Adrian Harpold

Associate Professor, Mountain Ecohydrology

Department: Natural Resources & Environmental Science
Office: 775-784-6759
Email: aharpold@unr.edu
Building: FA
Room: 125
Mailstop: 186
Website: https://naes.unr.edu/harpold
Website: Twitter

Summary

We tackle grand challenges facing water sustainability in response to unprecedented environmental change and increasing water demand in the 21st century. We bring field and remote sensing observations, as well as modeling, to bear on the most pressing questions in the field of mountain ecohydrology. The lab group works across a broad range of topics (explained below) that are instigated by three guiding questions:

How will changing and extreme climate impact mountain snowpacks and precipitation?
How will feedbacks between changing snowpacks and vegetation control catchment-scale water budgets and water availability, especially during drought?
How will changing snowpacks and precipitation alter streamflow generation and sensitivity to flooding?

Education

B.S. Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 2003
M.S. Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 2005
Ph.D. Cornell University, 2010

Publications

Curriculum Materials

Exploring the Critical Zone with LiDAR.

2013

American Geosciences Institute handout for K-12 teachers.

Harpold, A.A. and T.S. White.

Journals

Antecedent Snowpack Cold Content Alters the Hydrologic Response to Extreme Rain-on-Snow Events

2023

J. Hydrometeor., 24, 1825–1846

Katz, L., G. Lewis, S. Krogh, S. Drake, E. Hanan, B. Hatchett, and A. Harpold

Leveraging Groundwater Dynamics to Improve Predictions of Summer Low-Flow Discharges

2023

Water Resources Research, 59(8), e2023WR035126

Johnson, K., Harpold, A., H. Carroll, R. W., Barnard, H., Raleigh, M. S., Segura, C., Li, L., Williams, K. H., Dong, W., & Sullivan, P. L.

Machine-Learning Reveals Equifinality in Drivers of Stream DOC Concentration at Continental Scales

2023

Water Resources Research, 59(3), e2021WR030551

Underwood, K. L., Rizzo, D. M., Hanley, J. P., Sterle, G., Harpold, A., Adler, T., Li, L., Wen, H., & Perdrial, J. N.

Seeing the Disturbed Forest for the Trees: Remote Sensing Is Underutilized to Quantify Critical Zone Response to Unprecedented Disturbance

2023

Earth's Future, 11(8), e2022EF003314

Hwang, K., Harpold, A. A., Tague, C. L., Lowman, L., S. Boisramé, G. F., Lininger, K. B., Sullivan, P. L., Manning, A., Graup, L., Litvak, M., Lewis, G., Miller, K., Brooks, P. D., & Barnard, H. R.

The prediction of uneven snowpack response to forest thinning informs forest restoration in the central Sierra Nevada

2023

Ecohydrology, 16(7), e2580

Lewis, G., Harpold, A., Krogh, S. A., Broxton, P., & Manley, P. N.

Spruce Beetle Outbreak Increases Streamflow From Snow-Dominated Basins in Southwest Colorado, USA

2022

Water Resources Research. 58 (2023) e2021WR029964

A.L. Manning, A. Harpold, A. Csank

Subsurface Lateral Flows Buffer Riparian Water Stress Against Snow Drought

2022

Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. 127 (2023) e2022JG006980

L.J. Graup, C.L. Tague, A.A. Harpold, S.A. Krogh

Drivers and predictions of ice phenology in mountain lakes in the Western United States derived from remote sensing.

2021

Limnology and Oceanography.

Caldwell, T.J., S. Chandra, T.P. Albright, A.A. Harpold, T. Dilts, J.A. Greenberg, S. Sadro, and M.D. Dettinger.

Drivers of Dissolved Organic Carbon Mobilization From Forested Headwater Catchments: A Multi Scaled Approach.

2021

Frontiers

Adler, T., Underwood, K., Rizzo, D. Harpold, A., Sterle, G., Li, L., Wen, H., Stinson, L., Bristol, C., Shanley, J., Lini, A., Perdrial N., and Perdrial, J.

Estimating the Effects of Wildfire on Snow Water Resources Using Canopy Disturbance Patterns and Meteorological Conditions.

2021

Water Resources Research

Moeser, D., Broxton, P., Harpold, A., and Robertson, A.

From hydrometeorology to water quality: can a deep learning model learn the dynamics of dissolved oxygen at the continental scale?

2021

Environmental Science and Technology

Zhi, W., Feng, Dapeng, Tsai, Wen-ping; Sterle, Gary; Harpold, Adrian; Shen, Chaopeng; Li, Li

Performance Assessment of Optical Satellite-Based Operational Snow Cover Monitoring Algorithms in Forested Landscapes.

2021

IEEE Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing

Muhuri, A., Gascoin, S., Menzel, L., Kostadinov, T., Harpold, A.A., Sanmiguel-Valledo, A., and Lopez-Moreno, I.

Streams as mirrors: reading subsurface water chemistry from stream chemistry

2021

Water Resources Research

Stewart, B., Hang Wen, James B. Shanley, James W. Kirchner, David Norris, Thomas Adler, Caitlin Bristol, Adrian Harpold, Julia N. Perdrial, Donna M. Rizzo, Gary Sterle, Kristen, L. Underwood, and Li Li.

Unraveling the Controls on Snow Disappearance in Montane Forests Using a Muli-Site Analysis of Lidar Observations

2021

Water Resources Research

Safa, H., Krogh, S., Greenberg, J., and Harpold, A.

Increasing the Efficacy of Forest Thinning for Snow Using High-Resolution Modeling: A Proof of Concept in the Lake Tahoe Basin, California, USA

2020

Ecohydrology

Harpold, A.A., Krogh, S., Kohler, M., Eckberg, D., Greenberg, J., Sterle, G., and Broxton, P.D.

Patterns and drivers of atmospheric river hydrologic impact variability across the Western U.S.

2020

Journal of Hydrometeorology

Albano, C., Dettinger, M., and Harpold, A.A.

Snowmelt causes different limitations on transpiration in a Sierra Nevada conifer forest

2020

Agricultural and Forest Meteorology

Cooper, A.E., Kirchner, J.W., Wolf, S., Lombardozzi, D.L., Sullivan, B., Tyler, S.W. and A.A. Harpold

Temperature controls production but hydrology controls export of dissolved organic carbon at the catchment scale

2020

Hydrology and Earth Systems Science

Wen, H., Perdrial, J., Bernal, S., Abbott, B. W., Dupas, R., Godsey, S. E., Harpold, A.A., Rizzo, D., Underwood, K., Adler, T., Hale, R., Sterle, G., and Li, L.

Using Process Based Snow Modelling and Lidar to Predict the Effects of Forest Thinning on the Northern Sierra Nevada Snowpack

2020

Frontiers

Krogh, S., Broxton, P., Manley, P., and Harpold, A.A.

Bias correction of airborne thermal infrared observations over forests and melting snow.

2019

Water Resources Research

Pestana, S. Lundquist, J., Chickadel, C. Webster, C., Harpold, A.A., Pai, H., Kostadinov, T., and Tyler, S.

Partitioning snowmelt and rainfall in the critical zone: effects of climate type and soil properties

2019

Hydrology and Earth Systems Sciences

Hammond, J.C., Harpold, A.A., Weiss, S., and Kampf, S.K.

Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH) – a community perspective.

2019

Hydrological Sciences Journal

Bloschl, G., and 229 co-authors including A.A. Harpold.

Watershed-scale mapping of fractional snow cover under forest canopy using lidar

2019

Remote Sensing of Environment

Kostadinov, T.S. R. Schumer, M. Hausner, K. J. Bormann, R. Gaffney, K. McGwire, T. H. Painter, S. Tyler, and A.A. Harpold

A net ecosystem carbon budget for snow dominated forested headwater catchments: linking water and carbon fluxes to critical zone carbon storage

2018

Biogeochemistry

Perdrial, J., P. Brooks, T. Swetnam, K.A. Lohse, C. Rasmussen, M. Litvak, A.A. Harpold, X. Zapata-Rios, P. Broxton, B. Mitra, T. Meixner, K. Condon, D. Huckle, C. Stielstra, A.Vazquez-O, , M. Holleran, C. Orem, J. Pelletier, and C. Chorover.

Event-scale suspended sediment age influenced by hydrologic flux in a mixed-land use Mid-Atlantic Watershed

2018

Water Resources Research

Karwan, D.L., J.E. Pizzuto, R. Aalto, J. Marquard, A. Harpold, K. Skalak, A. Benthaem, D.F. Levia, C.M. Siegert, and A. Aufdenkampe.

Humidity Determines Snowpack Ablation Under a Warming Climate

2018

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Harpold, A.A. and P.D. Brooks

Now you see it, now you don't: a case study of ephemeral snowpacks and soil moisture response in the Great Basin, USA

2018

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences

Petersky, R. and A.A. Harpold

The sensitivity of snow ephemerality to warming climate across an arid to montane vegetation gradient

2018

Ecohydrology

Petersky R,, Shoemaker K.T., Weisberg P.J., Harpold A.

Watershed-scale mapping of fractional snow cover under conifer forest canopy using lidar

2018

Remote Sensing of Environment

Kostadinov, T.S. R. Schumer, M. Hausner, K. J. Bormann, R. Gaffney, K. McGwire, T. H. Painter, S. Tyler, and A.A. Harpold.

Defining Snow Drought and Why it Matters

2017

EOS, 8

Harpold, A.A., M. Dettinger, and S. Rajagopal

Geochemical evolution of the Critical Zone across variable time scales informs concentration-discharge relationships: Jemez River Basin Critical Zone Observatory

2017

Water Resources Research

McIntosh, J. C, Schaumberg, C, Perdrial, J, Harpold, A., Vázquez-Ortega, A. and Rasmussen, C. Vinson, D, Zapata-Rios, X. and Brooks, P. D, Meixner, T., Pelletier, Jon, Derry, L., Chorover, J.

Growing new generations of critical zone scientists

2017

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms

Wymore, A. S., West, N. R., Maher, K., Sullivan, P. L., Harpold, A., Karwan, D., Marshall, J. A., Perdrial, J., Rempe, D. M., and Ma, L.

Potential For Changing Extreme Snowmelt And Rainfall Events in the Mountains of the Western United States

2017

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

Harpold, A.A and M. Kohler

Rain or Snow: Processes, Observations, Prediction, and Research Needs For Hydrologic Sciences.

2017

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences

Harpold, A.A., M. Kaplan, Z. Klos, T. Link, J. McNamara, R. Schumer, C. Steele, and S. Rajagopal

Regional sensitivities of seasonal snowpack to elevation, aspect, and vegetation cover in western North America.

2017

Water Resources Research

Tennant, C. J., Harpold, A. A., Lohse, K. A., Godsey, S. E., Crosby, B. T., Larsen, L. G., Brooks, P. D., Van Kirk, R. W. and Glenn, N. F.

Relative humidity has uneven effects on shifts from snow to rain over the western U.S.

2017

Geophysical Research Letters

Harpold, A.A., S. Rajagopal, J. Crews, T. Winchell, and R. Schumer.

Topographically-driven differences in energy and water constrain climatic control on forest carbon sequestration

2017

Ecosphere

Swetnam, T., Brooks, P., Barnard, H., Harpold, A., Gallo, E.

Can Soil Moisture Information Improve Operational Streamflow Forecasts In Snow-Dominated Watersheds?

2016

Journal of American Water Resources Association

Harpold, A.A., K. Sutcliffe, J. Clayton, A. Goodbody, and S. Vazquez

Diverging Sensitivity of Soil Water Stress To Changing Snowmelt Timing in the Western U.S.

2016

Advances in Water Resources. 92: 116-129. Doi: 10.1016/j.advwatres.2016.03.017

Harpold, A.A.

Riparian zones attenuate nitrogen loss following bark beetle-induced lodgepole pine mortality.

2016

Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.

Biederman, J. A., Meixner, T., Harpold, A. A., Reed, D. E., Gutmann, E. D., Gaun, J. A., & Brooks, P. D.

Snowmelt Rate Dictates Streamflow

2016

Geophysical Research Letters. doi: 10.1002/2016GL069690

Barnhart, T. N.P. Molotch, B. Livneh, A.A. Harpold, J. Knowles and D. Schneider.

Testing and Improving Temperature Thresholds for Snow and Rain Prediction in the Western United States.

2016

Journal of the American Water Resources Association. DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.12443

Rajagopal, S. and A.A. Harpold

Laser vision: lidar as a transformative tool to advance critical zone science

2015

Hydrology and Earth Systems Science

Harpold, A. A., Marshall, J. A., Lyon, S. W., Barnhart*, T. B., Fisher, B. A., Donovan, M., Brubaker, K. M., Crosby, C. J., Glenn, N. F., Glennie, C. L., Kirchner, P. B., Lam, N., Mankoff, K. D., McCreight, J. L., Molotch, N. P., Musselman, K. N., Pelletier, J., Russo, T., Sangireddy, H., Sjöberg, Y., Swetnam, T., and West, N.

Quantifying the effects of vegetation structure on snow accumulation and ablation in mixed-conifer forests

2015

Ecohydrology

Broxton P. D., Harpold A. A., Biederman J. A., Troch P. A., Molotch N. P., and Brooks P. D.

Rare Earth Elements as Reactive Tracers of Biogeochemical Weathering in Forested Rhyolitic Terrain.

2015

Chemical Geology.

Vázquez-Ortega, A., Perdrial, J., Harpold, A., Zapata-Ríos, X., Rasmussen, C., McIntosh, J., ... & Chorover, J.

Recent tree die-off has little effect on streamflow in contrast to expected increases from historical studies

2015

Water Resources Research

Biederman, J.A., A. Somor, A.A. Harpold, E. Gutmann, D.D. Breshears, P.A. Troch, D.J. Gochis, R.L. Scott, A.J.H. Meddens, and P.D. Brooks.

Sensitivity of soil water availability to changing snowmelt timing in the western U.S.

2015

Geophysical Research Letters

Harpold, A.A. and N.P. Molotch

Snowmelt infiltration in mixed-conifer subalpine forests

2015

Hydrological Processes

Harpold, A.A, N.P. Molotch, P.D. Brooks, R. Bales, M. Litvak, K. Musselman. And P. Kirchner.

The relative contributions of alpine and subalpine ecosystems to the water balance of a mountainous, headwater catchment.

2015

Hydrological Processes

Knowles, J.F., Harpold, A.A., Cowie, R., Zeliff, M., Barnard, H.R., Burns, S.P., Blanken, P.D., Morse, J.F., and Williams, M.W.

Use of LiDAR in Environmental Science

2015

Oxford Bibliographies in Environmental Science

Harpold, A.A.

A LiDAR derived snowpack dataset from mixed conifer forests in the Western U.S.

2014

Water Resources Research

Harpold, A.A., Q. Guo, N. Molotch, P. Brooks, R. Bales, J.C. Fernandez-Diaz, K.N. Musselman, T. Swetnam, P. Kirchner, M. Meadows, J. Flannagan, and R. Lucas

Changes in water partitioning and runoff at the hillslope to catchment scale following insect-induced tree mortality in lodgepole pine forests.

2014

Water Resources Research

Biederman, J.A., A.A. Harpold, D. Reed, D. Gochis, B. Ewers, E. Gutmann, and P.D. Brooks.

Changes in winter season snowpack accumulation and ablation following the Las Conchas Forest Fire.

2014

Ecohydrology. 7: 440-452. doi: 10.1002/eco.1363.

Harpold, A.A., J. Biederman, K. Condon, M. Merino, Y. Korganokar, T. Nan, L.L. Sloat, M. Ross, and P.D. Brooks.

Stream water carbon controls in seasonally snow-covered mountain catchments: impact of interannual variability of water fluxes, catchment aspect and seasonal processes.

2014

Biogeochemistry. doi:10.1007/s10533-013-9929-y

Perdrial, J. McIntosh, A.A. Harpold, P.D. Brooks, X. Zapata-Rios, J. Ray, T. Meixner, T. Kanduc, M. Litvak, P. Troch, and J. Chorover.

Aeresol and Precipitation Chemistry in the Southwestern United States: Spatiotemporal Trends and Interrelationships.

2013

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 13: 7361-7379. doi:10.5194/acp-13-7361-2013

Sorooshian, A.S., T.S. Shingler, A.A. Harpold, C.W. Feagles, T.M. Meixner, and P.D. Brooks.

Explaining the spatial variability of aquatic biota using watershed features in the Neversink River watershed, New York, USA

2013

Ecological Applications. 23: 791-800. doi: 10.1890/12-0603.

Harpold, A.A., D.A. Burns, M.T. Walter, and T. Steenhuis

Explaining the spatial variability of aquatic biota using watershed features in the Neversink River watershed, New York, USA.

2013

Ecological Applications

Harpold, A.A., D.A. Burns, M.T. Walter, and T. Steenhuis

Changes in snowpack volume and snowmelt timing in the Intermountain West.

2012

Water Resources Research. 48:11. doi: 10.1029/2012WR011949

Harpold, A.A., P.D. Brooks, S. Rajogopalan, I. Heidebuchel, A. Jardine, and C. Stielstra

Multi-scale Observations of Snow Accumulation and Peak Snowpack Following Widespread, Insect-induced Lodgepole Pine Mortality

2012

Ecohydrology

Biederman, J., P.D. Brooks, A.A. Harpold, D. Gochis, E. Gutman, D. Reed, E. Pendall, and B. Ewers.

Probing dissolved organic matter in the critical zone: a comparison between in situ passive capillary wick samplers (PCaps) to aqueous soil extracts

2012

Soil Science Society of America Journal. 76(6): 2019-2030. doi:10.2136/sssaj2012.0061

Perdrial, J., N. Perdrial, A.A. Harpold, X. Gao, K. LaSharr, J. Chorover

Probing how water, carbon, and energy driven landscape evolution and surface water dynamics: Jemez River Basin – Santa Catalina Mountains Critical Zone Observatory.

2011

Vadose Zone Journal. 10(3): 884-899. doi:10.2136/vzj2010.0132

Chorover, J., P.A. Troch, C. Rasmussen, P.D. Brooks, J.D. Pelletier, D.D. Breshears, T.E. Huxman, S.A. Kurc, K.A. Lohse, J.C. McIntosh, T. Meixner, M.G. Schaap, M.E. Litvak, J. Perdrial, A.A. Harpold, M. Durcik.

Relating hydrogeomorphologic properties to stream buffering chemistry in the Neversink River watershed, New York, USA

2010

Hydrological Processes. 24(26): 3759-3771. doi:10.1002/hyp.7802

Harpold, A.A., S.B. Shaw, D.A. Burns, M.T. Walter, and T. Steenhuis.

The hydrological effects of lateral preferential flow paths in a glaciated watershed in the Northeastern U.S.

2009

Vadose Zone Journal. 9(2): 397-414. doi:10.2136/vzj2009.0107.

Harpold, A.A., S.W. Lyon, P.A. Troch, and T.S. Steenhuis.

Investigating a high-resolution, stream chloride time series from Biscuit Brook catchment, Catskills, NY.

2007

Journal of Hydrology. 348(3-4): 245-256. doi:10.1016/j.hydrol.2007.10.009

Shaw, S. A.A. Harpold, J.A. Taylor, and M.T. Walter.

Newsletters

Where did all that snow go? Compensating vapor losses following forest disturbance in the Rocky Mountains.

2013

CIRMOUNT Mountain Views. 7(1).

Harpold, A.A., J.A. Biederman, and P.D. Brooks.

Videos

Global Warming

2016

Lawyers, Guns & Money - YouTube.com

Harpold, A. , Chandra, S. and Houston, D.