David D. Hart Ph.D.

5710 Norman Smith Hall, Orono, ME 04469-5710
207/581-3257 • fx:207/581-3320 • david.hart@umit.maine.edu

Research Specialties
Watershed science and management

Education
B.A., University of California, Santa Cruz; Ph.D., University of California, Davis

Biography
David Hart joined the team at the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research as Director in June 2006. He is also a professor with the School of Biology & Ecology at UMaine. David is the former Director of the Patrick Center for Environmental Research at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, PA.

David was captivated by streams and rivers as a small boy growing up in northern California; he presented his first public testimony about watershed management issues at the age of 17. As the Director of Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research at the University of Maine, he is helping to lead the Environmental Solutions Initiative. This new interdisciplinary program involves faculty from more than twenty University of Maine departments who are committed to working with government, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations to help search for, evaluate, and implement sustainable solutions to local and regional challenges. These research efforts and partnerships focus simultaneously on the intersecting societal needs for strong economies, robust communities, and a clean environment.

David’s broad interests in environmental science, technology and policy are focused in three interrelated areas. First, together with his students and postdoctoral fellows, he is examining the role played by flowing water as a master variable governing river ecosystems. He has collaborated with experts in biomechanics and hydraulic engineering to investigate the myriad effects of flow on ecosystem structure and function, as well as the complex ways in which human alterations of flow regimes affect river health. This research has ranged from studies of the microflow environments experienced by individual river organisms to analyses of ecosystem responses to multi-million dollar restoration programs in which dam operations have been modified to improve the health of degraded rivers.

More broadly, he is engaged in multidisciplinary research to increase the effectiveness of watershed management practices, including activities such as riparian restoration, dam removal, and the control of invasive species. For example, he and his colleagues are developing planning tools to quantify how the ecological benefits of different restoration and protection projects vary with their size and location within the watershed.

David is also working to maximize the usefulness of multidisciplinary environmental research by developing robust partnerships with key stakeholders involved in environmental decision-making. For example, he has worked with Fortune 500 companies, local and international environmental organizations, and numerous government agencies to identify and adopt more effective strategies for sustaining the planet’s life support systems. The Mitchell Center also serves as a forum for the discussion of controversial and complex environmental issues facing Maine and other regions.

Publications

• Bernhardt, E., S.E. Bunn, D.D. Hart, B. Malmqvist, T. Muotka, R.J. Naiman, C. Pringle, M. Reuss and B. van Wilgen. 2006. Perspective: The challenge of ecologically sustainable water management. Water Policy 8: 475-479.
• Bednarek, A.T. and D.D. Hart. 2005. Modifying dam operations to restore rivers: Ecological responses to dam mitigation in the Tennessee River. Ecological Applications 15:997–1008.
• Bernhardt, E.S., M.A. Palmer, J.D. Allan, G. Alexander, K. Barnas, S. Brooks, J. Carr, C. Dahm, J. Follstad-Shah, D.Galat, S. Gloss, P. Goodwin, D. Hart, B. Hassett, R. Jenkinson, S. Katz, G. M. Kondolf, P. S. Lake, R. Lave, J.L. Meyer, T.K. O’Donnell, L. Pagano, B. Powell, and E. Sudduth. 2005. Synthesizing U.S. river restoration efforts. Science 308:636-637.
• Thomson, J.R., D.D. Hart, D.F. Charles, T.L. Nightengale and D.M. Winter. 2005. Effects of removal of a small dam on downstream algal and macroinvertebrate assemblages in a Pennsylvania stream. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 24:192-207.
• Palmer, M.A., E.S. Bernhardt, J.D. Allan, P.S. Lake, G. Alexander, S. Brooks, J. Carr, S. Clayton, C.N. Dahm, J. Follstad Shah, D.L. Galat, S. Gloss, P. Goodwin, D.D. Hart, B. Hassett, R. Jenkinson, K.M. Kondolf, R. Lave, J.L. Meyer, T.K. O'Donnell, L. Pagano and E. Sudduth. 2005. Standards for ecologically successful river restoration. Journal of Applied Ecology 42:208-217.
• Poff, N. L., J. D. Allan, M. A. Palmer, D. D. Hart, B. D. Richter, A. H. Arthington, K. H. Rogers, J. L. Meyer, and J. A. Stanford. 2003. River flows and water wars? Emerging science for environmental decision-making. Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment 1:298-306.
• Hart, D.D., T.E. Johnson, K.L. Bushaw-Newton, R.J.Horwitz, A.T. Bednarek, D.F. Charles, D.A. Kreeger, and D.J. Velinsky. 2002. Dam removal: Challenges and opportunities for ecological research and river restoration. BioScience 52(8):669-681.
• Poff, N.L. and D.D. Hart. 2002. How dams vary and why it matters for the emerging science of dam removal. BioScience 52(8): 59-68.
• Hart, D.D. 2002. Roles for scientists in community-based ecological restoration. BioScience 52(8):643.
• Hart, D.D. and C.M. Finelli.1999. Physical-biological coupling in streams: The pervasive effects of flow on benthic organisms. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 30:363-395.

Leadership

• Member, Sustainable Oceans, Coasts, and Waterways Advisory Committee, Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment, 2004 - present
• Member, President's Advisory Committee on Water Information (representing the Ecological Society of America), 2003 - present
• Member, Science and Technical Advisory Committee, American Rivers, 2001 - present
• Vice President, Academy of Natural Sciences, 1997 - 2006
• Scientific Advisor, Catchment Ecosystem Research Programme, United Kingdom, 1994-1995

Awards & Honors

• Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow, 2005
• Governor's Award for Watershed Stewardship (accepted on behalf of the Academy's Patrick Center for Environmental Research), 2002
• Tenth Anniversary Plenary Lecturer, Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 2002
• Fulbright Senior Scholar, National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research, Christchurch, New Zealand, 1999