Shayla Triantafillou
Please join us for an informal, Zoom coffee hour on January 29, 2025 at 11:00 AM Pacific / 2:00 PM Eastern celebrating Shayla and our December 2024 Early Career Spotlight winner (Karin Lehnigk). You can register for our Zoom here.
Tell us about yourself:
Water has played a central role in my life from recreation to pursuing a career in research. My first field job was in high school. By the time I started my undergraduate degree I already knew that I wanted to be a field scientist, I just wasn’t sure what kind. I dipped my toes in research as an undergraduate at the University of Vermont and through an REU at Virginia Tech, both focused on rivers in different landscapes. Once I found out that being a river scientist was an option, it all clicked. I’ve enjoyed a combination of interest and applicability in the subject matter, many kind and generous mentors and peers, and getting to spend time in rivers. I joined the fluvial geomorphology group at Colorado State University in 2022 where my MS research focused on geomorphic resilience to wildfire. Having decided to stay at CSU for my PhD, I’m now studying in-channel large wood.
What is your research about?
I’m a fluvial geomorphologist so, broadly, I study river form and process. More specifically, I study biophysical interactions in river corridors and how those interactions affect river form. River corridors, including channels and floodplains, are incredibly diverse across landscape settings and scales, and I have been enjoying getting to know some of these settings. As part of my MS research, I studied the impacts of geomorphic setting, logjams, (alive) vegetation, and beaver dams on post-fire geomorphic response. My current focus is on large wood and logjams, which were far more abundant before widespread deforestation and wood removal from rivers. Because large wood can have positive effects on river corridors (attenuation, heterogeneity, aquatic habitat), my research aims to understand river processes in the context of wood to better manage for it. My current projects use field and remote datasets to better relate logjams to aquatic habitat creation, channel dynamism, and flow attenuation.
What excites you about your research?
I love finding out how things work and applying that understanding to how we manage our rivers. Finding out how something works almost always raises more questions, which also really excites me. Another fun part of my work is sharing that excitement about my research and rivers in general through teaching and science communication at all levels.
What broader importance does your research have for society?
As fun as it is to answer questions that spark my own curiosity, it’s also important to me that my work is meaningful to people outside of my academic bubble. My current focus is large wood, which is increasingly being used in river restoration. Even though we have an understanding that wood provides many benefits in rivers, it can also be a risk to infrastructure and recreation users. Municipalities and river restoration practitioners have a solid understanding of these risks, but the science is somewhat lacking in understanding thresholds of benefit. My research is motivated by the need to better understand the thresholds (amount, size, characteristics of wood) at which the benefits of wood are maximized. Understanding how to best manage for wood in river corridors means being able to confidently weigh risks and benefits.
What inspired you to pursue a career in Earth Science?
I was first drawn to the field because of my love of water and the outdoors, but I have grown to love the creative problem solving inherent in a lot of the field and remote methods that I use. I'm also incredibly grateful to be mentored by an amazing and ever-growing group of people. I can’t emphasize enough the role that they have played in getting me excited, inspired, and motivated to pursue a career in river science.
What are you looking to do after you complete your PhD or postdoc?
I’m aiming to stay in river research, whether in an academic position or through a government agency.
Given unlimited funding and access to resources, what is your dream project that you would pursue?
The first thing that comes to mind is repeat green lidar, which is becoming increasingly available in small areas. We could answer questions about geomorphic change in so many contexts with repeat flights, including questions about disturbance, anthropogenic impacts, large wood, efficacy of river restoration, the list could go on.
I’m always dreaming up landscape-scale experiments that would never be allowed. A project I have been working on recently made me aware of a lack of data showing definitive ties between fire and fish. It would be very interesting (and morally questionable) to experimentally burn an entire catchment to understand fish populations and geomorphic conditions pre- and post-burn while being able to control burn severity and other fire characteristics.
What else do you do? Any hobbies or interests outside of work?
There is definitely some overlap between work and play in my life. Outside of work I like to play outside, mainly biking, running, climbing, skiing, and paddling. I’ve been working on knitting the same sweater for nearly two years now, so I think I can still say that I like knitting, too.
Please provide a caption to your photo:
Navigating a logjam to measure logjam characteristics and scour depth of the associated pool in Montana.
If you would like, please provide a link to your personal website.
https://fluvialshayla.com