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MEET A LEAF: Cathy CHAMBERLIN

4/26/2021

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

4/19/2021

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​Dr. Chris Zou is a professor in the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management at Oklahoma State University. 
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What does ecohydrology mean to you?
In natural resource and ecosystem management, ecohydrology incites a new way of thinking and disbands the disciplinary boundary of biotic and abiotic focus. The framework and the name illustrate the interdisciplinary nature and importance of understanding the interactive nature and feedback loops among the ecological processes and water in or influenced by any ecosystem.

What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in? 
I earned my degrees in Biology (1985) and Plant Ecology (1988) from Southwest University (China). After spending years working in the subalpine forest ecosystem in the eastern margin of Tibet,  I returned to graduate school studying plant and soil interaction in the context of forest ecology and management and obtained my Ph.D.(2000) from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
Dr. Steve Archer at Texas A&M University hired me as a postdoc soon after my dissertation defense. I worked on an NSF-funded project to understand the mechanisms underlying the woody plant-driven cluster and patch dynamics in the south Texas savanna parkland. We installed hundreds of soil psychrometers and spent years measuring plant ecophysiology to piece together the elusive interaction among stochastic rainfall input, soil moisture, and species-specific performance of co-occurring shrub and tree species. After digging deep into the ecosystem's dynamic mechanisms, we started to think about its external impact, such as water balance. I recalled many exciting discussions with Dr. Brad Wilcox, our wildland hydrologist, across the hallway, which secured me a seat on the van to the 2002 Chapman conference on ecohydrology which I still think started many discussions and debates that have largely shaped ecohydrology as we see it today.  My experience working with Dr. David Breshears at the University of Arizona further shaped my ecohydrology view.

What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
Dr. Zhang at CSIRO (8/24/2020 LEAF) said this very well. One important emerging area of ecohydrology is the coupling of carbon and water at various spatial and temporal scales. Forests are near and dear to many of us. In water-abundant, humid regions, reforestation can increase carbon sequestration and "flat the curve" of the hydrograph, reducing flood risk. However, the impact of afforestation on carbon and water budget can switch from both positive to a tradeoff. The cost of water and effects on other ecosystem services can outweigh the benefit when the region becomes semiarid and arid. Improved understanding of the complex interaction among climate, ecosystem productivity, soil processes, and water availability for non-ecosystem application remains an area of theoretical and applied interest.

Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper?  Describe/explain.
It isn't easy to nail down a paper. Still, Huxman et al. (2005) "Ecohydrological implication of woody plant encroachment" and Jackson et al. (2005) "Trading water for carbon with biological carbon sequestration" are must-reads for students in my ecohydrology class.  Woody plant encroachment, widely observed, is an excellent example of illustrating the interactive effect of the ecological process and the water cycle. The existence of a trade-off between two vital ecosystem services (carbon sequestration and water availability for non-ecosystem use) should be a guiding principle for natural resource managers in the vast semiarid and subhumid ecosystems.

What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
I enjoy fishing and staying close to the water whenever time and weather allow (and I am not traveling). I also regularly spend time gardening, listening to music and audio books, playing card games with friends, and following the Federal Badminton Tournament, in no particular order.
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MEET A LEAF: Ben Livneh

4/12/2021

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Dr. Ben Livneh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder and a Fellow in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder.
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What does ecohydrology mean to you?
Ecohydrology represents a frontier of knowledge in the broader field of hydrology. By considering the role of the biosphere on hydrology, ecohydrology allows us to see the fascinating interactions between vegetation, soil, and water. This interplay is complex and can even be counterintuitive, as is the case with forest disturbance. Conventional understanding of the impact of forest disturbance on water supply suggests that disturbed catchments will yield more water due to reduced plant transpiration. However, this is not always the case as a number of recent studies have shown.

What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?
I received undergraduate and MS degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. I received a PhD. in Civil Engineering with a focus on Hydrology from the University of Washington. My MS degree focused on Geotechnical Engineering, so the interesting juxtaposition for me was moving from thinking of soil as a load-bearing “building” material, towards a hydrologist view of soils as a substrate for water.

How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
My postdoctoral research was motivated by a string of years with anomalous runoff that really challenged water supply forecasting in the Upper Colorado River Basin. There was a hypothesis that these anomalous runoff events were partly the result of recent bark-beetle disturbances across the region. I investigated this problem using in situ and remotely sensed data together with hydrological models. I was fortunate to work with a diverse team of landscape ecologists, snow and climate scientists.
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What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
Understanding the role of increasing CO2 levels on plant transpiration and catchment-scale water yields is an important emerging area in ecohydrology. The degree to which these reductions in transpiration can offset warming-driven increases in evaporative demand are particularly interesting.
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Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper?  Describe/explain.
I learned a lot by reading a 2012 Ecohydrology paper led by Henry Adams titled: “Ecohydrological consequences of drought- and infestation triggered tree die-off: insights and hypotheses”. This paper provided a nice summary of the state of the science up until that point and made the connection between drought and forest disturbance. This paper was eye opening to the possibility that forest disturbance could lead to decreased water yield in some cases, which is in contrast to much of the past literature. This realization motivated my landscape ecologist colleague, Prof. Brian Buma, and I to publish research investigating the causal factors behind decreasing water yield following forest disturbance (Buma and Livneh, 2017; ERL).

What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
I lead a jazz and bluegrass band called Paper Moonshine that records and performs music along the Front Range of Colorado. I also enjoy playing with my two sons and spending time in the local mountains.
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MEET A LEAF: David Hannah

4/5/2021

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Dr. David M. Hannah is Professor of Hydrology and UNESCO Chair in Water Science in the School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK.  @freshwaterflows
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What does ecohydrology mean to you?
We have written commentaries and a book about defining “ecohydrology” and “hydroecology”, so rather than revisiting those discussions, I will go for simply… how ecological processes shape hydrological dynamics, how living things are influenced by hydrological processes, and how these two process sets feedback/ interact. We need to frame ecohydrology around coupled systems and, increasingly importantly, add people to the equations. So for me, in a nutshell, it is all about taking a wider perspective to understand complex, variable, interconnected, water-dependent systems and how we can use this knowledge towards sustainable management for the betterment of the environment and society. In terms of application, I try to use this perspective to research snow- and glacier-fed watersheds; river temperature dynamics and impacts; and space-time ecohydrological patterns beyond the individual river basin-scale and under global change.
 
 
What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?
My undergraduate degree is a BSc Physical Geography (1994) from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. I was taught by some outstanding faculty and developed a passion for glaciers, mountains and rivers. Field courses are an integral part of geographical learning; and Aberdeen’s location (between the Rivers Dee and Don and near the Cairngorm Mountains) meant we were spoilt for choice of real world examples to test theory. For my undergraduate dissertation, I travelled to the Italian Alps (beside Mont Blanc) to undertake a project on climate drivers of glacier stream runoff. I was amazed by the dynamism of alpine environments; and this enthused me to do more research. So, I went to the University of Birmingham, England, to study for a PhD Geography (1997) under the supervision of Angela Gurnell (now Queen Mary University of London) and Glenn McGregor (now Durham University) that focused on meltwater generation and drainage in a small glacierized basin in the French Pyrenees. I was fortunate to have great field support from my supervisors and some people who became future research collaborators as well as friends. In my second summer field season, we were joined by a group of aquatic ecologists - which kindled my interests in ecohydrology.
 
 
How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
As mentioned above, during my PhD, I did fieldwork with ecologists who were working on a European Commission project on Arctic and Alpine Stream Ecosystem Research. This project used similar field protocols to link stream ecology to physico-chemical river habitat along a latitudinal gradient of glacier-fed watershed for Europe (spanning from the French Pyrenees in the south to Svalbard in the north). These harsh, cold river systems are highly deterministic - with aquatic macroinvertebrate communities conditioned (most notably) by downstream patterns in water temperature and channel stability. By quantifying these ecohydrological links, it is possible to predict alpine stream biodiversity response to climate and hydrological change. After my PhD, I gained a lectureship at Birmingham and extended these glacier-fed river ecohydrological studies to other mountain regions and to the Arctic. In addition, I broadened my ecohydrological interests to river water temperature and flow-ecology links in temperate, forested, ephemeral and urban environments.
 
 
What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
There are a number of topic areas that I could highlight (some are the same as our commentary in 2007) as ‘new’ and emerging themes: ecosystem sensitivity to hydrological change; aquatic-terrestrial linkages; disturbance - water and ecological stress; modern and palaeo-analogue studies; and applied hydroecology/ ecohydrology at the science-policy interface. In 2020, as an outcome from an international workshop led by Del Levia (University of Delaware), we offered a roadmap to advance ecohydrology. For this blog, it might be most interesting to reflect on the ‘how’ (rather than the ‘what’) we do in ecohydrology. (1) We need to develop and apply new tools - for example, recently we have used drones, high-frequency water sensing technologies and smart-tracers to identify space-time heterogeneity in ecohydrological systems and processes. We need to look to the innovation horizon for new methods to bring from other disciplines into ecohydrology as well as develop our own tools. (2) We need to release the huge potential of intrinsic interdisciplinary collaborations in ecohydrology – extending our teams beyond the natural sciences to include data scientists, social scientists and other researchers. (3) We need to undertake ‘research that matters’ – that is do work of relevance beyond the scientist who is doing it - by working with different stakeholders (leveraging practitioner and indigenous knowledges) to co-create new applications of scientific knowledge and generate important new research questions based on practical need. (4) In terms of new fundamental questions, we need to consider how we are joining the scales to go from our (often) small-scale process understanding to larger-scale proxies, controls and responses (for example, we still do not understand fully why particular times and places have a disproportionate influence on watershed ecohydrological response). In doing so, we may be able to better understand the scales of influence of climate, land management and other drivers of ecohydrological response to inform sustainable water management and develop better mitigation/ adaptation strategies for a changing water world.
 
 
Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper?  Describe/explain.
Sticking to just one paper (such a difficult choice!), I would opt for “How much water does a river need?” by Brian Richter and co-authors. This article introduced a new method (the Range of Variability Approach - RVA) for setting river ecosystem management targets - based the link between hydrological variability and aquatic ecosystem response. It got me thinking about how the five facets of what I often refer to as “wiggly river flow-time series” (magnitude, frequency, timing, duration, and rates of change) can influence aquatic species distributions, communities and biodiversity. This paper inspired a number of our collaborations and publications: on methods for hydrograph classification; searching for ecologically-meaningful hydrological variables; and the underpinning scientific basis for river management and conservation practice.
 
 
What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
We spend time together as a family - usually outdoors (walking, cycling and in the garden) or at football/soccer matches. We all enjoy travelling to see new places and peoples, but that has been put on hold for the moment. I listen to a wide range of music, although classic and alternative rock is my favourite. Birmingham is a great city to see headliners as well as emerging bands, so I look forward to doing that once we recover from the pandemic. I still go running, although <20 min AGU Fun Runs were quite a while ago. 
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