Master's Research
Effects of Wildfire on Streams
I completed my Masters degree at Idaho State University in the spring of 2008. I worked in the Stream Ecology Center, under the guidance of Dr. Colden Baxter, and studied the effects of wildfire on aquatic-terrestrial linkages in the Frank Church “River of No Return” Wilderness. A central objective of this research was to evaluate the potential influences of wildfire on the flux of emerging adult insects from streams to riparian areas, and the consequences for terrestrial predators such as spiders and bats that depend on this prey subsidy. My work focused on 16 tributaries of Big Creek, which drains into the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. This study was part of a collaborative effort with the University of Idaho. We investigated potential influences of wildfire on the flow of energy from aquatic to terrestrial habitats via the emergence of adult insects from streams, and a companion study by the late Dr. Jeff Braatne (riparian ecologist, University of Idaho) and Breanne Jackson (Masters Student, University of Idaho) researched the effects of fire on plant and invertebrate inputs from land to water. This work within the Frank Church Wilderness was funded by the DeVlieg Foundation and was conducted out of the Taylor Ranch Wilderness Field Station, part of the University of Idaho. My three papers from this work are currently in press and details can be found on my CV.
Dr. Wayne Minshall has conducted long-term monitoring of many of the streams in the Frank Church Wilderness of which I am researching for my masters research. His long-term (25 yr.) study is defining the recovery sequence for stream communities following wildfire and testing stream ecosystem theory. Environmental, population, and community-level responses have been measured in streams, immediately after fire and over the subsequent 1 to 20 years. In addition, several streams subjected to wildfire 50 years previously have been examined. I participated in the summer data collection for this long-term monitoring project during the summers of 2005 and 2006.
Multi-layered, interdisciplinary mapping of a wilderness-watershed: “The Big Onion.” While conducting research in the Frank Church Wilderness I assisted with “The Big Onion” project during the summers of 2005 and 2006. The principal goals of “The Big Onion” are to generate a more spatially continuous biophysical perspective of the watershed and to bring together a multi-disciplinary team to identify potentially important patterns within and among “layers”—information that will set the stage for ecosystem-level integration and research in this wilderness watershed. I assisted with invertebrate surveys and identification, fish snorkel surveys and vegetation mapping throughout the drainage. Conducting research and viewing the Frank Church Wilderness with the multi-disciplinary team has provided me with a broader perspective of the system within which I have been working. |
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Past Work:
Salmonid Rivers Observatory Network
Following the completion of my undergraduate degree in Biology from The University of Montana, and completion of two summers of field courses at the Flathead Lake Biological Station, I was a field assistant for the Salmonid Rivers Observatory Network in the Kitlope Heritage Preserve, British Columbia, Canada in the Fall of 2004. The overall goals of this program include: 1. To quantify biophysical processes producing the Shifting Habitat Mosaic (SHM) and associated biodiversity in the observatory rivers, in context of influences on salmonid population structure and productivity and 2. To devise and promote a new conservation and management protocol for wild salmon rivers that is based on the SHM model. This project encompasses many study sites along the Pacific Rim, with the Kitlope River added in 2004. During this 1st field season on the Kitlope I spent two months assisting with surveys of juvenile salmon, collected samples for stable isotope analysis, and helped collect general habitat data with Aaron Hill, masters student of Dr. Jack Stanford.
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