Course Description: Biology and taxonomy of insects and other macroinvertebrates most commonly encountered in freshwater environments. Selected aspects of ecology, such as habitat, feeding, locomotion, and life history. Identification of individual taxa, most at family and genus level. Significance of these organisms in aquatic ecology, pollution monitoring, and natural resource management.
Course Objectives:
1.) Describe aspects of the biology of individual aquatic insects and other freshwater macroinvertebrates.
2.) Demonstrate a knowledge of the taxonomy of aquatic insects and other freshwater macroinvertebrates.
3.) Demonstrate methods of collection, preservation and curation of insect specimens.
4.) Describe some of the basic ecological interactions involving aquatic insects and other freshwater macroinvertebrates and why that information is important for solving problems in environmental pollution and natural resources management.
Other teaching experience:
2019 Invited speaker, Environmental Systems Graduate Group, UC Merced.
Scheduled 20 February.
2018 Guest lecturer, Freshwater Ecology, UC Berkeley
Seminar, Essig Brunch, UC Berkeley
2016 Seminar, Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. Virginia Tech.
Guest lecturer, Wetland hydrology and biodiversity. Virginia Tech.
Guest lecturer, Freshwater Ecology. Virginia Tech.
2015 Guest lecturer, The hyporheic zone as a primary source of invertebrate community resilience in intermittent alluvial rivers: evidence from field and mesocosm experiments. University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Guest lecturer, Resistance and resilience of invertebrate communities to stream drying. University of Nottingham, UK.
2014 Instructor. Workshop on identification of larval chironomids. University of San Simón, Cochabamba, Bolivia.
2010 Instructor. North Carolina Surface Water Identification Training and Certification Course, various locations, North Carolina. Several courses over 2 years.
2008 Graduate teaching assistant*. Introduction to biology. South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota. Two laboratory sections for one semester. * Graduate Teaching Assistant Award Department of Biological Sciences *
UWL Freshwater Ecology Lab 