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.

Prescribed burn project announcement from NRS

The UC Natural Reserve System announces a new project – “Building Foothill Community Resilience to Wildfire with Prescribed Burns” – which will contribute information to the state to help anticipate and prepare for potentially catastrophic wildfires, and improve people’s awareness, acceptance, and confidence in using prescribed burning as a tool in wildfire management to protect wildlife and human populations. RHESSys-Fire will be used in the project to project catastrophic fire risk under possible future climates.

Read the announcement:
Learning to burn: using prescribed fire to keep California’s foothills safe from wildfire

New Publication: Bark Beetle Effects on Fire Regimes

New publication looks at how tree mortality caused by Bark Beetle outbreaks can increase or decrease wildfire hazards by altering surface fuel loading and decreasing leaf moisture. The RHESSys-WMfire model was coupled with a beetle effects model (RHESSys-WMFire-Beetle) to simulate interactions among hydrology, vegetation, beetle effects, and fire.

Ren, J., Hanan, E.J., Hicke, J.A., Kolden, C.A., Abatzoglou, J.T., Tague, C.L., Bart, R.R., Kennedy, M.C., Liu, M., Adam, J.C. (2023). Bark beetle effects on fire regimes depend on underlying fuel modifications in semiarid systems, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 15(1), e2022MS003073. doi: 10.1029/2022MS003073

Commentary & advice on research funding

In the upcoming February 2023 special issue on Women in Hydrology in the Journal of Hydrology, author Holly R. Barnard (Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder) reviewed the competitive funding landscape and gives some advice on navigating the process, learned from her own experiences and from other women in science – including Naomi Tague and others who she acknowledges.

Barnard, H.R. (2023) Navigating the fluid funding landscape, Journal of Hydrology 617 (Part B), 128909. doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.128909

New Publication – Tree response to Snow Drought

This new publication looks at the consequences of changing snowpacks on forest water stress by using the RHESSys model to explore how a tree’s position (upslope or riparian) on a hillslope influences its drought response.

Graup, L.J., Tague, C.L., Harpold, A.A., Krogh, S.A. (2022) Subsurface lateral flows buffer riparian water stress against snow drought, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 127(12): e2022JG006980. doi: 10.1029/2022JG006980

Don’t miss these AGU 2022 presentations!

Tague Team Lab and Friends of the Lab:
Naomi Tague Invited presentation – Snow and Forest in the Western US – Does ecophysiology matter?
H16F-05 (1089369), Monday 3:25 – 3:35, E258 (Lakeside, Level 2)

Chris Heckman poster – An Alternative Hydrologic Hypothesis as to why Taller Trees Commonly Experience Greater Drought Stress
H12A-45, Monday 7:00 – 10:30, Digital Poster Monitor Zone 3

Louis Graup poster – Ecohydrological Impacts of Riparian and Upslope Fuel Treatments
H12A-54, Monday 7:00 – 10:30, Poster Monitor 4

William Burke poster – Modeling Fuel Treatment Effects on Streamflow in California Watersheds.
H32O-1106, Wednesday 7:00 – 10:30, Hall – A (South, Level 3)

Gabrielle Boisrame poster – Relationships Between Snowpack, Low Flows, and Stream Temperature in Maritime Western U.S. Mountains
GC35J-0812, Wednesday 12:45 – 4:15, Hall A (South, Level 3)

Jianning Ren poster – Modeling the Effects of Snag Removal on Wildfire Behavior after Beetle Outbreaks
GC42G-0783, Thursday 7:00 – 10:30, Hall A (South, Level 3)

Ashley Cale poster – Spatial Application of the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) to Project Impacts of Fuel Reduction Treatments on Carbon Budget
B55D-0999, Friday 12:45 – 4:15, Hall A (South, Level 3)

Additional RHESSys related presentations:
Carlos Quintero poster – Evaluating Performance of Hydrologic Model for Purposes of Soil Moisture Prediction in Long Term Gauged Watersheds
H22R-1090, Tuesday 7:00 – 10:30, Hall A (South, Level 3)

Mariana Dobre presentation – Satellite Data-Driven Vegetation Recovery for Pre- and Post-Wildfire Hydrologic and Erosion Simulation
H22M-06, Tuesday 7:50 – 08:00,E450a (Lakeside, Level 4)

Asim Zia presentation – Simulating Lags, Tipping Points and Cross Scale Interactions in Integrated Socio-Environmental Systems: Evaluating the Impacts of Early vs. Delayed Nutrient Reductions under Alternate Hydro-Climatic Scenarios in Missisquoi Bay, 2000-2050
H36F-04, Wednesday 3:20 – 3:30, E451b (Lakeside, Level 4)

#AGU2022 #AGU22

PostDoc Opportunity

Postdoctoral Scholar in Ecological Modeling of Fire Regimes and Vegetation Growth
Bren School of Environmental Science, University of California Santa Barbara;
Contact Naomi Tague (tague@ucsb.edu)

Description:
We are seeking a post-doctoral scholar to join our “Building Resilience to Wildfires” Team at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This is a cross-campus project with the goal of improving landscape level fire management in the California Central Coast and other semi-arid regions. The focus of the post-doctoral scholar will be the ecological modeling component of the
project, where the goal is to apply a state-of-the art ecohydrologic model (RHESSys-Fire) to develop future scenarios of fire risk, post-fire vegetation recovery, post-fire hydrology and longterm fuel treatment effectiveness. The post-doctoral scholar will work closely with the TagueTeamLab under the supervision of PI Tague on the ecological modeling but will also interact with the entire project team to integrate new datasets collected as part of the larger project and participate in science communication and outreach.
We are looking for a post-doctoral scholar with a strong background in ecological or hydrologic modeling. Strong data-science skills, including spatial analysis and the ability to work in UNIX/Linux environment, is essential. At least 2 years of programming experience with R (or equivalents) is required along with a demonstrated ability to work as part of a project team and strong written and oral communication skills. Experience with fire regime models and/or fire ecology would be particularly helpful. Some familiarity with C programming language is also helpful. Applicants must have completed all requirements for a PhD (or equivalent) in a earth
system science discipline with strong data science focus, except the dissertation, by the time of application.

To apply, please submit a cover letter, CV and the names of 3 references to tague@ucsb.edu

This is a full-time position. Competitive salary and benefits commensurate with experience. The initial appointment is for 1 year with the potential for an additional year based on satisfactory performance and funding availability.
The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Open Date: Nov 15, 2022
Final Date: December 31, 2022

New article – post thinning micrometeorology & soil moisture under extreme drought & record precipitation

This new article compares the below-canopy meteorological and subsurface hydrologic differences between two thinning prescriptions and an unaltered Control during periods of extreme drought and near-record precipitation (with little snow) within a coniferous forest in the rain-snow transition zone of the southern Cascades.

Hardage, K., Wheelock, S.J., Gaffney, R., O’Halloran, T., Serpa, B., Grant, G., Coppoletta, M., Csank, A., Tague, C., Staudacher, M., Tyler, S. (2022) Soil moisture and micrometeorological differences across reference and thinned stands during extremes of precipitation, southern Cascade Range, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change 5:898998. doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2022.898998