Dr. Cayelan Carey

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Biological Sciences

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Dr. Carey is an Associate Professor of freshwater ecosystem ecology in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech and teaches undergraduate courses in Freshwater Ecology and Introductory Ecology. Prior to arriving at Virginia Tech, she was a postdoctoral associate at the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Carey Lab at Virginia Tech examines how nutrient pollution (eutrophication), climate change, and other stressors interact to affect water quality in freshwater ecosystems. Dr. Carey is particularly interested in understanding how feedbacks between microbial and plankton taxa, food webs, and nutrient cycling can mediate ecosystem resilience to anthropogenic forcing.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”42494″ img_size=”275×355″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_border”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Carey Lab works primarily in lakes and reservoirs because they are critically important for drinking water, fisheries, industry, and recreation, yet are considered among the most threatened ecosystems in the world due to unsustainable use, pollution, invasive species, and altered climate.

Research questions the Carey Lab asks include: 1) Do warmer temperatures and increased nutrients synergistically interact to promote algal blooms, and if so, are there lake management techniques that can offset future decreases in water quality? 2) How do plankton community dynamics (i.e., competition, facilitation) mediate external climate change forcing, and how will climate change scenarios interact to affect the likelihood of cyanobacterial blooms? 3) How does eutrophication affect phosphorus cycling in in lake and reservoir sediments? and 4) How do different thermal stratification dynamics in reservoirs and natural lakes alter their aquatic communities’ response to increased temperatures and nutrients? We use a suite of tools, including field, laboratory, and whole-lake experiments; hydrodynamic models; and long-term data analysis to answer these questions.

E mail

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In the News:

Virginia Tech freshwater scientist Cayelan Carey selected for 2021 cohort in Earth Leadership Program

Low oxygen levels in lakes and reservoirs may accelerate global change

Study: Land development and climate change threaten clear water lakes, but there is hope for protecting them

To ensure safe drinking water, experts forecast the health of lakes and reservoirs

Testing the water: Virginia Tech team launches system to predict water conditions

Researchers craft unique system for predicting water quality in reservoir

Virginia Tech researcher received ASLO Early Career Award

Study explores connections between land management, water quality, and human response in lake catchments

Virginia Tech ecologist partners with the United Nations to confront global water crisis

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Recent Relevant Publications:

Doubek^G, J.P., K.L. Campbell^U, K. Doubek^G, K.D. Hamre^G, M.E. Lofton^G, R.P. McClure^G, N.K. Ward^G, and C.C. Carey. Oxygen-induced trade-offs on freshwater zooplankton diel vertical migration. In press at Ecosphere.

Hamre^G, K.D., R.P. McClure^G, Z.W. Munger^G, J.P. Doubek^G, A.B. Gerling^G, M.E. Schreiber, and C.C. Carey. In situ fluorometry reveals a persistent, perennial hypolimnetic cyanobacterial bloom in a seasonally anoxic reservoir. In press at Freshwater Science.

McClure^G, R.P., K.D. Hamre^G, B.R. Niederlehner, Z.W. Munger^G, S. Chen^G, M.E. Lofton^G, M.E. Schreiber, and C.C. Carey. 2018. Metalimnetic oxygen minimum zones decouple CH₄and CO₂fluxes from seasonal turnover. In press at Science of the Total Environment. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.04.255

Cobourn, K.M., C.C. Carey, K.J. Boyle, C. Duffy, H.A. Dugan, K.J. Farrell^P, L. Fitchett^G, P.C. Hanson, J.A. Hart^G, V.R. Henson, A.L. Hetherington^P, A.R. Kemanian, L.G. Rudstam, L. Shu^G, P.A. Soranno, M.G. Sorice, J. Stachelek^G, N.K. Ward^G, K.C. Weathers, W. Weng^G, and Y. Zhang^G. 2018. From concept to practice to policy: modeling coupled natural and human systems in lake catchments. In press at Ecosphere. 9(5):e02209. DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2209

Carey, C.C., R.P. McClure^G, J.P. Doubek^G, M.E. Lofton^G, N.K. Ward^G, and D. Scott. Chaoborusspp. transport CH₄ from the sediments to the surface waters of a eutrophic reservoir, but their contribution to water column CH₄ concentrations and diffusive efflux is minor. Environmental Science & Technology. 52:1165-1173. DOI 10.1021/acs.est.7b04384 <Carey_etal_2018_ES&T>

Leach, T.H., B.E. Beisner, C.C. Carey, P. Pernica, K.C. Rose, Y. Huot, J.A. Brentrup, I. Domaizon, H.-P. Grossart, B.W. Ibelings, P.T. Kelly, S. Jacquet, J.A. Rusak, J.D. Stockwell, D. Straile, and P. Verburg. Patterns and drivers of deep chlorophyll maxima structure in 100 lakes: the relative importance of light and thermal stratification. Limnology and Oceanography. 63:628-646 DOI: 10.1002/lno.10656 <Leach_et_al-2018-Limnology_and_Oceanography>

Carey, C.C., J.P. Doubek^G, R.P. McClure^G, and P.C. Hanson. Oxygen dynamics control the burial of organic carbon in a eutrophic reservoir. Limnology and Oceanography-Letters. 3:293-301. DOI: 10.1002/lol2.10057 <Carey_et_al-2018-Limnology_and_Oceanography_Letters>

Chen^G, S., J.C. Little, C.C. Carey, R.P. McClure^G, M.E. Lofton^G, and C. Lei. Three-dimensional effects of artificial mixing in a shallow drinking-water reservoir. Water Resources Research. 54:425-441. DOI. 10.1002/2017WR021127 <Chen_et_al-2018-Water_Resources_Research>

Chen^G, S., C.C. Carey, J.C. Little, M.E. Lofton^G, R.P. McClure^G, and C. Lei. Effectiveness of a bubble-plume mixing system for managing phytoplankton in lakes and reservoirs. Ecological Engineering. 113:43-51. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoleng. 2018.01.002 <Chen_etal_2018_EcolEngineering>

Mantzouki, E. and 194 co-authors, including C.C. Carey. 2018. Temperature effects explain continental scale distribution of cyanobacterial toxins. Toxins. 10(4):156. DOI: 10.3390/toxins10040156 <Open-access at http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/10/4/156/htm>[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]