Undergraduate research is fundamental to training the next generation of earth scientists. My research strives to drive students to complete excellent, publication ready research at the undergraduate level. In fact, I view undergraduate research as the perfect hybrid between teaching and research at a liberal arts school. Roughly 30% of students that work in my lab end up with a peer-reviewed publication in a well-regarded journal.
My research is broadly focused on post-glacial landscape evolution. I specialize in the use of soil development in providing relative ages of landforms including terraces, hillslopes, and dunes. This approach can be can be calibrated using absolute ages and soils can also be used to contextualize those ages as understanding soil horizonation is useful in detecting landscape disturbance.
The impacts of Hurricane Helene will be a primary focus for my research group for the foreseeable future. We had existing mapping projects in the Wilson Creek area prior to the storm and we plan to utilize these maps to identify change. We will also focus on the relationship between landslides and flooding in this highly connected system.
In recent years, I have increasingly worked on geoarchaeology projects in Cyprus and Greece. These will continue to be a focus in the near future.
Students interested in any of these opportunities should reach out to me and should plan to take courses with me.
I also host Red Clay Club in early January each year at Davidson. Red Clay Club is an informal group of geomorphologists, geologists, hydrologists, and geoarchaeologists working, living, and doing research in the southeast. We meet and participants are encouraged to bring unfinished research to present for real-time feedback. If you are interested in joining us, please e-mail me.
Ongoing projects include:
- The impact of Helene on the Blue Ridge including landslide mapping, tree throw analysis, flood inundation mapping, the impact of soil type on landslides, and other relevant work. Since the scale of this research is immense, this work will be in collaboration with state government, federal government, and researchers at other academic institutions.
- Examining the effectiveness of modern stream restoration efforts. This study is funded by Mecklenburg County with the goal of improving county stream restorations through time.
- Mapping of natural and anthropogenic terrace sequences in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The goal of this work is to understand the impacts of Euroamerican settlement in the Blue Ridge by identifying both legacy sediments and natural terraces. Our preliminary findings prior to Helene set an excellent benchmark for continued research.
- Geoarchaeological investigations in Greece (Kalymnos) and Cyprus (and anywhere else interesting). In these projects, we use soils and geomorphic mapping as tools for determining landscape stability through time with the goal of better understanding the paleoenvironments of people.
My most recent publications include (* indicates Davidson student author):
Johnson, B.G., Rieden, H.*, Mullinax, R.P.*, Legacy sediment and stream incision in the North Carolina Piedmont: Fluvial evolution before and after mill dam construction, 44, Anthropocene, 2023.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2023.100405
Johnson B.G., Smith Jacqueline A., Beeton, Jared Maxwell, Using a post-glacial terrace sequence to better understand landscape evolution and paleohydrology in the eastern San Juan Mountains, USA, Geomorphology, 429, 2023.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2023.108651
Rodrigues, K., Keen-Zebert, A., Shepherd, S., Hudson, M.R., Bitting, C.J., Johnson, B.G., Langston, A., The role of lithology and climate on bedrock river incision and terrace development along the Buffalo National River, Arkansas, Quaternary Research, 115, 2023.
doi:10.1017/qua.2023.16
Eppes, M.C., Johnson, B.G., Describing soils in the field: a manual for geomorphologists, Treatise on Geomorphology (2nd Edition), 3, 450-479 2022.
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818234-5.00180-2
Eppes and Johnson, 2022 – Download
Johnson, B.G., An Overview of Soil Geomorphology in North Carolina, Carolina Geological Survey 2022 Meeting and Field Trip, Guidebook for the 82nd Annual CGS Meeting, 2022.
Stiefel, W.C.*, Cooley, S.C.*, Johnson, B.G., Increased colluvial hollow discharge and subsequent recovery after a low intensity wildfire in the Blue Ridge Mountains, USA, Hydrological Processes, 35, e13971, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.13971
Johnson, B.G., Stream capture and the geomorphic evolution of Linville Gorge in the southern Appalachians, USA, Geomorphology, 368, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2020.107360
Beeton, Jared, Johnson, Bradley, Geomorphology and Climate Change in the San Luis Valley, in The Geology, Ecology, and Human History of the San Luis Valley, University of Colorado Press, 2020.
Fulop, Emma*, Johnson, B.G., Keen-Zebert, A., A geochronology supported soil chronosequence for establishing the timing of shoreline parabolic dune stabilization, Catena, 178, 232-243, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2019.03.018
Spell, Rosalind*, Johnson, B.G. Anthropogenic alluvial sediments in North Carolina Piedmont gullies indicate swift geomorphic response to 18th century land-use practices, Physical Geography, 40: 6, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723646.2019.1574145
