​Dr. Anna Klamerus-Iwan is a University Professor at the Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forest Utilization, University of Agriculture in Krakow.

What does ecohydrology mean to you?
Ecohydrology combines lessons drawn from ecology and hydrology. It is a means to discover and understand the ordinarily concealed interactions between organisms (biocenosis), anthropogenic factors (e.g. air pollution) and the hydrological cycle. My work has so far convinced me that no factor influencing the water capacity of ecosystem elements (tree crowns, bark, dead wood, soil) can be considered in isolation from others. I have studied how pollution and fungal infections increase water storage capacity of leaves and how the pollution reduces the retention properties of lichens. Ecohydrology strives to leverage these natural mechanics to engineer and increase the retention capacity of forests, especially in the context of climate change.
 
What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?
M.Sc. degree with thesis entitled "Research on water absorbability of soil skeleton and the degree of its weathering in mountain soils."
Ph.D of Forestry Degree in Forest Hydrology with dissertation entitled „Interception of selected trees under laboratory research conditions”.

I also completed the stage called habilitation on the basis of a series of publications under the common title: "Factors influencing the water capacity of forest tree crowns and the wettability of plant material" (field of forest sciences> forestry> forest hydrology).

This was all accomplished in the Department of Forestry Faculty at Agricultural University in Krakow.
 
How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
The current direction of my research is focused on the hydrology associated with determining the interception water capacity of tree canopy and with the physical properties of plant material affecting the wettability of leaves and needles. I also explore other components of the forest ecosystem, such as dead wood, lichen and moss. Within this area of research, I conduct laboratory and field measurements aimed to determine an effect of a single tree and the changes in it that affect the amount of water that reaches the bottom of the forest.

Earlier on in my research I focused on issues related to the calculation of water reserves in mountain soils. The issue of the laboratory approach to the study of water absorption of the ground skeleton, including the degree of its weathering was the subject of my master's thesis. The culmination of my work in this area were two patents of the Republic of Poland, which I co-authored. The patents concern both the device for acquiring the research material needed to determine the measures of soil skeleton weathering degree and the method of determining the measures of soil skeleton weathering in a dry and water environment.

I am currently revisiting these soil related topics in my exploration of retention in newly developing ecosystems in post-mining sites and in cities. This seems to be a broad direction in which I am going with my research.

What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
Seemingly small hydrological changes in local forest complexes and changes in the amount and intensity of rains, which make up the overall picture of water that is increasingly difficult for plants to access.

Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper?  Describe/explain.
I participated in the book "Precipitation partitioning by vegetation" edited by John van Stan, Ethan Gutmann and Jan Friesen (2020) and I must say that this is a truly comprehensive approach to partitioning issues. It was a great pleasure to work in such a team. I really like the fact that apart from scientific articles, there are richly illustrated versions popularizing important hydrological issues, e.g.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315744259_Graphic_novella_Plant_Invasion_Alters_Canopy_Ecohydrology

I would also like to mention:
Doerr, G.J.; Kempthorne, D.M.; Mayo, L.C.; Forster, W.A.; Zabkiewicz, J.A.; McCue, S.W.; Belward, J.A.; Turner, I.W.; Hanan, J. Towards a model of spraycanopy interactions: Interception, shatter, bounce and retention of droplets on horizontal leaves. Ecol. Model. 2014, 290, 94–101.
Keim, R.F.; Skaugset, A.E.; Weiler, M. Storage of water on vegetation under simulated rainfall of varyingintensity.Adv. Water Resour.2006,29, 974–986.
 
This is where my adventure with ecohydrology began.
 
What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
I really like traveling and visiting new places. Recently, I discovered urban gardening.

Dr. Rodrigo Vargas is a Professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Delaware, USA. Twitter: @vargaslab

What does ecohydrology mean to you?
As an ecosystem ecologist, I see ecohydrology within a broad extent as an approach to couple hydrological processes with other ecosystem processes across spatial and temporal scales. Ecohydrology enables us to think about water and energy fluxes and their sensitivity to changes in environmental conditions and anthropogenic management. Furthermore, ecohydrology is about coupling systems and processes but is increasingly important to add the role of human societies into the equation. I have used this perspective to research carbon and water dynamics from water-limited ecosystems to coastal wetlands where hydrological processes are contrasting and influence ecosystems in very different ways.
 
What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?
My undergraduate degree is a "Licenciatura" in Biology from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM), Mexico. During this degree I was introduced to how water influences biogeochemical cycles as I did a study on nitrogen fixation by periphyton in a tropical wetland. I went to the University of California-Riverside, USA, to study a PhD in Environmental Science where I studied carbon dynamics in a water-limited ecosystem (California, USA) and a tropical forest (Yucatan, Mexico).
 
How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
My first experience was as an undergraduate with a study about how hydrological seasonality influences nitrogen fixation by periphyton in a tropical wetland. I was amazed about how organisms can sustain temperatures >65 deg C with no access to water and reactivate their metabolism within hours after the first rain. During my PhD, I had the opportunity to work in a water-limited ecosystem and explore how water pulses regulate soil CO2 fluxes and mycorrhizae growth. In addition, I worked in a tropical forest and had the opportunity to study how plants and soils respond to a large wind (and water) disturbance caused by a category 4 hurricane (hurricane Wilma in 2005). After my PhD, I had the opportunity to continue working on ecohydrology across water-limited ecosystems in Baja California (Mexico), New Mexico (USA), Almeria (Spain), and with collaborative synthesis studies around the world. I moved to the University of Delaware in 2012 and I started studying a coastal wetland. Here, I have been introduced to a completely different approach for ecohydrology and the importance of hydrodynamics, and this ecosystem opened new challenges, learning and research opportunities. In a nutshell, I have studied how too much water, the scarcity of water, the timing of water pulses, and the quality of water influence biogeochemical cycles across different ecosystems.  
 
 What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
I am excited about terrestrial-aquatic interfaces. As I said, I have had the opportunity to work on terrestrial ecosystems but the ecohydrological paradigms established for these ecosystems may not be fully applicable in wetlands and across the terrestrial-aquatic interface. Studying ecohydrology in these interfaces requires developing and application of new approaches; for example, we need to revisit how we measure mass (and energy) fluxes as we must consider vertical and lateral fluxes. We need to have closer collaborations among disciplines to integrate hydrodynamics with biogeochemical processes to better understand the response of terrestrial-aquatic interfaces to climate change. Furthermore, I strongly believe that we need to better communicate how ecohydrological processes impact human societies and how scientific understanding is useful for developing policies and management practice to secure a sustainable future. 
 
Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper?  Describe/explain.
I would like to share two books that have influenced my vision on ecohydrology across ecosystems. One is about ecohydrology in water limited ecosystems that details the role of soil moisture on plant ecology (Rodríguez-Iturbe and Porporato, 2007). The other is about ecohydrology in estuaries which brings a completely different perspective by introducing the importance of water in mass transport and ecological processes in coastal ecosystems (Wolanski and Elliott, 2015). These are two very different approaches of ecohydrology but that need to be integrated for a better understanding of terrestrial-aquatic interfaces. Finally, there are many classic papers on ecohydrology that have been highlighted before, but I have been fascinated by the capacity of plants to access nutrients and roots from bedrock... mycorrhizal hypha can penetrate granite bedrock and extract nutrients and water to enable plants to survive seasonal drought (Egerton-Warburton et al 2003). The knowledge from water-limited ecosystems to coastal wetlands and the deep access of water and resources shows the complexity that ecohydrology brings to our understanding of ecosystems...so much fun and so much to do!
 
What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
I enjoy hiking, trail running, and recently my wife and me have returned to indoor rock climbing with our son. I have also been doing Crossfit for the last 4 years...do not judge me!

​Dr. Qian Zhang is an Assistant Research Scientist. He works for the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) at the USEPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office. Twitter: https://twitter.com/qianzhang1. 

What does ecohydrology mean to you?
It means interdisciplinary. Apparently, ecohydrology is at the intersection of hydrology and ecology, leveraging science from both disciplines to protect/restore ecosystems. It should also be recognized that ecohydrology has evolved rapidly to encompass additional disciplines. To my own experience and interests, ecohydrology studies the sources and transfers of water and associated materials (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment) and their effects on inland and coastal ecosystems (e.g., Chesapeake Bay).
 
What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?
I received my B.E. degree in Environmental Engineering from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. I received my M.S.E and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU). I also obtained a M.S.E. degree in Applied Mathematics and Statistics from JHU, since statistics played an essential role in my dissertation research.
 
How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
This journey started when I was a kid. Back then I lived in a small city in the northern China, where many streams and ponds had severe algal blooms due to industrialization. This has helped motivate me to dedicate myself to protect the environment and natural resources. For that reason, I chose to study Environmental Engineering at NTU for my bachelor’s degree. Upon graduation from NTU I was offered an opportunity by Prof. Bill Ball to join his team at JHU to conduct research on Chesapeake Bay. I had no hesitation and soon embarked on this incredible journey with the hope that my work with the Chesapeake will also benefit the restoration of rivers and estuaries elsewhere (including my hometown in China, of course). During my years at JHU, I have focused on applying statistical approaches to quantify nutrient and sediment loads and their temporal trends in the major tributaries to Chesapeake Bay. Shortly after my graduation at JHU I started my current position at UMCES. I always feel very blessed to have the opportunity to continue research on Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. With this position, I apply scientific principles and statistical approaches to the incredible amount of data sets from the Bay Program Partnership to explore the natural and anthropogenic-based causes behind the status and trends in the water quality of Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, which is critical to defining the success of the Chesapeake Bay and watershed restoration efforts to date and to making science-based management decisions in the foreseeable future. Although I do not often label myself as a ecohydrologist, I have already worked in this field for over a decade!
 
What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
Eutrophication and hypoxia have caused ecological degradation in many areas, primarily due to excessive nutrients from anthropogenic sources. I consider this an important topic of ecohydrology and expect it to further advance for several reasons. First, our conceptual model of the problem has been evolving over time (e.g., see Dr. Cloern’s review paper, https://dx.doi.org/10.3354/meps210223). Second, restoration efforts have been carried out in many areas, but not all are successful. In this regard, cross-ecosystem analysis and synthesis will help us understand why or why not we are working toward the right direction (e.g., see Dr. Boesch’s recent review paper, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00123). Third, the community will benefit from the increasing amounts of data in terms of spatial coverage, temporal resolution, and data types, which provide valuable information regarding ecosystem functioning and help generate plausible hypotheses on underlying drivers. Fourth, machine learning approaches are being increasingly adopted by the community, which complement with process-based models. As a community, we need actively leverage these resources (data and tools) to better understand the temporal and spatial patterns of eutrophication and the effects and interactions of stressors and translate our understanding to effective management strategies toward ecosystem restoration.
 
Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper? Describe/explain.
It is difficult to pick one. I will go with the recent Science paper by Palmer and Ruhi, “Linkages between flow regime, biota, and ecosystem processes: Implications for river restoration.” In this review, the authors explain how restoration designs now attempt to mimic ecologically important aspects of natural flow regimes. They point out that in order to be successful, efforts must go beyond accounting for flood pulses to restore natural flow variability and achieve hydrological connectivity between a river and its surroundings.
 
What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
I used to play soccer a lot when I was a student, spanning 20+ years from elementary school to graduate school. When I was at Johns Hopkins, I led the soccer team formed by Chinese students and scholars. Now, I have two boys (age 6 and 4), so less time is spent on soccer. During free time we like to bring the boys out to explore the beautiful nature, especially Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

Kingsley Nnaemeka Ogbu is a lecturer at the Department of Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria. Currently, I am a researcher at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany.

What does ecohydrology mean to you?
I understand ecohydrology to mean an interdisciplinary research area concerned with the interactions between ecological processes and the hydrologic system. Understanding these interactions/feedbacks under uncertain climate and human population growth is key to achieving sustainable watershed management and water resources development.
 
What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?
I obtained a Bachelor of Engineering in Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering in 2007 from the University of Nigeria. My master's degree is in Soil and Water Resources Engineering from the same university.

How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
During my master´s degree program, I joined my professor´s research group - the Eco-hydrology and System Research Unit (EHSRU). He was a Professor of Eco-Hydrology had developed an eco-hydrologic model in his doctoral study in Canada. From that moment, my research interests developed and grew to my current level now.  My first research experience was working with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to understand the impact of land use/cover changes on hydrologic processes. The critical role evapotranspiration plays in the hydrologic system should never be downplayed during eco-hydrologic model development.

What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
An important emerging area of ecohydrology is socio-ecohydrology. It is the study of interactions and feedbacks between humans, ecology, and water systems. Human activities have significantly reshaped the natural landscape with impacts on ecological and hydrologic systems. Anthropogenic activities have also affected our climate system and increased uncertainties in weather projections. Research which contributes to understanding the feedbacks between human, ecological and water systems will be a great contribution towards achieving sustainable watershed resources management.

Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper?  Describe/explain.
Krysanova, V and J. G. Arnold (2008) Advances in ecohydrological modelling with SWAT—a review, Hydrological Sciences Journal, 53:5, 939-947.
This review provided me with information on the development of the SWAT model as an ecohydrological model. I will say that this is the first ecohydrology research paper that I read and which also introduced me to other relevant related literature.  

What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
I am also a sportsman and particularly like track and field events.    

Dr. ​Constantine C. Mbajiorgu is a Professor of Ecohydrology and Soil and Water Engineering
in the Department of Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria.

Dr. Dennis Baldocchi is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management at University of California Berkeley.

One aspect of our research is on the coupled water and carbon fluxes of oak savanna and annual grasslands in the Mediterranean climate of California.  We are interested in how whole ecosystems response to seasonal and interannual variations in rainfall. California is the perfect natural laboratory because our wet season is followed by a long dry period, so we can track the draw down in soil moisture and how it affects these gas fluxes.  California also experiences high year to year variability in rain fall (+/- 30%) so we also get to see the effects of busts and booms in rainfall on ecosystem structure and function.  This enables us to explore the broad non-linear response that is difficult to mimic with rain addition and exclusion studies.  This long term and field scale work also gives us the chance to see surprises, like how evaporation is tied to ground water and how ground water is tied to the snowpack of the Sierra Nevada mountains, nearly 100 km away.

The second aspect of our research is on flooded ecosystems (rice and wetlands). We are interested in how these ecosystems produce methane and store carbon in anoxic sediments.  We are also discovering surprises about the complex role of detritus and water temperature on evaporation and the role of plant exudates on methane production.

What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?

• BS in Atmospheric Science from University of California, Davis
• MS in Agricultural Engineering from University of Nebraska, Lincoln
• PhD in BioEnvironmental Engineering from University of Nebraska, Lincoln, with focus on Agricultural Meteorology 

How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
I have a long interest in evaporation of plant canopies, starting with irrigating walnuts as a kid and taking Bill Pruitt’s evaporation course at Davis.  My thinking became formalized in grad school.  We studied evaporation and carbon exchange of soybeans and alfalfa with flux gradient methods.  I wanted to know how and why the fluxes varied with hot, dry conditions.  So, from the get-go we were measuring stomatal conductance and pre-dawn water potential.  Hence, my focus on the ecophysiological control on ecosystem water exchange (as shown in the figure above). This mind set continued as I started to study evaporative fluxes of native forests in Tennessee and Canada.  There, my ability to do ecohydrology was stymied because a drought would start and then it would rain, so I never got a wide enough range of conditions to satisfy myself.  This changed when I moved back home to California and set up the savanna field sites. 

My formal exposure to the field of ecohydrology came by reading the papers and books of Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe and collaborators.

What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
Our mantra is to be able to assess evaporative fluxes ‘everywhere, all the time’.  Now this requires understanding down regulation of evaporation with soil moisture deficits and upscaling evaporation with remote sensing.  At present, satellite remote sensing is unable to peer deep enough into the soils.  We are interested in the role of using plants as soil moisture sensors and using information they telecommunicate to the state of the boundary layer as a transmitter of that information.  How well this works across the globe in different climates remains an open question.

We are also on the verge, with flux datasets reaching 20 years, on assessing whether and or how much ecosystem evaporation is responding to a warmer world with more CO2.  There have been lots of inferential estimates but we need more direct measurements. And, here too, the answer may be conditional with time and location.

Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper?  Describe/explain.
Jarvis, P.G. and McNaughton, K.G., 1986. Stomatal Control of Transpiration - Scaling up from Leaf to Region. Advances in Ecological Research, 15: 1-49.
The paper resolves the conflict between ecophysiologists, who argue that warming may increase evaporation by forcing a greater vapor pressure at the leaf surface, with meteorologists, who argue that warming may reduce evaporation due to more longwave energy and sensible heat loss.  It also ties together ideas on how, when and where evaporation is better coupled with available energy and/or canopy surface conductance and humidity deficits. It provides the paradigms on which I base the interpretation of much of my research in the past and today.

What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
Until I was 52, I played pick-up soccer regularly.

Lately I have started throwing Master’s Level discus (1 kg).  There is a group of us, age 65 to 80, who meet each Saturday in a cow field near Petaluma, CA and throw discus on a ring a friend built (Chileno Valley Discus Club).  It is getting me back in shape and has helped me endure Covid.   The only problem is I am not throwing as far as I did in high school.  I am working hard to reach 30 m.
In addition, I continue to do day hikes, love listening to jazz and baking sour dough bread.

Dr. Miriam Coenders is an Assistant Professor at the Water Resources Section of Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. ​@miriamcoenders 

What does ecohydrology mean to you?
As a water engineer, I am trained to shape the world: design irrigation systems, decide upon pumping capacities for draining the land, or (re)design polder systems. However, the world where these interventions take place is not static. Under climate and land use change, water always finds new pathways, where vegetation plays a major role. Vegetation controls how much and where water enters the soil, it consumes water for plant growth affecting our climate, and provides friction for water flow. Hence vegetation is key in our hydrological cycle and cannot be seen separately, as such the term ecohydrology is a sort of pleonasm. I realize that ecohydrology is much broader than I define here, but for me it is the role of vegetation in our water world.
 
What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?
I have a BSc and MSc degree in Civil Engineering from Delft University of Technology, where I specialized as hydrologist. After my Masters I did my PhD-study on the role interception in the hydrological cycle at research institute LIST in Luxembourg with TU Delft as awarding university.
 
How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
In the Netherlands, we are raised with the high awareness for flooding. Maybe due to this, we falsely tend to think that all precipitation ends up in the river. So, during my studies, I was really astonished by the power of evaporation and the limited knowledge on this important hydrological process. Therefore, I decided to focus my research around the topic of evaporation. Once we better know how evaporation behaves, we can really improve water resources management including flood and drought predictions. Additionally, the cool thing about evaporation is that links the land with the atmosphere in such way that eventually also our weather forecasts can be improved. So, for the future I dream about no more drowned field work activities!
 
What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
I think in the past many researchers in the field of ecohydrology tried to study plants and soils at the small scale. From these studies we learned a lot about the water behavior of plants; however, these laws often limitedly work on the larger scale. On the other hand, remotely sensed information is able to capture the larger scale, but is difficult to downscale. Therefore, observation techniques that are somehow in between these two scales would help us to understand how small-scale processes evolve into large-scale behavior. Luckily, more and more new observation techniques arise (e.g., stable water isotopes, thermal infrared imagery, distributed temperature sensing, drone technology) and also the sensor development itself becomes easier, which enables researchers to make tailor-made instruments themselves. Especially, the latter facilitates unique insights in the field of ecohydrology.
 
Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper?  Describe/explain.
One of the papers I really appreciate is the work of Renée Brooks et al (2009) entitled “Ecohydrologic separation of water between trees and streams in a Mediterranean climate”. They introduced a new theory on where trees get their water from and challenged the long-standing assumption that all infiltrated water is affected by evaporation or root water uptake. Whether it is true or not, these new out-of-the box theories help to fresh up our minds and avoid possible tunnel visions. In my view, it is good to -now and then- challenge existing ‘set-in-stone’ theories. Additionally, I very much liked the book “Precipitation partitioning by vegetation” edited by John van Stan, Ethan Gutmann and Jan Friesen (2020). Apart from being a very comprehensive compilation of all the past and possible future partitioning work, it has awesome graphics. It is really fun to read and sets a standard for future textbooks.
 
What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
Apart from ecohydrology?!? Ehhh… annoy my cats with a laser pen? Yeah... that’s fun too.

​Dr. Catherine Febria is a Canada Research Chair in Freshwater Restoration Ecology and Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Integrative Biology and the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada which is situated on the Traditional Territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations. She leads the Healthy Headwaters Lab which focuses on the structure and functioning of small streams, waterways and wetlands in human-impacted landscapes.  ​@ecofebria

What does ecohydrology mean to you?
As a small stream I work at the ‘eco’ side of things, and how the presence, absence and/or intensity of water drives ecosystem functions and biodiversity from molecules up through the food web. I think a lot about how water connects physical and biological processes as well as social dimensions, and how humans influence ecohydrological processes particularly among small and intermittent waterways that are scattered across the landscape.

Also, hydro (water) is at the centre of my work. In many cultures, there is a saying “Water is life” which encompasses my lab’s effort to take a more holistic approach to science. We are all passionate about using science to connect land, water and people, and to advance work that ensures freshwater sustainability for the benefit of future generations.
 
What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?
I have an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science from the University of Toronto (Canada) which introduced me to water through a geology and hydrology lens. Later in my undergraduate degree, I took my first field course in marine ecology and realized that I loved looking at the relationship of ecosystem components in aquatic environments. This led me to pursue a Masters degree in Geography from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia (Canada) where my research took me to the dynamic Mackenzie River basin in the western Canadian arctic. I deepened my understanding into how dynamic hydrological systems – from floodplain lakes and rivers to intermittent streams and rivers – were excellent model systems for research on the impacts of climate change. I also realized just how little we actually know about intermittent/temporary streams and rivers in Canada. This led me to a PhD in Ecology at the University of Toronto & Collaborative Certificate in Environmental Studies. For my PhD, I instrumented headwater streams – one intermittent stream and one perennial (permanently-flowing) stream – to explore nutrient and microbial dynamics in the hyporheic zone. The hyporheic zone is the interface between surface and groundwaters, and critical habitat for stream benthic macroinvertebrate and microbial communities. The more I pursued research on this system and at the interface of hydrology and ecological processes, I engaged approaches from different disciplines – from microbiology to chemistry, environmental studies to geography – and also became increasingly aware of the importance of small waterways and the lack of legislative tools to ensure their protection.
 
How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
I’ve always been called to water conservation and using science to help solve environmental challenges from climate change to food sustainability and species-at-risk. I have long been curious about hydrological processes at varying ecosystem scales, and have enjoyed interrogating these dynamics at a range of spatial and temporal scales. Whether it be arctic river systems, or agriculturally-impacted systems or urbanized ones, I have been drawn to understanding drivers of ecosystem variability and the relationship between hydrological processes, ecosystem functions and biodiversity. It is impossible to restore, conserve or protect water resources without understanding the multifaceted role of water.
 
What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
I think that ecohydrology will be increasingly important in exploring the fundamental dynamics of ecosystem processes at the land water interface, in human-impacted landscapes (agricultural, urbanized) and the social dimensions of restoration, food and freshwater sustainability. Ecohydrology is thankfully inherently interdisciplinary so I am excited to contribute to and further connections across disciplines including social and cultural dimensions.

This is one example review: Palmer, M., and A. Ruhi. 2019. Linkages between flow regime, biota, and ecosystem processes: Implications for river restoration. Science 365:eaaw2087.
 
Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper?  Describe/explain.
It’s hard to pick just one! My PhD supervisor was Dudley Williams, who studied under Noel Hynes and together they pioneered research on the hyporheic zone, connecting ecology and hydrology through explorations of macroinvertebrate communities across this critical transition. I frequently revisit and cite foundational papers in my teaching and research seminars from Tansley’s 1935 essay in Ecology where ecosystem was first defined, and in its’ definition connectivity across scales was acknowledged. One can argue that ecohydrology is well-suited to advance and explore ecological processes across scales.
 
Tansley, A. G. 1935. The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts and Terms. Ecology 16:284–307.
 
For a short read and answers to a common question, I share this paper to help explain how important temporary waters are, and the need for better protection globally. Science has an important role in advancing these efforts.

Acuña, V., T. Datry, J. Marshall, D. Barceló, C. N. Dahm, A. Ginebreda, G. McGregor, S. Sabater, K. Tockner, and M. A. Palmer. 2014. Why Should We Care About Temporary Waterways? Science 343:1080–1081.  

What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
Lots! I do a lot of things for fun from traveling, outdoor adventures and exploring nature with my family, to many different forms of art (music, photography, handicrafts, watercolour) and love trying new recipes especially if it involves produce harvested from local farms or our garden plots. I do love a good round of Mahjong (a tile based game from China and played in many Asian cultures) even though I’m not very good at it, I really enjoy the challenge.

​Dr. Catherine (Cathy) Chamberlin is an ORISE postdoc with the EPA Atlantic Coastal Environmental Sciences Division in Narragansett, Rhode Island.   Twitter: ​@atimeforecology

What does ecohydrology mean to you?
Ecohydrology describes the ways that ecology and organisms influence the way water moves on a landscape, where water tends to accumulate, and how long it sticks around. It is a very flexible topic and to me is interrelated with other topics such as ecosystem engineering and landscape patterning. Because I have a plant bias, I tend to think most about how vegetation communities affect hydrology, but theoretically I suppose animals could fall under this category as well (gotta love those beavers!). Whether or not people are included in ecology is a really interesting conversation that multiple fields are having, but I’m not quite to the point of thinking of human infrastructure as ecohydrology.
 
What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?
I received a B.S. in Chemistry from Yale University in 2012. Though I started out in inorganic synthetic chemistry, I gradually worked my way towards the geosciences and did my senior thesis research on isotope fractionation of rainwater along an elevational gradient and the transfer of that isotopic signature to leaf records. After several years of further exploration across scientific fields, I began graduate study in ecology at Duke University and received my PhD in 2020.

How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
I probably first started to think about it in high school gym class because our tennis court was on an island in the middle of a marsh, and being bad at tennis, I spent a lot of time wading around through the marsh. I started thinking about it in a more academic sense when I started graduate school. The first project I was involved in during my first few months was a study of a patterned karst landscape in Southern Florida. The landscape is extremely flat and is marked by regularly spaced depressions where soils are deeper and cypress trees grow taller. Through multiple research methodologies by various researchers on the project, the hypothesis for how this patterning originated is that the cypress tree roots dissolve the underlying karst, enlarging depressions, and those depressions then have longer hydroperiods and can support greater tree growth. It was a really elegant system for exploring ecohydrologic feedbacks.

What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
Ecohydrology describes many complicated feedbacks on water movement and availability, and I think that being able to accurately forecast future water resource availability and flood risk is an important challenge that needs to be addressed. I also think that anthropological influences need to become more integrated into ecohydrology. This includes not just grey infrastructure, but also things like agriculture, invasive species, green infrastructure, urban hydrology, and cultural preferences and pressures that impact what plants are planted where.

Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper?  Describe/explain.
Favorite is too difficult, but I’ll share 2 papers I really enjoyed reading. Both focus on fine-scale variation in ‘eco’ that have longer timescale effects on ‘hydrology’, or vice versa. The first is by de Montety 2011, in Chemical Geology. The authors showed that instream photosynthesis caused the pH of a karst river to vary so much that the chemical equilibrium of dissolution or deposition of calcium carbonate alternated every day. Deposition happening during the day and dissolution occurred at night. This alternation impacted the development of the channel shape of the river. The second is by Duncan et al 2015 in WRR. Their work showed how evapotranspiration in near-stream floodplains impacted nitrogen export from a watershed because the daily fluctuations in water table level impacted redox potential in the soil, leading to increased nitrate export during low-flow summer months. I enjoyed both of these papers because of the elegant ways they link processes at multiple timescales in ways that are surprising and not immediately obvious.
 
What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
I love all types of dance from ballet to salsa. I also spend a lot of time reading, hiking, gardening, doing yoga and rock climbing. In more normal times I enjoy traveling and meeting friends for breakfast.