Vic Engel, Ph.D.
Biography
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Earth and Environmental Science, Columbia University, 2002
Dissertation Title: Biophysical controls on canopy water balance
Advisors: Kevin Griffin, Wallace Broecker, Marc Stieglitz
M.S., Systems Ecology, University of Florida, 1995
Advisor: Howard T. Odum Land surface-atmosphere interactions, enclosed ecosystems, wetland ecology
B.A. Environmental Studies, New College of Sarasota, FL, 1991
Advisor: J.T. Morrill
RESEARCH
Victor Engel joined the USGS' Southeast Ecological Science Center (SESC) in Gainesville, Florida, as a Branch Chief, Supervisory Hydrologist. The scientists in his branch focus primarily on invasive species, ecological modeling and decision-science, with an emphasis on addressing science needs in south Florida related to the Everglades.
BACKGROUND
Appointments
2015 Wildlife-Energy Program Specialist, Detail assignment (4 mo.) for USGS Ecosystems Mission Area, Reston, VA.
2013 Courtesy Research Assistant Scientist, Dept. of Environmental Engineering Sciences, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, Fl.
2012 – Member, South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative
2012 – Supervisory Hydrologist (GS-14), Southeast Ecological Science Center, USGS
2011 – Co-Lead of the Carbon Cycle Working Group of the Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (FCE- LTER) Program
2010 – Member, The Everglades-Pantanal Initiative with The Universidad de Mato Grosso and The Chico Mendes Institute.
2010 – 2012 Member, Synthesis of Everglades Restoration and Ecosystem Services (SERES), The Everglades Foundation
2003 – 2012 Eco-Hydrologist (GS-13), Everglades National Park, Homestead, FL.
2007 – 2011 Member, Exec. Steering Committee and Co-lead of the Hydrology Working Group of the FCE-LTER
2005 – 2010 Co-chair, Greater Everglades Wetlands Team, Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) Monitoring and Assessment.
2002 – 2003 Post-doctoral Research Associate, Duke University, Durham, NC.
Recent Projects
Robust decision-making for south Florida water resources by ecosystem service valuation, hydro-economic optimization, and conflict resolution monitoring, Principal author of the proposal and member of the external advisory panel for project that includes 14 institutions and 20 PIs. National Science Foundation, Water Sustainability and Climate, 2013. $4.9 M
Linking freshwater inputs to ecosystem functioning and services provided by a large mangrove estuary, co-PI with Michael Sukop, William T. Anderson, Rudolf Jaffe, and Jennifer Rehage (FIU), Jose Fuentes (Penn State), and David Ho (University of Hawaii). National Science Foundation, Water Sustainability and Climate, 2011. $150,000
Interactive Effects of Water Management and Vegetation on Flow Patterns in the Everglades, co-PI with Michael Sukop (FIU), ENP Critical Ecosystem Studies Initiative $75,000
Surface-groundwater interactions in Everglades tree islands, co PI with Tiffany Troxler and Jenny Richards (FlU). US Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District 2010-2012, $90,000/yr
Mangrove forest functioning in response to hurricane disturbance, co-PI with Jose Fuentes (Penn State Univ.), Victor Rivera-Monroy and Robert Twilley (Louisiana State Univ.) 2009-2011, DOE National Institute of Climate Change Research $65,000/yr.
Tree Islands in the ridge and slough landscape: current status, historical changes, and hydrologic impacts on population dynamics and moisture relations, co-PI with Michael Ross and Steve Oberbauer (FIU) and Leonel de la Silva Sternberg (University of Miami), US Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District 2007-2009, $80,000/yr
Vegetation Dynamics in Relation to Hydrology and Flow in the Everglades co-PI with Marc Stieglitz (Georgia Institute of Tech.) 2009, ENP Critical Ecosystem Studies Initiative $60,000
Ridge and Slough Pattern formation in the Everglades, co-PI with Paolo D’Odorico (Univ. of Virginia) ENP Critical Ecosystem Studies Initiative 2008-2010, $45,000/yr
Multi-scale analysis and probabilistic projections of sea level rise for the Everglades: Scenarios for Risk Management co-PI with Upmanu Lall (Columbia Univ.) ENP Critical Ecosystem Studies Initiative 2008-2010, $75,000/yr
Determination of large-scale flow patterns and air-water gas exchange in ridge and slough habitat using a conservative tracer, co-PI with David Ho (Univ. of Hawaii) ENP Critical Ecosystem Studies Initiative 2009-2011, $123,000/yr
Teaching
Fall 2013 – Systems Ecology Graduate Seminar, Univ. of Florida, Guest lecturer
Spring 2014 Coastal Ecosystems, Univ. of Florida, Civil and Coastal Engineering, Graduate level, 4 lecture Everglades module, with Dr. C. Angelini
Spring 2010 Everglades Ecohydrology, Univ. of Miami, Center for Environmental Science and Policy. Undergraduate, co-taught with Dr. J. Bolson
Memberships/ Certifications
USGS Leadership 101 (May 2014)
Strategic Habitat Conservation Workshop Certificate of Completion (October 2012)
USGS Supervisory Challenge (April 2012)
Member - American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Marine Operators Certification Course (MOCC)
Federal Government Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR) Federal Government Cooperative Agreement Representative (CA)
Awards, Honors, etc
2012-15 Superior Ranking - Annual Performance Reviews
2010 Interviewed on The Weather Channel, “Cantori’s Stories”
2009 Appearance in National Geographic Channel Everglades documentary
2007 Interviewed on The Weather Channel, “The Climate Code”
2007 NPS Performance award 40 hrs A/L (also in 2008, 2009 & 2010)
2005 DOI $2000 STAR cash award
2000 Columbia University Climate Center Award, $6000
1998 Columbia University Climate Center Award, $3000
1996-2002 Research Assistantship, Biosphere 2 Center, Tucson, AZ
1993-1995 Graduate Research Assistantship, University of Florida
1995 Tau Beta Pi – the Engineering Honor Society
1995 Sigma Xi Honor Society
Science and Products
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).
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...
Benson, Amy J.; Stith, Bradley M.; Engel, Victor C.
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...
Carr, Joel A.; D'Odorico, P.; Engel, Victor C.; Redwine, Jed 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...
Troxler, Tiffany G.; Barr, Jordan G.; Fuentes, Jose D.; Engel, Victor C.; Anderson, Gordon H.; Sanchez, Christopher; Lagomosino, David; Price, Rene; Davis, Stephen E. 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...
Krauss, Ken W.; Barr, Jordan G.; Engel, Victor C.; Fuentes, Jose D.; Wang, Hongqing 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...
Ho, David T.; Ferrón, Sara; Engel, Victor C.; Larsen, Laurel G.; Barr, Jordan G. 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...
Troxler, Tiffany G.; Gaiser, Evelyn; Barr, Jordan; Fuentes, Jose D.; Jaffe, Rudolf; Childers, Daniel L.; Collado-Vides, Ligia; Rivera-Monroy, Victor H.; Castañeda-Moya, Edward; Anderson, William; Chambers, Randy; Chen, Meilian; Coronado-Molina, Carlos; Davis, Stephen E.; Engel, Victor C.; Fitz, Carl; Fourqurean, James; Frankovich, Tom; Kominoski, John; Madden, Chris; Malone, Sparkle L.; Oberbauer, Steve F.; Olivas, Paulo; Richards, Jennifer; Saunders, Colin; Schedlbauer, Jessica; Scinto, Leonard J.; Sklar, Fred; Smith, Thomas J.; Smoak, Joseph M.; Starr, Gregory; Twilley, Robert; Whelan, Kevin 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...
Karamperidou, Christina; Engel, Victor; Lall, Upmanu; Stabenau, Erik; Smith, Thomas J. 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...
Sullivan, Pamela L.; Engel, Victor C.; Ross, Michael S.; Price, René M. 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...
Barr, J.G.; Engel, V.; Fuentes, J.D.; Fuller, D.O.; Kwon, H. 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...
Saha, Amartya K.; Moses, Christopher S.; Price, Rene M.; Engel, Victor; Smith, Thomas J.; Anderson, Gordon 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...
Barr, Jordan G.; Engel, Vic; Smith, Thomas J.; Fuentes, Jose D. 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...
Larsen, Laurel G.; Nicholas Aumen; Bernhardt, Christopher E.; Engel, Vic; Givnish, Thomas J.; S Hagerthey, P McCormick; Harvey, Judson; Lynn Leonard; McCormick, P.; McVoy, Christopher; Noe, Gregory B.; Nungesser, Martha K.; Rutchey, K.; Sklar, Fred; Troxler, Tiffany G.; Volin, John C.; Willard, Debra A.