Kerry Lee Callaghan, PhD
Assistant Professor
Palaeohydrology, Regional and Global Hydrology, Landscape Analysis
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
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About
My research focusses on improving understanding of the relationship between water table, climate, sea level, and ice sheets at a regional to global scale. I develop and use computer models to simulate changing water table over thousands of years. I also develop and use computational tools for landscape analysis.
Global hydrology: The Earth’s hydrologic system includes links between ocean, ice, atmosphere, rivers, groundwater and lakes. We work to understand these links better, and especially the role that lakes and groundwater play in the system. Using the Water Table Model (WTM), we simulate past global groundwater and lake levels over thousands of years and consider the impacts of these changing water stores on glacial isostatic adjustment and sea level. We will also make predictions about future water levels under a variety of climate scenarios.
Landscape analysis: Standing surface water (lakes, puddles) is frequently neglected in landscape analysis. We note the importance of these bodies of water and use tools including the Depression Hierarchy and Fill-Spill-Merge to consider their impact across a variety of landscapes and temporal scales.
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Interested postdocs:
I am seeking one postdoc for a Spring 2023 or Fall 2023 start. Possible research areas will include global future water table prediction; regional long-term palaeohydrology; linking changing regional landscapes with depressions/water bodies. Interested postdocs should email me their CV and research interests.
Selected Publications
Complete list of publications on Google Scholar
- Barnes, R, Callaghan, K.L., and Wickert, A.D.: Computing water flow through complex landscapes – Part 3: Fill-Spill-Merge: Flow routing in depression hierarchies. Earth Surface Dynamics, 9, 105-121, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-105-2021, 2021.
- Barnes, R, Callaghan, K.L., and Wickert, A.D.: Computing water flow through complex landscapes – Part 2: Finding hierarchies in depressions and morphological segmentations. Earth Surface Dynamics, 8, 431-445, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-431-2020, 2020.
- Callaghan, K.L., and Wickert, A.D.: Computing water flow through complex landscapes – Part 1: Incorporating depressions in flow routing using FlowFill. Earth Surface Dynamics, 7(3), 737-753, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-7-737-2019, 2019.
Education
B.Sc. Earth Science, 2010, University of Pretoria
B.Sc. Hons. Geology, 2011, Stellenbosch University
M.Sc. Geoinformatics, 2014, Stellenbosch University
Ph.D. Earth Science, 2020, University of Minnesota
Postdoctoral research scientist 2021-2022 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University