MSU Watershed Science & Hydroecology Lab

People

Jay P. Zarnetske, Principal Investigator

Bio: I am an Assistant Professor of Hydrological Sciences at Michigan State University in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences. Previously, I was a Gaylord Donnelly Environmental Postdoctoral Fellow at the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. I received my PhD in Water Resource Science from Oregon State University. During my PhD I was an NSF IGERT - Ecosystem Informatics Fellow in the Department of Geosciences and the Water Resources Graduate Program. Prior to receiving my PhD, I received my MS in Watershed Science from Utah State University's College of Natural Resources, and my BA in Geology from Colby College. I have also served as a visiting scientist for New Zealand's National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research and a consulting groundwater hydrologist for CDM-Smith, Inc.
My passion for fresh water resource issues and my research of catchment hydroecology has enabled me to work with and assist scientists and decision makers around the world. My career has taken me from my roots in the Adirondack region of New York, to school, research, and jobs across the diverse lands of the varied regions of the United States, plus the Arctic, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Aside from research, teaching, and service activities, I keep myself busy with family activities, gardening, cooking, zymurgy, photography, hiking, camping, and skiing...for that matter, just about any excuse to get outside is generally welcome!
Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Arial Shogren, PostDoc

Arial joined the lab as a post doc in the summer of 2018. In 2019, Arial was awarded an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue her Arctic watershed research in the lab. Arial completed her PhD at the University of Notre Dame, where she worked on the fate and transport of novel materials, such as eDNA and environmental proteins, in flowing environments. During her PhD training, she gained an interest in environmental heterogeneity, hyporheic zones, and scaling issues in ecology. Moving up from reach-scale processes, she is now working on our Arctic Watershed Biogeochemistry projects.

Joe Lee-Cullin, PhD Candidate

Joe joined the lab as a PhD student in August 2014. Joe finished his Geoscience M.S. thesis work at the University of Iowa. Through his M.S. thesis he developed and validated a conceptual model for predicting the transport and fate of contaminants using field solute tracer studies coupled with laboratory experiments. He also holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Iowa. Joe is unravelling the complexities of watershed dissolved organic carbon in streams, specifically the fate of organic carbon at stream-groundwater interfaces.

Emma Haines, MS Student

Emma joined the lab as a MS student in August 2019. Emma finished her BS in Environmental Science, Technology, and Policy at California State University - Monterey Bay. Emma is exploring stream-lake interactions and their role in modifying flow and DOC export regimes in an Arctic LTER watershed.

Sinchan Roy Chowdhury, MS Student

Sinchan joined the lab as a MS student in August 2016. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Bengal Engineering and Science University. He is working on the Hyporheic Microzones project figuring out how to advance our ability to model complex microbially-mediated sediment pore water chemistry.

Megan Duda - Undergraduate Researcher

Megan is an environmental engineering major who joined the lab in Fall 2018. She is working on our Arctic hydrology and catchment biogeochemistry projects.

Sam Cairns - Undergraduate Researcher

Sam is an geological sciences major who joined the lab in Fall 2018. He is working on our Arctic hydrology and catchment biogeochemistry projects.

Chenxi Li - Undergraduate Researcher

Chenxi Li joined the lab in 2018 as an MSU MMG Environmental Microbiology student interested in microbial communities and their function in stream ecosystems, specifically focused on nitrogen cycling in stream sediments.

Kenai, Large Woody Debris and RElaxation specialist

Kenai spent over 14 years pursuing the wonders of aquatic environments through his special interest in large woody debris. In this time, he sampled over 100,000 forms of large woody debris from all over the United States. In his late career, he transitioned into retirement and spent most of his time practicing and demonstrating relaxation methods. He was a founding member of the lab.. He crossed his last stream and the rainbow bridge in June 2017.

Lab Alumni

Dr. Ben Abbott, PostDoc

Ben was a postdoc in our lab and is now faculty at Brigham Young University.

Ben is an ecosystem ecologist working on dissolved organic matter production and transport across the terrestrial-aquatic gradient. He joined the lab from Rennes France, where he was working as a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Rennes (OSUR). He did his Ph.D. at the University of Alaska Fairbanks on the effects of permafrost collapse on carbon and nitrogen cycling and got his B.S. in Watershed and Earth Systems Science from Utah State University.

When he's doing "big science", you're likely to find Ben biking, playing with his family, hiking, making music, blogging about the intersection of science, society, and religion, or . . . biking? Details at benabbott.org.

Tyler Hampton, MS Student

Tyler joined the lab as a MS student in June 2016. He graduated in May 2018 and is now working on his PhD at University of Waterloo. He came to the group after finishing his BS in Hydrology from University of New Hampshire. He worked as a junior scientist position with the USGS and undergraduate research at Hubbard Brook LTER. He worked on the Hyporheic Microzone project figuring out the fate of Nitrate in stream and lake sediments through the use of novel tracer experiments.

Sydney Ruhala, MS Student

Sydney joined the lab as a MS student in June 2014. She graduated from Lymann Briggs College at Michigan State University with a B.S. in Environmental Geosciences. She finished her M.S. in Geosciences from our lab and department in 2017. She is now working for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

Rachel Geiger, REU - Undergraduate Researcher

Rachel joined the lab in 2017 as a KBS LTER REU. Rachel is studying for her BS in Environmental Science at Western Washington University. She is interested in the interactions between water bodies and their surrounding environments, and specifically enjoys exploring how hydrology impacts aquatic ecosystems.

Elizabeth Tripp, Undergraduate Researcher

Elizabeth joined the lab from 2017. Elizabeth is working on her BS in Environmental Geosciences at MSU and is now working on a new project with Dr. Basso at MSU.

Stephen Plont, Undergraduate Researcher

Stephen joined the lab in 2015. He graduated with degrees in Environmental Geosciences and Chemistry. He is now a graduate student at Virginia Tech. In his time at MSU, Stephen conducted hyporheic studies using in situ mesocosms. Stephen also lead a full summer field campaign at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest LTER as part of the Leverhulme Project.

Evan Wiewiora, Undergraduate Researcher

Evan joined the lab in 2015. He graduated with degrees in Environmental Geosciences and Mathematics. He worked on how landscape patterns and processes control dissolved organic matter abundance in stream sediments across mid-Michigan. Evan also helped with the completion of the "Sparty Wells" Groundwater-Surface Water Demonstration Site on Campus. Evan graduated in 2017 and now is in graduate school for Biostatistics.

Abraham Downer, Undergraduate Researcher

Abraham joined the lab in 2014. He graduated and is now a Teaching Assistant in the Geography Department at MSU. He is now working toward his MS in Physical Geography at MSU.