After coming back from the Gordon conference on catchment science last week, Scott, Kevin, Rebecca, and I were all ready to get out in the field to get dirty and get to work on what we had been talking about all week at our posters at the conference. Maggie lamented our return and the subsequent …
Hydropedology in action! Installing an intensive site in watershed 3 at Hubbard Brook. Read More »
I’m heading to Hubbard Brook today for this week’s Cooperators Meeting. This meeting is followed next week by the Gordon Research Conference on Catchment Science. Our group has a series of presentations at both meetings so it’s looking to be a busy couple of weeks. Here are a few titles of the presentations: “Hydropedology in W3: …
Charley presented a poster this week on our Coweeta Water Yield project at the 8th North American Forest Ecology Workshop held in Roanoke, VA. She presented results from a modeling study where we investigated how forest management and climate change may interact to cause unexpected changes in water yield. The extensive datasets from the paired watershed studies …
Forest watershed management, water yield, and climate change Read More »
Last week, JP, Rebecca, Scott, Erik, Phoebe and I were digging soil pits for JP’s project in Watershed 3 at Hubbard Brook. About 10m upslope of these pits we began to dig the first pit for my project on the C horizon. Over the summer, I will be looking at the C horizon and characterizing …
I was contacted by gethydrologyjobs.com for permission to include our blog as a new resource link on their website. I think it’s a fine idea! It will be highlighted next week in their newsletter and I hope more hydrologists find their way to our blog. For those not familiar with gethydrologyjobs.com, it’s one of the most …
There are some excellent resources on this site for graduate students. Check them out!! Here is a document I wrote up for the ecology grad students at my university, with tips on giving a good talk, and on some common statistical mistakes to avoid. As with all the advice I offer, it is far from …
Advice: tips for talks and stats (via Oikos Blog) Read More »
This past week I spent three days at the American Ecological Engineering Society (AEES) conference in Asheville, NC. While not a typical hydrologic engineering conference, I learned a lot about the practical use of materials to assist in restoration in addition to many great talks about the complexity of water flow paths. The talks ranged …
After a long and dreary drive I have arrived at Hubbard Brook! After getting settled and moved in to the pleasant view farm house Monday I was able to get out and see watershed 3 today. Scott and I downloaded water level recorder data and pumped water samples as we walked through a lot of …
Mountain-top mining seems to be in the news everywhere these days. Josh and Chuck, two of my favorite podcast personalities who host “Stuff You Should Know (SYSK),” had a story on mountain-top mining last week called “What is mountaintop removal mining?” It was informative, probably best for a lay audience, and included a musical performance – …
A few weeks ago, there was an article in EOS, the American Geophysical Union newspaper, about a recent survey conducted of graduate students from two large interdisciplinary research projects. The findings from the survey, I believe, are right on the money. Scientists preparing for interdisciplinary research careers must learn many diverse skills that do not …
Preparing scientists for interdisciplinary research Read More »
Some of the largest rainfall accumulations in the world have observed have been in the central Appalachian region. A new paper that came out this week in Water Resources Research characterizes features that lead to these large orographic/convective storms that occur predominantly during the summer. Complex interactions between topography and storm dynamics are not well …
Orographic thunderstorm systems in the central Appalachians Read More »
I arrived at Hubbard Brook two days ago to host a small international workshop for a bunch of hydrologists. What perfect timing! Our North-Watch group is in for a real treat. We’ve had about an inch of rain and several days of mild temperatures so snowmelt is humming along. Not to mention, we might be …
A couple of weeks ago at our bi-weekly soils group meeting we were reviewing posters for presentation at the FREC graduate research symposium. At some point we got on the general topic of data presentation. Kevin mentioned the work of Dr. Edward Tufte, whose latest book “Beautiful Evidence” is now in my possession and quite …
In a recent editorial, two scientists, Trevors and Saier give a no holds barred account of what they believe is the primary cause of societal environmental problems like climate change or global warming. It’s ignorance or “the lack of reliable information about and knowledge of the natural world we live in,” which challenges solutions for …
Vaccine for ignorance and a path to sustainability. Is there hope? Read More »
Telling a story of course isn’t always easy, especially when it comes to scientific writing. The story part of a scientific paper, for example the discussion or intro, can be a real challenge. Today I was catching up on my podcasts while at the gym and I found a really interesting Radiolab episode called Me, Myself, …