Studying the interdependencies of river and human systems at Colorado State University

Recent News

09/25/23 Congratulations Dr. Danny White!

Danny successfully passed his PhD oral exam! He gave an excellent presentation on his research titled, “Experimental Flume and Numerical Studies into the Influence of Floodplain Vegetation on River-Corridor Hydrodynamic Processes”. Congratulations, Dr. White!

09/21/23 Floodplain Vegetation Influences Channel Bedforms

Our new paper describing the impacts of floodplain vegetation on sediment transport and channel bedforms has been published in JGR: Earth Surface. Danny White led this paper based on his major efforts to collect experimental flume data. More results from Danny’s experiments are forthcoming!

09/01/23 Matt Lurtz and Dixie Lin Poteet Complete Graduate Exams

Congratulations to Matt Lurtz (PhD) and Dixie Lin Poteet (MS) for successfully passing their graduate defense exams! Both have worked extremely hard during the past few years to get to this point. Matt studied the impacts of groundwater return flows on riparian vegetation evapotranspiration, and Dixie studied the impacts of new stormwater management techniques on semi-arid stream conditions. Congrats to both Matt and Dixie!

07/28/23 Nick Christensen Awarded Fellowship/Scholarships

Nick Christensen was recently awarded two competitive funding awards. First, Nick is a new 2023 Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center Natural Resource Workforce Development Fellow. Second, Nick is a recipient of a 2023 Colorado Riparian Association scholarship. Both awards are linked to Nick’s research on the impact of floodplain restoration/conservation on flood attenuation and watershed resilience. Congrats, Nick!

03/20/23 Graduate Students Present at AGU Hydrology Days

Nick Christensen, Dixie Lin Poteet, Jack Derbique, and Evan Schulz will be presenting at AGU Hydrology Days between March 21-22. Please be sure to check out their great work if you plan to attend Hydrology Days this year. Congrats, Nick, Dixie, Jack, and Evan!

03/06/23 Hot off the press! Impacts of Climate Change on Greenback Cutthroat Trout Habitat

Congratulations to Chenchen Ma (former MS student) on the publication of her MS thesis! In her research, Chenchen evaluated the impact of reduced flows due to climate change on habitat availability for endangered Greenback Cutthroat Trout. This paper is published in River Research and Applications (https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.4122). This was a collaborative study with great folks from the USGS and CSU, including James Roberts (USGS), Yoichiro Kanno (CSU) and Danny White (CSU).

03/01/23 New NSF Award to Study Large Wood in Rivers

Dr. Ellen Wohl (PI) and I (co-PI) have been awarded a new NSF grant to study the role of channel-spanning large wood jams in river corridors. This work will be used to improve our understanding of how large wood promotes morphologic and hydrologic changes in rivers with implications for better restoration design.

Rivers and floodplains are complex, resilient systems that have been altered around the world.

 

My research focuses on understanding the complexities of river systems, the impacts of human alterations, the importance of river restoration.