SPEAKER: Peter Nico Soil and Environmental Biogeochemist Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Resilient Energy, Water and Infrastructure Program Domain Lead DATE: Wednesday, November 15, 2017 TIME: 4:00-5:15pm PLACE: 126 Barrows TITLE: Impact of Subsurface Structure on Water Dynamics During On-Farm Water Recharge DESCRIPTION: On-farm water recharge is a promising approach for capturing excess winter flows in order to support the sustainable management of groundwater. Other on-farm recharge studies have been devoted to understanding the suitability of both crops and surface soils for recharge activities. In contrast, our current work is focused on examining the subsurface region between the surface soil and the aquifer (the vadose zone), and how the subsurface structure of the vadose zone influences the process of managed groundwater recharge. This work shows how the application of subsurface geophysical imaging techniques coupled with isotopic tracer studies and hydrologic modeling efforts improve our understanding of water migration processes in the subsurface. The results from this high resolution intensive investigation of a particular test recharge site will be discussed in the context of the needs for large scale water management and potential approaches to link management scales. BIO: Peter Nico is a Staff Scientist in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area of Berkeley National Lab, and the Lead of the Resilient Energy, Water, and Infrastructure Program Domain within the Energy Geosciences Division. He is a soil geochemist by training with a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Environmental and Chemistry from U.C. Davis and did his post-doc in the Department of Geologic and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University.