Prospective Graduate Students
Prospective students should contact Dr. Schindler at deschind@u.washington.edu .
Current Graduate Students
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Jen GriffithsI work in the Chignik watershed on the Alaska Peninsula as a part of the Alaska Salmon Program (formerly FRI). My thesis work focuses on the consequences of changing climate and a rapidly evolving landscape for lake thermal characteristics. I am further interested in the implications for juvenile sockeye salmon growth potential. |
Gordon HoltgrieveI'm a Ph.D. student in Daniel Schindler’s lab examining linkages between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, focusing on the role of highly mobile organisms as vectors of nutrients. Most of my work focuses on using stable isotopic methods to determine the effect spawning salmon have on stream ecosystem metabolism, as well as exclusion experiments to investigate the role of brown bears in transferring marine-derived nutrients from streams to riparian areas. I’m also developing photogrammetric and remote sensing methods to quantify stream algal abundance. As a side project, I have been working with Jeff Richey in the School of Oceanography on nitrogen cycle modeling for the Mekong River and estimating the contribution of large tropical rivers to the global methane and nitrous oxide budgets. |
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Casey Ruff
This profile is currently under construction
Matt BakerI am researching sockeye salmon stock-recruitment dynamics with respect to the costs and biological consequences of lost harvest and production due to (1) fishery-related injury and (2) overescapement. The first component of this research investigates the incidence of gillnet injuries in spawning salmon, the effect of injury on survival and reproductive success, and physiological mechanisms that lead to pre-spawning mortality, and incorporates estimates of lost reproductive potential into production models. The second component fits competing population models to historical data to better understand density dependence in sockeye and to explore how model assumptions influence optimal management of exploited stocks. I am also examining the role of salmon as vectors for mercury transport between marine and freshwater systems. |
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Lauren Rogers
I am studying how populations of sockeye salmon in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska are affected by climate variability, at a range of spatial and temporal scales. I am particularly interested in understanding what leads to differences among populations in their responses to climate, and what the consequences of these differences are for the conservation and management of salmon stocks in the face of climate change.
Jackie CarterI am broadly interested in the ways in which long term environmental variation affects aquatic ecosystems. My research involves reconstructing zooplankton production in the Wood River Lakes and assessing the magnitude and direction of changes in production over the last half century, a time period during which we have documented significant warming. I am also interested in exploring the mechanisms behind any changes in zooplankton production and evaluating the relative importance of direct and indirect effects in zooplankton community responses to climate change. |
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Jonny Armstrong
I research how landscape heterogeneity affects food webs. I work in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska, where salmon spawn in high densities, releasing marine-derived nutrients into freshwater ecosystems and creating ephemeral periods of resource superabundance for consumers. I study how heterogeneity in water temperature mediates the extent to which stream-dwelling fishes can exploit this resource pulse. My research integrates in situ experiments, observational data, thermal mapping, and simulation models.
Sue JohnsonMy research interest and the broad focus of my dissertation is the foraging ecology of Pacific salmon. I am interested in ecological linkages between freshwater and marine ecosystems, and I mainly use stable isotopes as a tool to assess marine foraging dynamics. Research projects I am currently working on include a meta-analysis of published and new stable isotope data for 5 species of Pacific salmon, the study of the linkages between marine foraging and freshwater life-history strategies of sockeye salmon populations, the study of temporal dynamics (50 years) of foraging in Bristol Bay sockeye salmon populations, and the broad spatial analysis of the stable isotope signatures of Pacific salmon prey items. |
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Post-doctoral Associates
Tom Reed
I am broadly interested in issues at the interface between evolutionary, behavioral and population ecology, and the application of this understanding to conserving biodiversity and managing populations facing environmental change. I am a postdoc on a 2 year project (with Daniel Schindler, University of Washington and Robin Waples, National Marine Fisheries Service) investigating whether and how contemporary evolution and phenotypic plasticity in Pacific salmon can enable populations to persist through rapid climate change.