Aaron Bugaj

Phone: 
Email: 
bugaja@email.arizona.edu
Degrees/Affiliations: 
BS Environmental Science, Seattle University, 2013
Title & Affiliation: 
Research Technician and LEO Outreach Specialist, Biosphere 2, University of Arizona

My passion for Biosphere 2 is rooted in the opportunities the facility provides for collaborative research, design, and outreach in the field of Earth science, systems ecology, and drylands green infrastructure research. I have been heavily involved in the installation of LEO instrumentation and automated sampling systems including the new state of the art LEO Stable Isotope Lab. I maintain day to day operations and sampling of the LEO hill slopes throughout continued experimentation and rain events.  Additionally, I lead an experiment in the Desert Biome involving traditional clay pot irrigation aka "Olla" that aims to make green infrastructure, soil water dynamics, and plant physiology more approachable for K-12 students interested in Earth science and drylands ecology.

Themes

Projects

Model Systems

Laboratories

Publications

2020 (Published)

Highly sampled measurements in a controlled atmosphere at the Biosphere 2 Landscape Evolution Observatory . Arevalo, J., Zeng, X., Durcik, M., Sibayan, M., Pangle, L., Abramson, N., Bugaj, A., Ng, W.-R., Kim, M., Barron-Gafford, G., van Haren, J., Niu, G.-Y., Adams, J., Ruiz, J., and Troch, P. A. (2020): Scientific Data 7: 306.

2018 (Published)

Controlled Experiments of Hillslope Coevolution at the Biosphere 2 Landscape Evolution Observatory: Toward Prediction of Coupled Hydrological, Biogeochemical, and Ecological Change . Volkmann Till H. M., Aditi Sengupta, Luke A. Pangle, Katerina Dontsova, Greg A. Barron-Gafford, Ciaran J. Harman, Guo-Yue Niu, Laura K. Meredith, Nate Abramson, Antonio A. Meira Neto, Yadi Wang, John R. Adams, David D. Breshears, Aaron Bugaj, Jon Chorover, Alejandro Cueva, Stephen B. DeLong, Matej Durcik, Ty P. A. Ferre, Edward A. Hunt, Travis E. Huxman, Minseok Kim, Raina M. Maier, Russell K. Monson, Jon D. Pelletier, Michael Pohlmann, Craig Rasmussen, Joaquin Ruiz, Scott R. Saleska, Marcel G. Schaap, Michael Sibayan, Markus Tuller, Joost L. M. van Haren, Xubin Zeng and Peter A. Troch (2018): in: Hydrology of Artificial and Controlled Experiments (eds. Jiu-Fu Liu and Wei-Zu Gu), IntechOpen, pp. 25-74.

2018 (Published)

Experimental observation of a hillslope-scale rank StorAge Selection function: Process controls on its functional form, time variability, and hysteresis . Kim, M., Volkmann, T.H.M., Abramson, N., Bugaj, A., Hunt, E., Matos, K., Meira Neto, A.A., Sengupta, A., Wang, Y., Meredith, L.K., Dontsova, K., Harman, C.J., Chorover, J., and Troch, P.A. (2018): Abstract H13N-1958 presented at 2018 AGU Fall Meeting, Washington, D.C., 10-14 Dec.