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MEET A LEAF: LIXIN WANG

10/29/2018

Dr. Lixin Wang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Twitter: @ecohydro_wang

What does ecohydrology mean to you?
Ecohydrology is an interdisciplinary science bridging hydrology and ecosystem science. Ecohydrology answers some of the most pressing questions facing human society. For example, how does earth system respond to climate change? Whether we will have enough food to feed everyone under climate change?

What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?
My BS degree is in Biology (Hebei University) and PhD degree is in Environmental Science (University of Virginia). I had two great PhD advisors - Dr. Steve Macko taught me everything about stable isotopes (which is a major tool I use in ecohydrology), and Dr. Paolo D’Odorico led me to the exciting field of ecohydrology.

How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
My PhD work focused on savanna ecosystems in southern Africa, where ecohydrology is very relevant and important. That is where my ecohydrology journey started. My postdoc work with Dr. Kelly Caylor reinforced my passion in dryland ecohydrology.

What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
I’m sure everyone has their own perspectives. I think how vegetation responds to water-stress across scales and the interactions between water and biogeochemical cycles are two important emerging areas. Big data is also an important emerging area not only to ecohydrology, but to most disciplines.

Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper? Describe/explain.
I have difficulty answering “favorite” questions. I remember reading the following paper repeatedly when I first started appreciating stochastic modeling framework and thinking about the linkage between hydrology and biogeochemical cycles.
Porporato, A., D’odorico, P., Laio, F. and Rodriguez-Iturbe, I., 2003. Hydrologic controls on soil carbon and nitrogen cycles. I. Modeling scheme. Advances in Water Resources, 26(1), pp.45-58.

What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
I enjoy traveling to appreciate various landscapes and to experience different cultures. I enjoy reading biography books and see how the great minds think of lives. I was a big fan of science fiction when I was young and still truly enjoy them when I get time.

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MEET A LEAF: David G. Chandler

10/22/2018

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Dr. David G. Chandler is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Syracuse University dgchandl@syr.edu

What does ecohydrology mean to you?
To me, ecohydrology describes water fluxes in the atmosphere-plant-soil-continuum. This general definition is inclusive of perspectives from a wide range of natural science and engineering disciplines.

What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?
My undergraduate degree is in chemistry, with graduate degrees in agricultural and biological engineering.

How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
My early life was spent damming streams, digging holes, and growing plants in a commercial greenhouse. This led to extensive experimentation and intensive observations. Graduate school formalized my thinking about plant stress and soil moisture, through the lens of soil physics and tropical agroecosystems.

What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
Inter-site comparison of functions that govern the water balance is critical to developing general predictive models.

Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper?
Scale and the nature of spatial variability: Field examples having implications for hydrologic modeling Mark S Seyfried and BP Wilcox WRR 31(1), 1995. This paper introduced me to the concept of scale-dependent determinism of hillslope functional response. This perspective is very useful for me when transitioning from a pore scale to landscape-relevant scales.

What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
I am an avid skier, cyclist, and traveler.

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MEET A LEAF: ALINE JAIMES-HERNANDEZ

10/15/2018

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Dr. Aline Jaimes-Hernandez is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Texas A&M University. Twitter: @AlineJaimes7

What does ecohydrology mean to you?
To me, ecohydrology is the study of the processes that regulate how carbon, water, and energy move (in and out) in the dynamic living layer of the earth that extends from the top of the atmospheric boundary layer through the soil, bedrock, and the bottom of groundwater. I am especially interested in learning the lateral and vertical processes that regulate the interactions of carbon, water, and energy in ecosystems, and the importance of those to regulate earth’s climate and vice-versa.

What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?
I earned my BSc in Biology, with a minor in Hydrology and my MSc in Oceanography focused on Physical and Biological interactions, I studied both in Mexico where I was born. I came to the USA, to pursue a post-master scholar summer fellowship, were I continued my PhD studies in Environmental Science and Engineering focused on Land–Atmosphere interactions.

How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
I think initially by my fascination of photosynthesis developed early in my biology classes. Then, when I was pursing my MS in Oceanography in La Paz, BCS, Mexico; I volunteered with a group of scientists from SDSU, who had portable towers, a bunch of sensors and a small plane, they all seemed to be enjoying their field campaign studying the mangroves of Bahia Magdalena. They introduced me to the world of eddy covariance, plant physiology, spectral indices, overall the use of technology to measure different components of the biosphere. I was amazed of how much data was collected and how much insight to understanding wetlands dynamics we learned in a relative short period. So, I was hooked!

What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
The future of water availability for ecosystem functions, goods, and services in fragmented ecosystems undergoing environmental change.

Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper? Describe/explain.
Many, especially the ones that help to communicate across disciplines as our research becomes more transdisciplinary. For example Chapin, F. S., et al. (2006). "Reconciling Carbon-cycle Concepts, Terminology, and Methods." Ecosystems 9(7): 1041-1050.

Also, Mares, R., et al. (2016). "Examining diel patterns of soil and xylem moisture using electrical resistivity imaging." Journal of Hydrology 536: 327-338, that describes the bidirectional water flux dynamics in the earth’s permeable Skin. This is another favorite as provide demonstrable insights to hydrology-ecology as a coupled system.

What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
I enjoy sports, such as running, crossfit, cycling, and occasionally swimming, more lately meditation, in general all activities that I can do with my 25lb dog named Rupee. I also enjoy making new friends from different academic backgrounds and cultures. Traveling to all the small and big towns across Texas and elsewhere, tasting local cuisine and local breweries is always fun too.

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MEET A LEAF: NATASHA KRELL

10/8/2018

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Natasha Krell is a Ph.D. student working with the Kelly Caylor "Water, Vegetation and Society" (WAVES) Team at U.C. Santa Barbara. She is also a current Fulbright Fellow to Kenya.

What does ecohydrology mean to you?
I will be honest—I am still figuring what exactly ecohydrology means to me. In general ecohydrology is understanding the bi-directional interactions between water and biotic landscapes across several spatial and temporal scales. One aspect that I love about ecohydrology is that the definition is somewhat up to personal interpretation and in flux (no pun intended!) Personally, I’m drawn to how humans alter ecohydrologic processes as well as how stochastic processes shape the natural world in the broadest sense.

What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?
My B.A. is in human ecology from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. Similar to ecohydrology, several definitions of human ecology exist. Human ecology can be thought of as understanding human interactions with various “worlds”, whether that be natural, social, cultural, political, metaphysical, etc. as well as the interactions between those worlds.
I’m currently working on my PhD in geography at U.C. Santa Barbara. I study smallholder farmer decision-making and climate variability in dryland environments, specifically in Eastern and Southern Africa, as well as how farmers can limit resource input and environmental degradation through precision agriculture.

How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?
I was fortunate to work with Dr. Shirley Papuga as an undergraduate intern during a NSF REU at The University of Arizona. I spent many early mornings at the Santa Rita Experimental Range conducting fieldwork on plant phenology using flux tower measurements and ‘phenocams’ as well as assisting a graduate student’s research on leaf isotope hydrology. These experiences helped me realize that I could turn my interest in plant-atmosphere interactions in semiarid environments to graduate research in water-scarcity prone tropics. Since that internship, my research focus has shifted to understanding problems with rainfed agriculture in areas characterized not only by intra-seasonal dry spells and low cumulative volumes of rainfall, but also significant social and cultural barriers to the large increases in yield needed to feed growing populations.

What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?
The social aspects of ecohydrology are interesting to me and are becoming increasingly important as we figure out how to feed more than 7 billion people on the planet. Humans have been changing landscapes in profound ways and ecohydrologists have a skillset and set of research interests that will continued to be leveraged for new discoveries and policy formation.

Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper? Describe/explain.
I love Gonzales & Ajami’s (2017) WRR paper on the Social and Structure Patterns of Drought-Related Water Conservation and Rebound. I could probably get into a disagreement with some ecohydrologists about whether or not this is an ecohydrology paper, but at the end of the day what’s important are the findings: Water users (at least those in California, but likely in other places too) tend to conserve water when there is heightened awareness around droughts, but then they revert back to previous patterns of water use when public awareness around droughts fades. I love how the data demonstrate a rather intuitive hypothesis, which will hopefully inform behavior and policy around water conservation.

What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?
I’m an explorer at heart. Whether I’m exploring new parts of my neighborhood to find hidden spots or traveling to new countries and learning languages, I love observing and understanding unfamiliar environments and learning from people. Even landscapes that seem familiar have something yet to be discovered under each unturned stone.

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MEET A LEAF: STEVEN LOHEIDE

10/1/2018

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Dr. Steve Loheide is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin - Madison where he is the Director of the Hydroecology Lab.

What does ecohydrology mean to you?

Ecohydrology is the two-way interactions between hydrological processes and ecologic systems. I prefer to interpret this very broadly to fit as many people and ideas under the ecohydrology circus tent as possible!

What are your undergraduate and graduate degrees in?

BS Geology; BS Environmental Chemistry; Minor Physics
MS Geological Sciences
PhD Hydrogeology

How did you arrive at working in/thinking about ecohydrology?

I always knew I wanted to be a scientist and study environmental issues, but it was a meandering path to land in the field of ecohydrology. I started my undergraduate studies as a chemistry major, but couldn’t get into a single chemistry class during my first semester and got stuck in classes in physics and geology. Turns out I liked both better than chemistry, so I picked them up as a minor and second major, respectively. In looking for graduate programs, I wanted to combine my background in chemistry and geology, and isotope hydrogeochemistry seemed like a good mixture. However, it wasn’t until my first year of my PhD that I realized I wanted to apply the technical hydrology skills I’d been developing to ecosystem restoration, which was the point at which I settled into ecohydrology.

What do you see as an important emerging area of ecohydrology?

I think the application of ecohydrologic knowledge gained mostly in natural ecosystems to agroecosystems, urban areas, and ecological restoration will only grow over the next 20 years. Much – but not all - of the existing theory may translate well to human-dominated systems, but we will need to develop diverse observational data sets to test our understanding and improve our ability to guide these ecosystems along desirable paths in a world with ever changing drivers.

Do you have a favorite ecohydrology paper? Describe/explain.

My personal favorite is the 1932 USGS report by Walter White, which makes use of watertable fluctuations to estimate groundwater use. He makes an observation of a natural phenomenon, carefully determines its cause, and then finds a way to exploit it to understand and quantify system behavior. This and other very old contributions have a thoroughness that not only conveys the result, but tells the story of the research. My guess is that today’s editors (myself included) would consider 75% of the material extraneous, but those details and detours better convey the reality of the scientific process involved with field-based research and can make for a good read every once in a while.

White, W. N. (1932), A method of estimating ground-water supplies based on discharge by plants and evaporation from soil: Results of investigations in Escalante Valley, Utah, U.S. Geol. Surv. Water Supply Pap., 659-A.

What do you do for fun (apart from ecohydrology)?

My two children are in 5th and 6th grades and my wife and I like to spend time cheering them on at swim meets, soccer games, and hockey tournaments! I myself enjoy running and boxing and love hiking whenever I can manage to find a mountain.

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MEET A LEAF: LIXIN WANG

MEET A LEAF: David G. Chandler

MEET A LEAF: ALINE JAIMES-HERNANDEZ

MEET A LEAF: NATASHA KRELL

MEET A LEAF: STEVEN LOHEIDE

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