About

Professor Matthew Cohen received his PhD from the University of Florida in 2003 and has been a faculty member at UF since 2006. His research interests focus on the coupling of water and ecosystem processes, encompassing all of the connections and processes that occur along a raindrop’s path from the sky to the sea. Living in Florida, he has developed a particular interest in wetlands and maintains a deep commitment to empiricism. He teaches classes in forest hydrology, watershed management, and ecohydrology, and his work emphasizes understanding the interactions between water and ecosystems, especially wetlands. His professional and personal life reflect a dedication to water-related research and education.

Research topics

• Biology
• Ecology
• Environmental science
• Geology
• Atmospheric sciences
• Meteorology
• Geography
• Computer Science
• Climatology
• Chemistry
• Oceanography
• Mathematics

Selected publications

• Light and flow regimes regulate the metabolism of rivers

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2022 · 201 citations

  • Environmental science
  • Atmospheric sciences
  • Ecology

  Mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation drive much of the variation in productivity across Earth's terrestrial ecosystems but do not explain variation in gross primary productivity (GPP) or ecosystem respiration (ER) in flowing waters. We document substantial variation in the magnitude and seasonality of GPP and ER across 222 US rivers. In contrast to their terrestrial counterparts, most river ecosystems respire far more carbon than they fix and have less pronounced and consistent seasonality in their metabolic rates. We find that variation in annual solar energy inputs and stability of flows are the primary drivers of GPP and ER across rivers. A classification schema based on these drivers advances river science and informs management.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Vulnerable Waters are Essential to Watershed Resilience

  Ecosystems · 2022 · 82 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Environmental science
  • Ecology

  Watershed resilience is the ability of a watershed to maintain its characteristic system state while concurrently resisting, adapting to, and reorganizing after hydrological (for example, drought, flooding) or biogeochemical (for example, excessive nutrient) disturbances. Vulnerable waters include non-floodplain wetlands and headwater streams, abundant watershed components representing the most distal extent of the freshwater aquatic network. Vulnerable waters are hydrologically dynamic and biogeochemically reactive aquatic systems, storing, processing, and releasing water and entrained (that is, dissolved and particulate) materials along expanding and contracting aquatic networks. The hydrological and biogeochemical functions emerging from these processes affect the magnitude, frequency, timing, duration, storage, and rate of change of material and energy fluxes among watershed components and to downstream waters, thereby maintaining watershed states and imparting watershed resilience. We present here a conceptual framework for understanding how vulnerable waters confer watershed resilience. We demonstrate how individual and cumulative vulnerable-water modifications (for example, reduced extent, altered connectivity) affect watershed-scale hydrological and biogeochemical disturbance response and recovery, which decreases watershed resilience and can trigger transitions across thresholds to alternative watershed states (for example, states conducive to increased flood frequency or nutrient concentrations). We subsequently describe how resilient watersheds require spatial heterogeneity and temporal variability in hydrological and biogeochemical interactions between terrestrial systems and down-gradient waters, which necessitates attention to the conservation and restoration of vulnerable waters and their downstream connectivity gradients. To conclude, we provide actionable principles for resilient watersheds and articulate research needs to further watershed resilience science and vulnerable-water management.

  DOI

• Global carbon dioxide efflux from rivers enhanced by high nocturnal emissions

  Nature Geoscience · 2021 · 189 citations

  • Environmental science
  • Atmospheric sciences
  • Climatology
  DOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Continuous Metabolism and Nutrient Uptake Across the River Continuum

  NSF · $476k · 2016–2020

• COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Defining Stream Biomes to Better Understand and Forecast Stream Ecosystem Change

  NSF · $442k · 2015–2020

• Collaborative Research: The Ecological Drill Hypothesis: Biotic Control on Carbonate Dissolution in a Low Relief Patterned Landscape

  NSF · $599k · 2014–2019

Frequent coauthors

• James B. Heffernan

  Florida International University

  49 shared

• Daniel L. McLaughlin

  Virginia Tech

  41 shared

• Robert Hensley

  National Ecological Observatory Network

  32 shared

• Jonathan B. Martin

  University of Florida

  29 shared

• David Kaplan

  26 shared

• James W. Jawitz

  University of Florida

  26 shared

• Lily Kirk

  18 shared

• Charles R. Lane

  Environmental Protection Agency

  17 shared

Labs

• University of Florida Ecohydrology LabPI

Education

• PhD, Environmental Engineering Sciences

  University of Florida

  2003

• BS, Engineering

  Swarthmore College

  1995

Similar researchers at University of Florida

• Steven T DeKoskyh-162
• Matthew Farrerh-133
• George Christouh-133
• Mark A Atkinsonh-129
• Christiaan Leeuwenburghh-125