Christine A. Parisek

Christine Parisek

Ph.D. Candidate
CWS Communications Facilitator
DEI Committee Co-Chair

  • Wildlife, Fish, & Conservation Biology

Christine's work ranges from local-scale trophic dynamics to global-scale patterns in lake distributions. She is interested in the mechanisms that govern lake food web structure and function across mountain landscapes and reservoirs, and in understanding limnology patterns occurring across scales. Her early research at the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab sparked her interest in mountain freshwater systems, and she has since been increasingly focused on high alpine freshwater ecosystems more broadly as a potential model for testing deeper ecological questions.

Currently, Christine is exploring the abundance, distribution, vulnerability, and food web ecology of California mountain lake ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada. She is also investigating the effects of mega-wildfire on lake communities and their food webs.

Christine is also Co-Chair of the Center's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) committee. 

Learn more: https://caparisek.github.io.

 

Research Interests & Expertise
  • Landscape Limnology
  • Freshwater Science
  • Alpine Ecosystems
  • Ecology

Christine A. Parisek's Recent Projects

Food webs of 10 lakes before and after a mega-wildfire

The explosion and intensification of climate-driven mega-wildfires over recent years highlights a pressing need to better understand these impacts at all scales. Yet despite increasing wildfire disturbance, there lacks understanding of the extent to which fire may alter trophic structure in lakes, or the degree to which fire-effects are mediated by ecosystem architecture. What little is known derives primarily from boreal environments, and there have been no pre- versus post-fire food web comparisons to date.