Home , Go Back to faculty page JAMES E. ALMENDINGER Adjunct Faculty PhD, 1988, University of Minnesota St. Croix Watershed Research Station Science Museum of Minnesota 16910 152nd St. N Marine on St. Croix, MN 55047 Phone: 651-433-5953 Fax: 651-433-5924 Email: dinger@smm.org

Research Interests

    My research interests include Quaternary paleoecology; lake, wetland, and groundwater hydrology and paleohydrology; groundwater/surface-water interactions; land-use and small stream hydrology; and human impacts on watersheds.

Professional Society Memberships

• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• American Geophysical Union
• American Quaternary Association
• American Water Resources Association
• British Ecological Society
• Geological Society of America
• Minnesota Ground Water Association
• National Ground Water Association

Selected Publications

• Clark, J.S., E.C. Grimm, J.J. Donovan, S.C. Fritz, D.R. Engstrom, and J.E. Almendinger.  2002.  Drought cycles and landscape responses to past aridity on prairies of the northern Great Plains, USA.  Ecology 83(3): 595-601.
• Engstrom, D.R., S.C. Fritz, J.E. Almendinger, and S. Juggins.  2000.  Chemical and biological trends during lake evolution in recently deglaciated terrain.  Nature 408:161-166.
• Balogh, S.J., D.R. Engstrom, J.E. Almendinger, M.L. Meyer, and D.K. Johnston.  1999.  A history of mercury loading in the upper Mississippi River reconstructed from the sediments of Lake Pepin.  Environmental Science and Technology 33: 3297-3302. 
• Almendinger, J.E.  1999.  A method to prioritize and monitor wetland restoration for water-quality improvement.  Wetlands Ecology and Management 6:241-251.
• Almendinger, J.E., and J.H. Leete.  1998. Regional and local hydrogeology of calcareous fens in the Minnesota River Basin, U.S.A.  Wetlands 18: 184-202.
• Almendinger, J.E., and J.H. Leete.  1998.  Peat characteristics and ground-water geochemistry of calcareous fens in the Minnesota River Basin, U.S.A.  Biogeochemistry 43: 17-41.
• Almendinger, J.E.  1996.  Minnesota wetland resources.  U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 2425: 237-242.
• Almendinger, J.E., and G.B. Mitton.  1995. Hydrology and relation of selected water-quality constituents to selected physical factors in Dakota County, Minnesota, 1990-91.  U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 94-4207, 26 pp.
• Almendinger, J.E.  1994. The travel-time ellipse: an approximate zone of transport.  Journal of Hydrology 161: 365-373.
• Almendinger, J.E.  1993.  A groundwater model to explain past lake levels at Parkers Prairie, Minnesota, USA.  The Holocene 3: 105-115.
• Delin, G.N., and J.E. Almendinger.  1993.  Delineation of recharge areas for selected wells in the St. Peter-Prairie du Chien-Jordan aquifer, Rochester, Minnesota.  U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 2397, 39 pp.
• Digerfeldt, G., S. Björck, and J.E. Almendinger.  1992.  Reconstruction of past lake levels and their relation to groundwater hydrology in the Parkers Prairie sandplain, west-central Minnesota.  Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 94: 99-118.
• Jacobson, H.A., J.E. Almendinger, and S. Hobbie.  1992.  Influence of terrestrial vegetation on sediment-forming processes in kettle lakes of west-central Minnesota.  Quaternary Research 38: 103-116.
• Almendinger, J.E.  1991.  Relation of nitrate concentrations in water to agricultural land use and soil type in Dakota County, Minnesota, 1990.  U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 91-235, 2 pp.
• Almendinger, J.E.  1990.  Groundwater control of closed-basin lake levels under steady-state conditions.  Journal of Hydrology 112: 293-318.
• Almendinger, J.E.  1990.  Hydrologic control of lake chemistry on Lester Island, Glacier Bay National Park.  In Milner, A. M., and J. D. Wood, Jr., eds., Proceedings of the Second Glacier Bay Science Symposium, U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service, p. 133-135.
• Perlinger, J.A., J.E. Almendinger,  N.R. Urban, and S.J. Eisenreich.  1987.  Groundwater geochemistry of aquifer thermal energy storage: long-term test cycle.  Water Resources Research 23: 2215-2226.
• Almendinger, J.C., J.E. Almendinger, and P.H. Glaser.  1986.  Topographic fluctuations across a spring fen and raised bog in the Lost River Peatland, northern Minnesota.  Journal of Ecology 74:393-401.

Recent Research Support

• Almendinger, J.E., and M.S. Murphy.  2005.  Land-use change and agricultural practices in the Willow River watershed, western Wisconsin, 1992-2004.  Project report to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, 39 pp. 
• Almendinger, J.E.  2003.  Watershed hydrology of Valley Creek and Browns Creek; Trout streams influenced by agriculture and urbanization in eastern Washington County, Minnesota, 1998-99.  Final project report to the Metropolitan Council Environmental Services, Twin Cities Water Quality Initiative (TCQI) Program, 80 pp.
• Zapp, M.J., and J.E. Almendinger.  2001.  Nutrient dynamics and water quality of Valley Creek, a high-quality trout stream in southeastern Washington County.  Final project report to the Valley Branch Watershed District and the Board of Water and Soil Resources.  St. Croix Watershed Research Station, 29 pp. 
• Almendinger, J.E., D.G. Pitt, B.N. Wilson, E.M. Jahnke, S.P. Schottler, K.E. Thommes, D.C. Whited, and S.E. Grubb.  1999.  Monitoring and Modeling Valley Creek Watershed.  Final project report to the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources (compendium of six individual sub-project reports).  St. Croix Watershed Research Station, ca. 200+ pp.
• Engstrom, D.R., and J.E. Almendinger.  1997.  Historical changes in sediment and phosphorus loading to the Upper Mississippi River:  mass-balance reconstructions from the sediments of Lake Pepin.  Final research report prepared for the Metropolitan Council Environmental Services.  St. Croix Watershed Research Station, 26 pp.