Saturday, April 27, 2024

Matt has an broad academic background in aquatic ecosystems, including streams, lakes, and wetlands in the Susquehanna watershed. He is passionate about the riverscape and the fundamental aquatic ecology processes in the river, beginning at the basic climate-nutrient-water chemistry level. He is a core natural scientist in the Susquehanna River Initiative and has helped shape the vision and mission of the team from its inception. In addition to overseeing the aquatic ecology research, he has created numerous new watershed-based teaching and research opportunities over the past decade. His students have gone on to the top graduate programs in the country or aquatic ecology positions in the government or private industry.

A devoted teacher and scholar who uses the river and local lakes as a teaching laboratory, Matt takes his classes on extended laboratory exercises on-the-river. He envisioned and started the water quality monitoring program, including the design and installation of the YSI sonde units at Danville (North Branch Susquehanna River) and Milton (West Branch Susquehanna RIver). He augments that data with portable water quality sondes, measuring variations in water chemistry across the river channel at selected locations throughout the year. His research is shedding light on the complexities in micro-variations in temperature and dissolved oxygen and its relation to nutrients and photosynthesis in the river. He is also shedding light on the macro invertebrate communities in the middle reaches of the watershed and how they are impacted by natural hydrobiochemical processes as well as waste treatment plants, agricultural runoff, abandoned mine discharge, natural gas development, and even pest control. These findings have tremendous importance to fisheries managers, egulatory agencies, and the public.

Matt teaches a variety of watershed-based biology courses, including aquatic ecology, limnology, and stream restoration. His students have monitored the aquatic habitat of on-campus streams as well as local streams. Matt serves as lead scientist to the Buffalo Creek Watershed Alliance, two local organizations devoted to conservation and restoration of the Susquehanna watershed.

Matt frequently presents his research at regional and national meeting of scientific and engineering organizations, including the American B, American Water Resources Association (AWRA). He collaborates with aquatic ecologists in a number of agencies including the Stroud Center, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and faculty at regional colleges through the Susquehanna River Heartland Coalition for Environmental Studies.