Trash and Microplastic Fate and Transport

​Mismanaged solid waste poses a grave threat to terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Although the environmental hazards posed by large plastic debris have been well established over the past decades, smaller microplastic (1 micron to 5 mm) and nanoplastic ( < 1 micron) particles have been increasingly found in environmental media globally. Scientists across a wide range of disciplines are now racing to better understand the human and physio-chemical aspects of the generation and dispersal of plastic pollution, as well as the environmental and human health impacts. Our research group is currently working on a number of projects addressing key knowledge gaps in our understanding of trash and microplastic fate and transport.

Post-Fire Processes

​Wildfire is a major watershed disturbance that is tightly coupled with climate and vegetation dynamics. Water and sediment transfer dynamics evolve rapidly after wildfires, particularly in the semi-arid steeplands characteristic of much of the mountainous western US. We study the processes that drive post-wildfire hydro-sedimentological response change using high-resolution repeat surveying techniques, fallout radionuclides, and hydro-meteorological monitoring, and also explore their ramifications for downstream water quality and geomorphology.

Watershed Scale Suspended Sediment Dynamics

​Water flowing through a river, and the load and composition of the suspended sediments it carries, are integrated expressions of internal watershed characteristics interacting with one another and external drivers such as climate and tectonism.  We study these watershed expressions and how they change over time with a focus on untangling the many factors that control their dynamics in order to inform effective watershed management. Such insights can then be applied to future scenarios, including those that incorporate climate change, to consider the future trajectory watershed function.​

Coastal Systems

Estuaries and lagoons are immensely important centers of biodiversity and productivity that offer a broad range of ecosystem services and human beneficial uses.  A large proportion of the global human population depend upon river estuaries for food, navigation and habitation.  As geophysical and biological functioning of these systems depend upon the integrated expression of watersheds along with marine tidal, wind and wave regimes, they are vulnerable to the impacts of human development and climate change both in the watershed and from the sea (i.e. sea level rise).  We study how processes governed by the interactions of these forces drive the evolution of estuarine landforms and sedimentary structures physical and chemical composition over time to expand our fundamental understanding of these important landscapes, and inform their effective management.  ​