Carl E. Zipper
Associate Professor

Specialty:

Environmental Science

Contact Information:

Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061-0404
Phone (540) 231-9782
Fax (540) 231-3431
e-mail: czip@vt.edu

Brief biography

Carl Zipper received a B.A. from Lehigh University in 1970. He received B.S. (1981) and Ph.D. (1986) degrees in Agronomy, and an M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics (1987). At Virginia Tech, he is involved in teaching, research, and outreach. His specialty areas are mined land restoration, water quality and watershed management, and application of geospatial technologies to land and water resource analyses.

Teaching

Fundamentals of Environmental Science, ENSC 3604

Extension

Primary Extension responsibilities are in the area of mine restoration, including service as Director of the Powell River Project, a Virginia Tech program that conducts research and outreach concerning restoration of lands disturbed by coal mining. For more information about Powell River Project, see http://als.cses.vt.edu/prp/. Additional Extension activities are conducted in the area of water quality management.

Research

Research activities deal with all aspects of environmental quality, with emphases on water quality / watershed management and environmental assessments at broad spatial scales.

Selected Publications

Evanylo. G., A.O. Abaye, C. Dundas. C. Zipper, R. Lemus, B. Sukkariyah, J. Rockett. 2005. Herbaceous vegetation productivity, persistence, and metals uptake on a biosolids-amended mine soil. Journal of Environmental Quality 34:1811-1819.

Kennedy A., D. Cherry, C. Zipper.  2005.  Evaluation of ionic contribution to the toxicity of a coal mine effluent, using Ceriodaphnia dubia.  Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 49: 155-162.

Zipper, C., J. Ney, L. Smock, E.P. Smith, J. Little, P. Bukaveckas, G. Yagow, J. Walker, T. Younos. 2005. Issues Related to Freshwater Nutrient Criteria for Lakes and Reservoirs in Virginia. Virginia Water Resources Research Center Special Report SR27-2005. 40 p. + App.

Galbraith J., P. Donovan, K. Smith, and C. Zipper. 2003. Using public domain data to aid field identification of hydric soils. Soil Science 168:563-575.

Soucek, D., D. Cherry and C. Zipper. 2003. Impacts of mine drainage and other nonpoint source pollutants on aquatic biota in the upper Powell River system, Virginia. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 9:1059-1073.

Burger, J., and C. Zipper. 2002. How to Restore Forests on Surface-Mined Land. 2002. Virginia Cooperative Extension Publication 460-123. 18 pages.

http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/mines/460-123/460-123.html

Zipper, C., B. Lambert, J. Burger and W. Daniels. 2002. Linking research and regulatory policy to enable advances in reclamation practice. p. 866-878, in: Proceedings, National Meeting of the American Society for Mine Reclamation.

Zipper, C., G. Holtzman, P. Darken, J. Gildea, P. Thomas and R. Stewart. 2002. Surface-water quality trend analysis: A multiple-site application. p. 77-104, In: T. Younos (ed.). Advances in Water Monitoring Research. Water Resources Publications, Littleton CO.

Darken, P., C. Zipper, G. Holtzman and E. Smith. 2002. Serial correlation in water quality variables: Estimation and implications for trend analysis. Water Resources Research 38(7): 22 1-5.

Zipper, C., G. Holtzman, P. Darken, J. Gildea and R. Stewart. 2002. Virginia USA water-quality, 1978 – 1995: Regional interpretation. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 38(3): 789-802.

Jage, C., C. Zipper and R. Noble. 2001. Alkalinity generation by subsurface alkalinity producing systems: Regression analysis. Journal of Environmental Quality 30:1015-1022.

Soucek, D., D. Cherry and C. Zipper. 2001. Aluminum dominated toxicity to Ceriodaphnia dubia in neutral waters downstream of an acid mine drainage discharge. Canadian Journal of. Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 58:2396-2404.

Zipper, C. 2000. Coal mine reclamation, acid mine drainage and the Clean Water Act. p. 169191, in: R. Barnhisel, W. Daniels and R. Darmody (eds). Reclamation of Drastically Disturbed Lands. American Society of Agronomy. Madison WI. Monograph 41.

Zipper, C., and L. Gilroy. 1998. Sulfur dioxide emissions and market effects under the Clean AirAct’s Acid Rain Program. Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association 48:829

837.

Zipper, C., and B. Lambert. 1998. Remining to reclaim abandoned mined lands: Virginia’s initiative. p.530-538, in: Proceedings, 1998 National Meeting of the American Society for Mine Reclamation. St. Louis.

Zipper, C., W. Balfour, R. Roth and J. Randolph. 1997. Domestic water supply impacts by underground coal mining in Virginia, USA. Environmental Geology 29:84-93.

Santopietro, G., and C. Zipper. 1996. Incentives to encourage remining and reclamation of abandoned mines in Appalachia: Policy options. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 51:8-15.