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Watershed Management Lab

Lab Members

Research in the Watershed Management Lab is managed and coordinated by Dr. Matt Deitch and his students and staff at the West Florida Research and Education Center.

Dr. Matthew Deitch

Matt has been studying environmental management and sustainability issues for more than 20 years. His research interests are broad, ranging from watershed hydrology and water chemistry to ecological resilience and social dynamics of collaborative decisionmaking. 

Emily Harmon

Emily manages the Watershed Management Lab facilities and equipment in Milton. She is expert in field work and lab analysis, coordinating all activities with lab instrumentation including handheld water quality devices and our lab ion chromatograph.

woman in life vest

Suman Jumani (lab alum)

Ph.D. student from 2017 to 2022

Suman's research involves watershed-scale hydrologic modeling and field-based assessments to examine how changes in hydrology and habitat connectivity alter fish populations and other aquatic resources. She is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Georgia.

Field technician standing in a forest

Jiahua Zhou

Ph.D. student since 2017

Jiahua is interested in how sea level rise and increased hydrologic variability will affect estuary salinity in the 21st Century. His research employs complex statistical methods and hydrodynamic estuary modeling and applies these methods to estuaries in Florida’s Gulf Coast.

researcher using a soil auger in a forest.

Ashlynn Smith

Ph.D. student since 2018

Ashlynn’s research examines how restoration activities in Florida’s coastal wet prairies can reduce nutrient loading and benefit native plants. Her research has important implications for restoration in coastal dune lakes and estuaries along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

 Ronell Bridgemohan

Ph.D. student since 2019

Ronell is interested in water quality characteristics of streams and estuaries, and how landscape characteristics influence the health of the region and its residents. He is especially interested in management that can reduce pathogens that threaten human health.

Caitlin Turnbull

Lab and Field Technician

Caitlin Turnbull works as field and lab technician for the Watershed Management Lab. She is currently working on projects to examine how nature-based projects can improve community sustainability.

Lauren Williams

UF Master's student since 2020

Lauren is a Master's student in the Watershed Management Lab. Her interests are in spatial analysis and geomorphic processes, especially in coastal rivers and floodplains.

Love Kumar

UF PhD student since 2020

Love Kumar is studying the hydrology and chemistry of sloughs along the Lower Apalachicola River. His project is part of a collaboration with Apalachicola Riverkeeper and other universities in the region.

Barbara Cory

UF Master's student since 2020

Barbara is studying how woody encroachment has affected water quality in streams and groundwater in watersheds upstream of coatal dune lakes along Florida's Gulf Coast, through extensive collection field measurements and water samples, operation of analytical chemistry instrumentation, and thorough statistical analysis.

Tesfay Gebremicael

UF Postdoc since 2020

Tesfay is a Postdoc in the Watershed Management Lab, where he applies his extensive modeling and analytical skills to examine how watershed characteristics influence water quality and hydrology of streams and estuaries in Florida's Gulf Coast.

woman standing in creek

Traci Goodhart (lab alum)

Traci completed her Master’s Degree in Spring 2019. While completing her research project in the Watershed Management Lab, Traci studied nutrient loads and hydrologic dynamics in the Carpenter’s Creek watershed in Pensacola, Florida. Her research found that more urban sites had higher chemical loads than those that were not as heavily urbanized.

Traci works for the city of Destin as an Environmental Planner.