Ecology experts

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  • Katey Walter Anthony

    Katey Walter Anthony

    October 28, 2022

    Katey Walter Anthony is an expert in methane and terrestrial ecosystems.

  • Brian Barnes

    Brian Barnes

    October 28, 2022

    Physiological ecology and endocrinology of hibernating mammals; biological rhythms and sleep; overwintering biology of animals including arctic ground squirrels, black bears and insects.

  • Uma Bhatt

    Uma Bhatt

    October 28, 2022

    Uma Bhatt is an expert in climate change, climate variability, meteorology, air-sea ice interaction, atmosphere, atmospheric sciences, climatology, cryosphere, hydrometeorology, physical oceanography, physics of global warming, remote sensing application, and tundra vegetation.

  • Amy Breen

    Amy Breen

    October 28, 2022

    Amy Breen is an expert in Arctic vegetation ecology, short- and long-term effects of climate change and disturbance on vegetation. Her research interests include field studies and modeling to understand and forecast changes in arctic terrestrial ecosystems, particularly the response of vegetation to disturbance and climate change.

  • Todd J. Brinkman

    Todd J. Brinkman

    October 28, 2022

    Uses an interdisciplinary approach to study the rapidly changing interactions among wildlife, landscapes, society and climate. Wildlife ecology, human dimensions of wildlife.

  • Eugénie Euskirchen

    Eugénie Euskirchen

    October 28, 2022

    Arctic terrestrial ecology, ecosystem modeling, climate feedbacks. Understanding the impacts of changes in climate on arctic and boreal terrestrial ecosytems, and how these impacts may then feedback to influence the climate system.

  • Peter J. Fix

    Peter J. Fix

    October 28, 2022

    Pete Fix utilizes quantitative surveys to address issues related to public land management. Research interests include human dimensions of natural resource management, motivations for recreation participation, recreation planning frameworks, recreation research methods, natural resource-based tourism and recreation economics.

  • Nancy Fresco

    Nancy Fresco

    October 28, 2022

    Nancy Fresco is an expert in biology, forest ecology, climate change, conservation biology, resource measurement, landscape ecology, and resource inventory.

  • Helene Genet

    October 28, 2022

    Terrestrial ecology and plant physiology, ecosystem modeling, fire ecology.

  • Gino Graziano

    Gino Graziano

    October 28, 2022

    Gino Graziano is an invasive plants specialist with interests in developing management techniques and providing educational opportunities for land managers, private industry and the public regarding invasive plant and forest health management.

  • Syndonia (Donie) Bret-Harte

    Syndonia (Donie) Bret-Harte

    October 28, 2022

    Bret-Harte is a plant community and ecosystem ecologist. Her focus is on how global climate change affects arctic vegetation composition and nutrient cycling.

  • Donna Hauser

    Donna Hauser

    October 28, 2022

    Donna Hauser is an expert in marine ecology focusing on marine mammals and other species in changing Arctic and temperate oceans. Her research interests include supporting community-based observing of coastal change.

  • Russell Hopcroft

    Russell Hopcroft

    October 28, 2022

    Zooplankton ecology, climate change, Arctic, Gulf of Alaska. Composition, production and energy flow of marine pelagic ecosystems using a combination of classical and modern tools, particularly in polar and sub-polar ecosystems.

  • Falk Huettmann

    Falk Huettmann

    October 28, 2022

    Falk’s research interests include wildlife ecology, seabirds, predictive GIS modeling, web-based wildlife databases and metadata, spatial aspects of population viability analysis (PVA), future landscape scenarios of wildlife habitat, landscape ecology, Russian far east, tropical ecology, conservation steady state economy.

  • Randi Jandt

    Randi Jandt

    October 28, 2022

    Randi Jandt is an expert in Alaska fire ecology, tundra fire, fire management, and wildlife biology.

  • Mark A. Johnson

    Mark A. Johnson

    October 28, 2022

    Physical oceanography, Arctic oceanography, sea-ice modeling, sea-ice seasonal cycle. Researching Arctic climate with a focus on the annual cycle of sea ice.

  • Glenn Patrick Juday

    Glenn Patrick Juday

    October 28, 2022

    Glenn Juday uses tree rings and long-term forest plots to understand climate controls over tree growth, environmental change and wood biomass production.

  • Brendan Kelly

    Brendan Kelly

    October 28, 2022

    Marine ecology with a focus on sea ice environments. Conservation biology, ecology and evolution, climate change, ecosystem ecology.

  • Nathan Kettle

    Nathan Kettle

    October 28, 2022

    Nathan Kettle is an expert in the human dimensions of global environmental change, risk and uncertainty, trust, the role of networks in climate change adaptation, and social network analysis.

  • Knut Kielland

    October 28, 2022

    Arctic ecology, mammal ecology, nutrient cycling. Plant-nutrient relationships, plant-herbivore interactions, predator-prey dynamics in the boreal forest. Methodologies include stable isotopes and radio/GPS telemetry.

  • Yongwon Kim

    Yongwon Kim

    October 28, 2022

    Yongwon Kim is an expert in terrestrial ecosystems, greenhouse gases, and permafrost.

  • Gary Kofinas

    Gary Kofinas

    October 28, 2022

    Resilience of northern rural communities as social-ecological systems; Community-based resource stewardship, adaptive co-management institutions; local knowledge in ecological monitoring and assessment; social networks of subsistence-cash economies; the science and practice of transdisciplinary research.

  • Don Larson

    Don Larson

    October 28, 2022

    Larson focuses on how animals and their parasites cope with environmental changes. Researches how parasites overwinter and how changes in host physiology influence parasite overwintering strategies.

  • Mary Beth Leigh

    Mary Beth Leigh

    October 28, 2022

    Biodegradation of contaminants, biogeochemical cycling, microbiology, microbial ecology. Biodegradation of environmental contaminants and biogeochemical cycling in soils, groundwater and marine environments.

  • Casey Matney

    Casey Matney

    October 28, 2022

    Casey Matney’s program responsibilities span the spectrum from livestock and range to soils and horticulture. He is the state coordinator for the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program and president of the National Association for County Agricultural Agents in Alaska.

  • A. Dave McGuire

    A. Dave McGuire

    October 28, 2022

    Operation of ecological processes at large spatial scales; ecological modeling; global change biology.

  • Sarah Mincks

    Sarah Mincks

    October 28, 2022

    Soft-sediment (benthic) seafloor communities, primarily in the polar regions. Invertebrate and microbial communities and the role of these communities in the functioning of polar ecosystems.

  • Nicole Misarti

    Nicole Misarti

    October 28, 2022

    Long-term marine ecosystem change, isotope analysis of modern and ancient food webs, paleoclimate reconstruction, archaeology, marine science, subsistence resources.

  • Jeffrey Muehlbauer

    Jeffrey Muehlbauer

    October 28, 2022

    Jeffrey Muehlbauer studies rivers and aquatic food webs. His research interests lie primarily in understanding how habitat variables related to hydrology and geomorphology affect the distribution and composition of species, particularly aquatic insects.

  • Franz J. Mueter

    Franz J. Mueter

    October 28, 2022

    Fisheries oceanography, climate change, fishery management, marine ecology, statistics. Use of statistical modeling to understand the impacts of environmental variability and climate change on marine fish populations.

  • Igor Polyakov

    Igor Polyakov

    October 28, 2022

    Igor Polyakov is an expert in oceanography, multidecadal variability, climate change, and the Arctic.

  • Martha K. Raynolds

    October 28, 2022

    Vegetation of the Arctic, what controls its distribution, and how the vegetation is responding to climate change. Remote sensing of arctic vegetation, vegetation sampling and mapping.

  • Martin Robards

    October 28, 2022

    Marine mammals, natural resource management, coastal fish and fisheries. Coastal ecology with expertise in environmental policy at local, regional, national, and international scales.

  • Jessie Young-Robertson

    Jessie Young-Robertson

    October 28, 2022

    Jessie Robertson is an expert in ecohydrology, terrestrial ecosystems, and the role of boreal and arctic plants in the water cycle. Her research focuses on how changes in the boreal and arctic system (from climate change, shifts in plant species, permafrost thaw, etc.) affect the dynamics of how plants move, store, and flux water.

  • Roger W. Ruess

    Roger W. Ruess

    October 28, 2022

    Boreal forest ecology, plant-herbivore interactions, plan ecophysiology. Exploring how changing climate and disturbance regimes are affecting boreal forest composition and ecosystem function, and the consequences for climate feedbacks and social-ecological systems.

  • Scott Rupp

    Scott Rupp

    October 28, 2022

    Ecosystem and landscape ecology emphasizing secondary succession, regeneration, and disturbance dynamics in subarctic and boreal forest. Modeling the response of subarctic ecosystems to changes in global climate and disturbance regime. Modeling the response of subarctic ecosystems to changes in global climate and disturbance regime. Marine and environmental chemistry, climate change.

  • Gay Sheffield

    Gay Sheffield

    October 28, 2022

    Diet and foraging ecology, Arctic marine mammal ecology, subsistence harvest, industrial maritime traffic. Marine mammal biology and health of subsistence species and others.

  • Matthew Sturm

    Matthew Sturm

    October 28, 2022

    Impact of snow cover on local and global hydrology, ecology, and climate. Specializes in snow metamorphism, heat and mass transfer in snow, also studies permafrost, snow on sea ice, glaciers.

  • Ken D. Tape

    Ken D. Tape

    October 28, 2022

    Climate change. Impacts of 20th century climate warming on various components of the Arctic ecosystem, including vegetation, permafrost, hydrology, and wildlife, primarily the linkages between these components than in any isolated component.

  • Kristin Timm

    Kristin Timm

    October 28, 2022

    Expertise in science and environmental communication. Studies the role of communication — including the messengers, messages, and processes — used to address complex environmental issues, such as global climate change.

  • Sarah Trainor

    Sarah Trainor

    October 28, 2022

    Sarah Trainor is an expert in climate change assessment and adaptation in Alaska with specific emphasis on climate and wildfire science communication, application, and stakeholder engagement. Her research interests include human dimensions of global change, especially in the Arctic and northern latitudes, and interdisciplinary assessment of ecosystem services related to global change and mixed subsistence economies in rural Alaska.

  • David W. Valentine

    David W. Valentine

    October 28, 2022

    David Valentine is interested in ecosystem ecology, particularly in northern regions. Recent research projects focused on how changing soil moisture affects forest soil carbon balance and how landscape position affects soil characteristics.

  • Diane Wagner

    October 28, 2022

    Plant-insect interactions, insect outbreaks and effects of herbivory on aspen and willow, plant defense, bird vetch invasion ecology.

  • Donald A. (Skip) Walker

    Donald A. (Skip) Walker

    October 28, 2022

    Description, mapping, and analysis of circumpolar arctic vegetation spatial patterns and temporal change along climate, soil, and disturbance gradients.

  • Mark Wipfli

    October 28, 2022

    Salmon ecology, freshwater food webs, trophic ecology, freshwater invertebrates.

  • Alison York

    Alison York

    October 28, 2022

    Alison York is an expert in Alaska fire ecology, tundra fire, fire management, and science communication.

  • Andy Baltensperger

    Andy Baltensperger

    October 29, 2022

    Andy Baltensperger is a landscape ecologist with expertise in the biogeography of mammals, birds, and amphibians, and their projected responses to environmental change.

  • Head and shoulders portrait of Mario Muscarella

    Mario Muscarella

    August 19, 2023

    Mario Muscarella is an expert in microbial ecology and ecophysiology. Energetics of microbial systems. Exploring how microorganisms contribute to the function of natural, host, and managed ecosystems.

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    Katie Spellman

    October 28, 2023

    Expert in Alaska's wild berries, invasive plants, community and public engagement in science, and climate change education.

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    Allison Bidlack

    October 31, 2023

    Allison has a broad background in ecology and resource management, with a research portfolio focused on the linked terrestrial and marine ecosystems of the northeast Pacific coastal temperate rain forest. Her interests include hydrologically mediated materials flux across the coastal margin and associated influences on marine food webs; ocean acidification; and forest ecology and management. Integral to this work is understanding the impact of climate change on ecosystem processes and services.

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    Chris Waigl

    November 09, 2023

    Remote sensing scientist with experience in mapping wildfire hazards, fuels, active fire and post-fire effects in boreal North America. Current research aims to produce and combine both modeled and observational datasets to better understand the climate drivers of wildfire activity.

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    Greg Breed

    November 10, 2023

    Quantitative ecology, specializing in animal movement and behavior.

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    Shawn Crimmins

    November 10, 2023

    Large mammal ecology, carnivore and furbearer ecology, predator-prey dynamics, monitoring design, quantitative ecology

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    Pat Doak

    November 10, 2023

    Spatial population dynamics, insect-plant interactions

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    Jeremy Jones

    November 11, 2023

    Structure and function of stream ecosystems

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    Christa Mulder

    November 11, 2023

    • Impacts of climate change on phenology of plants and herbivores • Science education and outreach: resilience of Alaska communities to climate change • Invasive plant species in Alaska