Dr. Phoebe Lehmann Zarnetske
Professor, Michigan State University, Integrative Biology
Director, Institute for Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolution, and Macrosystems (IBEEM)
Fall '21 - Summer '22: sabbatical, University of Lyon, France
plz (at) msu.edu
PhD 2011 Oregon State University
MS 2006 Utah State University
BA 2001 Colby College
C.V.
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 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).
Professor, Michigan State University, Integrative Biology
Director, Institute for Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolution, and Macrosystems (IBEEM)
Fall '21 - Summer '22: sabbatical, University of Lyon, France
plz (at) msu.edu
PhD 2011 Oregon State University
MS 2006 Utah State University
BA 2001 Colby College
C.V.
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 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, MSU EEB, MSU IBEEM, NSF
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Dr. Lala Kounta
2023- Postdoctoral Associate, MSU Integrative Biology & EEB; 2023 IBEEM Postdoctoral Fellow 2022-2023: Postdoctoral Fellow, African Future Leadership Program kountala (at) msu.edu PhD 2019 Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar | UCAD · Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique website, LinkedIn 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. |
Funding: NSF, MSU IBEEM
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Dr. Kelly Kapsar
2023- Postdoctoral Associate, Macrosystems Biodiversity, IBEEM Data Scientist kapsarke (at) msu.edu PhD 2022 Michigan State University BS 2014 Carlton College website Research Interests: Kelly is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist focused on solutions-driven approaches to conservation challenges in coupled human and natural systems. Through her research, she uses spatial data analysis and statistics to better understand human-wildlife interactions across scales of space and time. Her research interests also include community-engagement, knowledge integration, and reproducible research. In the SpaCE Lab, Kelly is working on the NSF Macrosystems Biodiversity project, focusing on data science and data products including associated analyses for drivers of biodiversity (disturbance, geodiversity, and climate). Kelly also works on data science research and training support with IBEEM. |
Funding: Korean National Research Foundation
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Dr. Minyoung Lee
2025- Korean National Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow leeminy4 (at) msu.edu PhD 2022 Korea University BS 2015 Korea University Research Interests: I am a food web ecologist interested in how freshwater ecosystems respond to climate change, biodiversity loss, and invasive species. I use long-term ecological monitoring data, food web network modeling, and statistical tools to understand how ecological networks recover, reorganize, or collapse under global change. At MSU, through my NRF Grant, I study how climate change reshapes freshwater food webs and creates opportunities for invasive species to establish. Using NEON and LTER datasets with food web modeling, I aim to understand how these changes affect the stability and resilience of ecosystems. I am also interested in cross-ecosystem biodiversity research, and I build NEON freshwater networks with the goal of linking aquatic food webs to terrestrial networks. Background: I have a background in environmental science and ecology. I obtained my B.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering at Korea University, where my doctoral research focused on using network approaches to study food web recovery in restored stream ecosystems in Korea. After that, I worked as a postdoctoral fellow at UNIST in South Korea, leading NRF-funded projects on stream food web recovery, river connectivity, and species conservation priority modeling. |
Graduate Students
Funding: MSU College of Natural Science Graduate Fellowship
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Jenna Baljunas
PhD student, Integrative Biology and EEB baljunas (at) msu.edu BS 2023 Environmental Science, Chatham University Research Interests: My research focuses on analyzing spatiotemporal changes in tropical communities to improve current and future species distribution modeling. In the tropics, high biodiversity and climate stability causes species distributions to be largely driven by biotic interactions and only slight changes in microhabitat. However, many current models leave out important interaction data and result in an incomplete understanding of how species and communities respond to environmental change. Using interaction data of birds, mammals, and plants extracted from various disparate sources (e.g., literature sources, natural history accounts, citizen science observations, and raw data collected in the field) from across a 2,900m elevational gradient in Costa Rica, I am creating a framework to use species interaction network analysis as a tool to investigate community change across various environmental and temporal variables. I will then assess climate risk on species, networks, and functions through network analysis by applying several climate scenarios and assigning climate risk indices to each species. Background: My passion for tropical systems, spatial ecology, and community ecology all began under a REU with Texas A&M where I researched the relationships between topography, soil, and trees in a premontane rainforest in Costa Rica. Since then, species interactions and community ecology have been a trend in my ecological work. During the rest of my undergraduate studies at Chatham University, I analyzed the mesohabitat affinities of Nicaraguan benthic macroinvertebrates (Baljunas et al., 2023) and performed a metanalysis of endozoochorous non-native seed dispersal by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Post-bachelorette, I worked as a seasonal field ornithologist under a study investigating bird usage of artificial small forest gaps and conducted research under the Plant Ecology Program at Archbold Biological Station in Florida, where I independently studied seed predation and its demographic effects on five rare and endemic herbaceous plant species. |
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Lucas Mansfield
PhD student, Integrative Biology and EEB mansfi79 (at) msu.edu BS 2024 Biology, University of Washington Research Interests: My research interests center on avian communities and the impact of spatiotemporal variables on their structure. In particular, I am interested in modeling bird communities using networks of interspecific interactions and exploring the effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbances to the environment on the structure of the interaction networks. My research will use citizen science data on bird occurrence, a large database of avian interspecies interactions developed by undergraduates in the SpaCE Lab, and high-resolution data on disturbance and land use change across the United States. Through this work, I will identify which networks and ecoregions are most at risk of losing ecological functions through lost interactions from species declines, while also pinpointing the forms of disturbance (e.g., urbanization, vegetation loss, fire) that have the greatest negative impact on the structure of avian networks, with the ultimate goal of aiding future conservation decisions. Background: My past research has looked at ecology through two distinct lenses, which I plan to blend in the SpaCE Lab. At the University of Washington, my undergraduate research primarily focused on trait-based ecology and biomechanics in hummingbirds. I used 3D photogrammetry to create models of hummingbird bills from museum specimens and live bills, and studied the relationship between bill sexual dimorphism and fighting performance in the Green Hermit. I later worked at The Morton Arboretum, where I employed UAV-collected LiDAR and multispectral imagery to analyze rainforest biodiversity in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Using the same data, I also developed a metric for quantifying rainforest tree emergence and investigated the impact of topographic and spatial variables on the distribution and prominence of emergent trees. |
Data Scientist & Data Engineer
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Pat Bills
MSU ICER; Research Software Engineer billspat (at) msu.edu Pat is the MSU SpaCE Lab's Data Scientist & Data Engineer extraordinaire. Pat has worked for IT and high performance computing 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 Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research (ICER) as a Research Software Engineer. He luckily gets to spend about 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
Caroline Roche (MSU '27)
Major: Environmental Biology/Zoology
Avian MetaNetwork Project; MSU Honors College Professorial Assistant 2023-2025
Research Interests: I am interested in studying animal behavior and how animals are affected by climate change.
Major: Environmental Biology/Zoology
Avian MetaNetwork Project; MSU Honors College Professorial Assistant 2023-2025
Research Interests: I am interested in studying animal behavior and how animals are affected by climate change.
Liz Bauer (MSU '27)
Major: Environmental Biology/Zoology
Avian MetaNetwork Project; IBIO Emerging Scholar 2025-
Research Interests: My research interests include restoration and conservation for deserts and researching desert ecology in North and South America.
Major: Environmental Biology/Zoology
Avian MetaNetwork Project; IBIO Emerging Scholar 2025-
Research Interests: My research interests include restoration and conservation for deserts and researching desert ecology in North and South America.
Addison Hoddinott (MSU '28)
Major: Zoology
Avian MetaNetwork Project; IBIO Emerging Scholar 2025-
Research Interests: I am interested in environment and wildlife conservation and how climate change affects relationships in ecosystems.
Major: Zoology
Avian MetaNetwork Project; IBIO Emerging Scholar 2025-
Research Interests: I am interested in environment and wildlife conservation and how climate change affects relationships in ecosystems.
Vivian Smith (MSU '28)
Major: Zoology
Avian MetaNetwork Project; IBIO Emerging Scholar 2025-
Research Interests: I am interested in ecology and the process of rewilding and restoring ecosystems.
Major: Zoology
Avian MetaNetwork Project; IBIO Emerging Scholar 2025-
Research Interests: I am interested in ecology and the process of rewilding and restoring ecosystems.
Olive Graves (MSU '28)
Major: Plant Biology
Avian MetaNetwork Project; Independent Study 2025-
Research Interests: My research interests span across a variety of different topics, but I am most interested in the changing environment and how the organisms in different ecosystems respond.
Major: Plant Biology
Avian MetaNetwork Project; Independent Study 2025-
Research Interests: My research interests span across a variety of different topics, but I am most interested in the changing environment and how the organisms in different ecosystems respond.
Elliot Palmer (MSU '29)
Major: Zoology
Avian MetaNetwork Project; MSU Honors College Professorial Assistant 2025-
Jamie Soehl (MSU '29)
Major: Zoology
Avian MetaNetwork Project; MSU Honors College Professorial Assistant 2025-
Major: Zoology
Avian MetaNetwork Project; MSU Honors College Professorial Assistant 2025-
Jamie Soehl (MSU '29)
Major: Zoology
Avian MetaNetwork Project; MSU Honors College Professorial Assistant 2025-
MSU SpaCE Lab Alumni
Honorary Lab Members
Pepper is Phoebe's lab/pointer mix (we think) and is fond of chasing anything that moves.
Roo is Moriah's playful 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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