Welcome!
This page provides information about my research projects, course offerings and opportunities for graduate students. You can also access some of my publications for download. Drop me an email if you have questions ([email protected]).
News & Updates
Teaching: During the Fall-2025 semester I will be offering a 2-credit course on data analysis techniques for water quality monitoring data. This is a hands-on, Excel-based course that will meet in the ENVS computer lab. The course meets once per week on Mondays at 2pm. In Spring 2026, I will be teaching my course on Monitoring, Assessment and Restoration of Inland and Coastal Waters (“Water” for short), which is a core course in the undergraduate ENVS curriculum.
Research: this summer my lab group is carrying out field projects at Lake Anna, the James River Estuary, urban lakes of the Richmond metro area, and lakes in the Adirondack Mountain region of New York State. My work in the Adirondacks is documenting the long-term recovery of these lakes following acidification and is carried out with the help of Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation. The Lake Anna work is being conducted in collaboration with the Lake Anna Civic Association and focuses on factors influencing water clarity. The James River work continues our long-term monitoring (since 2010) of harmful algae and bacteria in the tidal freshwater segment of the James, which is funded in part by the City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities. The urban lakes monitoring project is a new initiative, which is being carried out by my graduate student Kyleigh Johnson (below). Study sites include lakes at Byrd Park, Bryan Park, Forest Hill Park and Deep Run Park.
My most recent paper published in Inland Waters describes the effects of climate change on reservoirs in Virginia. Prior studies focused on northern lakes have shown that lake surface temperatures are rising, whereas bottom temperatures are cooling or unchanged. This has resulted in stronger stratification and greater oxygen depletion among north temperate lakes. Our results based on data collected by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality since the 1970s show that both surface and bottom temperatures are rising in VA reservoirs. Among deep stations (>10 m) surface temperatures are rising faster than bottom temperatures resulting in stronger stratification and greater DO depletion (e.g., at near-dam locations). Among shallow stations, bottom temperatures are rising faster than surface temperatures resulting in weaker stratification and rising DO due to earlier onset of Fall mixing. The faster rate of increase in bottom waters may be due to warming of tributary inflows to the reservoirs.
(2025) Effects of climate change on temperature and oxygen stratification of mid-latitude reservoirs, Inland Waters, 15:1, DOI: 10.1080/20442041.2025.2460928
Dr. Paul A. Bukaveckas
Virginia Commonwealth University
Trani Life Sciences Room 037
1000 W Cary St
Richmond, VA 23284
[email protected]
804-828-0168