Research

Our work connects glaciers to the sea, encompassing water, sediment, and landscape evolution. Our diverse work, from building embedded electronics to augering for samples from past rivers and glaciers, is designed to be able to answer one key question: What drives and sets the pace and style of Earth-surface change?

To see our open-source code, open-access data, and open-source hardware designs, visit:

Fitz Roy

River mechanics and geomorphic evolution

RiverNetwork

We work to find physics-centered solutions for how river channels and watersheds evolve through time. Our goal is geomorphic: to predict the results of landscape change. To do so, we develop theory and build mathematical and numerical models. We then test these against field data from modern and ancient settings, as well as against laboratory experiments, to improve our ability to predict both natural and human impacts on river and landscape change.

Current focal points include:

  • Coupled evolution of channel long profiles and hydraulic geometry
  • Linking hydrology and hillslope sediment supply with channel evolution
  • Impacts of changing climate and land use on river systems
  • Transience and departures from steady bankfull hydraulics

UMV Perrot

Key Personnel

  • Andy Wickert
  • Nilay Iscen
  • Jabari Jones
  • Shanti Penprase
  • Phil Larson
  • Peter Mitchell

Key Publications

Long-profile plots

Additional Relevant Publications

  • Beaulieu, O. P., E. Witte, and A. D. Wickert (in revision, 2020), Mechanistic Insights from Emergent Landslides in Physical Experiments, Geology.
  • Tofelde, S., W. Düsing, T. F. Schildgen, A. D. Wickert, H. Wittmann, and R. N. Alonso (2018), Effects of deep-seated versus shallow hillslope processes on cosmogenic 10 Be concentrations in fluvial sand and gravel, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 34, 3086–3098, doi:10.1002/esp.4471.
  • Perron, J. T., P. M. Myrow, K. L. Huppert, A. R. Koss, and A. D. Wickert (2018), Ancient record of changing flows from wave ripple defects, Geology, 46(10), 875–878, doi:10.1130/G45463.1.

Glacial cycles and global change

Ivanovic

How did ice sheets and global sea-level change since the Last Glacial Maximum, ~26,000–19,500 years ago, and what can this teach us about past and modern landscapes, ice dynamics, climate, and the solid Earth? Our work to answer these questions encompasses:

  • Field studies to map and date evidence of ancient rivers and landscapes
  • Global sea level and glacial isostatic adjustment modeling
  • Compilations of marine records of past water flow paths
  • Models and observations of ancient lake and groundwater levels
  • Collaborations to couple our work as inputs to and/or tests for general circulation models (i.e., global climate models)

We use these approaches together to reconstruct past landscapes and environments, and to test the skill of our physics-based models of river and landscape change against long-term data sets.

Research spotlight: A buried waterfall on a backwards Mississippi River

Key Personnel

  • Kerry Callaghan
  • Andy Wickert
  • Phil Larson
  • Max van Wyk de Vries
  • Shanti Penprase
  • Peter Mitchell

Key Publications: Paleoclimate modeling

Key Publications: Rivers, Glaciers, and Ice Sheets

G12 rivers at 14.5 ka

Additional Relevant Publications

  • Monteleone, K., E. J. Dixon, and A. D. Wickert (2013), Lost Worlds: A predictive model to locate submerged archaeological sites in SE Alaska, USA, in Archaeology in the Digital Era: Volume II. e-Papers from the 40th Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, Southampton, 26-29 March 2012, edited by G. Earl, T. Sly, A. Chrysanthi, P. Murrieta-Flores, C. Papadopoulos, I. Romanowska, and D. Wheatley, pp. 678–693, Amsterdam University Press, ISBN:9789089646637.

Water in the landscape

Topographic depressions and flow routing

Depression hierarchy cross section and map view

Internally-drained regions in digital elevation models, termed “depressions”, have been traditionally treated as artifacts that need to be removed. While sometimes this was the case, many depressions are real. Unfortunately, these algorithms that erased depressions forced hydrologic and geomorphic models to also ignore them. This technological deficiency fueled a paradigm in which hydrologists and geomorphologists focused on steep mountain catchments rather than low-relief catchments with lakes and swales.

The Depression Hierarchy and Fill-Spill-Merge algorithms and associated code bases (https://github.com/r-barnes/Barnes2019-DepressionHierarchy; https://github.com/r-barnes/Barnes2020-FillSpillMerge) are poised to reverse this trend. They allow us to integrate closed depressions directly into drainage networks in a mathematically consistent way as part of a directed graph. This tool will allow models to incorporate more elements of reality and open new landscapes and environments to cutting-edge hydrological and geomorphic research.

Hydrological modeling, water resources, and sustainability

GSFLOW-GRASS discretization (HRUs) for the Cannon River, Minnesota, USA

  • We co-built GSFLOW-GRASS, which automates construction of model domains and inputs to the US Geological Survey’s integrated hydrological model GSFLOW, a combination of MODFLOW and PRMS.
  • Changing climate, land use, and land cover is changing hydrological regimes across the Midwest. We seek to quantify and attribute this change.
  • We frequently apply our instrumentation to water-resources problems.

Key Personnel

  • Richard Barnes
  • Kerry Callaghan
  • Jabari Jones
  • Andy Wickert

Perito Moreno ablation stake

Key Publications

Flexural isostasy

Flexural isostasy examples

Wickert developed gFlex, a finite-difference solver for lithospheric flexure that is written in Python and integrated into CSDMS, Landlab, and PyBandlands. We also occasionally use it ourselves, thus far on glacial isostatic adjustment and foreland basin development.

Key Publications

Key Personnel

  • Andy Wickert
  • Max van Wyk de Vries

Instrumentation

Weather station

We design and build open-source sensors and data loggers to monitor the environment. For more information, see:

Margay v2.2 data logger

Key Personnel

  • Bobby Schulz
  • Andy Wickert

Key Publications