Phoebe Lehmann Zarnetske
Assistant Professor, Michigan State University plz (at) msu.edu @PLZarnetske PhD 2011 Oregon State University MS 2006 Utah State University BA 2001 Colby College CV she.her.hers |
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Research Interests:
I am a community ecologist in the Department of Integrative Biology at Michigan State University. I also hold an adjunct appointment in the Department of Plant Biology and am affiliated with the Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior (EEBB) Program, Environmental Science and Policy Program (ESPP), and Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) LTER. I initiated the Spatial Ecology Graduate Certificate Program.
My research program uses a combination of observational data, experiments, and modeling to connect observed patterns of biodiversity and community composition with underlying mechanisms. Specifically, I am interested in how the composition and geographic distribution of species and ecological communities are affected by biotic interactions, species invasions, biophysical feedbacks, geodiversity, climate change, and land use change. A central goal of my research program is to understand which species and ecological communities are most sensitive and/or resilient to climate change. In turn, some of these species may act as "biotic multipliers" of climate change through their outsized impacts on other species, ecological communities, and ecosystem functions. My research is often interdisciplinary, with collaborators in remote sensing, climate science, geomorphology, mathematics, statistics, and engineering.
In my free time, I enjoy hiking, cooking, and traveling with my family.
Background: My prior appointments include: Assistant Professor, MSU Forestry, and Fisheries & Wildlife; and a Yale Climate and Energy Institute Postdoctoral Fellow in the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. As a graduate student I conducted habitat modeling on Utah forests (Utah State University), and invasive species and ecosystem service research on the US Pacific Northwest Coast and New Zealand (Oregon State University). As an undergraduate, my research included wildlife population monitoring in Patagonia, Chile (Colby College/University of Connecticut), and sustainable development of coffee in Costa Rica (School for Field Studies).
I am a community ecologist in the Department of Integrative Biology at Michigan State University. I also hold an adjunct appointment in the Department of Plant Biology and am affiliated with the Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior (EEBB) Program, Environmental Science and Policy Program (ESPP), and Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) LTER. I initiated the Spatial Ecology Graduate Certificate Program.
My research program uses a combination of observational data, experiments, and modeling to connect observed patterns of biodiversity and community composition with underlying mechanisms. Specifically, I am interested in how the composition and geographic distribution of species and ecological communities are affected by biotic interactions, species invasions, biophysical feedbacks, geodiversity, climate change, and land use change. A central goal of my research program is to understand which species and ecological communities are most sensitive and/or resilient to climate change. In turn, some of these species may act as "biotic multipliers" of climate change through their outsized impacts on other species, ecological communities, and ecosystem functions. My research is often interdisciplinary, with collaborators in remote sensing, climate science, geomorphology, mathematics, statistics, and engineering.
In my free time, I enjoy hiking, cooking, and traveling with my family.
Background: My prior appointments include: Assistant Professor, MSU Forestry, and Fisheries & Wildlife; and a Yale Climate and Energy Institute Postdoctoral Fellow in the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. As a graduate student I conducted habitat modeling on Utah forests (Utah State University), and invasive species and ecosystem service research on the US Pacific Northwest Coast and New Zealand (Oregon State University). As an undergraduate, my research included wildlife population monitoring in Patagonia, Chile (Colby College/University of Connecticut), and sustainable development of coffee in Costa Rica (School for Field Studies).
Postdocs
Funding: NSF DEB Macrosystems Biology MRA #1926567
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Jon Knott
Postdoctoral Associate, MSU Integrative Biology & EEBB knottjon (at) msu.edu PhD 2020 Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University BS 2015 Biology, Calvin College website CV Research Interests: I am a quantitative ecologist, and I study ecology using a macrosystems approach. My research aims to understand ecological patterns and processes, especially in response to climate change. I typically use large-scale datasets such as Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) to address questions about the ways ecosystems are impacted by global change. During my postdoc in the Zarnetske lab, I plan to investigate patterns and drivers of biodiversity using data from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). Background: I obtained my undergrad in Biology at Calvin College, with a minor in Psychology. I was originally a pre-med student, but my passion for the outdoors led me to pursue a career in ecology instead. During my PhD at Purdue, I studied how climate change impacts forests by shifts in phenology and changes to the composition and distribution of forest communities. I also worked on other projects related to macrosystems biology, including elevational patterns of non-native species, shifts in forest composition and traits, and quantitative reviews of research trends in ecology and macrosystems biology. |
Funding: NSF DEB Macrosystems Biology MRA #1926567
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Jasper Van doninck
Postdoctoral Associate, MSU Integrative Biology & EEBB vandonin (at) msu.edu PhD 2013 Applied Biological Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium MSc 2008 Advanced MSc in Earth Observation, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium / Purdue University MSc 2002 Geography, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium website CV Research Interests: My research interests cover various aspects of the use of remote sensing in biodiversity studies. In addition, I like to focus on more technical aspects of remote sensing such as image processing and time series analysis. At the SpaCE Lab, I am studying how disturbance regime across NEON domains can be extracted from Landsat time series. With this information we can then investigate how disturbance regime is explained by climate, geodiversity, land cover and past land use across different scales, and how relationships between all these factors affect intraspecific trait variability and biodiversity. Background: My past research covers a wide range of applications of remote sensing. During my MSc research (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) I studied how very high and medium resolution satellite data could be combined to estimate impervious surface fraction in cities at sub-pixel resolution using neural networks. Later thesis research for an advanced MSc (KU Leuven and Purdue University) focussed on food security and cropped areas in Ethiopia. My PhD research (Ghent University) explored ways to measure soil moisture at medium to high spatial resolution using active and passive sensors, and to include these in species distribution modelling of a bluetongue virus vector. After completing my PhD I was briefly at Université catholique de Louvain working on a project that studied the relationship between afforestation, detected using Landsat time series, and increases in ticks and tick-borne diseases in Southern Norway. In between, I also worked in municipal urban planning, advising the city council on building permits and providing assistance to citizens and architects. Before joining MSU, I was part of the Amazon Research Team at University of Turku where I linked Landsat surface reflectance with understory species composition and distribution and with soil properties, and dynamics in bamboo-dominated forests. |
Graduate Students
Funding: NASA NESSF (Earth & Space Science Fellowship), MSU University Fellowship, MSU ESPP, Kellogg Biological Station, Society for Freshwater Science
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Laura Twardochleb
PhD candidate, Fisheries & Wildlife and EEBB twardoch (at) msu.edu BS 2010 UC Santa Cruz MS 2015 University of Washington CV Research Interests: My PhD research focuses broadly on the ecological effects of climate change on invertebrate communities. I am interested in assessing how climate change alters species interactions and the functional composition of communities. I will use experimental field manipulations and existing ecological databases to answer questions related to these two topics and to model distributions and persistence of freshwater invertebrates under different climate change scenarios. Background: I have a background in stream and lake food web ecology, and much of my previous work has focused on assessing the roles of non-native species in food webs. I have studied the functional role of non-native crayfish in coastal California streams and the global impacts of invasive crayfish on food webs. For my master’s thesis, I studied the effects of a non-native snail on energy flow in lake food webs across a shoreline development gradient, and the impacts of urban development on the functional composition of lake littoral invertebrate communities. |
Funding: NASA FINESST (Future Investigator & Space Science Technology), MSU University Fellowship, Kellogg Biological Station
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Beth Gerstner
PhD candidate, Fisheries & Wildlife and EEBB gerstn11 (at) msu.edu BS 2012 Biology, Stony Brook University MS 2016 Biology, The City College of New York, CUNY CV Research Interests: The key objective of my research is to generate better range maps for data-poor species of conservation concern in Central and South American cloud forests, regions of high biodiversity. Specifically, I will be evaluating the utility of high-resolution satellite remotely-sensed data and mammal and bird species’ functional traits (traits that allow a species to exist and reproduce in a given environment) to model geographic distributions for data-poor species, and to generate maps of different aspects of biodiversity (i.e., species richness and the distribution of species having unique roles and functions in an ecosystem). The workflow I generate will help conservation practitioners make informed decisions about what satellite data to use for generating their own species range maps/biodiversity assessments and where conservation efforts should be concentrated. Background: During my Master’s work at the City College of New York, I studied both the distribution and conservation status of the "Olinguito", a recently discovered carnivoran endemic to Colombia and Ecuador. This research addressed concerns about the generation of good distribution models with small sample sizes by supplementing museum based locality data with records from citizen scientists, and using modeling methods shown to work well with small datasets. To wrap up this study, I am currently investigating how climate change and deforestation will affect the distribution of this species and possibly alter their conservation status as part of a revised IUCN assessment. |
Funding: NSF GRFP (National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship), Michigan State University DFI
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Moriah Young
PhD student, Integrative Biology and EEBB youngmor (at) msu.edu BS 2015 Environmental Science, University of Michigan website CV Research Interests: Rooted in my research interests are my love of plants and a desire to understand the effects of climate change, invasive species, and other disturbances on plant communities. My PhD research aims to quantify the direct and indirect effects of climate warming and drought on soil biota, plant, and herbivore interactions. There remains a need to understand the mechanisms driving belowground and aboveground interactions, especially how climate change will alter those interactions. Using mesocosms and a greenhouse study, my research works to address how the composition and structure of soil microbial communities respond to warming and drought, as well as what the soil microbial community's influence is on plant traits, stress responses, and insect preferences in the presence of warming and drought. Ultimately, this knowledge will advance our ability to forecast climate change effects on ecological communities. Background: Several years of field research experiences led me, in a rather nontraditional way, to pursue my own research and a PhD. After graduating from my bachelor’s at UM, I worked seasonally in the field for five years on a range of ecological projects and gained experience in both the private and public sectors. From Michigan to the Northwest and back again to Michigan, I worked to restore ecosystems through an environmental non-profit, collected forestry data for the U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program and performed plant surveys for several projects at different universities. |
Funding: MSU College of Natural Science Graduate Fellowship
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Kara Dobson
PhD student, Integrative Biology and EEBB dobsonk2 (at) msu.edu BS 2020 BS Biology, Penn State Behrend, Erie, PA website CV Research Interests: My research interests involve how plant communities respond to environmental climate change stressors. I am mainly interested in how plants alter their molecular physiology in response to changes in the climate, such as increased drought or salinity. Plants experiencing a climate change stressor may release volatile compounds that can alter neighboring plant communities through plant-plant communication. These stressed plants may also be a catalyst for changes in plant-insect interactions, as well as plant-soil interactions. Background: My research experience at Penn State Behrend includes climate change modeling and molecular biology. For climate change modeling, I studied how the Lake Erie microclimate affects the changing climate by modeling how temperatures and frost dates over the past 70 years have changed between the lake’s inland and coastal regions. For molecular biology, I studied how chemical compounds hinder fungal growth on potatoes, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. I also examined and identified fungal diseases on chestnut trees. |
Visiting Scholars
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Tori Donovan
PhD 2020, University if Nebraska-Lincoln donovanv (at) msu.edu victoria.donovan (at) huskers.unl.edu BS 2012 Biology, Queen’s University MS 2015 Biology, Laurentian University CV Research Interests: My research draws from systems and landscape ecology to understand how system processes shape system structure, function, and resilience. In particular, I am interested in how processes that drive what is viewed as damage and destruction at one scale, can boost adaptability and resilience at another scale. My current research focuses primarily on fire. I utilize remote sensing products in combination with field data to assess spatial and temporal patterns and outcomes of wildfire across multiple scales. |
Data Scientist & Data Engineer
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Pat Bills (MSU IT Analytics & Data Solutions)
billspat (at) msu.edu Pat is the MSU SpaCE Lab's Data Scientist & Data Engineer extraordinaire. Pat has worked for IT in research for over 25 yrs in various capacities in many labs and departments on campus. He's trained or consulted with dozens of faculty, staff, graduate students and undergraduates for programming high performance computing system, cloud computing, analysis and data management, research database design, web application design and development, scientific programming (R, Python, Fortran, shell script). His current appointment is with the Data Science Team in the Analytics and Data Solutions unit of MSU's IT Services. He luckily gets to spend half of his time helping with data engineering and strategy for the MSU SpaCE Lab. |
Research Technicians
2017-present: Mark Hammond (Kellogg Biological Station)
2019-2020: Moriah Young (B.S. Univ. Michigan 2015)
2018: Kathryn Schmidt (B.S. Univ. Michigan 2017)
Mark and Moriah collaborate with Phoebe Zarnetske on the warmXtrophic project at Kellogg Biological Station and University of Michigan Biological Station. They are vital for their valuable insights in addition to data collection and on-site maintenance.
2019-2020: Moriah Young (B.S. Univ. Michigan 2015)
2018: Kathryn Schmidt (B.S. Univ. Michigan 2017)
Mark and Moriah collaborate with Phoebe Zarnetske on the warmXtrophic project at Kellogg Biological Station and University of Michigan Biological Station. They are vital for their valuable insights in addition to data collection and on-site maintenance.
Undergraduate Students
Minali Bhatt (MSU)
Major: Environmental Biology/Plant Biology MSU Honors College Professorial Assistant 2018-present I am interested in plant-arthropod interactions and non-native/invasive species, particularly the relationships between native and invasive species. I would like to pursue research on pollination biology of invasive and native species. Currently, I am assisting the Zarnetske Lab on the aquaXterra project, and the FRUGIVORIA project. After graduating from MSU, I will be focusing on gaining research experience in areas that I have little knowledge about, before pursuing a graduate degree in ecology or something similar. |
Erika Kirmse Ralston (MSU)
Major: Environmental Biology MSU Honors College Professorial Assistant 2018-present Erika is working on the aquaXterra insect functional trait database and the FRUGIVORIA project; Erika is particularly interested in birds and global change. Hazel Anderson (MSU)
MSU College of Natural Science Scholarship Recipient; Summer 2020 Hazel is working on the FRUGIVORIA project and is particularly interested in plant functional traits and their relationship to frugivore functional traits. Caroline Blommel (MSU '20)
Caroline is working on the FRUGIVORIA project and is particularly interested in improving species distribution models with geodiversity. Alison McCormick (MSU)
Alison is working on the FRUGIVORIA project. Nellie Chalem (MSU)
Nellie is working on the FRUGIVORIA project. |
MSU SpaCE Lab Alumni: click here.
Honorary Lab Members
Aina is Laura's 9 year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi from Ukiah, CA. She loves food, hiking, canoeing, chasing squirrels, and herding.
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Ande is a rescued vizsla mix who loves chasing his tail, howling at ambulance noises, and absolutely loathes cats
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Pepper is Phoebe's ~7 month old lab/pointer mix (we think) and is fond of chasing anything that moves.
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Kenai was Phoebe's first dog, a chocolate lab rescue, originally from Logan, UT. He was a great companion on many field research trips during his 14 years. He loved swimming, snow, and hiking.
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