Traci DuBose, PhD

As an ecologist, I strive to increase our collective knowledge to better manage and conserve species with complex life cycles. My research largely focuses on freshwater mussels, which need fish for part of their life cycle, can live decades, and contribute to healthy rivers through their filter feeding. Many freshwater mussel species are imperiled but even common species are experiencing declines in some areas across the eastern United States. At UMESC, I am building upon decades of freshwater mussel research in the Upper Midwest to understand how the river environment affects mussel presence, abundance, and mussel community characteristics. 

Previously, I have identified how mussel communities changed after European settlement, that the environment controls subcontinental patterns in size similarly among two mussel species, that mussels benefit macroinvertebrates and fish near them, and that the loss of mussels changes ecosystems. As a postdoc, I expanded into vertebrates with complex life cycles by identifying which frog and toad species are the most sensitive to climate change and how the management of an endangered bird contributes to forest bird communities. The common thread of my research is to collect or use existing data to conduct ecological research that informs and is informed by management needs.