery Farms Conference in Little Rock. In April, his study also won third place in the natural sciences category as part of the University of Arkansas’ Undergraduate Research Week Poster Competition.

A follow-up study is now underway to better understand the role of sediment in driving downstream phosphorus loss to Beaver Lake.

Jacqueline Todd's study on the Upper White River is complementary to Major’s and explores the role of algae in streams removing phosphorus from rivers. She pointed out that while many studies focus on headwater streams, there is a knowledge gap on the interplay of nutrients in rivers.

Her study found that soluble reactive phosphorus uptake was higher in the summer when the flow was slower, and the nutrient uptake was lower in the spring when the flow was faster.

Cover crops keep sediments and phosphorus on fields

Speir’s lab also evaluated the impact of cover crops to mitigate phosphorus runoff on agricultural fields.

A study by Lily Stults in Speir's lab, showed the importance of cover crops in retaining phosphorus on a site. Stults analyzed data on total flow, total suspended sediment, and total phosphorus concentrations from 503 runoff events on cover-cropped and non-cover-cropped cotton fields between 2013 and 2018 at the Arkansas Discovery Farms site in Dumas. The runoff events included rain and irrigation.

While cover crops did not impact the total flow from fields during water runoff events, the total suspended sediment and total phosphorus concentrations were lower in runoff from the cover-cropped field.

Cover crops prevent erosion and sediment loss by increasing the stability of the soil, the study noted.

The study stated that total suspended solid concentrations were consistently lower in runoff from cover-cropped fields. Other data suggest cover crops help retain particulate phosphorus bound to sediments.

Mullins Creek evaluation

A little closer to home, Deo Scott's study titled “Stream restoration effectiveness in Mullins Creek in Fayetteville, Arkansas” concluded that the Watershed Conservation Resource Center restoration in 2012 improved water quality in the restored section. He documented higher dissolved oxygen content, lower temperatures and more diversity of aquatic insects in the restored section of the creek. However, the impacts were variable downstream.

The creek begins as a spring near the Poultry Science building and flows under Razorback Stadium. The restored section of Mullins Creek is between Nolan Richardson Drive and the Gardens on the University of Arkansas campus. Samples were taken at five sites along the creek.

Speir said there is more than one way to restore a stream, but the key components are to keep the stream bank from eroding, add native plants to stabilize the soil and restore the stream bottom in some way to slow the water down and make riffles and pools.

“The hope is that naturally, over time, the fish and insects come back as the water quality improves,” Speir said. “Another piece in the restoration puzzle, particularly in urban areas, is ‘daylighting,’ where a buried stream is re-exposed to the world. Many urban streams have become buried, like Mullins Creek, which has a stadium over it.”

Scott's results also emphasized the need for more monitoring and management to improve water quality.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

Pasture management key to profit and water quality

By the U of A System Division of Agriculture

LITTLE ROCK — Well-managed pastures can have a positive effect both on water quality and farm budgets. The Cooperative Extension Service, part of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, is working with partners and landowners throughout the state to make this potential a reality.

PROTECT AND ENHANCE — John Pennington, extension water quality educator for the Division of Agriculture, is part of a five-year Regional Conservation Partnership Project focused on pasture landowners within the Buffalo National River watershed. (Division of Agriculture photo.)

By re-establishing or invigorating existing pasture forages, farm production and profitability can increase while also protecting water quality.

John Pennington, extension water quality educator for the Division of Agriculture, said that nowhere is this more true than in the Buffalo National River Watershed, where a five-year Regional Conservation Partnership Project is focusing efforts on pasture landowners within the watershed.

The project provides as much as $400,000 in additional conservation practice funding annually for qualifying landowners, in addition to the usual funding allocation to Natural Resources Conservation Service county offices serving the Buffalo River Watershed.  

“The current price of inputs such as fertilizers and fuel make retaining and utilizing existing on-farm nutrients even more important,” Pennington said.

“Controlling and rotating grazing is a critical step to maintaining healthy forage stands and soil health,” he said, adding that “sometimes pastures need fertility improvements, such as lime or simply reseeding, as a result of periods of drought or disease. Keeping the pasture covered with forage is critical to both production and water quality.”

Rotational grazing and other conservation practices can increase farm production and profit while reducing nitrogen, bacteria, phosphorus and sediment in runoff from agricultural lands within the watershed. The practices are also recommended in the voluntary Buffalo River Watershed Management plan.

Rotational grazing has many benefits, including:

• Allowing periods of recovery for the forage and soil

• Distribution of animal nutrients more evenly throughout the fields

• Increased grazing efficiency and

• Increased water and fertilizer retention in the soil

The Cooperative Extension Service works with multiple agencies and organizations, including the Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and others to form the Buffalo River Watershed Enhancement Project, which seeks to help watershed residents and landowners reduce erosion on their land and enhance water quality in the Buffalo National River. The partnership makes hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding available to landowners participating in the project each year. To learn more, visit https://www.uaex.uada.edu/environment-nature/water/buffalo-river-project.aspx.

For more information on pasture forage establishment, rotational grazing, or water quality check in with your local county extension office, conservation district, or Natural Resource Conservation Service office. To potentially receive funding for pasture management activities visit your local Natural Resource Conservation Service office.

Arkansas researcher’s collaborative method may reveal solutions to water quality issues

By Brittaney Mann
U of A System Division of Agriculture

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Preventing fertilizer run-off from farms is essential to preserving water quality. But preventive measures also help farmers get the most use from their fertilizer.

WATER QUALITY — Shannon Speir, assistant professor of water quality, will conduct research on the Beaver Lake Watershed. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Fred Miller)

“It is about realizing that you are on the same playing field and on the same team,” Speir said. “I think that that really ends up getting the most holistic and beneficial product or outcome of the collaboration.”

Shannon Speir, assistant professor of water quality at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, said partnerships with farmers allow her to efficiently conduct research while considering those farmers’ needs.

Speir joined the Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, in early August. She works within the department of crop, soil and environmental sciences, where she earned her master’s degree in 2016.

In addition to investigating how to maintain nutrients on the landscape and out of streams and rivers, she will teach courses through the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas.

Eventually, she also plans to work with local entities to develop community outreach projects, providing education on septic systems and other aspects of water quality.

For her first research project, she will begin a pilot study on three streams — Richland Creek, Brush Creek and Roberts Creek — in the Beaver Lake watershed in September.

“A lot of the issues here in northwest Arkansas are concerns around drinking water problems,” Speir said. “Especially with the Beaver Lake watershed and the reservoir.”

The primary source of freshwater in northwest Arkansas is Beaver Lake, according to a Cooperative Extension Service fact sheet. It is “…crucial to meeting Northwest Arkansas’s increasing demands for abundant high-quality water.”

The study will help determine the location for the first Arkansas Discovery Watershed as part of the Arkansas Discovery Farms Program. The Arkansas Discovery Farms Program, administered by the Division of Agriculture, centers on engaging farmers in the conservation process by conducting research on conservation practices on farmers’ fields.

Speir also researched watersheds for her Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Notre Dame. She wanted to reveal the effect of conservation on multiple farms within the watershed and see how it impacted water quality leaving the drainage area. To determine the quality of water, she measured nitrogen and phosphorus levels.

Speir was not always involved in the agricultural side of water conservation. As an undergraduate student at Texas Christian University, she focused on mercury contamination and how mercury moves from water bodies into the terrestrial food web.

“I knew that when I was going to grad school, that I wanted to stick with this contamination issue, but I didn’t know where it was going to take me,” Speir said.

At the University of Arkansas, graduate-level courses introduced Speir to the agricultural aspects of water quality. She did experimental work on vegetative agricultural ditches to see how effective those are at removing nutrients from run-off.

Jeff Edwards, department head of crop, soil and environmental sciences, said Speir’s expertise and experience will strengthen the Division of Agriculture’s research portfolio in water quality and management.

“The water issues our stakeholders are facing are not going away, and we are very fortunate to hire someone with Dr. Speir’s diverse research experience,” Edwards said. “The issues we are facing in the area of water quality are not specific to one discipline, and Dr. Speir’s collaboration-focused approach is what we need to help provide solutions for Arkansans.”

Speir earned her bachelor’s degrees in biology and Spanish from Texas Christian University in 2014, her master’s degree in crop, soil and environmental sciences from the University of Arkansas in 2016 and her Ph.D. in biological sciences from the University of Notre Dame in 2021.

“I think one of the most interesting things is to be able to work with farmers,” Speir said. “And I think that brings a whole other side of this.”

As a researcher, “you get to really build these relationships and see what your work is doing on the ground. It kind of ties back to that societal benefit component that I am really passionate about.”