Maoya Bassiouni

Research

Postdoc @ Quantitative Ecosystem Dynamics Lab, UC Berkeley
Ecohydrology | Biometeorology | Plant Ecophysiology | Art & Curiosity
Ecosystem-based Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation Strategies

I am a postdoctoral research fellow with the Quantitative Ecosystem Dynamics Lab in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley.

My research combines physical and ecophysiological theory with data science to understand how vegetation interacts with environmental change and how these interactions influence water, carbon, and energy cycles from soil, plant, to the biosphere.

I'm passionate about interdisciplinary research and developing tractable and trustworthy tools to empower ecosystem-based climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. I aspire to foster collaboration across sectors to actualize sustainable development goals.

Current interests:

Diagnose land-atmosphere interactions, vegetation water-carbon tradeoffs and responses to environmental conditions that are encoded in observations from plant to ecosystem scales.

Quantify key ecohydrological parameters and eco-evolutionary optimality principles that enhance our understanding and predictive capacity of complex environmental systems and ecosystem services.

Upscale ground-based experiments with satellite data using knowledge-guided machine learning to develop spatial criteria for ecosystem management strategies and climate risk reduction.

Blend art and science to empower society to not only understand but also feel environmental change and imagine healthy futures.

Publications

GoogleScholar | ORCiD: 0001-5795-9894

Peer-reviewed publications

R Loritz, CH Wu, D Klotz, M Gauch, F Kratzert and M Bassiouni (2024), Generalising Tree-Level Sap Flow Across the European Continent. Geophysical Research Letters, 51 (6), e2023GL107350. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL107350
M Bassiouni, S Manzoni and G Vico (2023), Optimal plant water use strategies explain soil moisture variability. Advances in Water Resources,173, 104405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2023.104405
L Hawkins, M Bassiouni, WRL Anderegg, MD Venturas, SP Good, H Kwon, C Hanson, R Fiorella, GJ Bowen and CJ Still (2022), Comparing Model Representations of Physiological Limits on Transpiration at a Semi-arid Ponderosa Pine Site. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, e2021MS002927. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002927
AE Goodwell and M Bassiouni (2022), Source relationships and model structures determine information flow paths in ecohydrologic models. Water Resources Research, 58, e2021WR031164. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR031164
R Loritz, M Bassiouni, A Hildebrandt, SK Hassler and E Zehe (2022), Leveraging sap flow data in a catchment-scale hybrid model to improve soil moisture and transpiration estimates. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 26, 4757–4771, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-4757-2022
DR URycki, M Bassiouni, SP Good, BC Crump and B Li (2022), The streamwater microbiome encodes hydrologic data across scales. Science of the Total Environment, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157911
M Bassiouni and G Vico (2021), Parsimony versus predictive and functional performance of three stomatal optimization principles in a big-leaf framework. New Phytologist, 231 (2), 586-600. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.17392
MA Scholl, M Bassiouni and AJ Torres-Sanchez (2021), Drought stress and hurricane defoliation influence mountain clouds and moisture recycling in a tropical forest. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118 (7). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2021646118
M Wu, G Vico, S Manzoni, Z Cai, M Bassiouni, F Tian, J Zhang, K Ye and G Messori (2021), Early growing season anomalies in vegetation activity determine the large-scale climate-vegetation coupling in Europe. Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences, 126 (5). https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JG006167
Z Su, Y Zeng, N Romano, S Manfreda, F Francés, E Ben Dor, B Szabó, G Vico, P Nasta, R Zhuang, N Francos, J Mészáros, SF Dal Sasso, M Bassiouni, L Zhang, DT Rwasoka, B Retsios, L Yu, ML Blatchford, C Mannaerts (2020), An Integrative Information Aqueduct to Close the Gaps between Satellite Observation of Water Cycle and Local Sustainable Management of Water Resources. Water, 12 (5), 1495. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12051495
M Bassiouni, SP Good, CJ Still and CW Higgins (2020), Plant water uptake thresholds inferred from satellite soil moisture. Geophysical Research Letters, 47 (7). https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL087077
M Bassiouni, CW Higgins, CJ Still and SP Good (2018), Probabilistic inference of ecohydrological parameters using observations from point to satellite scales. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 22 (6), 3229-3243. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3229-2018
M Bassiouni, MA Scholl, AJ Torres-Sanchez and SF Murphy (2017), A method for quantifying cloud immersion in a tropical mountain forest using time-lapse photography. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 243, 100-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2017.04.010
M Bassiouni, RM Vogel and SA Archfield (2016), Panel regressions to estimate low-flow response to rainfall variability in ungaged basins. Water Resources Research, 52 (12), 9470-9494. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR018718
SK Izuka, JA Engott, K Rotzoll, M Bassiouni, AG Johnson, LD Miller and A Mair (ver 1.0 2016; ver. 2.0, 2018), Volcanic aquifers of Hawai ‘i—Hydrogeology, water budgets, and conceptual models: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5164, 158 p. https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20155164.
JA Engott, AG Johnson, M Bassiouni, SK Izuka and K Rotzoll (ver. 1.0 2015; ver. 2.0, 2017), Spatially distributed groundwater recharge for 2010 land cover estimated using a water-budget model for the island of O'ahu, Hawaii: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2015–5010, 49 p. https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20155010.
AG Johnson, JA Engott, M Bassiouni and K Rotzoll (ver 1.0 2014; ver. 2.0, 2018), Spatially distributed groundwater recharge estimated using a water-budget model for the island of Maui, Hawai‘i, 1978–2007: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2014–5168, 53 p. https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20145168.
M Bassiouni and DS Oki (2013), Trends and shifts in streamflow in Hawai‘i, 1913–2008. Hydrological Processes, 27 (10), 1484-1500. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.9298.

Preprints

Y Kang, M Bassiouni, M Gaber, X Lu and TF Keenan (2023), CEDAR-GPP: spatiotemporally upscaled estimates of gross primary productivity incorporating CO2 fertilization. Earth System Science Data Discussussions, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-337.

R Nakagawa, M Chau, J Calzaretta, TF Keenan, P Vahabi, A Todeschini, M Bassiouni and Y Kang (2023), Upscaling Global Hourly GPP with Temporal Fusion Transformer. arXiv preprint, arXiv:2306.13815. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2306.13815.

G Shrestha, S Cooley, L Larson, M Bassiouni, K Grabb, Z Cannizzo, and AA Bhandari (2023), Report for the Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR): Towards a Unified Monitoring, Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MMRV) Framework Workshop. Open Science Framework Preprints. , https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/y5cfz.

JM Frame, L Hernandez Rodriguez, and M Bassiouni (2023), DeepBucketLab - A Playground for Understanding Deep Learning for Hydrologic Process Representations. Zenodo, DOI: 10.5072/zenodo.7349.

Code | github.com/maoyab

OWUS: Inference of optimal plant water use strategies (2021, Python Code), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5518546

DESOM: Diagnostics of ecosystem-scale stomatal optimization models (2021, Python Code), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4386353

Data management for global PIEP (2020, Python Code), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3235820

PIEP: Probabilistic inference of ecohydrological parameters from soil moisture observations (2018, Python Code), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1257718

Clustering of time-lapsed photographs to develop a 30-min time series of forest cloud immersion (2017, Python Code), upon request.

Data

CEDAR-GPP: A Spatiotemporally Upscaled Dataset of Gross Primary Productivity Incorporating CO2 Fertilization (V1.0) (2024, Dataset), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11238533

Temperature, relative humidity and cloud immersion data for Luquillo Mountains, eastern Puerto Rico, 2014-2019 (2021, USGS Data Release), https://doi.org/10.5066/P9UQCN4T

Global dataset of ecohydrological parameters inferred from satellite observations (2020, Dataset), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3351622

Mean annual water-budget components for the Hawaiian Islands (2018, ver. 2.0, multiple USGS Data Releases) see full list of water availability products

Supplementary data for "method for quantifying cloud immersion in a tropical mountain forest using time-lapse photography" (2017, USGS Data Release), http://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F7HQ3X52

Summary drainage basin and low-flow characteristics in gaged Hawaii streams and summary rainfall projections for the late 21st century and associated changes in low flows and usable habitat for native stream fauna in gaged and ungaged Maui, HI streams (2016, USGS Data Release), http://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F7TH8JV3

Curriculum Vitae

Education

2019      PhD Water Resources Engineering, Oregon State University
2012      MSc Environmental Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)
2008      BSc Environmental Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)

Selected Service & Teaching

2023 –      Chair, FLUXNET outreach working group (link)
2024 –      Director, FLUXNET artist in residence program (link)
2022 –      Convener, Emerging machine learning approaches for process
                  understanding in ecosystem sciences, AGU Annual Fall Meeting

Course instructor
BEE 599: Environmental Transport and Mixing (2017, 2019)
BEE 599: Dimensional Analysis and Scaling (2018)

Guest lectures
ESPM C114: Terrestrial Hydrology (2022, 2024); ESPM 111: Ecosystem Ecology (2022);
BEE 322: Ecological Engineering Thermodynamics and Transfer Process (2016-19);
BEE 311: Ecological Fluid Dynamics (2016-19); BEE 361: Ecological Engineering
Laboratory (2017); BEE 313: Ecohydrology (2016)

Mentoring and advising, UC Berkeley
Graduate Program, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (2022 – );
Capstone Projects, Master of Information and Data Science (2023);
Undergraduate Honors Thesis, Rausser College of Natural Resources (2023);
Data Discovery Program, Div. of Computing, Data Science & Society (2022, 2023)

Experience

2022-          Postdoctoral Researcher
                    Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
                    ESPM, UC Berkeley, CA, USA

2019-21      Postdoctoral Researcher
                    Department of Crop Produciton Ecology
                    VPE, SLU, Uppsala, SE

2015-19      Graduate Research Fellow
                    Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering
                    BEE, OSU, Corvallis, OR, USA

2016           USGS National Research Program Intern
                    Institute for Water and Watersheds
                    OSU, Corvallis, OR, USA

2012-15      Hydrologist
2009-10      Pacific Islands Water Science Center
                    PIWSC, USGS, Honolulu, HI, USA

2012           Master Research Student
                    Laboratory of Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology
                    EFLUM, EPFL, Lausanne, CH

2010           Environmental Engineer
                    Department of Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development
                    SANDEC, EAWAG, Dakar, Senegal

2008-09      Project Assistant
                    ProAct Network NGO
                    Tannay, CH