January 10, 2021
Jordan, Candace, Justin, and Laurel are glad to be submitting the first article from the Ecogeomorphology flume for peer review! The article is titled “sediment interception by emergent stems across varying patch densities and flows.” Stay tuned for more information as the article progresses towards publication.
January 10, 2021
Sam, Jordan, and Laurel (especially Sam) have been busy with submitting their latest numerical modeling paper for peer review! The article is titled “a functional form for fine sediment interception in vegetated environments.” We’re looking forward to sharing more as the article progresses towards publication.
October 29, 2018
Congratulations to Chris, Laurel, and the other co-authors for winning the 2017 Water Resources Research (WRR) Editors’ Choice Award! The winning article was titled “Regional sensitivities of seasonal snowpack to elevation, aspect, and vegetation cover in western North America” and was published in August 2017. Their work will be highlighted at the 2018 AGU Fall Meeting in December.
February 21, 2018
With the artificial vegetation array completed in the flume, preliminary experiments to characterize flow throughout the test section using a Vectrino Profiler have begun. Here’s a short video of the flume in action.
December 15, 2017
Congratulations to everyone who presented their research at the 2017 AGU meeting in New Orleans this past week!
Laurel, Dino, and Hongxu presented on the Hydrologic Pendulum – the concept that water discharge forecasting typically uses either a physically based model or a data-driven (empirical) model. These two models sit at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of accuracy, computational power required, and the ability to generalize the model to fit other catchments.
Developing a physically relevant model that is partially empirically derived has the potential to increase forecast accuracy and applicability across catchments. Toward this goal, the team is employing Transfer Entropy analysis and LASSO Regression, both of which have proven successful in minimizing uncertainty and selecting the most relevant features for the model.
December 14, 2017
We are nearly finished constructing our artificial vegetation setup in the Ecogeomorphology Flume! Upcoming experiments using this setup will allow us to test the effects of biofilms on sediment capture by aquatic vegetation. Through the process we’ve collaborated with the UC Berkeley Physics Machine Shop and had the immense help of undergraduate research assistants Justin Nghiem and Roxi Shiu.
We have also conducted extensive baseline tests of particle flocculation dynamics in the flume, aided by our LISST and Justin’s data analysis skills in R.
October 23, 2017
Our article on the influence of connectivity on surface-water fluxes and large-scale hydrological feedbacks is now available open-access through Geophysical Research Letters.
August 7, 2017
Congratulations to Chris Tennant, whose paper on the regional sensitivities of seasonal snowpack to elevation, aspect, and vegetation cover received an Editor’s Highlight in Water Resources Research!
July 31, 2017
Our paper on using a complex networks approach for evaluating changes in functional connectivity resulting from flow pulses is now published open-access in WRR. Check it out.
July 27, 2017
Congratulations to Chris Tennant for receiving two exciting job offers! (Stay tuned.)
Also, Laurel started a daily haiku project. 🙂
July 17, 2017
We welcome Colin Keating, who just started as the new ESDL lab manager. Glad to have him on board!
July 16, 2017
Jen Drummond’s article, “Fine particle retention within stream storage areas at base flow and in response to a storm event,” is now published!
July 12, 2017
Congratulations to Chris Tennant, whose paper titled “Regional sensitivities of seasonal snowpack to elevation, aspect, and vegetation cover in western North America” was just accepted by Water Resources Research.
June 27, 2017
Our article, “Disrupted carbon cycling in restored and unrestored urban streams: Critical timescales and controls,” is now published open-access. Check it out!
June 12, 2017
Jen Drummond‘s paper on fine particle retention in urban streams during storms–on which Laurel is a coauthor–was just accepted by Water Resources Research. Congratulations, Jen!
June 4, 2017
Laurel’s paper, authored with collaborators at the USGS and South Florida Water Management District, was accepted today by Water Resources Research. The paper, “Complex networks of functional connectivity in a wetland reconnected to its floodplain,” evaluates how the introduction of flow releases in the Everglades changes the spatiality of biogeochemical functions.
May 17, 2017
A good day for papers! Erin Beller’s paper, “Toward principles of historical ecology,” came out today in the American Journal of Botany. Laurel’s paper, “Disrupted carbon cycling in restored and unrestored urban streams: Critical timescales and controls,” was accepted today for publication in Limnology and Oceanography.
May 16, 2017
Ground Up, a journal of landscape architecture, features a conversation between Professor Larsen, landscape architect Kristina Hill, and oceanographer John Largier on resilient landscapes and the role of landscape architecture and science in ecosystem restoration. The beautiful writeup features Chris Tennant’s lidar image of the Greys River, Wyoming.
Also, check out the new hydrology teaching resources in Jupyter Notebooks (i.e., tutorials, exercises) on the updated class webpage!
May 5, 2017
Claudia Herbert rocks her senior honors thesis presentation on hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). Pic here!
May 8, 2017
Erin Beller passed her quals with flying colors! For her dissertation she will combine tools from historical ecology and ecosystem service modeling to examine historical trajectories of change in ecosystem service provisioning in the Silicon Valley.
April 4, 2017
We are overdue for news updates, but there have been several exciting items lately: William Nardin started a faculty position at the University of Maryland, Erin Beller received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, Saalem Adera was named a finalist for the Switzer Foundation Fellowship, the Ecogeomorphology Flume has been newly installed, and several of us just spent our spring breaks completing tracer tests of fine sediment movement through different vegetation communities in coastal Louisiana, using 10-m-long in situ flumes constructed in the field.
Note that we are also now looking for a student laboratory assistant for a paid research position through the end of the semester.
Oct 24, 2016
Congratulations to Cleo Woelfle-Erskine on the acceptance of his paper, “Abiotic habitat thresholds for salmonid over-summer survival in intermittent streams” in Ecosphere!
Sep 23, 2016
University of Miami collaborator Simeon Yurek’s paper on the role of landscape directional connectivity in fish movements just came out in Ecological Complexity. Congratulations, Simeon!
Aug 23, 2016
Saalem Adera passes her quals with flying colors! Congratulations, Saalem! On to the PhD!
July 26, 2016
Former GEOG c136 student-turned-Everglades field partner and collaborator Allison Swartz just produced this amusing science drama on spoon flux in a mesocosm. This is what happens under hot sun when the sampling interval is long.
July 12, 2016
Take a look at this new interactive graphic guiding users through the development of landscape simulation models.
July 11, 2016
Our paper on “Appropriate-complexity landscape modeling” was just released online today! Check it out here.
July 11, 2016
I finally got around to posting last year’s updates to the summer 2016 newsletter. I’m still adding to it, so check back for updates.
July 25, 2015
Danielle Watts has the experimental basin in the Richmond field station planted with watercress and ready for her floodplain experiment. Check out a photo here.
June 5, 2015
Plenty of exciting news happened this spring, but I’ve been delinquent in reporting on it. Please see our Spring Newsletter for a recap of the highlights and a few new pictures!
January 23, 2015
The Moore Scientific Investigators in Data-Driven Discovery are doing a Reddit AMA on Friday. Stop by reddit.com/r/science and ask us anything! (12-2pm Pacific time).
November 13, 2014
The ESDL is looking for two qualified postdocs to start in the spring, to work on data-driven approaches to resolving landscape-scale feedbacks and anticipating critical transitions. The announcement is here.
November 4, 2014
Our Everglades flow release experiment made the news.
October 9, 2014
Morgan Williams receives the Warren Wilson College Young Alumni Award “for distinguished early career contribution towards the principles the college stands for.” Congratulations, Morgan!
October 2, 2014
The Moore Foundation announces Laurel Larsen among the first cohort of Data-Driven Discovery Investigators funded. Thanks to the Moore Foundation for making years to come of exciting research possible. Read more here.
September 3, 2014
Morgan Williams receives the Complex Soil Systems Conference Student Fellow Award for his paper, “Panarchy in Soil Systems: Towards Evaluating Resilience Across Multiple Spatial Scales.”
August 13, 2014
A new Eos feature article (“Exploratory modeling: extracting causality from complexity”) by Laurel Larsen, Chris Thomas, Maarten Eppinga, and Tom Coulthard just came out. Check it out here.
July 29, 2014
The video of Laurel Larsen’s plenary address at the Joint Aquatic Sciences meeting is now available online here. It is the Tuesday talk, starting 43 minutes in.
July 21, 2014
The new supplement to the DCI software is now available under the Software tab.
The ESDL is also pleased to welcome Mollie van Gordon, a PhD student working on impacts of climate change on drought, flooding, and land use in Burkina Faso.
May 22, 2014
Laurel Larsen gives the plenary address at the Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting in Portland, Oregon. Danielle Watts also gives a talk on modeling carbon dynamics in the Everglades, and Laurel Larsen gives a second talk on a new method for tracking the source of fine organic suspended sediment.
May 16, 2014
Ph.D student Morgan Williams is highlighted in Inc. Magazine. Read the article here. Way to go, Morgan!
March 18, 2014
TU Munich masters exchange student Jan Hildebrand arrived. Jan will be doing his research on hydrological and biogeochemical controls on salmonid survivorship in the Salmon Creek watershed in Sonoma County. Welcome, Jan!
Spring 2014
The ESDL welcomed undergraduate researchers Aayush Khurana, Jie Ma, and Jessica Anderson.
January 15, 2014
Danielle Watts’ NCED2 Synthesis postdoc proposal was selected for funding, making her an inaugural postdoctoral fellow in the NCED2 group! Congratulations, Danielle!
January 13, 2014
The website and syllabus for Complex Environmental Systems has been updated for the Spring 2014 semester. Thanks to last year’s students for their valuable feedback and input. I’m really looking forward to teaching this year’s version!
December 19, 2013
New paper by Larsen, Harvey, and Maglio on intermediate-timescale hyporheic exchange was accepted by Water Resources Research. Stay tuned for the link.
Dec 9-13, 2013
Danielle Watts and Laurel Larsen present at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco. Dr. Watts presented a talk on the hydrology of Everglades ridges and sloughs, while Prof. Larsen presented a poster on the Big Spring Run field research. Collaborator Jing Yuan at the University of Florida presented a poster on the influence of hydrologic connectivity and landscape pattern on hydroperiod.
Dec 4, 2013
New paper by Ho, Ferrón, Engel, Larsen, and Barr on air-water gas exchange in mangrove-dominated estuaries was accepted by Geophysical Research Letters. Stay tuned for the link.
October 29, 2013
Professor Larsen receives the Kohout Early Career Award at the GSA Hydrogeology luncheon in Denver.
October 27, 2013
Professor Larsen and Marissa Goodman presented at the Geological Society of America meeting. Laurel presented a talk on hyporheic exchange at intermediate timescales, while Marissa presented a poster on tracking the source and fate of particulate organic sediment.
October 5, 2013
Clothilde Labrousse will soon be joining the lab as an REU student. Welcome, Clothilde!
September 26, 2013
Morgan Williams gives an invited presentation at The Climate Conversation in NYC, alongside Mayor Michael Bloomberg and David deRothschild!
September 23, 2013
A big welcome to Kristen Isom, who starts today as a new URAP student. Kristen will be working on understanding vegetation-sediment-landscape interactions in wet meadows.
September 6, 2013
Welcome to Jennifer Marion, a new URAP student who will be joining the lab. Jenny will be working on hydrological connectivity in wetlands and its relationship to flow velocity and landscape development.
August 28, 2013
Professor Larsen comments on the Yosemite Rim fire’s impacts on water quality on NBC Nightly News. See the clip here and a more detailed quote in the San Francisco Examiner here.
July 1, 2013
Danielle Watts joins the ESDL as a postdoctoral scholar. Danielle will be working on hydroecological feedbacks in wet meadows.
April 12, 2013
Saalem Adera will be joining the ESDL in the fall to work on her Ph.D. A big welcome to Saalem!
March 7, 2013
Welcome to Josephine Fong, a new research assistant! Josephine will be working on modeling the evolution of restored wet-meadow landscapes.
March 4, 2013
Morgan Williams will be joining the ESDL in the fall to work on his Ph.D. A big welcome to Morgan!
February 12, 2013
Welcome to Marissa Goodman, a new undergraduate research apprentice program (URAP) student! Marissa will be working on development of organic sediment tracking techniques using fluorescence.
Jan 2, 2013
The web page for the Art and Science of Reduced Complexity Modeling Workshop (March 27-29, Boulder, CO) is now live. Check it out. Applications are due January 31, 2013.
January 1, 2013
Professor Larsen moves to UC Berkeley and the ESDL is born.
December 2012
New article on directional connectivity in hydrology and ecology published in Ecological Applications.