I am interested in how river flow variability drives aquatic community composition, and how water distribution can be used in innovative ways to promote biodiversity in light of global change. As an aspiring interdisciplinary water scholar, I am enthusiastic about engaging stakeholders when working on conservation issues in freshwater systems, as water is an increasingly impacted resource. Using experimental, observational, and statistical modeling approaches, I have projects investigating the effects of long-term drought on aquatic insect communities, and determining how hydrograph metrics drive community turnover at the catchment scale. Additionally, I am involved with the conservation of the federally listed Santa Ana Sucker by investigating basal food web resources.

For my postdoctoral work at UC Davis, I was part of an interdisciplinary team of stakeholders working in the Central Valley floodplain of California on an effort to utilize winter flooded rice fields as zooplankton and Chinook salmon rearing habitat. Flooded rice farms provide critical juvenile floodplain habitat, since over 95% of natural floodplains have been eradicated in the Central Valley of California. Juvenile salmon reared in flooded rice farm habitat can have some of the highest growth rates in the Delta, thanks to strong zooplankton production.

Current Position: Postdoctoral Research at UC Berkeley