Spencer J. Tassone, Ph.D.
I am an aquatic ecologist interested in water quality, extreme events, and data science. My research focuses on heatwaves, algal blooms, ecosystem resilience, and metabolism, often extending from headwater streams to the coastal ocean.
I joined the USGS in July 2024 as a biologist with the Virginia-West Virginia Water Science Center. Before that, I was a postdoc at Michigan Tech, where I studied how climate change is affecting the Lake Superior basin and its impact on the hydrology and water quality of streams in tribal and national park lands. My dissertation research quantified heatwaves in rivers and estuaries across the United States, heatwave propagation across the water-sediment interface, and the resilience of seagrass to disturbance events. Additionally, I served on a Science and Technical Advisory Committee addressing rising water temperatures in both tidal and non-tidal areas of Chesapeake Bay. During my undergraduate and masters studies, my research focused on ecosystem metabolism and harmful algal blooms in estuarine ecosystems.
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