Research

Wetland food web ecology

With funding from the National Science Foundation (DEB-1651195), we are examining the role of food web structure on carbon cycling under variable nutrient availability in northern wetlands. This research evaluates the relative importance of bottom-up versus top-down effects (and their interactions) on wetland food webs and examines how the presence of an algal energy pathway regulates carbon inputs to and losses from boreal wetlands.

Ecosystem responses to climate change in boreal wetlands

We are studying the potential for long-term changes in hydrology to influence ecosystem carbon cycling by altering plant-microbial interactions in northern wetlands. The quality of organic matter varies widely among plants and organic matter from some plant species may be more easily metabolized by the microbial community than others. Therefore, changes in plant community composition, such as those expected with climate change, have the potential to influence ecosystem carbon flux by altering the composition of organic matter available to microorganisms. This research is being conducted as part of the Long-Term Research in Environmental Biology (LTREB) program and in collaboration with the Bonanza Creek LTER. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation (DEB-2011286 and DEB-2141285).

Biofilm ecology of boreal rivers

We are studying the mechanisms controlling biofilm development in boreal rivers to better understand the resiliency of these ecosystems are to ongoing climate change.

Predicting harmful algal blooms in lakes

We are evaluating associations between environmental conditions and the occurrence of toxin-producing cyanobacteria in an effort to build a model to predict the abundance and distribution of harmful algal blooms in lakes located within agriculturally dominated watersheds.