Dr. Erin Hotchkiss

FACULTY AFFILIATE   |   Global Change Center

Biological Sciences

Lab Website  •  Google Scholar  •  Dept Page

(540) 231-7005 •  ehotchkiss@vt.edu

Dr. Erin Hotchkiss is an ecologist who uses empirical data and statistical models to understand how environmental change, land-water interactions, and ecosystem processes shape the transport, transformation, and fate of carbon and nutrients in freshwaters.

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. They 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.