K-State researchers use Colbert Hills process to study ecosystem of former landfi...( ove or below that sustainable range it...)

In conducting their own research for Colbert Hills, the research team put all those indicators into a spider-radar graph capable of illustrating a simplified overview of the ecosystem there.

Thien said the process is applicable on any kind of ecosystem; it can also be used on public lands, parks, agricultural lands, etc. It is so flexible that scientists can monitor any indicator they want and group similar indicators into descriptive categories. This feature makes the process applicable to the whole range of systems.

"The scientists must know what the best indicators are to monitor," Thien said. "If they take the same set of indicators we're following and use it down in Florida, it may not tell them anything. You have to match indicators to the situation."

It is that transportable process that Western Michigan and others are interested in.

"They don't want to know the exact conditions at Colbert Hills because their ecosystems are different, Thien said. "They want to know how to apply our process so that they can monitor the most applicable indicators to their building and development stages to assure that the ecosystem is not being damaged or maligned in some way."

According to Thien, potential problems with landfill sites are that noxious materials in that landfill may tend to volatilize and come up through the soils or that some of the water use on the course may move some of those noxious materials from their deposition site in the landfill.

"Each new application begins with identifying and prioritizing possible indicators," Thien said. "Every site has its own special parameters to consider. There are probably some things that we haven't thought of yet that might be of concern there. So we're anticipating monitoring some different parameters in that case than there were in our prairie ecosystem."

Thien and Starrett
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Contact: Steve Thien
sjthien@ksu.edu
785-532-7207
Kansas State University
6-Jan-2003