Author: Rose Mohammadi

Jasmine wrapped up a six-month experiment investigating how changing precipitation patterns affect seedbank viability and community composition in vernal pool ecosystems. Using 60 mesocosms, she tested how precipitation variability affects vernal pool plant and invertebrate seedbanks. Data collection included plant cover and richness, invertebrate diversity, algae, water quality, and more—offering fresh insights into how vernal pool biodiversity may respond to a increasing hydroclimatic variability. Stay tuned to learn how vernal pool plants and animals may fare in the face of climate change!

Albert and Rose attended the Society for Freshwater Science Annual Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico! Albert presented about how spatial patterns of river drying interact with fragmentation and disturbance to reduce biodiversity. Rose presented results from a leaf litter decomposition experiment where she found that lower leaf litter quality primarily explains slower breakdown rates at intermittent compared to perennial flow sites. They also fit in some time to hike and birdwatch in El Yunque National Forest, spotting the beautiful San Pedrito (Puerto Rican tody) and exploring creeks with freshwater shrimp!

To wrap up the semester, we threw a pizza party to thank our incredible undergraduates who spent countless hours this year wading through and identifying aquatic macroinvertebrate samples. From counting caddisflies to spotting stoneflies, their microscopy skills make them our lab MVPs. A special goodbye to our graduating seniors—your contributions are anything but ephemer(optera)! We’re so grateful for all the bug-tastic work, and we can’t wait to see where your emergence takes you!

Former Ruhi lab undergraduate Amin al-Jamal has published a new paper in Ecology: Aquatic top predator prefers terrestrial prey in an intermittent stream! Meet the belostomatid giant water bug Abedus indentatus, the dominant predator in fishless sections of Chalone Creek, Pinnacles National Park, California. Despite living in the water, the study found that water bugs seem to prefer prey from the terrestrial environment. Isolated pools in drying rivers have incredibly high perimeter to area (P/A) ratios, and aquatic predators such as giant water bugs enjoy the increased influx of terrestrial prey! On top of that, prey that fall into the water are less equipped to deal with an aquatic predator. The double whammy of high P/A ratios and increased prey susceptibility in intermittent streams might facilitate this cool feeding preference!

Congratulations to Ruhi Lab manager Kendall Archie on his new position as a Masters student at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. Kendall will be advised by Alison O’Dowd and is joining a project that seeks to understand the food web responses associated with the Trinity River. Kendall is bringing his benthic macroinvertebrate expertise up north and will examine salmonid food resources and diet. Thank you for being a fantastic lab manager and we wish you the best in your graduate studies!

We’re thrilled to welcome Amanda Wik and Jasmine Rios as new Ph.D. students in the Ruhi Lab! Amanda is co-advised with Ted Grantham and will be studying how dam removals in the Klamath River may be able to restore food-web dynamics and ecosystem processes – focusing on cross-ecosystem linkages between the aquatic and the riparian environment. Jasmine is co-advised with Laureano Gherardi and will be studying how increased environmental variation (‘climate whiplash’) from climate change erodes biodiversity in vernal pool seedbanks – comparing responses of animal and plant communities via mesocosm experiments and field observations. Welcome, Amanda and Jasmine – we are so excited to have you!

Congratulations to new Dr. Kyle Leathers on delivering his finishing talk! Kyle gave an overview of his impressive dissertation research and successfully completed the ceremonial crossing over Strawberry Creek (in waders). We are lucky that Kyle will be staying on with the Ruhi Lab a couple of months before beginning a postdoc at USGS exploring water quality and algae in the San Francisco Bay-Delta!

Congratulations to Tim Jäger on his magnificent Master’s defense! His thesis examined life-history plasticity of stream insects to future climates in the Sierra Nevada. Earlier snowmelt and return to low-flow conditions will likely lead to earlier peaks and smaller size at emergence. It was not a (chirono)mini undertaking as Tim processed thousands of individuals! We can’t wait to see what this newly emerged MSc flies off to do next!