Adrian Harpold

Adrian Harpold is an Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Science at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he leads the Nevada Mountain Ecohydrology Lab. His work addresses water sustainability challenges in the context of rapid environmental change and increasing demand for water resources in the 21st century.

Education:

• B.S. Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 2003
• M.S. Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 2005
• Ph.D. Cornell University, 2010

Research Interests:

Harpold’s research centers on mountain ecohydrology, integrating field observations, remote sensing, and modeling to understand how climate change, forest structure, and extreme events affect snowpack dynamics, vegetation feedbacks, and water availability. His lab addresses three guiding questions:

• How will changing and extreme climate impact mountain snowpacks and precipitation?
• How do feedbacks between changing snowpacks and vegetation control catchment-scale water budgets, especially during drought?
• How will changing snowpacks and precipitation alter streamflow generation and flood sensitivity?

Additional themes include the fate and transport of water, energy, carbon, and biogeochemical solutes at landscape scales, bridging basic and applied science.

Publication Trends:

From 2022–2025, Harpold has published prolifically on snow hydrology, forest-snow interactions, machine-learning applications, and climate-driven hydrologic change. Recent work emphasizes lidar-based forest characterization, non-stationarity in hydrologic models after mega-disturbances, and groundwater influence on snowmelt runoff. These studies collectively advance predictive capabilities for water resource management under non-stationary climate conditions.

Scientific Awards:

No specific awards are listed in the provided text.

Advising, Grants & Collaborations:

Harpold mentors graduate students through the Graduate Program of Hydrologic Sciences at UNR. While individual student names are not provided, his lab actively involves graduate researchers in field campaigns, remote-sensing analysis, and integrated modeling projects. Grant funding supports lidar acquisitions, field instrumentation across the Sierra Nevada, and development of decision-support tools for forest and water managers.

Labs & Teams:

The Nevada Mountain Ecohydrology Lab (website: https://www.unr.edu/natural-resources/mountain-ecohydrology) operates field sites and sensor networks across the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin, leveraging partnerships with federal agencies, forest services, and irrigation districts to translate research into actionable water-resource strategies.