Durelle Scott

Courses Taught Last Five Years

• BSE 3144 - Numerical Analysis
• BSE 3124 - Green Engineering
• BSE 5214 - Field Methods in Hydrology

Program Focus

Water sustainability is a huge issue - we need more food to feed an ever increasing population, but are compromising our natural resources. Water is one resource that is intimately connected to both food and energy. My primary goal is to improve our nation’s water quality through research and education. Our group focuses on quantifying how natural systems behave in the face of change, and then applying/adapting this knowledge into workable solutions (e.g. improved stream/wetland restoration). 

Current Projects

• Deglaciation effects on Hydroecology: Glaciers are thinning across the world, which in turn will cause dramatic changes in material fluxes through the landscape. We are exploring how the magnitude and timing of material fluxes will change in a series of glaciated catchments in southeast Alaska.
• Small Watershed Hydroecology: Small, forested watersheds provide a large ecosystem service: buffering of downstream nutrient loads. Within the landscape, stream ecosystems are one component where nutrient retention may occur. Our current project seeks to understand the temporal variability in carbon and nitrogen transformations within streams channels located within headwater forested catchments.
• Floodplain / Stream Restoration - StREAM: The project brings together scientists/educators in CALS and the greater Virginia Tech community to develop a nationally recognized research facility that can be used to attract major competitive funding, improve undergraduate and graduate teaching, and enhance outreach opportunities.
• Freshwater Diversions: Here we are exploring the use of freshwater diversions in managing excess nutrient fluxes to downstream ecosystems. Our current work is based in the Atchafalaya River Basin in Louisiana.
• Floodplain Ecohydrology: Floodplains represent a biologically diverse hotspot on the landscape. These regions may serve to buffer downstream nutrient loads. We are exploring the use of floodplains as bioreactors, from understanding the basic hydrology and biogeochemistry to how ecological services within these zones will change in response to a varying climate. Together, we seek to use this understanding to inform stream and riparian restoration.

Selected Recent Publications

(* undergraduate student, ** graduate student, *** post-doc)

• Sangha, L., Hildebrand, D., Scott, D. & Shortridge, J. Evaluation of surface water supply impacts from permit exemptions: A comparison with climate change and demand growth. J American Water Resour Assoc 60, 767–783 (2024).
• Plont, S., Scott, D. T. & Hotchkiss, E. R. Biogeochemical Processes Are Altered by Non‐Conservative Mixing at Stream Confluences. Water Resources Research 59, e2022WR034224 (2023).
• Federman, C. E., Scott, D. T. & Hester, E. T. 2023. Impact of floodplain and Stage 0 stream restoration on flood attenuation and floodplain exchange during small frequent storms. J American Water Resour Assoc 59, 29–48.
• Wardinski, K. M. et al. 2022. Water‐soluble organic matter from Soils at the terrestrial‐aquatic interface in wetland‐dominated landscapes. JGR Biogeosciences 127.
• Nayeb Yazdi, M., D. Scott, D. Sample, and X. Wang. 2021. Efficacy of a retention pond in treating stormwater nutrients and sediment. Journal of Cleaner Production, 290. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.125787
• Brogan, C., R. Burgholzer, T. Keys, J. Kleiner, J. Shortridge, and D. Scott. 2021. The cumulative role of impoundments in streamflow alteration. JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources, 1752-1688. DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.12979
• Rapp, J., R. Burgholzer, J. Kleiner, D. Scott, and E. Passero. 2020. Application of a new species-richness based flow ecology framework for assessing flow reduction effects on aquatic communities. JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 56 (6). DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.12877
• Kleiner, J., E. Passero, R. Burgholzer, J. Rapp, and D. Scott. 2020. Elfgen: A New Instream flow framework for rapid generation and optimization of flow–ecology relations. JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 56 (6). DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.12876
• Scott, D., J. Gomez-Velez, C. Jones, and J. Harvey. 2019. Floodplain inundation spectrum across the United States. Nature Communications, 10, 5194. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13184-4
• Nayeb Yazdi, M., D. J. Sample, D. Scott, J. S. Owen, M. Ketabchy, and N. Alamdari.  2019. Water quality characterization of storm and irrigation runoff from a container nursery. Science of the Total Environment, 667:166–178. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.326
• Keys, T., M. F. Caudill, and D. Scott. Storm effects on nitrogen flux and longitudinal variability in a river-reservoir system. 2019. River Research and Applications, 35(6):577–586. DOI: 10.1002/rra.3433

Selected Recent Funding

• Collaborative Research: Evolution of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) from the headwaters to the catchment outlet: sources, variation with scale, and differences with DOC. 10/08 – 9/11, $138458, 0.5 summer months per year, NSF, location: Delaware.
• RUI: Collaborative Research: How does changing glacial coverage affect the transport and fate of DOM and nutrients in coastal watersheds on the Gulf of Alaska?. 4/09 – 3/12, $177000, 0.5 summer months per year, NSF, location: Alaska.
• RAPID: The 2011 Historic High Flows in the Atchafalaya Basin: How will Hydrologic transport Alter Nutrient Retention (C and N)?, 6/1/11 – 5/31/12, PI, $17,617, NSF, location: Louisiana.
• Helping Streams Help Themselves: Restoring Sustainable and Distributed Water Pollution Attenuation, 3/11 – 2/14, co-PI, $300,998, 0.5 summer months per year, NSF, location: Virginia.