People

Dr. Jon Benstead

I am a freshwater ecologist with broad research interests and experience. Increasingly, my research is focusing on stoichiometric relationships in ecology, particularly the role of coupled cycles of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in food webs and ecosystem-level processes. To examine stoichiometric linkages, I combine classic bioenergetic methods for quantifying energy acquisition and flow with an explicit stoichiometric perspective on nitrogen and phosphorus availability and demand. My students, collaborators and I are using this approach to examine ecological processes at a variety of scales, from the consequences of stoichiometric imbalances for organismal growth to the effects of relative C, N and P availability on energy flow through food webs and whole ecosystems. Much of my research at UA is in collaboration with Dr. Alex Huryn. Collaborators at other institutions include Dr. Wyatt Cross at Montana State University and Dr. Amy Rosemond at the University of Georgia. I teach a number of undergraduate and graduate courses at UA. Serving on the editorial boards of the journals Freshwater Biology and Ecosphere also keeps me busy. For more information, see my CV.

Mike Venarsky

Mike joined the lab in 2006 after completing his Masters degree at Southern Illinois University. His Masters research examined the population biology and genetics of endangered cave amphipods. For his Ph.D. research, Mike is using a combination of population-level studies and whole-stream manipulations to examine carbon limitation of cave stream food webs and ecosystems. For more information on current cave stream research in the lab, click here.

Michael’s M.S. research examined the effects of phosphorus enrichment on invertebrate growth and body elemental content. For more information about current research on ecological stoichiometry in the lab, click here. Michael is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at UA under the direction of Dr. Alex Huryn, working on effects of phosphorus enrichment on the Kuparuk River ecosystem, North Slope of Alaska.

Michael Kendrick

Scott came to the University of Alabama in 2008 after completing his undergraduate degree at Millersville University. Scott’s interests include benthic invertebrate ecology. His Masters research focuses on temporal and spatial variability in macroinvertebrate community structure in the Sipsey River floodplain ecosystem. For more information about research on the Sipsey River, click here.

Scott Starr

Brock's M.S. research focused on bottom-up limitation of the Tennessee cave salamander, Gyrinophilus palleucus, a top predator in cave stream ecosystems. For more information on current cave stream research in the lab, click here. Brock is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at West Virginia University under the direction of Dr. Todd Petty, working on ecology of brook trout.

Brock Huntsman

Former members of the lab

Dan Nelson

Mick Demi

Cameron Craig

Chau Tran

PHOTO COMING SOON!

Dan joined the lab in 2010 after completing his M.S. at the University of Idaho. His research there investigated food webs in cave ecosystems. His Ph.D. research at UA is examining the responses of stream food webs to experimental warming at our study site in western Iceland.

Mick joined the lab in 2010 after completing his M.S. at the University of Maine, where he investigated linkages between lake and outflow food webs, and the role of anadromous fishes in mediating these exchanges. His Ph.D. research at UA involves the response of detritus-based food webs to variation in detrital N:P stoichiometry.

Cameron joined the lab in 2010 after completing his B.S. at the University of the Cumberlands. His M.S. research at UA will compare stoichiometric strategies of obligate cave and surface crayfishes.

Chau joined the lab in 2010 as a part-time technician. She is currently also getting ready to defend her M.S. thesis at the University of Idaho, where her research examined salmonid ecology and stream restoration. Chau spends most of her time working on our stoichiometry project at Coweeta, but also makes herself invaluable in many other ways.