Peter Hartsough

I am currently working as a Project Scientist in the O’Geen Lab at UC Davis. We are working at the Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory, studying bedrock weathering and soil formation processes along an elevation gradient.  I am particularly interested in the role of water in the deep vadose zone and how this plays into vegetation/soil interactions.  Porosity development and water storage appear to play a critical buffering role in vegetation survival during drought periods. 

We also continue to intensively monitor two instrumented trees (CZT-1 & 2) to try and understand baseline moisture dynamics in the soil/tree system as they relate to snow melt in a rain/snow transition zone. We have set up a monitoring network, including instrumenting White fir (Abies concolor) and Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa) trees with over 200 sensors (most of them in the soil).