Research Interests

Dr. Marcarelli is an ecosystem ecologist who studies biogeochemical cycles and linkages between physical, chemical and biological structure and function in streams, rivers and lakes.  Linking biogeochemical patterns and controlling factors often requires understanding the underlying structure of microbial, algal, and animal communities. Therefore, her research occurs at the interface of ecosystem and community ecology.  She is particularly interested in research questions that have both fundamental and applied implications, such as how land use change and ecosystem disturbances alter nutrient processing, uptake and export from watersheds and energy flow through food webs.

Dr. Marcarelli is currently focused on the role of nutrient and organic matter subsidies on stream ecosystem and food web function.  She is a member of an interdisciplinary project examining the effects of marine-derived nutrients via salmon carcasses on carbon and nutrient flow through stream-riparian ecosystems and food webs in the Snake River basin, western Idaho, where salmon migrations have been blocked by dam construction. She is interested in expanding this work to include streams with healthy salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and streams with introduced salmon runs in the Upper Peninsula.  In a second project, she is working to synthesize understanding of the relative importance carbon subsidies for carbon flow among periphyton, macroinvertebrate, and fish communities.  She is currently constructing a flow food web for a forested stream in Hokkaido, Japan, supported by a fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.  Finally, she is interested in the role of nitrogen fixation as a novel N source to aquatic ecosystems, and how nitrogen fixation might affect food web dynamics by altering periphyton nutrient content and food quality for invertebrate and fish consumers.

Recent publications:

Marcarelli AM & Wurtsbaugh WA. 2009. Habitat and seasonal variations in nitrogen fixation in linked lake-stream ecosystems. Biogeochemistry 94: 95-110.

Marcarelli AM, Rugenski AT, Bechtold HA & Inouye RS. 2009. Nutrient limitation of biofilm biomass and metabolism in the Upper Snake River basin, southeast Idaho, USA. Hydrobiologia 620: 63-76.

Marcarelli AM, Baker MA & Wurtsbaugh WA. 2008. Is in-stream nitrogen fixation an important nitrogen source for benthic communities and stream ecosystems?  J N Am Benthol Soc 27:186-211.

Rugenski AT, Marcarelli AM, Bechtold HA & Inouye RS. 2008. Effects of temperature and concentration on nutrient release rates from nutrient diffusing substrates.  J N Am Benthol Soc 27:52-57.

Marcarelli AM & Wurtsbaugh WA. 2007. Effects of upstream lakes and nutrient limitation on periphyton biomass and nitrogen fixation in oligotrophic, subalpine streams. Freshwater Biol 52: 2211-2225.

Myers AK, Marcarelli AM, Arp CD, Baker MA & Wurtsbaugh WA. 2007. Disruptions of stream sediment size and stability by lakes in mountain watersheds: potential effects on periphyton biomass.  J N Am Benthol Soc 26: 390-400.

Marcarelli AM & Wurtsbaugh WA. 2006. Temperature and nutrient supply interact to control nitrogen fixation in oligotrophic streams: An experimental examination.  Limnol Oceanogr 51: 2278-2289.

Marcarelli AM, Wurtsbaugh WA & Griset O. 2006. Salinity controls plankton response to nutrient enrichment in Farmington Bay, Great Salt Lake, Utah.  Can J Fish Aquat Sci 63: 2236-2248.