Road salt and lakes

The highest densities of lakes on Earth are in north temperate ecosystems, where chloride runoff from road deicers can salinize freshwaters and threaten lake water quality and the many ecosystem services lakes provide.

My niche is spatial and temporal modeling of chloride trends and trajectories. This includes research at the continental scale and site-specific models.

Select Publications:
-Dugan et al. (2017) PNAS
-Dugan et al. (2017) L&O Letters
-Shannon et al. (2020) Journal of Urban Ecology
-Dugan et al. (2020) Environmental Science & Technology
-Dugan and Rock (2021) L&O Letters
-Ladwig et al. (2021) L&O Letters
-Dugan et al. (2021) L&O Letters
-Dugan and Arnott (2022) Wires Water
-Rock and Dugan (2023) L&O
-Emch and Dugan (2025) JAWRA
-Platt and Dugan (2025) Water Resources Research

Polar research

My research background is in polar limnology, and has included research both in the Canadian Arctic and Antarctica. As of 2023, I am a co-PI on the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-term Ecological Research project. My interests lie in understanding climate and hydrological drivers on lake ecosystem processes.

Select Publications:
-Dugan et al (2015) Geophysical Research Letters
-Mikucki et al (2015) Nature Communications
-Myers et al (2021) Cryosphere
-Dugan et al (2022) Cryosphere
-Dugan et al (2025) Limnology & Oceanography
-Dougherty et al (2026) Geophysical Research Letters

Winter limnology

Expanding our knowledge of winter limnology is critical for managing lakes and reservoirs in a future with shorter winters and less lake ice. In temperate latitudes, limnologists have largely ignored winter as a season that impacts ecological processes, and it is unclear what ramifications the loss of lake ice will have on lake ecosystems.

Select Publications:
-Yang et al (2020) Geophysical Research Letters
-Dugan et al (2021) JGR Biogeosciences
-Feiner et al (2022) CJFAS
-Socha et al (2023) Limnology and Oceanography
-Hampton et al (2024) Science
-Dugan et al (2025) Limnology and Oceanography Letters

Long term ecology

Over my career, I’ve been fortunate to work at a number of long-term research sites; from Cape Bounty in the Canadian Arctic, to the North Temperate Lakes and McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER sites.

Lake modeling

Understanding energy, water, solute, and material flux through lakes and reservoirs underpins our knowledge of the roles lakes play in their catchments, how lakes process and respond to external drivers, and the threats to lake ecosystem services imposed by human activities.

An emerging paradigm in domain science is the use of machine learning to accelerate scientific discovery from observational data. Historically, modeling in limnology has mainly used statistical models, numerical simulations, and more complex process models. Over the last few years, I have been part of an interdisciplinary team working in the realm of knowledge guided machine learning (KGML). The KGML ethos is that the most powerful explanatory models will combine the strengths of machine learning with accumulated scientific knowledge.

Select Publications:
-Snortheim et al (2016) Ecological Modelling
-Moore et al (2021) Environmental Modelling & Software
-Ladwig et al. (2021) Limnology and Oceanography Letters
-Ladwig et al. (2021) Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
-Ladwig et al. (2022) Limnology and Oceanography

Large scale limnology

How do lakes function across large geographic areas?

Linking local ecosystem processes to global changes involves scaling up. Moving from site-specific studies that provide an invaluable means to understand process, to large-scale analyses across a gradient of sites at the continental or global scale is essential to forming a generalizable understanding of both ecosystem processes and the interactions between natural systems and humans.

Select Publications:
-Read et al (2017) Water Resources Research
-Mantzouki et al (2018) Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
-Topp et al (2021) Water Resources Research