Freshwater Ecologist, Dr. Emily Arsenault Launches Research Lab while Joining PME’s New Researcher Program

Freshwater Ecologist, Dr. Emily Arsenault, has recently launched her research lab at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) and is the newest member of PME’s New Researcher Program. Arsenault began researching freshwater systems while studying for her Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Environmental Studies at Colby College. Arsenault earned a Master’s Degree at the University of Kansas while working with Dr. Jim Thorp studying temperate steppe rivers in the western United States and Mongolia. She received a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Kanas with her dissertation Tracing carbon through lotic food webs using amino acid stable isotope analysis. Arsenault then joined a collaborative project between limnologists and roboticists to work as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Dr. Holly Ewing at Bates College

.

Freshwater Ecology

Arsenault is currently an Assistant Professor at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF). Arsenault, along with the graduate and undergraduate students in her Freshwater Ecology Lab are researching how different properties of food webs respond to environmental variability over space and time. The research team uses diet analysis, stable isotope techniques, and in situ sensor measurements to link changes in the environment to organism diet and nutrition. This work is based in the lakes, ponds, and streams of the Adirondack Park.

As the Director of the SUNY ESF Cranberry Lake Biological Station in the New York Adirondacks, Arsenault is working to expand research opportunities and provide opportunities for researchers to interface with students and the local community. She has also started some new environmental monitoring efforts, which utilize PME miniDOT® Loggers. These data will be archived and maintained and will ultimately become publicly available.

“My students and I are using PME sensors for work, not only for research projects, but also to establish a long-term monitoring data stream at the Cranberry Lake Biological Station. We are working in an understudied region, where many waterbodies are accessible only by foot. PME loggers help us to maintain high-frequency data streams across the field season, at our remote field sites. We get out to our sites as often as we can, but we always know the PME sensors are logging while we are away!”

New Researcher Program Participation

“PME’s New Researcher Program is such a valuable opportunity for me, and it is great to see PME highlight the work of early career researchers. I am enjoying working in the field with my students and building a new research program in the Adirondacks,” stated Arsenault.

Arsenault has been involved in professional affiliations throughout her career, including the Society for Freshwater Science (SFS), Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS), American Fisheries Society (AFS), Ecological Society of America (ESA), Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) and Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO).

This is just the beginning of Arsenault’s career and PME could not be more eager to support this new researcher. Follow along as we post updates on our blog about Dr. Arsenault and her research.