Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Emily K Read, Ph.D.

Dr. Emily K. Read is the Chief of Web Communications for the United States Geological Survey Water Resources Mission Area.

As Web Communications Branch Chief, Emily is responsible for the digital delivery of water data and information in accessible, discoverable, and interoperable formats. Emily oversees the digital marketing and promotion of USGS Water science and educational resources. Emily earned a B.S. from the University of Arizona, a M.S. from Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin- Madison. After completing her dissertation, Emily was a postdoctoral associate at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. At the U.S. Geological Survey, Emily is active in national-scale research on water quality, interactive data visualizations for water, and the promotion of interdisciplinarity for addressing water resources issues. Emily previously served as Science Advisor for the U.S. Geological Survey Office of Water Information. Emily lives in Madison, WI with her family.

Science and Products

link
USGS science for a changing world logo

NEON Workshop: Operationalizing Ecological Forecasts

Ecosystems are changing worldwide and critical decisions that affect ecosystem health and sustainability are being made every day. As ecologists, we have a responsibility to ensure that these decisions are made with access to the best available science. However, to bring this idea into practice, ecology needs to make a substantial leap forward towards becoming a more predictive science. Furthermor
By
John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
link

NEON Workshop: Operationalizing Ecological Forecasts

Ecosystems are changing worldwide and critical decisions that affect ecosystem health and sustainability are being made every day. As ecologists, we have a responsibility to ensure that these decisions are made with access to the best available science. However, to bring this idea into practice, ecology needs to make a substantial leap forward towards becoming a more predictive science. Furthermor
Learn More
A landscape depicting where water is (in bright blue) and how it moves (with arrows). Human activities are shown throughout.
link
A landscape depicting where water is (in bright blue) and how it moves (with arrows). Human activities are shown throughout.
link
Stories of the Water Cycle, Drippy's Journey Through A Changing World link
picture of car in a flood and screenshot of WaterAlert text notification. Text reads, 'subscribe to alerts for water conditio link
transitioning to NextGen WaterAlert in 3 simple steps link
USGS Water Data for the Nation. NextGen Update: Monitoring Location Pages & WaterAlert link
OGC API Processes for USGS Water Data webinar recording thumbnail Monday April 25 12pm link
White background, dark blue text. USGS logo in top left corner, social media handles in top right. Next Generation Update: Mo link
Screenshot of opening scene of video link
Video screenshot intro slide link
illustration of phone link
test link
Filter Total Items: 14

The water cycle

An illustrated diagram of the water cycle. This is a modern, updated version of the widely used diagram featured on the USGS Water Science School. Notably, this new water cycle diagram depicts humans and major categories of human water use as key components of the water cycle, in addition to the key pools and fluxes of the hydrologic cycle. This product targets an 8th grade audience and is designe
By
Water Resources Mission Area, Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center (CFWSC), Colorado Water Science Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Teams, networks, and networks of networks advancing our understanding and conservation of inland waters

Networks are defined as groups of interconnected people and things, and by this definition, networks play a major role in the science of inland waters. In this article, we bring the latest social network research to understand and improve inland waters science and conservation outcomes. What we found is that relationships matter. Different teams and networks have different objectives and lifespan
By
Water Resources Mission Area, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

USGS-Water Resources Mission Area progress toward an internet of water

No abstract available.
By
Water Resources Mission Area

Iterative near-term ecological forecasting: Needs, opportunities, and challenges

Two foundational questions about sustainability are “How are ecosystems and the services they provide going to change in the future?” and “How do human decisions affect these trajectories?” Answering these questions requires an ability to forecast ecological processes. Unfortunately, most ecological forecasts focus on centennial-scale climate responses, therefore neither meeting the needs of near-
By
Water Resources Mission Area, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis

Water quality data for national-scale aquatic research: The Water Quality Portal

Aquatic systems are critical to food, security, and society. But, water data are collected by hundreds of research groups and organizations, many of which use nonstandard or inconsistent data descriptions and dissemination, and disparities across different types of water observation systems represent a major challenge for freshwater research. To address this issue, the Water Quality Portal (WQP) w

Generating community-built tools for data sharing and analysis in environmental networks

Rapid data growth in many environmental sectors has necessitated tools to manage and analyze these data. The development of tools often lags behind the proliferation of data, however, which may slow exploratory opportunities and scientific progress. The Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) collaborative model supports an efficient and comprehensive data–analysis–insight life cycle, i

Consequences of gas flux model choice on the interpretation of metabolic balance across 15 lakes

Ecosystem metabolism and the contribution of carbon dioxide from lakes to the atmosphere can be estimated from free-water gas measurements through the use of mass balance models, which rely on a gas transfer coefficient (k) to model gas exchange with the atmosphere. Theoretical and empirically based models of krange in complexity from wind-driven power functions to complex surface renewal models;

An analysis of water data systems to inform the Open Water Data Initiative

Improving access to data and fostering open exchange of water information is foundational to solving water resources issues. In this vein, the Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary for Water and Science put forward the charge to undertake an Open Water Data Initiative (OWDI) that would prioritize and accelerate work toward better water data infrastructure. The goal of the OWDI is to bui
By
Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program

Building the team for team science

The ability to effectively exchange information and develop trusting, collaborative relationships across disciplinary boundaries is essential for 21st century scientists charged with solving complex and large-scale societal and environmental challenges, yet these communication skills are rarely taught. Here, we describe an adaptable training program designed to increase the capacity of scientists

Iterative ecological forecasting: Needs, opportunities, and challenges

A fundamental environmental challenge facing humanity in the 21st century and beyond is predicting the impacts of global environmental change. This challenge is complicated by the fact that we live on a non-stationary, unreplicated planet that is rapidly moving outside the envelope of natural variability into an historical non-analog world. In other words, while the past helps inform us about how
By
Water Resources Mission Area

New insight into California’s drought through open data

Historically unprecedented drought in California has brought water issues to the forefront of the nation’s attention. Crucial investigations that concern water policy, management, and research, in turn, require extensive information about the quality and quantity of California’s water. Unfortunately, key sources of pertinent data are unevenly distributed and frequently hard to find. Thankfully, th

geoknife: Reproducible web-processing of large gridded datasets

Geoprocessing of large gridded data according to overlap with irregular landscape features is common to many large-scale ecological analyses. The geoknife R package was created to facilitate reproducible analyses of gridded datasets found on the U.S. Geological Survey Geo Data Portal web application or elsewhere, using a web-enabled workflow that eliminates the need to download and store large dat

Non-USGS Publications**

Read, EK, V Patil, S Oliver, A Hetherington, J Brentrup, J Zwart, K Winters, J Corman, E Nodine, IR Woolway, H Dugan, A Jaimes, A Santoso, G Hong, LA Winslow, PC Hanson, KC Weathers. 2015. The importance of lake-specific characteristics for water quality across the continental US. Ecological Applications, 25(4), 943-955. [Link]
Cheruvelil KS, PA Soranno, KC Weathers, PC Hanson, SJ Goring, CT Filstrup, EK Read. 2014. Creating and maintaining high-performing collaborative research teams: the importance of diversity and interpersonal skills. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 12: 31-38. DOI: 10.1890/130001
Read EK, M Ivancic, PC Hanson, B Cade-Menun, and KD McMahon. 2014. Phosphorus speciation in a eutrophic lake by 31P NMR spectroscopy. Water Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2014.06.005
McMahon KD and EK Read. 2013. Microbial contributions to phosphorus cycling in eutrophic lakes and wastewater. Annual Reviews: Microbiology. 67:199-219. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-micro-092412-155713
Kara, EL, C. Heimerl, T. Killpack, M. Van de Bogert, H. Yoshida, and S. R. Carpenter. 2012. Assessing a decade of phosphorus management in the Lake Mendota, Wisconsin watershed and scenarios for enhanced phosphorus management. Aquatic Sciences 74(2):241-253. DOI: 10.1007/s00027-011-0215-6
Carey CC, PC Hanson, DA Bruesewitz, GW Holtgrieve, EL Kara, KC Rose, RL Smyth, KC Weathers. 2012. Organized Oral Session 43: Novel Applications of High-Frequency Sensor Data in Aquatic Ecosystems: Discoveries from GLEON, the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 93, 100-105. DOI: 10.1890/0012-9623-93.1.100
Kara EL, PC Hanson, DP Hamilton, M Hipsey, KD McMahon, JS Read, LA Winslow, J Dedrick, KC Rose, CC Carey, S Bertilsson, D Motta-Marques, L Beversdorf, T Miller, CH Wu, YF Hsieh, E Gaiser, TK Kratz. 2012. Time-scale dependence in numerical simulations: Assessment of physical, chemical, and biological predictions in a stratified lake from scales of hours to months. Environmental Modelling and Software. 35: 104-121
Kara EL, LA Winslow, YH Hu, PC Hanson, and KD McMahon. 2012. A decade of seasonal dynamics and co-occurrences within freshwater bacterioplankton communities from Lake Mendota, WI, USA. ISME Journal 7(3): 680-684. DOI:10.1038/ismej.2012.118
Kara, EL. 2012. "Eutrophication processes and microbial ecology of Lake Mendota, Wisconsin." PhD Dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dissertation Abstracts International 74.02.
Hanson PC, DP Hamilton, EH Stanley, N Preston, O Langman, EL Kara. 2011. Nature of the Load Versus Nature of the Lake in Determining the Fate of Allochthonous Dissolved Organic Carbon. PLoS ONE 6(7): e21884. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021884
Kara EL and A Shade. 2009. Temporal dynamics of South End tidal creek bacterial communities, Sapelo Island, Georgia. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 75:1058-1064
Shade A, CC Carey, EL Kara, S Bertilsson, KD McMahon, and M Smith. 2009. Can the black box be cracked? The augmentation of microbial ecology with high-resolution, automated sensing technologies. ISME Journal. 3:881-888
Kara EL. 2006. Funneling: A Threat to Indiana’s Lakes. Water Column, Vol.18 No.1: 1-2

**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.

link

How Much Water Do We Use?

The USGS National Water-Use Science project has documented 60 years of water-use from 1950 to 2010 in an interactive map.  Choose a year and pick a...

Read Article

Science and Products

  • Science
    link
    USGS science for a changing world logo

    NEON Workshop: Operationalizing Ecological Forecasts

    Ecosystems are changing worldwide and critical decisions that affect ecosystem health and sustainability are being made every day. As ecologists, we have a responsibility to ensure that these decisions are made with access to the best available science. However, to bring this idea into practice, ecology needs to make a substantial leap forward towards becoming a more predictive science. Furthermor
    By
    John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
    link

    NEON Workshop: Operationalizing Ecological Forecasts

    Ecosystems are changing worldwide and critical decisions that affect ecosystem health and sustainability are being made every day. As ecologists, we have a responsibility to ensure that these decisions are made with access to the best available science. However, to bring this idea into practice, ecology needs to make a substantial leap forward towards becoming a more predictive science. Furthermor
    Learn More
  • Multimedia
    A landscape depicting where water is (in bright blue) and how it moves (with arrows). Human activities are shown throughout.
    link
    A landscape depicting where water is (in bright blue) and how it moves (with arrows). Human activities are shown throughout.
    link
    Stories of the Water Cycle, Drippy's Journey Through A Changing World link
    picture of car in a flood and screenshot of WaterAlert text notification. Text reads, 'subscribe to alerts for water conditio link
    transitioning to NextGen WaterAlert in 3 simple steps link
    USGS Water Data for the Nation. NextGen Update: Monitoring Location Pages & WaterAlert link
    OGC API Processes for USGS Water Data webinar recording thumbnail Monday April 25 12pm link
    White background, dark blue text. USGS logo in top left corner, social media handles in top right. Next Generation Update: Mo link
    Screenshot of opening scene of video link
    Video screenshot intro slide link
    illustration of phone link
    test link
  • Publications
    Filter Total Items: 14

    The water cycle

    An illustrated diagram of the water cycle. This is a modern, updated version of the widely used diagram featured on the USGS Water Science School. Notably, this new water cycle diagram depicts humans and major categories of human water use as key components of the water cycle, in addition to the key pools and fluxes of the hydrologic cycle. This product targets an 8th grade audience and is designe
    By
    Water Resources Mission Area, Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center (CFWSC), Colorado Water Science Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

    Teams, networks, and networks of networks advancing our understanding and conservation of inland waters

    Networks are defined as groups of interconnected people and things, and by this definition, networks play a major role in the science of inland waters. In this article, we bring the latest social network research to understand and improve inland waters science and conservation outcomes. What we found is that relationships matter. Different teams and networks have different objectives and lifespan
    By
    Water Resources Mission Area, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

    USGS-Water Resources Mission Area progress toward an internet of water

    No abstract available.
    By
    Water Resources Mission Area

    Iterative near-term ecological forecasting: Needs, opportunities, and challenges

    Two foundational questions about sustainability are “How are ecosystems and the services they provide going to change in the future?” and “How do human decisions affect these trajectories?” Answering these questions requires an ability to forecast ecological processes. Unfortunately, most ecological forecasts focus on centennial-scale climate responses, therefore neither meeting the needs of near-
    By
    Water Resources Mission Area, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis

    Water quality data for national-scale aquatic research: The Water Quality Portal

    Aquatic systems are critical to food, security, and society. But, water data are collected by hundreds of research groups and organizations, many of which use nonstandard or inconsistent data descriptions and dissemination, and disparities across different types of water observation systems represent a major challenge for freshwater research. To address this issue, the Water Quality Portal (WQP) w

    Generating community-built tools for data sharing and analysis in environmental networks

    Rapid data growth in many environmental sectors has necessitated tools to manage and analyze these data. The development of tools often lags behind the proliferation of data, however, which may slow exploratory opportunities and scientific progress. The Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) collaborative model supports an efficient and comprehensive data–analysis–insight life cycle, i

    Consequences of gas flux model choice on the interpretation of metabolic balance across 15 lakes

    Ecosystem metabolism and the contribution of carbon dioxide from lakes to the atmosphere can be estimated from free-water gas measurements through the use of mass balance models, which rely on a gas transfer coefficient (k) to model gas exchange with the atmosphere. Theoretical and empirically based models of krange in complexity from wind-driven power functions to complex surface renewal models;

    An analysis of water data systems to inform the Open Water Data Initiative

    Improving access to data and fostering open exchange of water information is foundational to solving water resources issues. In this vein, the Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary for Water and Science put forward the charge to undertake an Open Water Data Initiative (OWDI) that would prioritize and accelerate work toward better water data infrastructure. The goal of the OWDI is to bui
    By
    Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program

    Building the team for team science

    The ability to effectively exchange information and develop trusting, collaborative relationships across disciplinary boundaries is essential for 21st century scientists charged with solving complex and large-scale societal and environmental challenges, yet these communication skills are rarely taught. Here, we describe an adaptable training program designed to increase the capacity of scientists

    Iterative ecological forecasting: Needs, opportunities, and challenges

    A fundamental environmental challenge facing humanity in the 21st century and beyond is predicting the impacts of global environmental change. This challenge is complicated by the fact that we live on a non-stationary, unreplicated planet that is rapidly moving outside the envelope of natural variability into an historical non-analog world. In other words, while the past helps inform us about how
    By
    Water Resources Mission Area

    New insight into California’s drought through open data

    Historically unprecedented drought in California has brought water issues to the forefront of the nation’s attention. Crucial investigations that concern water policy, management, and research, in turn, require extensive information about the quality and quantity of California’s water. Unfortunately, key sources of pertinent data are unevenly distributed and frequently hard to find. Thankfully, th

    geoknife: Reproducible web-processing of large gridded datasets

    Geoprocessing of large gridded data according to overlap with irregular landscape features is common to many large-scale ecological analyses. The geoknife R package was created to facilitate reproducible analyses of gridded datasets found on the U.S. Geological Survey Geo Data Portal web application or elsewhere, using a web-enabled workflow that eliminates the need to download and store large dat

    Non-USGS Publications**

    Read, EK, V Patil, S Oliver, A Hetherington, J Brentrup, J Zwart, K Winters, J Corman, E Nodine, IR Woolway, H Dugan, A Jaimes, A Santoso, G Hong, LA Winslow, PC Hanson, KC Weathers. 2015. The importance of lake-specific characteristics for water quality across the continental US. Ecological Applications, 25(4), 943-955. [Link]
    Cheruvelil KS, PA Soranno, KC Weathers, PC Hanson, SJ Goring, CT Filstrup, EK Read. 2014. Creating and maintaining high-performing collaborative research teams: the importance of diversity and interpersonal skills. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 12: 31-38. DOI: 10.1890/130001
    Read EK, M Ivancic, PC Hanson, B Cade-Menun, and KD McMahon. 2014. Phosphorus speciation in a eutrophic lake by 31P NMR spectroscopy. Water Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2014.06.005
    McMahon KD and EK Read. 2013. Microbial contributions to phosphorus cycling in eutrophic lakes and wastewater. Annual Reviews: Microbiology. 67:199-219. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-micro-092412-155713
    Kara, EL, C. Heimerl, T. Killpack, M. Van de Bogert, H. Yoshida, and S. R. Carpenter. 2012. Assessing a decade of phosphorus management in the Lake Mendota, Wisconsin watershed and scenarios for enhanced phosphorus management. Aquatic Sciences 74(2):241-253. DOI: 10.1007/s00027-011-0215-6
    Carey CC, PC Hanson, DA Bruesewitz, GW Holtgrieve, EL Kara, KC Rose, RL Smyth, KC Weathers. 2012. Organized Oral Session 43: Novel Applications of High-Frequency Sensor Data in Aquatic Ecosystems: Discoveries from GLEON, the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 93, 100-105. DOI: 10.1890/0012-9623-93.1.100
    Kara EL, PC Hanson, DP Hamilton, M Hipsey, KD McMahon, JS Read, LA Winslow, J Dedrick, KC Rose, CC Carey, S Bertilsson, D Motta-Marques, L Beversdorf, T Miller, CH Wu, YF Hsieh, E Gaiser, TK Kratz. 2012. Time-scale dependence in numerical simulations: Assessment of physical, chemical, and biological predictions in a stratified lake from scales of hours to months. Environmental Modelling and Software. 35: 104-121
    Kara EL, LA Winslow, YH Hu, PC Hanson, and KD McMahon. 2012. A decade of seasonal dynamics and co-occurrences within freshwater bacterioplankton communities from Lake Mendota, WI, USA. ISME Journal 7(3): 680-684. DOI:10.1038/ismej.2012.118
    Kara, EL. 2012. "Eutrophication processes and microbial ecology of Lake Mendota, Wisconsin." PhD Dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dissertation Abstracts International 74.02.
    Hanson PC, DP Hamilton, EH Stanley, N Preston, O Langman, EL Kara. 2011. Nature of the Load Versus Nature of the Lake in Determining the Fate of Allochthonous Dissolved Organic Carbon. PLoS ONE 6(7): e21884. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021884
    Kara EL and A Shade. 2009. Temporal dynamics of South End tidal creek bacterial communities, Sapelo Island, Georgia. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 75:1058-1064
    Shade A, CC Carey, EL Kara, S Bertilsson, KD McMahon, and M Smith. 2009. Can the black box be cracked? The augmentation of microbial ecology with high-resolution, automated sensing technologies. ISME Journal. 3:881-888
    Kara EL. 2006. Funneling: A Threat to Indiana’s Lakes. Water Column, Vol.18 No.1: 1-2

    **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.

  • News
    link

    How Much Water Do We Use?

    The USGS National Water-Use Science project has documented 60 years of water-use from 1950 to 2010 in an interactive map.  Choose a year and pick a...

    Read Article