• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
logo of Alaska Center for Conservation Science

Alaska Center for Conservation Science

Fostering research, education, and collaboration on biological conservation and natural resource management in Alaska and the Arctic

  • Home
  • About
    • Staff, Faculty, and Students
    • Support Our Program
    • Opportunities
    • Contact
    • Our Partners
  • Research
    • Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
    • Invasive Species
    • Aquatic Ecology
    • Vegetation
    • Wildlife
    • Landscape Ecology
  • Data and Services
    • Data Catalog
    • Conservation Data Portals
    • Code Repository
    • Services
  • Publications
  • Aquatic Home
  • Research
    • Computational Ecology
    • Salmon Population Ecology
    • Aquatic Biodiversity
    • Monitoring and Assessment
  • Education
  • Data and Resources
    • Data Catalog
    • Stream Temperature Monitoring
    • Alaska Stream Team Online Database
  • Publications
  • People

Aquatic Ecology

The aquatic ecology program studies freshwater, estuarine, and marine ecosystems. Research interests are focused on investigating relationships between water quality, physical habitat, population biology, community ecology, and ecosystem dynamics. Additionally, our Aquatic Ecology lab specializes in monitoring and assessment of Alaska’s waters and diatom and benthic macroinvertebrate processing and identification.

Recent work includes developing a statewide freshwater temperature action plan, modeling stream temperatures, investigating the relationship between temperature and hydrology and their effect on salmon populations; documenting juvenile salmon diets during their freshwater and estuarine life stages, cataloging diversity of stream biological communities, and surveying the spread of freshwater invasive species.

We are also actively involved in characterizing baseline conditions of water quality and physical habitat for freshwater lakes, streams, rivers, and wetlands across the state of Alaska. To this end, our organization hosts the AKTEMP Water Temperature Database. AKTEMP is a cloud-based database platform for storing and accessing stream and lake temperature monitoring data across Alaska.


Research Focal Areas

icon for computational ecology Computational Ecology
icon for salmon population ecology Salmon Population Ecology
icon for aquatic biodiversity Aquatic Biodiversity
icon for monitoring and assessment Monitoring & Assessment

Aquatic Projects Map

The Aquatic Projects Map allows users to view locations of freshwater macroinvertebrate and diatom sampling across stream, river, lake, and wetland habitats by ACCS staff across Alaska. Metadata information is provided for each sampling site that includes the project name, year(s) of data collection, the waterbody type, and the types of data collected. The macroinvertebrate and diatom fields indicate whether one or both communities were sampled at a site and the collection method used. Other metadata fields document the availability of additional data types, such as physical habitat measurements, in-situ water chemistry, laboratory water chemistry, and stream discharge. For each project, links are also provided to research reports and datasets (when publicly available). Data from these projects are available upon request by contacting Erin Larson.

icon for Aquatic Projects Map Aquatic Projects Map

People

Erin I. Larson, PhD

Erin Larson

Assistant Director – Lead Aquatic Ecologist | 907-786-6392 | elarson15 (at) alaska.edu

Erin earned her B.A. in Biology with a focus in Ecology at Dartmouth College and her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University. She served as an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at Alaska Pacific University before joining the Aquatic Ecology team at ACCS as Research Faculty. Erin is a community and ecosystem ecologist who thinks broadly about the effects of disturbance on community diversity and ecosystem processes in aquatic systems. She has research experience in locations ranging from Ecuador to Colorado to Alaska. In addition to her ecological research program, Erin is invested in expanding opportunities for students to engage in research and in studying effective teaching practices.


Audrey Huff, PhD

Audrey Huff is smiling at the camera while conducting aquatic research. She is wearing a baseball cap and a red life jacket. Her hands are covered in mud.

Aquatic Ecologist | 907-786-6384 | aehuff2 (at) alaska.edu

Audrey has a Ph.D. in Water Resources Science (Limnology and Oceanography track) from the University of Minnesota in Duluth, MN and received her B.S. in Environmental Science (Biology focus) from the University of Portland in Oregon. Her research interests include benthic ecology, biogeochemistry, and community ecology, and she has experience doing aquatic field research in the Great Lakes region, arctic and boreal Alaska, and the Sierra Nevadas.


Dustin Merrigan

photo of Dustin Merrigan

Aquatic Ecologist | 907-786-6979 | dwmerrigan (at) alaska.edu

Dustin has a B.S. in Environmental Sciences from Alaska Pacific University. Dustin’s research interests are surveying and mapping freshwater habitats to examine juvenile coho salmon diets and macroinvertebrate communities. Most of his work involves aquatic invertebrate taxonomy and geographic information systems.


Affiliates

Leslie Jones, PhD, Alaska Department of Natural Resources

photo of Leslie Jones

Aquatic Ecologist | 907-269-8833 | leslie.jones2 (at) alaska.gov | ORCID iD icon Publications

Leslie received B.S. degrees in Statistics and Environmental Science from North Carolina State University, an M.S. degree in Land Resources and Environmental Science from Montana State University, and a Ph.D. in Systems Ecology from University of Montana. Leslie’s research interests are using computational ecology to understand relationships between climate, biophysical processes, and the landscape. Recent work focuses on how these relationships create suitable freshwater habitat for salmonids and how habitat diversity supports population abundance, productivity, habitat use, and phenology of freshwater organisms.


Dan Bogan, M.S.

photo of Dan Bogan

Aquatic Ecologist | 907-786-4964 | dlbogan (at) alaska.edu

Dan Bogan earned a B.A. in Botany and a M.S. in Environmental Science from Miami University. Dan’s research focuses on biological water quality monitoring using diatom and macroinvertebrate community assemblages. He is also actively involved with tribal watershed and water quality education and training programs.

© 2025 Alaska Center for Conservation Science (ACCS). This website was designed and is maintained by ACCS at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA).

The University of Alaska is an Equal Opportunity/Equal Access Employer and Educational Institution. The University is committed to a policy of non-discrimination against individuals on the basis of any legally protected status.

Contact Website Administrator | Sitemap

  • Home
  • About
    • Staff, Faculty, and Students
    • Support Our Program
    • Opportunities
    • Contact
    • Our Partners
  • Research
    • Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
    • Invasive Species
    • Aquatic Ecology
    • Vegetation
    • Wildlife
    • Landscape Ecology
  • Data and Services
    • Data Catalog
    • Conservation Data Portals
    • Code Repository
    • Services
  • Publications