Group

Samuel N. Araya

Experience

  • University of California, Merced
    • Research & Teaching Assistant
      2011-present

Education

  • University of California, Merced
    PhD Candidate, Environmental Systems
    2014 - 2019
  • University of California, Merced
    MS, Environmental Systems
    2014
  • University of Asmara
    BSc, Land Resources and Environment
    2007

Publications

  1. Araya S. N. & Ghezzehei, T.A. (2019). Using Machine Learning for Prediction of Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity and Its Sensitivity to Soil Structural Perturbations, Water Resources Research, 55, doi:10.1029/2018WR024357.
  2. Araya S. N., Fogel L. M. & Berhe A. A. (2017). Thermal alteration of soil organic matter properties: A systematic study to infer response of Sierra Nevada climosequence soils to forest fires, Soil, 3(1), 31-44, doi: 10.5194/soil-3-31-2017.
  3. Araya S. N., Meding M. & Berhe A. A. (2016). Thermal alteration of soil physico-chemical properties: a systematic study to infer response of Sierra Nevada climosequence soils to forest fires. Soil, 2(3), 351–366, doi: 10.5194/soil-2-351-2016.
  4. Berhe A. A., Arnold C., Stacy E., Lever R., McCorkle E. & Araya S. N. (2014). Soil erosion controls on biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nitrogen. Nature Education Knowledge 5(8):2

Presentations

  1. Araya S., Fryjoff-Hung A., Anderson A., Viers J. H., and Ghezzehei T. (2018) Estimating Soil Moisture from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and Machine Learning. Poster presented at the Inaugural Data Science Workshop, Data Science Institute, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, 7-8 August.
  2. Araya S., Fryjoff-Hung A. and Ghezzehei T. (2018) Monitoring Soil Moisture from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Surface Soil Moisture Retrieval Using Machine Learning and Multi-Spectral Images. Oral presentation at the Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve Symposium. University of California, Merced, 21 March.
  3. Araya S. and Ghezzehei T. (2018), Machine Learning to Predict the Effect of Soil Structure on Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity. Paper presented at the W-3188: Soil, Water, and Environmental Physics Across Scales Meeting, Las Vegas, NV, 2-4 January.
  4. Araya S. and Ghezzehei T. (2017), Using Machine Learning to Predict the Effect of Soil Structure on Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity. Oral presentation at 2017 Fall Meeting, AGU, New Orleans, LA, 11-15 December.
  5. Araya S., Berli M. and Ghezzehei T. (2017), Soil moisture recharge estimation: a mass balance approach for quantifying effective precipitation. Poster Presented at 26th Groundwater Resources Association of California Annual Meeting, Sacramento, CA, 3-4 October.
  6. Araya S (2016), Exploring the effectiveness of active learning methods in a discussion classes of an introductory environmental science course. Poster presented at Assessment as Research Symposium, UC Merced, 2 March.
  7. Araya S., Berhe A. (2014), Effect of Combustion Temperature on Soil and Soil Organic Matter Properties: A Study of Soils from the Western Elevation Transect in Central Sierra Nevada, California. American Geophysical Union Conference, San Francisco, CA, 15-19 December.
  8. Araya S., Dhalgren R., Berhe A. (2014), The Effect of Fire Temperature on Soil and Soil Organic Matter Properties: A Study of Soils from the Western Elevation Transect in Central Sierra Nevada, California. Goldschmidt Geochemical Society Conference, Sacramento, CA, 8-13 June.