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CE Home > People > Faculty Directory > Patrick L. Brezonik
Patrick L. Brezonik
Professor
Contact Information:
- Office: CivE 154 WRC
- Phone: (612)625-0866 (612) 624-9282
- Fax: (612)626-7750
- E-mail: brezonik@umn.edu
Note: Prof. Brezonik is on leave during the 2005-06 academic year while he serves as program director for environmental engineering at the National Science Foundation.
Research Interests:
My research interests are focused on the impacts of human activity on water quality and the biogeochemical cycles of important elements (nitrogen, phosphorus, trace metals) in large natural systems–watersheds and lakes. Field studies, including experimental manipulations in large systems, and modeling approaches are emphasized. My current research projects are in four main areas: (1) mercury biogeochemistry; (2) applications of satellite imagery to evaluate lake quality; (3) coupled biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in urban and agricultural systems; and (4) small-scale nutrient cycling processes in soil-sediment-water systems. My mercury research is concerned with chemical transformations of mercury in wetland-lake ecosystems, with emphasis on photochemical processes and interactions between mercury forms and natural organic matter (humic substances) in these water bodies. My work with satellite imagery focuses on regional analyses and long-term trend assessments of trophic state conditions in lakes by use of Landsat and new satellite platforms. Our work on coupled biogeochemical cycles of the major elements is highly interdisciplinary and involves comparative analyses at the regional scale of nutrient budgets for urban, agricultural and natural regions in the Twin Cities and Phoenix (Arizona) metropolitan areas. Quantifying the importance of denitrification as a nitrogen sink in small agricultural streams is an example of a current project in the fourth area.
Some of this research is conducted through large multi-disciplinary projects. For example, the experimental acidification of a whole lake in northern Wisconsin was done in cooperation with limnologists, fisheries biologists, and hydrologists from several institutions and agencies. Recent research has been conducted in a variety of locations, including Lake Okeechobee, Florida, urban lakes in the Twin Cities and pristine lakes in northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
Selected Publications:
Pilgrim, K. M. and P. L. Brezonik. 2005. Treatment of lake inflows with alum for phosphorus removal. Lake Reserv. Manage. 21: 1-11.
Fang, F., K. W. Easter, and P. L. Brezonik. 2005. Point-nonpoint source water quality trading: a case study in the Minnesota River basin. J. Am. Wat. Resources Assoc. 41: 645-58.
Khwaja, A. R. P. R. Bloom, and P. L. Brezonik. 2005. Binding constants of divalent mercury (Hg 2+) in soil humic acids and soil organic matter. Env. Sci. Technol. 39. In press.
Brezonik, P. L., K. Menken, and M. E. Bauer. 2005. Landsat-based remote sensing of lake water quality characteristics, including chlorophyll and colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM). Lake Reserv. Manage. In press.
Brezonik, P.L., C.E. Mach, and C.J. Sampson. 2003. Geochemical controls for Al, Fe, Mn, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn during experimental acidification and recovery of Little Rock Lake, Wis., U.S.A. Biogeochem. 62: 119-143.
Fang, F., P.L. Brezonik, D.J. Mulla, and L.K. Hatch. 2002. Estimating runoff phosphorus loss in the Minnesota River Basin. J. Env. Qual. 31: 1918-29.
Stadelmann, T.H. and P.L. Brezonik. 2002. Analysis and predictive models of stormwater runoff volumes, loads, and pollutant concentrations from watersheds in the Twin Cities (Minnesota, USA) metropolitan area. Water Res. 36:1743-57.
Kloiber, S.M., P.L. Brezonik, L.G. Olmanson, and M.E. Bauer. 2002. A procedure for regional lake water clarity assessment using Landsat multispectral data. Remote sens. Environ. 82: 38-47.
Kloiber, S.M., P.L. Brezonik, and M.E. Bauer. 2002. Application of Landsat imagery to regional-scale assessments of lake clarity. Water Research 36: 4330-40.
Brezonik, P.L. 1994. Chemical Kinetics and Process Dynamics in Aquatic Systems. Lewis Publications-CRC Press, Boca Raton, Fla.
Education:
- B.S., 1963, Chemistry, Marquette University
- M.S., 1965, Water Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Ph.D., 1968, Water Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Experience:
- Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor, Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida, 1966-81
- Guest Professor, EAWAG-Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland, 1971-72 and summer, 1980
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