Professor of GeographyPh.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1988
Fairchild 017 | (603) 646-1475
magilligan@dartmouth.edu | Personal page | CV | Google Scholar
My teaching and 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. For example, I have worked on the geomorphic impacts of catastrophic floods in the Upper Mississippi River as well as glacial outburst floods in Iceland. At a more local level, I have been analyzing the geomorphic impacts of HurricaneIrene that ravaged eastern Vermont in late summer 2011. Currently, I am focusing on the links between channel processes and riparian ecology, especially the role of flow regulation by dams on aquatic and floodplain ecology. This work was recently highlighted in a National Science Foundation online newsletter and PBS.
Besides this current research on the hydro-ecological impacts of dams and dam removal, I also have a project in the Peruvian Atacama Desert investigating the long-term evolution of El Niño floods and the regional relationship between climate change and cultural history. Students are actively involved in all aspects of my research and are an integral part of all my research activities.
GEOG 03: The Natural Environment
GEOG 12: Wilderness, Culture, and Environmental Conservation
GEOG 14: Global Water Resources
GEOG 33: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms
GEOG 35: Fluvial Processes and Watershed Science
Renshaw, C.E., Abengoza, K., Magilligan, F.J., Dade, W.B., and Landis, J.D., n.d. Controls on floodplain sedimentation in flow regulated rivers, In Press, Geomorphology.
Kasprak, A., Magilligan, F.J., Nislow, K.H., and Snyder, N., 2012, A lidar-derived evaluation of watershed-scale large woody debris sources and recruitment mechanisms: Coastal Maine, USA, RiverResearch & Applications, doi: 10.1002/rra.1532
Landis, J.D., Hamm, N.T., Renshaw, C.E., Dade, W.B., Magilligan, F.J., Gartner, J.D., 2012, Surficial redistribution of fallout 131iodine in a small temperate catchment, Proceedings National Academy of Sciences, 109: 4064–4069.
Gartner, J.D., Renshaw, C.E., Dade, W.B., Magilligan, F.J., 2012, Time and depth scales offine sediment delivery into gravel stream beds: Constraints from fallout radionuclides on fine sediment residence time and delivery, Geomorphology, 151: 39-49.
Goldstein, P. and Magilligan, F.J., 2011, Hazard, risk and agrarian adaptations in a hyperarid watershed: El Niño floods, streambank erosion, and the cultural bounds of vulnerability in the Andean Middle Horizon, Catena, 85: 155–167.
Dade, W.B., Renshaw, C.E., and Magilligan, F.J., 2011, Sediment-transport constraints on river response to regulation, Geomorphology, 126(1-2): 245-251
Black, E., Renshaw, C.E., Magilligan, F.J., Kaste, J., Dade, W.B. and Landis, J., 2010, Determining lateral migration rates in meandering rivers using fallout radionuclides, Geomorphology, 12:364–369.
Curtis, K.E, Renshaw, C.E., Magilligan, F.J, and Dade, W.B., 2010, Temporal and spatial scales of geomorphic adjustments to reduced competency following flow regulation in bedload dominated systems, Geomorphology, 118: 105-117
Fisher, G.B., Magilligan, F.J., Kaste, J.M., and Nislow, K.H., 2010, Constraining the timescales of sediment sequestration associated with large woody debris with cosmogenic beryllium-7, Journal of Geophysical Research - Earth Surface, VOL. 115, F01013, doi:10.1029/2009JF001352
Svendsen, K.M., Renshaw, C.E., Magilligan, F.J., Nislow, K.H., and Kaste, J.M., 2009, Altered flow and sediment regimes at tributary junctions on flow regulated rivers: impact of hydrologic disruptions on benthic macroinvertebrate communities, Hydrological Processes, 23: 284-296.
Magilligan, F.J., Goldstein, P., Fisher, G.B., Bostick, B.C, and Manners, R., 2008, Late Quaternary hydroclimatology of a hyper-arid Andean watershed: Climate change, floods, and fluvial responses to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation in the Atacama Desert, Geomorphology, 101:14-32.
Magilligan, F.J., Haynie, H.J., and Nislow, K.H., 2008, Channel adjustments to dams in the Connecticut River basin: implications for forested mesic watersheds, Annals Association American Geographers,98(2): 267-284.
Magilligan, F.J., Nislow, K.H., Fisher, G.B., Wright, J., Mackey, G., Laser, M., 2008, The geomorphic function and characteristics of large woody debris in low gradient rivers, coastal Maine, USA, Geomorphology, 97: 467–482.
Manners, R., Magilligan, F.J. and Goldstein, P. 2007, Floodplain development, El Niño, and cultural consequences in a hyperarid Andean environment, Annals Association American Geographers, 97(2): 229-249.
