Calla Schmidt received a PhD in Earth Science from the
University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research spans physical
hydrology and biogeochemistry and aims to understand the connection
between hydrology and the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients. She
has done research on nutrient cycling during groundwater recharge,
nitrogen pollution in highway runoff and presently she is working
on a project investigating the transfer of nutrients discharged by
wastewater treatment plants into the base of the food-web in San
Francisco Bay. Dr Schmidt's research begins in the field
with the collection of water and sediment samples and other
supporting environmental data. In the lab she uses a combination of
chemical and isotopic techniques as well as modeling to connect the
physical hydrology of a system with changes in water quality. In
all of her research her goal is to use insights into fundamental
processes in hydrology to help inform sustainable management of
water resources.
