STAFF NEWS

 

Tucson Scientist Dr. Jennifer Moore Kucera, and her husband, Jeff Kucera, are VERY pleased to announce the birth of their daughter Kalina Rose Kucera, on 9 November 2005 at 12:48am.  At birth, Kalina weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was 19.5 inches tall.

 

Student News:  Averill Cate finished his PhD course work last semester and will begin working on a dissertation outline and proposal.  His research interests include decision support and data mining in Natural Resources and Watershed Management.  He also has a strong interest in agent-based modeling especially as it applies to best management practices.  Finally, in May of this year, Averill will be getting married to Dr. MaryKris McIlwaine, current Sociology lead at Pima Community College.  Congratulations to them both.

 

Student News:  Chandra Holifield Collins also finished her PhD course work last semester in the Dept. of Soil, Water and Environmental Science.  She will take her comprehensive exams this semester.  Her research is focused on mapping daily CO2 flux using satellite imagery.  She has already determined a relationship to map daytime CO2 flux using satellite imagery and has begun looking at nighttime fluxes.  The goal of this research is to develop a model that can be validated, for estimating large scale daily net CO2 flux in semiarid grasslands.  This may provide a means of better understanding the role that semiarid systems may be playing in the carbon cycle.

 

Student News:  Roberta McGuire received her Master's degree in Watershed Management from the Natural Resource College at the University of Arizona.  Her work represents a pioneer study measuring shrub transpiration at a perennial site for a riparian area.  The title of her thesis is "Quantifying the consumptive water use by the dominant understory shrub seep willow (Baccharis salicifolia) in the San Pedro Riparian National  Conservation Area."  She has been recently accepted to the PhD program in the Soil, Water and Environmental Science Department at the University of Arizona.  Her current research will further explore the hydro-ecological interactions of riparian vegetation.

 

 

FUTURE SCIENCE EVENTS

 

January 23rd  - Dr. Ken Renard (retired ARS Hydraulic Engineer) will present an overview of the history of research and instrumentation at the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed.  His presentations will take place at Flume 6 and Lucky Hills and will be videotaped to capture his knowledge and perspectives.

 

The SWRC will be showcasing several of its hydrologic models at the 3rd Federal  Interagency Hydrologic Modeling Conference be held in Reno, NV from April 2-6, 2006. 

The ARCView 1.5 version of the Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment (AGWA) Tool (www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/agwa)will be released and demonstrated at the meeting.  The ARCGIS AGWA version 1.0 will also be released and demonstrated and the internet version of AGWA (i.e. DotAGWA) beta version will be discussed in an oral presentation and demonstrated.  In addition, an oral presentation on KINER-OPUS will be presented.  This is a next generation of the KINEROS2 rainfall-runoff-erosion program (www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/kineros) which is being coupled with the ARS OPUS model model (http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=8270).  This coupled modeling system will enable treatment of interstorm soil moisture dynamics, plant growth, water quality, snow, and soil freezing and thawing.

Bill Emmerich will present a poster entitled “Soil Organic and Inorganic Carbon Dioxide Fluxes" at the 2006 Society for Range Management meeting in Vancouver BC, Canada February 11-17.

The end of 2005 signifies the completion of 5 years of monitoring energy, water and carbon dioxide fluxes at the Charleston Mesquite site within the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.  The project principal investigator is Tucson ARS Scientist Dr. Russ Scott.

 

On January 25-26 2006, the Arizona Section of the Society for Range Management and the Arizona Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society are hosting a workshop entitled “Climate and Rangelands Workshop: Beyond Boxes and Arrows” to create practical tools to assess climate change/variability and ecosystem impacts in southwestern rangelands.  The workshop will be held at the Apache Gold Hotel/Casino in Globe Arizona.  ARS Scientist Susan Moran will offer a workshop commentary at the close of the meeting.  For more information on the workshop, open the following links: http://azrangelands.org/ or  http://cals.arizona.edu/gila/whats_new/ .

 

Planning continues for the May 16-18, 2006 Interagency Conference on Research in the Watersheds.  The web site is up and running at http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/coweeta/  .  The site covers broad topics for the conference, and information about travel, location and registration.

 

A brochure will be available this spring to local communities that includes findings from SWRC scientific research studies on riparian evapotranspiration. This brochure illustrates water use by dominant vegetation communities in riparian areas of southeastern Arizona.  This information serves as educational outreach to help stakeholders and interested parties gain a perspective of the multi-dimensional aspect needed for watershed planning. Watch for further information on our web site at http://www.tucson.ars.ag.gov .

 

AWARDS

 

Congratulations to SWRC Scientist Russ Scott.  In his recent research position review, he was evaluated by his peers and recommended for promotion.

 

Ruth Evelyn Cowan will be honored as a "Woman of the West" at the Cochise County Poetry and Music Gathering (Feb 3 - 5 in Sierra Vista)