In Iceland 2001 In Iceland 2001
Frank Magilligan
Professor
Geography
Department
Dartmouth
College
I attended graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison
and received a MS degree in Water Resources Management (1981),
a MS in Geography (1983), and a Ph.D. in Geography (1988). My
research interests focus primarily on fluvial geomorphology and
surface water hydrology. In particular, my research addresses
stream channel and watershed response to environmental change
-- whether the change is generated by natural (e.g. climate change)
or anthropogenic (e.g. agriculture, grazing, or logging) causes.
My main research interests have been on the response and recovery
of stream channels to either large floods or watershed disturbance,
and I have recently become interested in the links between channel
morphology and riparian ecology. I am currently involved in several
projects, including some recent work with an archaeologist from
Dartmouth, Paul Goldstein, working on El
Nino floods in Peru and their significance on Tiwanaku site
abandonment (this has recently been published in Geology).
Another on-going project is going on in Iceland analyzing the geomorphic impacts of the 1996 jokulhlaup
across the Skeidarasandur in SE Iceland. In the United States,
my interests range from the analsyis of the geomorphic impacts
of large floods, especially those associated with the 1993 flood
on the Mississippi River, and on the recovery of geomorphic sytems
to riparian cattle grazing. Mor recently, I have been working
on the hydro-geomorphic impacts of dams. This research has occurred
primarily in a field setting in the Upper Connecticut River Vally
and also by analyzing gage records trying to evaluate the magnitude of disconnectivity following
impoundment.
TEACHING INTERESTS:
Geomorphology
Geohydrology
Water Resources Management & Policy
Human Impacts on the Environment
Environmental Studies
PUBLICATIONS:
Magilligan, F.J., and Nislow, K.H., n.d., Changes in hydrologic regime by dams, Forthcoming, Geomorphology.
Nislow, K.H., Magilligan, F.J., Fassnacht, H., Bechtel, D.
and Ruesink, A., 2002, Effects of hydrologic alteration on flood
regime of natural floodplain communities in the Upper Connecticut
River, Journal American Water Resources Association, 38:
1533-1548.
Nislow, K.H., Magilligan, F.J., Folt, C.L., and Kennedy, B.P., 2002, Within-basin variation in the immediate effects of a major flood on stream fishes and invertebrates, Journal of Freshwater Ecology 17: 305-18.
Smith, L.C., Alsdorf, D.E, Magilligan, F.J., Gomez, B., Mertes, L.A.K., Smith, N.D., and Garvin, J.B., 2000, Estimation of erosion and deposition from SAR interferometry and net topographic change during the 1996 jökulhlaup, Skeidararsandur, Iceland, Water Resources Research, 36:1583-94.
Magilligan, F.J. and McDowell, P.F., 1997, Stream channel adjustments
following the elimination of cattle grazing, Journal of the
American Water Resources Association, 33: 867-878.
McDowell, P.F. and Magilligan, F.J. 1997, Response of stream channels
to removal of cattle grazing disturbance: overview of western
U.S. exclosure studies, In (eds.) S.S.Y. Wang, E.J. Langendoen,
and F.D. Shields, Management of Landscapes Disturbed by Channel
Incision, pp. 469-75, Oxford, Mississippi.
Magilligan, F.J. and Stamp, M.L., 1997, Historical land-cover
changes and hydrogeomorphic adjustment in a small Georgia watershed,
Annals Association of American Geographers, 87: 614-35.
Brakenridge, G.R., Knox, J.C., Paylor, N., and Magilligan, F.J.,
1994, Radar remote sensing aids study of the Great Flood of 1993.
EOS , 75: 521-527.
Kull, C. A. and Magilligan, F. J., 1994, Controls over landslide
distribution in the White Mountains, New Hampshire, Physical
Geography, 15: 325-341.
Beach, T. and Magilligan, F.J., 1993, Providence Canyon: The Grand
Canyon of Southwest Georgia. In (ed.) Bederman, S., Guidebook
for the 1993 Annual Meeting, Association of American Geographers,
pp. 103-09.
Magilligan, F. J. 1992, Thresholds and the spatial variability
of flood power during extreme floods, Geomorphology, 5:373-390.
Magilligan, F.J., 1992, Sedimentology of a fine-grained aggrading
floodplain. Geomorphology , 4:393-408.
Magilligan, F.J., 1988, Variations in slope components during
large magnitude floods,Wisconsin, Annals Association American
Geographers., 78: 520-533.
Magilligan, F.J., 1985, Historical floodplain sedimentation in
the Galena River basin, Wisconsin and Illinois, Annals Association
American Geographers, 75: 583-594.
Knox, J.C., S.A. Cary, and F.J. Magilligan, 1981, Climate variation
and the mobility and storage of sediment in watersheds, Technical
Report WIS WRC 81-03, Water Resources Center, University of Wisconsin,
Madison, 56 pp.
Water Resources Management Workshop, 1981, Lake Redstone: a water
quality and management study, University of Wisconsin, Madison,
Inst. of Environmental Studies Report No. 115, 24 pp.
GRANTS:
2003 National Science Foundation, The impacts of flow regulation by dams on the physical and ecological characteristics of rivers, ($244,000), PI: Magilligan, F., co-PIs: Renshaw, Heimsath, and Nislow.
2002 Dartmouth College: Rockefeller Center, The impacts of flow regulation by dams on the physical and ecological characteristics of rivers, ($16,000), Magilligan, F., PI
1999 Dartmouth College: Rockefeller Center, A multi-scale analysis of geomorphic and ecological influences on pool development, ($20,000), Magilligan, F., PI.
1998 NASA Land Surface Hydrology Program, Real-time
forecasting and rapid post-event assessment of erosional and depositional
flood damage, ($343,000 for three years) PI: Smith, L. (UCLA);
Co-PIs: Alsdorf, D., Garvin, J., Gomez, B., Izenberg, N., Jacobson,
R., Magilligan, F., and Mertes, L.
1997 The Nature Conservancy, Hydrologic Regimes
in the Connecticut River Rapids Macrosite (CRRM): links to landscape
change and ecological integrity, ($43,000), Magilligan, PI.
1997 National Science Foundation, Geomorphic impacts
of the jokulhlaup flood on the Skeidararsandur, Iceland. Gomez,
Magilligan, Mertes, Smith, co-PIs ($48,000).
1996 Dartmouth College: Rockefeller Center for Social
Sciences, Riparian and stream channel morphologic adjustments
in New England streams, ($6,810).
1994 National Science Foundation. Processes and
timing of geomorphic and hydraulic adjustments during stream channel
recovery. ($105,000). P. McDowell (University of Oregon), co-PI.
1993 Whiting Foundation. Hydropolitics in the Middle
East: hydrologic and social impacts of the Ataturk Dam (Turkey)
($5,800). Magilligan, PI.
1993 Dartmouth College: Rockefeller Program for Interdisciplinary
Research. The hydrologic response to historical land use change
in a Maine watershed ($10,000). Magilligan and Birnie, co-PIs.
1993 National Science Foundation. Overbank sedimentation
during the Upper Mississippi River flood of 1993 between Muscatine
and Keokuk. ($22,000). Gomez, Magilligan, Phillips and James,
co-PIs.
1992 National Science Foundation. Teaching Enhancement
Workshop in Hydrology. Co-sponsored by NSF-USGS. ($500).
1992 National Science
Foundation. Response and recovery of watersheds to environmental
change ($100,000). Magilligan, PI.
1992 National Science Foundation. Research Experience
for Undergraduates ($5,000). Magilligan, PI.
1991 American Chemical Society. Spatial and temporal
patterns of sediment mobility during basin de-stabilization. ($18,000).
Magilligan, PI.
1990 Georgia State University. Vice-President's
Research Award. Roughness variation in north Georgia stream channels
($2,000). Magilligan, PI.
1989 Georgia State University. Vice-President's
Research Award. Roughness variation in north Georgia stream channels
($3,000). Magilligan, PI.
1986 National Science Foundation: Doctoral Dissertation
Improvement Grant. Slope and roughness variation in small, meandering
channels ($11,610). Magilligan, PI.
1986 Geological Society of America. Penrose Dissertation
Research Award. Slope and roughness variation in small, meandering
channels ($800). Magilligan, PI.
1985 University of Wisconsin. Graduate School Domestic
Travel Fellowship. Slope and roughness variation in small, meandering
channels ($150). Magilligan, PI.
A. ICELAND
I am engaged in several collaborative projects both domestically and internationally. For the past four years, I have been working with Basil Gomez (ISU), Larry Smith (UCLA), and Leal Mertes (UCSB). In particular, we are attempting to assess the geomorphic impacts of the 1996 jokulhlaup across the Skeidarasandur, Iceland and relate these impacts to the long term development of the sandur. This jokulhlaup generated peak discharges > 53,000 cub. m/s, and was associated with major geomorphic changes that are linked to the recent asymmetric decoupling of the ice from the sandur; the shift from a previous diffuse pattern of water and sediment discharge across the sandur to a more channelized flow currently occurring; and the late Holocene depositional pattern of sandur development.
Fig. 1: Pre- and post-jokulhlaup for the sandur immediately downstream of the A.D. 1892 moraine. Image on right shows the deeply kettled depostional pattern downstream of the Gigjukvisl notch.
B. PERU
I have also been involved with a geoarchaeological project with Dr. Paul Goldstein from the Anthropology Department at Dartmouth. Paul and I are trying to establish an El Nino flood chronology for southern Peru and relate the incidence of large ENSO floods to the settlement and abandonment history of the Tiwinaku.
Fig. 2 Photo of stream bank of the Rio Muerto tributary. The upper flood unit is associated with the Miraflores flood which we have dated to cal AD 1300. The lower flood unit corresponds to a flood dated to cal AD 700.