Dan Obenour

Bio

Dan uses geospatial analytics to study complex environmental systems; his primary focus is on water quality dynamics in streams, lakes and coastal areas. He develops spatial and spatiotemporal geostatistical models to study hypoxia, harmful algal blooms and other aquatic phenomena. These models help characterize the extent of water quality impairments while also assessing key drivers of spatial and temporal variability. Other interests include environmental forecasting using mechanistic and empirical models with rigorous uncertainty quantification, so that policy makers and the public can be presented with the ranges of likely outcomes associated with different future scenarios, allowing for more informed decision-making.

Publications

• Characterizing Spatiotemporal Variability in Phosphorus Export across the United States through Bayesian Hierarchical Modeling , ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (2024)
• Relationships between soil test phosphorus and county-level agricultural surplus phosphorus , JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (2024)
• Trends and drivers of hypoxic thickness and volume in the Northern Gulf of Mexico: 1985-2018 , (2024)
• Water quality–fisheries tradeoffs in a changing climate underscore the need for adaptive ecosystem–based management , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024)
• An estuary stress index based on nekton relationships with thematic watershed stressors , ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS (2023)
• Bayesian hierarchical modeling characterizes spatio-temporal variability in phosphorus export across the contiguous United States , (2023)
• Contrasting Annual and Summer Phosphorus Export Using a Hybrid Bayesian Watershed Model , WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH (2023)
• Estimating the benefits of stream water quality improvements in urbanizing watersheds: An ecological production function approach , PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (2023)
• Advancing freshwater ecological forecasts: Harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie , SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT (2022)
• Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in river discharge: Modeling loads upstream and downstream of a PFAS manufacturing plant in the Cape Fear watershed, North Carolina , SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT (2022)