Current Lab Members (listed in order of duration in the lab group)
Emily Bernhardt, PI
Emily received her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University in 2001 and has been a member of the Duke faculty since 2004. The core of Emily's interests are in watershed biogeochemistry and freshwater ecology, with most of her current effort invested in understanding how the ways in which people live on and use the landscape alters the structure, function, chemistry and biodiversity of receiving streams and wetlands. Emily teaches courses in Climate Change, General Ecology, Field Ecology and Biogeochemistry.
[Click here for Emily's professional CV and here for her bio]
ORCID page /ResearcherID / Google Scholar
Brooke Hassett, River Center Lab Manager
Mike Vlah, Data Scientist
https://github.com/vlahm
Spencer Rhea, PhD student (and former lab Data Scientist)
For his PhD, Spencer is interested in understanding how saltwater intrusion and sea level rise (SWISLR) are affecting soil and ecosystem carbon stocks and fluxes AND how soil chemistry interacts with SWISLR exposure to determine the relative resilience or vulnerability of organic matter and vegetation to salinization.
Spencer's GitHub
Spencer's LinkedIn
Shannon Plunkett, PhD student
|
Shannon is a PhD student in Duke's Civil and Environmental Engineering graduate program. In 2023 Shannon joined our lab and Emily joined her committee as a coadvisor. Shannon is deeply interested in metal contaminants in ecosystems and is currently working on the impacts of mercury contamination arising from both small scale and industrial gold mining on rivers and people in the Madre de Dios region of Peru and old and new mining frontiers in Ecuador. Prior to beginning her PhD, Shannon earned a MS in Soil Science and an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Shannon is the recipient of a NSF GRFP and is a former EPA ORISE scholar.
Shannon's Google Scholar Profile |
Adam Rok, Lab Manager
|
Adam joined the lab in May 2023. Here at Duke he is charged with keeping the lab humming and supporting all of the group's projects.
Adam earned a MS in Marine Science in 2019 and his undergraduate degree in Environmental Science with a minor in Marine Science in 2016 from UNC Chapel Hill. His masters research explored oxygen dynamics and modeling in the open ocean. In between his MS and joining DukeBGC he learned to raise hellbenders and to work with a wide variety of environmental sensors and samples in labs at Virginia Tech and NCSU. Adam's LinkedIn Profile |
Heili Lowman, Postdoctoral Scientist
|
Heili Lowman received her PhD in 2020 from the University of California in Santa Barbara where she worked with John Melack. Since graduating she has been a postdoctoral scientist with Joanna Blaszczak at the University of Nevada Reno. Heili joined #DukeBGC in March of 2024 and has been working on examining long-term (and future long-term) datasets from Hubbard Brook and for the Macrosheds project.
Heili's website |
Yuyang Wang, PhD Student
|
Yuyang Wang completed her undergraduate degree in environmental studies at Mt. Holyoke in May 2024. She joined the Bernhardt and Wright labs in Fall 2024.
Yuyang is interested in plant species introduction in the context of globalization, focusing on the novel traits that determine their success in new regions. She also aims to explore the ecological impacts of these species on community structure and function, with particular interest in how environmental factors influences both the introduction process and the resulting ecological effects. Currently, She is studying these ideas in salt marsh ecosystems, where the introduced reed Phragmites and native cordgrass Spartina are competing to become the dominant species. |
Lauren Krohmer, Associate in Research
|
Lauren Kroehmer joined the lab in August 2025 after several years working as a Geospatial Data Manager for the US Environmental Protection Agency's EnviroAtlas project. Lauren earned her BS in Environmental Science from Northeastern University and her Masters in Environmental Science and Management from the Bren School at UC Santa Barbara.
Lauren's LinkedIn profile |
Zoe Dietrich, PhD Student
Zoe is interested in work at the interface of biogeochemistry and engineering and is as excited about developing new environmental tech as she is about ecosystem biogeochemistry. She is shown here deploying autonomous floating chambers with low-cost sensors for measuring aquatic methane fluxes that she designed.
You could be next!
LAB ALUMNIFormer PhD Students
|
Alice Carter & Emily at the start of a synoptic sampling campaign in New Hope Creek
Jackie Gerson demonstrating the clean hands dirty hands methods for mercury sampling
Emily Ury measuring salinity in a coastal ghost forest
Jess Brandt sampling fish in NC lakes
Richard Marinos gets his soil loving feet wet in Hubbard Brook
Joanna Blaszczak proves that sensing streams is cool
Christina Bergeman collecting water samples in a cypress swamp on the NC coastal plain.
Matt Ross collecting storm samples in a WV stream
Ethan Baruch and a cricket frog from one of our urban streams
Joanna Blaszczak, Megan Fork, Emily Bernhardt, Kris Voss, Kayleigh Somers and Ashley Helton at the 2014 Urban Streams Meeting (after our Lorax play @ southeastern cities and streams)
Tim Covino installing sensors in New Hope Creek
Alison and Emily celebrate at the 2012 PhD hooding ceremony.
|
