Aitkenhead-Petersons research explores the transport, transformations and fate of nutrients (N and P) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in urban landscapes and beneath decomposing mammals. 

Her work in urban landscapes includes the Texas A&M - Scotts Company 24 plot runoff plots which she helped to design and is responsible for analyses of runoff chemistry.  She has been involved in collection and analyses of several local streams as well as the Trinity River. Current research poses the question about the chemistry of urban lakes and ponds and whether they meet standards for secondary recreation specifically for E. coli.

Her work at the two Texas human donor facilities has been useful in a forensics context in terms of estimating post-mortem intervals of deceased but also from an ecological standpoint in terms of movement of decomposition products down soil profiles towards water tables.  The large influx of nutrients and DOC into the soil when a mammal purges will be explored further by assessing nutrients under feral hogs in an experiment in being conducted in Mississippi and hopefully eventually in Texas so that different soil texture effect on nutrient transport can be monitored.

1.                  Nagaraju, A., Thejaswi, A., and Aitkenhead-Peterson, J.A. (2017) Fluoride and heavy metal accumulation by vegetation in the fluoride affected area of Talupula, Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh.  Journal of the Geological Society of India, 89(1): 1-11.

2.                  Khaledian Y., Kiani F, Ebrahimi, S., Brevik EC., and Aitkenhead-Peterson JA (2017) Assessment and monitoring of soil degradation during land use change using multivariate analysis. Land Degradation and Development. DOI: 10.1002/ldr.2541. 

3.                  Fontanier C, Wherley B, White R, Aitkenhead-Peterson J and Chalmers D. (2017). Historical ETo – based Irrigation Scheduling for St. Augustinegrass Lawns in the South-Central United States. Irrigation Science 35(4): 347-356. DOI: 10.1007/s00271-017-0544-x

4.                  Fontanier C, Aitkenhead-Peterson JA, Wherley B, White R, Thomas J. (2017), Deficit irrigation effects on NO3-N losses in runoff from St. Augustinegrass. J. Environmental Qual. 46(4): 793-801

5.                  Fancher JP, Aitkenhead-Peterson JA, Farris T, Mix K, Schwab AP, Wescott D. and Hamilton M. (2017) Soil chemistry of cadaver decomposition  islands in a clayey soil. Forensic Science International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2017.08.002

6.                  Gregory L F., Karthikeyan R., Aitkenhead-Peterson JA, Gentry TJ, Wagner KL and Harmel DR (in press) Nutrient Loading Impacts on Culturable E. coli and other Heterotrophic Bacteria Fate in Simulated Stream Mesocosms. Water Research, 126:442-449

7.                  Berube M., Jewell K., Knappett P S., Shuar P., Datta S., Hossain A., Lipsi M., Hossain S., Hossain A., Dimova N., Aitkenhead-Peterson J A., and Ahmed A M. (2017).The fate of Arsenic in groundwater discharged to the Meghna River, Bangladesh.  Environmental Chemistry - In press

8.                  Alexander  M B, Hodges TK, Wescott DJ and Aitkenhead-Peterson JA. (2016). The Effects of Soil Texture on the Ability of Human Remains Detection Dogs to Detect Buried Human Remains. J. Forensic Science, 61(3): 649-655. 

9.                  Aitkenhead-Peterson JA and Steele MK (2016) DOC and DON exports upstream and downstream of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metropolis, Texas, USA.  Invited Paper, Marine and Freshwater Research 67(9): 1326-1337.