PEOPLE
Dr. Celia Symons
Assistant Professor
I am interested in understanding the impact of global change drivers on aquatic food web structure and function. Freshwater systems are facing many environmental stressors, such as warming, browning, salinization, eutrophication, and invasive species. Determining the response of lake ecosystems is critical to predicting future function. The cumulative impact of multiple environmental changes are difficult to predict as their tendency to amplify or dampen one another’s effects depends upon the stressors in question and the functional characteristics of the affected communities. We uses a combination of field surveys, mesocosms experiments and lab experiments to mechanistically explore how variables at different scales - individual traits, population demography and community composition - shape the response of lakes to environmental change.
Please follow the links below for more information on my research:
​
​
​
Ashlyn Foster
PhD Student
Ashlyn is a second year PhD student in the Symons lab at the University of California, Irvine where she integrates her interdisciplinary experience into her research on alpine lakes. Ashlyn’s passion for the Sierra Nevada Mountains was initiated by her position as a recreational guide and has translated into an intrigue for freshwater ecology in pristine, oligotrophic lakes throughout the region. She is interested in the effects of environmental and anthropogenic disturbance on ecosystem function and composition (trophic cascades, nutrient pollution, phase shifts) and the mechanisms by which an environment can recover from perturbation. Ashlyn completed her Bachelor’s degree at University of California, Santa Barbara (Young Lab) where she worked on various projects under the scope of community ecology. During her LOREX exchange, Ashlyn will investigate the drivers of lake benthic primary productivity under the guidance of Dr. Ann-Kristin Bergström. This project will provide Ashlyn opportunities to learn valuable techniques in her field of interest and contribute to meaningful research in vulnerable Arctic lake ecosystems.
​
​
Emily Martin
PhD Candidate
Emily is currently a PhD Candidate in the Symons Lab at the University of California, Irvine. She is broadly interested in how shifts in abiotic and biotic factors shape freshwater ecosystems in a rapidly changing world. Her research journey began with exploring Midwest ponds and the Great Lakes, and it has since expanded to the high-elevation lakes of the Sierra Nevada. Presently, she is investigating how nonnative fish affect lake community structure, diversity, and ecosystem function. Understanding how differences in species composition and diversity influence ecosystem processes and the services they provide is central to her work. She is passionate about advancing freshwater ecology and conservation through a combination of fieldwork, mesocosm, and laboratory studies, and she looks forward to continuing this work in the Sierra Nevada while engaging in interdisciplinary collaborations.
Follow the email link below to get in touch:
​
​
Dr. Joseph Mohan
Postdoctoral Fellow
I am broadly interested in the interplay of Earth's major systems (litho-,hydro-, atmo-, & biospheres). I particularly enjoy quantifying interactions at the interface between these systems. I am driven to uncover new and interesting ways that each sphere influences and shapes the processes that drive the other spheres. I am currently exploring the influence of sun exposure on alpine lake communities. My Ph.D. research focused on applying 3D modeling and statistical modeling methods to reveal how plankton traits influence community and population dynamics which are driven by atmospheric deposition. I was able to reveal that evolution of spines on a species of plankton changed the rate of sediment deposition in a lake in the Sawtooth Range, Idaho. My master’s thesis was part of an international collaborative project that has revealed how dynamic environments and climate change influenced early human evolution in East Africa. My bachelor's thesis in geology revealed an abrupt shift in polychaeta fossils from the Michigan Basin ~385 million years ago. I have a broad range of knowledge and education in natural sciences and I enjoy providing my expertise to collaborative projects. One example is applying automated aquatic microscopy to the South Pole Ice Core.
​
​
Undergraduate researchers:
Nathan Bogin, Felix Jeong, Talulah Miles, Brandy Nguyen, Evani Patel, and Ruth Zhou
Past Undergraduates:
Rizelle Martinez, Caitlyn Cargnoni, Youemeng Li, Claire Lei, Meili Soriano, Soffia Ramsey,Tu Nguyen, Claire Liu, Aimee Chi Soe, Pauline Stevens, Nathan Lee, Sarah Haas, Jatin Behar, Tyler Queja, Emily Le, Steven Nguyen, Annabelle Doo, Roman Torres, Hunter Rojas
