Mike lives in Anchorage! Mike is a research fish biologist for the USGS at the Alaska Science Center and has worked there for 9 years. His research extends into three main areas: aquatic invasives, thermal ecology, and landscape dynamics specifically considering permafrost thaw and its implications. He focuses on how these three environmental changes impact fish.
“The research fish biologist...who happens to live in Alaska. I will be involved in helping to develop the fish bioenergetics models and helping the team understand what the implications of rising river temperatures will be on fish populations.”
Mike was happy to be invited to collaborate on the project with a team that he believes is a “powerhouse of intellectual energy”. The thing he finds to be most exciting about this project is the scale of it. “My research takes place on relatively small spatial scales- usually no larger than a watershed. Typically climate models are on huge scales. This project has the opportunity to link those two and there could be a lot to learn in the middle.”