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Research Interests of Participating Faculty
Steve Blumenshine, Biology.
Research in this laboratory currently focuses on factors affecting
energy and nutrient storage and transport in aquatic food webs.
Research questions include addressing how human alterations of
watersheds affect the structure and function of aquatic food webs.
For example, forest management practices include controlled burns
and tree thinning. Do these management practices affect the sources
and quantities of carbon and nitrogen to stream ecosystems? If so,
are these affects manifested throughout stream foodwebs? We also
investigate how impacts such as development, municipal sewage
operations, and septic tanks affect the storage and transport of
nutrients in stream ecosystems and consequently in receiving waters
such as reservoirs. Other research investigates how fish management
and alterations to surface water hydrology affect the potential for
fish growth in managed systems. Our research approaches and tools
include field sampling with laboratory post-processing, use of
stable isotope analysis (C & N), and simulation modeling. Current
collaborators include researchers in the fields of population
genetics, surface water hydrology, microbiology, geology, and
landscape ecology.
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