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Division of Natural Sciences & MathematicsDepartment of Geography & the Environment

Faculty & Staff
  • michaelDaniels

    J. Michael Daniels

    Associate Professor
    Phone: 303-871-7531
    E-mail: j.michael.daniels@du.edu


    Degrees

    2002 PhD, geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison
    1997 MS, geography, Louisiana State University
    1994 AB, geography and English, University of California-Berkeley

    Interests

    I am a physical geographer and geomorphologist with research interests in fluvial geomorphology, hydrology, late Quaternary environmental change, alluvial stratigraphy, floodplain pedogenesis, geoarchaeology, and human modifications of river systems. My work investigates the development and behavior of geomorphic systems over timescales ranging from decades to several millennia. Recent and on-going projects include: flood hydrology of the North Platte River, Wyoming and Colorado; channel response to forest mortality from beetle infestation in Fraser Experimental Forest, Colorado; paleoenvironmental reconstruction and geoarchaeological reconnaissance of coastal Estremadura, Portugal; late Holocene fluvial responses to environmental change in the Great Plains.

    Publications

  • Haws, J.A., Funk, C.L., Bicho, N.F., Benedetti, M.M., Daniels, J.M., Minckley, T.A., Denniston, R.F., Jeraj, M., Gibaja, J.F., Hockett, B.S. Paleolithic seascapes along the west coast of Portugal. 2011. In Bicho, N.F., Haws, J.A., Davis, L.G., eds., Trekking the Shore: Changing Coastlines and the Antiquity of Coastal Settlement. Springer, New York.

  • Haws, J.A., Benedetti, M.M., Funk, C.L., Bicho, N.F., Daniels, J.M., Hesp, P.A., Minckley, T.A., Forman, S.L., Jeraj, M., Gibaja, J.F., Hockett, B.S. Coastal wetlands and the Neanderthal settlement of Portuguese Estremadura. 2010. Geoarchaeology 25:709-744.

  • Benedetti, M.M., Haws, J.A., Funk, C.L., Daniels, J.M., Bicho, N.F. Hesp, P.A., Minckley, T. A., Ellwood, B. B.,  Forman, S. L. 2009. Late Pleistocene raised beaches of coastal Estremadura, central Portugal. Quaternary Science Reviews 28:3428-3447.

  • Daniels, J.M. 2008. Distinguishing allogenic from autogenic causes of bed elevation change in late Quaternary alluvial stratigraphic records. Geomorphology 101:159-171.

  • Mayer, J.H., Waguespack, N.M., Surovell, T.S., and Daniels, J.M. 2007. Paleoindian geoarchaeology of the Barger Gulch area. Geological Society of America Field Guide 10: 79-99.

  • Daniels, J.M. 2007. Flood hydrology of the North Platte River headwaters in relation to precipitation variability. Journal of Hydrology 344:70-81.

  • Prager, S.D., Daniels, J.M. Kelley, S. 2007. Sketch-based identification of bench and terrace slope breaks in the Laramie Basin, Wyoming. Transactions in GIS 11:701-717.

  • Benedetti, M.M., Daniels, J.M., Ritchie, J. 2007. Predicting vertical accretion rates at an archaeological site on the Mississippi River floodplain: Effigy Mounds National Monument, Iowa. Catena 69:134-149.

  • Daniels, J.M., Knox, J.C. 2005 Alluvial stratigraphic evidence for channel incision during the Mediaeval Warm Period on the central Great Plains, USA. The Holocene 15:736-747.

  • Daniels, J.M. 2003. Floodplain aggradation and pedogenesis in a semiarid environment. Geomorphology 56:225-242.

  • Knox, J.C., Daniels, J.M. 2002. Watershed scale and the stratigraphic record of large floods. In House, P.K., Webb, R.H., Baker, V.R., and Levish, D. R., eds. Ancient Floods, Modern Hazards: Principles and Applications of Paleoflood Hydrology. Water Science and Application Series, Vol. 5. American Geophysical Union. pp. 237-255.

  • Daniels, J.M. 2002. Drainage network adjustment following channelization, Homochitto River Basin, Mississippi. In Steinberg, M.K., and Hudson, P.F., eds., Cultural and Physical Expositions: Geographic Studies in the Southern United States and Latin America. Geoscience and Man volume 36, pp. 291-308