Christina Murphy

Christina Murphy is the Assistant Unit Leader, Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. Originally from Oregon, Christina received her MSc from the University of Girona, Spain and her PhD from Oregon State University. She was a post-doctoral fellow at Oregon State University before joining the Maine Unit in late 2020. She holds a graduate faculty appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology in the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture at the University of Maine. Christina  prioritizes research with the potential to contribute to the information needs of natural resource managers. Her research interests are centered on top down and bottom up responses to disturbance, especially hydrological alteration. This includes evaluations of nutrient, light and habitat availability, phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthic insects, fish pathogens, food webs, and diverse fish assemblages. Current projects include, but are not limited to, understanding aquatic ecology in wetted forest lands, the role of introduced species in structuring aquatic food webs, and the influence of environmental flow regimes on ecological integrity. Christina  has taught Fish Ecology and Conservation and is currently teaching a Special Problems course in Bioenergetics.