Kevin Devito
Biological Sciences
University of Alberta
Canada
Biography
Landscape eco-hydrology, forest and wetland hydrology and biogeochemistry, ground-surface water interactions, land use and climate impacts, hydrogeology frameworks, influence of climate and geology on the susceptibility of boreal ecosystems to disturbance, watershed management. The long-term objective of my research is to increase our understanding and model the interaction of climate, geology and landscape position on boreal forest- wetland-aquatic ecosystem and predict their susceptibility to land use changes. This research has provided a fundamental understanding of how water, and chemistry of interest, moves through the surrounding boreal environment, how land use activities may intersect or impact water movements, and how boreal ecosystems recover from land use or reclamation activities.
Research Interest
current research focuses on the Utikuma Region Study Area (URSA), located on the Boreal Plain, Alberta. At URSA, my students and I have collaborated in a number of long term (>10 years) studies investigating trends in regional climate and hydrogeology in conjunction with local scale eco-hydrologic studies of forest-wetland-aquatic systems located on a variety of landforms and landscape positions representative of the Boreal Plain. These systems also serve as natural analogues for designing, and benchmarks for evaluating, reclamation strategies on oil sands mining leases. My Students, collaborators and I are also involved in parallel and complimentary studies looking at the influence of landform configuration on the development of wetland and forest ecosystems in constructed watersheds in the Oil Sands near Fort McMurray. I am participating in 4 related research areas:
Publications
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Kettridge N, RE Humphrey, JE Smith, MC Lukenbach, KJ Devito, RM Petrone, JM Waddington2 . in press. Burned and unburned peat hydrophobicity: Implications for peatland evaporation following wildfire. J Hydrology,HYDROL15723, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.03.019.
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Sutherland G, LE Chasmer, RM Petrone, SM Brown, N Kljun, KJ Devito. In press. Evaluating the use of spatially varying vs. bulk average 3D vegetation structural inputs to modelled evapotranspiration within heterogeneous land cover types. accepted 7 Feb 2014, ECO-13-0095 EcoHydrology. 10.1002/eco.1477.
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Hill AR, KJ Devito, P Vidon. In press. Long-term nitrate removal in a stream riparian zone. Biogeochemistry (accepted 25 June 2014), BIOG-D-14-00052, Biogeochemistry. 10.1007/s10533-014-0010-2
