Research

I'm an algal ecologist interested in how benthic and phytoplanktonic communities respond to rapid environmental change. I have a background in diatom ecology and evolution, for freshwater and marine taxa, using both molecular/bioinformatic and microscopic/morphologic methods. I have published on topics as varied as the life history of the nuisance diatom Didymosphenia geminata and polar pelagic diatom thermal physiology.

I recently concluded a postdoc with the USGS Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center, where my research focused on algal producers at the ecosystem scale for a change. In order to accurately estimate metabolic rates like gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) in river tailwaters, we developed a new two-station ecosystem metabolism model that accounts for variable flow, an important consideration downstream of civil infrastructure like dams and wastewater treatment plants. With this new and appropriate model in hand, researchers can now more clearly interpret the trends and drivers of primary production in impacted river reaches like the Glen Canyon Dam tailwater, which in recent years has experienced unprecedented changes to river temperature, dissolved oxygen and key nutrient concentrations. Such change can have dramatic effects on algal productivity at the base of the aquatic food webs and is of particular concern in this food-limited and impounded ecosystems.

In additional to this work, I serve as an editorial review board member at Diatoms of the North America, where I seek to help other researchers access the diatom information they need in their own work. You can find more educational and professional details in my CV above.