User:BrianAsh


 * 2008. MS in Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering.University of Minnesota (USA) Bioproducts & Biosystems Engineering Department.
 * 1997. BSS in Chemistry & Environmental Studies with a Biology Minor. 1997 Cornell College MT.Vernon,IA (USA)

I am interdisciplinary applying practical engineering tools to address ecohydrology, waste management, and sustainability issues.

The Bloom Clock is of particular interest to me as it could evolve to include other phenomena relevant to modeling plant growth and responses to soil & weather.

My hobby interests focus on Applied Ecology of plants native to the Midwestern United States and Biosystems Engineering (e.g. Ecohydrologic models for rain garden design). While the Bloom clock is a great idea, I'm more interested in plant emergence, growth, and dormancy for ecohydrological rain garden models. The specificity of plant locations and environment (eg. Minneapolis, MN; 44.98lat, 93.4long; full sun, SE facing slope, in Sandy Loam, soil moist) can greatly increase data value).

I mention this because of my frustration with ecological accounts of transpiration rates that neglect to comment on the local weather (temperature, wind, humidity, and solar radiation),the depth to water table, surface soil moisture and soil texture. If ones data set is as large and long term as Henry Thoreau's other people are motivated to correlate other evidence to fill in such details. Inter-regional and inter-annual comparisons become valid more quickly with such details.

This is a request not a criticism. If I settle into a long term home, I’d like to contribute to Bloom Clock. Perhaps it can extend to clock other growth events. At this point I could create a regional botany topic, under Botany, then contribute a complete list of Minnesota's vascular plants with links to the USDA Plants database and additional traits from literature. It seems inappropriate for me to be so specific at a global wikiversity.

What I do now:
I clean wikipedia stuff related to my rain gardens interest in limited free time as I seek stable employment. Eventually, I'll consider wikibook/versity contributions of my own. My MS Paper project manual explains all aspects of the Simgarden model, but needs clarification to not confuse people unfamiliar with the hydrological models used. By the time I get to that, I hope Simgarden will be obsolete anyway.

When I went to share my simGarden model with the Forestry Professor to whom I had complained that the ASCE failed to summarize American native plant evapotranspiration information in a particularly useful way, that professor seemed outraged that I hadn't succeeded unfunded in such a summary project in my spare time before graduation. That deflated my excitement in contributing to ET modeling or academia right quick. Much effort rots on my hard drive. Now, I long to simply return to work as a store clerk as I was before graduate school.

I'm excited to be able to help evaluate the WINDS model that my MS Adviser Bruce Wilson developed. He now refines it, unfunded, in his spare time. This seems a manageable contribution for me. Everything my garden model achieved relied on a more simple version of WINDS, so ensuring WINDS works in all parts of the USA could help many people. BrianAsh 02:19, 8 January 2008 (UTC)