Research
Our research group focuses on developing an understanding of how terrestrial water storage and water quality are influenced by climate, land cover, and land use. Changing climate and current land and water use practices threaten water availability (quantity and quality) for human populations. Our goal is to project Earth’s near surface fluxes (e.g., water, solutes, and sediments) and architecture (e.g., soil thickness and hydrologic properties) — a process termed earthcasting — to examine how human and climatic perturbations will drive the evolution of terrestrial Earth. To accomplish this goal, we examine the interactions among vegetation, soil, and water across climatic gradients in varying spatial (mm to km) and temporal (seconds to millennia) scales; making targeted observations of chemical, physical, and biological variables to support process understanding and the development of predictive models. Specifically, we characterize and quantify how hydraulic properties and plant-soil-water-atmosphere interactions respond to changing climate, and how these processes vary with geology and plant community composition.
I admit students most years into one of two programs: 1) the geology program in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, and 2) the Water Resources Science program. Application materials are due by December 15th to be considered for funding.
Current Funded Projects
Plant-mediated hydraulic redistribution: a valve controlling watershed solute transport??
Sponsor: Department of Energy
Project Duration: 2022-2025
PIs: Pamela Sullivan, Kamini Singha (Mines), Holly Barnard (University of Colorado-Boulder), Emily Graham (PNNL)
People Supported: Alex Redlins
Using a network of networks for high-frequency multi-depth soil moisture observations to infer spatial and temporal drivers of subsurface preferential flow
Sponsor: USGS Powell Center, CUAHSI; NSF
Project Duration: 2022-2024
PIs: Matthias Sprenger, (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), Pamela Sullivan, John Nimmo (USGS) and Tianfang Xu (Arizona State University).
People Supported: Bonan Li
Quantifying climate and land use effects on continental-scale coupling of water and
carbon cycles
Sponsor: Norwegian Research Council
Project Duration: 2021-2026
PIs: Attila Nemes David Robinson, Sabine Reinsch, Daniel Hirmas (UC-Riverside), & Pamela Sullivan
People Supported:
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Project Duration: 2021-2025
PIs: Pamela Sullivan, Daniel Hirmas (UC-Riverside), Sharon Billings (University of Kansas), Alejandro Flores (Boise State), Li Li (Penn State), , Hoori Ajami (UC-Riverside), Kamini Singha (Mines), & Jesse Nippert (K-State)
People Supported: Karla Jarake
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Project Duration: 2021-2025
PIs: Pamela Sullivan, Daniel Hirmas (UC-Riverside), Sharon Billings (University of Kansas), Alejandro Flores (Boise State), Li Li (Penn State), & Hoori Ajami (UC-Riverside), Kamini Singha (Mines)
People Supported: Xi Zhang and Victoria Moreno
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Project Duration: 2020-2025
PIs: Holly Barnard (University of Colorado-Boulder), Eve-Lyn Hinckley (University of Colorado-Boulder), Li Li (Penn State), Katherine Lininger (University of Colorado-Boulder), Pamela Sullivan, Alexis Navarre-Sitchler (Mines), Kamini Singha (Mines), Adrian Harpold (University of Nevada-Reno), Naomi Tague (UCSB)
People Supported: Keira Johnson
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Project Duration: 2020-2023
PIs: Lin Ma (UTEP), Jason Ricketts (UTEP), Pamela Sullivan
People Supported: Grace Goldrich-Middaugh
Toward a watershed hydro-biogeochemical theory: Evolving reactive fluxes as determined by water travel time under changing climate.
Sponsor: Department of Energy
Project Duration: 2020-2023
PIs: Li Li (Penn State), Pamela Sullivan,
People Supported: Keira Johnson and Lena Bixby
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Project Duration: 2019-2022
PIs: Pamela Sullivan, Li Li (Penn State), Jesse Nippert (K-State)
People Supported: Victoria Moreno
Past Funded Projects
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Project Duration: 2018-2023
PIs: Pamela Sullivan, Daniel Hirmas (UC-Riverside), Sharon Billings (University of Kansas), Alejandro Flores (Boise State), & Li Li (Penn State)
People Supported: Xi Zhang