Albert got an award for developing a new upper division course on Applied time series analysis for ecology and environmental sciences (ESPM 174A), and instructing it for the first time on Zoom via interactive lectures and computer labs. This course offers a hands-on opportunity for students to learn valuable data analysis skills, apply them to real environmental data sets, and develop a final project based on individual research interests.
Author: albert.ruhi
Ecological resilience over long timescales
Xavier Benito, postdoc affiliated with the Ruhi Lab based at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), just had his main project paper accepted in Limnology & Oceanography! It’s entitled Ecological resilience in tropical Andean lakes: a paleolimnological perspective, and we show results from a range of time-series methods that allow understanding ecological resilience (and different kinds of community shifts) in lake ecosystems over long timescales. Have a look here!
NSF CAREER!
We’re starting the year with great news: the NSF CAREER proposal “Drought and metacommunity stability in riverine networks” was selected for funding! It focuses on how drought may limit dispersal and synchronize stream communities–directly, and by modifying predator-prey interactions. Exciting field experiments at Pinnacles National Park, labs, and time series modeling ahead! So grateful to supportive mentors and collaborators, my amazing research group, and the very special #BerkeleyFreshwater family!
On the human stabilization of river flows
Postdoc extraordinaire Lise Comte (now faculty at Illinois State University) just got this really nice paper published in Global Ecology and Biogeography, entitled “Human stabilization of river flows is linked with fish invasions across the USA”. In this paper we quantified widespread changes in river flow regimes US-wide, and found that such alteration has favored invasions by filtering specific life-history strategies. Notably, high levels of flow stabilization and propagule pressure interacted: where co-occurring, these two drivers were associated with higher fish invadedness levels than expected based on either of their individual effects alone. Check it out!
Welcome to new lab postdocs Travis Apgar & Robert Fournier!
We’re really excited to welcome two new postdocs in the lab: Drs. Travis Apgar & Robert Fournier. They will work on different aspects of our program at Pinnacles National Park, focused on the effects of seasonal and supraseasonal drying on stream invertebrate communities. Robert is joining us from the University of Arkansas, and Travis from UC Santa Cruz. Welcome to Berkeley!
Biodiversity benefits of restoring wetlands
Hi! I am Zhenhua Sun, visiting Ph.D. student in the lab. During my stay I have been gathering data on water quality and macroinvertebrate community composition in ponds and wetlands across the globe. Our study areas and collaborators span Argentina, Canada, France, Ireland, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and the US!
In particular, we are asking whether natural, agricultural, and highway ponds differ in the contributions they make to landscape-scale biodiversity. In turn, this could in stormwater pond design, so that these elements of green infrastructure maximize ecosystem benefits.
Stay tuned for a forthcoming paper on the topic!
Updates – Sept & Oct 2019
- The lab is full steam ahead this Fall 2019! We started scouting sites for our CADFW Delta restoring wetlands project, we are building traps for the field experiment at Pinnacles, and we are making progress in our data-driven projects (river-reservoir dynamics, CA drought, created wetlands, metacommunity stability).
- Guillermo and Kyle presented at the California chapter of the Society for Freshwater Science (CalSFS) – California Bioassessment Workgroup (CABW) meeting at UC Davis.
- Albert coauthored a review in Science, with SESYNC director Margaret Palmer, on the importance of flow regime for river ecosystem restoration. Check it out here! [see associated interview].
- The lab hosted Sebastien Rauch and Ekaterina Sokolova, who visited us from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
- The lab also hosted John Sabo, director of Future H2O (Arizona State University), with whom we continue to collaborate on spectral methods and hydrologic regime shifts.
- Albert joined the editorial board of Conservation Letters, a leading journal on interdisciplinary conservation science.
More soon! 🙂
TEDx talk by Jessie Moravek
Jessie Moravek, Ph.D. student in the lab, gave a TEDx talk at the TEDxFulbrightGlasgow event last June, on hydropower development and its impacts on ecosystems and people. The talk is online now. Check it out here!
The lab is growing!
- We welcome Jessie Moravek and Megan Pagliaro to the Ruhi Lab! Jessie is interested in studying the impacts of hydropower dams, and potential for mitigating them via reoperation and removal; and will be co-advised by Justin Brashares. Megan has been putting together an exciting research project on wetland restoration trajectories in the San Francisco Bay. Read more about them and their inspiring interests!
- We also look forward to hosting Tadeu Siqueira, Brazilian sabbatical visitor who received a FAPESP grant to research metacommunity dynamics under environmental fluctuations; as well as Ph.D. student Zhenhua Sun, who is visiting this Fall from Sweden to study biodiversity benefits of stormwater ponds. Welcome all!
Busy Spring, exciting Summer
- The Lab organized a special session at the Society for Freshwater Science Annual Meeting (Salt Lake City, Utah), in collaboration with Kurt Anderson (UC Riverside). As part of the session, Kyle presented a poster on the effects of snowmelt timing; Guillermo a talk on his new analyses on the effects of drought on spatial patterns of invertebrate communities; and Albert the work of former postdoc Lise Comte, on the drivers of fish invasion in the U.S.
- Albert and Tongbi led the first workshop of the ‘WaterSystems’ SESYNC Pursuit (link); and participated in a new USGS Powell Center workshop on dams and flow regime alteration (link). Both were productive and a lot of fun! Albert also participated in an iDiv workshop in Germany, on the topic of ecological synchrony, co-led by former postdoc Lise Comte.
- Albert gave a seminar at Oregon State University (Ecology, Evolution and Conservation of Biodiversity), and at UC Berkeley (ESPM – Wildlife and Conservation Biology Seminar Series). He also participated in the Delta Independent Science Board, on a panel discussion on the ‘Roles and Impacts of Non-native Species’.
- This Summer, Kyle and Gabby are running an experiment to simulate the effects of end-of-the-century flow conditions (aka early snowmelt and longer low flows) on stream food webs, using artificial channels at the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Lab. Kyle was awarded a VESR graduate student grant, and a Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Congrats, Kyle!
- Incoming Ph.D. student Jessie Moravek was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, and a Berkeleyan award (Berkeley Fellowship for Graduate Study). Well done, Jessie!