Dr Debra Finn

 

Marie Curie Research Fellow

Contact details

Telephone +44 (0) 121 414 5523

Email d.finn.1@bham.ac.uk

About

Dr. Deb Finn is funded at the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences under a European Union Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship. She is part of the Water Sciences group and is hosted by Dr Alexander Milner. Her project is called “SHIRMAN” short for “SHIfting Range MArgiNs”, which refers to the expanding ranges of freshwater species (such as fish and insects) in locations where glaciers are receding rapidly and leaving stream habitat in their wake. Within this context, Deb works in both the French Pyrenees, assessing changing patterns of macroinvertebrate diversity as glaciers are lost; and in Glacier Bay Alaska, where she is evaluating evolutionary and ecological influences on the establishment of coho salmon populations in previously ice-covered streams.

Qualifications

  • PhD (Ecology): Colorado State University, 2006
  • MS (Zoology): Colorado State University, 2000
  • BS (Aquatic Biology): University of Texas at Austin, 1995

Biography

  • 2010-present: Marie Curie fellow, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham
  • Sept-Nov 2009: Visiting fellow, Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia
  • 2008-2009: Postdoctoral Researcher, Aquatic Ecology, EAWAG – The Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Sciences and Technology
  • 2006-2008: Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, USA

Research

Research interests

  • Climate change response in alpine and glacially-influenced streams
  • Distribution of stream biodiversity in relation to landscape and stream network structure
  • Interactions of multiple levels of diversity (e.g. species diversity, genetic diversity) in streams
  • Ecology and population genetics of range expansion
  • Headwater stream conservation biology

Publications

Selected publications

Finn, D.S. and N.L. Poff. 2011. Examining concordance of genetic and species diversity patterns to evaluate the role of dispersal limitation in structuring headwater metacommunities. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 30: 273-283.

Finn, D.S., K. Räsänen, and C.T. Robinson. 2010. Physical and biological changes to a lengthening stream gradient following a decade of rapid glacial recession. Global Change Biology 16: 3314-3326.

Finn, D.S., M.T. Bogan, and D.A. Lytle. 2009. Demographic stability metrics for conservation prioritization of isolated populations. Conservation Biology 23: 1185-1194.

Hughes, J.M, D.J. Schmidt, and D.S. Finn. 2009. Genes in streams: using DNA to understand movement of freshwater fauna and their riverine habitat. Bioscience 59: 573-583.

Finn, D.S. and N.L. Poff. 2008. Emergence and flight activity of alpine stream insects in two years with contrasting winter snowpack. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research 40: 638-646.

Lytle, D.A., M.T. Bogan, and D.S. Finn. 2008. Evolution of aquatic insect behaviours across a gradient of disturbance predictability. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Biological Sciences 275: 453-462.

Finn, D.S., M.S. Blouin, and D.A. Lytle. 2007. Population genetic structure reveals terrestrial affinities in a headwater stream insect. Freshwater Biology 52: 1881-1897.

Poff, N.L., J.D. Olden, N.K.M. Vieira, D.S. Finn, M.P. Simmons, and B.C. Kondratieff. 2006. Functional trait niches of North American lotic insects: traits-based ecological applications in light of phylogenetic relationships. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 25: 730-755.

Finn, D.S., D.M. Theobald, W.C. Black IV, and N.L. Poff. 2006. Spatial population genetic structure and limited dispersal in a Rocky Mountain alpine stream insect. Molecular Ecology 15: 3553-3566.

Finn, D.S. and N.L. Poff. 2005. Variability and convergence in benthic communities along the longitudinal gradients of four physically similar Rocky Mountain streams. Freshwater Biology 50: 243-261.

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