Frances O’Donnell

Frances O’Donnell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Auburn University, Alabama. Her research integrates spatially heterogeneous vegetation structures and rainfall patterns to study carbon dynamics in savanna ecosystems. Previously, she conducted postdoctoral work at Northern Arizona University on fire and carbon dynamics in juniper woodlands. She is part of Auburn's interdisciplinary Climate, Human and Earth System Sciences (CHESS) cluster hire, focusing on multi-scale systems analysis of coupled human-earth dynamics.

Her research spans ecohydrology, sociohydrology, and biogeochemical cycling, with fieldwork conducted along the Kalahari Transect in southern Africa. Recent publications in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, PLoS One, and Ecohydrology highlight her work on soil carbon distribution, vegetation responses to sporadic rainfall, and fire-vegetation-carbon interactions.