Watershed Sciences Building, 1st Floor
University of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 754-9133
FAX 530.754.9364
People
Affiliated Faculty
Director Jeffrey F. Mount
Geology
Web site: http://www.geology.ucdavis.edu/faculty/mount.html
Jeffrey Mount is Professor and former Chair of the Department of Geology. He also holds the Shlemon Chair in Applied Geosciences, is a former member of the State Reclamation Board, served on the National Research Council Panel on the Klamath River and is a recent recipient of the 2005 Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award, which recognizes his contributions on issues of public concern such as flood risk, watershed management, and river restoration. He co-holds, with Dr. Moyle, the President's Chair in Undergraduate Education and co-teaches with Dr. Moyle a river ecology and conservation course for undergraduates, taught each summer on a major Western river. He is the author of California Rivers and Streams.
His research interests include fluvial geomorphology, sedimentology, stratigraphy and basin analysis. His recent research emphasis has been on the geomorphic response of lowland river systems to changes in land use/land cover and the links between hydrogeomorphology and riverine ecology. Projects include analysis of geomorphology of floodplains, floodplain response to non-structural flood management measures, development of new floodplain restoration methods, role of hydrologic and sedimentologic residence time in riverine ecosystem health, development of coupled hydrogeomorphic and ecosystem models for environmental monitoring.
Associate Director Peter B. Moyle
Fish Biology
Web site: http://wfcb.ucdavis.edu/pages/faculty/petermoyle.html
Peter Moyle is Professor and former Chair of the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology. He is the author or co-author of more than 170 publications, including the definitive Inland Fishes of California (2002). He has served on numerous advisory bodies, including the Ecosystem Restoration Program Science Board of the California Bay-Delta Authority and the National Research Council Panel on the Klamath River. He co-holds, with Dr. Mount, the President's Chair in Undergraduate Education and co-teaches with Dr. Mount a river ecology and conservation course for undergraduates, taught each summer on a major Western river.
His research interests include conservation of aquatic species, habitats, and ecosystems, including salmon; ecology of fishes of the San Francisco Estuary; ecology of California stream fishes; impact of introduced aquatic organisms; use of flood plains by fish. He has long-term research projects in the Suisun Marsh, Putah Creek, Sierra Nevada streams, and the Cosumnes River.
Associate Director Mike Johnson
Ecology
Web site: http://johnmuir.ucdavis.edu/aeal/people/johnson.html
Mike Johnson is an Associate Research Scientist in Ecology, and the Director of the Aquatic Ecosystem Analysis Laboratory.
The AEAL Lab is involved in a number of projects that investigate the effects of stressors on aquatic ecosystems. It often uses a comparative approach and performs research in locations that range from California to Alaska.
His current research interests include understanding the effects of temperature stress on salmonids throughout their life cycle, understanding watershed processes that contribute to temperature stress on salmonids, and applying sophisticated statistical techniques to evaluate the sources of stressors in watersheds, their impacts on abiotic and biotic components of the ecosystem, and measuring aquatic ecosystem health.
Joseph J. Cech, Jr.
Fish Biology
Web site: http://wfcb.ucdavis.edu/pages/faculty/Cech.htm
Joe Cech is a Professor of Fisheries Biology in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology. He is a former chair of the department, the author or co-author of more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and books, and has received many awards for research, fisheries education and student mentoring.
His principal research interest is the physiological adaptations and adjustments of fishes to their environments. His work has included studies of: effects of temperature and hypoxia on California cold-water fishes; effects of pulsed flows on California stream fishes' condition and distribution; environmental requirements of California native fishes for potential restoration or aquaculture; effects of dietary methylmercury on Sacramento blackfish; physiological ecology of green sturgeon, temperature-related effects on the splittail's cardio-respiratory responses to exercise; and behavior of fishes near fish passage and transport-related structures.
His work with the Watershed Center has included a study of the physiology of Sacramento Perch to establish the requirements necessary for restoring a sustainable population of this species to the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system.
Randy A. Dahlgren
Water Quality
Web site: http://lawr.ucdavis.edu/faculty-home.htm#dahlgren
Randy Dahlgren is a Professor of Soil Science and Biogeochemistry in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources. He is director of the TMDL Research and Technical Support Program, which provides research and technical support for water quality issues in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.
His principal research interest is watershed-scale biogeochemistry, including interactions of hydrological, geochemical, and biological processes in regulating groundwater and surface water chemistry. Recent research includes:
- Rangeland water quality using paired watersheds to examine prescribed fire and grazing effects on nutrients, sediments and pathogens
- Land use - water quality relationships at the large watershed scale
- Effects of dams, dam removal and controlled release floods on water quality
- Effects of floodplain restoration on water quality and lower food web dynamics
- Hypoxia in the lower San Joaquin River
- Water quality - food resource dynamics in California rivers
- Temporal patterns in water quality (inter-annual, seasonal, storm event, diel)
- Wetlands as a best-management practice for treating irrigation tailwaters
- Groundwater chemistry in hypersaline Owens Dry Lake
Graham E. Fogg
Hydrogeology/Groundwater
Web site: http://lawr.ucdavis.edu/faculty-home.htm#fogg
Graham Fogg is Professor of Hydrogeology in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources.
His research interests include groundwater contaminant transport; groundwater basin characterization and management; geologic/geostatistical characterization of subsurface heterogeneity for improved pollutant transport modeling; numerical modeling of groundwater flow and contaminant transport; role of molecular diffusion in contaminant transport and remediation; long-term sustainability of regional groundwater quality; vulnerability of aquifers to non-point-source groundwater contaminants.
His work with the Watershed Center has included an important study documenting groundwater conditions in the Lower Cosumnes River, and showing the impact of those conditions on various plans to increase fall flows for salmon.
Jay R. Lund
Engineering/Water Resources Management
Web site: http://cee.engr.ucdavis.edu/faculty/lund/
Jay Lund is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is on the editorial board of several water resources publications, has been a member of the Advisory Committee for the 1998 and 2005 California Water Plan Updates, and has served as Convenor of the California Water and Environment Modeling Forum (CWEMF).
His principal research interest is in the application of systems analysis, economic, and management methods to infrastructure and public works problems. He has led development and application a large-scale optimization modeling for California's water supply, as well as various other modeling studies for the management of flood control and environmental purposes. Climate warming, water marketing, conjunctive use, and integrated water resources management problems have been examined using this model. He co-authored an analysis of economical water supply alternatives to Hetch Hetchy Dam. Outside of California, he has been involved in optimization modeling of other major river systems, including the Columbia River system, the Missouri River system, South Florida, the US Southeast, and the Panama Canal. Jay Lund is also interested in integrated urban water supply planning and management, water transfers and markets and economic design and evaluation of stormwater quality management.
Gregory B. Pasternack
Hydrology
Web site: http://lawr.ucdavis.edu/faculty/gpast/index.htm
Greg Pasternack is a Professor of Watershed Hydrology in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources.
His research interests include: geomorphic and hydrologic characterization of the impacts of historic and modern human activities on watershed and estuarine processes; river restoration; watershed-estuarine interactions on multiple time scales; wetland restoration.
His work with the Watershed Center has included an analysis of the paleogeology of a Delta island in order to identify constraints upon restoration; and the development of integrated approach to the rehabilitation of salmon spawning habitat below dams.
S. Geoffrey Schladow
Engineering/Water Quality
Web site: http://cee.engr.ucdavis.edu/faculty/schladow/Default.htm
Geoffrey Schladow is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of the Tahoe Environmental Research Center. He serves on numerous federal, state and local government committees, providing technical advice on lake, stream and estuary systems throughout California.
His principal area of research interest is the interaction between fluid transport and mixing processes with water quality in natural and engineered systems. Using a combination of field experimentation and numerical modeling, he is better quantifying the critical flux paths in these systems. His recent research has included the development of the Lake Tahoe Clarity Model, the modeling of eutrophication in the Salton Sea, the use of remote sensing for measuring water currents and water quality, and the measurement and modeling of flows in the Napa-Sonoma marsh complex.
His work with the Watershed Center has included the modeling of North Delta restoration and flood flows, and the measurement and modeling of the hydrodynamics and oxygen stratification in the Stockton Deep Water Ship Channel.
Kyaw Tha Paw U
Biomicrometeorology
Web site: http://lawr.ucdavis.edu/faculty-home.htm#paw-u
Kyaw Tha Paw U is a Professor of Atmospheric Science in the Atmospheric Science Section of the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources. He is a former vice-chair of the department, and author or co-author of more than 82 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.
His principal research interest is the turbulent exchange between the soil, plant canopies, and the atmosphere. His research team models the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum using higher-order closure schemes, large-eddy simulation (LES), and linked soil transfer, plant physiological and radiative transfer models. The biomicrometeorology team also carries out extensive field experiments in oldest forest ecosystem (400-500 years old) in the worldwide carbon exchange FLUXNET network, where it has taken 10 Hz measurements since 1998. Other field experiments include turbulence measurements over agricultural crops such as maize, sunflower, cotton, vineyards, grass, English walnut, almonds, and fallow soil.
His work with the Watershed Center has included a study of the water, carbon, and energy exchange between riparian ecosystems and the atmosphere associated with the Cosumnes River.
James F. Quinn
Ecology
Web site: http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/QUINN.htm
Jim Quinn is a Professor of Environmental Studies in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy. He is also Director of the Information Center for the Environment, leader of the California Information Node (CAIN) of the National Biological Information Infrastructure and editor of a new e-journal, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science.
His current research interests include conservation biology, biodiversity, environmental applications of Semantic Web technologies, the use of geospatial information systems to assess biodiversity, land use, and water quality, international databases and information sharing on invasive species and species in protected areas, watershed and floodplain analysis, and the dynamics and restoration of the San Francisco Bay - Sacramento Delta ecosystem. Past research programs also include work on marine intertidal communities, Pacific Coast marine fisheries, marine protected areas, and conservation biology as applied to parks and nature preserves.
His work with the Watershed Center has included data management, spatial analysis and measurement of terrestrial changes for the Cosumnes Research Group's 6-year study of flooding and restoration at the Cosumnes River Preserve. He is the lead PI on phase II of the Cosumnes Research Group's work at the Preserve.
Professional Research Scientists
William Bennett
Fish Ecology
Assistant Researcher, John Muir Institute of the Environment
Bill Bennett's research involves the ecology of fishes, primarily in estuarine and marine systems. His has focused primarily on understanding the population dynamics of fishes in the San Francisco Estuary and the near-shore marine environments in California. This work involves statistical analyses of historical data, and field investigations to understand the influences of exotic species, hydrodynamics, exposure to pollutants, and climate change on fish year-class success and population abundance. He has worked extensively with the Interagency Ecological Program and CALFED to investigate the delta smelt and striped bass populations in the San Francisco Estuary, the Pacific Estuarine Ecosystem Indicator Research Consortium focusing on tidal-marsh goby populations, as well as working to understand the relative influences of fishing intensity and climate change on the near-shore rockfish fishery.
William Fleenor
Engineering/Fluids
Web site: http://edl.engineering.ucdavis.edu/
Professional Research Engineer, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Bill Fleenor supervises the Environmental Dynamics Laboratory in Civil Engineering. His principal research interest is quantifying interactions between fluid transport and mixing processes to better understand water quality in natural and engineered systems through field experimentation, tracer studies, detailed laboratory studies, and numerical modeling. His work with the Watershed Center has included hydraulic modeling of North Delta flood flows, investigation of the hydrologic constraints on restoration of the McCormack-Williamson Tract, advising on installation of a remote sensing network on the Cosumnes floodplain and supervision of data collection and analysis for the study of depleted oxygen and fluvial dynamics in the Stockton Deep Water Ship Channel.
Joan Florsheim Fluvial
Geomorphology
Web site: http://geology.ucdavis.edu/faculty/florsheim.html
Associate Research Geologist, Department of Geology
Joan Florsheim's primary research is in geomorphology and earth surface processes. Her current research focuses on restoration, geomorphic processes in riparian buffers, floodplain depositional processes in both high-energy and lowland river systems, geomorphic effects of Quaternary and modern climate variation and change, and the influence of anthropogenic disturbances on fluvial and tidal processes, sediment budgets, and habitat. With the Watershed Center's Cosumnes project she conducted field investigations documenting the dynamics of topography created by sand (crevasse) splay and channel complexes on the seasonally inundated floodplain; documented paleo and modern changes in floodplain sedimentation processes; and developed a quantitative geomorphic monitoring and adaptive assessment strategy and model applicable to lowland floodplain-river restoration. Studies in the Mokelumne system included: pre- and post-dam removal geomorphic investigations on Murphy Creek and an assessment of floodplain restoration potential of the lower Mokelumne River. She is a member of the hydrologic sciences graduate group faculty, is an affiliated researcher of the Tahoe Environmental Research Center and the John Muir Institute of the Environment, has participated in development of the California Watershed Assessment Manual, and has served on scientific and technical advisory and review committees for river conservation organizations and agencies. Her recent teaching includes Fluvial Geomorphology to adults through UC Extension, to high school students for COSMOS, and to undergraduates and graduates for the UC Davis Geology Department.
Joshua H. Viers
Ecology
Web site: http://ice.ucdavis.edu/get_person.php?id=7
Assistant Research Ecologist, Department of Environmental Science and Policy
Josh Viers' research interests and projects investigate the spatial relationships of ecological phenomena. These applied research analyses include: predictive modeling for non point source pollutants in watersheds; the spatial effects of land use activities on riparian and aquatic habitat integrity; the integration of high-spatial resolution, hyperspectral data into resource inventories; and supporting state and federal agencies with applied decision support systems. He is currently directing research in several of California's watersheds (Scott, Shasta, Pit, and Cosumnes), teaching watershed analysis classes through University Extension, and promoting better communication of scientific research to the public through videography.
Alumni
Dylan S. Ahearn
Ph.D., 2004, Hydrologic Sciences
Dissertation title: Biogeochemistry of the Waterways in the Last Unimpounded Watershed Draining the Western Sierra Nevada, California.
Currently:
Postdoctoral Scholar
Center for Watershed Sciences
University of California, Davis
1 Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
Phone: (530) 752-3073
Fax: (530) 752-1552
Email:
Eric Booth
Masters, 2006, Hydrologic Sciences
Thesis Title: Characterizing Hydrologic Variability of Cosumnes River Floodplain
Currently:
Ph.D. student, Limnology
University of Wisconsin – Madison
Email:
Jan H. Fleckenstein
Ph.D., 2004, Hydrologic Sciences
Dissertation title: Modeling River-Aquifer Interactions and Geologic Heterogeneity in an Alluvial Fan System, Cosumnes River, CA
Currently:
Assistant Professor
Department of Hydrology
University of Bayreuth
95440 Bayreuth
Germany
Phone: +49-921 55 2147
Fax: +49-921 55 2366
E-mail:
Web Site: http://www.hydro.uni-bayreuth.de/mitarbeiter/index.php?mitid=37&lang=en
Carson Jeffres
Masters, 2006, Ecology
Thesis title: Ephemeral Floodplain Habitats Provide Best Growth Conditions for Juvenile Chinook Salmon in a California River
Currently:
Researcher, UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences
1 Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
E-mail:
Kaylene E. Keller
Ph.D., 2003, Ecology
Dissertation title: Landscape Scale Analysis of Riparian Restoration, Site Selection and Adaptive Management in California's Cosumnes River Floodplain.
Currently:
GIS Analyst/Ecologist
Jones and Stokes
2600 V. Street
Sacramento, CA 95818
Phone: (916) 737-3000
Fax: (916) 737-3030
Email:
Mark Cable Rains
Ph.D., 2002, Hydrologic Sciences
Dissertation title: Surface and Ground-Water Origins and Interactions and Vegetation Distributions in Riverine and Reservoir-Fringe Systems: A Case Study in Support of Reservoir Management Efforts.
Currently:
Assistant Professor of Ecohydrology
Department of Geology
University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Avenue, SCA 528
Tampa, FL 33620
Phone: (813) 974-3310
Fax: (813) 974-2654
Email:
Web site: http://www.cas.usf.edu/geology/About%20Us/Faculty/rains/rains.htm
Wendy B. Trowbridge
Ph.D., 2003, Ecology
Dissertation title: The Influence of Restored Flooding on Floodplain Plant Distributions
Currently:
Postdoctoral Scholar
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science
University of Nevada, Reno
Email:
Joseph M. Wheaton
Masters, 2003, Hydrologic Sciences
Thesis title: Spawning Habitat Rehabilitation
Currently:
PhD Candidate (anticipated graduation: Summer 2006)
University of Southampton
School of Geography
Highfield
Southampton
S017 1BJ
United Kingdom
Email:
Web Site: http://www.geog.soton.ac.uk/users/WheatonJ/JMW_home.asp