Krista joined the lab in 2018 as a Centennial Postdoc working on an NCEAS State of Alaska Salmon and People (SASAP) working group project synthesizing patterns, causes, and consequences of body size declines in Alaska salmon. She is currently focused on walleye pollock, investigating the impacts of recent exceptionally warm temperatures in the Bering Sea on pollock body size and local abundances. Krista is broadly interested in evolutionary ecology and has ongoing field projects following experimental stickleback populations in Southcentral Alaska. Check out Krista’s website here

Molly joined the SEEC lab in the fall of 2019 to better understand the factors that make some rivers more attractive to hatchery strays than other rivers in Southeast Alaska. Molly received the prestigious DIPAC Graduate Fellowship. After graduating, Molly landed an excellent fisheries job with a Fairbanks based consulting company. 

Eric worked with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to construct a watershed prioritization map for the Chehalis River in Southwest Washington State. Using extensive on-the-ground sampling, Eric built intrinsic potential models to assess fine scale habitat potential for coho salmon and steelhead. Eric is currently pursuing a PhD in Ecology at the University of Georgia. You can learn more here

Is there really more to know about Buskin River adult coho salmon? As it turns out there is a ton! For her thesis, Michelle demonstrated the importance of holding habitat for fish prior to spawning, particularly Buskin Lake. Michelle is currently working as the Assistant Area Management Biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Chignik, AK.

For her thesis, Marta quantified the strength and form of selection acting on body size of smolt sockeye salmon on Kodiak Island. Was Yoda right? "Size matters not". Marta is currently pursuing a PhD in Fisheries Science at Simon Fraser University. You can learn more here

In every invasion there is a silver lining. Chase explored the population structure of introduced northern pike using ddRAD sequencing approaches and conducted the first watershed risk analysis to guide conservation and suppression efforts to the on-going pike invasion. Chase currently works as a project leader at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Gene Conservation Lab.

Invasive species are opportunities to explore phenotypic divergence to new habitats. Katja joined SEEC from Germany where she conducted research for her MS that explores contemporary trait change in northern pike introduced to Southcentral Alaska with comparisons to the native range. She is continuing on with a PhD at UAF under the supervision of Trent Sutton. 

For his postdoc work, Curry formulated a novel stage-based life history model for Yukon River Chinook salmon and found evidence that climate in the ocean and freshwater, plus competition at sea with Asian stocks of chum salmon can explain patterns of survival.  

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Dr. Cunningham is an assistant professor in the Department of Fisheries at UAF on the Juneau Campus. You can learn more on his website here

For his MS thesis in the SEEC Lab, Morgan quantified the potential adaptive response of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon to warming water temperatures during spawning and embryo development. He is currently working with Mark Christie's group at Purdue University. Website

Understanding the causes and consequences of straying by Pacific salmon is a fundamental and applied question. Casey tackled this by studying straying by hatchery produced chum salmon in Southeast, Alaska and showed that strays enter the spawning grounds later, live fewer days, retain more eggs, are younger and smaller than wild counterparts. He also showed that stress was not obviously linked to straying, though did find that hatchery fish had higher rates of vaterite in their otoliths than wild fish. Casey is currently a small business owner in Hoonah, AK.

Madeline worked in the SEEC Lab on the large and ambitious 'State of Alaska Salmon & People' Project. During her time she worked to compile mountains of data on salmon escapement and harvest, hatchery release and return numbers, and in the process became a wiz at data science. She is a life long commercial fisher with roots in Washington State and heart in Bristol Bay. 

Nate worked in the SEEC Lab on a diet synthesis of northern pike across Alaska.  Pike love to eat fish when they can, but can persist on insects and each other. 

Joe completed  his undergraduate senior thesis in the spring of 2018 where he examined the diet and growth patterns in native and invasive northern pike.  Pike love to eat fish...when they can! But they are just fine persisting on insects. They don't eat each other as much as you might have heard or thought.

Cynthia completed an independent project on the antipredator behavior of juvenile salmonids in Interior and Southcentral regions of Alaska in the context of the northern pike invasion. Her work was supported by an award from URSA at UAF