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Dana Lapides

Research Hydrologist

Dana Lapides/ARSUserFiles/49407/dana_lapides.png
Research Hydrologist

Southwest Watershed Research Center
USDA-Agricultural Research Service
2000 E. Allen Road
Tucson, AZ  85719
Tel: (520) 647-9128

Research Interests

I am a Research Hydrologist with the USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center. I work to develop a quantitative understanding of how ecosystems and humans fit into the hydrological system so that we can better predict changes to water availability in the future. Specifically, I focus on 1) how changes in plant water use and climate lead to evolving water availability, 2) drivers and predictors of stream permanence/intermittence and relationships with ecosystem services, and 3) developing regional-global scale methods for predicting the impacts of climate change on water availability and ecosystem properties.

Current Projects

Education and Background

I received a degree in Mathematics from Lafayette College in Easton, PA. As an undergraduate, I participated in research in nanoscience and mathematics. After completing my undergraduate degree, I spent 6 months camping through the wilderness of the United States on my way from Pennsylvania to Berkeley, CA where I was heading for a PhD in atmospheric science. I was awed by the water-limited landscapes of the southwest and continued to return to the desert on every winter break. Near the beginning of my PhD program, I spent a summer volunteering on an agroforestry farm in Portugal, where I learned about in situ water harvesting. My love for water-limited landscapes and newfound interest in water management inspired me to switch the focus of my degree to hydrology advised by Sally Thompson (now at University of Western Australia) and Michael Manga. After graduating in 2020, I spent 6 months as a postdoctoral fellow with W Jesse Hahm at Simon Fraser University after which I received a Wisconsin Water Resources Science-Policy Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2021, I began an ORISE postdoctoral fellowship with David N Dralle at the USDA Forest Service with additional support from W Jesse Hahm at Simon Fraser University and Daniella M Rempe at University of Austin, Texas. In 2023, I was hired as a Category 1 scientist at SWRC.

Recent Publications

(for a complete list & full texts, see Research Gate and Google Scholar links above)

O Crompton, M Nichols, D Lapides, H Xu (2024). “Resolving the hydrologic signature of water spreader berms in the US Southwest.” Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 79 (3), 155-165.

S Zipper, A Brookfield, H Ajami, JR Ayers, C Beightel, MN Fienen, T Gleeson, J Hammond, M Hill, AD Kendall, B Kerr, D Lapides, M Porter, S Parimalarenganayaki, MM Rohde, C Wardropper (2024). “Streamflow depletion caused by groundwater pumping: Fundamental research priorities for management‐relevant science.” Water Resources Research 60 (5), e2023WR035727.

DA Lapides, WJ Hahm, M Forrest, DM Rempe, T Hickler, DN Dralle (2024). “Inclusion of bedrock vadose zone in dynamic global vegetation models is key for simulating vegetation structure and function.” Biogeosciences 21 (7), 1801-1826.

WJ Hahm, DN Dralle, DA Lapides, RS Ehlert, DM Rempe (2024). “Geologic controls on apparent root‐zone storage capacity.” Water Resources Research 60 (3), e2023WR035362.

DA Lapides, G Grindstaff, MH Nichols (2024). “Automated earthwork detection using topological persistence.” Water Resources Research 60 (2), e2023WR035990.

O Crompton, G Katul, DA Lapides, SE Thompson (2023). “Bridging structural and functional hydrological connectivity in dryland ecosystems.” Catena 231, 107322.

DN Dralle, DA Lapides, DM Rempe, WJ Hahm (2023). “Mapping surface water presence and hyporheic flow properties of headwater stream networks with multispectral satellite imagery.” Water Resources Research 59 (9), e2022WR034169.

O Crompton, G Katul, D Lapides, S Thompson (2023). “Hydrologic Connectivity and Patch‐To‐Hillslope Scale Relations in Dryland Ecosystems.” Geophysical Research Letters 50 (10), e2022GL101801.

DA Lapides, S Zipper, JC Hammond (2023). “Identifying hydrologic signatures associated with streamflow depletion caused by groundwater pumping.” Hydrological Processes 37 (4), e14877.

DA Lapides, WJ Hahm, DM Rempe, J Whiting, DN Dralle (2022). “Causes of missing snowmelt following drought.” Geophysical Research Letters 49 (19), e2022GL100505.

WJ Hahm, DA Lapides, DM Rempe, EL McCormick, DN Dralle (2022). “The age of evapotranspiration: Lower‐bound constraints from distributed water fluxes across the continental United States.” Water Resources Research 58 (10), e2022WR032961.

D Lapides, A Sytsma, G O'Neil, D Djokic, M Nichols, S Thompson (2022). “Arc Hydro Hillslope and Critical Duration: New tools for hillslope-scale runoff analysis.” Environmental Modelling & Software 153, 105408.

DA Lapides (2022). “Using Sporadic Streamflow Measurements to Improve and Evaluate a Streamflow Model in Ungauged Basins in Wisconsin.” Journal of Hydrologic Engineering 27 (4), 04022004.

DA Lapides, BM Maitland, SC Zipper, AW Latzka, A Pruitt, R Greve (2022). “Advancing environmental flows approaches to streamflow depletion management.” Journal of Hydrology 607, 127447.

DA Lapides, WJ Hahm, DM Rempe, WE Dietrich, DN Dralle (2022). “Controls on stream water age in a saturation overland flow‐dominated catchment.” Water Resources Research 58 (4), e2021WR031665.

DA Lapides, A Sytsma, S Thompson (2021). “Implications of distinct methodological interpretations and runoff coefficient usage for rational method predictions.” JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association 57 (6), 859-874.

DA Lapides, CD Leclerc, H Moidu, DN Dralle, WJ Hahm (2021). “Variability of stream extents controlled by flow regime and network hydraulic scaling.” Hydrological Processes 35 (3), e14079.

DA Lapides, C David, A Sytsma, D Dralle, S Thompson (2020). “Analytical solutions to runoff on hillslopes with curvature: numerical and laboratory verification.” Hydrological Processes 34 (24), 4640-4659.

DA Lapides, M Manga (2020). “Large wood as a confounding factor in interpreting the width of spring-fed streams.” Earth Surface Dynamics 8 (1), 195-210.