Phaedra Budy

I am a Professor in the Department of Watershed Sciences and Unit Leader of the Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit (U.S. Geological Survey), at Utah State University (USU), Logan UT. I completed a B.S. in Limnology at the University of California, Davis and a PhD at Utah State University in aquatic ecology, investigating the potential to increase growth and survival of endangered sockeye salmon in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, using whole lake manipulations. I then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the the Luquillo Long Term Ecological Research site in Puerto Rico, exploring amphidromous shrimp population structure and genetics.

In my fish ecology lab, along with my graduate students and staff, I do research that fits into an overall framework of evaluating the factors that structure and limit fish populations in both lentic and lotic systems. We work broadly in conservation biology, invasion ecology, and food web dynamics of aquatic systems with an emphasis on fishes. Current research covers a wide geographical range including almost all of Utah, Oregon, Washington and arctic Alaska and includes many species of salmonids, imperiled native desert fishes, and numerous warm-water lentic fishes. We also dabble in stream restoration and large river management. I am particularly interested in desert fish conservation and ecology, as these fishes are highly imperiled and their ecosystems are degraded in multiple complex and interacting ways. More information describing the Fish Ecology Lab at USU is available at: www.usu.edu/fel.

May 2019