![Michael Singer](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/1760?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Professor Michael Singer
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Teams and roles for Michael Singer
Professor Deputy Director of the Water Research Institute
Overview
- Ecohydrology
- Drylands
- Water/Food Security
- Drought
- Forest health
- Water resources
- Stochastic hydrology
- Climate change
- Floods
- Sediment transport
Publication
2025
- Blake, G. et al., 2025. The impact of convection-permitting model rainfall on the dryland water balance. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 29 , pp.7098-7125. (10.5194/hess-29-7093-2025)
- Daron, J. et al., 2025. SIMBOL: A method to co-produce impact-based seasonal outlooks. Climate Services 38 100579. (10.1016/j.cliser.2025.100579)
- Gebrechorkos, S. H. et al., 2025. Warming accelerates global drought severity. Nature 642 , pp.628-635. (10.1038/s41586-025-09047-2)
- Grieve, S. W. D. et al., 2025. GDBM: A database of global drainage basin morphology. PLoS ONE 20 (4) e0320771. (10.1371/journal.pone.0320771)
- Kui, L. et al., 2025. Increased groundwater dependence of riparian vegetation in response to drought. Ecohydrology 18 (5) e70060. (10.1002/eco.70060)
- Lochin, P. et al., 2025. Drivers of spatiotemporal patterns of riparian forest NDVI along a hydroclimatic gradient. Ecohydrology 18 (2) e2729. (10.1002/eco.2729)
- Odongo, R. A. et al., 2025. Drought impacts and community adaptation: perspectives on the 2020-2023 drought in East Africa. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 119 105309. (10.1016/j.ijdrr.2025.105309)
- Rigby, J. M. et al., 2025. Mobile phones in the drylands: How technology supports community information sharing in rural Kenya. Presented at: COMPASS '25 Toronto, Canada 22 - 25 July 2025. Proceedings of the 2025 ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies. New York, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. , pp.167-183. (10.1145/3715335.3735464)
2024
- Cocking, K. et al. 2024. Locally defined seasonal rainfall characteristics within the Horn of Africa drylands from rain gauge observations. Journal of Hydrometeorology 25 (12), pp.1845-1861. (10.1175/jhm-d-23-0228.1)
- Koppa, A. et al., 2024. Dryland self-expansion enabled by land–atmosphere feedbacks. Science 385 (6712), pp.967-972. (10.1126/science.adn6833)
- Lochin, P. et al., 2024. The Ant and the Grasshopper: contrasting responses and behaviors to water stress of riparian trees along a hydroclimatic gradient. Science of the Total Environment 952 175916. (10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175916)
- MacLeod, D. et al. 2024. Sensitivity of rainfall extremes to unprecedented Indian Ocean Dipole events. Geophysical Research Letters 51 (5) e2023GL105258. (10.1029/2023gl105258)
- McMahon, C. A. et al., 2024. A river runs through it: Robust automated mapping of riparian woodlands and land surface phenology across dryland regions. Remote Sensing of Environment 305 114056. (10.1016/j.rse.2024.114056)
- Rios Gaona, M. , Michaelides, K. and Singer, M. 2024. STORM v.2: A simple, stochastic rainfall model for exploring the impacts of climate and climate change at and near the land surface in gauged watersheds. Geoscientific Model Development 17 (13), pp.5387-5412. (10.5194/gmd-17-5387-2024)
- Rohde, M. M. et al., 2024. Groundwater-dependent ecosystem map exposes global dryland protection needs. Nature 632 , pp.101-107. (10.1038/s41586-024-07702-8)
- Rohde, M. M. et al., 2024. Establishing ecological thresholds and targets for groundwater management. nature water 2 , pp.312-323. (10.1038/s44221-024-00221-w)
- Salwey, S. et al., 2024. Developing water supply reservoir operating rules for large-scale hydrological modelling. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 28 , pp.4203-4218. (10.5194/hess-28-4203-2024)
- Singer, M. B. et al. 2024. Climatic controls on the length and shape of the world's drainage basins. Geophysical Research Letters 51 (24) e2024GL111220. (10.1029/2024GL111220)
- Williams, J. et al., 2024. Seasonal and species‐level water‐use strategies and groundwater dependence in dryland riparian woodlands during extreme drought. Water Resources Research 60 (4) e2023WR035928. (10.1029/2023wr035928)
2023
- Asfaw, D. T. et al., 2023. stoPET v1.0: a stochastic potential evapotranspiration generator for simulation of climate change impacts. Geoscientific Model Development 16 (2), pp.557-571. (10.5194/gmd-16-557-2023)
- Gebrechorkos, S. H. et al., 2023. Global high-resolution drought indices for 1981-2022. Earth System Science Data 15 (12), pp.5449–5466. (10.5194/essd-15-5449-2023)
- Kibler, C. L. et al., 2023. Evapotranspiration regulates leaf temperature and respiration in dryland vegetation. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 339 109560. (10.1016/j.agrformet.2023.109560)
- Koppa, A. et al., 2023. A lagrangian analysis of the sources of rainfall over the Horn of Africa drylands. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 128 (12) e2022JD038408. (10.1029/2022jd038408)
- Macleod, D. et al. 2023. Translating seasonal climate forecasts into water balance forecasts for decision making. PLOS Climate 2 (3) e0000138. (10.1371/journal.pclm.0000138)
- Quichimbo Miguitama, E. A. et al. 2023. Assessing the sensitivity of modelled water partitioning to global precipitation datasets in a data‐scarce dryland region. Hydrological Processes 37 (12) e15047. (10.1002/hyp.15047)
- Rigby, J. M. et al., 2023. Climate services for the Greater Horn of Africa: interviews exploring practitioner perspectives from Kenya and beyond. Climate and Development 15 (3), pp.188-200. (10.1080/17565529.2022.2074350)
- Salwey, S. et al., 2023. National-scale detection of reservoir impacts through hydrological signatures. Water Resources Research 59 (5) e2022WR033893. (10.1029/2022WR033893)
- Warter, M. M. et al. 2023. Modeling seasonal vegetation phenology from hydroclimatic drivers for contrasting plant functional groups within drylands of the Southwestern USA. Environmental Research: Ecology 2 (2) 025001. (10.1088/2752-664X/acb9a0)
2022
- Adloff, M. et al., 2022. Sustained water storage in Horn of Africa drylands dominated by seasonal rainfall extremes. Geophysical Research Letters 49 (21) e2022GL099299. (10.1029/2022GL099299)
- Chen, S. et al., 2022. Exploring exogenous controls on short- versus long-term erosion rates globally. Earth Surface Dynamics 10 (6), pp.1055-1078. (10.5194/esurf-10-1055-2022)
- Koppa, A. et al., 2022. Unraveling the origin of rainfall over Horn of Africa Drylands. Presented at: EGU General Assembly 2022 23-27 May 2022. EGU General Assembly 2022 Abstracts. Copernicus(10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5330)
- Michaelides, K. et al., 2022. Reply to: Climate versus tectonics as controls on river profiles. Nature 612 (7941), pp.E15-E17. (10.1038/s41586-022-05419-0)
- Sabathier, R. et al. 2022. High resolution spatiotemporal patterns of flow at the landscape scale in montane non‐perennial streams. River Research and Applications (10.1002/rra.4076)
- Williams, J. et al., 2022. Local groundwater decline exacerbates response of dryland riparian woodlands to climatic drought. Global Change Biology (10.1111/gcb.16376)
2021
- Kibler, C. L. et al., 2021. A brown wave of riparian woodland mortality following groundwater declines during the 2012-2019 California drought. Environmental Research Letters 16 084030. (10.1088/1748-9326/ac1377)
- Mehrnegar, N. et al. 2021. Exploring groundwater and soil water storage changes across the CONUS at 12.5 km resolution by a Bayesian integration of GRACE data into W3RA. Science of the Total Environment 758 143579. (10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143579)
- Quichimbo, E. A. et al. 2021. DRYP 1.0: A parsimonious hydrological model of DRYland Partitioning of the water balance. Geoscientific Model Development 14 , pp.6893-6917. (10.5194/gmd-14-6893-2021)
- Rohde, M. M. et al., 2021. Groundwater dependence of riparian woodlands and the disrupting effect of anthropogenically altered streamflow. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 (25) e2026453118. (10.1073/pnas.2026453118)
- Sabathier, R. et al. 2021. Vegetation responses to climatic and geologic controls on water availability in southeastern Arizona. Environmental Research Letters 16 (6) 064029. (10.1088/1748-9326/abfe8c)
- Sargeant, C. I. and Singer, M. B. 2021. Local and non-local controls on seasonal variations in water availability and use by riparian trees along a hydroclimatic gradient. Environmental Research Letters 16 (8) 084018. (10.1088/1748-9326/ac1294)
- Singer, M. B. et al. 2021. Hourly potential evapotranspiration at 0.1˚ resolution for the global land surface from 1981-present. Scientific Data 8 224. (10.1038/s41597-021-01003-9)
- Warter, M. M. et al. 2021. Drought onset and propagation into soil moisture and grassland vegetation responses during the 2012–2019 major drought in Southern California. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 25 (6), pp.3713–3729. (10.5194/hess-25-3713-2021)
2020
- Mayes, M. et al., 2020. Climate sensitivity of water use by riparian woodlands at landscape scales. Hydrological Processes 34 (25), pp.4884-4903. (10.1002/hyp.13942)
- Mehrnegar, N. et al. 2020. Comparing global hydrological models and combining them with GRACE by dynamic model data averaging (DMDA). Advances in Water Resources 138 103528. (10.1016/j.advwatres.2020.103528)
- Quichimbo Miguitama, E. A. , Singer, M. B. and Cuthbert, M. O. 2020. Characterizing groundwater-surface water interactions in idealized ephemeral stream systems. Hydrological Processes 34 (18), pp.3792-3806. (10.1002/hyp.13847)
2019
- Chen, S. et al., 2019. Aridity is expressed in river topography globally. Nature 573 , pp.573-577. (10.1038/s41586-019-1558-8)
- Sargeant, C. I. , Singer, M. B. and Vallet-Coulomb, C. 2019. Identification of source-water oxygen isotopes in trees Toolkit (ISO-Tool) for deciphering historical water use by forest trees. Water Resources Research 55 (12), pp.10954-10975. (10.1029/2018WR024519)
- Washburn, S. J. et al., 2019. Isotopic evidence for mercury photoreduction and retention on particles in surface waters of Central California, USA. Science of the Total Environment 674 , pp.451-461. (10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.145)
2018
- Evans, C. M. , Dritschel, D. G. and Singer, M. B. 2018. Modeling subsurface hydrology in floodplains. Water Resources Research 54 (3), pp.1428-1459. (10.1002/2017WR020827)
- Michaelides, K. et al., 2018. Spatial and temporal analysis of hillslope-channel coupling and implications for the longitudinal profile in a dryland basin. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (10.1002/esp.4340)
- Nakamura, T. K. , Singer, M. B. and Gabet, E. J. 2018. Remains of the 19th century: deep storage of contaminated hydraulic mining sediment along the Lower Yuba River, California. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene 6 (1) 70. (10.1525/elementa.333)
- Phillips, C. B. et al., 2018. Effect of flood hydrograph duration, magnitude, and shape on bed load transport dynamics. Geophysical Research Letters 45 (16), pp.8264-8271. (10.1029/2018GL078976)
- Singer, M. , Michaelides, K. and Hobley, D. 2018. STORM 1.0: a simple, flexible, and parsimonious stochastic rainfall generator for simulating climate and climate change. Geoscientific Model Development 11 , pp.3713-3726. (10.5194/gmd-11-3713-2018)
2017
- Jaeger, K. L. et al., 2017. Geomorphology and sediment regimes of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams. In: Datry, T. , Bonada, N. and Boulton, A. eds. Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams. Ecology and Management Academic Press. , pp.21. (10.1016/B978-0-12-803835-2.00002-4)
- Singer, M. B. and Michaelides, K. 2017. Deciphering the expression of climate change within the Lower Colorado River basin by stochastic simulation of convective rainfall. Environmental Research Letters 12 (10) 104011. (10.1088/1748-9326/aa8e50)
2016
- Donovan, P. M. et al., 2016. Isotopic composition of inorganic mercury and methylmercury downstream of a historical gold mining region. Environmental Science & Technology 50 (4), pp.1691-1702. (10.1021/acs.est.5b04413)
- Donovan, P. M. et al., 2016. Methylmercury degradation and exposure pathways in streams and wetlands impacted by historical mining. Science of the Total Environment 568 , pp.1192-1203. (10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.04.139)
- Sargeant, C. and Singer, M. B. 2016. Sub-annual variability in historical water source use by Mediterranean riparian trees. Ecohydrology 9 (7), pp.1328-1345. (10.1002/eco.1730)
- Singer, M. et al. 2016. Hydrologic indicators of hot spots and hot moments of mercury methylation potential along river corridors. Science of the Total Environment 568 , pp.697-711.
2015
- Higson, J. L. and Singer, M. B. 2015. The impact of the streamflow hydrograph on sediment supply from terrace erosion. Geomorphology 248 , pp.475. (10.1016/j.geomorph.2015.07.037)
- Singer, M. B. 2015. Impact scales of fluvial response to management along the Sacramento River, California, USA: transience versus persistence. In: Hudson, P. and Middelkoop, H. eds. Geomorphic Approaches to Integrated Floodplain Management of Lowland Fluvial Systems in North America and Europe. New York: Springer. , pp.53-85. (10.1007/978-1-4939-2380-9_4)
- Slater, L. J. , Singer, M. B. and Kirchner, J. W. 2015. Hydrologic versus geomorphic drivers of trends in flood hazard. Geophysical Research Letters 42 (2), pp.370-376. (10.1002/2014GL062482)
2014
- Michaelides, K. and Singer, M. B. 2014. Impact of coarse sediment supply from hillslopes to the channel in runoff-dominated, dryland fluvial systems. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 119 (6), pp.1205. (10.1002/2013JF002959)
- Singer, M. B. and Michaelides, K. 2014. How is topographic simplicity maintained in ephemeral dryland channels?. Geology 42 (12), pp.1091-1094. (10.1130/G36267.1)
- Singer, M. B. et al. 2014. Floodplain ecohydrology: Climatic, anthropogenic, and local physical controls on partitioning of water sources to riparian trees. Water Resources Research 50 (5), pp.4490-4513. (10.1002/2014WR015581)
2013
- Donovan, P. M. et al., 2013. An isotopic record of mercury in San Francisco Bay sediment. Chemical Geology 349 (35), pp.87. (10.1016/j.chemgeo.2013.04.017)
- Singer, M. B. et al. 2013. Enduring legacy of a toxic fan via episodic redistribution of California gold mining debris. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 (46), pp.18436. (10.1073/pnas.1302295110)
- Singer, M. B. et al. 2013. Contrasting water-uptake and growth responses to drought in co-occurring riparian tree species. Ecohydrology 6 (3), pp.402-412. (10.1002/eco.1283)
- Slater, L. J. and Singer, M. B. 2013. Imprint of climate and climate change in alluvial riverbeds: Continental United States, 1950-2011. Geology 41 (5), pp.595-598. (10.1130/G34070.1)
2012
- Kilham, N. E. , Roberts, D. and Singer, M. B. 2012. Remote sensing of suspended sediment concentration during turbid flood conditions on the Feather River, California-A modeling approach. Water Resources Research 48 (1)(10.1029/2011WR010391)
2011
- Springborn, M. , Singer, M. B. and Dunne, T. 2011. Sediment-adsorbed total mercury flux through Yolo Bypass, the primary floodway and wetland in the Sacramento Valley, California. Science of the Total Environment 412-41 , pp.203. (10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.10.004)
2010
- Dunne, T. , Constantine, J. A. and Singer, M. B. 2010. The role of sediment transport and sediment supply in the evolution of river channel and floodplain complexity. Chikei/Transactions, Japanese Geomorphological Union 31 (2), pp.155-170.
- Ghoshal, S. et al., 2010. Channel and floodplain change analysis over a 100-year period: Lower Yuba River, California. Remote Sensing 2 (7), pp.1797-1825. (10.3390/rs2071797)
- Singer, M. B. 2010. Transient response in longitudinal grain size to reduced gravel supply in a large river. Geophysical Research Letters 37 (18), pp.n/a. (10.1029/2010GL044381)
2009
- James, L. A. et al., 2009. Historical channel changes in the lower Yuba and Feather Rivers, California: Long-term effects of contrasting river-management strategies. In: James, L. A. , Rathburn, S. L. and Whittecar, G. eds. Management and Restoration of Fluvial Systems with Broad Historical Changes and Human Impacts. Vol. 451, Geological Society of America. , pp.57. (10.1130/2009.2451(04))
- Singer, M. B. and Aalto, R. 2009. Floodplain development in an engineered setting. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 34 (2), pp.291-304. (10.1002/esp.1725)
2008
- Allan James, L. and Singer, M. B. 2008. Development of the lower Sacramento valley flood-control system: historical perspective. Natural Hazards Review 9 (3), pp.125. (10.1061/(ASCE)1527-6988(2008)9:3(125))
- Singer, M. B. 2008. A new sampler for extracting bed material sediment from sand and gravel beds in navigable rivers. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 33 (14), pp.2277. (10.1002/esp.1661)
- Singer, M. B. 2008. Downstream patterns of bed material grain size in a large, lowland alluvial river subject to low sediment supply. Water Resources Research 44 (12)(10.1029/2008WR007183)
- Singer, M. B. , Aalto, R. and James, L. A. 2008. Status of the lower Sacramento valley flood-control system within the context of its natural geomorphic setting. Natural Hazards Review 9 (3), pp.104. (10.1061/(ASCE)1527-6988(2008)9:3(104))
2007
- Singer, M. B. 2007. The influence of major dams on hydrology through the drainage network of the Sacramento River basin, California. River Research and Applications 23 (1), pp.55. (10.1002/rra.968)
2006
- Singer, M. B. and Dunne, T. 2006. Modeling the influence of river rehabilitation scenarios on bed material sediment flux in a large river over decadal timescales. Water Resources Research 42 (12)(10.1029/2006WR004894)
2004
- Singer, M. B. and Dunne, T. 2004. An empirical-stochastic, event-based program for simulating inflow from a tributary network: Framework and application to the Sacramento River basin, California. Water Resources Research 40 (7)(10.1029/2003WR002725)
- Singer, M. B. and Dunne, T. 2004. Modeling decadal bed material sediment flux based on stochastic hydrology. Water Resources Research 40 (3)(10.1029/2003WR002723)
2001
- Singer, M. B. and Dunne, T. 2001. Identifying eroding and depositional reaches of valley by analysis of suspended sediment Transport in the Sacramento River, California. Water Resources Research 37 (12), pp.3371-3381. (10.1029/2001WR000457)
Articles
- Adloff, M. et al., 2022. Sustained water storage in Horn of Africa drylands dominated by seasonal rainfall extremes. Geophysical Research Letters 49 (21) e2022GL099299. (10.1029/2022GL099299)
- Allan James, L. and Singer, M. B. 2008. Development of the lower Sacramento valley flood-control system: historical perspective. Natural Hazards Review 9 (3), pp.125. (10.1061/(ASCE)1527-6988(2008)9:3(125))
- Asfaw, D. T. et al., 2023. stoPET v1.0: a stochastic potential evapotranspiration generator for simulation of climate change impacts. Geoscientific Model Development 16 (2), pp.557-571. (10.5194/gmd-16-557-2023)
- Blake, G. et al., 2025. The impact of convection-permitting model rainfall on the dryland water balance. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 29 , pp.7098-7125. (10.5194/hess-29-7093-2025)
- Chen, S. et al., 2019. Aridity is expressed in river topography globally. Nature 573 , pp.573-577. (10.1038/s41586-019-1558-8)
- Chen, S. et al., 2022. Exploring exogenous controls on short- versus long-term erosion rates globally. Earth Surface Dynamics 10 (6), pp.1055-1078. (10.5194/esurf-10-1055-2022)
- Cocking, K. et al. 2024. Locally defined seasonal rainfall characteristics within the Horn of Africa drylands from rain gauge observations. Journal of Hydrometeorology 25 (12), pp.1845-1861. (10.1175/jhm-d-23-0228.1)
- Daron, J. et al., 2025. SIMBOL: A method to co-produce impact-based seasonal outlooks. Climate Services 38 100579. (10.1016/j.cliser.2025.100579)
- Donovan, P. M. et al., 2016. Isotopic composition of inorganic mercury and methylmercury downstream of a historical gold mining region. Environmental Science & Technology 50 (4), pp.1691-1702. (10.1021/acs.est.5b04413)
- Donovan, P. M. et al., 2016. Methylmercury degradation and exposure pathways in streams and wetlands impacted by historical mining. Science of the Total Environment 568 , pp.1192-1203. (10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.04.139)
- Donovan, P. M. et al., 2013. An isotopic record of mercury in San Francisco Bay sediment. Chemical Geology 349 (35), pp.87. (10.1016/j.chemgeo.2013.04.017)
- Dunne, T. , Constantine, J. A. and Singer, M. B. 2010. The role of sediment transport and sediment supply in the evolution of river channel and floodplain complexity. Chikei/Transactions, Japanese Geomorphological Union 31 (2), pp.155-170.
- Evans, C. M. , Dritschel, D. G. and Singer, M. B. 2018. Modeling subsurface hydrology in floodplains. Water Resources Research 54 (3), pp.1428-1459. (10.1002/2017WR020827)
- Gebrechorkos, S. H. et al., 2025. Warming accelerates global drought severity. Nature 642 , pp.628-635. (10.1038/s41586-025-09047-2)
- Gebrechorkos, S. H. et al., 2023. Global high-resolution drought indices for 1981-2022. Earth System Science Data 15 (12), pp.5449–5466. (10.5194/essd-15-5449-2023)
- Ghoshal, S. et al., 2010. Channel and floodplain change analysis over a 100-year period: Lower Yuba River, California. Remote Sensing 2 (7), pp.1797-1825. (10.3390/rs2071797)
- Grieve, S. W. D. et al., 2025. GDBM: A database of global drainage basin morphology. PLoS ONE 20 (4) e0320771. (10.1371/journal.pone.0320771)
- Higson, J. L. and Singer, M. B. 2015. The impact of the streamflow hydrograph on sediment supply from terrace erosion. Geomorphology 248 , pp.475. (10.1016/j.geomorph.2015.07.037)
- Kibler, C. L. et al., 2021. A brown wave of riparian woodland mortality following groundwater declines during the 2012-2019 California drought. Environmental Research Letters 16 084030. (10.1088/1748-9326/ac1377)
- Kibler, C. L. et al., 2023. Evapotranspiration regulates leaf temperature and respiration in dryland vegetation. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 339 109560. (10.1016/j.agrformet.2023.109560)
- Kilham, N. E. , Roberts, D. and Singer, M. B. 2012. Remote sensing of suspended sediment concentration during turbid flood conditions on the Feather River, California-A modeling approach. Water Resources Research 48 (1)(10.1029/2011WR010391)
- Koppa, A. et al., 2023. A lagrangian analysis of the sources of rainfall over the Horn of Africa drylands. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 128 (12) e2022JD038408. (10.1029/2022jd038408)
- Koppa, A. et al., 2024. Dryland self-expansion enabled by land–atmosphere feedbacks. Science 385 (6712), pp.967-972. (10.1126/science.adn6833)
- Kui, L. et al., 2025. Increased groundwater dependence of riparian vegetation in response to drought. Ecohydrology 18 (5) e70060. (10.1002/eco.70060)
- Lochin, P. et al., 2024. The Ant and the Grasshopper: contrasting responses and behaviors to water stress of riparian trees along a hydroclimatic gradient. Science of the Total Environment 952 175916. (10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175916)
- Lochin, P. et al., 2025. Drivers of spatiotemporal patterns of riparian forest NDVI along a hydroclimatic gradient. Ecohydrology 18 (2) e2729. (10.1002/eco.2729)
- MacLeod, D. et al. 2024. Sensitivity of rainfall extremes to unprecedented Indian Ocean Dipole events. Geophysical Research Letters 51 (5) e2023GL105258. (10.1029/2023gl105258)
- Macleod, D. et al. 2023. Translating seasonal climate forecasts into water balance forecasts for decision making. PLOS Climate 2 (3) e0000138. (10.1371/journal.pclm.0000138)
- Mayes, M. et al., 2020. Climate sensitivity of water use by riparian woodlands at landscape scales. Hydrological Processes 34 (25), pp.4884-4903. (10.1002/hyp.13942)
- McMahon, C. A. et al., 2024. A river runs through it: Robust automated mapping of riparian woodlands and land surface phenology across dryland regions. Remote Sensing of Environment 305 114056. (10.1016/j.rse.2024.114056)
- Mehrnegar, N. et al. 2020. Comparing global hydrological models and combining them with GRACE by dynamic model data averaging (DMDA). Advances in Water Resources 138 103528. (10.1016/j.advwatres.2020.103528)
- Mehrnegar, N. et al. 2021. Exploring groundwater and soil water storage changes across the CONUS at 12.5 km resolution by a Bayesian integration of GRACE data into W3RA. Science of the Total Environment 758 143579. (10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143579)
- Michaelides, K. et al., 2022. Reply to: Climate versus tectonics as controls on river profiles. Nature 612 (7941), pp.E15-E17. (10.1038/s41586-022-05419-0)
- Michaelides, K. et al., 2018. Spatial and temporal analysis of hillslope-channel coupling and implications for the longitudinal profile in a dryland basin. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (10.1002/esp.4340)
- Michaelides, K. and Singer, M. B. 2014. Impact of coarse sediment supply from hillslopes to the channel in runoff-dominated, dryland fluvial systems. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 119 (6), pp.1205. (10.1002/2013JF002959)
- Nakamura, T. K. , Singer, M. B. and Gabet, E. J. 2018. Remains of the 19th century: deep storage of contaminated hydraulic mining sediment along the Lower Yuba River, California. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene 6 (1) 70. (10.1525/elementa.333)
- Odongo, R. A. et al., 2025. Drought impacts and community adaptation: perspectives on the 2020-2023 drought in East Africa. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 119 105309. (10.1016/j.ijdrr.2025.105309)
- Phillips, C. B. et al., 2018. Effect of flood hydrograph duration, magnitude, and shape on bed load transport dynamics. Geophysical Research Letters 45 (16), pp.8264-8271. (10.1029/2018GL078976)
- Quichimbo, E. A. et al. 2021. DRYP 1.0: A parsimonious hydrological model of DRYland Partitioning of the water balance. Geoscientific Model Development 14 , pp.6893-6917. (10.5194/gmd-14-6893-2021)
- Quichimbo Miguitama, E. A. , Singer, M. B. and Cuthbert, M. O. 2020. Characterizing groundwater-surface water interactions in idealized ephemeral stream systems. Hydrological Processes 34 (18), pp.3792-3806. (10.1002/hyp.13847)
- Quichimbo Miguitama, E. A. et al. 2023. Assessing the sensitivity of modelled water partitioning to global precipitation datasets in a data‐scarce dryland region. Hydrological Processes 37 (12) e15047. (10.1002/hyp.15047)
- Rigby, J. M. et al., 2023. Climate services for the Greater Horn of Africa: interviews exploring practitioner perspectives from Kenya and beyond. Climate and Development 15 (3), pp.188-200. (10.1080/17565529.2022.2074350)
- Rios Gaona, M. , Michaelides, K. and Singer, M. 2024. STORM v.2: A simple, stochastic rainfall model for exploring the impacts of climate and climate change at and near the land surface in gauged watersheds. Geoscientific Model Development 17 (13), pp.5387-5412. (10.5194/gmd-17-5387-2024)
- Rohde, M. M. et al., 2024. Groundwater-dependent ecosystem map exposes global dryland protection needs. Nature 632 , pp.101-107. (10.1038/s41586-024-07702-8)
- Rohde, M. M. et al., 2021. Groundwater dependence of riparian woodlands and the disrupting effect of anthropogenically altered streamflow. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 (25) e2026453118. (10.1073/pnas.2026453118)
- Rohde, M. M. et al., 2024. Establishing ecological thresholds and targets for groundwater management. nature water 2 , pp.312-323. (10.1038/s44221-024-00221-w)
- Sabathier, R. et al. 2022. High resolution spatiotemporal patterns of flow at the landscape scale in montane non‐perennial streams. River Research and Applications (10.1002/rra.4076)
- Sabathier, R. et al. 2021. Vegetation responses to climatic and geologic controls on water availability in southeastern Arizona. Environmental Research Letters 16 (6) 064029. (10.1088/1748-9326/abfe8c)
- Salwey, S. et al., 2023. National-scale detection of reservoir impacts through hydrological signatures. Water Resources Research 59 (5) e2022WR033893. (10.1029/2022WR033893)
- Salwey, S. et al., 2024. Developing water supply reservoir operating rules for large-scale hydrological modelling. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 28 , pp.4203-4218. (10.5194/hess-28-4203-2024)
- Sargeant, C. and Singer, M. B. 2016. Sub-annual variability in historical water source use by Mediterranean riparian trees. Ecohydrology 9 (7), pp.1328-1345. (10.1002/eco.1730)
- Sargeant, C. I. and Singer, M. B. 2021. Local and non-local controls on seasonal variations in water availability and use by riparian trees along a hydroclimatic gradient. Environmental Research Letters 16 (8) 084018. (10.1088/1748-9326/ac1294)
- Sargeant, C. I. , Singer, M. B. and Vallet-Coulomb, C. 2019. Identification of source-water oxygen isotopes in trees Toolkit (ISO-Tool) for deciphering historical water use by forest trees. Water Resources Research 55 (12), pp.10954-10975. (10.1029/2018WR024519)
- Singer, M. et al. 2016. Hydrologic indicators of hot spots and hot moments of mercury methylation potential along river corridors. Science of the Total Environment 568 , pp.697-711.
- Singer, M. , Michaelides, K. and Hobley, D. 2018. STORM 1.0: a simple, flexible, and parsimonious stochastic rainfall generator for simulating climate and climate change. Geoscientific Model Development 11 , pp.3713-3726. (10.5194/gmd-11-3713-2018)
- Singer, M. B. 2008. A new sampler for extracting bed material sediment from sand and gravel beds in navigable rivers. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 33 (14), pp.2277. (10.1002/esp.1661)
- Singer, M. B. 2008. Downstream patterns of bed material grain size in a large, lowland alluvial river subject to low sediment supply. Water Resources Research 44 (12)(10.1029/2008WR007183)
- Singer, M. B. 2007. The influence of major dams on hydrology through the drainage network of the Sacramento River basin, California. River Research and Applications 23 (1), pp.55. (10.1002/rra.968)
- Singer, M. B. 2010. Transient response in longitudinal grain size to reduced gravel supply in a large river. Geophysical Research Letters 37 (18), pp.n/a. (10.1029/2010GL044381)
- Singer, M. B. et al. 2013. Enduring legacy of a toxic fan via episodic redistribution of California gold mining debris. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 (46), pp.18436. (10.1073/pnas.1302295110)
- Singer, M. B. and Aalto, R. 2009. Floodplain development in an engineered setting. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 34 (2), pp.291-304. (10.1002/esp.1725)
- Singer, M. B. , Aalto, R. and James, L. A. 2008. Status of the lower Sacramento valley flood-control system within the context of its natural geomorphic setting. Natural Hazards Review 9 (3), pp.104. (10.1061/(ASCE)1527-6988(2008)9:3(104))
- Singer, M. B. et al. 2021. Hourly potential evapotranspiration at 0.1˚ resolution for the global land surface from 1981-present. Scientific Data 8 224. (10.1038/s41597-021-01003-9)
- Singer, M. B. and Dunne, T. 2004. An empirical-stochastic, event-based program for simulating inflow from a tributary network: Framework and application to the Sacramento River basin, California. Water Resources Research 40 (7)(10.1029/2003WR002725)
- Singer, M. B. and Dunne, T. 2001. Identifying eroding and depositional reaches of valley by analysis of suspended sediment Transport in the Sacramento River, California. Water Resources Research 37 (12), pp.3371-3381. (10.1029/2001WR000457)
- Singer, M. B. and Dunne, T. 2004. Modeling decadal bed material sediment flux based on stochastic hydrology. Water Resources Research 40 (3)(10.1029/2003WR002723)
- Singer, M. B. and Dunne, T. 2006. Modeling the influence of river rehabilitation scenarios on bed material sediment flux in a large river over decadal timescales. Water Resources Research 42 (12)(10.1029/2006WR004894)
- Singer, M. B. et al. 2024. Climatic controls on the length and shape of the world's drainage basins. Geophysical Research Letters 51 (24) e2024GL111220. (10.1029/2024GL111220)
- Singer, M. B. and Michaelides, K. 2017. Deciphering the expression of climate change within the Lower Colorado River basin by stochastic simulation of convective rainfall. Environmental Research Letters 12 (10) 104011. (10.1088/1748-9326/aa8e50)
- Singer, M. B. and Michaelides, K. 2014. How is topographic simplicity maintained in ephemeral dryland channels?. Geology 42 (12), pp.1091-1094. (10.1130/G36267.1)
- Singer, M. B. et al. 2014. Floodplain ecohydrology: Climatic, anthropogenic, and local physical controls on partitioning of water sources to riparian trees. Water Resources Research 50 (5), pp.4490-4513. (10.1002/2014WR015581)
- Singer, M. B. et al. 2013. Contrasting water-uptake and growth responses to drought in co-occurring riparian tree species. Ecohydrology 6 (3), pp.402-412. (10.1002/eco.1283)
- Slater, L. J. and Singer, M. B. 2013. Imprint of climate and climate change in alluvial riverbeds: Continental United States, 1950-2011. Geology 41 (5), pp.595-598. (10.1130/G34070.1)
- Slater, L. J. , Singer, M. B. and Kirchner, J. W. 2015. Hydrologic versus geomorphic drivers of trends in flood hazard. Geophysical Research Letters 42 (2), pp.370-376. (10.1002/2014GL062482)
- Springborn, M. , Singer, M. B. and Dunne, T. 2011. Sediment-adsorbed total mercury flux through Yolo Bypass, the primary floodway and wetland in the Sacramento Valley, California. Science of the Total Environment 412-41 , pp.203. (10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.10.004)
- Warter, M. M. et al. 2021. Drought onset and propagation into soil moisture and grassland vegetation responses during the 2012–2019 major drought in Southern California. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 25 (6), pp.3713–3729. (10.5194/hess-25-3713-2021)
- Warter, M. M. et al. 2023. Modeling seasonal vegetation phenology from hydroclimatic drivers for contrasting plant functional groups within drylands of the Southwestern USA. Environmental Research: Ecology 2 (2) 025001. (10.1088/2752-664X/acb9a0)
- Washburn, S. J. et al., 2019. Isotopic evidence for mercury photoreduction and retention on particles in surface waters of Central California, USA. Science of the Total Environment 674 , pp.451-461. (10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.145)
- Williams, J. et al., 2024. Seasonal and species‐level water‐use strategies and groundwater dependence in dryland riparian woodlands during extreme drought. Water Resources Research 60 (4) e2023WR035928. (10.1029/2023wr035928)
- Williams, J. et al., 2022. Local groundwater decline exacerbates response of dryland riparian woodlands to climatic drought. Global Change Biology (10.1111/gcb.16376)
Book sections
- Jaeger, K. L. et al., 2017. Geomorphology and sediment regimes of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams. In: Datry, T. , Bonada, N. and Boulton, A. eds. Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams. Ecology and Management Academic Press. , pp.21. (10.1016/B978-0-12-803835-2.00002-4)
- James, L. A. et al., 2009. Historical channel changes in the lower Yuba and Feather Rivers, California: Long-term effects of contrasting river-management strategies. In: James, L. A. , Rathburn, S. L. and Whittecar, G. eds. Management and Restoration of Fluvial Systems with Broad Historical Changes and Human Impacts. Vol. 451, Geological Society of America. , pp.57. (10.1130/2009.2451(04))
- Singer, M. B. 2015. Impact scales of fluvial response to management along the Sacramento River, California, USA: transience versus persistence. In: Hudson, P. and Middelkoop, H. eds. Geomorphic Approaches to Integrated Floodplain Management of Lowland Fluvial Systems in North America and Europe. New York: Springer. , pp.53-85. (10.1007/978-1-4939-2380-9_4)
Conferences
- Koppa, A. et al., 2022. Unraveling the origin of rainfall over Horn of Africa Drylands. Presented at: EGU General Assembly 2022 23-27 May 2022. EGU General Assembly 2022 Abstracts. Copernicus(10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5330)
- Rigby, J. M. et al., 2025. Mobile phones in the drylands: How technology supports community information sharing in rural Kenya. Presented at: COMPASS '25 Toronto, Canada 22 - 25 July 2025. Proceedings of the 2025 ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies. New York, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. , pp.167-183. (10.1145/3715335.3735464)
Research
My research is focused on environmental change within global ecosystems and human societies. I am at the core an interdisciplinary scientist and my research aim is to reduce uncertainty about the impacts of and resilience to the pressing issue of our time--climate change. I lead the SCience of Climate, LAnd, Water, Plants, & Society (SCI-CLAWPS) Research Group, in which our work focuses on how climatic changes filter through the hydrologic cycle to affect water resources for society, water availability to vegetation, evolution of natural hazards, the functioning of catchments, climate signatures in land surface topography, and environmental pollution. These topics have theoretical and applied aspects, with implications under climate change for vegetation in water-limited environments, water and food security, infrastructure resilience, ecological food webs, and climate adaptation in the developing world.
To learn more, please visit my research page: https://singer.eri.ucsb.edu/
If you are interested in joining my research group, please take note of the supervision tab.
Teaching
I am overall Director of the new MSc: Water, Climate Change, and Sustainability
Relevant modules I am leading:
EAT109: Water in the Environment (PGT)
EA3333: Physical Geography Field Course (UG)
EAT301: Research Dissertation: Water in A Changing World (PGT)
I also teach on:
EA2312: Process Geomorphology and Hydrology
Biography
- Professor – School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Cardiff University (2021-present)
- Deputy Director – Water Research Institute, Cardiff University (2018-present)
- Director of Postgraduate Teaching (2025-present)
- Head – Centre for Resilience and Environmental Change (2021-2025)
- Reader – School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Cardiff University (2020-2021)
- Senior Lecturer – School of Earth & Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University (2017-2020)
- Researcher – Earth Research Institute, University of California Santa Barbara (2017-present)
- Lecturer – School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews (2007-2017)
- Associate Researcher - Earth Research Institute, University of California Santa Barbara (2013-2017)
- Assistant Researcher - Earth Research Institute, University of California Santa Barbara (2003-2013)
- National Research Council Research Associate (Postdoc) - United States National Academy of Sciences (2005-2007)
- PhD – Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California Santa Barbara (2003)
- BA Environmental Sciences – The Evergreen State College (1993)
Honours and awards
- David A. Siegel Earth Research Institute Director’s Award, Recognizing interdisciplinary scientific leadership (2018)
- Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe Publication Award, Best Publication in Ecohydrology for 2016 (2017)
- Invited Keynote Speaker, ‘Reclaiming the Sierra 2015: The New Gold Rush’, The Sierra Fund (2015)
- Peer Review College Member, Natural Environment Research Council (2010-2013)
- Expert Panelist on Central Valley Flood Hazards, American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting (2007)
- Guest Editor, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (2005
- Dozier Fellowship, Donald Bren School of Environmental Science & Management (1999)
Professional memberships
- American Institute of Hydrology (Professional Hydrologist certification)
- American Geophysical Union
- British Society for Geomorphology
- British Hydrological Society
Academic positions
University of St Andrews 2007-2017
Supervisions
Please check back for advertised PhD and postdoc opportunities in my research group or go to:
Current supervision
Impact
I was overall PI on a large, interdisciplinary project funded by the EU's Horizon 2020 Programme.
The DOWN2EARTH project addressed the multi-faceted challenges of water scarcity and food insecurity under climate change in HAD, by facilitating community-centered adaptation and resilience to climate change impacts. It used a multidisciplinary, inclusive approach, bringing together local communities, academic experts, novel decision-support tools, multi-level governance structures, regional climate centers, and NGOs. It will deliver state-of-the-art and community-relevant climate services that focus on water scarcity and its consequences at or near the Earth’s surface (hence DOWN2EARTH) to increasingly vulnerable rural populations in HAD. The project was designed to bolster existing climate services frameworks, improve decision support to people, governments, and NGOs serving affected rural communities in the most vulnerable HAD countries (Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia), and to improve community-centric adaptation and resilience to climate change.
Please visit the website to learn more: http://down2earthproject.org/
Contact Details
Research themes
Specialisms
- Hydrology
- Climate change impacts and adaptation
- Geomorphology and earth surface processes
