Rivers are conduits for transport of fresh water, sediment and nutrients throughout the landscape. Humans manage rivers for water supply, power generation, flood control and navigation. These needs often conflict with ecological functions of rivers, such fish migration. My research focuses on understanding how rivers respond to changes, ranging from long-term variations in tectonics or climate to short-term shifts in dam function or land use. I link measurements of channel morphology from high-resolution airborne lidar digital elevation models with field-based measurements of stream processes.
Current Graduate Students and Projects
- Anthony Edgington: Sediment Dynamics Across Spatial and Temporal Scales: From Reservoir Sedimentation to Coastal Foredune Evolution
- Sarah Jonathan:听Developing chronologies of mass accumulation rates in thirteen Vermont and New York lakes
- Fengyao Li: Nutrients:听Dams, and Student-Moms: A Tripartite Study of Nitrate Cycling and Dam Effectiveness in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) Watershed, and the Challenges Faced by Pregnant and Parenting Doctoral Students in Geosciences.
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Recent Graduate Students
- Michael Armstrong, M.S. 2023: Suspended-sediment transport in a New Jersey salt marsh tidal channel
- Julie Bahr, M.S. 2024: Examining sediment accumulation rates and deltaic processes in a large reservoir
- Ian Dulin, M.S. 2023: Recent anthropogenic impacts on the geochemical composition of northern New England lake sediments
- Megan Kopp, M.S. 2022: High-resolution multi-temporal analysis of geomorphic change on the Sandy Pond spit, eastern shore of Lake Ontario, NY
- Audrey Turcotte, M.S. 2022: Geomorphic effects and habitat impacts of large wood at restoration sites in New England
- Xinyi Zeng: The influence of dams on the sediment supply from the Parker River watershed to the Plum Island Sound estuary (2020)
- James LeNoir:听Post-glacial sedimentation in Ossipee Lake, New Hampshire (2019)
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Recent Publications ( * = Boston College student or postdoc coauthors)
- Turcotte, A.J.*, Snyder, N.P., Collins, M.J., 2026, Geomorphic effects and habitat impacts of large wood at restoration sites in New England, River Research and Applications, .
- Livers, B.*, Snyder, N.P., 2025, Legacy sediment: A conceptual model and perspective on the role of dams, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, v. 50, .
- Seal, D.*, Baxter, E.F., Snyder, N.P., Cook, T.L., 2025, Rb-Sr isochron method of sediment source fingerprinting reveals a fundamental shift in erosion in response to anthropogenic land use, GSA Bulletin, v. 137, .
- LeNoir, J.*, Cook, T.L., and Snyder, N.P., 2023, 12,000 years of landscape evolution in the southern White Mountains, New Hampshire, as recorded in Ossipee Lake sediments, Quaternary Research, v. 112, .听
- Cook, T.L., Snyder, N.P., Oswald, W.W. and Paradis, K., 2020, Timber harvest and flood impacts on sediment yield in a postglacial, mixed-forest watershed, Maine, USA, Anthropocene, v. 29, doi: 10.1016/j.ancene.2019.100232.
