Research
News 2021: My lab continues to be a hub for water quality monitoring efforts in the region. We are starting our 12th year of monitoring the tidal freshwater portion of the James Estuary, and our 7th year of monitoring urban streams in the Richmond metro area. Recent papers that make use of these data include an analysis of how storm events affect water quality at the river-estuarine transition. We hope these findings will support management efforts to improve water quality, particularly issues related to bacteria and harmful algal blooms.
Working with my colleague Lesley Bulluck and an ILS PhD student, Samantha Rogers, we are following up on an earlier study of how emerging insects from the James River support riparian food webs, including warblers and spiders. Samantha has been trapping emerging insects and collecting them via light traps to quantify their fatty acid composition. Aquatic systems are thought to be important sources of fatty acids as these are produces by algae. By combining this work with Lesley’s long-term study of Prothonotary warblers, we hope to learn more about aquatic food subsidies to riparian food webs.
I am also working with colleagues at the Klaipeda University Marine Research Institute to better understand the effects of eutrophication and prospects for recovery in estuarine waters. Our comparisons of the James River Estuary and the Curonian Lagoon (a sub-estuary of the Baltic Sea) have yielded interesting insights on harmful algal blooms and their effects on food webs.
Lastly, I have started a new project investigating the possibility of re-introducing freshwater mussels to restored urban streams. This work is in collaboration with Rachel Mair at the US Fish and Wildlife Service Harrison Lake National Fish Hatchery.
Background: I am a field-based ecologist studying inland waters inclusive of streams, lakes, reservoirs, rivers and, most recently, freshwater estuaries. I address basic questions in ecosystems ecology that are important to understanding human impacts on aquatic resources. A consistent theme in my work has been the interplay between physical, chemical and ecological processes that determine ecosystem-level attributes such as production, nutrient cycling and trophic efficiency.
In my early career I studied the effects of acid rain on plankton communities in Adirondack (NY) lakes. The Adirondack region is a wonderful area for a limnologist. I participated in a number of studies that involved lake surveys as well as whole-lake restoration experiments. Lakes in this region are now experiencing a recovery from acidification and it has been fascinating to witness these changes.
After moving to the University of Louisville I began working on flowing systems (streams, large rivers and river impoundments) in the Midwestern United States. Rivers are under-studied systems which are dominated by external inputs of organic matter. This has led some to conclude that autochthonous production is of minimal. More recent work by myself and others has shown that algae represent a small but nutritionally important component of riverine organic matter which sustains a disproportionate fraction of secondary production at higher trophic levels.
Since joining the faculty at VCU I have become involved in studies of tidal freshwaters. The VCU Rice Center provides excellent facilities for investigating ecosystem processes in the James River Estuary and the tidal tributary Kimages Creek.
Click on projects below to learn more:
- James River Study –understanding the role of algal blooms in regulating nutrient retention and supporting higher trophic levels.
- Restoration of Kimages Creek – measuring the nutrient retention capacity of a restored tidal stream.