Rob Striegl
Biography
Education
- PhD: University of Wisconsin - Madison; Oceanography and Limnology
- MSc: Univeristy of Illinois - Urbana; Biology / Aquatic Ecology
- BSc: Western Illinois Univeristy - Macomb; Zoology / Botany
Professional Studies/Experience
I am a Research Aquatic Biogeochemist / Hydrologist located in Boulder, Colorado. My research focuses on the role of inland waters in the global carbon cycle and on hydrologic, climatic, and disturbance controls on the biogeochemical cycling, sequestration, transport, and surface-atmosphere exchange of aquatic carbon. Investigations conducted by me and my research group address a broad range of field, laboratory and modeling studies, including the transport of inorganic and organic carbon by surface and subsurface waters; the production, consumption, and atmospheric exchange of carbon dioxide and methane by streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and soils; the effects of climate warming, permafrost thaw, and other disturbances on the carbon cycle of subarctic and boreal regions; and extrapolation of inland waters carbon biogeochemical processes and rates of carbon exchange from site to regional, continental, and global scales. I lead USGS LandCarbon investigations of Ecosystem Carbon Sequestration and Greenhouse Gas Exchange by Inland Waters of the USA and am also the Principal Investigator of the NASA Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) project "Aquatic Vulnerabilites of Inland Waters and the Aquatic Carbon Cycle to Changing Permafrost and Climate across Boreal North America".
Professional societies/affiliations/committees/editorial boards
- Carbon Cycle Scientific Steering Group,
- U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program,
- U.S. Global Change Research Program
- Associate Editor, Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences, American Geophysical Union
Science and Products
Shingobee Headwaters Aquatic Ecosystems Project (SHAEP)
The Shingobee Headwaters Aquatic Ecosystems Project (SHAEP) brings together scientists from the USGS along with students and professors from universities in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and California for a unique study opportunity. This diverse group of scientists research the physical, chemical, and biological processes of lakes, wetlands, and streams at local and watershed scales....
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.
Nome Creek Experimental Watershed
The Nome Creek Experimental Watershed (NCEW) has been the site of multiple studies focused on understanding hydrology, biogeochemistry, and ecosystem changes related to permafrost thaw and fire in the boreal forest.
Transport of dissolved organic matter by river networks from mountains to the sea: a re-examination of the role of flow across temporal and spatial scales
The transport of dissolved organic matter (DOM) by rivers is an important component of the global carbon cycle, affects ecosystems and water quality, and reflects biogeochemical and hydrological processes in watersheds. Understanding the fundamental relationships between discharge and DOM concentration and composition reveals important information about watershed flow paths, soil flushing,...
Anthropogenic landcover impacts fluvial dissolved organic matter composition in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
Landcover changes have altered the natural carbon cycle; however, most landcover studies focus on either forest conversion to agriculture or urban, rarely both. We present differences in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations and dissolved organic matter (DOM) molecular composition within Upper Mississippi River Basin low order streams and...
Vaughn, Derrick R.; Kellerman, Anne M.; Wickland, Kimberly; Striegl, Robert G.; Podgorski, David C.; Hawkings, Jon R.; Nienhuis, Jaap; Dornblaser, Mark; Stets, Edward G.; Spencer, Robert GM Complex vulnerabilities of the water and aquatic carbon cycles to permafrost thaw
The spatial distribution and depth of permafrost are changing in response to warming and landscape disturbance across northern Arctic and boreal regions. This alters the infiltration, flow, surface and subsurface distribution, and hydrologic connectivity of inland waters. Such changes in the water cycle consequently alter the source, transport,...
Walvoord, Michelle A.; Striegl, Robert G. Spatiotemporal dynamics of CO2 gas exchange from headwater mountain streams
Mountain streams play an important role in the global carbon cycle by transporting, metabolizing, and exchanging carbon they receive from the terrestrial environment. The rates at which these processes occur remain highly uncertain because of a paucity of observations and the difficulty of measuring gas exchange rates in steep, turbulent mountain...
Clow, David W.; Striegl, Robert G.; Dornblaser, Mark Storm-scale and seasonal dynamics of carbon export from a nested subarctic watershed underlain by permafrost
Subarctic catchments underlain by permafrost sequester a major stock of frozen organic carbon (C), which may be mobilized as the Arctic warms. Warming can impact C export from thawing soils by altering the depth and timing of runoff related to changing storm and fire regimes and altered soil thaw depths. We investigated C export in a first order...
Koch, Joshua C.; Dornblaser, Mark; Striegl, Rob Carbon dioxide and methane flux in a dynamic Arctic tundra landscape: Decadal‐scale impacts of ice wedge degradation and stabilization
Ice wedge degradation is a widespread occurrence across the circumpolar Arctic causing extreme spatial heterogeneity in water distribution, vegetation, and energy balance across landscapes. These heterogeneities influence carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes, yet there is little understanding of how they effect change in landscape‐level...
Wickland, Kimberly P.; Jorgenson, M.Torre; Koch, Joshua C.; Kanevskiy, Mikhail Z.; Striegl, Robert G. Patterns and isotopic composition of greenhouse gases under ice in lakes of interior Alaska
Arctic and boreal lake greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are an important component of regional carbon (C) budgets. Yet the magnitude and seasonal patterns of lake GHG emissions are poorly constrained, because sampling is limited in these remote landscapes, particularly during winter and shoulder seasons. To better define patterns of under ice GHG...
O'Dwyer, Madeline; Butman, David; Striegl, Robert G.; Dornblaser, Mark M.; Wickland, Kimberly P.; Kuhn, Catherine D.; Bogard, Matthew J. Satellite and airborne remote sensing of gross primary productivity in boreal Alaskan lakes
In terrestrial and marine ecosystems, remote sensing has been used to estimate gross primary productivity (GPP) for decades, but few applications exist for shallow freshwater ecosystems.Here we show field-based GPP correlates with satellite and airborne lake color across a range of optically and limnologically diverse lakes in interior Alaska. A...
Kuhn, Catherine D.; Bogard, Matthew J.; Johnston, Sarah Ellen; John, Aji; Vermote, Eric; Spencer, Rob; Dornblaser, Mark M.; Wickland, Kimberly P.; Striegl, Robert G.; Butman, David Potential impacts of mercury released from thawing permafrost
Mercury (Hg) is a naturally occurring element that bonds with organic matter and, when converted to methylmercury, is a potent neurotoxicant. Here we estimate potential future releases of Hg from thawing permafrost for low and high greenhouse gas emissions scenarios using a mechanistic model. By 2200, the high emissions scenario shows annual...
Schaefer, Kevin; Elshorbany, Yasin; Jafarov, Elchin; Schuster, Paul F.; Striegl, Robert G.; Wickland, Kimberly P.; Sunderland, Elsie M. Hydrologic connectivity determines dissolved organic matter biogeochemistry in northern high-latitude lakes
Northern high‐latitude lakes are undergoing climate‐induced changes including shifts in their hydrologic connectivity with terrestrial ecosystems. How this will impact dissolved organic matter (DOM) biogeochemistry remains uncertain. We examined the drivers of DOM composition for lakes in the Yukon Flats Basin in Alaska, an arid region of low...
Johnston, Sarah Ellen; Striegl, Robert G.; Bogard, Matthew J.; Dornblaser, Mark M.; Butman, David E.; Kellerman, Anne M.; Wickland, Kimberly P.; Podgorski, David C.; Spencer, Robert G. M. Constraining dissolved organic matter sources and temporal variability in a model sub-Arctic lake
Circumpolar lakes comprise ~ 1.4 million km2 of arctic and subarctic landscapes and are vulnerable to change in vegetation, permafrost distribution, and hydrological conditions in response to climate warming. However, the composition and cycling of dissolved organic matter (DOM) is poorly understood for these lakes because most are remote and...
Johnston, Sarah Ellen; Bogard, Matthew J.; Rogers, Jennifer A.; Butman, David; Striegl, Robert G.; Dornblaser, Mark M.; Spencer, Robert G. M. Negligible cycling of terrestrial carbon in many lakes of the arid circumpolar landscape
High-latitude environments store nearly half of the planet’s below-ground organic carbon (OC), mostly in perennially frozen permafrost soils. Climatic changes drive increased export of terrestrial OC into many aquatic networks, yet the role that circumpolar lakes play in mineralizing this carbon is unclear. Here we directly evaluate ecosystem-...
Bogard, Matthew J.; Kuhn, Catherine D.; Johnston, Sarah Ellen; Striegl, Robert G.; Holtgrieve, Gordon W.; Dornblaser, Mark M.; Spencer, Robert G. M.; Wickland, Kimberly P.; Butman, David E. Inland waters
1. The total flux of carbon—which includes gaseous emissions, lateral flux, and burial—from inland waters across the conterminous United States (CONUS) and Alaska is 193 teragrams of carbon (Tg C) per year. The dominant pathway for carbon movement out of inland waters is the emission of carbon dioxide gas across water surfaces of streams, rivers,...
Cavallaro, N.; Shrestha, G.; Birdsey, R.; Mayes, M. A.; Najjar, R.G.; Reed, S.C.; Romero-Lankao, P.; Zhu, Z.; Butman, David E.; Striegl, Robert G.; Stackpoole, Sarah M.; Del Giorgio, Paul; Prairie, Yves; Pilcher, Darren; Raymond, Peter; Paz Pellat, Fernando; Alcocer, Javier