Bobbi Peckarsky

About

Bobbi Peckarsky is a professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research involves field studies of behavior, life histories, and biological interactions among stream-dwelling invertebrates, predatory fish, and algal resources in streams of western Colorado near the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. Her work focuses on the mechanisms, consequences, and evolution of predator-prey, consumer-resource, and competitive interactions, particularly in relation to environmental disturbances caused by climate change. Her ongoing studies include examining alternative community states of stream grazer communities as a result of disturbance regimes, the influence of trade-offs between resistance and resilience to disturbance, and the effects of changing environmental conditions on parasite prevalence and mayfly populations. She investigates how upstream range expansions of predators impact mayfly mortality and behavior, as well as how extreme hydrological events and warming stream temperatures affect the timing of metamorphosis, oviposition, and susceptibility to parasites and predators. Peckarsky also develops demographic models to predict the effects of multiple stressors on mayflies, and uses macroinvertebrates as indicators of stream habitat quality impacted by human activities. Her research is conducted in high elevation streams at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado, where she employs field sampling and experiments in…

Research topics

• Biology
• Ecology
• Zoology
• Fishery

Selected publications

• Costs of predator-induced phenotypic plasticity: a graphical model for predicting the contribution of nonconsumptive and consumptive effects of predators on prey

  Oecologia · 2012-07-31 · 108 citations

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• Integrating behavioral, population and large-scale approaches for understanding stream insect communities

  Current Opinion in Insect Science · 2014-06-18 · 73 citations

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• Large-scale manipulation of mayfly recruitment affects population size

  Oecologia · 2011-10-20 · 50 citations

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• Caddisfly behavioral responses to drying cues in temporary ponds: implications for effects of climate change

  Freshwater Science · 2016-02-11 · 42 citations

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  Aquatic organisms that live at high latitudes and elevations are especially vulnerable to climate-change-induced alterations in snowpack, snowmelt, and evaporation rates, all of which affect basin filling and drying dates. Extraordinarily early drying events in shallow ponds and wetlands at our study sites prompted us to conduct 2 mesocosm experiments to document how proximate cues of drying modify agonistic behaviors among larvae of the caddisfly, Asynarchus nigriculus. Larvae are mainly detrit…

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• Characterizing disturbance regimes of mountain streams

  Freshwater Science · 2014-06-13 · 37 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Characterizing biologically relevant stream disturbance regimes is challenging, but necessary to answer questions about disturbance effects on ecological processes. No universally accepted approach exists for characterizing stream disturbance regimes. Our goal was to evaluate approaches that can be applied to test effects of disturbance on benthic organisms. We defined disturbance as events or environmental conditions caused by changes in stream discharge that affect the stability or habitabilit…

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Recent grants

• Variation in the Strength of Cascading Trophic Interactions Across a Riverscape

  NSF · $350k · 2005–2010

Frequent coauthors

• Angus R. McIntosh

  University of Canterbury

  49 shared

• Gene E. Likens

  39 shared

• Stanley I. Dodson

  39 shared

• Brad W. Taylor

  North Carolina State University

  38 shared

• Robert Bohanen

  37 shared

• Grace Wyngaard

  37 shared

• John J. Magnuson

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  37 shared

• John E. Havel

  Missouri State University

  37 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Entomology

  University of Wisconsin-Madison

  2005

• M.S., Entomology

  University of Wisconsin-Madison

  2001

• B.S., Entomology

  University of Wisconsin-Madison

  1999

Similar researchers at University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Cameron Currieh-99
• Anthony Ivesh-88
• Claudio Grattonh-61