Bio

Ryan uses geospatial analytics to study ecohydrology in both natural and human-modified ecosystems and works on environmental issues that have disproportionate impacts on American Indian communities. He develops modeling approaches to understand plant water use in the northern Rocky Mountains, runoff generation in the southern Appalachian Mountains, salinization of coastal environments of North Carolina and climate change impacts on waters of cultural significance to the Lumbee Tribe. Other interests include the geospatial dynamics of processes such as the spread of mountain pine beetle and the distribution of soil microbes involved in methane cycling.

Publications

• Advancing an Environmental Justice-Centered Approach to Understanding Cumulative Impacts: Community-Engaged Analysis of Industrialized Biogas Development from Rural Eastern North Carolina , Environmental Justice (2025)
• Fueling Inequity: Geospatial Analyses Reveal Racial Patterns in Vulnerability to Natural Gas Pipeline Impacts in North Carolina , GeoHealth (2025)
• Indigenous invisibility: Gaps in education about Indigenous peoples among environmental decision‐makers , Earth stewardship. (2025)
• Injected Tracer Reveals Differences in Water Transport Rate, Residence Times and Mixing Dynamics in Tree Species of Contrasting Water Management Strategies , Hydrological Processes (2025)
• Internal Water Movement and Residence Time Differ in Two Tree Species in a Temperate Deciduous Forest: Evidence From an In Situ D₂O Isotope Tracer Study , Ecohydrology (2025)
• Listeria tempestatis sp. nov. and Listeria rocourtiae subsp. hofi subsp. nov. , INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY MICROBIOLOGY (2025)
• Over, Under, and Through: Hydrologic Connectivity and the Future of Coastal Landscape Salinization , Water Resources Research (2025)
• Overlooked and extensive ghost forest formation across the US Atlantic coast , Research Square (2025)
• Overlooked and extensive ghost forest formation across the US Atlantic coast , Nature Sustainability (2025)
• Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Drivers of Microbial Contaminants in Hurricane Florence Floodwaters , ACS ES&T Water (2025)