Lunch & Learn is a weekly lunch hour in the EBIO department, featuring research talks, workshops, and other science-themed activities. L & L is held on Wednesdays from 12:00 to 12:50 in Ramaley N240. Snacks are provided. All are welcome! For this week's Lunch & Learn, we will be hearing from Dr. Kyle Christianson, a post-doc in Pieter Johnson's group working with INSTAAR.

Kyle will be talking about his research on the impact of climate change on the phenology and ecology of alpine lake ecosystems. His talk is entitled: “Climate change and mountain lakes: what's the big deal?”

High elevation lakes are an understudied class of lakes, globally. Although these lakes are usually remote, and therefore isolated from some forms of anthropogenic change, they are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Changing air temperature and precipitation can have direct and indirect effects on the thermal regime of high elevation lakes. Climate change can alter snowpack magnitude and melt timing and increase the frequency and intensity of drought and forest fire, which can in turn influence high lake thermal regimes and habitat suitability for aquatic fauna. By utilizing novel empirical and mechanistic approaches, I predicted how air temperature and associated environmental stressors may further affect lake thermal properties and predict ecological responses of native and nonnative organisms.