Monday, 18th May Society for Freshwater Science 2026 Annual Meeting

The Society for Freshwater Science (SFS) Student Resources Committee (SRC) invites all student attendees to a student-centered orientation and breakfast. Learn about SFS, the SRC, how we serve the student members of SFS, and the various activities (e.g., student-mentor mixer, live auction, virtual events) we host. Meet other student attendees and get some helpful tips on how to make the most out of the conference. Undergraduate and graduate students from all societies are welcome.

Cost: Free to attend for students. Please RSVP via the registration page to confirm your attendance.

2026 Class of Fellows of the Society for Freshwater Science Presentation
Plenary Speakers (Desiree Tullos & Conor Giorgi)
Commissioner of Public Lands for Washington State, Dave Upthegrove Presentation on Restoring our Waters

• Alternate pathways to restoring fish passage at high head dams - Conor Giorgi
• Alternate pathways to restoring fish passage at high head dams - Desiree Tullos
• Restoring Our Waters - Dave Upthegrove

Are you attending SFS for the first time? Welcome! Join us for a casual meetup of first-time attendees (and some seasoned SFS members) during the Monday morning coffee break. Grab your coffee and then come make connections, meet friendly faces, and get to know the society.

Additional Session Chairs: Eric Larson & Lindsey Reisinger

• Modeling the spread of invasive species and emerging infectious diseases in heterogeneous environments - John M Drake
• Risk assessment for invasive species in the Laurentian Great Lakes Region - Reuben Keller
• Going with the flow: morphological plasticity and performance of rusty crayfish (Faxonius rusticus) in different flow regimes. - William Perry
• Pathogen accumulation and the collapse of the invasive rusty crayfish population in Trout Lake - Lindsey S Reisinger
• Is the rusty crayfish (Faxonius rusticus) a transient invader? - Eric R. Larson
• Being a successful role model (organism): Insights into diversity and distribution of apple snails (Pomacea) gained through field and molecular ecology - Romi L Burks

• Emergent concentration-discharge (C-Q) relationship across nested subcatchments in a coastal plain watershed. - Andrew A Ali
• That’s a mouthful: availability, feeding ecology, and life history variation of stream fishes during periodical cicada emergences - Rich H Walker
• Oops…we did it again! Introduced fishes deliver both nutrient and contaminant subsidies to freshwater ecosystems. - Gary Lamberti
• Emergent aquatic insects link freshwater integrity to riparian bird communities at continental scales - Christian Schuerings
• Urbanization stressors on avian invertivore assemblages mediated by aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity: Implications for multi-scale riparian restoration in an increasingly urbanized future - Giordano Jacuzzi

Additional Session Chairs: Jacqueline Gerson & Anika Bratt

• From swamps to stormwater ponds: Ecosystem functions lost (and gained?) due to reorganization of the waterscape - AJ Reisinger
• Urban stream syndrome at the river network scale in a Mediterranean watershed. - Wilfred Wollheim
• Ionic contributions to specific conductivity dynamics in an urbanized stream network - Katherine X. Pérez Rivera
• Redlined water bodies are smaller and more polluted  - Anika R Bratt
• Tracking changes in dissolved N concentrations, retention, and export in a rapidly developing Mountain West community - Russell Conti
• Salinity affects carbon cycling in streams and the carbon use efficiency of sediment microbes - Allyson Marrs

Additional Session Chair: Jake McArtor

• Investigating spatial and temporal dynamics in the “fire pulse” across 70 years of monitoring freshwater ecosystems - Jeremy M Brooks
• Unraveling drivers of variation in riparian vegetation recovery following wildfire - Leah Simantel
• A one-two punch: fire and hydrological effects on stream communities in coastal southern California  - Audrey Thellman
• Linking Wildfire Disturbance to Patterns in Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Communities Using Spatially Diverse Biomonitoring Data  - Brian Bush
• Combined effects of wildfire and historical mining on stream insect communities in Idaho - Maricela N Alaniz
• Physiological Responses of Pteronarcys californica to Simulated Wildfire Ash Leachates - Jacob D McArtor

• Rapid phosphorus uptake and storage by aquatic hyphomycete fungi - Lydia P McGregor Bravo
• Where do fish get their gut bacteria? - Cedar Mackaness
• Current state of ballast water management in the Laurentian Great Lakes and challenges with microbial discharge standards - Noah W Grode
• Effects of light availability on microbe-metal interactions in wetlands - Marilee C Hoyle

• Elevated carbon gases in beaver ponds: spatial and temporal trends across southern New England - Lev Becker
• Natural vs. Engineered Ponds: Divergent Water‑Quality Outcomes in Urban Watersheds - Sandra Clinton
• Do Beaver Dam Analogs Mimic Beaver Dams?: Effects on Food Webs, Structure, Function, and Water Quality in a Restored Stream - Miles Milbrath
• Examining the roles of beavers and time in promoting recovery following stream channel restoration - Ben Colman
• Effects of beaver and beaver dam analogs on post-fire recovery of stream and riparian ecosystems - Camille McNeely
• Beavers & People: Scaling Effective Stream Restoration & Rebuilding Watershed Resilience after Wildfire - Alexa Whipple

• Comparative vulnerability of riverine benthic and aquifer stoneflies in large alluvial river floodplains - Rachel L Malison
• Two Extremes, One Park: A first look at the aquatic insects in Yellowstone’s glaciers and hot springs. - Audrey Lindsteadt
• Testing an AI-Assisted Approach to Freshwater Macroinvertebrate Biomass Estimation - Ezekiel Peterson
• Exploring the relationship between sediment size and macroinvertebrate individual size distribution in North American freshwater streams   - Morgan Hrivnak
• When temperatures change, nutrition follows:  Seasonality of insect emergence in Australian alpine headwaters in changing climates   - Sithara Sirimanna
• Caddisflies of Florida: advancing larval taxonomy by leveraging a species-level inventory based on faunal survey of adults - Andrew Rasmussen

• The space-time discontinuum: correcting FLIR-derived temperature profiles to account for diel temperature variation. - Geoffrey C Poole
• Rapid GPU-Accelerated Fish Track Detection from Split-Beam Hydroacoustics for Riverine Lake Sturgeon Monitoring - Eamonn Powers
• Applying remote sensing and GIS to assess hydrologic connectivity and potential riparian habitat development at a historic bentonite mining site - Patrick K Kozak
• Wetland Methane Fluxes: Sensor Development and Environmental Drivers - Clark Jackson
• Clearing Blackwaters: Saltwater Intrusion Changes the Color of Southeastern Coastal Rivers. - Spencer Rhea

Additional Session Chairs: Ryan Bellmore & Jeffrey Muehlbauer

• Session Introduction - Matthew Dunkle
• Vive la Résistance: Rock Glaciers Are Buffering Alpine Streams Against Climate Change - Scott Hotaling
• Habitat variability along a harsh-mild gradient to help determine potential climate refugia for cold-adapted taxa in alpine streams - Deb Finn
• Meltwater Source as a Driver of Mountain Stream Biogeochemistry in the Western United States - Anna Shampain
• Cryosphere change and alpine aquatic ecosystems in a high-elevation catchment of the Southern Rocky Mountains, Colorado, USA - Daniel L Preston
• Long-term monitoring of alpine streams in the Teton Range: biotic and abiotic trajectories vary among hydrologic sources - Lusha M Tronstad

• Mercury does not stop at the shoreline: terrestrial insects accumulate mercury in High Arctic pond food webs. - Camryn Middlebrooks
• The influence of an invasive wetland plant on mercury dynamics - Cailin Sinclair
• Biogeochemical drivers of mercury cycling and speciation in temperate ponds - Samantha Davies
• Refining fish-dragonfly mercury relationships to inform resource managers of potential risks to local anglers - James J. Willacker
• Linking Patterns of Atmospheric Mercury Deposition with Bioaccumulation in Aquatic Ecosystems at a National Scale - Collin Eagles-Smith
• A Saltier Future for Europe’s Rivers: Continental-Scale Evidence of Freshwater Salinization - Sandra Mingarelli

• Building resilience in large rivers of the northwest: Linking Science, Management, and Collaboration - Lisa Kunza
• Wetland reconnection enhances food resource availability in the Kootenai River - Brooke Long-Fox
• Ecosystem metabolism across a large oligotrophic river network - Kurt Chowanski
• Insights from long-term zooplankton and phytoplankton monitoring in a large, regulated, oligotrophic river  - Mehzabeen Mannan
• Characterizing the distribution of macrophytes on the Kootenai River using unmanned aerial vehicles - Patrick K Kozak
• Nutrient Addition to Address Low Productivity in the Kootenai River - Brandon Diller

Additional Session Chairs: Matthew Barnes & John Drake

• Environmental DNA metabarcoding detection dynamics from evolving reference libraries: a decade of change   - Christopher L Jerde
• Back to the future with environmental DNA: repurposing previously collected samples to study the history of a Texas freshwater jellyfish invasion - Matthew A Barnes
• Utilizing environmental DNA analysis for monitoring invasive species from lakes and rivers - Kristy Deiner
• Multi-marker eDNA reveals contrasting biodiversity responses to watershed land use - Kara Andres
• A virtuous cycle of innovations in science, policy, and markets to manage invasions - David M Lodge

• Severe storm response in Central Appalachian streams: focusing on benthic macroinvertebrate community dynamics - Quinn Weigel
• How does drought alter the synthesis and aquatic-terrestrial transfer of omega-3 fatty acids? - Madeline Hannappel
• Summer stream water specific-conductivity responses to a sodium-chloride salinization gradient and mode of delivery in experimental riparian-stream mesocosms. - Michelle A. Evans-White
• Salinization impacts on terrestrial and aquatic decomposition, soil respiration, and photosynthesis - Natalie A Clay
• Analysis of Aquatic Invertebrate Diversity and Body Length Along a Sodium Gradient - Connor Foley
• Shifting Communities: How Salinization Alters Riparian Plant Diversity, Phytochemistry, and Litterfall into Streams - Maggie C Herrmann

Additional Session Chairs: Anika Bratt & AJ Reisinger

• Functional and Community Responses to Climate‑Driven Drying in Human‑Made Pond Ecosystems - Checo Colon Gaud
• Legacy Mercury, Modern Risks: Identifying Methylmercury Sources & Biogeochemical Processes in an Impaired California Reservoir - Virginia M. Krause
• Moving beyond novel ecosystems: Biogeochemical cycling in de novo aquatic ecosystems - Jacqueline Gerson
• Diving in headfirst: Investigating inundation dynamics and nutrient cycling at a wetland restored on agricultural land - Hana Esber
• How surface water modification alters carbon storage and flux in a protected savanna landscape - Audrey Goeckner

Additional Session Chair: Jeremy Brooks

• Wildfire impacts on stream organic matter chemistry depend on hillslope-stream connectivity - Allison Myers-Pigg
• Post-fire suspended-sediment and phosphorus attenuation in a central Montana headwater catchment. - Gregory D Clark
• Fire effects on nutrient stores and transport in aridland watersheds - Heili Lowman
• High severity wildfire elevated turbidity and suppressed riverine metabolism for 1.5 years following rain-on-fire triggered debris flows on the Klamath River, CA, USA - Laurel Genzoli
• The ripples of fire: sediment, carbon, nutrients and lake metabolism responses to fire in the northern Rocky Mountains - Sage Fletcher

• An eDNA Approach to Mussel Diet Analysis: A preference for protists - Bruce Cahoon
• Investigating the Impact of Behavioral Ecology on eDNA Particle Size Distribution for Two Gambusia Species - Sarah Baggett
• Estimating Organism Abundance Using Within-Sample Haplotype Frequencies of eDNA Data - Pedro Brandao Dias F Pinto
• Separating the wheat from the chaff: How sensitive are biodiversity surveys and ecological assessments to the bioinformatics pipelines used in eDNA metabarcoding - Leonce Ngirinshuti

Additional Session Chair: Erin Larson

• Wading in to wetland monitoring together: How cross-sector collaboration co-creates knowledge for better water quality - Lauren E Kinsman-Costello
• Strategies and Challenges in the Data Stewardship Practices of a Highly Collaborative Wetland Monitoring Program - Raissa Mendonca
• TealWaters: Bridging disciplines and communities to operationalize wetland mapping and function - Sarah Fancher
• An alliance for cleaner waters: Source tracking fecal pollution in Poverty Bay, WA - Diane Yeh
• Fiveteen miles: Partnerships and management of the Rattlesnake Creek watershed from wilderness to downtown Missoula, MT. - Matt Trentman
• From Data to Decisions: Coordinating Freshwater Temperature Monitoring and Action in Alaska - Erin Larson

• Flow reductions shape invertebrate communities in dryland river systems - Mack White
• Modeling multi-species assemblages of Lestes damselflies across a hydroperiod gradient - Peter O.L. Martin
• Describing the diversity of Cirolanides spp. (Isopoda) in Texas, USA. - Benjamin F Schwartz
• Agricultural Impacts on Invertebrate Diversity in the Spokane River Watershed - Kaitlin Abell
• Assessing Morphological, Developmental, and Genetic Responses of Hydropsychid Caddisflies to Cry1Ab Exposure - Pedro Brandao Dias F Pinto
• Interactive Effects of Invasive Riparian Litter and Rusty Crayfish on Detrital Processing and Nutrient Dynamics - Justin Sturtz

Additional Session Chair: Juan Camilo Rojas Lucero

• Operationalizing Wetland Intrinsic Potential (WIP) as a Foundational Layer for Mapping Wetlands and Their Functions - Steven Pestana
• Evaluating the contribution of wetland ecosystems to carbon storage in a dryland landscape using a data fusion model - Erik Nati-Johnson
• Continental Mapping of Mesic Ecosystem Using Machine Learning: Effects of Training Dataset Size and Spatial Autocorrelation - JUAN CAMILO Rojas-Lucero
• Time series dynamics of remotely sensed mesic vegetation used to model shifts in macroinvertebrate communities across the Sagebrush Biome - Colin Martin
• Assessing Surface Water–Groundwater Connectivity Using Remote Sensing–Enhanced Recharge Modeling - Pooja P Preetha

Additional Session Chairs: Ryan Bellmore & Jeffrey Muehlbauer

• Long-term water quality trends in the headwaters of the Snake and Green River Basins - Samantha Dilworth
• Landscape Drivers of Lake Thermal Structure in Southwest Alaska’s National Parks - Matthew Dunkle
• Thawing ground and changing streams: rusting rivers in Arctic Alaska - Lauren Yancy
• Arctic rusting streams and rivers show spatial and temporal variability in dissolved metal concentrations from acid rock drainage - Abagael N Pruitt
• Acid Rock Drainage in a Warming Arctic: Abrupt Onset and Persistent Downstream Effects in Rivers Across Alaska’s Brooks Range - Taylor G Evinger
• Stream restoration in the Last Frontier: Restoring mined streams in Alaska - Jeffrey D Muehlbauer

• Relating Fish Ovary Selenium and Maturation Stage: Implications for Monitoring - Margot Grimmelpont
• Metal and Nitrogen Contamination in Poudre Lake and the Potential Impacts to Sediment Microbial Communities - Memphis J Hill
• Aquatic insect drift and emergence in response to metals exposure: accounting for emigration using stream mesocosms  - Christopher J Kotalik
• Insect Emergence and Riparian Predator Abundance in Urban Ponds Across a Land Cover and Chemical Gradient - Jennoa E Fleming

• Nutrient history and plankton succession can influence large river harmful algal bloom formation. - Justin Murdock
• Seasonal Variability in Phytoplankton Growth and Microzooplankton Grazing Rates in the Lower Columbia River - Jacie Fabela
• An Evaluation of the Mechanisms Driving Dissolved Oxygen Downstream of the Klamath Dam Removal - Kristine Alford
• Alpha, beta, and functional diversities of benthic macroinvertebrates within three habitats of a large floodplain -river corridor   - Kelsey Wilbanks
• The  dynamic colors of the Klamath River and what they tell about the source and transport of sediments. - Nicholas Tufillaro

• Movement strategies dictate the spatial dynamics of consumer nutrient and energy fluxes - Mack White
• Exploring relationships between river flows and multiple trophic levels in the San Francisco Estuary (California) - Angelika L. Kurthen
• Spatial Drivers of Soil Organic Carbon and Carbon Sequestration Rates within estuarine marsh plains along the California Coast. - Jessica Turner
• Shell Shocked: How Toxins and Salt Stir Up Oyster Microbiomes  - Champagne Cunningham

• Detecting spreading impacts of a persistent invasive predator across a wetland landscape. - Flavien Garcia
• Functional Structure of Native Community Explains Variation in Invasibility - Arif Jan
• The impacts of an invasive aquatic plant on freshwater ecosystems: A study of Ludwigia peploides in ponds - Isaac Owens
• Do spongy moth mating disruption treatments alter headwater stream ecological processes? - David Speth
• Temporal dynamics of invasive dreissenid mussels in nearshore Lake Michigan - Rachel Smith
• Investigating optimal detection strategies for and ecological impacts of invasive European Frog-bit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae) in Michigan inland lakes - Joshua Tellier

• From Riparia to Stream and Everything in Between: How Salinization Alters Decomposition Rates in Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems - Gisella DePiazza
• Chasing Salt: Utilizing Community Science to Understand How Salt Stresses Riparian-Stream Ecosystems - Lisa M. Tabor
• Surface mining increases the contribution of chlorophyll-a to aquatic insect food webs in central Appalachia. - Sally A Entrekin
• Evaluating organic matter decomposition in headwater streams across a mining-induced salinity gradient throughout the Central Appalachian Coalfields - Megan Underwood
• Disentangling seasonal and interannual drivers of macroinvertebrate community responses to flow and specific conductance in Central Appalachian streams. - Amaryllis Adey
• Focused Q&A & Discussion Block - Amaryllis Adey

• Plant Matter at the Finest Scales: Importance of Phylogenetic History, Hybridization, and Dioecy in Riparian Systems - Carri J. LeRoy
• Leaf litter processing rates shift in response to human-modified land cover in freshwater ecosystems - Anna Mothersole
• Microbial organic matter decomposition along a P-gradient in tropical streams - Alex Shelton
• Does shredder size matter? Interspecific vs intraspecific effects on aquatic leaf litter decomposition - Mourine Jesire Yegon
• Insect decline and ecosystem function in tropical streams in Costa Rica: A long-term comparison - Vamery González Hernández
• Seasonality and Land Use Influence Organic Matter Processing Rates in Tropical Watersheds - Krista Capps

• Seasonality and disturbance: three years of diatom assemblages post-Hurricane Ian - Hanna Innocent
• beyond phytoplankton and phosphorus: assessing trophic state in freshwater benthic ecosystems - Paige M Kleindl
• Distribution and Diversity of Aquatic Macrophyte Taxa in the Carmel River Watershed - Audrey G Longan
• Using macroinvertebrate colonization of artificial Podostemum ceratophyllum (a swiftwater macrophyte) substrates to quantify restoration impacts - James Wood
• Monitoring Starry Stonewort (Nitellopsis obtusa) Invasion in Chicago’s Lake Michigan Harbors Via SCUBA Surveys and the Development of an Environmental DNA Assay - Megan M Cunnison
• Effects of temperature on Cladophora’s microbial assemblage, photosynthesis, and nitrogen fixation in a nitrogen limited river - Michael Wulf

• Nutrient enrichment alters stream fungal communities: evidence from microscopy and next-generation sequencing - Vladislav Gulis
• DISTANCE: How do particle size and type interact with seasonal dynamics to impact the fate of DNA in a prairie stream? - Tobin J Davidson
• Torrent salamanders and gene flow in an experimental watershed in the Pacific Northwest, USA. - Christopher Cousins
• Population genetic structure and connectivity of Allocapnia rickeri - Camryn A Larson
• RAD-seq generated single nucleotide polymorphisms resolve patterns of genetic diversity and structure of the freshwater mussel Ptychobranchus fasciolaris across its distribution - Nichelle M VanTassel

Additional Session Chair: Erin Larson

• Understanding collaborative care of an urban river: An application of the Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project and Environmental Stewardship Framework - Lauren Emer
• Comprehensive Toolkit for Assessing, Restoring, and Protecting River-Estuarine Ecosystems - Benjamin Block
• Assessing Stream Habitat Conditions across Alaska to Inform Future Restoration Efforts - Audrey Huff
• La ruta de pesca: Fishers’ knowledge provides insight to ecology, conservation, and management of migratory catfishes in the Amazon - Elizabeth Anderson
• A Partnership for Ecohydrologic Modeling of Headwater Habitat and Refugia for Stream-breeding Amphibian Species in Western Washington and Oregon - Nicholas A Sutfin

• Effect of dams and dam removals on freshwater mussels: a global meta-analysis - Alexa Hershberger
• Identifying ecologically relevant host fishes across the Atlantic Slope  - Stefanie J Farrington
• Synthesis of native, freshwater mussel survey protocols in North America - Shay S. Keretz
• Patterns in freshwater mussel community reassembly and composition relative to disturbance - Tyler Schartel
• Using molecular and physiological approaches to support freshwater mussel conservation decisions in the Clinton River Watershed - Brittany Perrotta

• The importance of small streams - Walter Dodds
• Characterizing spatiotemporal patterns in benthic algal assemblage responses to reduced flow in a Central Texas intermittent river - Ailish S Collins
• The Puzzle of “Broken” Streams: Linking Barrier Assessment to Fish Community Structure in Intermittent Streams of the Intermountain West - Stephanie Webster
• Storm hydrologic connectivity in non-perennial streams and its influence on dissolved organic carbon - Erin VanderJeugdt
• Intraseasonal covariation in autotrophic and heterotrophic microbial function in a non-perennial polar stream - Lydia H Zeglin

Additional Session Chairs: Ryan Bellmore & Jeffrey Muehlbauer

• Methane-derived carbon subsidizes freshwater food webs in glacier-fed Alaska watersheds - Ryan Bellmore
• Organic Matter Composition and Turnover in Ephemerally Wetted Soils and Hyporheic Sediments of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica - Sophia M. Gomez
• Invertebrate community dynamics along a rock glacier outflow in the alpine zone of the Sierra Nevada (California) in years of high and low snowpack - David Herbst
• Between a rock and a cold place: Effects of rapid environmental warming on alpine stream communities - Katrina Heide
• It’s grow time! Seasonal and annual variability in juvenile salmonid growth within a glacierized watershed - Lindsey C McCulloch
• Focused Q&A and Discussion Block - Matthew Dunkle

• Temporal dynamics of biosolids-derived PFAS across the terrestrial-aquatic continuum of agroecosystems - Diana Oviedo Vargas
• Finding a Fluorinated Fingerprint? Examining spatial variation in and correlations between different PFAS compounds in New Hampshire groundwater - William G McDowell
• PFAS contamination in South Dakota: Insights from a statewide soil and water survey - Mehzabeen Mannan
• Eat at your own risk: PFAS in Lake Michigan prey fish - Daniele Miranda
• A bridge not too far: Scaling PFOS toxicokinetics from lab studies to stream food webs - Alison Zachritz

Additional Session Chair: Seth Oliver

• Overview and Introduction of the Spokane Valley Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer - Seth Oliver
• Overview of emerging research needs on the Spokane Valley Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer - Meg Wolf
• Three Decades of Water Purveyors Advancing the Science and Stewardship of the Sole-Source Groundwater Supply for the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Region - John J Porcello
• 20 Years and Counting: Long-term Monitoring of the Spokane Valley - Rathdrum Prairie (SVRP) Aquifer in Washington - Amy Sumner
• SVRP Aquifer Protection Efforts by Panhandle Health District in Kootenai County, Idaho - Jenny Gray
• Differentiating Recharge Zones and Pathways in the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer - Jeff Langman

The student-mentor mixer is designed to facilitate interactions between students and experienced professionals. Mentors may include aquatic science professors, research associates, post-doctoral researchers, government employees, and private consultants. This mixer provides students a great opportunity to network and engage in lively conversation with mentors and peers in a relaxed environment. Each student will be assigned to a mentor. Pre-registration is required.

Cost: Free to attend for students and mentors. Please RSVP via the registration page to confirm your attendance.

Join us following the Student Mentor Mixer, for a live auction of crafts, swag, and more donated by fellow SFS members! The Live Auction will be followed by musical bingo! All proceeds will benefit the SRC and fund student opportunities.

Cost: Free to attend, drinks at bar prices.