معرفی
Dr. Mary E. Power is a Professor of the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. She specializes in river ecology, focusing on algal-based food webs and their interactions with hydroclimatic regimes. Her research integrates field experiments and long-term monitoring in the South Fork Eel River, examining how flow variations and environmental conditions drive ecosystem state transitions.
- Primary Research Site: Angelo Coast Range Reserve (Mendocino Co., CA)
- Key Methodologies: In situ incubations, stable isotope probing, nanoSIMS analysis
- Current Focus: 2024- study of three alternative algal food web states during summer low flows
Her work reveals critical thresholds where reduced summer flows and warming pools shift nutritious algal ecosystems toward toxic cyanobacterial dominance, impacting salmon and cross-ecosystem linkages.
Selected Research Trends:
- Hydrological control of food web structure
- Cyanotoxin dynamics in river networks
- Climate change impacts on freshwater ecosystems
- Long-term ecological reconstructions via sediment cores
- Top-down and bottom-up regulation of river communities
Her lab employs cutting-edge techniques to analyze microbiome elemental exchanges and successional patterns in Cladophora glomerata, a dominant green macroalga in the Eel River system.
