Daniel McLaughlin, an assistant professor in Virginia Tech's Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, will be presenting a WaterTalk on "Wetland Water Storage: Drivers and Functions at Varying Spatial Scales."
Interest
areas
Forest and wetland ecohydrology; biotic feedbacks to landform development; watershed and landscape hydrology; emerging environmental sensors; restoration and management of water resources.
McLaughlin's research uses state-of-the-art field instrumentation and process-based modelling to explore the abiotic/biotic interactions that control ecosystem function. Research questions span scales (e.g. patch, watershed, landscape) and systems (e.g. forests, wetlands, streams), and are ultimately aimed at improving restoration and management of water resources.
Current Research projects
- Drivers of Headwater Stream Condition: Assessing the impacts of different watershed-scale activities (e.g. prescribed fire, mountaintop mining) on water quality and habitat of headwater streams.
- Ecosystem Variation at the Great Dismal Swamp: Evaluating variability and drivers of ecosystem structure and function across this large forested peatland system.
- The Ecological Drill Hypothesis: Biotic Control on Carbonate Dissolution in a Low-Relief Patterned Landscape. Exploring the role of wetland metabolism and hydrology in creating the striking landscape pattern in Big Cypress National Preserve.
- Managing Forests for Increased Regional Water Availability: Understanding the effect of varying forest management actions (e.g. fire and thinning) on water delivery to aquifers and water bodies.
- Hydrologic Implications of Smoldering Fires in Wetland Landscapes: Exploring how peat fires influence basin bathymetry, wetland hydroperiod, and vegetative response.
- Functions and Connectivity of Geographically Isolated Wetlands: Investigating the various ways that distributed isolated wetlands provide functions at local to landscapes scales.
- Ecological and Hydrological Impacts of the Emerald Ash Borer: Understanding the coupled hydrologic and vegetative impacts resulting from EAB-induced mortality in Minnesota black ash forests.