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Diana Oviedo Vargas, Ph.D.

500 500 Stroud Water Research Center
Diana Oviedo-Vargas, Ph.D.

Assistant Research Scientist, Principal Investigator

Watershed Biogeochemistry Group

Contact

doviedo@stroudcenter.org
tel. 610-268-2153, ext. 1263
970 Spencer Road, Avondale, PA 19311

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9333-0962

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Interests and Expertise

Diana Oviedo Vargas’s research seeks to improve knowledge of the elemental cycles in streams, rivers, and estuaries and how they are linked to each other, the water cycle, and the terrestrial ecosystem at the surface and the subsurface level. Some of her current research interests include the nitrogen and phosphorus transport and transformation in fluvial systems and how human activities such as agriculture and urbanization can affect these processes; the quantification and characterization of the multiple carbon pools and fluxes in aquatic ecosystems and their role in global climate change; and the effects of emerging contaminants, like pharmaceutical products and microplastics, on the health of streams and rivers. Oviedo Vargas’s expertise includes aquatic ecosystems in temperate and tropical zones and along the full river continuum — from headwaters to large rivers to estuaries and the coastal ocean.

Education

  • Ph.D., environmental sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
  • M.S., environmental sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
  • B.S., chemistry, University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica.

Professional Experience

  • Assistant research scientist, Stroud Water Research Center, 2017–present.
  • Postdoctoral research associate, Department of Marine Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, 2013–2017.
  • Associate instructor, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 2011–2013.
  • Teaching assistant, Analytical and organic chemistry laboratories, University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica, 2004–2007.
  • Research assistant, Natural Products Research Center, University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica, 2004–2007.

Publications

Porewater microbiomes in buried wetland soils: Synergic effects of water chemistry and redox gradients associated with hydrological processes

Kan, J., O. Lazareva, D. Oviedo-Vargas, S.M. McAllister, and C.S. Chan. 2024. Freshwater Biology, early online access.

Respiration regimes in rivers: partitioning source-specific respiration from metabolism time series

Bertuzzo, E., E.R. Hotchkiss, A. Argerich, J.S. Kominoski, D. Oviedo-Vargas, P. Savoy, R. Scarlett, D. von Schiller, and J.B. Heffernan. 2022. Limnology and Oceanography 67(11): 2374–2388.

Partitioning inorganic carbon fluxes from paired O2–CO2 gas measurements in a neotropical headwater stream, Costa Rica

Marzolf, N.S., G.E. Small, D. Oviedo-Vargas, C.N. Ganong, J.H. Duff, A. Ramírez, C.M. Pringle, D.P. Genereux, and M. Ardón. 2022. Biogeochemistry 160: 259–273.

Metabolism and soil water viscosity control diel patterns of nitrate and DOC in a low order temperate stream

Oviedo-Vargas, D., M. Peipoch, and C. Dow. 2022. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 127(5): e2021JG006640.

Partitioning inorganic carbon fluxes from paired O2 – CO2 gas measurements in a neotropical headwater stream, Costa Rica

Marzolf, N.S, G.E. Small, D. Oviedo-Vargas, C.N. Ganong, J.H. Duff, A. Ramírez, C.M. Pringle, D.P. Genereux, and M. Ardón. 2021. Biogeochemistry, early online access.

See publications by all Stroud Center authors

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Stroud Center Scientist to Serve as Nature Conservancy Trustee

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