Blaszczak Watershed and Aquatic Ecosystem Ecology Lab
at the University of Nevada, Reno
Flathead Valley, Montana (Google Earth Image)
Welcome! Our group studies the transformations and transport of nutrients, carbon, and contaminants through watersheds and the streams that drain them.
We are a growing group of freshwater scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno. We use a combination of field (environmental sensors), lab (analytical chemistry and mesocosm experiments), and modeling (mechanistic time-series models) approaches to address the questions we are most excited about!
Read more about our research here and check for opportunities to join the lab.
We are a growing group of freshwater scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno. We use a combination of field (environmental sensors), lab (analytical chemistry and mesocosm experiments), and modeling (mechanistic time-series models) approaches to address the questions we are most excited about!
Read more about our research here and check for opportunities to join the lab.
Mono Lake Basin, CA (Fall 2019)
|
Beaver Creek, Montana
(Summer 2018)
|
An urban stream in
Durham, NC (Spring 2015)
|
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that the University of Nevada, Reno is situated on the traditional homelands of the Numu (Northern Paiute), Wašiw (Washoe), Newe (Western Shoshone), Nuwu (Southern Paiute) peoples, and that our research in other areas occurs on the homelands of tribes spread throughout North America. We respect the Indigenous people who have lived and live on these lands and recognize our responsibility to support these communities.
We acknowledge that the University of Nevada, Reno is situated on the traditional homelands of the Numu (Northern Paiute), Wašiw (Washoe), Newe (Western Shoshone), Nuwu (Southern Paiute) peoples, and that our research in other areas occurs on the homelands of tribes spread throughout North America. We respect the Indigenous people who have lived and live on these lands and recognize our responsibility to support these communities.
News Feed
May 2022 part 3 - Wundergrad Rob Miller is awarded the NV EPSCoR summer research fellowship!! Congrats Rob!
May 2022 part 2 - Joanna, Heili, Meredith, Kelly, & Keenan are all heading to the Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting (JASM) in Grand Rapids, MI to present their work! We're all looking forward to connecting with old and new colleagues!!
May 2022 - Paola Miramontes is awarded the Nevada Undergraduate Research Award!! Congrats Paola!
April 2022 - HUGE congrats to MS student Meredith Brehob for successfully defending her thesis!! Stay tuned for a publication of her work.
March 2022 - New lab publication on freshwater salinity regimes in streams! Former technician Lauren Bolotin leads a paper using dynamic time warping and time series clustering to explore dominant freshwater salinity regimes in central and western U.S. streams. Check it out HERE.
December 2021 - Kelly presents her work at the 2021 AGU meeting in New Orleans on "Linkages between ecosystem productivity and nitrogen uptake in mountain streams with contrasting flow regimes in the Lake Tahoe Basin" AND she is awarded a UNR Graduate School Association (GSA) Research Grant to support her work on investigating stream ecosystem responses to the Caldor Fire. Awesome job Kelly!!
November 2021 - Keenan presents at the SETAC North America 42nd Annual Meeting on "Biogeochemical Responses to Changing Salinity Regimes in Northwestern Nevada River Basins". Way to go Keenan!!
October 2021 - Heili and Joanna head up to the Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS) in Montana for a week long modelscapes subgroup meeting for aquatic ecosystem focused folks. The larches by the lake were beautiful and lots of fun science was discussed!
September 2021 - The Blaszczak lab (meaning Kelly and Joanna) has mobilized to study the transport and downstream effects of material mobilized by the Caldor Fire in South Lake Tahoe from the watershed to the nearshore of the lake. We are also participating in studying the effects of smoke on Lake Tahoe clarity. Read more about it here.
July 2021 - The local NPR station KUNR featured our NSF award to study environmental controls on anatoxin-producing cyanobacteria in northern CA rivers. Listen here starting at 3:08: link
- For a little longer clip and a photo, click on this KUNR link.
June 2021 - Joanna is awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation Macrosystems & NEON-enabled science grant titled "Uncovering local and regional controls on organic matter processing in freshwaters using in situ optical sensors". We will be recruiting a postdoc to work with Jake Hosen at Purdue University soon and I will be searching for an REU student for summer 2022!
May 2021 part 3 - Meredith Brehob (poster), Kelly Loria (poster), Lauren Bolotin (talk), and Joanna (talk) all present at the 2021 Society for Freshwater Science meeting. Can't wait to be in person again next year!
May 2021 part 2 - Wundergrads Chloe Dodge and Anna Zoeters are both awarded Outstanding Seniors in the NRES department!! Congrats to them!
May 2021 - Madison Glenwinkel is awarded the NV EPSCoR summer research fellowship!! Congrats Madison!
April 2021 part 2 - Kelly Loria is awarded the 2021 Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center Natural Resources Workforce Development (NRWD) Fellowship!! Congrats Kelly!
April 2021 - Joanna is awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation titled "SG: Evaluating synchrony among ecosystem productivity, benthic cyanobacterial growth, and toxin production dynamics in rivers" which will support a new Ph.D. student in the lab! We are recruiting for a new student to join the lab. If interested, please go to the current openings tab under opportunities.
March 2021 part 2 - VERY exciting news to share from the lab - Lauren Bolotin received an Honorable Mention from the NSF GRFP and Ph.D. student Kelly Loria was awarded a NSF GRF!! We are all very proud of them and so thrilled!
March 2021 - (1) We are thrilled to have Heili Lowman has joined the lab as a postdoc on the NSF EPSCoR funded Modelscapes project! (2) Joanna gave a seminar at the University of Oklahoma titled "Predicting the pulse of rivers: ecological insights from river oxygen dynamics". Watch a recording here.
December 2020 - (1) Joanna presents ongoing work in collaboration with Lauren Bolotin and Chloe Dodge (lab members), as well as Phil Savoy (USGS) on freshwater salinization regimes across the western US at AGU 2020 and (2) Joanna is awarded a Nevada INBRE (IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence National Institutes of Health (NIH) program) grant to develop methods with the UNR Proteomics center to measure the cyanotoxin anatoxin-a in rivers!
October 2020 - Congrats to M.S. student Meredith Brehob on being awarded the Robert E. Dickenson Scholarship!!
September 2020 - Congrats to Ph.D. student Kelly Loria on being awarded the Whittell Forest Graduate Research Fellowship!!
August 2020 - Two very exciting pieces of news for August:
1. Two awesome graduate students, Kelly Loria (Ph.D. student) and Keenan Seto (M.S. student) have joined the lab!! See the people tab for more information about them.
2. Joanna is awarded a NSF EPSCOR RII Track-2 grant titled "Highly predictive, explanatory models to harness the life science data revolution". Joanna and Matt Forister (UNR Biology) will be splitting 3 postdocs each year and the Blaszczak lab will be deploying a buoy in Lake Tahoe! If you're interested in a postdoc and reading this, look for an advertisement soon and get in touch with me.
July 2020 - Big congrats again to Albert for this time on having his NSF EPSCoR Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) proposal funded for the 2020-2021 academic year!! Very exciting!
June 2020 - Congrats to Albert for being awarded the Nevada Undergraduate Research Award for the 2020-2021 academic year!!
March 2020 - The lab is staying home and staying safe during the coronavirus pandemic.
February 2020 - Joanna attends a StreamPulse project meeting, the 5th Symposium on Urban Stream Ecology (SUSE5), and the Water Research Career Collaborative annual meeting!
January 2020 - The Blaszczak lab is growing! Meredith Brehob joins the lab as the first MS student and is co-advised by Sudeep Chandra. Albert Lopez joins as a McNair scholar and Chloe Dodge joins as a research assistant. Excited for the semester!
December 2019 - Joanna presents the Global Riverine Hypoxia project at the AGU meeting in San Francisco
September 2019 - Joanna attended the Dry Rivers RCN workshop, which was productive and fun - papers are forthcoming!
September 2019 - Lauren Bolotin (UNR grad '19) is the first member to join the Blaszczak lab as a research technician!
August 2019 - The Blaszczak lab has opened its doors!
May 2022 part 3 - Wundergrad Rob Miller is awarded the NV EPSCoR summer research fellowship!! Congrats Rob!
May 2022 part 2 - Joanna, Heili, Meredith, Kelly, & Keenan are all heading to the Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting (JASM) in Grand Rapids, MI to present their work! We're all looking forward to connecting with old and new colleagues!!
May 2022 - Paola Miramontes is awarded the Nevada Undergraduate Research Award!! Congrats Paola!
April 2022 - HUGE congrats to MS student Meredith Brehob for successfully defending her thesis!! Stay tuned for a publication of her work.
March 2022 - New lab publication on freshwater salinity regimes in streams! Former technician Lauren Bolotin leads a paper using dynamic time warping and time series clustering to explore dominant freshwater salinity regimes in central and western U.S. streams. Check it out HERE.
December 2021 - Kelly presents her work at the 2021 AGU meeting in New Orleans on "Linkages between ecosystem productivity and nitrogen uptake in mountain streams with contrasting flow regimes in the Lake Tahoe Basin" AND she is awarded a UNR Graduate School Association (GSA) Research Grant to support her work on investigating stream ecosystem responses to the Caldor Fire. Awesome job Kelly!!
November 2021 - Keenan presents at the SETAC North America 42nd Annual Meeting on "Biogeochemical Responses to Changing Salinity Regimes in Northwestern Nevada River Basins". Way to go Keenan!!
October 2021 - Heili and Joanna head up to the Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS) in Montana for a week long modelscapes subgroup meeting for aquatic ecosystem focused folks. The larches by the lake were beautiful and lots of fun science was discussed!
September 2021 - The Blaszczak lab (meaning Kelly and Joanna) has mobilized to study the transport and downstream effects of material mobilized by the Caldor Fire in South Lake Tahoe from the watershed to the nearshore of the lake. We are also participating in studying the effects of smoke on Lake Tahoe clarity. Read more about it here.
July 2021 - The local NPR station KUNR featured our NSF award to study environmental controls on anatoxin-producing cyanobacteria in northern CA rivers. Listen here starting at 3:08: link
- For a little longer clip and a photo, click on this KUNR link.
June 2021 - Joanna is awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation Macrosystems & NEON-enabled science grant titled "Uncovering local and regional controls on organic matter processing in freshwaters using in situ optical sensors". We will be recruiting a postdoc to work with Jake Hosen at Purdue University soon and I will be searching for an REU student for summer 2022!
May 2021 part 3 - Meredith Brehob (poster), Kelly Loria (poster), Lauren Bolotin (talk), and Joanna (talk) all present at the 2021 Society for Freshwater Science meeting. Can't wait to be in person again next year!
May 2021 part 2 - Wundergrads Chloe Dodge and Anna Zoeters are both awarded Outstanding Seniors in the NRES department!! Congrats to them!
May 2021 - Madison Glenwinkel is awarded the NV EPSCoR summer research fellowship!! Congrats Madison!
April 2021 part 2 - Kelly Loria is awarded the 2021 Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center Natural Resources Workforce Development (NRWD) Fellowship!! Congrats Kelly!
April 2021 - Joanna is awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation titled "SG: Evaluating synchrony among ecosystem productivity, benthic cyanobacterial growth, and toxin production dynamics in rivers" which will support a new Ph.D. student in the lab! We are recruiting for a new student to join the lab. If interested, please go to the current openings tab under opportunities.
March 2021 part 2 - VERY exciting news to share from the lab - Lauren Bolotin received an Honorable Mention from the NSF GRFP and Ph.D. student Kelly Loria was awarded a NSF GRF!! We are all very proud of them and so thrilled!
- Kelly also gave a talk through the Headwaters Science Institute "Lunch with a Scientist Lecture Series". See the recording here!
March 2021 - (1) We are thrilled to have Heili Lowman has joined the lab as a postdoc on the NSF EPSCoR funded Modelscapes project! (2) Joanna gave a seminar at the University of Oklahoma titled "Predicting the pulse of rivers: ecological insights from river oxygen dynamics". Watch a recording here.
December 2020 - (1) Joanna presents ongoing work in collaboration with Lauren Bolotin and Chloe Dodge (lab members), as well as Phil Savoy (USGS) on freshwater salinization regimes across the western US at AGU 2020 and (2) Joanna is awarded a Nevada INBRE (IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence National Institutes of Health (NIH) program) grant to develop methods with the UNR Proteomics center to measure the cyanotoxin anatoxin-a in rivers!
October 2020 - Congrats to M.S. student Meredith Brehob on being awarded the Robert E. Dickenson Scholarship!!
September 2020 - Congrats to Ph.D. student Kelly Loria on being awarded the Whittell Forest Graduate Research Fellowship!!
August 2020 - Two very exciting pieces of news for August:
1. Two awesome graduate students, Kelly Loria (Ph.D. student) and Keenan Seto (M.S. student) have joined the lab!! See the people tab for more information about them.
2. Joanna is awarded a NSF EPSCOR RII Track-2 grant titled "Highly predictive, explanatory models to harness the life science data revolution". Joanna and Matt Forister (UNR Biology) will be splitting 3 postdocs each year and the Blaszczak lab will be deploying a buoy in Lake Tahoe! If you're interested in a postdoc and reading this, look for an advertisement soon and get in touch with me.
July 2020 - Big congrats again to Albert for this time on having his NSF EPSCoR Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) proposal funded for the 2020-2021 academic year!! Very exciting!
June 2020 - Congrats to Albert for being awarded the Nevada Undergraduate Research Award for the 2020-2021 academic year!!
March 2020 - The lab is staying home and staying safe during the coronavirus pandemic.
February 2020 - Joanna attends a StreamPulse project meeting, the 5th Symposium on Urban Stream Ecology (SUSE5), and the Water Research Career Collaborative annual meeting!
January 2020 - The Blaszczak lab is growing! Meredith Brehob joins the lab as the first MS student and is co-advised by Sudeep Chandra. Albert Lopez joins as a McNair scholar and Chloe Dodge joins as a research assistant. Excited for the semester!
December 2019 - Joanna presents the Global Riverine Hypoxia project at the AGU meeting in San Francisco
September 2019 - Joanna attended the Dry Rivers RCN workshop, which was productive and fun - papers are forthcoming!
September 2019 - Lauren Bolotin (UNR grad '19) is the first member to join the Blaszczak lab as a research technician!
August 2019 - The Blaszczak lab has opened its doors!
