Robert F Stallard
Robert Stallard has been at the USGS since 1987 and is now a Scientist Emeritus in the Hydro-Eco Interactions Branch of the Earth Systems Processing Division of the USGS Water Resources Mission Area.
Robert Stallard has been at the USGS since 1987 and is now a Scientist Emeritus in the Hydro-Eco Interactions Branch of the Earth Systems Processing Division of the Water Mission Area. He studies how land-cover and climate change affect water movement through soils, weathering, and erosion, and how these, in turn, affect the composition and dispersal of dissolved and solid phases in rivers and trace gases in the atmosphere. Areas of expertise include surface-water hydrology, major element and nutrient biogeochemistry, soil formation and sediment genesis, vegetation-landscape interaction, carbon-cycle characterization on land and in the ocean, and assessment of land-use and climate change. His work has included the study of natural and human-altered landscapes, in the Americas, Southeast Asia, and Africa, including large parts of the Amazon, Orinoco, Mississippi, and Panama Canal Basins and eastern Puerto Rico.
Most of his current efforts are committed to a multi-catchment investigations designed to distinguish the roles of vegetation, climate, and land-cover change and to put this in a hydrologic and biogeochemical framework as well as to examine ecosystem costs and services focusing on water, carbon, and biodiversity. Two projects currently consume most of his USGS time: (1) Work related to the Luquillo USGS Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budget (WEBB) Project in eastern Puerto Rico and parallel work in Panama, which has as a goal the comprehensive assessment of catchment hydrology and biogeochemistry in a hydrologically energetic landscapes. (2) The Agua Salud Project in the Central Panama Canal Basin examines the manifold effects of different styles of reforestation as compared to mature forested and deforested catchments. The project started in 2008 and involves 13 small watersheds with different land covers.
EDUCATION
- National Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship: 1981, At the U.S. Geological Survey - Office of Marine Geology, Woods Hole, MA. Clay mineralogy of the Amazon River system.
- Ph.D., Chemical Oceanography: 1980, Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography. Ph.D. thesis entitled "Major Element Geochemistry of the Amazon River System."
- B.S., Earth & Planetary Sciences: 1974, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Emphasis in Planetary Physics and Chemistry.
Science and Products
Water quality and landscape processes of four watersheds in eastern Puerto Rico
Humid tropical regions occupy about a quarter of Earth's land surface, yet they contribute a substantially higher fraction of the water, solutes, and sediment discharged to the world's oceans. Nearly half of Earth's population lives in the tropics, and development stresses can potentially harm soil resources, water quality, and water supply and in addition increase landslide and flood hazards. Owi
Long-term patterns and short-term dynamics of stream solutes and suspended sediment in a rapidly weathering tropical watershed
Long-term patterns and short-term dynamics of stream solutes and suspended sediment in a rapidly weathering tropical watershed
Panama Canal Watershed Experiment- Agua Salud Project
RESIS-II: An Updated Version of the Original Reservoir Sedimentation Survey Information System (RESIS) Database
Primary factors affecting water quality and quantity in four watersheds in Eastern Puerto Rico
Soil erosion: data say C sink
Overland flow generation in two lithologically distinct rainforest catchments
An ecosystem report on the Panama Canal: Monitoring the status of the forest communities and the watershed
RESIS–II — Making the reservoir survey information system complete and user friendly
Luquillo Mountains, Puerto Rico: A Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets Program Site
Mississippi Basin Carbon Project science plan
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Water quality and landscape processes of four watersheds in eastern Puerto Rico
Humid tropical regions occupy about a quarter of Earth's land surface, yet they contribute a substantially higher fraction of the water, solutes, and sediment discharged to the world's oceans. Nearly half of Earth's population lives in the tropics, and development stresses can potentially harm soil resources, water quality, and water supply and in addition increase landslide and flood hazards. Owi
AuthorsSheila F. Murphy, Robert F. Stallard, Heather L. Contributions by Buss, William A. Gould, Matthew C. Larsen, Zhigang Liu, Sebastian Martinuzzi, Isabel K. Pares-Ramos, Arthur F. White, Xiaoming ZouLong-term patterns and short-term dynamics of stream solutes and suspended sediment in a rapidly weathering tropical watershed
The 326 ha Río Icacos watershed in the tropical wet forest of the Luquillo Mountains, northeastern Puerto Rico, is underlain by granodiorite bedrock with weathering rates among the highest in the world. We pooled stream chemistry and total suspended sediment (TSS) data sets from three discrete periods: 1983–1987, 1991–1997, and 2000–2008. During this period three major hurricanes crossed the site:AuthorsJames B. Shanley, William H. McDowell, Robert F. StallardLong-term patterns and short-term dynamics of stream solutes and suspended sediment in a rapidly weathering tropical watershed
The 326 ha Río Icacos watershed in the tropical wet forest of the Luquillo Mountains, northeastern Puerto Rico, is underlain by granodiorite bedrock with weathering rates among the highest in the world. We pooled stream chemistry and total suspended sediment (TSS) data sets from three discrete periods: 1983–1987, 1991–1997, and 2000–2008. During this period three major hurricanes crossed the site:AuthorsJames B. Shanley, W. H. McDowell, Robert F. StallardPanama Canal Watershed Experiment- Agua Salud Project
The Agua Salud Project utilizes the Panama Canal’s (Canal) central role in world commerce to focus global attention on the ecosystem services provided by tropical forests. The Canal was one of the great engineering projects in the world. Completed in 1914, after almost a decade of concerted effort, its 80 km length greatly shortened the voyage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. An entire cAuthorsRobert F. Stallard, Fred L. Ogden, Helmut Elsenbeer, Jefferson S. HallRESIS-II: An Updated Version of the Original Reservoir Sedimentation Survey Information System (RESIS) Database
The Reservoir Sedimentation Survey Information System (RESIS) database, originally compiled by the Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service) in collaboration with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, is the most comprehensive compilation of data from reservoir sedimentation surveys throughout the conterminous United States (U.S.). The database is a cumulativeAuthorsKatherine V. Ackerman, David M. Mixon, Eric T. Sundquist, Robert F. Stallard, Gregory E. Schwarz, David W. StewartPrimary factors affecting water quality and quantity in four watersheds in Eastern Puerto Rico
As part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB) program, four small watersheds in eastern Puerto Rico were monitored to identify and evaluate the effects of geology, landcover, atmospheric deposition, and other factors on stream water quality and quantity. Two catchments are located on coarse-grained granitic plutonic rocks, which weather to quartz- anAuthorsSheila F. Murphy, Robert F. StallardSoil erosion: data say C sink
No abstract available.AuthorsJ. W. Harden, A.A. Berhe, M.S. Torn, J.J. Harte, Shu-Guang Liu, Robert F. StallardOverland flow generation in two lithologically distinct rainforest catchments
Streams on uniformly rainforest-covered, but lithologically very diverse Barro Colorado Island in central Panama?? show remarkable differences in their runoff response to rainfall. This lithological diversity is reflected in equally diverse soilscapes, and our objective was to test the hypothesis that contrasting runoff responses derive from soilscape features that control the generation of overlaAuthorsS. Godsey, H. Elsenbeer, R. StallardAn ecosystem report on the Panama Canal: Monitoring the status of the forest communities and the watershed
In 1996, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Republic of Panama's Environmental Authority, with support from the United States Agency for International Development, undertook a comprehensive program to monitor the ecosystem of the Panama Canal watershed. The goals were to establish baseline indicators for the integrity of forest communities and rivers. Based on satellite image clasAuthorsR. Ibanez, R. Condit, G. Angehr, S. Aguilar, T. Garcia, R. Martinez, A. Sanjur, R. Stallard, S.J. Wright, A.S. Rand, S. HeckadonRESIS–II — Making the reservoir survey information system complete and user friendly
No abstract available.AuthorsRobert F. Stallard, David M. Mixon, David A. Kinner, Bruce B. WorstellLuquillo Mountains, Puerto Rico: A Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets Program Site
No abstract available.AuthorsMatthew C. Larsen, Robert F. StallardMississippi Basin Carbon Project science plan
Understanding the carbon cycle is one of the most difficult challenges facing scientists who study the global environment. Lack of understanding of global carbon cycling is perhaps best illustrated by our inability to balance the present-day global CO2 budget. The amount of CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels and by deforestation appears to exceed the amount accumulating in the atmosphere and oceAuthorsE.T. Sundquist, R.F. Stallard, N.B. Bliss, H. W. Markewich, J. W. Harden, M.J. Pavich, M.D. Dean