Phoebe Lehmann Zarnetske
Associate Professor, Michigan State University, Integrative Biology and EEB
Director: Institute for Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolution, and Macrosystems (IBEEM)
Fall '21 - Summer '22: sabbatical, University of Lyon, France
plz (at) msu.edu
@PLZarnetske
PhD 2011 Oregon State University
MS 2006 Utah State University
BA 2001 Colby College
CV
she.her.hers
Research Interests:
I am a community ecologist in the Department of Integrative Biology at Michigan State University and am Director of the Institute for Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolution, and Macrosystems (IBEEM). I also hold an adjunct appointment in the Department of Plant Biology and am affiliated with the Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior (EEB) 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, land use change, and geoengineering. 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, cross-country skiing, cooking, gardening, photography, 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).
Associate Professor, Michigan State University, Integrative Biology and EEB
Director: Institute for Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolution, and Macrosystems (IBEEM)
Fall '21 - Summer '22: sabbatical, University of Lyon, France
plz (at) msu.edu
@PLZarnetske
PhD 2011 Oregon State University
MS 2006 Utah State University
BA 2001 Colby College
CV
she.her.hers
Research Interests:
I am a community ecologist in the Department of Integrative Biology at Michigan State University and am Director of the Institute for Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolution, and Macrosystems (IBEEM). I also hold an adjunct appointment in the Department of Plant Biology and am affiliated with the Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior (EEB) 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, land use change, and geoengineering. 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, cross-country skiing, cooking, gardening, photography, 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: MSU African Future Leadership Program
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Lala Kounta
Postdoctoral Fellow, African Future Leadership Program, MSU Integrative Biology & EEB kountala (at) msu.edu PhD 2019 Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar | UCAD · Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique website Research Interests: My research aims to understanding the influence of global warming on ocean circulation and marine ecosystems especially extreme events like marine heat waves (MHW). MHW have major ecological impacts in marine ecosystems. The effects include biodiversity loss and changes in species behavior or performance, loss of genetic diversity and adaptive capacity, economic impacts from changes in fishery catch rates and mortality of species. It can potentially affect the life stages of species (i.e., larvae, newly settled juveniles, older juveniles and adults) and indirectly influence trophic relationships and community structure. I am interested in how MHW and other extreme events impact biodiversity, under current and future climate scenarios, including climate intervention scenarios. Background: I have a background in physics, including a bachelor's and master's in physics, and master's research in engineering sciences, specializing in meteorology, oceanography and dry land management. I obtained my PhD in environmental sciences at Sorbonne University (France) and also a PhD in oceanography and climate change at Cheikh Anta Diop University (Senegal). My PhD research focused on the circulation in the eastern tropical north Atlantic off West Africa, a region where coastal community strongly depend in the ocean which provides marines resources and employment for millions of people. |
Graduate Students
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 EEB 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 EEB youngmor (at) msu.edu BS 2015 Environmental Science, University of Michigan website CV Research Interests: My PhD research seeks to understand the effects of climate change on soil biota, plant, and herbivore interactions. Using a combination of field and greenhouse studies, my research works to address the ways in which the composition and structure of soil microbial communities respond to warming and drought, as well as describing the role that the soil microbial community has 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; MSU IMPACTS Fellowship
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Kara Dobson
PhD student, Integrative Biology and EEB dobsonk2 (at) msu.edu BS 2020 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. |
Funding: NSF GRFP (National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship)
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Hazel Anderson (MSU '21)
PhD Student, Integrative Biology and EEB ande2106 (at) msu.edu BS 2021 Environmental Biology/Plant Biology, Michigan State University website CV Research Interests: I am interested in filling in knowledge gaps of patterns of plant biodiversity through the use of interdisciplinary methods such as plant community ecology, spatial ecology, remote sensing, biogeography, and data science. One method of accomplishing this is leveraging existing big databases to understand large spatial patterns of diversity and their correlation between fruiting plants and frugivores, especially in biodiversity hotspots like the Neotropics. I am also interested to explore how intersectional environmentalism, inclusive conservation, traditional knowledge, and natural/social science collaboration can be used to improve conservation. My work is driven by building a foundational knowledge of previous and existing patterns of biodiversity in order to predict and manage future biodiversity as a result of climate change. Background: Throughout my undergraduate career, I was involved in various research experiences that provided me with a very interdisciplinary background. Projects included measuring oak sapling growth for restoration, modeling the reaction of diet coke with various candies, and correlating tree cores of different species collected at various sites in MI and IN with historic climate conditions. I also was involved with the Frugivoria project as an undergrad, working to fill in the database. This work inspired by senior research project of looking at the spatial distribution of neotropical plant functional traits and their relationship to frugivore functional traits in Ecuador, which will be the starting point for expansion in my Ph.D. work. |
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 website 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 and MSU's IBEEM. |
Research Technicians
2017-present: Mark Hammond (Kellogg Biological Station)
Mark collaborates with Phoebe Zarnetske on the warmXtrophic experiment at Kellogg Biological Station and University of Michigan Biological Station and the Rainfall Manipulation Experiment at KBS LTER. Mark is vital for his depth of knowledge of KBS old field communities and KBS terrestrial experimental work, data collection, and on-site maintenance.
Mark collaborates with Phoebe Zarnetske on the warmXtrophic experiment at Kellogg Biological Station and University of Michigan Biological Station and the Rainfall Manipulation Experiment at KBS LTER. Mark is vital for his depth of knowledge of KBS old field communities and KBS terrestrial experimental work, 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. Erik Kirmse Ralston (MSU)
Major: Environmental Biology MSU Honors College Professorial Assistant 2018-present Erik is working on the aquaXterra insect functional trait database and the FRUGIVORIA project; Erik is particularly interested in birds and global change. 
Chakata Hart (MSU)
Major: Zoology, animal behavior concentration; minor in GIS systems I am interested in relationships between ecosystems, patterns and drivers of biodiversity, and bioindicator species. I would like to learn versatile skills, allowing me to aid different parts of the environment. I would like to research specific bioindicator species such as the Ailurus fulgens, including how they interact with their ecosystem(s). I am also interested in how we can incorporate technology into solutions that aid bioindicator species and their threatened ecosystems. I am currently assisting the Zarnetske Lab on the FRUGIVORIA project. After completing my bachelor's in zoology, I plan to go on pursuing a similar graduate degree so that I can diversify my skillset. 
Ashley Ezzo (MSU)
Major: Zoology with a double concentration in Zoo and Aquarium Sciences and Marine Biology; Minor: Marine Ecosystem Management I am interested in Central America and the impact of climate change in biodiverse habitats. I am specifically interested in the sea turtle populations. I am currently assisting the Zarnetske Lab on the FRUGIVORIA project. After graduation I hope to pursue research in the oceans with a focus on sea turtles looking at the global impacts that are negatively affecting each species. Kristin Wolford (MSU)
Major: Minor: MSU URA Summer 2021 |
Olivia Melville (MSU)
Major: Zoology (Lyman Briggs) MSU Honors College Professorial Assistant 2020-present I am interested in studying the relationship between rising temperatures due to climate change and biodiversity in geographic areas, as well as the effects of climate change on the functional biodiversity of species. Ideally, I would love to pursue this research and study methods to counteract habitat loss due to climate change or preserving natural biodiversity. Currently, I am assisting on the Zarnetske lab on the FRUGIVORIA project. After graduating from MSU, I hope to earn a doctorate in veterinary medicine. 
Taylor Stehouwer (MSU)
Major: Zoology (Lyman Briggs), concentration in zoo and aquarium science MSU Honors College Professorial Assistant 2020-present I am interested in studying the impacts of climate change and its effects on the presence of species in order to promote better conservation efforts and prevent extinction due to loss of natural infrastructure. In the future, I would love to research the particular environmental impacts causing extinction for select species (monkeys and sloths) and work to promote better conservation for them, as well as ways that temperature fluctuations due to climate change impact the environment. Currently, I am assisting the Zarnetske lab on the FRUGIVORIA project. I plan to apply to the DVM program at MSU in the Spring of 2022 after completing the pre-vet curriculum and continue to pursue a degree in Zoology during that time. 
Emily Parker (MSU)
Major: Zoology, marine biology concentration Minor: Leadership in Integrated Learning MSU URA Summer 2021 I'm a URA with Mark Hammond and the MSU SpaCE Lab at Kellogg Biological Station. I'm helping investigate the effects of warming and drought stress on plants. I am interested in learning more about ecology and field work as I learn more about my research interests and begin to plan for my post-undergraduate career. |
MSU SpaCE Lab Alumni
Honorary Lab Members
Pepper is Phoebe's ~2 yr old lab/pointer mix (we think) and is fond of chasing anything that moves.
Roo is Moriah's playful 1 year old cat who loves to take walks on his harness any chance he gets. When he's not getting the zoomies he likes to cuddle and keep close tabs on his human.
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Ande is a rescued vizsla mix who loves chasing his tail, howling at ambulance noises, and absolutely loathes cats
Millie is Kara’s rabbit who loves attention, running around the house, and eating snacks (especially pears and bananas).
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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