Research

The research interests of my lab are broad and interdisciplinary in nature and center around the science of catchment hydrology, experimental hydrology and hydrology-climate interactions in both nearly pristine and human-impacted landscapes. A primary goal of our research is to contribute to a better mechanistic understanding of hydrological processes and their links to climate and biogeochemical cycling. We tackle many of the research questions through hypothesis-driven field or lab experiments, which allow us to identify key hydrological mechanisms, their evolution in space and time, but also first order controls and feedbacks relevant to any studied system. For our research we draw on a diverse suite of methods and techniques including (i) manual and automated field instrumentation and monitoring, (ii) multivariate/geo/spatial statistics, (iii) geographic information systems (GIS) and web-based GIS, (iv) stochastic hydrology and time series analysis, and (v) distributed watershed modeling and model development. This methodological approach and research has led to the discovery of tipping points and threshold behavior (e.g. in runoff generation) in hydrologic systems and the importance of changes in boundary conditions or system states (e.g., changes in antecedent moisture conditions, snow cover extent on glaciers) as underlying controls. 


Ongoing projects

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Groundwater Banking: An Agricultural Systems Approach for Water Security in California
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Using Nanotechnology to Identify and Characterize Flow Pathways in Hydrologic Systems
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The dynamics of rural poverty, land use, and water in California's changing Central Valley
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Effects of Forest Stand Density Reduction on Nutrient Cycling and Nutrient Transport at the Caspar Creek Experimental Watersheds

Completed projects

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Water Signatures of the Sierra Nevada: Using Isotopes and eDNA to Monitor Ecosystem Change
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Glacial Hydrology
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Hydroclimatic dynamics in mountainous subarctic catchments
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Variable Source Area hydrology
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Watershed Management Tools
Dr. Helen E. Dahlke - Catchment Hydrology, Experimental Hydrology, Hydrology-Climate Interactions
>Research
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  • People
  • Research
    • Variable Source Area Hydrology
    • Watershed Management Tools
    • Glacial Hydrology
    • Hydroclimatic dynamics in subarctic catchments
    • Groundwater Banking
    • Water signatures of the Sierra Nevada
    • Using Nanotechnology to Characterize Flow Pathways in Hydrologic Systems
    • The dynamics of rural poverty, land use, and water in California's changing Central Valley
    • Effect of forest stand density reduction on nutrient transport at the Caspar Creek Watershed
  • Teaching
    • HYD-145: Water Science & Design
    • HYD-298: Matlab to solve problems in environmental sciences
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Publications
  • Hobbies

QUICK CONTACT

  • 3306 Plant and Environmental Science building
    LAWR Dept., UC Davis
    One Shields Avenue
    Davis, CA 95616
    hdahlke@ucdavis.edu(530) 302-5358
UC Davis