Scientific Focus Area
Jill Banfield. Photo by Elena Zhukova. (Image taken from the UC Berkeley website)
Jill Banfield has been awarded the 2023 van Leeuwenhoek Medal for her contributions to the understanding of microbial communities and interactions between microbes and the environment. Her work at Old Rifle, East River, and many places beyond has been both groundbreaking and instrumental to understanding environmental processes catalyzed and controlled by microbial activity. Read more »
In its inaugural year, the 2022 LBNL Director’s Stewardship Award has been awarded to Ken Williams, the Watershed Function SFA Deputy Lead for Operations. The award was given in recognition of Ken’s efforts in establishing the East River study site as a community observatory that serves a vast network of collaborators. Read more »
Award citation: For his creation of world-class, first-of-their-kind field experimental community observatories that have yielded unprecedented insights into microbial, geochemical, and hydrologic processes benefitting DOE’s Offices of Science and Legacy Management, and for his advocacy of stewardship.
EESA Research Scientist Sebastian Uhlemann has been named the recipient of the Near-Surface Geophysics Early Career Achievement Award from AGU, the American Geophysical Union.
Each year, AGU sections such as the Near-Surface Geophysics Section, recognize outstanding work by professionals within their fields by granting awards and hosting numerous lectures. More information about all the awardees can be found here.
(Reposted from EESA website, author credit: Christina Procopiou, LBNL)
The Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) will make its debut at the East River, CO Watershed in September 2021.
Science Magazine highlighted the upcoming deployment in a story included in their August 27 issue (first online Aug 24).
Read more about SAIL in this latest storyboard.
SFA researcher Dr. Rosemary Carroll (Desert Research Institute) was featured on NPR’s morning edition in a story titled “Rain During Monsoon Season Is Becoming Less Reliable, Less Effective“. Carroll references results from Watershed Function SFA research showing how low snowpack results in conditions that lessen the amount of lower streamflow generated monsoon rains. Listen here »
SFA Field Deputy Ken Williams was interviewed for the Sopris Sun, a newspaper based out of Carbondale, CO. Williams discussed how the Grizzly Creek fire can be a useful test case for understanding how wildfire affects water quality and nutrient cycling as well as different forest types. Read more »
SFA scientist Dr. Heidi Steltzer (Ft. Lewis College) was interviewed on KBUT, a community radio station in Gunnison County, CO (home to the East River watershed). As a guest on KBUT’s segment “Community Matters“, Heidi talked about the power of narrative to inspire climate activism. Listen here (Pt 3.) »
Monsoon rain in the East River, Colorado. Cover Image of Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 47, Issue 23. Image credit: Xavier Fane.
An SFA study led by Rosemary Carroll (Desert Research Institute) found that where rain falls within a Colorado River headwater basin strongly effects whether that rain makes it to the stream.
Co-authored by SFA collaborator David Gochis (NCAR) and SFA Field deputy Ken Williams (LBNL), the study suggests that in a warmer future, summer rains are likely to produce less streamflow, adding to water challenges caused by decreasing snowpack. Read more »
Jeremy Snyder is a photographer and science communicator interested in sharing science in ways that allow people to see and understand the world in new ways. At the time of writing, Jeremy has accepted a position with the communications team at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry. (image and caption credit: Jeremy Snyder)
As part of a DOE Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI), Jeremy Snyder authored “Rocky Mountain Water: The stories of Natural, Impacted, and Managed water in the Upper Gunnison River Basin”. Using the ArcGIS StoryMaps platform and stunning visuals, the story focuses on the Colorado Upper Gunnison River Basin—home to the Watershed Function SFA’s study site, the East River Watershed. See the full story here »
For more of Jeremy’s work, see his personal website.
This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) under the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program, under the supervision of Ken Williams, Watershed Function SFA Field Deputy.
Researchers from the Watershed Function SFA are thoroughly engaged in this year’s 2020 AGU fall meeting, which will take place virtually December 1 – 17.
A complete listing of the SFA’s 2020 AGU activities is available here.
According to AGU, “AGU20 Fall Meeting will be one of the world’s largest virtual scientific conferences, with exciting programming and events. This will be our most diverse, engaging and dynamic Fall Meeting to date.”
A U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratory Managed by the University of California