Dr. Diana Karwan has received an NSF EAR Postdoctoral Fellowship to work between the Susquehanna Shale Hills (SSH) and Christina River Basin (CRB) Critical Zone Observatories. She uses the analytical capabilities at the University of Delaware and expertise in sediment fingerprinting developed in the CRB CZO to quantify the sources of short term (e.g. seasonal to decadal) suspended material from the SSH watershed. For this, she will collect and analyze a series of depth profiles in the SSH CZO watershed for geochemical erosion tracers, such as short-lived radioisotopes. Prior to beginning this fellowship, Dr. Karwan was a postdoctoral researcher at the Stroud Water Research Center, working in the CRB CZO. In this position, she conducted an extensive field campaign to collect suspended material and potential watershed sources and analyze them for several geochemical signatures. These geochemical signatures, or fingerprints, can be used to evaluate which watershed sources are more likely contributors of suspended material during storm events, when exports are the highest. She continues involvement in the CRB CZO sediment collection and analysis during this fellowship. Upon completion of this fellowship in the summer of 2013, Dr. Karwan will begin a faculty position in forest hydrology and watershed management at the University of Minnesota.
Geochemistry / Mineralogy
Geomorphology
Hydrology