Dr. Jim Heffernan (Assistant Professor and PI)
I am an ecologist with interests in the geologic (hydrology, geomorphology, etc.) and social sciences. My research primarily addresses the causes and consequences of major changes in ecosystem structure, and I am particularly interested in how biological processes feed back on and interact with physical and social processes. I try to focus on questions that have relevance to both ecological theory and environmental decision-making, and to use a variety of approaches (descriptive field studies, experiments, and models) to answer them. To date, this work has mostly taken place in streams, rivers, and wetlands, but has also included terrestrial landscapes, particularly in urban environments.
I joined the faculty of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University in January of 2012. Before that, I was a post-doctoral researcher with Dr. Matt Cohen at the University of Florida and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Southeast Environmental Research Center at Florida International University. I received my Ph.D. under the guidance of Stuart Fisher at Arizona State University.
I love living and eating in Durham, NC, playing ultimate frisbee (on the wrong side of the aging curve), and learning from my son Rowan (1 year) and wife Amber (of 8+ years).
I joined the faculty of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University in January of 2012. Before that, I was a post-doctoral researcher with Dr. Matt Cohen at the University of Florida and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Southeast Environmental Research Center at Florida International University. I received my Ph.D. under the guidance of Stuart Fisher at Arizona State University.
I love living and eating in Durham, NC, playing ultimate frisbee (on the wrong side of the aging curve), and learning from my son Rowan (1 year) and wife Amber (of 8+ years).
|
|
Google Scholar Profile |
|
| |||
Post-docs
Anika Bratt (PhD University of Minnesota 2017)
|
Dr. Anika Bratt joined the Heffernan lab in December 2017, with support from our NSF project on the Future of the American Residential Macrosystem. Anika will be trying to figure out whether and how yard-scale management scales up to whole regions. Anika’s PhD includes work on nutrient export from roads and other impervious surfaces, as well as studies of nutrient limitation across aquatic systems. She received her PhD in 2017 from the University of Minnesota under the direction of Dr. Jacques Finlay. View Anika's website here.
|
Phil Savoy (PhD SUNY Buffalo 2016)
|
Dr. Phil Savoy joined the River Center in Fall 2016. Co-advised by Jim Heffernan and Emily Bernhardt and supported by the StreamPULSE project, Phil is looking for ways to classify river metabolic regimes, and is also developing a model that predicts light regimes from canopy characteristics and river geometry. Phil's PhD, from SUNY Buffalo under Scott Mackay, focused on the seasonal timing (phenology) of forests.
|
Xiaoli Dong (PhD Arizona State 2015)
|
I am interested in ecosystem spatial heterogeneity, and its functional consequences. My post-doc research in the Heffernan Lab is to understand the biogeomorphic mechanisms for the formation of the ordered patterns of wetlands in Big Cypress National Preserve (S. Florida). Before I came to Duke, I did my PhD research on the relative importance of self-organization, physical template, and stochasticity on spatial distribution of various ecological components (aquatic invertebrates, nutrients, and wetland patches). I got my BS in Biological Sciences from Zhejiang University in China in 2009. |
Graduate Students
Nick Bruns
|
Nick joined the Heffernan Lab in Fall 2017 and is co-advised by Martin Doyle. He's interested in interactions between physical (hydraulics, hydrology, geomorphology) and ecology processes through entire river networks and uses of satellite remote sensing. Nick has an M.E. in Computer Science and then worked as a data scientist at the Cornel Lab of Ornithology developing machine learning methods for estimating avian distributions through time using high volume, citizen gathered data.
|
Alice Carter
|
Alice started her PhD in Fall 2016, and is co-advised by Emily Bernhardt and Jim Heffernan. Alice's research interests are in stream metabolism, especially in anaerobic processes and gas exchange. Alice received her Bachelor's Degree from Northwestern University in 2012, and then worked as a researcher in Woods Hole, MA at the Marine Biological Laboratory.
|
Cathy Chamberlin (Aquatic Biogeochemistry)
Cathy joined the Heffernan Lab in the fall of 2015, through the University Program in Ecology. Her research interests include impacts of limitation on daily rhythms in biological behavior at an ecosystem level, the interpretation of fine-scale patterns in solute chemistry of streams and lakes, and the biology and ecology of landform pattern development.
Chelsea Clifford (Ecology of Artificial Aquatic Systems)
Chelsea came to the lab from the salt marshes of southern Virginia in 2013, to get a PhD in Environment. Her dissertation focuses on the ecological limitations and potentials of artificial aquatic systems, especially ditches. Broadly, she is interested in how water connects and sustains socio-ecological systems. Before Duke, Chelsea worked for Chesapeake Environmental Communications, The Nature Conservancy, MacArthur Agro-Ecology Research Center, White Mountain Research Station, and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. She got a BA in biology and environmental studies from Carleton College in 2010, and is a Virginia Master Naturalist. View Chelsea's website here.
Lab staff
Brooke Hassett
Brooke is the lab manager for the Duke River Center. She makes the trains run on time and is involved in some way in almost everything we do.
Undergraduates
Masters of Environmental Management students
Former lab members
Megan Fork (PhD 2017 - Urban Watersheds and DOM)
Dr. Megan Fork completed her PhD in 2017. Her PhD research is focused on the dynamics of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in urban watersheds, starting in engineered headwaters like gutters and stormpipes, continuing through urban streams via pulses of stormwater runoff, to the downstream rivers and reservoirs to which they drain. Megan also wrote a blog for the Nicholas School. Megan received her MS in 2012 from Florida International University, studying the effects of carbon from terrestrial and aquatic sources on denitrification rates in large rivers of northern Florida. She received her BS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2008. She is now a post-doc at Umea University in Sweden. View Megan's website here.
Anna Braswell (PhD 2017 - Wetland establishment and resilience)
Dr. Anna Braswell completed her PhD in 2017, and is now a post-doc at the University of Colorado - Boulder. View Anna's website here. Anna's PhD research focused on the question: What are the ultimate drivers of coastal wetland formation and loss? Anna used geospatial analysis and wetland sediment core records to understand how coastal wetland extent and age depend on watershed sediment delivery and land use, coastal morphology, and storms.
After earning her BA in Environmental Studies from Washington University in St. Louis, Anna worked as a research assistant in California at the Channel Islands National Park and a Biologist for the USFWS. She completed a MS in Biology under Dr. Julia Cherry at the University of Alabama. The focus of her master's research was on the effects of large-scale disturbances (hurricanes and fire) on salt marsh ecosystems.
After earning her BA in Environmental Studies from Washington University in St. Louis, Anna worked as a research assistant in California at the Channel Islands National Park and a Biologist for the USFWS. She completed a MS in Biology under Dr. Julia Cherry at the University of Alabama. The focus of her master's research was on the effects of large-scale disturbances (hurricanes and fire) on salt marsh ecosystems.
Alison Appling (Post-Doc 2012-13 - Nutrient Kinetics and Dynamics)
Alison's post-doctoral research in the Heffernan lab used simulation modelling to understand how organism physiology, stoichiometry, and nutrient limitation influence fine-scale variation in nutrient fluxes. Officially a Heffernan Lab alumni, Alison is currently at the USGS and a collaborator on our StreamPULSE project. Between Duke and the USGS, Alison did a post-doc at the University of New Hampshire working on long-term water quality trends in the Northeastern US. Click for Alison's CV and website.
Meredith Steele (Post-Doc 2012-2013 - Land Use and Surface Water)
Meredith Steele (now on the faculty at Virginia Tech) worked on the effects of land use on the distribution of aquatic ecosystems at continental scales. Meredith continues to collaborate with us on the Urban Homogenization project as well as new work examining how the structure of cities changes with size.
Tim Covino (Post-Doc 2012-2013 - Coupling Nutrient Supply and Demand)
Tim's research focused on the fine-scale nutrient dynamics of New Hope Creek in the Duke Forest. In January 2014, Tim starts a new job as an assistant professor in the newly formed Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability at Colorado State University. Learn more about Tim's research at his website here.
Ewan Isherwood (MS at FIU - Spatial patterning of wetland vegetation)
Ewan's Masters thesis at FIU addressed the spatial patterning and distinctness of vegetation communities in the ridge-slough landscape of the Everglades, and shows that changes in vegetation structure lag behind microtopographic responses to hydrologic change. Ewan defended in October of 2013, and is now working in the Doyle Lab.
John Neagley
Capt. John Neagley is a career Naval officer enrolled in the Duke Environmental Leadership (DEL) program. John's master's project addressed nutrient trading as an approach by which the Navy can comply with nutrient reduction requirements from the Chesapeake Bay's TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load).
Heather McGee, Katie Locklier, Han Zhang
Katie, Heather, and Han investigated trends in water quality over space and time, and their relationship to land use, in the Albemarle Sound.
Colin Geisenhoffer
Colin's MP addresses relationships between land use and groundwater denitrification in northern Florida.
