My doctoral research investigates the environmental and biological factors that control the ecosystem state of ponds in northern Alberta.

These ponds tend to be turbid and dominated by phytoplankton (floating or swimming microscopic algae) or clear and dominated by macrophytes (aquatic weeds). I am using long-term survey data from 23 ponds to determine the key environmental and biological variables predicting the ecosystem state of these ponds. I am also using experimental mesocosms (small exclosures in ponds) to examine the importance of invertebrate predators (specifically the predaceous water beetle, Dytiscus alaskanus) and nutrients in regulating the invertebrate community structure and algal biomass of ponds. Finally, I am testing whether invertebrate grazers or nutrient levels are more important in controlling periphyton (algae attached to plants and other substrates) biomass using exclosures in the 23 study ponds