John Dowd

Part-Time Assistant Professor
B.S., University of Maine
M.F.S., Ph.D., Yale University, 1984

Research Interests

From 1984-1990, John was an Assistant Professor in the School of Forest Resources at UGA. After a year at the University of Plymouth (southwest England), he moved to this department. He has maintained links with the School of Forest Resources, co-teaching several joint-listed courses with Todd Rasmussen.

US based research: He has been involved with a number of projects in Georgia and the southeast. These include database studies for the Park Service, and various projects at the J. Phil Campbell Sr. Natural Resources Conservation Center, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Watkinsville, Ga. Studies at the ARS include kinematic rainfall generation, deep vadose zone sampling, 3-D groundwater flow modeling, and network modeling of flow paths to derive a geomorphologic instantaneous unit hydrograph. Studies at other locations have included the investigation of the hydraulic properties and solute transport in saprolite, flow and transport in fractured bedrock, and the fate and transport in the environment of various pesticides. Many of these studies have utilized stable isotopes as naturally occurring tracers.

England based research: He has been a Senior Visiting Fellow at the University of Plymouth where he was involved in several research projects concerning flow and transport in the vadose zone, and rainfall-runoff relations. One project involved measuring and modeling water and tracer movement in a structured soil using a large in situ soil block. The elaborate computer-controlled collection devices were initially developed at Georgia. Other British-based research includes modeling a large wetland in Cornwall, investigating flow in mole drains at the Institute for Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER), and plot and catchment-scale studies at a small experimental catchment on Dartmoor called Holne Moor. Some of the Holne Moor results are summarized at http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/pages/view.asp?page=18534.

Publications

Meyles, E. W., A.G. Williams, J.L. Ternan, J. M. Anderson and J. F. Dowd. 2006. The influence of grazing on vegetation, soil properties and stream discharge in a small Dartmoor catchment, southwest England, UK, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms: 31, 622-631.

Schroeder, Paul A., Jason C. Austin, and John F. Dowd. 2006. Estimating long-term soil respiration rates from carbon isotopes occluded in gibbsite. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 70(23): 5692-5697.

Meyles, E., Williams, A.G., Ternan, L., and J. F. Dowd. 2003. Runoff generation in relation to soil moisture patterns in a small Dartmoor catchment, Southwest England. Hydrological Processes. Vol. 17, 251-264.

Williams, A.G., Dowd, J.F., Scholefield, D., Holden, N., and L.K. Deeks. 2003. Preferential Flow Variability in a Well-Structured Soil. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 67:1272-1281.

Williams, A.G., Dowd, J.F., and E.W. Meyles. 2002. A New Interpretation of Kinematic Stormflow Generation. Hydrological Processes. Vol. 16, 2791-2803.

Feild, J.B., and J.F. Dowd. 2001. Evaluation of the Micropurge (Low-Flow) Method to the Packer Method of Groundwater Sampling of Fractures in Crystalline Bedrock of the North Georgia Piedmont. Proceedings of the 2001 Georgia Water Resources Conference, March 26-27, 2001. University of Georgia. pp. 582-585.

Rasmussen, T.C., R.H. Baldwin, J.F. Dowd, A.G. Williams. 2000. Tracer vs. pressure wave velocities through unsaturated saprolite. Journal Soil Science Society of America. Vol. 64 (1), 75-85.

Wiley, T.B., P.B. Bush, Y.C. Berisford, J.F. Dowd, and J.W. Taylor. 2000. Arsenal movement in an upper-coastal plain soil and watershed. Proceedings, Southern Weed Science Society. Vol. 53.

Deeks, L.K., Williams, A.G., Dowd, J.F. and D. Scholefield. 1999. Quantification of pore size distribution and the movement of solutes through isolated soil blocks. Geoderma. 90: (1-2) 65-86.

Millings, V.E.III, Romanek, C.S., Dowd, J.F., Wenner, D.B., Denham, M.E., Jagoe, C., and R. Lide. 1997. Stable Isotope Hydrology of a Carolina Bay. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 29.

Hardegree, W.S., Wenner, D.B., Dowd, J.F., and K.W. McLeod. 1995. Using 18O/16O data to examine the mixing of water masses in floodplain wetlands. Wetlands Ecology and Management 3(3): 189-194.

Holden, N.M., Dowd, J.F., Williams, A.G., and D. Scholefield. 1995. Computer control for investigating water and chemical transport in a large soil block. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 12:225-236.

Holden, N.M., Scholefield, D., Williams, A.G., and J.F. Dowd. 1995. A large soil block for in situ real-time spatial and temporal resolution measurement of preferential flow. 2nd Conference on Hydrological Processes in the Catchment, Krakow, Poland. April 1995. pp. 239-247.

Holden, N.M., Scholefield, D., Williams, A.G., and J.F. Dowd. 1995. Interfacing a fine resolution data set and a one-dimensional model to test quality of output with respect to preferential flow. 2nd Conference on Hydrological Processes in the Catchment, Krakow, Poland. April 1995. pp. 249-259.

Dowd, J.F., and J.E. Marshall. Recharge to high yield wells in the Piedmont. Proceedings of the 1995 Georgia Water Resources Conference, April 11-12, 1995. pp. 233.236.

Dowd, J.F. 1995. Recharge to Wells in High Yield Piedmont Fracture Zones. 44th Annual Southeastern Geological Society of America, April 6-7, 1995. Knoxville, TN.

Holden, N.M., Scholefield, D., Williams, A.G., and J.F. Dowd. 1995. The Simultaneous Use of Three Common Hydrological Tracers for Fine spatial and Temporal Resolution Investigation of Preferential Flow in a Large Soil Block. International Association of Hydrological Sciences, Boulder, Colorado. July 1995.

Dowd, J.F. and L.A. Crawford. 1995. Investigation of Recharge to a High Yield Piedmont Well. Geological Society of America, Annual Meeting. November 6-9, 1995. New Orleans, LA.

Jones, B., Schirmer, M., Dowd, J.F., Wenner, D.B., and T. Rasmussen. 1995. Use of Krypton as a Tracer for Determining Groundwater Velocities in Fractured Crystalline Bedrock of North GA. Geological Society of America. Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs. Vol., 27, no. 6.

Hulsey, C.W, Dowd, J.F., and E. W. Tollner. 1994. Secondary permeability of compacted clays ponded with organic solvents. 1994 ASAE International Winter Meeting, Dec. 13-16, 1994, Atlanta, GA. Paper 943582.