Aquatic insect diversity in two of Maine’s rare and unique habitats: tidal freshwaters and river-side rock pools by Hamish Greig

Aquatic insects are wonderfully diverse and adaptable creatures, and can persist and thrive in a huge variety of different freshwater habitats. While we often picture aquatic insects crawling on the cobbles of Maine’s cold-water streams or along the vegetated margins of our lakes and ponds, in this talk I’ll focus on two rarer, lesser known habitats: tidal freshwater marshes and river-side rock pools. I’ll discuss the remarkable diversity supported by these rare habitats and the environmental challenges that influence which insects are able to thrive.

I am an Associate Professor of Stream Ecology in the School of Biology and Ecology at the University of Maine. I study how aquatic food webs respond to natural and human disturbances. I grew up in Christchurch New Zealand, where I spent my childhood fossicking around in streams for aquatic insects and trying to catch trout. I completed my BSc Honors degree in 2005 at the University of Canterbury with a senior project that investigated the impacts of introduced trout on caddisflies in forested streams. I remained at Canterbury for my PhD dissertation but was able to split my time between New Zealand’s Southern Alps and the Colorado Rockies studying insects in alpine ponds. I moved to the University of British Columbia for a postdoc at where I studied the impacts of climate change and eutrophication on pond ecosystems. I arrived in Maine in the summer of 2013 to take up my position as an Assistant Professor of Stream Ecology. My research group studies the stream food webs that support Atlantic salmon; insect responses to climate change in high elevation freshwaters; the links between Maine streams and their forested watersheds, and the insect diversity of some of Maine’s some weird and wonderful freshwaters.