• Professor, Water Resources Management
• Graduate Program Coordinator, Water Resources
• Director, New Hampshire Water Resources Research Center

Research

My primary research projects focus on biogeochemical cycles in streams, forests, and watersheds, with an overarching theme of linking terrestrial processes to groundwater and surface water quality at multiple spatial scales (plot, landscape, biome, and globe). My primary research sites are:

1. the Harvard Forest long-term plot experiments in which N inputs ("chronic N") and organic matter inputs ("DIRT" plots) are manipulated in order to understand controls on soil solution chemistry;
2. watersheds of the Luquillo Experimental Forest, in which I am examining the impacts of hurricanes, land use, soil chemistry and other landscape attributes on stream chemistry;
3. watersheds in New Hampshire (White Mountains and Lamprey River, with initial work on the Oyster River and Ossippee River), in which I am examining the effects of soil properties, land use, and human population density on water quality

In addition to these core study sites, I have established some collaborations with researchers in Brazil, Costa Rica, and the Czech Republic. Although I focus on the carbon and nitrogen cycles, I also study the cycles of other elements and weathering.

Detailed Description of Research Projects

Graduate Students

M.S. Students
	Emily DiFranco
	Austin Stonebraker
	Susan Wilderman
Ph.D. Students
	Lina Saavedra Diaz (Co-Chair)
	Debora Figueroa-Nieves
	Nathaniel Morse
	Jeffrey Schloss
	Elena Traister
Alumni :: 2000-present
	Anna Bourakovsky	December 2007	M.S.
	Jody Potter	December 2007	M.S.
	Katherine Traer	December 2007	M.S.
	Kathleen Legere	September 2007	M.S.
	Shelby Flint	May 2007	M.S.
	Naoko Watanabe	September 2006	M.S.
	Lauren Buyofsky	May 2006	M.S.
	Amy Smagula	May 2006	M.S.
	Jordan Macy	September 2005	M.S.
	Maya Bhatt	September 2005	Ph.D.
	Nadia Madden	December 2004	M.S.
	Tracey O'Donnell	December 2004	M.S.
	Brian Pellerin	September 2004	Ph.D.
	Dereck Robinson	December 2002	M.S.
	Jeremy Blumberg	December 2002	M.S.
	Michelle Daley	May 2002	M.S.
	Anne Gorham	September 2001	M.S.
	Carol Donohoe	May 2001	M.S.
	Jeffrey Merriam	May 2001	M.S.
	Jacqueline Aitkenhead-Peterson	May 2000	Ph.D.

Primary Teaching Responsibilities

• NR 703/803: Watershed Water Quality Management
• NR 947: Current Issues in Ecosystem Ecology

View Natural Resources undergraduate course descriptions
View Natural Resources graduate course descriptions

Selected Publications

McDowell, W.H. and S.G. Fisher. 1976. Autumnal processing of dissolved organic matter in a small woodland stream ecosystem. Ecology 57:561-569.

McDowell, W.H. and T. Wood. 1984. Podzolization: soil processes control dissolved organic carbon concentrations in stream water. Soil Science 137:23-32.

McDowell, W.H. and G.E. Likens. 1988. Origin, composition, and flux of dissolved organic carbon in the Hubbard Brook valley. Ecological Monographs 58:177-195.

McDowell, W.H., C. Gines-Sanchez, C.E. Asbury, and C.R. Ramos-Perez. 1990. Influence of sea salt aerosols and long-range transport on precipitation chemistry at El Verde, Puerto Rico. Atmospheric Environment 24A:2813-2821.

McDowell, W.H., W.B. Bowden, and C.E. Asbury. 1992. Riparian nitrogen dynamics in two geomorphologically distinct tropical rain forest watersheds: subsurface solute dynamics. Biogeochemistry 18:53-75.

McDowell, W.H. and C.E. Asbury. 1994. Export of carbon, nitrogen, and major ions from three tropical montane watersheds. Limnology and Oceanography 39:111-125.

Aber, J., W. McDowell, K. Nadelhoffer, A. Magill, G. Bernston, M. Kamakea, S. McNulty, W. Currie, L. Rustad, and I. Fernandez. 1998. Nitrogen saturation in temperate forest ecosystems: Hypotheses revisited. BioScience 48:921-934.

Matson, P.A., W.H. McDowell, A.R. Townsend, and P.M. Vitousek. 1999. The globalization of N deposition: ecosystem consequences in tropical environments. Biogeochemistry 46:67-83.

Aitkenhead, J.A. and W.H. McDowell. 2000. Soil C:N ratio as a predictor of annual riverine DOC flux at local and global scales. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 14:127-138.

Peterson, B.J., W. Wollheim, P.J. Mulholland, J.R. Webster, J.L. Meyer, J.L. Tank, N.B. Grimm, W.B. Bowden, H.M. Vallet, A.E. Hershey, W.H. McDowell, W.K. Dodds, S.K. Hamilton, S.V. Gregory, and D.J. D'Angelo. 2001. Stream processes alter the amount and form of nitrogen exported from small watersheds. Science 292:86-90.

McDowell, W.H. Hurricanes, people, and riparian zones: controls on nutrient losses from forested Caribbean watersheds. 2001. Forest Ecology and Management 154:443-451.

Merriam, J.L., W.H. McDowell, J.L. Tank, W.M. Wollheim, C.L. Crenshaw, and S.L. Johnson. 2002. Characterizing nitrogen dynamics, transport, and retention in a tropical rainforest stream using an in situ 15N addition. Freshwater Biology 47:143-160.

McDowell, W.H. 2003. Dissolved organic matter in soils - future directions and unanswered questions. Geoderma 113:179-186.

Education

Selected Service Activities

• University Academic Planning Committee
• University Outreach and Engagement Advisory Board
• Office of Sustainability Biodiversity Education Initiative
• Member of Executive Committee, Biogeosciences Section, American Geophysical Union
• Panel member, NSF DEB - Ecosystems Program
• Member, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) working group on the role of freshwaters in the global carbon cycle
• Fulbright Professor, Institute for Environmental Studies, Charles University , Prague , Czech Republic (1995-1996)