Southwest Watershed Research Center                                                   

USDA-Agricultural Research Service                                                                                                       

2000 E. Allen Road                                                                                                                                

Research interests

I am interested in the exchanges of energy and mass (primarily, water and carbon dioxide) at the soil, vegetation, and atmospheric interface and the interactions between hydrology and ecology.   My current focus is on these exchanges and interactions in water-limited areas.   This includes: 1) improving estimates and models of riparian vegetation water use, 2) understanding the consequences of woody plant encroachment on water and carbon fluxes, 3) determining the role that vegetation plays on vadose zone soil water redistribution, and 4) partitioning evapotranspiration and carbon fluxes into their component fluxes.  

Education

Journal publications for last four years  

(a complete list and pdf’s available at http://www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/unit/Publications):

Scott, R.L., Jenerette, G.D., Potts, D.L., and Huxman, T.E. 2009. Effects of seasonal drought on net carbon dioxide exchange from a woody-plant-encroached semiarid grassland. Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences, 114, G04004.

Jenerette, G.D., Scott, R.L., Barron-Gafford, G.A., and Huxman, T.E. 2009. Gross primary production variability associated with meteorology, physiology, leaf area, water supply in contrasting woodland and grassland semiarid riparian ecosystems. Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences, 114, G04010.

Moran, M.S., Scott, R.L., Hamerlynck, E.P., Green, K.N., Emmerich, W.E., and Holifield Collins, C.D. 2009. Soil evaporation response to Lehmann lovegrass ( Eragrostis lehmanniana) invasion in a semiarid watershed.   Agricultural and ForestMeteorology, 149, 2133-2142.

Shuttleworth, W.J., Serrat-Capdevila, A., Roderick, M.L., and Scott, R.L. 2009. On the theory relating changes in area-average and pan evaporation. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 135, 1230-1247. doi: 10.1002/qj.434

Moran, M.S., Scott, R.L., Keefer, T.O., Emmerich, W.E., Hernandez, M., Nearing, G.S., Paige, G., Cosh, M.H., and O’Neill, P.E. 2008. Partitioning evapotranspiration in semiarid grassland and shrubland ecosystems using time series of soil surface temperature. Agricultural and ForestMeteorology, 149, 59-72.

Vivoni, E.R., Moreno, H.A., G. Mascaro, Rodriguez, J.C., Watts, C.J., Garatuza-Payan, J., and Scott, R.L. 2008. Observed relation between evapotranspiration and soil moisture in the North American monsoon region. Geophysical Research Letters, 35, L22403. doi:10.1029/2008GL036001

Zreda, M., Desilets, D., Ferré, T.P.A., and Scott, R.L. 2008. Measuring soil moisture content non-invasively at intermediate spatial scale using cosmic-ray neutrons. Geophysical Research Letters, 35, L21402. doi:10.1029/2008GL035655

Jenerette, G.D., Scott, R.L., and Huxman, T.E. 2008 Whole ecosystem metabolic pulses following precipitation events. Functional Ecology, 22, 924-930. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2008.01450.x

Potts, D.L., Scott, R.L., Cable, J.E., Huxman, T.E., and Williams, D.G. 2008. Sensitivity of mesquite shrubland CO ₂exchange to precipitation in contrasting landscape settings. Ecology, 89, 2900–2910.

Xiao J., Zhuang Q., Baldocchi D.D., Law B.E., Richardson A.D., Chen J., Oren R., Starr G., Noormets A., Ma S., Verma S.B., Wharton S., Wofsy S.C., Bolstad P.V., Burns S.P., Cook D.R., Curtis P.S., Drake B.G., Falk M., Fischer M.L., Foster D.R., Gu L., Hadley J.L., Hollinger D.Y., Katul G.G., Litvak M., Martin T.A., Matamala R., McNulty S., Meyers T.P., Monson R.K., Munger J.W., Oechel W.C., Paw U K.T., Schmid H.P., Scott R.L., Sun G., Suyker A.E., Torn M.S. 2008. Estimation of net ecosystem carbon exchange for the conterminous United Statesby combining MODIS and AmeriFlux data. Agricultural and ForestMeteorology, 148, 1827-1847.

Goodrich , D.C. , Unkrich, C.L., Keefer, T.O., Nichols, M.H., Stone, J.J., Levick, L.R. and Scott, R.L. 2008.   Event to multidecadal persistence in rainfall and runoff in southeast Arizona, Water Resources Research, 44, W05S14. doi:10.1029/2007WR006222

Scott, R.L., Cable, W.L., Huxman, T.E., Nagler, P.L., Hernandez, M., and Goodrich, D.C.2008. Multiyear riparian evapotranspiration and groundwater use for a semiarid watershed.   Journal of Arid Environments, 72, 1232-1246. doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2008.01.001

Holifield-Collins, C.D., Emmerich, W.E., Moran, M.S., Hernandez, M., Scott, R.L., Bryant, R.B., King, D.M., and Verdugo, C.L. 2008. A remote sensing approach for estimating distributed daily net carbon dioxide flux in semiarid grasslands, Water Resources Research, 44, W05S17.

Scott, R.L., Cable, W.L., and Hultine, K.R. 2008. The ecohydrologic significance of hydraulic redistribution in a semiarid savanna. Water Resources Research, 44, W02440, doi:10.1029/2007WR006149

Li, F., Kustas, W.P., Anderson, M.A., Prueger, J.H., and Scott, R.L. 2008. Effect of remote sensing spatial resolution on interpreting tower-based flux observations. Remote Sensing and the Environment, 112, 337-349.

Yepez, E., Scott, R.L., Cable, W.L., and Williams, D.G.   2007.   Intraseasonal variation in water and carbon dioxide flux components in a semiarid riparian woodland. Ecosystems, 10, 1100-1115.

Watts, C.J., Scott, R.L., Garatuza-Payan, J., Rodriguez, J.C., Prueger, J., Kustas, W., and Douglas, M. 2007.   Changes in vegetation condition and surface fluxes during NAME 2004.   Journal of Climate, 20, 1810-1820, doi: 10.1175/JCLI4088.1

Nagler, P.L., Glenn, E.P., Kim, H., Emmerich, W., Scott, R.L., Huxman, T.E., and Huete, A.R. 2007. Relationship between evapotranspiration and precipitation pulses in a semiarid rangeland estimated by moisture flux towers and MODIS vegetation indices. Journal of Arid Environments, 70, 443-462. doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2006.12.026

Williams, D.G., Scott, R.L., Huxman, T.E., Goodrich, D.C., and Lin, G. 2006. Sensitivity of riparian ecosystems to moisture pulses in semiarid environments. Hydrological Processes. Special Issue on Emerging Issues in Rangeland Ecohydrology, eds. Wilcox , B. and Thurlow, T., 20, 3191-3205. doi: 10.1002/hyp.6327

Scott, R.L., Huxman, T.E., Cable, W.L., and Emmerich, W.E. 2006. Partitioning of evapotranspiration and its relation to carbon dioxide exchange in a Chihuahuan Desertshrubland. Hydrological Processes. Special Issue on Emerging Issues in Rangeland Ecohydrology, eds. Wilcox , B. and Thurlow, T., 20, 3227-3243. doi: 10.1002/hyp.6329

Potts, D.L., Huxman, T.E., Scott, R.L., Williams, D.G., and Goodrich, D.C.2006. The sensitivity of ecosystem carbon exchange to seasonal precipitation and woody plant encroachment. Oecologia, 150, 453-463. doi: 10.1007/s00442-006-0532-y

Gazal, R.M., Scott, R.L., Goodrich, D.C., and Williams, D.G. 2006. Controls on transpiration in a desert riparian cottonwood forest. Agricultural and ForestMeteorology, 137, 56-67.   doi: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2006.03.002

Scott, R.L., Huxman, T.E., Williams, D.G., and Goodrich, D.C.2006. Ecohydrological impacts of woody plant encroachment: seasonal patterns of water and carbon dioxide exchange within a semiarid riparian environment. Global Change Biology, 12, 311–324, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2005.01093.

Scott, R.L., Williams, D.G., Goodrich, D.C., Cable, W.L., Levick, L.R., McGuire, R., Gazal, R.M., Yepez, E.A., Ellsworth, P., and Huxman, T.E. (2006) Chapter D: Determining the riparian groundwater use within the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area and the Sierra Vista Subwatershed, Arizona. In Hydrologic Requirements of and Consumptive Ground-Water Use by Riparian Vegetation along the San Pedro River, Arizona, U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2005-5163 (eds Leenhouts JM, Stromberg JC, Scott RL), pp. 107-142.