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2018 Birdsall-Dreiss Distinguished Lecturer
David Boutt
is an associate professor in the
Department of Geosciences at the
University of Massachusetts–
Amherst. He received B.S. and M.S. flows reveals a heterogeneous response of aquifers to climate
degrees from the Department of
Geological Sciences at Michigan
State University in 1997 and 1999. observed from analysis of water-level trends, is associated with an
His M.S. work focused on under-
standing the impacts of land-use
change on groundwater quantity and pic tracers into this work has improved our understanding of the
quality at the watershed scale. He earned his Ph.D. from the New
Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 2004 and held a
postdoctoral position at Sandia National Laboratories before join-
ing the faculty at Amherst in 2005.
During his Ph.D. research, Boutt was awarded an American
Geophysical Union Horton Research Grant. His dissertation work
focused on the coupling of fluid flow and deformation in frac-
tured and faulted media through the development of discretely
coupled fluid-solid models.
Boutt’s current research focuses on understanding the role of
groundwater in catchment-scale hydrologic processes. He main-
tains an active and dynamic research laboratory with dedicated
undergraduate and Ph.D. students. His research has taken him on
board the Japanese Drilling Vessel Chikyu during Integrated
Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 319—the first riser
drilling operation in IODP history—and to the wilds of the
Atacama desert in Chile. His work includes the origin of lithium-
rich continental brines in northern Chile and in the Great Basin of
the western United States. Boutt has also contributed extensively
to understanding the hydrogeology of a former cranberry bog that
is part of the largest freshwater restoration project in New England ment divides correspond to groundwater divides and how this is
(www.livingobservatory.org). He has served the hydrogeologic
and broader geoscience communities on proposal review panels
and volunteer boards. He is currently an editor for Hydrological
Processes and was previously an associate editor for
Hydrogeology. A list of his publications can be found at https://
blogs.umass.edu/dboutt/.
Institutions can schedule a visit by completing the request form
at community.geosociety.org/hydrodivision/birdsall/
about2018. Boutt will present one lecture on one of the topics
described below. The GSA Hydrogeology Division is particularly
interested in including liberal arts colleges in the itinerary. The
Division pays transportation expenses, and the host institution is
expected to provide local accommodations.
Groundwater as a Buffer to Climatic Change: Dynamic
Subsurface Storage of Glaciated Landscapes
The northeastern U.S. is experiencing rapid changes in its
hydrology due to intense land-use change, urbanization, and cli-
mate change. It also possesses some of the highest density, longest
term observations of hydrologic variables in the U.S. and the
world. The focus of this presentation is on how small, unconfined
www.geosociety.org/gsatoday
aquifer systems respond to hydroclimatic and land-use changes.
Physical and geochemical information is used to understand how
different subsurface environments and surface-water–groundwa-
ter interactions impact the sensitivity of groundwater storage to
climate variability. Analysis of groundwater levels and stream-
variability. This highlights the role of subsurface hydrologeologic
heterogeneity to aquifer response. Long-term rise in water levels,
increase in precipitation and land-use change, which has ulti-
mately led to an increase in nuisance flooding. Integrating isoto-
role of extreme precipitation events on groundwater storage.
Isotope data also shed light on the fundamental importance of
groundwater discharge to streamflow. This work highlights the
importance of understanding groundwater processes in generating
in streamflow, with implications for water supply, baseflow gen-
eration, climate refugia, and assessing flood risk in a changing
world.
Do You Know Where Your Catchment Ends? The Role
of Inter-Basin Groundwater Flow and Hydrogeologic
Transience in Hydrologic Processes
A fundamental concept in the hydrologic analysis of watersheds
is that the water draining to the outlet of the basin originates
within the basin itself. Groundwater hydrologists have long
understood the role and impact of inter-basin groundwater flow,
defined here as the subsurface transfer of water across topo-
graphic boundaries. This inter-basin transfer of water leaves a
distinct impact on the hydrologic and solute budgets of the catch-
ments. This talk addresses when and where topographic catch-
affected by climatic variability and geologic heterogeneity.
Examples from a range of climates and geologic environments
will highlight the relevance of inter-basin flow on hydrologic and
geologic processes. The coupling of hydrologic transience and
changes in groundwater storage is also discussed, as are sugges-
tions for new approaches to conceptualization of hydrogeologic
watershed boundaries that take into consideration both geologic
uncertainty and climate variability.
Water and Lithium—The Nexus of Hydrogeosciences and
Green Energy in the Transition from Fossil Fuels
Earth is warming at an unprecedented pace due to the release of
carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. Development of
portable and powerful energy storage mechanisms (such as lith-
ium-ion batteries) is essential to replace our dependence on the
high-energy density fossil fuels. Lithium is abundant and plentiful
on the planet but is rarely found in high enough concentrations to
be of economical use. Economic deposits of lithium are found in
pegmatites and closed-basin continental brines. The origin of the
lithium brines and their distribution worldwide is fundamentally
tied to the hydrology and hydrogeology of the host basins. This
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