As a freshwater scientist, I’m interested in understanding how hydroclimatic controls on water availability (precipitation, streamflow, and evapotranspiration) as well as human demand for water resources can shape ecological processes and function in streams and lakes.
I have a special interest in mountain ecosystems and received my B.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU). I was fortunate to spend serval years in the Green Lakes Valley, Indian Peaks Wilderness, and Rocky Mountain National Park surveying lakes and streams as limnology program manager at the Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research Program. In this role, I investigated spatial and temporal trends in alpine zooplankton communities, lake water quality, and the potential for climate change to alter the timing of physical signals like lake ice cover, peak lake inflow, and degree of lake stratification from biogeochemical processes associated with zooplankton community ecology.
I’m currently a Ph.D. candidate working with the Blaszczak Freshwater Ecosystem Ecology Lab in the Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology Program at the University of Nevada Reno. My dissertation work investigates how hydroclimate variability, water quality, and aquatic energy fluxes (i.e., primary productivity [GPP], ecosystem respiration [ER], and net ecosystem productivity [NEP]) in both streams and lakes can vary across dry and wet conditions, different catchment characteristics, and streamflow regimes. I’m especially interested in how climate change may cause phenological mismatches between physical signals and biogeochemical responses in aquatic ecosystems.
Link to Blaszczak Watershed and Aquatic Ecosystem Ecology Lab
Email: kellyloria at gmail.com