Dr. Shawn Benner's research group conducts research in the field of hydrologic sciences with a particular interest in the linkages between physical, chemical and biological processes including groundwater contamination, ecological response to climate change, and biogeochemical processes in natural systems. He got his start in the geosciences at Colorado College, where he received his undergraduate degree. He then attended the University of Montana where his master’s thesis work focused on surface-groundwater interaction in the mine-impacted floodplain of the upper Clark Fork River. His Ph.D. is from the University of Waterloo, where he conducted research on reactive barriers to remediate mine drainage. Prior to joining the faculty at Boise State in 2004, Dr. Benner was a post-doc at Stanford University and a research scientist at the Desert Research Institute. He typically has a number of ongoing projects working in the lab and at field sites in Idaho as well as in more exotic locales including Thailand and Cambodia.
Articles
An Evaluation of the Hydrologic Relevance of Lateral Flow in Snow at Hillslope and Catchment Scales (with David Eiriksson, Michael Whitson, Charles H. Luce, Hans Peter Marshall, John Bradford, Thomas Black, Hank Hetrick, and James P. McNamara), Hydrological Processes (2013)
Lateral downslope flow in snow during snowmelt and rain-on-snow (ROS) events is a well-known phenomenon,...
Transport of Biologically Important Nutrients by Wind in an Eroding Cold Desert (with Joel B. Sankey, Matthew J. Germino, Nancy F. Glenn, and Amber N. Hoover), Aeolian Research (2012)
Wind erosion following fire is an important landscape process that can result in the redistribution...
Persistent Metal Contamination Limits Lotic Ecosystem Heterotrophic Metabolism after More Than 100 Years of Exposure: A Novel Application of the Resazurin Resorufin Smart Tracer (with Daniel Stanaway, Roy Haggerty, Alejandro Flores, and Kevin Feris), Environmental Science & Technology (2012)
Persistent stress from anthropogenic metal deposition in lotic ecosystems is a global concern. This long-term...
Accumulation of Potentially Toxic Elements in Road Deposited Sediments in Residential and Light Industrial Neighborhoods of Singapore (with J. Q. Yuen, Paul H. Olin, H. S. Lim, R. A. Sutherland, and A. D. Ziegler), Journal of Environmental Management (2012)
Road deposited sediments (RDS) are a valuable environmental medium for characterizing contaminant levels in urban...
Hillslope Asymmetry Maps Reveal Widespread, Multi-Scale Organization (with Michael J. Poulos, Jennifer L. Pierce, and Alejandro N. Flores), Geophysical Research Letters (2012)
Hillslope asymmetry is the condition in which oppositely-facing hillslopes within an area have differing average...
Presentations
Spatial and Temporal Variations in Groundwater Chemistry from an Arsenic‐Contaminated Area of Cambodia (with Matthew L. Polizzotto and Scott Fendorf), Conference on Arsenic in Groundwater in Southern Asia (2011)
Valley Asymmetry Maps for the American Cordillera Reveal Patterns Suggestive of Tectonic, Lithologic, Climatic and Fluvial Drivers (with Michael J. Poulos, Alejandro N. Flores, and Jennifer L. Pierce), Rocky Mountain (63rd Annual) and Cordilleran (107th Annual) Joint Meeting (2011)
Valleys become asymmetric when tectonic, lithologic, climatic, ecologic or hydrologic drivers cause hillslopes on one...