Emily K Read, Ph.D.
Dr. Emily K. Read is the Chief of Web Communications for the United States Geological Survey Water Resources Mission.
Biography
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
USGS-Water Resources Mission Area progress toward an internet of water
No abstract available.
Blodgett, David L.; Read, EmilyIterative 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...
Dietze, Mike; Fox, Andrew; Beck-Johnson, Lindsay; Betancourt, Julio L.; Hooten, Mevin; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Keitt, Timothy H.; Kenney, Melissa A.; Laney, Christine M.; Larsen, Laurel G.; Loescher, Henry W.; Lunch, Claire K.; Pijanowski, Bryan; Randerson, James T.; Read, Emily; Tredennick, Andrew T.; Vargas, Rodrigo; Weathers, Kathleen C.; White, Ethan P.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...
Read, Emily K.; Carr, Lindsay; DeCicco, Laura A.; Dugan, Hilary; Hanson, Paul C.; Hart, Julia A.; Kreft, James; Read, Jordan S.; Winslow, LukeConsequences 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-...
Dugan, Hilary; Woolway, R. Iestyn; Santoso, Arianto; Corman, Jessica; Jaimes, Aline; Nodine, Emily; Patil, Vijay P.; Zwart, Jacob A.; Brentrup, Jennifer A.; Hetherington, Amy; Oliver, Samantha K.; Read, Jordan S.; Winters, Kirsten; Hanson, Paul; Read, Emily; Winslow, Luke; Weathers, KathleenGenerating 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...
Read, Jordan S.; Gries, Corinna; Read, Emily K.; Klug, Jennifer; Hanson, Paul C.; Hipsey, Matthew R.; Jennings, Eleanor; O'Reilley, Catherine; Winslow, Luke A.; Pierson, Don; McBride, Christopher G.; Hamilton, DavidAn 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...
Blodgett, David L.; Read, Emily K.; Lucido, Jessica M.; Slawecki, Tad; Young, DwaneBuilding 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...
Read, Emily K.; O'Rourke, M.; Hong, G. S.; Hanson, P. C.; Winslow, Luke A.; Crowley, S.; Brewer, C. A.; Weathers, K. C.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...
Dietze, Mike; Fox, Andrew; Betancourt, Julio L.; Hooten, Mevin; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Keitt, Tim H.; Kenney, Melissa; Laney, Christine; Larsen, Laurel; Loescher, Henry W.; Lunch, Claire; Pijanowski, Bryan; Randerson, James T.; Read, Emily; Tredennick, Andrew T.; Weathers, Kathleen; White, Ethan P.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...
Read, Jordan S.; Walker, Jordan I.; Appling, Alison P.; Blodgett, David L.; Read, Emily K.; Winslow, Luke A.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...
Read, Emily K.; Bucknell, Mary; Hines, Megan K.; Kreft, James M.; Lucido, Jessica M.; Read, Jordan S.; Schroedl, Carl; Sibley, David M.; Stephan, Shirley; Suftin, Ivan; Thongsavanh, Phethala; Van Den Hoek, Jamon; Walker, Jordan I.; Wernimont, Martin R; Winslow, Luke A.; Yan, Andrew N.A method for estimating the diffuse attenuation coefficient (KdPAR)from paired temperature sensors
A new method for estimating the diffuse attenuation coefficient for photosynthetically active radiation (KdPAR) from paired temperature sensors was derived. We show that during cases where the attenuation of penetrating shortwave solar radiation is the dominant source of temperature changes, time series measurements of water temperatures at...
Read, Jordan S.; Rose, Kevin C.; Winslow, Luke A.; Read, Emily K.Improving the precision of lake ecosystem metabolism estimates by identifying predictors of model uncertainty
Diel changes in dissolved oxygen are often used to estimate gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) in aquatic ecosystems. Despite the widespread use of this approach to understand ecosystem metabolism, we are only beginning to understand the degree and underlying causes of uncertainty for metabolism model parameter estimates...
Rose, Kevin C.; Winslow, Luke A.; Read, Jordan S.; Read, Emily K.; Solomon, Christopher T.; Adrian, Rita; Hanson, Paul C.Pre-USGS Publications
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 category to see how much water your state uses.