Kelly A. Loria

Ph.D. Candidate

University of Nevada Reno
Blaszczak Watershed and Aquatic Ecosystem Ecology Lab

kellyloria at gmail.com

Aquatic ecosystems integrate large scale climatological phenomena (e.g., warming and changing precipitation regimes) alongside catchment scale characteristics (e.g. nutrient and organic matter availability, land use, and evaporative demand) in ways that can alter aspects of aquatic ecosystem function (e.g. carbon cycling and energy fluxes, biogeochemical nutrient transport and transportation) that have important implications for future water and habitat quality.

I’m interested in evaluating temporal variation in aquatic ecosystem function to better understand how streams and lakes respond to multiple stressors. My work has involved a combination of high-frequency sensor deployments in streams and lakes, benthic stream and lake surveys, as well as time series, causal, and statistical modeling.

Publications

Scamardo, J., Munger, W., Loria, K. Nauman, B. Wang, J. Leopold, S. Heggli, A. Huntly, N. Baker, M. Meadow, A.
Trends in the Outcomes, Practice, and Law of Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration in Western Rangelands

In Rangeland Ecology & Management, 2024.

Low tech process-based restoration (LTPBR) is increasingly used to improve river corridor resilience to diverse stressors introduced by changing land use, climate, and water usage. However, the future of LTPBR depends on multiple physical, ecological, and social factors, including the influence of water availability on LTPBR outcomes and the legal capacity for future restoration in water-limited environments. Trends suggest that LTPBR could provide expected outcomes across western rangelands even amid changing water availability. Changes to state-level water laws and perceptions of social benefits of LTPBR could support the expansion of stream restoration in rangeland streams.

CiteMain URLResearchGate

Christianson, K. R., Loria, K., Blanken, P. Caine, N. Johnson, P. T. J.
On thin ice: Linking elevation and long-term losses of lake ice cover

In Limnology and Oceanography Letters, 2021.

Using a 36‐yr dataset (1983–2018) on alpine lakes (> 3000 m ASL) from the Green Lakes Valley, Colorado (GLV), we found that ice‐cover duration decreased by an average of ~ 24 d, due to both earlier ice‐off (9 d) and especially later ice‐on (15 d). Spring ice thickness also decreased by 0.88 cm yr−1. By comparison, ice‐cover duration in the GLV is decreasing ~ 50% faster than for Northern Hemisphere lakes (n = 215), which translates to an increase in open water duration ~ 2.5 times more in the GLV than the average of the Northern Hemisphere. Our analytical comparison demonstrated more rapid trends in this alpine region compared to lakes more broadly, and especially emphasized the influence of elevation on lake ice phenology.

CiteMain URLResearchGate

@article{SCAMARDO2025344, title = {Trends in the Outcomes, Practice, and Law of Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration in Western Rangelands}, journal = {Rangeland Ecology & Management}, volume = {98}, pages = {344-356}, year = {2025}, issn = {1550-7424}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2024.08.032}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550742424001623}, publisher={Science Direct} }

@article{christianson2021thin, title={On thin ice: Linking elevation and long-term losses of lake ice cover}, author={Christianson, Kyle R and Loria, Kelly A and Blanken, Peter D and Caine, Nel and Johnson, Pieter TJ}, journal={Limnology and Oceanography Letters}, volume={6}, number={2}, pages={77--84}, year={2021}, publisher={Wiley Online Library} }