37. Spatial Ecohydrologic Modeling in the Semi-Arid Southwest

Ecohydrology describes the interactions among vegetation, soils, and climate and can be used to understand and predict ecological, geomorphic, and climate attributes at landscape to local scales.  In the arid Southwest, water availability, generally as soil moisture, is a critical factor for soil, plant, and wider ecosystem stability and health.  The Southwest is undergoing rapid climate change that interacts with urbanization and other land use pressures in complex, non-linear ways that make land management difficult.  As a result, it is critical to understand the specific ecohydrologic relationships that set water availability, and thus landscape stability, in dryland ecosystems in order to plan for and mitigate effects of climate change and land use.  Infrequent precipitation events and heterogeneous patterns in plant and soil resources are prominent characteristics of semi-arid ecosystems that provide significant challenges for spatial modeling.  However, ongoing research shows that many ecohydrologic characteristics of semi-arid landscapes can be described with surficial geologic maps and high-resolution topography.  Spatial modeling of the ecohydrology of arid ecosystems in order to understand and predict ecosystem dynamics presents a challenging and important research theme that will lead to practical applications that a wide variety of land management agencies require.

We seek a postdoctoral fellow who will combine spatial and temporal modeling techniques to analyze the interactions among climate, soils-geomorphology, and vegetation in a semi-arid landscape.  A primary goal is to understand the dynamics of dryland ecosystems given variable climate and soil resources.  Major challenges for research will likely include integrating surficial geologic characteristics and process information, vegetation interactions with water and energy fluxes, and extrapolation and disaggregation of climate data.  Furthermore, research will need to incorporate spatially explicit event-based hydrologic interactions into long-term assessments of soil moisture availability and stability. We anticipate that the proposed research will include aspects of future climate effects and/or land use changes on vegetation and ecosystem stability. 

We anticipate that the postdoctoral researcher will interface with and build upon existing projects in the Southwest.  Example projects include the Recoverability and Vulnerability of Desert Ecosystems Project (http://mojave.usgs.gov/rvde/) and Great Basin Integrated Landscape Monitoring Pilot Project (GBILM; http://www.usgs.gov/features/greatbasin/). The postdoctoral researcher will have the opportunity to contribute to the development of predictive maps such as soil biotic crusts, and a wide variety of techniques, data and models to be used by land management agencies.

Proposed Duty Station: Menlo Park, CA

Areas of Ph.D.: Geology, hydrology, geomorphology, ecology, environmental sciences

Qualifications: Applicants must meet one of the following qualifications: Research Geologist, Research Hydrologist, Research Ecologist

(This type of research is performed by those who have backgrounds for the occupations stated above. However, other titles may be applicable depending on the applicant's background, education, and research proposal. The final classification of the position will be made by the Human Resources specialist.)

Research Advisor(s): David Bedford, (650) 329-5272, dbedford@usgs.gov; Jayne Belnap, (435) 719-2333, jayne_belnap@usgs.gov; David Miller, (650) 329-4923, dmiller@usgs.gov

Human Resources Office contact: Candace Azevedo, (916) 278-9393, caazevedo@usgs.gov

Summary of Opportunities