Dr. Erin Hotchkiss

FACULTY AFFILIATE   |   Global Change Center

Biological Sciences

Lab Website  •  Google Scholar  •  Dept Page

(540) 231-7005 •  ehotchkiss@vt.edu

Dr. Hotchkiss is an Associate Professor of Freshwater Ecology in the Department of Biological Sciences. Research in the Hotchkiss Lab explores climate, landscape, and in situ controls on freshwater biogeochemistry and ecosystem processes (e.g., carbon metabolism, nutrient cycling, food web dynamics), with the aim of understanding these fundamental controls in the context of current and future environmental change. We use empirical data and statistical models to (1) link biological and physical processes with carbon and nutrient sources, cycling, and fate; (2) quantify effects of environmental change on water quality and ecosystem function; (3) identify patterns and consequences of terrestrial-aquatic connectivity within river networks; (4) monitor changing resources in freshwater food webs.

Ongoing collaborations with researchers in Sweden, Canada, and the United States seek to quantify the unique and interactive roles of increasing temperatures, changing carbon and nutrient exports from land to water, species losses and introductions, and hydropower dam construction on the chemistry and function of individual and networked streams, lakes, wetlands, reservoirs, and rivers.