Project Info

Charcoal impacts on near-surface hydrology

Charcoal from forest fires impacts soil hydrology and geomorphology. In this project, we will look at resistivity as a tool to quantify how water storage changes in soil after charcoal amendment and how this impacts regrowth of local plants. We will also look at how this change in water flow relates to debris flows in forests after forest fires. The project could include lab experiments, equipment design, and/or field applications depending on the interest of the student.

More Information

Here are three papers that motivate this work integrating soil hydrology, debris flows, and geophysics.
1) https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/comments?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0179079
2) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022169415009464
3) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hyp.11458

Grand Engineering Challenge: Provide access to clean water

Student Preparation

Qualifications

Student should have introductory physics and introductory geology.

Time Commitment

4-5 hours/week

Skills/Techniques Gained

Data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Multi-disciplinary training in geology, hydrology, and geophysics. Lab and/or field skills related to hydrology and geophysics.

Mentoring Plan

I will start with making sure that the student has clearly defined goals and a broad understanding for how this adds on to previous work and will be used to motivated a future proposal. I will meet weekly with the student to make sure we have regular, small milestones that lead to the overall goal. The student will also work with a post-doc who is joining my group in Fall 2020. The post-doc and I will also work with the student on written and oral communication skills with one goal to have the student present at an (inter)national conference.