Anya Nova Metcalfe
Anya Metcalfe is a stream ecologist specializing in aquatic food webs of the Colorado River Basin. Her research investigates the role of insect life cycles and natural history in the structure of aquatic communities on landscape scales.
Bug Flows: Improving food web health by giving bugs the weekends off
Bug Flows: Improving food web health by giving bugs the weekends off
Investigating the effects of dam releases on insect life cycles
River guides are science guides
River guides are science guides
Society for Freshwater Science 'Making Waves' podcast Episode 49
Bat foraging along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon
Bat foraging along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon
USGS scientists are contributing to our understanding of bats in National Parks
Professional Experience
2012 - present | Ecologist - US Geological Survey, Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center, Flagstaff, AZ
2011-2013 | Curatorial Assistant - Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, AZ
2011-2012 | Field Technician - Spring Stewardship Institute, Flagstaff, AZ
2010 | Respect the Rio interp ranger - Americorps/US Forest Service, Santa Fe National Forest, Jemez Springs, NM
Education and Certifications
2018 | M.S. Biology - Northern Arizona University
2012 | B.A. Environmental Science/Adventure Education - Prescott College
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 15
Bug flows: Don’t count your midges until they hatch
Usually when people hear about a “bug problem” it’s due to an undesirable overabundance of insects (think plague of locusts). In the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, however, we are faced with the opposite predicament: the river is essentially devoid of bugs. Aquatic insects are a fundamental component of a healthy river ecosystem. Most aquatic insects spend their juvenile life stages...
Authors
Anya N. Metcalfe, Jeffrey D. Muehlbauer, Morgan Ford, Theodore A. Kennedy
Phenology of the adult angel lichen moth (Cisthene angelus) in Grand Canyon, USA
We investigated the phenology of adult angel lichen moths (Cisthene angelus) along a 364-km long segment of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA, using a unique data set of 2,437 light-trap samples collected by citizen scientists. We found that adults of C. angelus were bivoltine from 2012 to 2014. We quantified plasticity in wing lengths and sex ratios among the two...
Authors
Anya N. Metcalfe, Theodore A. Kennedy, Jeffrey D. Muehlbauer
Flow management for hydropower extirpates aquatic insects, undermining river food webs
Dams impound the majority of rivers and provide important societal benefits, especially daily water releases that enable on-peak hydroelectricity generation. Such “hydropeaking” is common worldwide, but its downstream impacts remain unclear. We evaluated the response of aquatic insects, a cornerstone of river food webs, to hydropeaking using a life history–hydrodynamic model. Our model...
Authors
Theodore A. Kennedy, Jeffrey D. Muehlbauer, Charles B. Yackulic, D.A. Lytle, S.A. Miller, Kimberley Dibble, Eric W. Kortenhoeven, Anya N. Metcalfe, Colden Vance Baxter
Non-USGS Publications**
Nathan, L., Mamoozadeh, N., Tumas, H., Gunselman, S., Klass, K., Metcalfe, A., Edge, C., Waits, L., Spruell, P., Lowery, E. & Connor, E. 2019. A spatially-explicit, individual-based demogenetic simulation framework for evaluating hybridization dynamics. Ecological Modelling 401: 40-51.
Eitzel, M., Cappadonna, J., Santos-Lang, C., Duerr, R., West, S., Virapongse, A., Kyba, C., Bowser, A., Cooper, C., Sforzi, A., Metcalfe, A., Harris, E., Thiel, M., Haklay, M., Ponciano, L., Roche, J., Ceccaroni, L., Shilling, F., Dörler, D., Heigl, F., Kiessling, T., Davis, B., & Jiang, Q. 2017. Citizen science terminology matters: Exploring key terms. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 2: 1-20. DOI: 10.5334/cstp.96.
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 15
Bug flows: Don’t count your midges until they hatch
Usually when people hear about a “bug problem” it’s due to an undesirable overabundance of insects (think plague of locusts). In the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, however, we are faced with the opposite predicament: the river is essentially devoid of bugs. Aquatic insects are a fundamental component of a healthy river ecosystem. Most aquatic insects spend their juvenile life stages...
Authors
Anya N. Metcalfe, Jeffrey D. Muehlbauer, Morgan Ford, Theodore A. Kennedy
Phenology of the adult angel lichen moth (Cisthene angelus) in Grand Canyon, USA
We investigated the phenology of adult angel lichen moths (Cisthene angelus) along a 364-km long segment of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA, using a unique data set of 2,437 light-trap samples collected by citizen scientists. We found that adults of C. angelus were bivoltine from 2012 to 2014. We quantified plasticity in wing lengths and sex ratios among the two...
Authors
Anya N. Metcalfe, Theodore A. Kennedy, Jeffrey D. Muehlbauer
Flow management for hydropower extirpates aquatic insects, undermining river food webs
Dams impound the majority of rivers and provide important societal benefits, especially daily water releases that enable on-peak hydroelectricity generation. Such “hydropeaking” is common worldwide, but its downstream impacts remain unclear. We evaluated the response of aquatic insects, a cornerstone of river food webs, to hydropeaking using a life history–hydrodynamic model. Our model...
Authors
Theodore A. Kennedy, Jeffrey D. Muehlbauer, Charles B. Yackulic, D.A. Lytle, S.A. Miller, Kimberley Dibble, Eric W. Kortenhoeven, Anya N. Metcalfe, Colden Vance Baxter
Non-USGS Publications**
Nathan, L., Mamoozadeh, N., Tumas, H., Gunselman, S., Klass, K., Metcalfe, A., Edge, C., Waits, L., Spruell, P., Lowery, E. & Connor, E. 2019. A spatially-explicit, individual-based demogenetic simulation framework for evaluating hybridization dynamics. Ecological Modelling 401: 40-51.
Eitzel, M., Cappadonna, J., Santos-Lang, C., Duerr, R., West, S., Virapongse, A., Kyba, C., Bowser, A., Cooper, C., Sforzi, A., Metcalfe, A., Harris, E., Thiel, M., Haklay, M., Ponciano, L., Roche, J., Ceccaroni, L., Shilling, F., Dörler, D., Heigl, F., Kiessling, T., Davis, B., & Jiang, Q. 2017. Citizen science terminology matters: Exploring key terms. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 2: 1-20. DOI: 10.5334/cstp.96.
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.