Invited Speakers
The Nepf Lab studies the interaction of flow with aquatic vegetation and the feedbacks to sediment transport, chemical flux and ecosystem function. We develop models for physical processes that determine how vegetated habitats (green infrastructure), such as seagrasses, salt marsh, and mangroves, provide coastal protection, mitigate anthropogenic nutrient and pollutant loads, and provide blue carbon reservoirs, with the goal of applying these models to improve the management of natural resources and the design of green infrastructure.
The main focus of my work is the study of environmental transport processes, including both hydrodynamic transport processes and reactive transport processes. A lot of this work involves sediments, including transport processes in sediment beds, the implications of physicochemical particle-particle interactions for fine sediment transport, and the role of sediments in contaminant transport. I also teach classes related to environmental fluid mechanics, transport, and modeling. My research group is applying fundamental, interdisciplinary methods to a variety of environmental problems in streams and other aquatic systems. Generally we start by examining fundamental transport processes in the laboratory, but we are also working to apply this knowledge directly to natural systems. In addition, we are applying fundamental knowledge about transport, chemical reactions, and biological processes to understand the mobility and fate of a fairly wide range of environmentally-relevant substances, including sediments, metals, and pathogens. Because this work is interdisciplinary, it is also highly collaborative and we have a number of very close working relationships with other research groups throughout the U.S. and Europe. Information on all of these topics can be found by following the links in the menu bar.
I am an Earth scientist studying the impacts of global and local changes on coasts, estuaries and rivers. Human activity and biodiversity are typically high along coasts and rivers, but are threatened by sea level rise, increasing climate extremes, and human environmental impacts. Living just a few meters above sea level, I am highly motivated to contribute to science-based solutions to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of global and local changes on coastal and riverine lowlands. I study how these dynamic landscapes form and evolve through interactions between changing sea level, storms, tides and waves, erosion and sedimentation, vegetation dynamics & human activities.
I am a freshwater ecologist in the Department of Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Technology at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where I am a lecturer in Limnology and watershed management. I also lecture Streams Ecosystems concepts and Stream Integrity Assessment in the International Joint Master’s degree in Limnology and Wetland Management Programme (Boku University-Austria, Egerton University-Kenya and UNESCO-IHE, The Netherlands).
My research focuses on the impacts of climate change on aquatic ecosystems and aquatic macroinvertebrates, tools for river health assessment, Environmental Flows, waterbodies classification, biomonitoring protocols and ecohydrology. I have developed a bioassessment tool for assessment of river ecosystems in Tanzania and East Africa. I have conducted detailed research in relationships between aquatic macroinvertebrates with various hydrological and hydraulic variables in establishing and verifying biological responses to changes in river systems.
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