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Brian A. Ebel

Brian Ebel is a Research Hydrologist for the USGS Water Resources Mission Area.

Brian Ebel is a hydrologist who uses field measurements combined with numerical modeling to advance prediction and process representation. His work focuses on landscape disturbance impacts on water availability and water-related hazards to human lives and infrastructure. He was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2019 for his contributions to understanding post-wildfire flooding and water availability issues. Brian is currently in the Earth System Processes Division of the Water Mission Area. He has a Ph.D. in Hydrogeology from Stanford University and a B.A. in Earth and Planetary Science from Washington University in St. Louis.
 

Data Releases: see below.    

Science and Products

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College Peak wildfire in the Perilla Mountains of Arizona

Water Quality After Wildfire

Wildfires are devastating and can lead to long-term changes to the landscape. With a significant amount of our Nation’s drinking water sources originating in forested watersheds, evaluating the effect fires have on water quality is incredibly important. The USGS works with other federal and state land managers to assess water-quality after wildfires in order to help protect one of our most...
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Water Resources Mission Area
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Water Quality After Wildfire

Wildfires are devastating and can lead to long-term changes to the landscape. With a significant amount of our Nation’s drinking water sources originating in forested watersheds, evaluating the effect fires have on water quality is incredibly important. The USGS works with other federal and state land managers to assess water-quality after wildfires in order to help protect one of our most...
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Example of thawing landscapes and thermokarst at our field sites

Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE)

ABoVE: Vulnerability of inland waters and the aquatic carbon cycle to changing permafrost and climate across boreal northwestern North America. Carbon released from thawing permafrost may fuel terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems or contribute to greenhouse gas emission, leading to a potential warming feedback and further thaw.
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Land Management Research Program, Alaska Science Center
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Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE)

ABoVE: Vulnerability of inland waters and the aquatic carbon cycle to changing permafrost and climate across boreal northwestern North America. Carbon released from thawing permafrost may fuel terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems or contribute to greenhouse gas emission, leading to a potential warming feedback and further thaw.
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Database of physically based distributed model applications for post-fire hydrologic response

This data release contains a database reviewing the state of the science for physically based distributed hydrologic model applications for post-fire hydrologic response. The database covers the globe and spans from the years 1998 through the calendar year 2021. The database is part of a larger state of the science review of post-fire hydrologic modeling that examines the scales and geographic/eco
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Water Resources Mission Area

Soil-physical and soil-hydraulic properties as a function of burn severity for 2013, 2015, and 2017 in the area affected by the 2013 Black Forest Fire, Colorado USA

Wildfire can impact soil-physical and soil-hydraulic properties, with major implications for hydrologic and ecologic response. The durations of these soil impacts are poorly characterized for some forested environments. This dataset sheds light on the first four years of recovery of soil-physical properties of bulk density, loss on ignition (measure of soil organic matter), and soil particle size
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Water Resources Mission Area

Geophysical and related field data from the West Fork of Dall Creek, AK 2017-2019

The West Fork of Dall Creek is located ~100km southwest of Coldfoot, AK along the Dalton Highway, south of the Brooks Range. The West Fork of Dall Creek is composed of unburned black spruce forest with a burn scar from the 2004 Dall City Fire. Multi-season, multi-method geophysical data were collected both within the burned and unburned areas. Geophysical techniques used include Nuculear Magnetic
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Water Resources Mission Area

Green-Ampt infiltration modeling following wildfire in the Colorado Front Range, USA

This product is a Model Archive for Green-Ampt method infiltration modeling following wildfire in the Boulder Creek watershed, in the Colorado Front Range, USA. The models contained in this archive simulate infiltration and consequent runoff generation through 7 years of recovery following a wildfire in 2010. These simulations provide insight to changes in the timing of runoff generation that have
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Water Resources Mission Area

Physical and Hydraulic Properties at Recently Burned and Long-Unburned Boreal Forest Areas in Interior Alaska, USA

This dataset includes physical and hydraulic properties at selected sites in interior Alaska. Physical properties include dry bulk density, loss on ignition, saturated soil water content, and particle size distribution. Hydraulic properties include field-saturated hydraulic conductivity, soil-water retention data, and parameters used in a common soil-water retention model (van Genuchten model). Vo
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Water Resources Mission Area

Soil thermal properties at recently burned and long-unburned boreal forest areas in interior Alaska, USA

This Data Release presents soil thermal properties of volumetric specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity for soil samples from six sites in interior Alaska USA. Volumetric specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity data were estimated using a dual needle heat pulse probe. Soil thermal property data were collected across the full spectrum of soil saturations from fully saturated to ove
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Water Resources Mission Area, National Water Quality Program

Alaska permafrost characterization: Geophysical and related field data collected from 2016-2017

Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), downhole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and manual permafrost-probe measurements were used to quantify permafrost characteristics along transects within several catchments in interior Alaska in late summer 2016 and 2017. Geophysical sites were chosen to coincide with additional soil, hydrologic, and geochemical measurements adjacent to various low-order
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Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center

Soil Physical and Hydraulic Properties in the Area Affected by the 2011 Las Conchas Fire in New Mexico

This product releases data on soil physical and hydraulic properties in the area affected by the 2011 Las Conchas Fire in New Mexico, USA. Soil samples were collected in the summer of 2015 to assess the state of the watershed following the 2011 wildfire. Data include soil-hydraulic properties of field-saturated hydraulic conductivity and sorptivity from tension infiltrometer measurements on soil c
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Water Resources Mission Area
Image: Fourmile Canyon Fire
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Filter Total Items: 52

A call for strategic water-quality monitoring to advance assessment and prediction of wildfire impacts on water supplies

Wildfires pose a risk to water supplies in the western U.S. and many other parts of the world, due to the potential for degradation of water quality. However, a lack of adequate data hinders prediction and assessment of post-wildfire impacts and recovery. The dearth of such data is related to lack of funding for monitoring extreme events and the challenge of measuring the outsized hydrologic and e
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Water Resources Mission Area, California Water Science Center, Colorado Water Science Center, Kansas Water Science Center, New Mexico Water Science Center, Oregon Water Science Center, Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center

Modeling post-wildfire hydrologic response: Review and future directions for applications of physically based distributed simulation

Wildfire is a growing concern as climate shifts. The hydrologic effects of wildfire, which include elevated hazards and changes in water quantity and quality, are increasingly assessed using numerical models. Post-wildfire application of physically based distributed models provides unique insight into the underlying processes that affect water resources after wildfire. This work reviews and synthe
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Water Resources Mission Area, New Mexico Water Science Center

Introduction to the special issue on fire impacts on hydrological processes

Fire has been present on the Earth since vegetation began colonizing the continents (Santos et al., 2017). The role of fire on terrestrial sedimentation processes was already highlighted by Schumm (1968) in his pioneering research to understand the detachment, transport, and sedimentation of material on the Planet. The use of fire by humans as a tool that transformed the landscapes of the world ha
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Water Resources Mission Area

Hydrologic recovery after wildfire: A framework of approaches, metrics, criteria, trajectories, and timescales

Deviations in hydrologic processes due to wildfire can alter streamflows across the hydrograph, spanning peak flows to low flows. Fire-enhanced changes in hydrologic processes, including infiltration, interception, and evapotranspiration, and the resulting streamflow responses can affect water supplies, through effects on the quantity, quality, and timing of water availability. Post-fire shifts in
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Water Resources Mission Area

Heterogeneous patterns of aged organic carbon export driven by hydrologic flow paths, soil texture, fire, and thaw in discontinuous permafrost headwaters

Climate change is thawing and potentially mobilizing vast quantities of organic carbon (OC) previously stored for millennia in permafrost soils of northern circumpolar landscapes. Climate-driven increases in fire and thermokarst may play a key role in OC mobilization by thawing permafrost and promoting transport of OC. Yet, the extent of OC mobilization and mechanisms controlling terrestrial-aquat
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Water Resources Mission Area, Alaska Science Center

Post-fire temporal trends in soil-physical and -hydraulic properties and simulated runoff generation: Insights from different burn severities in the 2013 Black Forest Fire, CO, USA

Burn severity influences on post-fire recovery of soil-hydraulic properties controlling runoff generation are poorly understood despite the importance for parameterizing infiltration models. We measured soil-hydraulic properties of field-saturated hydraulic conductivity (Kfs), sorptivity (S), and wetting front potential (ψf) for four years after the 2013 Black Forest Fire, Colorado, USA at six sit
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area

Post-wildfire hydrologic recovery in Mediterranean climates: A systematic review and case study to identify current knowledge and opportunities

Post-fire hydrologic research typically focuses on the first few years after a wildfire, leading to substantial uncertainty regarding the longevity of impacts. The time needed for hydrologic function to return to pre-fire conditions is critical information for post-fire land and water management decisions. This is particularly true in Mediterranean climates, where water is scarce and in high deman
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area

Postwildfire soil‐hydraulic recovery and the persistence of debris flow hazards

Deadly and destructive debris flows often follow wildfire, but understanding of changes in the hazard potential with time since fire is poor. We develop a simulation‐based framework to quantify changes in the hydrologic triggering conditions for debris flows as postwildfire infiltration properties evolve through time. Our approach produces time‐varying rainfall intensity‐duration thresholds for ru
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Natural Hazards Mission Area, Geologic Hazards Science Center, Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Recovery Activities

Rapid-response unsaturated zone hydrology: Small-scale data, small-scale theory, big problems

The unsaturated zone (UZ) extends across the Earth’s terrestrial surface and is central to many problems related to land and water resource management. Flow of water through the UZ is typically thought to be slow and diffusive, such that it could attenuate fluxes and dampen variability between atmospheric inputs and underlying aquifer systems. This would reduce water resource vulnerability to cont
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Natural Hazards Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Geologic Hazards Science Center, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center

Assessing plot-scale impacts of land use on overland flow generation in Central Panama

Land use in Panama has changed dramatically with ongoing deforestation and conversion to cropland and cattle pastures, potentially altering the soil properties that drive the hydrological processes of infiltration and overland flow. We compared plot-scale overland flow generation between hillslopes in forested and actively cattle-grazed watersheds in Central Panama. Soil physical and hydraulic pro
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Water Resources Mission Area

Fates and fingerprints of sulfur and carbon following wildfire in economically important croplands of California, U.S.

Sulfur (S) is widely used in agriculture, yet little is known about its fates within upland watersheds, particularly in combination with disturbances like wildfire. Our study examined the effects of land use and wildfire on the biogeochemical “fingerprints,” or the quantity and chemical composition, of S and carbon (C). We conducted our research within the Napa River Watershed, California, U.S., w
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Water Resources Mission Area

Parameter estimation for multiple post-wildfire hydrologic models

Predictions of post‐wildfire flooding and debris flows are needed, typically with short lead times. Measurements of soil‐hydraulic properties necessary for model parameterization are, however, seldom available. This study quantified soil‐hydraulic properties, soil‐water retention, and selected soil physical properties within the perimeter of the 2017 Thomas Fire in California. The Thomas Fire burn
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Water Resources Mission Area

Non-USGS Publications**

Ebel, B. A., 2013, Simulated unsaturated flow processes after wildfire and interactions with slope aspect, Water Resources Research, 49, 8090–8107, doi: 10.1002/2013WR014129
Loague, K., and , B. A. Ebel, 2013, Conceptualization in catchment modeling. In Treatise on Geomorphology, Edited by J. F. Shroder, Vol. 7, pp. 105-121. San Diego, Academic Press, doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-374739-6.00154-8
Ebel, B. A., K. Loague, and R. I. Borja, 2010, The impacts of hysteresis on variably-saturated hydrologic response and slope failure, Environmental Earth Sciences, 61, 1215-1225, doi: 10.1007/s12665-009-0445-2
BeVille, S. H., B. B. Mirus, B. A. Ebel, G. G. Mader, and K. Loague, 2010, Using simulated hydrologic response to revisit the 1973 Lerida Court landslide, Environmental Earth Sciences, 61, 1249-1257, doi: 10.1007/s12665-010-0448-z
Ebel, B. A., K. Loague, D. R. Montgomery, and W. E. Dietrich, 2008, Physics-based continuous simulation of long-term near-surface hydrologic response for the Coos Bay experimental catchment, Water Resources Research, 44, W07417, doi:10.1029/2007WR006442
Ebel, B. A., and K. Loague, 2008, Rapid simulated hydrologic response within the variably saturated near surface, Hydrological Processes, 22, 464-471, doi:10.1002/hyp.6926
Ebel, B. A., K. Loague, W. E. Dietrich, D. R. Montgomery, R. Torres, S. P. Anderson, and T. W. Giambelluca, 2007, Near-surface hydrologic response for a steep, unchanneled catchment near Coos Bay, Oregon: 1. Sprinkling experiments, American Journal of Science, 307, 678-708, doi:10.2475/04.2007.02
Ebel, B. A., K. Loague, J. E. VanderKwaak, W. E. Dietrich, D. R. Montgomery, R. Torres, and S. P. Anderson, 2007, Near-surface hydrologic response for a steep, unchanneled catchment near Coos Bay, Oregon: 2. Physics-based simulations, American Journal of Science, 307, 709-748, doi:10.2475/04.2007.03
Mirus, B. B., B. A. Ebel, K. Loague, and B. C. Wemple, 2007, Simulated effect of a forest road on near-surface hydrologic response: Redux, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 32, 126–142, doi: 10.1002/esp.1387
Ebel, B. A., and K. Loague, 2006, Physics-based hydrologic-response simulation: Seeing through the fog of equifinality, Hydrological Processes, 20, 2887–2900, doi:10.1002/hyp.6388
Borja, R. I., G. Oettl, B. Ebel, and K. Loague, 2006, Hydrologically driven slope failure initiation in variably saturated porous media. In Modern Trends in Geomechanics. Wu, W. and H.S. Yu (Eds.), pp. 303-311, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, doi: 10.1007/978-3-540-35724-7_18
Loague, K., C. S. Heppner, B. B. Mirus, B. A. Ebel, Q. Ran, A. E. Carr, S. H. BeVille, and J. E. Vander Kwaak, 2006, Physics-based hydrologic-response simulation: foundation for hydroecology and hydrogeomorphology, Hydrological Processes, 20, 1231–1237, doi:10.1002/hyp.6388
Ehlmann, B. L., R. E. Arvidson, B. L. Jolliff, S. S. Johnson, B. Ebel, N. Lovenduski, J. D. Morris, J. A. Byers, N. O. Snider, and R. E. Criss, 2005, Hydrologic and Isotopic Modeling of Alpine Lake Waiau, Mauna Kea, Hawai‘i, Pacific Science, 59, 1–15, doi:10.1353/psc.2005.0005
Loague, K., C. S. Heppner, R. H. Abrams, A. E. Carr, J. E. VanderKwaak, and B. A. Ebel, 2005, Further testing of the Integrated Hydrology Model (InHM): event-based simulations for a small rangeland catchment located near Chickasha, Oklahoma, Hydrological Processes, 19, 1373–1398, doi:10.1002/hyp.5566

**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.

Science and Products