Image

Rick Peterson:

 

Education

Research Interests

My primary research focus is centered around examining groundwater-surface water interactions.  This exchange can deliver significant quantities of nutrients, trace metals, and contaminants to the coastal ocean, lakes, rivers, and wetlands.  I am interested in developing and applying techniques to resolve driving forces and mechanisms of this interaction as well as quantifying fluxes.  I am particularly interested in applying naturally-occurring radioisotopic tracers to study this exchange process in a number of unique settings.  Other research interests include applying natural radiotracers to a multitude of environmental processes including particle transport and atmospheric deposition. 

Active Research Projects

  1. Collaborative Research: Development of a Submersible, Autonomous Rn-222 Survey System - Funded by the National Science Foundation
  2. Determining the Rols of Estuarine 'Swashes' on Water Quality Impairment Along the Grand Strand of South Carolina: Impacts of Land Use and Stormwater Runoff - Funded by NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative
  3. Determining groundwater inputs to the Duplin River as part of the Georgia Coastal Ecosystem Long-Term Ecological Research Project - Funded by the National Science Foundation
  4. Groundwater discharge drivers of hypoxia in Long Bay: Radon monitoring from local fishing piers - Funded by cities of Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach as well as Horry County
  5. Water Level and Salinity Variability Drivers in Singleton Swash, Horry County, South Carolina - Funded by Horry County

Most Recent Publications (see CV for complete list)

  1. Peterson, R.N., R.F. Viso, I.R. MacDonald, and S.B. Joye, 2013.  On the utility of radium isotopes as tracers of hydrocarbon discharge.  Marine Chemistry, in press.
  2. Peterson, R.N., W.C. Burnett, S.P. Opsahl, I.R. Santos, S. Misra, and P.N. Froelich, 2013.  Tracking suspended particle transport via radium isotopes (226Ra and 228Ra) through the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River system.  Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 116, 65-75.
  3. Burnett, W.C., R.N. Peterson, S. Chanyotha, G. Wattayakorn, and B. Ryan, 2012.  Using high-resolution in-situ radon measurements to determine groundwater discharge at a remote location: Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia.  Journal of Nuclear and Radiochemistry, 293(1), 97-103. 
  4. El-Gamal, A.A., R.N. Peterson, and W.C. Burnett, 2012.  Detecting seasonal freshwater and nutrient loadings via groundwater inputs to Marina Lagoon, Egypt.  Estuaries and Coasts, 35 (6), 1486-1499.
  5. Sanger, D. M., E. M. Smith, G. Voulgaris, E. T. Koepfler, S. M. Libes, G. H. M. Riekerk, D. C. Bergquist, D. I. Greenfield, P. Ansley Wren, C. A. McCoy, R. F. Viso, R. N. Peterson, and J. D. Whitaker, 2012.  Constrained enrichment contributes to hypoxia formation in Long Bay, South Carolina, an open water urbanized coastline.  Marine Ecology Progress Series, 461, 15-30.
  6. Povinec, P.P., W.C. Burnett, A. Beck, H. Bokuniewicz, M. Charette, M.E. Gonneea, M. Groening, T. Ishitobi, E. Kontar, L. Liong Wee Kwong, D.E.P. Marie, W.S. Moore, J.A. Oberdorfer, R. Peterson, R. Ramessur, J. Rapaglia, T. Stieglitz, and Z. Top, 2011.  Isotopic, geophysical and biogeochemical investigation of submarine groundwater discharge: IAEA-UNESCO intercomparison exercise at Mauritius Island.  Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, in press.
  7. Santos, I.R., W.C. Burnett, S. Misra, I.G.N.A. Suryaputra, J. Chanton, T. Dittmar, R.N. Peterson, and P.W. Swarzenski, 2011.  Uranium and barium cycling in a salt wedge subterranean estuary: The influence of tidal pumping.  Chemical Geology, 287 (1-2), 114-123.
  8. McCoy, C.A., R.F. Viso, R.N. Peterson, S. Libes, B. Lewis, J.G. Ledoux, G. Voulgaris, E. Smith, and D. Sanger, 2011.  Radon as an indicator of limited cross-shelf mixing and submarine groundwater discharge in a coastal embayment along the South Atlantic Bight.  Continental Shelf Research, 31 (12), 1306-1317.
  9. Santos, I.R., C. Lechuga-Deveze, R.N. Peterson, and W.C. Burnett, 2011.  Tracing submarine hydrothermal inputs into a coastal bay in Baja California, Mexico.  Chemical Geology, 282 (1-2), 1-10.
  10. Santos, I.R., R.N. Peterson, and W.C. Burnett, 2010.  Significant lateral inputs of fresh groundwater into a stratified tropical estuary: Evidence from radon and radium isotopes.  Marine Chemistry, 121 (1), 37-48.