Ecohydrolgic Function Across Scales:
Assessing plant water use from leaves to continents
Stephen Good
ITCE Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Utah
Faculty Candidate
Hydraulic and Hydrologic Engineering
Wednesday, February, 25th 3:00-4:00 pm; HAMP G212
Interview contacts:
Dennis Lyn ([email protected])
ABSTRACT
The routing of precipitation through the terrestrial branch of the water cycle remains poorly understood because
traditional hydrologic methods have limited ability to separate evaporation and transpiration fluxes at catchment
scales. These processes act at different temporal and spatial scales with consequences for runoff generation,
water resources availability, and water quality. In this talk I will discuss current methodologies used in hydrology
to partition evapotranspiration. Differences between the two primary large-scale flux partitioning approaches are
reconciled by determining the degree to which bound, plant-available soil waters are connected with more mobile
surface waters. This allows for estimation of evaporation from surface waters, evaporation from soils below
canopies, and transpiration from vegetated canopies at a global scale.
SHORT BIO
Dr. Stephen Good is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the
University of Utah. Dr. Good received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004,
served in the Peace Corps as a water and sanitation engineer from 2005 to 2007, and then received his Ph.D. in
Environmental Engineering from Princeton University in 2013. Dr. Good is principally interested in how climate
influences biogeography and ecosystem form, and conversely, how vegetation structure and function influence the
water cycle. Currently, Dr. Good is investigating the hydrologic cycle through the use of stable isotopes as
geochemical tracers in order to quantify the routing of continental precipitation though soils, streams, and
ecosystems.