Derek Gray

Aquatic communities are facing a variety of environmental stressors including climate change, increased nutrient levels, pollution, acidification, and invasive species introductions. While the impacts of these interacting stressors are being studied extensively, our ability to accurately forecast the response of communities to environmental change remains poor. My research aims to understand and predict the impacts of short- and long-term environmental change on aquatic communities. I use a mix of field and laboratory experiments, synoptic surveys, and time-series analyses in my research.

Graduate Opportunities

I am looking for motivated MSc students to conduct research in the areas of community ecology, environmental change, and limnology. Some potential projects for graduate students could include:

• Examining the impacts of environmental change on zooplankton communities on the Great Plains of North America.
• Studying the impact of permafrost melt on plankton communities in the Northwest Territories.
• Exploring patterns and processes involved in global lake warming.
• Examining the recovery of zooplankton communities from stressors such as acidification.
• Studying the invasion of the spiny water flea Bythotrephes longimanus.

Undergraduate Opportunities

I am in need of undergraduate students to assist with a project analyzing the adaptation of zooplankton to shifting salinity levels in lakes on the Great Plains. This is a chance to get experience running ecological laboratory experiments and there are opportunities to conduct your own research projects.

• Gray, D.K., Santmyer, C., Browne, M.A. (2016). "Rapid accumulation of plastic debris on southern Lake Erie beaches." Journal of Great Lakes Research. In review.
• Izmest’eva, L.R., Moore, M.V., Hampton, S.E., Ferwerda, C.J., Gray, D.K., Woo, K., Pislegina, H.V., Krashchuk, L.S., Shimaraeva, S.V. and Silow, E.A. (2015). "Lake-wide physical and biological trends associated with warming in Lake Baikal." Journal of Great Lakes Research 42: 6-7.
• O’Reilly, C.M.*, Gray, D.K.*, Sharma, S.*, Hampton, S.E.*, Read, J.S. and ~50 additional coauthors. (2015). "Rapid and highly variable warming of surface waters around the globe." Geophysical Research Letters. 42. doi: 10.1002/2015GL066235. *Joint first authors.
• Sharma, S.*, Gray, D. K.*, Read, J. S.*, O’Reilly, C. M.*, Schneider, P., Qudrat, A. and ~50 additional coauthors. (2015). "A global database of lake surface temperatures (1985-2009) collected by in situ and satellite methods." Nature Scientific Data 2, Article number: 150008, doi:10.1038/sdata.2015.8 *Joint first authors.
• Argent, D.G., W.G. Kimmel, D.K. Gray, B. Deleonibus, and D. Drescher. (2014). "Invasion of the Allegheny River by the spiny water flea (Bythotrephes longimanus)." Bioinvasions Records. doi:10.3391/bir.2014.3.2.06.
• Hampton, S.E., D.K. Gray, M.V. Moore, T. Ozersky, L.R. Izmest’eva. (2014). "The rise and fall of plankton: long-term changes in the vertical distribution of algae and grazers in Lake Baikal, Siberia." PLOS ONE, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088920
• Gray, D.K. and S.E. Arnott. (2012). "The role of dispersal levels, Allee effects, and community resistance as zooplankton communities respond to environmental change." Journal of Applied Ecology 49: 1216-1224.
• Gray, D.K., S.E. Arnott, J.A. Shead, and A.M. Derry. (2012). "The recovery of acid-damaged zooplankton communities in Canadian lakes: the relative importance of abiotic variables, biotic variables, and dispersal." Freshwater Biology 57: 741-758.