Featured

Welcome to the Tague Team Lab at UCSB!

The Tague EcoHydrology lab focuses on watershed research, addressing the feedbacks among terrestrial vegetation, surface hydrological processes, and atmospheric conditions. We use a variety of techniques to examine the impact of changes in climate and land use on ecosystem health and water resources.
Please scroll through our blog below to see what we’ve been up to!

All are welcome to attend our weekly lab meetings and take part in presentations and scientific discussions. See our Lab meeting schedule & events page for information on each week’s topic or presenter. Meetings are held in the Bren hall lab wing, room 1005.

The VHL approach: getting the right answers for the right reasons

Key points of this new publication, which proposes the Virtual Hydrological Laboratory approach:

  • New thinking is needed to improve the predictive skill of conceptual hydrological models as they are confronted by multi-faceted change
  • Next generation conceptual models need to increase their “hydrological fidelity” founded upon multiple hydrological lines of evidence
  • Virtual Hydrological Laboratories accelerate this development through controlled testing for future changes yet to be observed

Thyer, M., Gupta, H., Westra, S., McInerney, D., Maier, H. R., Kavetski, D., Jakman, A., Croke, B., Simmons, C., Partington, D., Shanafield, M., Tague, C. (2024) Virtual Hydrological Laboratories: Developing the next generation of conceptual models to support decision making under change, Water Resources Research 60, e2022WR034234. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022WR034234

New article: Nitrogen and Dryland watersheds

Climate change effects on nitrogen deposition and export may pose threats to water quality in dryland watersheds.

Ren, J., Hanan, E. J., D’Odorico, P., Tague, C., Schimel, J. P., & Homyak, P. M. (2024) Dryland watersheds in flux: How nitrogen deposition and changing precipitation regimes shape nitrogen export, Earth’s Future 12, e2023EF004120. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF004120

Modeling biogeochemical hotspots article

New framework for representing hotspots in RHESSys to better project future N export.

Ren, J., Hanan, E. J., Greene, A., Tague, C., Krichels, A. H., Burke, W. D., et al. (2024) Simulating the role of biogeochemical hotspots in driving nitrogen export from dryland watersheds, Water Resources Research 60, e2023WR036008. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023WR036008

RHESSys conference announcement

RHESSys Conference 2024

Location: Virtual
Date: 1-2 May 2024
Registration Cost: FREE
Abstract Deadline: 15 March 2024
Website: https://rhessys.github.io/conferences/conference_2024

RHESSys Conference 2024 seeks to bring together members of the RHESSys community to share, learn, and network with one another. The conference will be held virtually on 1-2 May 2024. We welcome presentations on all topics related to RHESSys, including water cycling, carbon cycling, nutrient cycling, and/or fire, in both natural and urban environments. We are also interested in demonstrations of new model functionality.

We expect to have talks in two formats (regular and lighting) and a roundtable discussion. The regular talks will be an opportunity to describe projects conducted with RHESSys or new technical features. The lighting slots are perfect for those just starting out with RHESSys. No results needed! Just tell us how you are applying or thinking about applying the model.

We encourage you to start thinking about an abstract. The conference will be an excellent opportunity to highlight your work with fellow RHESSys modelers. The deadline for submitting an abstract for a talk will be 15 March 2024. The abstract submission form will be available on the conference website at the beginning of February.

Finally, since this is the first year that we are holding a RHESSys conference, please help us spread the word. Feel free to pass this distribution to anyone who might be interested.

We hope to see you in May!

Organizers:
Ryan Bart | UC Merced
Ojas Sarup | UC Santa Barbara
Sloane Stephenson | UC Santa Barbara
Ruoyu Zhang | University of Virginia

For conference inquiries please email rbart3@ucmerced.edu
or to be added to the RHESSys email list, send a message to:
rbart3@ucmerced.edu
jchoate@ucsb.edu

Rachel Torres PhD Dissertation Defense

Tague Team Lab member Rachel Torres will present her dissertation defense “Beyond the Drought: Modeling eco-hydrologic dynamics between urban tree resilience and water conservation in a Mediterranean climate” on Friday, Dec. 8th at 10am (PT).

Attend in person: Bren Hall 1414
Attend online: use the link on the Bren event announcement

Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence for Predictions in Ecohydrology

In this new paper, the authors investigate and report on the potential application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in ecohydrology, highlight outcomes of the ecohydrology session at the November 2021 Artificial Intelligence for Earth System Predictability (AI4ESP) workshop, and provide visionary perspectives for future research in this area.

Massoud, E.C., Hoffamn, F., Shi, Z., Tang, J., Alhajjar, E., Barnes, M., Braghiere, R.K., Cardon, Z., Collier, N., Crompton, O., Dennedy-Frank, P.J., Gautam, S., Gonzalez-Meler, M.A., Green, J.K., Koven, C., Levine, P., MacBean, N., Mao, J., Mills, R.T., Mishra, U., Mudunuru, M., Renchon, A.A., Scott, S., Siirila-Woodburn, E.R., Sprenger, M., Tague, C., Wang, Y., Xu, C., Zarakas, C. (2023) Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence for Predictions in Ecohydrology, Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems 2(4). doi: 10.1175/AIES-D-23-0005.1

How to Address Publication Overload in Environmental Science

In this article, a new dynamic online metasynthesis tool is proposed by the authors as a better approach to synthesizing the wealth of available knowledge in environmental science and related fields – to make finding, understanding, and updating science – more efficient and equitable for researchers, and reduce duplicated work, rediscovery of previously published ideas, and perpetuation of mistakes.

Brandt, W., Tague, C. (2023) How to address publication overload in environmental science, Eos 104. doi: 10.1029/2023EO230361

New Pub: Potentials for quantifying disturbance response with remote sensing technologies

This publication offers a focused review of how modern remote sensing platforms and sensors could advance our understanding of disturbance impacts and recovery across scales.

Hwang, K., Harpold, A.A., Tague, C.L., Lowman, L., Boisramé, G.F.S., Lininger, K.B., Sullivan, P.L., Manning, A., Graup, L., Litvak, M., Lewis, G., Miller, K., Brooks, P.D., Barnard, H.R. (2023) Seeing the disturbed forest for the trees: Remote sensing is underutilized to quantify critical zone response to unprecedented disturbance, Earth’s Future 11(8): e2022EF003314. doi: 10.1029/2022EF003314