Holly Barnard

Holly René Barnard is an American geographer and Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado Boulder. She studies how vegetation impacts the dynamics and pathways of streams. In 2020 Barnard was awarded a $7 million National Science Foundation grant to set up a Critical Zone Observatory at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Holly René Barnard
Barnard in 2020
Alma materOregon State University
Colorado State University
University of Washington
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Colorado Boulder
University of Wyoming
ThesisInter-relationships of vegetation, hydrology and micro-climate in a young, Douglas-fir forest (2009)
Doctoral advisorJeffrey J. McDonnell and Barbara J. Bond

Early life and education

Barnard earned her bachelor's degree in forestry and ecosystems at the University of Washington. After being inspired to work in environmental science, Barnard moved to Colorado State University to work toward a master's degree in forest engineering, where she worked on tree physiology with Tom Hinckley and Linda Brubaker.[1][2] Barnard was first introduced to ecological methods whilst working in their research labs.[3] After graduating, Barnard worked in environmental consulting, completing ground- and surface water sampling.[1] She was certified as an ecologist by the Ecological Society of America in 2004.[2] Barnard eventually joined Oregon State University as a doctoral student, where she worked under the supervision of Jeffrey J. McDonnell and Barbara J. Bond on a Ford Foundation fellowship.[1] She studied the relationships between vegetation water use, hydrology and the climate.[4] As a graduate student, Barnard was selected to take part in the national Minorities Striving and Pursuing Higher Degrees of Success in Earth System Science (MS PHDs) programme, which supported her to attend the American Geophysical Union annual conference.[3] In 2009 Barnard was made an National Science Foundation Minority Post-doctoral Fellow, allowing her to join the University of Wyoming to study water loss from forest vegetation.[5]

Research and career

Barnard looks to understand how vegetation impacts water flow and how water flow influences vegetation function in mountainous terrain.[6] She has studied the fairy circles of Namibia using a combination of experimental investigations and computational modelling.[7] In 2017 she visited Namibia with an all-women research team, conducting a series of experiments in the Namib desert to better understand their origin. As part of this work, Barnard and co-workers showed that grazing animals play an important role in maintaining the circles.[7] She has investigated the impact of climate change on coniferous forests by studying the exchange of carbon dioxide between forests and the atmosphere.[8]

At Colorado, Barnard is involved with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) education and outreach program, which looks to strengthen environmental literacy and support the next generation of scientific researchers in training for careers in sustainability.[9] In 2020 Barnard was awarded a $7 million National Science Foundation grant to establish the University of Colorado Boulder Critical Zone Observatory. The observatory looks to understand how vegetation, water and rocks change in the fire- and drought-prone ecosystems of the West Coast of the United States.[10] As part of this effort, Barnard developed low cost, low power, easy to assemble devices capable of measuring photosynthetically active radiation (PAR).[11] A network of so-called PARduinos can be assembled across ground, providing constant measurements of PAR and allowing for Barnard and co-workers to model tree growth.[12]

Selected publications
  • Renée Brooks, J.; Barnard, Holly R.; Coulombe, Rob; McDonnell, Jeffrey J. (2009-12-20). "Ecohydrologic separation of water between trees and streams in a Mediterranean climate". Nature Geoscience. 3 (2): 100–104. doi:10.1038/ngeo722. ISSN 1752-0894.

References
  1. "MEET A LEAF: HOLLY BARNARD". AGU Ecohydrology. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  2. "McDonnell's Hillslope and Watershed Hydrology Lab, Oregon State University". www.cof.orst.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  3. Powell, J.M.; Pyrtle, A.J.; Williamson-Whitney, V.A. (2005). "Minorities Striving and Pursuing Higher Degrees of Success in Earth System Science (MS PHD'S) Initiatives Professional Development Program". Proceedings of OCEANS 2005 MTS/IEEE. IEEE: 1–6. doi:10.1109/oceans.2005.1639919. ISBN 0-933957-34-3. S2CID 12700386.
  4. Barnard, Holly Renʹe (2009). Inter-relationships of vegetation, hydrology and micro-climate in a young, Douglas-fir forest (Thesis). OCLC 402487695.
  5. "NSF Award Search: Award#0805714 - NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY2008". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  6. "Holly R. Barnard | People | INSTAAR | CU-Boulder". instaar.colorado.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  7. "Solving the ecological mystery of Africa's fairy circles". CU Boulder Today. 2017-08-22. Retrieved 2020-09-11.
  8. "Longer growing seasons complicate outlook for coniferous forests". CU Boulder Today. 2018-12-19. Retrieved 2020-09-11.
  9. "Holly Barnard | Education & Outreach". cires.colorado.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  10. "Professors Holly Barnard and Katherine Lininger Principal Investigators on $6.9M Grant". Geography. 2020-09-08. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  11. Barnard, Holly R.; Findley, Matthew C.; Csavina, Janae (2014-06-01). "PARduino: a simple and inexpensive device for logging photosynthetically active radiation". Tree Physiology. 34 (6): 640–645. doi:10.1093/treephys/tpu044. ISSN 0829-318X. PMID 24935916.
  12. "Measuring sunlight on the cheap: Open source electronics for datalogging | INSTAAR | CU-Boulder". instaar.colorado.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
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