David Butman

  • Associate Professor
  • Jack and George Corkery Professorship in Forest Sciences
    • 206-685-0953
  • Visit David's website

    • David Butman

    • Associate Professor
    • Jack and George Corkery Professorship in Forest Sciences

    Research areas

    Influence of humans and climate on carbon cycling at the intersection of terrestrial and aquatic systems

    David studies the influence of humans and climate on carbon cycling at the intersection of terrestrial and aquatic systems. He measures the capacity of ecosystems to change as a result of anthropogenic carbon emissions; human landscape alteration, like logging or development; and the effects of climate change, in order to identify environmental stressors within watersheds and mitigate long term resource degradation.

    He received the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship, The Teresa Heinz Scholars for Environmental Research Scholarship, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Research Initiative, and the Tropical Resources Institute Fellowship from Yale.

    B.A., Economics & Environmental Studies, Connecticut College
    MESc., Environmental Science, Yale University
    Ph.D., Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University

    Autumn 2026-27 Admissions: Please reach out to Professor Butman to inquire about their ability to admit new students.

    Courses

    • ESRM 201 | Sustaining Pacific Northwest Ecosystems (5) - Autumn
    • SEFS 512 | Biogeochemical Cycling in Soils and Forest Ecosystems (3) - Spring

    Current sponsored projects

    • Coastal Rainforest Margins Research Network - Understanding Materials Flux in Linked Terrestrial and Marine Systems in the Face of Climate Change

    • Ecosystem Services - Seminar Course SA Support

    • Integration of Lateral and Vertical Carbon Flux Estimates

    • Magnitude and Controls on the Lateral Transport of Carbon via Steams and Rivers

    • Vulnerability of Inland Waters and the Aquatic Carbon Cycle to Changing Permafrost and Climate across Boreal Northwestern North America

    Selected publications

    Butman, D. E., Wilson, H. F., Barnes, R. T., Xenopoulos, M. A., & Raymond, P. A , Increased mobilization of aged carbon to rivers by human disturbance. 2015. Nature Geoscience 8:112-116.

    Clow, D. W., Stackpoole, S. M., Verdin, K. L., Butman, D. E., Zhu, Z., Krabbenhoft, D. P., & Striegl, R. G., Organic Carbon Burial in Lakes and Reservoirs of the Conterminous United States. 2015. Environmental Science & Technology 49(13):7614-7622.

    Hotchkiss, E. R., Hall Jr, R. O., Sponseller, R. A., Butman, D., Klaminder, J., Laudon, H., Karlsson, J., Sources of and processes controlling CO2 emissions change with the size of streams and rivers. 2015. Nature Geoscience 8:696-699.

    Bianchi, T., F. Garcia-Tigreros, S. Yvon-Lewis, M. Shields, H. Mills, D. Butman, C. Osburn, P.A. Raymond, G.C. Shank, S. DiMarco, N. Walker, R. Mullins, A. Quigg, G. Aiken, E. Grossman. Enhanced Transfer of Terrestrially-Derived Carbon to the Atmosphere in a Flooding Event. 2013. Geophysical Research Letters, 40, 1-7.

    McDonald, C.P., E.G. Stets, R.G. Striegl, D. Butman, Inorganic Carbon Loading as the Primary Driver of Dissolved Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Lakes and Reservoirs of the Contiguous United States. 2013. Global Biogeochemical Cycles.