Vic Engel, Ph.D.
Vic Engel is Director of the South Atlantic Water Science Center.
Victor Engel, is the Director of the USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center, and he is based in Norcross, GA. His professional career over the last two decades lies at the intersection of ecosystem and water resource management, spanning locations across the U.S., Central and South America. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at the University of Miami and the University of Florida and is an author on 50+ peer-reviewed publications.
Education
Ph.D. Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 2002
M.S. Systems Ecology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 1995
B.A. Environmental Studies, New College of Sarasota, FL 1991
Experience
National Hydropower and Instream Flow Program Manager (GS-14) 2017-20
USDA Forest Service, Fort Collins, CO
Acting Deputy Associate Director (GS-15) 2016
USGS Ecosystems, Reston, VA, Detail assignment
Wildlife-Energy Program Specialist (GS-14) 2015
USGS Ecosystems, Reston, VA, Detail assignment
Supervisory Hydrologist (GS-14) 2012-16
USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, Gainesville, FL
Research Hydrologist (GS-13) 2003-12
Everglades National Park (ENP) Homestead, FL
Post-doctoral Research Associate 2002-03
Duke University, Durham, NC
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 16
Mechanisms of aquatic species invasions across the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative region
Invasive species are a global issue, and the southeastern United States is not immune to the problems they present. Therefore, various analyses using modeling and exploratory statistics were performed on the U.S. Geological Survey Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (NAS) Database with the primary objective of determining the most appropriate use of presence-only data as related to invasive species in t
Authors
Amy J. Benson, Bradley Stith, Victor C. Engel
Tree island pattern formation in the Florida Everglades
The Florida Everglades freshwater landscape exhibits a distribution of islands covered by woody vegetation and bordered by marshes and wet prairies. Known as “tree islands”, these ecogeomorphic features can be found in few other low gradient, nutrient limited freshwater wetlands. In the last few decades, however, a large percentage of tree islands have either shrank or disappeared in apparent resp
Authors
Joel A. Carr, P. D'Odorico, Victor C. Engel, Jed Redwine
Component-specific dynamics of riverine mangrove CO2 efflux in the Florida coastal Everglades
Carbon cycling in mangrove forests represents a significant portion of the coastal wetland carbon (C) budget across the latitudes of the tropics and subtropics. Previous research suggests fluctuations in tidal inundation, temperature and salinity can influence forest metabolism and C cycling. Carbon dioxide (CO2) from respiration that occurs from below the canopy is contributed from different comp
Authors
Tiffany G. Troxler, Jordan G. Barr, Jose D. Fuentes, Victor C. Engel, Gordon H. Anderson, Christopher Sanchez, David Lagomosino, Rene Price, Stephen E. Davis
Approximations of stand water use versus evapotranspiration from three mangrove forests in southwest Florida, USA
Leaves from mangrove forests are often considered efficient in the use of water during photosynthesis, but less is known about whole-tree and stand-level water use strategies. Are mangrove forests as conservative in water use as experimental studies on seedlings imply? Here, we apply a simple model to estimate stand water use (S), determine the contribution of S to evapotranspiration (ET), and app
Authors
Ken W. Krauss, Jordan G. Barr, Victor C. Engel, Jose D. Fuentes, Hongqing Wang
Air-water gas exchange and CO2 flux in a mangrove-dominated estuary
Mangrove forests are highly productive ecosystems, but the fate of mangrove-derived carbon remains uncertain. Part of that uncertainty stems from the fact that gas transfer velocities in mangrove-surrounded waters are not well determined, leading to uncertainty in air-water CO2 fluxes. Two SF6 tracer release experiments were conducted to determine gas transfer velocities (k(600) = 8.3 ± 0.4 and 8.
Authors
David T. Ho, Sara Ferrón, Victor C. Engel, Laurel G. Larsen, Jordan G. Barr
Integrated carbon budget models for the Everglades terrestrial-coastal-oceanic gradient: Current status and needs for inter-site comparisons
Recent studies suggest that coastal ecosystems can bury significantly
more C than tropical forests, indicating that continued coastal development and
exposure to sea level rise and storms will have global biogeochemical consequences.
The Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (FCE LTER) site
provides an excellent subtropical system for examining carbon (C) balance because
of
Authors
Tiffany G. Troxler, Evelyn Gaiser, Jordan Barr, Jose D. Fuentes, Rudolf Jaffe, Daniel L. Childers, Ligia Collado-Vides, Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Edward Castañeda-Moya, William Anderson, Randy Chambers, Meilian Chen, Carlos Coronado-Molina, Stephen E. Davis, Victor C. Engel, Carl Fitz, James Fourqurean, Tom Frankovich, John Kominoski, Chris Madden, Sparkle L. Malone, Steve F. Oberbauer, Paulo Olivas, Jennifer Richards, Colin Saunders, Jessica Schedlbauer, Leonard J. Scinto, Fred Sklar, Thomas J. Smith, Joseph M. Smoak, Gregory Starr, Robert Twilley, Kevin Whelan
Implications of multi-scale sea level and climate variability for coastal resources
While secular changes in regional sea levels and their implications for coastal zone management have been studied extensively, less attention is being paid to natural fluctuations in sea levels, whose interaction with a higher mean level could have significant impacts on low-lying areas, such as wetlands. Here, the long record of sea level at Key West, FL is studied in terms of both the secular tr
Authors
Christina Karamperidou, Victor Engel, Upmanu Lall, Erik Stabenau, Thomas J. Smith
The influence of vegetation on the hydrodynamics and geomorphology of a tree island in Everglades National Park (Florida, United States)
Transpiration-driven nutrient accumulation has been identified as a potential mechanism governing the creation and maintenance of wetland vegetation patterning. This process may contribute to the formation of nutrient-rich tree islands within the expansive oligotrophic marshes of the Everglades (Florida, United States). This study presents hydrogeochemical data indicating that tree root water upta
Authors
Pamela L. Sullivan, Victor C. Engel, Michael S. Ross, René M. Price
Modeling light use efficiency in a subtropical mangrove forest equipped with CO2 eddy covariance
Despite the importance of mangrove ecosystems in the global carbon budget, the relationships between environmental drivers and carbon dynamics in these forests remain poorly understood. This limited understanding is partly a result of the challenges associated with in situ flux studies. Tower-based CO2 eddy covariance (EC) systems are installed in only a few mangrove forests worldwide, and the lon
Authors
J.G. Barr, V. Engel, J.D. Fuentes, D.O. Fuller, H. Kwon
A hydrological budget (2002-2008) for a large subtropical wetland ecosystem indicates marine groundwater discharge accompanies diminished freshwater flow
Water budget parameters are estimated for Shark River Slough (SRS), the main drainage within Everglades National Park (ENP) from 2002 to 2008. Inputs to the water budget include surface water inflows and precipitation while outputs consist of evapotranspiration, discharge to the Gulf of Mexico and seepage losses due to municipal wellfield extraction. The daily change in volume of SRS is equated to
Authors
Amartya K. Saha, Christopher S. Moses, Rene M. Price, Victor Engel, Thomas J. Smith, Gordon Anderson
Hurricane disturbance and recovery of energy balance, CO2 fluxes and canopy structure in a mangrove forest of the Florida Everglades
Eddy covariance (EC) estimates of carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes and energy balance are examined to investigate the functional responses of a mature mangrove forest to a disturbance generated by Hurricane Wilma on October 24, 2005 in the Florida Everglades. At the EC site, high winds from the hurricane caused nearly 100% defoliation in the upper canopy and widespread tree mortality. Soil temperatures
Authors
Jordan G. Barr, Vic Engel, Thomas J. Smith, Jose D. Fuentes
Recent and historic drivers of landscape change in the Everglades ridge, slough, and Tree Island mosaic
More than half of the original Everglades extent formed a patterned peat mosaic of elevated ridges, lower and more open sloughs, and tree islands aligned parallel to the dominant flow direction. This ecologically important landscape structure remained in a dynamic equilibrium for millennia prior to rapid degradation over the past century in response to human manipulation of the hydrologic system.
Authors
Laurel G. Larsen, Nicholas Aumen, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Vic Engel, Thomas J. Givnish, P McCormick S Hagerthey, Judson Harvey, Lynn Leonard, P. McCormick, Christopher McVoy, Gregory B. Noe, Martha K. Nungesser, K. Rutchey, Fred Sklar, Tiffany G. Troxler, John C. Volin, Debra A. Willard
Non-USGS Publications**
Mirchi, A, Watkins, DW, Engel, V, et al., 2018. A hydro-economic model of South Florida water resources system, Sci. Total Environ. 628–629:1531-1541
Ho, D.T, Ferrón, S, Engel, V, et al., 2017. Dissolved carbon biogeochemistry and export in mangrove-dominated rivers of the Florida Everglades, Biogeosciences 14(9), 2543-2559
Karamperidou, C, Engel, V, et al., 2013. Implications of multi-scale sea level and climate variability for coastal resources: a case study for south Florida and Everglades National Park, USA. Reg. Environ. Change, doi: 1-.1007/s10113-013-0408-8
Barr, JG, Engel, V, et al., 2012. Hurricane disturbance and recovery of energy balance, CO2 fluxes and canopy structure in a mangrove forest of the Florida Everglades. Agric. For. Meteor., 153: 54-66.
Kwon, HH, Lall, U, and Engel, V. 2011. Predicting foraging wading bird populations in Everglades National Park from seasonal hydrologic statistics under different management scenarios, Water Resour. Res., 47, doi:10.1029/2010WR009552.
D’Odorico, P, Engel, V, et al., 2011. Tree-grass coexistence in the Everglades freshwater system. Ecosystems 14, doi: 10.1007/s10021-011-9412-3
Ho, DT, Engel, V, et al., 2009. Tracer studies of sheetflow in the Everglades. Geophys. Res. Lett. doi:10.1029/2009GL037355
**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.
Mechanisms of Aquatic Species Invasions across the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SALCC)
USGS scientists study the mechanisms of aquatic species invasions across the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SALCC) with the help of the Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database (NAS).
Science and Products
- Publications
Filter Total Items: 16
Mechanisms of aquatic species invasions across the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative region
Invasive species are a global issue, and the southeastern United States is not immune to the problems they present. Therefore, various analyses using modeling and exploratory statistics were performed on the U.S. Geological Survey Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (NAS) Database with the primary objective of determining the most appropriate use of presence-only data as related to invasive species in tAuthorsAmy J. Benson, Bradley Stith, Victor C. EngelTree island pattern formation in the Florida Everglades
The Florida Everglades freshwater landscape exhibits a distribution of islands covered by woody vegetation and bordered by marshes and wet prairies. Known as “tree islands”, these ecogeomorphic features can be found in few other low gradient, nutrient limited freshwater wetlands. In the last few decades, however, a large percentage of tree islands have either shrank or disappeared in apparent respAuthorsJoel A. Carr, P. D'Odorico, Victor C. Engel, Jed RedwineComponent-specific dynamics of riverine mangrove CO2 efflux in the Florida coastal Everglades
Carbon cycling in mangrove forests represents a significant portion of the coastal wetland carbon (C) budget across the latitudes of the tropics and subtropics. Previous research suggests fluctuations in tidal inundation, temperature and salinity can influence forest metabolism and C cycling. Carbon dioxide (CO2) from respiration that occurs from below the canopy is contributed from different compAuthorsTiffany G. Troxler, Jordan G. Barr, Jose D. Fuentes, Victor C. Engel, Gordon H. Anderson, Christopher Sanchez, David Lagomosino, Rene Price, Stephen E. DavisApproximations of stand water use versus evapotranspiration from three mangrove forests in southwest Florida, USA
Leaves from mangrove forests are often considered efficient in the use of water during photosynthesis, but less is known about whole-tree and stand-level water use strategies. Are mangrove forests as conservative in water use as experimental studies on seedlings imply? Here, we apply a simple model to estimate stand water use (S), determine the contribution of S to evapotranspiration (ET), and appAuthorsKen W. Krauss, Jordan G. Barr, Victor C. Engel, Jose D. Fuentes, Hongqing WangAir-water gas exchange and CO2 flux in a mangrove-dominated estuary
Mangrove forests are highly productive ecosystems, but the fate of mangrove-derived carbon remains uncertain. Part of that uncertainty stems from the fact that gas transfer velocities in mangrove-surrounded waters are not well determined, leading to uncertainty in air-water CO2 fluxes. Two SF6 tracer release experiments were conducted to determine gas transfer velocities (k(600) = 8.3 ± 0.4 and 8.AuthorsDavid T. Ho, Sara Ferrón, Victor C. Engel, Laurel G. Larsen, Jordan G. BarrIntegrated carbon budget models for the Everglades terrestrial-coastal-oceanic gradient: Current status and needs for inter-site comparisons
Recent studies suggest that coastal ecosystems can bury significantly more C than tropical forests, indicating that continued coastal development and exposure to sea level rise and storms will have global biogeochemical consequences. The Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (FCE LTER) site provides an excellent subtropical system for examining carbon (C) balance because ofAuthorsTiffany G. Troxler, Evelyn Gaiser, Jordan Barr, Jose D. Fuentes, Rudolf Jaffe, Daniel L. Childers, Ligia Collado-Vides, Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Edward Castañeda-Moya, William Anderson, Randy Chambers, Meilian Chen, Carlos Coronado-Molina, Stephen E. Davis, Victor C. Engel, Carl Fitz, James Fourqurean, Tom Frankovich, John Kominoski, Chris Madden, Sparkle L. Malone, Steve F. Oberbauer, Paulo Olivas, Jennifer Richards, Colin Saunders, Jessica Schedlbauer, Leonard J. Scinto, Fred Sklar, Thomas J. Smith, Joseph M. Smoak, Gregory Starr, Robert Twilley, Kevin WhelanImplications of multi-scale sea level and climate variability for coastal resources
While secular changes in regional sea levels and their implications for coastal zone management have been studied extensively, less attention is being paid to natural fluctuations in sea levels, whose interaction with a higher mean level could have significant impacts on low-lying areas, such as wetlands. Here, the long record of sea level at Key West, FL is studied in terms of both the secular trAuthorsChristina Karamperidou, Victor Engel, Upmanu Lall, Erik Stabenau, Thomas J. SmithThe influence of vegetation on the hydrodynamics and geomorphology of a tree island in Everglades National Park (Florida, United States)
Transpiration-driven nutrient accumulation has been identified as a potential mechanism governing the creation and maintenance of wetland vegetation patterning. This process may contribute to the formation of nutrient-rich tree islands within the expansive oligotrophic marshes of the Everglades (Florida, United States). This study presents hydrogeochemical data indicating that tree root water uptaAuthorsPamela L. Sullivan, Victor C. Engel, Michael S. Ross, René M. PriceModeling light use efficiency in a subtropical mangrove forest equipped with CO2 eddy covariance
Despite the importance of mangrove ecosystems in the global carbon budget, the relationships between environmental drivers and carbon dynamics in these forests remain poorly understood. This limited understanding is partly a result of the challenges associated with in situ flux studies. Tower-based CO2 eddy covariance (EC) systems are installed in only a few mangrove forests worldwide, and the lonAuthorsJ.G. Barr, V. Engel, J.D. Fuentes, D.O. Fuller, H. KwonA hydrological budget (2002-2008) for a large subtropical wetland ecosystem indicates marine groundwater discharge accompanies diminished freshwater flow
Water budget parameters are estimated for Shark River Slough (SRS), the main drainage within Everglades National Park (ENP) from 2002 to 2008. Inputs to the water budget include surface water inflows and precipitation while outputs consist of evapotranspiration, discharge to the Gulf of Mexico and seepage losses due to municipal wellfield extraction. The daily change in volume of SRS is equated toAuthorsAmartya K. Saha, Christopher S. Moses, Rene M. Price, Victor Engel, Thomas J. Smith, Gordon AndersonHurricane disturbance and recovery of energy balance, CO2 fluxes and canopy structure in a mangrove forest of the Florida Everglades
Eddy covariance (EC) estimates of carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes and energy balance are examined to investigate the functional responses of a mature mangrove forest to a disturbance generated by Hurricane Wilma on October 24, 2005 in the Florida Everglades. At the EC site, high winds from the hurricane caused nearly 100% defoliation in the upper canopy and widespread tree mortality. Soil temperaturesAuthorsJordan G. Barr, Vic Engel, Thomas J. Smith, Jose D. FuentesRecent and historic drivers of landscape change in the Everglades ridge, slough, and Tree Island mosaic
More than half of the original Everglades extent formed a patterned peat mosaic of elevated ridges, lower and more open sloughs, and tree islands aligned parallel to the dominant flow direction. This ecologically important landscape structure remained in a dynamic equilibrium for millennia prior to rapid degradation over the past century in response to human manipulation of the hydrologic system.AuthorsLaurel G. Larsen, Nicholas Aumen, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Vic Engel, Thomas J. Givnish, P McCormick S Hagerthey, Judson Harvey, Lynn Leonard, P. McCormick, Christopher McVoy, Gregory B. Noe, Martha K. Nungesser, K. Rutchey, Fred Sklar, Tiffany G. Troxler, John C. Volin, Debra A. WillardNon-USGS Publications**
Mirchi, A, Watkins, DW, Engel, V, et al., 2018. A hydro-economic model of South Florida water resources system, Sci. Total Environ. 628–629:1531-1541Ho, D.T, Ferrón, S, Engel, V, et al., 2017. Dissolved carbon biogeochemistry and export in mangrove-dominated rivers of the Florida Everglades, Biogeosciences 14(9), 2543-2559Karamperidou, C, Engel, V, et al., 2013. Implications of multi-scale sea level and climate variability for coastal resources: a case study for south Florida and Everglades National Park, USA. Reg. Environ. Change, doi: 1-.1007/s10113-013-0408-8Barr, JG, Engel, V, et al., 2012. Hurricane disturbance and recovery of energy balance, CO2 fluxes and canopy structure in a mangrove forest of the Florida Everglades. Agric. For. Meteor., 153: 54-66.Kwon, HH, Lall, U, and Engel, V. 2011. Predicting foraging wading bird populations in Everglades National Park from seasonal hydrologic statistics under different management scenarios, Water Resour. Res., 47, doi:10.1029/2010WR009552.D’Odorico, P, Engel, V, et al., 2011. Tree-grass coexistence in the Everglades freshwater system. Ecosystems 14, doi: 10.1007/s10021-011-9412-3Ho, DT, Engel, V, et al., 2009. Tracer studies of sheetflow in the Everglades. Geophys. Res. Lett. doi:10.1029/2009GL037355**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.
- Science
Mechanisms of Aquatic Species Invasions across the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SALCC)
USGS scientists study the mechanisms of aquatic species invasions across the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SALCC) with the help of the Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database (NAS).