CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

(sorry but I got tired of trying to put pictures on stuff). This is a blitz of my current project description (Oct 2010).

I tend to have a short attention span for research, so this list will be outdated soon.

Overall, I work on rivers. I tend to start with the science, branching from hydraulics and geomorphology to ecology and biogeochemistry. I also work on policy related to rivers, with my main focus on the Clean Water Act section 404, and the emergence of stream markets. This has brought me increasingly into interaction with economists. So, my research is broad in that I work across science, policy, etc., but narrow in that I only study rivers.

I have a few projects going these days.

1. Tidal rivers: through the work of Scott Ensign and Mike Piehler, we are trying to understand the effects of tides on channel hydraulics, morphology, biogeochemistry, and food web dynamics. Most of this work is being done on blackwater, tidal freshwater zone rivers of eastern North Carolina.

2. Effects of markets on river restoration: this project is joint with Rebecca Lave (Indiana University) and Morgan Robertson (Univ of Kentucky). We are trying to understand how the emergence of stream mitigation banks have affected the practice of stream restoration. This is a project that is trying to integrate social science (political ecology; social studies of science) with geomorphology. NOTE THAT EACH PI IS CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS TO RECRUIT TO THIS PROJECT

3. Optimal scale of environmental markets: this is a joint project with my post-doc JR Rigby, Andy Yates (economics, Univ of Richmond) and Kurt Schnier (Georgia State Univ). We are using a combination of theoretical economics, simple water quality modeling, and experimental economics to understand the tradeoffs between large trading areas (which reduce compliance costs but increase chances for water pollution hotspots) and small trading areas (higher costs, less chance of hotspots)

4. What is a stream? I continue to work with Emily Bernhardt on coastal wetland biogeochemistry and restoration of outer coastal plain streams. Emily and I have also recently wrapped up our work on trying to define what exactly a ‘stream’ is.

5. Effect of streams on floodplains: My graduate student Jeff Muehlbauer is leading a project trying to understand how far into floodplains the influence of streams can penetrate. We know that stream ecosystems are subsidized from terrestrial (floodplains esp) ecosystems. Jeff is inverting this and trying to find the distance into the terrestrial ecosystem that stream influence penetrates. We are working here in the US along Coweeta streams, as well as with Klement Tockner on the Tagliamento River in Italy

6. Droughts and infrastructure: Lauren Patterson, after wrapping up a stunning masters thesis on floods, turned her attention to droughts. We are working with the Environmental Finance Center to quantify the spatial scale of droughts in the Southeastern US, and then compare that scale with the scale of infrastructure (interbasin transfers) and the scale of population change.

7. Hydropower: I have twp projects running related to hydropower. Chris Sandt is a master student, and we are working on trying to identify whether any remnant dams in the NC Piedmont are viable for upfitting for hydropower. We are doing a combination of flow analysis and basic economic analysis. The second project is being run by Greg Characklis and Jordan Kern, and in that one we are trying to quantify the effect of changing energy regulation on flow regime in the Roanoke River.

8. Compensatory Stream mitigation: for the past few years I have been working on the topic of compensatory stream mitigation. Part of this project is with Lave and Robertson, but more generally I am trying to piece together the science, policy, and economics of stream mitigation generally in the US

9. America’s Rivers and the American Experiment: my grand project is piecing together (very slowly) the story of America’s rivers, from Colonial Era to present. The gist of this book-length project is that we have used our rivers, but have done so in ways that are quintessentially ‘American.’ I hope that you can read the results of this work via Barnes and Noble in a couple years.

10. Little League: I am the assistant coach of the mighty National Pawn Shop Rookie League ballteam. We are, at present, winless. But our ambitions are high; and there are always crackerjacks at the end of the season regardless. I hope to be promoted from 1^st base coach to 3^rd base coach in the coming Spring Season.