Staff Directory >R. Peter Richards, Ph.D.

Education:

1977-78   Post-doctoral study (Limnology and Aquatic Ecology), U. Michigan.
1970  Ph.D. Cum Laude (Geology), U. Chicago Department of Geophysical Sciences.
1968   M. S. Cum Laude (Geology), U. Chicago Department of Geophysical Sciences.
1965   B. A. Cum Laude (Geology and German), Oberlin College.

Research Interests:

• Impacts of land use on water quality

• Water quality, drinking water, and human health

• Design of water quality monitoring programs
  

• Application of statistics to environmental data

• Sampling strategies and computation algorithms for unbiased, efficient determination of pollutant loads in running waters

• Techniques for assessing temporal trends in water quality

Current Projects:

EcoFore 2006.  A NOAA-sponsored project to develop linked models of Lake Erie tributaries, lake hydrodynamics, and lake ecosysems.  Goals: understand relative importance of tributary loading and internal recycling in the zebra-mussel era in driving renewed eutrophication of Lake Erie.

USDA-CSREES CEAP.  The Rock Creek Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) includes an assessment of water quality trends over the past 30 years in Rock Creek and other Lake Erie tributaries, the construction of an AnnAGNPS model of Rock Creek, and the use of the model to assess effectiveness of various combinations of agricultural Best Management Practices.

Lake Erie CREP water quality assessment.  The Lake Erie Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) has the goal of protecting 10% of northwest Ohio’s riparian acres with buffers and other erosion control measures by 2010.  The NCWQR is responsible for assessing success of the program in reducing sediment loads in the Maumee and Sandusky Rivers.

Ohio Tributary Loading Program.  NCWQR’s ongoing program to document the status and trends in water quality in Ohio’s major rivers, and use the results to inform wise environmental management of these resources.

Dissolved reactive phosphorus, mg/L

Selected Publications:

Dolan, D.M. and R.P. Richards.  2008.  Analysis of Late 90s Phosphorus Loading Pulse to Lake Erie.  Pages 79-96 in Checking the Pulse of Lake Erie, ed. M. Munawar and R. Heath.  Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society Envirovision Series.

Loftus, T.T. and R.P. Richards. 2008. Water Use for Irrigation Agriculture in Ohio's Lake Erie Basin and its Potential Impact on Lake Erie Water Quality. Pages 159-179 in Checking the Pulse of Lake Erie, ed. M. Munawar and R. Heath.  Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society Envirovision Series.

Richards, R.P., V. Bouchard, and R. McCall.  2008.  Water Quality in Drainage Ditches Influenced by Agricultural Subsurface Drainage.  Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet WS-3857-08. Available at ohioline.osu.edu/ws-fact/pdf/WS_3857_08.pdf.

Richards, R. Peter, David B. Baker, John P. Crumrine, Jack W. Kramer, D. Ellen Ewing, and Barbara J. Merryfield. 2008. Thirty-Year Trends in Susppended Sediment in Seven Lake Erie Tributaries. Journal of Environmental Quality 37: 1894 - 1908.

Richards, R. Peter, David B. Baker, and John Crumrine.  2006.  Detecting water quality responses to land management changes: Why is it so difficult?  In Proceedings: Innovations in Reducing Nonpoint Source Pollution: Methods, Policies, Programs, and Measurement, November 28-30, 2006, pp. 81-91.  Rivers Institute at Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana.

Giddings, J.M., T.A. Anderson, L.W. Hall, Jr., A.J. Hosmer, R.J. Kendall, R.P. Richards, K.R. Solomon, and W.M. Williams. 2005. Atrazine in North American surface waters: A probabilistic aquatic ecological risk assessment. Pensacola (FL): Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC). 432 pp.

Baker, D.B., R.P. Richards, T.T. Loftus, and J.K. Kramer. 2004. A New Flashiness Index: Characteristics and Applications to Midwestern Rivers and Streams. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 40(2): 503-522.

Gustafson, D.I., K.H. Carr, T.R. Green, C. Gustin, R.L. Jones, and R.P. Richards.  2004. Fractal-Based Scaling and Scale-Invariant Dispersion of Peak Concentrations of Crop Protection Chemicals in Rivers.  Environmental Science and Technology 38:2995-3003.
Richards, R.P. 2004. Improving TMDLs with lessons learned from long-term detailed monitoring.  Journal of Environmental Engineering 130: 657-663.

Richards, R.P. and G.L. Grabow. 2003.  Detecting reductions in sediment loads associated with Ohio’s Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.  Journal of the American Water Resources Association 39(5): 1261-1268.

Richards, R.P., F.G. Calhoun, and G. Matisoff. 2002. The Lake Erie Agricultural Systems for Environmental Quality project: An introduction. J. Environmental Quality 31: 6-16.
Richards, R.P. and D.B. Baker. 2002. Trends in water quality in LEASEQ rivers and streams, 1975-1995. J. Environmental Quality 31: 90-96.

Read Dr. R. Peter Richard's Vita (.pdf)

Other Interests: choral singing, gardening, fishing, study of minerals