Travis William Nauman, PhD, Soil ScientistMy Professional Interests My background has been a study of environmental sciences with a focus on soils, hydrology, vegetation dynamics, and human impacts on these systems. Along the way, I discovered the value of GIS and spatial modeling to better integrate our knowledge of the environment. My interests in spatial modeling have taken me deep into the realms of machine learning, high performance computing, and code optimization to deal with the massive datasets required for modern predictive digital soil mapping approaches. I recently finished a PhD at West Virginia University, and moved back west to work for the USGS in Moab, UT. I've been focused on improving soil mapping products and integrating them with land management frameworks. In particular, I am working on development of ecological site descriptions in a variety of ecosystems. This work has varied from looking at shifts and carbon implications of the regional transition between northern hardwood and subalpine conifer forests in the Appalachians from railroad era disturbance (Nauman et al., 2015) to assessing dust emissions from disturbed drylands in the western US. Current projects include the Automated Reference Toolset (ART), oil and gas well-pad rehabilitation, dust monitoring, LandPKS mobile application development, digital soil mapping of next generation soil surveys, and ecological site development. Undergraduate Studies: 2002-2006 (University of Arizona) Worked at Water Quality Lab where I Iearned a lot of the basics of soil and water analysis. Soil Judging, an academic competition in field soil characterization, was a favorite undergraduate experience. National Soil Judging competitions in Illinois and Alabama proved to be some of my most memorable college experiences. I had the privilege of working on the Audubon Research Ranch as an intern. There, in addition to some grunt-work, I received the Audubon Apacheria Research Fellowship for research entitled: 'Soil Properties in Sacaton (Sporobolus wrightii) Restoration'. This research ended up lasting about a year and produced a report helping to aid future efforts of restoring Sacaton, a native Arizona riparian long-grass that was almost lost during the 20th century. Sonoran Institute: 2006-2009 After completing undergraduate work, the Sonoran Institute took me on as a Research Assistant in June of 2006 to help work with the Sonoran Desert Network (SODN) division of the National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program. Nauman Geospatial: 2009-2011 I worked on and off as an independent consultant. I have worked on a variety of natural resource and soil science projects. USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service 2010-2011 I have worked in various capacities with the NRCS in soil mapping and ecological site description applications. Graduate Work, 2007-2009 (University of Arizona); 2011-2015 (West Virginia University) My graduate work has focused on improving soil inventory maps for use in land management. My work at the University of Arizona with Dr. Craig Rasmussen focused on evaluating ASTER satellite imagery and USGS Digital Elevation Models for soil mapping. At West Virginia University, I helped update regional soil survey and developed some of the first forest ecological sites in the eastern USA. US Geological Survey: 6/2015 - Present Projects at the USGS include digital soil mapping, erosion modeling, dust emission modeling, oil and gas reclamation monitoring, salinity loading, ecological restoration, ecological site development, and field soil science training. Curriculum Vitae. Publications Nauman, T. W., C. P. Ely, M. P. Miller, and M. C. Duniway. In Press. Salinity yield modeling of the Upper Colorado River Basin using 30-meter resolution soil maps and random forests. Water Resources Research. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR024054. pdf. Chaney, N. W., Minasny, B., Herman, J. D., Nauman, T. W., Brungard, C. W., Morgan, C. L. S., McBratney, A. B., Wood, E. F., and Yimam, Y., 2019, POLARIS Soil Properties: 30-m Probabilistic Maps of Soil Properties Over the Contiguous United States: Water Resources Research, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR022797. pdf. Nauman, T. W., and Duniway, M. C., 2019, Relative prediction intervals reveal larger uncertainty in 3D approaches to predictive digital soil mapping of soil properties with legacy data: Geoderma, v. 347, p. 170-184. pdf. Duniway, M. C., Pfennigwerth, A. A., Fick, S. E., Nauman, T. W., Belnap, J., and Barger, N. N., 2019, Wind erosion and dust from US drylands: a review of causes, consequences, and solutions in a changing world: Ecosphere, v. 10, no. 3, p. e02650. pdf. Maynard, J. J., Nauman Travis, W., Salley, S. W., Bestelmeyer, B. T., Duniway Michael, C., Talbot, C. J., and Brown, J. R., 2019, Digital mapping of ecological land units using a nationally scalable modeling framework: Soil Science Society of America Journal. pdf. Nauman, T. W., Duniway, M. C., Webb, N. P., and Belnap, J., 2018, Elevated aeolian sediment transport on the Colorado Plateau, USA: The role of grazing, vehicle disturbance, and increasing aridity: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, v. 43, no. 14, p. 2897-2914. pdf. Waller, E. K., Villarreal, M. L., Poitras, T. B., Nauman, T. W., and Duniway, M. C., 2018, Landsat time series analysis of fractional plant cover changes on abandoned energy development sites: International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, v. 73, p. 407-419. pdf. Fan, Z., Wills, S. A., Herrick, J. E., Nauman, T. W., Brungard, C. W., Beaudette, D. E., Levi, M. R., and O’Geen, A. T., 2018, Approaches for improving field soil identification: Soil Science Society of America Journal. pdf. Poitras, T. B., Villarreal, M. L., Waller, E. K., Nauman, T. W., Miller, M. E., and Duniway, M. C., 2018, Identifying optimal remotely-sensed variables for ecosystem monitoring in Colorado Plateau drylands: Journal of Arid Environments, v. 153, p. 76-87. pdf. Nauman, T. W., Duniway, M. C., Villarreal, M. L., and Poitras, T. B., 2017, Disturbance automated reference toolset (DART): Assessing patterns in ecological recovery from energy development on the Colorado Plateau: Science of The Total Environment, v. 584-585, p. 476-488. pdf. Ramcharan, A., Hengl, T., Nauman, T., Brungard, C., Waltman, S., Wills, S., and Thompson, J., 2018, Soil Property and Class Maps of the Conterminous United States at 100-Meter Spatial Resolution: Soil Science Society of America Journal, v. 82, no. 1, p. 186-201. pdf. Duniway, M. C., Nauman, T. W., Johanson, J. K., Green, S., Miller, M. E., Williamson, J. C., and Bestelmeyer, B. T., 2016, Generalizing Ecological Site Concepts of the Colorado Plateau for Landscape-Level Applications: Rangelands, v. 38, no. 6, p. 342-349. pdf. Nauman, T.W., Duniway, M.C., 2016. The Automated Reference Toolset (ART): A soil-geomorphic ecological potential matching algorithm. Soil Science Society of America Journal. doi: 10.2136/sssaj2016.05.0151. pdf. Chaney, N.W., Wood, E.F., McBratney, A.B., Hempel, J.W., Nauman, T.W., Brungard, C.W., & Odgers, N.P. (2016). POLARIS: A 30-meter probabilistic soil series map of the contiguous United States. Geoderma, 274, 54-67. pdf. Nauman, T.W., Thompson, J.A., Teets, J., Dilliplane, T., Bell, J.W., Connolly, S.J., Liebermann, H.J., & Yoast, K. (2015). Pedoecological Modeling to Guide Forest Restoration using Ecological Site Descriptions. Soil Science Society of America Journal. pdf. Nauman, T.W., J.T. Thompson, J. Teets, T. Dilliplane, J. Bell, S.J. Connolly, H.J. Liebermann, and K. Yoast. 2015. Ghosts of the forest: mapping pedomemory to guide forest restoration. Geoderma 147-148. pdf. Nauman, T.W., Thompson, J.A., Rasmussen, C.R. 2014. Semi-Automated Disaggregation of a Conventional Soil Map using Knowledge Driven Data Mining and Random Forests in the Sonoran Desert, USA. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. pdf. Nauman, T.W. and Thompson, J.A., 2014. Semi-automated disaggregation of conventional soil maps using knowledge driven data mining and classification trees. Geoderma, 213(0): 385-399. pdf. Helmick, J.L., Nauman, T.W. Thompson, J.A. Developing and assessing prediction intervals for soil property maps derived from legacy databases. GlobalSoilMap Conference to be held in Orleans, France. 7 to 9 October 2013 - Awarded best oral presentation in conference. pdf. Gwilliam, E. L., K. Raymond, S. Buckley, A. Hubbard, C. McIntyre, and T. Nauman. 2013. Streams monitoring at Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot national monuments: status report for water years 2009–2011. Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/SODN/NRTR—2013/ XXX. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. Nauman, T., Thompson, J.A., Odgers, N. and Libohova, Z., 2012. Fuzzy Disaggregation of Conventional Soil Maps using Database Knowledge Extraction to Produce Soil Property Maps. In: B. Minasny, B. Malone and A. McBratney (Editors), Digital Soil Assessments and Beyond: 5th Global Workshop on Digital Soil Mapping, Sydney, Australia. pdf. Thompson, J.A., Nauman, T., Odgers, N., Libohova, Z. and Hempel, J., 2012. Harmonization of Legacy Soil Maps in North America: Status, Trends, and Implications for Digital Soil Mapping Efforts. In: A. McBratney, B. Minasny and B. Malone (Editors), The 5th Global Workshop on Digital Soil Mapping. Digital Soil Assessments and Beyond, Sydney, Australia. pdf. Villarreal, M.L., van Riper, Charles, III, Lovich, R.E., Palmer, R.L., Nauman, Travis, Studd, S.E., Drake, Sam, Rosenberg, A.S., Malusa, Jim, and Pearce, R.L., 2011, An inventory and monitoring plan for a Sonoran Desert ecosystem; Barry M. Goldwater Range—West: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2011–1232, 103 p., available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2011/1232/. Nauman, Travis. 2010. “Erosion Assessment for Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot National Monuments.” Ed. Alice Wondrak Biel. NPS USDOI Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/SODN. NRTR-2010/281. Nauman, T.W., 2009. Digital Soil-Landscape Classification for Soil Survey using ASTER Satellite and Digital Elevation Data in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona. MS Thesis, The University of Arizona. Nauman, Travis. 2007. "Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) Use for Assessment of Cultural Site Water Erosion Risk at Tonto National Monument, Arizona." DSCESU Cooperative Agreement: H1200050003. Final Report Erosion Potential on Cultural Resource Sites (SI-31). Sonoran Institute. Hubbard, J. Andrew, Cheryl L. McIntyre, Sarah E. Studd, Travis Nauman. 2008. "Terrestrial Vegetation and Soil Monitoring Protocol and Standard Operating Procedures for the Sonoran Desert Network"Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/SODN/NRTR–2008. Nauman, Travis. 2008. "Erosion Assessment of Cultural Resource Sites at Tonto National Monument: Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) Simulations" Final Report SI-38. Sonoran Institute. |
