Sophie Ruehr

PhD Candidate

Sophie is interested in water and carbon cycling at local, regional and global scales. She uses remote sensing and eddy covariance data to resolve land-atmosphere dynamics resulting from groundwater use and climate change. Having worked as a reporter and oral historian, she is also interested in human perceptions of environmental change, especially when these differ from scientific findings.

Education

B.S. Geology & Geophysics, Yale University (2018)

Research Interests / Specializations:

Carbon and water cycling; terrestrial ecosystems; hydrology; plant-water dynamics; biometeorology; remote sensing

Selected Publications

Ruehr S, et al. 2023. Evidence and attribution of the enhanced land carbon sink. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment,  4; 518–534. Link.

Ruehr S, et al. 2023. Ecosystem groundwater use enhances carbon assimilation and tree growth in a semi-arid Oak Savanna. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 342; 109725.  Link.

Ruehr S, Lee X, Smith R... 2020. A mechanistic investigation of the oasis effect in the Zhangye cropland in semiarid western China. Journal of Arid Environments, 176; 104120.  Link.

Ruehr S. Beyond the Vulnerability/Resilience Dichotomy: Perceptions of and responses to the climate crisis on Emau, Vanuatu. In press. Island Studies Journal (December 2020).  Link.

Honors and Awards

NASA FINESST Fellowship (2023-2026)

Carol Baird Graduate Student Award for Field Research (2022)

ARCS Fellow, Northen California Chapter (2020-2022)

Parker Huang Fellowship, Yale University (2018-2019)

Hammer Prize, Yale University Dept. of Geology & Geophysics (2018)

Karen Von Damm 1977 Fellowship, Yale University Dept. of Geology & Geophysics (2018)

Summer Student Fellowship, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (2017)

Michael Coe Fieldwork Fund, Council on Archaeological Studies at Yale (2015)