About

Jay F. Martin is a professor of ecological engineering in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering at The Ohio State University. He specializes in analyzing and integrating human and natural systems to improve water quality and promote sustainability. As a faculty co-lead for the OSU Sustainability Institute, his interdisciplinary research links field studies, watershed models, and socio-economic analyses with stakeholder groups to investigate the connections between downstream water quality and upstream management practices. Dr. Martin leads significant projects including an $18 million USDA-NRCS study evaluating agricultural conservation practices in a 6,000-acre watershed to reduce nutrient runoff, a $5 million USDA-NIFA project establishing a public-private partnership with farmers and crop consultants to identify and manage elevated nutrient fields, and an interdisciplinary effort to assess the impacts of the 'Blueprint Columbus' green infrastructure project on water, communities, ecosystems, economics, and public health within Columbus. His research has extended beyond Ohio to include studies of Mayan agroecosystems in Mexico, biodigesters in Costa Rica, wetlands in Colombia, and algae use in Hawaii. As of 2022, Dr. Martin has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles, advised more than 38 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, and secured over $36 million in research funding. He is certified as a Senior Ecologist by the Ecological Society of America and as a Professional Engineer in Ohio.

Research topics

• Environmental science
• Computer Science
• Ecology
• Geography
• Geology
• Chemistry
• Climatology
• Biology
• Agronomy
• Environmental resource management
• Cartography
• Mathematics
• Water resource management
• Engineering
• Environmental engineering
• Microbiology

Selected publications

• Observation of urban karst flows inform planning, design and construction of green stormwater infrastructure

  Journal of Hydrology · 2026-05-05

  article
  PublisherDOI

• The Effect of Alfalfa on Subsurface Discharge and Nutrient Losses Mediated by Precipitation and Antecedent Moisture Conditions

  JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association · 2025-04-01

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT This study examines the effect of alfalfa ( Medicago sativa L .) on nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loads in subsurface (tile) drainage across storm events using edge‐of‐field monitoring data from two paired‐field sites (A and B) with a before‐after‐control‐impact (BACI) experimental design, located in the northwest region of Ohio, United States. A k‐medians cluster analysis was used to classify 462 storm events at Site A and 684 storm events at Site B based on precipitation amount and antecedent moisture conditions (AMC), defined as the cumulative 7‐day precipitation prior to a storm event. Patterns of nutrient loss in tile drainage were compared between fields with alfalfa and fields with cash and cover crops using a difference‐in‐differences analysis across three identified storm event types: Dry storm events, wet storm events, and large storm events. Compared to the cash and cover crop rotations, alfalfa had the following effects on discharge and water quality: little to no reduction in subsurface discharge across all storm events at both sites; significant reduction of subsurface nitrate and total N loads across all storm event types at Site A (~200%–800% lower), but not at Site B; ~45% reduction of subsurface dissolved reactive P during large events at both sites; and 11% and 110% reduction of total P loads during large events at Sites A and B, respectively. The impact of alfalfa during large storm events is important given that most nutrient export occurs during these events.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Integrating human and natural systems from a global systems perspective

  Ecological Modelling · 2025-10-01

  articleOpen access

  • Wetlands improve water quality and remove nutrients incorporating the principles of self-organization and pulsing. • Assimilation wetlands achieve tertiary treatment while maintaining much of their integrity. • Projects discussed range in size from cypress domes in Florida to the Mississippi Basin. • Energy circuit language and emergy analysis helped clarify system functioning of mangroves treating shrimp pond effluent. • In general, a systems perspective improved understanding of the functioning of these ecosystems. During his long career, Howard Odum focused on both conceptual and theoretical issues such as maximum power and the development of energy circuit language as well as ecosystem-level studies of natural systems and human interactions with these systems. He and colleagues carried out large macrocosm studies on a variety of ecosystems. We review here studies initiated by Howard Odum as well as whole system studies carried out by a number of post docs, his students and their students. We focus on studies involving John Day, Katherine Ewel, and William Mitsch. Ewel and Mitsch worked on fertilized cypress systems in Florida. While at Ohio State University, Mitsch initiated a wetland research park on the university campus. He and Day carried out a series of holistic studies of the Mississippi basin to address water quality issues caused by agricultural runoff and developed a basin-wide plan for wetland reclamation to reduce nutrient inputs to streams and rivers. More recently, studies have been carried out on the long-range and large-scale effects of hydrology and macrophyte planting on phosphorus removal by wetlands adjacent to Lake Erie. Major ecosystem-scale studies in coastal Louisiana have investigated the value of coastal wetland and aquatic systems in improving water quality and restoring lost landscapes. These studies in the Midwest and Mississippi delta form the basis of determining design standards for creating and restoring wetlands in the Mississippi Basin to reduce Gulf of Mexico hypoxia and regain many lost ecosystem functions over a large part of North America. Studies have also been conducted of the use of mangroves to treat effluent from shrimp ponds. These studies were intended to increase our understanding of water quality improvement and ecosystem budgets, demonstrating the importance of pulsing, self-design, and emergy analysis.

  PublisherDOI

• Retrofitted watershed scale green infrastructure reduces heavy metals in urban stormwater from residential land use

  Journal of Hazardous Materials · 2025-09-10

  articleOpen access

  The City of Columbus, Ohio, USA began retrofitting green infrastructure (GI) into existing development through a multi-decade project. Primary design goals were reducing TSS loads in runoff by 20 % and stormwater infiltration and inflow to the sanitary sewer. GI also contributed to modest heavy metal reductions at the watershed scale. Through this 3.5-year paired watershed study, heavy metal reductions were observed in an 11.5-hectare watershed where three online bioretention cells treated 66.5 % of the imperviousness. Significant event mean concentration (EMC) reductions of 18.1 % for copper and 31.2 % for nickel were observed. Storm event load reductions were also significant: 44.0 % for cadmium, 33.6 % for copper, 46.0 % for nickel, 5.9 % for zinc. Reductions are likely due to sedimentation, filtration, sorption, and biological uptake within GI. Bioretention dampened effects of high rainfall intensity, a primary contributor to heavy metal loadings in that watershed before GI. However, another treatment watershed (47.8 ha) with 32 offline bioretention cells and four permeable pavement roads treating 69.7 % of the imperviousness demonstrated no significant reductions in heavy metal EMCs or storm event loads following GI retrofits. Further watershed scale field studies are needed to understand the factors driving successful heavy metal reduction. Structural and non-structural best management practices are recommended.

  PublisherDOI

• A retrospective analysis of climate and land management drivers of nutrient export from the western Lake Erie watershed: 1980-2019

  Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management · 2025-06-16

  article

  The return of harmful algal blooms to western Lake Erie has heightened the focus on managing nutrient loading from its watershed, and particularly the large, agricultural Maumee River Watershed (MRW). Increased dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) loads over the last twenty years are suspected to be a primary cause of the recurrence and severity of these blooms. The primary cause of increasing DRP is still unclear, and therefore management efforts to reverse this trend are difficult to develop. We used a refined model of the MRW to investigate changes in climate and land management between 1980 and 2019 to identify key factors driving trends in DRP as well as discharge and other nutrient forms that impact algal biomass and toxicity. We found that the dominant drivers of discharge and nutrients varied: historical climate trends drove discharge and nitrogen concentrations, while historical management changes were more responsible for changing phosphorus concentrations. Among the land management changes examined, the rising adoption of minimal- and no-tillage strategies had the greatest impact on nutrient trends, leading to reductions in total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), and nitrate (NO3), yet increases in DRP. We posit that a better understanding of the water quality impacts of past land management enables modelers and managers to more accurately predict the impacts of potential future management changes.

  PublisherDOI

• Advancing SWAT modeling with rainfall risk-based fertilizer timing to improve nutrient management and crop yields

  Agricultural Water Management · 2025-05-23 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  In 2016, the United States and Canada agreed to reduce phosphorus inputs to Lake Erie by 40 % to reduce the severity of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). These blooms have become more severe, with record events occurring in 2011 and 2015, and have compromised public safety, leading to do-not-drink advisories and negatively impacting the economy of the Western Lake Erie basin. To determine the potential benefits of avoiding nutrient application during high rainfall events compared to dry periods, we analyzed scenarios using three Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological models developed for the Maumee River Watershed. These SWAT models were developed by three different institutes and calibrated for flow and nutrient loadings at the watershed outlet. The scenarios varied the timing of nutrient (fertilizer as well as manure) applications at the hydrological response unit (HRU; smallest unit of a model) level based on the risk of rainfall events and included a (1) worst-condition scenario, in which nutrients were applied just before rain events having a high-risk of runoff and a (2) best-condition scenario, in which nutrients were applied during periods carrying a low-risk of runoff. The results demonstrate that applying nutrients during low-risk rainfall events reduced nitrate runoff by 10.9 %, total phosphorus by 1.2 %, and dissolved reactive phosphorus by 3.8 % during the spring season compared to high-risk rainfall events. While, the nitrate, total phosphorus and dissolved reactive phosphorus reductions were 6 % 0.7 % and 2.6 %, respectively on the annual scale. Additionally, nutrient application during high-risk rainfall events led to a reduction in crop yields, with soybean yields decreasing by 4.4 %, corn and rye by 3 %, and winter wheat by up to 5.5 %. These findings underscore the importance of optimizing nutrient application timing to minimize nutrient runoff and enhance crop productivity, contributing to improved water quality in the Great Lakes region. • Novel framework to trigger fertilizer application timings using rainfall risk in SWAT. • Multi-model approach to assess nutrient runoff reductions in different risk scenarios. • Optimized fertilizer timing reduces nutrient loss, boosts crop yields across models.

  PublisherDOI

• Corrigendum to “Quantifying phosphorus loads from legacy-phosphorus fields” [J. Gt. Lakes 50 (2024) 102446]

  Journal of Great Lakes Research · 2025-01-09

  erratumSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Land-use management and parameterization as sources of uncertainty in hydrologic models: A Maumee River Watershed case study

  Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management · 2025-06-16

  article

  The use of hydrological models in water management and policy has grown with increasing demand for scientifically credible solutions to rising environmental concerns. However, difficulty in quantifying uncertainty is a key limitation for interpreting model results. Uncertainties associated with parameters and data inputs are commonly reported. While some studies reported the relative effects of specific farm management implementation, the type and timing of farm field management operations remain some of the most uncertain data inputs and have been poorly studied in the context of model uncertainty. This study aims to assess the relative role of two potential drivers of uncertainty: 1) assumptions made for farm management; and 2) model parameterization through analysis of a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model of the Maumee River Watershed. We identified a suite of model simulations representing management practices of known importance to the region, and we identified a set of commonly calibrated model parameters and a set of prescribed value combinations representing the range of plausible values for these parameters. SWAT was run over each unique combination of parameter sets, and management realizations. Model outputs were compared with observations to quantify and attribute uncertainty to management inputs and parameterization. We examined the sensitivity of modeled outlet-level discharge and nutrient loading and found that parameterization and management were large contributors to uncertainty across all water quality outputs examined. Furthermore, model uncertainty in discharge was dominated by parameterization, while uncertainty in nutrient loading was dominated by management inputs. Based on the results, we suggest that when developing models for informing decision making, management practices that are implemented using the best available spatial and temporal data likewise undergo a management implementation sensitivity analysis and that these results are reported in the context of uncertainty, similar parameter uncertainty standards.

  PublisherDOI

• 29 years of carbon sequestration in two constructed riverine wetlands

  Ecological Engineering · 2024-11-09 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Corrigendum to “29 Years of carbon sequestration in two constructed riverine wetlands” [Ecological Engineering 210 (2025) 1-12/107435]

  Ecological Engineering · 2024-11-28

  erratumOpen access
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Impacts of Green Infrastructure on the Microbiome of Urban Stormwater: Reducing Threats to Public Health

  NSF · $298k · 2018–2022

• A Comprehensive Analysis of Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Storm Water: Application of Natural Carbon Isotopes to Evaluate the Efficacy of Bioretention Systems

  NSF · $320k · 2012–2016

• US-Costa Rica - International Doctoral Dissertation Research: Optimizing Energy Production and Waste Treatment in Small-Scale Digesters

  NSF · $14k · 2007–2009

• CNH: Co-Evolution of Upstream Human Behavior and Downstream Ecosystem Services in a Changing Climate

  NSF · $1.5M · 2011–2017

Frequent coauthors

• R. Kanani

  32 shared

• Remegio Confesor

  17 shared

• Margaret Kalcic

  17 shared

• Stewart A.W. Diemont

  SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

  17 shared

• N. Lancelotte

  University of Warwick

  16 shared

• Vanessa Bradshaw

  University of Warwick

  16 shared

• Stephen Preston

  16 shared

• Rajpal Dhingsa

  16 shared

Labs

• Food, Agricultural and Biological EngineeringPI

Awards & honors

• Senior Ecologist by the Ecological Society of America