About Jared
Hello! I am an ecosystem ecologist and biogeochemist interested in how climate change modulates biological communities and their associated ecosystem functions and services. I combine field observations, experimental manipulations, and long-term datasets with novel simulation models and geographic information systems (GIS) to explore the causes and ecosystem consequences of global change. I am particularly interested in using species’ functional traits to understand their contributions to ecosystem processes in systems or landscapes experiencing climate change. For example, my dissertation leveraged a 30-year dataset of larval caddisfly (trichoptera) assemblage composition in subalpine ponds and measurements of their species-specific nutrient excretion and detritus processing rates to determine how climate-driven species range shifts have altered nutrient cycling and detritus processing. However, I also have broad experience exploring how physical abiotic changes influence ecosystem structure and function, including how climate-driven shifts in snowmelt phenology alter seasonal patterns of river primary production and nutrient demand by advancing the timing of stream peak flow hydrology. Although my training and expertise lies in aquatic ecosystems, I recently accepted an opportunity to explore similarly motivated questions in terrestrial systems. Specifically, I will be exploring the climatic and landscape factors behind extreme wildfire spread events, and in turn I will model their consequences for aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem processes.
Where am I and where have I been? Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate working with Dr. Jonathan Coop, supported by Western Colorado University and the Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center. However, I work remotely from Tucson, Arizona. Previously, I completed my PhD (Biology, with GIS minor) and my first NSF Postdoctoral Scholar position in the Department of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University. For my second NSF Postdoctoral Scholar position, I was a Co-PI on an NSF-RAPID grant with Drs. Amanda Klemmer (lead PI), Hamish Greig, and Howard Whiteman at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. My career in science began at Allegheny College through wonderful undergraduate experiences in Biology and Environmental Science. My field research at The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado has spanned my undergraduate career through my current postdoctoral position and includes work in ponds, wetlands, streams, and their surrounding landscapes.
Where am I and where have I been? Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate working with Dr. Jonathan Coop, supported by Western Colorado University and the Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center. However, I work remotely from Tucson, Arizona. Previously, I completed my PhD (Biology, with GIS minor) and my first NSF Postdoctoral Scholar position in the Department of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University. For my second NSF Postdoctoral Scholar position, I was a Co-PI on an NSF-RAPID grant with Drs. Amanda Klemmer (lead PI), Hamish Greig, and Howard Whiteman at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. My career in science began at Allegheny College through wonderful undergraduate experiences in Biology and Environmental Science. My field research at The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado has spanned my undergraduate career through my current postdoctoral position and includes work in ponds, wetlands, streams, and their surrounding landscapes.
In my free time, I have some diverse hobbies. Fitness is probably foremost among these, with emphases on bodybuilding-style weightlifting and swimming, as well as learning about nutritional biochemistry, exercise and sleep physiology, and conducting data-driven n=1 fitness experiments to understand and improve my performance. Otherwise, I enjoy baking breads, hiking, camping, kayaking, archery, tinkering with electronics and building computers, reading, strategy games, and petting dogs.