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David M Rey, PhD

David Rey is a Research Hydrologist in the Hydrologic Remote Sensing Branch of the Water Resources Mission Area.

David's specialty is in Arctic and alpine hydrology, however he has expertise in a variety of field, geophysical, and numerical modeling methods. His work focuses on geophysical methods development, and using cross-scale observations combined with numerical modeling to improve prediction and process representation. David's current research interests and efforts are focused on: 

  • Evolving hydrologic systems in permafrost environments
  • Linking snowmelt to streamflow in alpine ecosystems
  • The impact of wildfire on groundwater and snow processes
  • Development of UAS-based geophysical methods, and systems for remote, autonomous geophysical monitoring

Presently, David is directly contributing to the USGS WB, WAIEE and NGWOS Water Mission Area Programs. He has a Ph.D. from the Colorado School of Mines in Hydrology, and a B.S. in Earth Science from Montana State University.

Science and Products

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Brooks Range in Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska

Assessment of Critical Landscape Conditions and Potential Change in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Support Habitat Management Decision Making

Areas along the Arctic coast are changing the fastest among all of Earth’s habitats due to climate change. The Arctic coast is a fragile ecosystem that provides habitat for migratory birds, endangered species, and species critical for local subsistence living. In this area, permafrost is thawing rapidly, changing how much and when water reaches rivers, ponds, lakes, wetlands and groundwater. In ad...
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Climate Adaptation Science Centers
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Assessment of Critical Landscape Conditions and Potential Change in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Support Habitat Management Decision Making

Areas along the Arctic coast are changing the fastest among all of Earth’s habitats due to climate change. The Arctic coast is a fragile ecosystem that provides habitat for migratory birds, endangered species, and species critical for local subsistence living. In this area, permafrost is thawing rapidly, changing how much and when water reaches rivers, ponds, lakes, wetlands and groundwater. In ad...
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Floating Electromagnetic Surveys from the Lower Delaware River Basin

Electromagnetic (EM) geophysical methods provide information about the bulk electrical conductivity of the subsurface. EM data has been widely used to investigate aquifers and geologic structures. In the following study, the United States Geological Survey conducted a boat-towed, waterborne transient electromagnetic (FloaTEM) survey to examine conductivity within the subsurface of the main Delawar
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Water Resources Mission Area

Riverbank vertical temperature profiler data and calculated groundwater discharge flux estimates from the Farmington River corridor, CT, USA

As the climate warms and dry periods become more extreme, shallow groundwater discharge is generally becoming a less reliable source of streamflow while deep groundwater discharge remains a more resilient source. The implications of shifts in the relative balance of shallow and deep groundwater discharge sources are profound in gaining streams. These different sources exert critical controls on st
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Water Resources Mission Area

Data release for tempest1d: Recursive Estimation of Vertical Groundwater/Surface-Water Exchange using Heat Tracing

This data release provides a recursive-estimation framework to infer groundwater/surface-water exchange based on temperature time series collected at different vertical depths below the sediment/water interface. A heat-transport problem was formulated as a state-space model (SSM), in which the spatial derivatives in the convection/conduction equation are approximated using finite differences. The
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Water Resources Mission Area

Delaware River near Wilmington Floating Electromagnetic Surveys from August 2020

Electromagnetic (EM) geophysical methods provide information about the bulk electrical conductivity of the subsurface. EM data has been widely used to investigate aquifers and geologic structures. In the following study, the United States Geological Survey conducted a boat-towed, waterborne transient electromagnetic (FloaTEM) survey to examine conductivity within the subsurface of the Delaware Riv
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Water Resources Mission Area

Near-surface geophysical data collected along streams near Silverton, Colorado, USA (ver. 2.0, May 2022)

Near-surface geophysical data from within the Bonita Peak Mining District in Silverton, Colorado, USA are presented. The data include fiber optic distributed temperature sensing (FO-DTS) and frequency domain electromagnetic induction (FDEM) data collected in and around roughly 1 km reaches of Cement Creek and California Gulch. Additional data, including ground penetrating radar (GPR) and self pote
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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

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

Airborne electromagnetic and magnetic survey data and inverted resistivity models, western Yukon Flats, Alaska, February 2016

Airborne electromagnetic (AEM) and magnetic survey data were collected during February 2016 along 300 line kilometers in the western Yukon Flats near Stevens Village, Alaska. Data were acquired with the CGG RESOLVE frequency-domain helicopter-borne electromagnetic systems together with a Scintrex Cesium Vapour CS-3 magnetometer. The AEM average depth of investigation is about 100 m. The survey was
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Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center
Photo of river in steep-sided canyon. A cableway is set up over the river. Scientific instruments are mounted on the cableway ov
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USGS Testing ground-penetrating radar (GPR) on a cableway

Shallow and local or deep and regional? Inferring source groundwater characteristics across mainstem riverbank discharge faces

Riverbank groundwater discharge faces are spatially extensive areas of preferential seepage that are exposed to air at low river flow. Some conceptual hydrologic models indicate discharge faces represent the spatial convergence of highly variable age and length groundwater flowpaths, while others indicate greater consistency in source groundwater characteristics. Our detailed field investigation o
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Adam Haynes, Martin Briggs, Eric Moore, Kevin Jackson, James Knighton, David Rey, Ashley Helton
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Water Resources Mission Area

Wildfire-induced shifts in groundwater discharge to streams identified with paired air and stream water temperature analyses

Within the western United States, increasingly severe and frequent wildfires may alter the magnitude, timing, and quality of water exported from burned areas by streams. Post-fire hydrologic studies often focus on peak stream flow responses to shifts in runoff generation or on annual streamflow yield response to changes in evapotranspiration following fire. However, the magnitude and duration of w
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David Rey, Martin Briggs, Michelle A. Walvoord, Brian A. Ebel
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Water Resources Mission Area

High resolution SnowModel simulations reveal future elevation-dependent snow loss and earlier, flashier surface water input for the Upper Colorado River Basin

Continued climate warming is reducing seasonal snowpacks in the western United States, where >50% of historical water supplies were snowmelt-derived. In the Upper Colorado River Basin, declining snow water equivalent (SWE) and altered surface water input (SWI, rainfall and snowmelt available to enter the soil) timing and magnitude affect streamflow generation and water availability. To adapt effec
Authors
John C. Hammond, Graham A. Sexstone, Annie Laura Putman, Theodore B. Barnhart, David Rey, Jessica M. Driscoll, Glen Liston, Kristen L. Rasmussen, Daniel McGrath, Steven R. Fassnacht, Stephanie K. Kampf
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Water Resources Mission Area, Colorado Water Science Center, New Mexico Water Science Center, Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center

Application of recursive estimation to heat tracing for groundwater/surface-water exchange

We present and demonstrate a recursive-estimation framework to infer groundwater/surface-water exchange based on temperature time series collected at different vertical depths below the sediment/water interface. We formulate the heat-transport problem as a state-space model (SSM), in which the spatial derivatives in the convection/conduction equation are approximated using finite differences. The
Authors
W. Anderson McAliley, Frederick Day-Lewis, David Rey, Martin Briggs, Allen M. Shapiro, Dale Werkema
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Water Resources Mission Area

Integrating observations and models to determine the effect of seasonally frozen ground on hydrologic partitioning in alpine hillslopes in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, USA

This study integrated spatially distributed field observations and soil thermal models to constrain the impact of frozen ground on snowmelt partitioning and streamflow generation in an alpine catchment within the Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research site, Colorado, USA. The study area was comprised of two contrasting hillslopes with notable differences in topography, snow depth and plant comm
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David Rey, Eve-Lyn S. Hinckley, Michelle A. Walvoord, Kamini Singha
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Water Resources Mission Area

Wildfire-initiated talik development exceeds current thaw projections: Observations and models from Alaska's continuous permafrost zone

As the Arctic warms and wildfire occurrence increases, talik formation in permafrost regions is projected to expand and affect the cycling of water and carbon. Yet, few unified field and modeling studies have examined this process in detail, particularly in areas of continuous permafrost. We address this gap by presenting multimethod, multiseasonal geophysical measurements of permafrost and liquid
Authors
David Rey, Michelle A. Walvoord, Burke J. Minsley, Brian A. Ebel, Clifford I. Voss, Kamini Singha
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Water Resources Mission Area

Investigating lake-area dynamics across a permafrost-thaw spectrum using airborne electromagnetic surveys and remote sensing time-series data in Yukon Flats, Alaska

Lakes in boreal lowlands cycle carbon and supply an important source of freshwater for wildlife and migratory waterfowl. The abundance and distribution of these lakes are supported, in part, by permafrost distribution, which is subject to change. Relationships between permafrost thaw and lake dynamics remain poorly known in most boreal regions. Here, new airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data collect
Authors
David Rey, Michelle Ann Walvoord, Burke Minsley, Jennifer Rover, Kamini Singha
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Water Resources Mission Area, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center

Airborne electromagnetic imaging of permafrost for hydrologic and infrastructure studies

Permafrost is found throughout northern latitudes, and hasfar reaching implications for natural and man-made environments including hydrologic processes, landscape dynamics, ecosystems, and infrastructure. While maps of near-surface permafrost characteristics are available, relatively little is known about permafrost distributions at depth over large areas. Here, we summarize several frequency dom
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Burke J. Minsley, Abraham M. Emond, David Rey, Ronald Daanen
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Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center

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