A. Joshua West

I am fascinated by Earth’s landscapes – how they form and evolve; how they control fluxes of water, sediment, and nutrients; how they interact with global biogeochemical cycles to regulate the long-term evolution of Earth’s life-sustaining environment; and how they contribute to generating natural hazards, particularly landslides and debris flows.

I am equally drawn to understand the evolution of Earth’s environment in the past, and specifically how global climate has changed over geologic time, even as it has remained stable enough to maintain a habitable planet. These interests intersect in understanding how erosion controls the exchanges of carbon between rocks, the biosphere, and the atmosphere, and how life has co-evolved with the carbon cycle.

I am broadly interested in natural resources, and in ways that our basic understanding of the Earth as a planet helps us in their sustainable use and management. These interests guide my research and lead me to teach subjects that include energy and hydrology.