Erin Hotchkiss is an

ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

who studies

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

's specific impact on freshwater ecosystems (rivers, lakes, wetlands). She researches the relationships between organisms and water quality in freshwater ecosystems, how processes on land influence water, and the sources and fate of carbon and nutrients in aquatic ecosystems. Hotchkiss is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Studies at

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six regi ...

Early life and education

Hotchkiss was born in Washington D.C. but later moved to northern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and then Oak Ridge,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. Hotchkiss grew up playing outside with her favorite memories from childhood including the exploration of

tide pool A tide pool or rock pool is a shallow pool of seawater that forms on the rocky intertidal shore. Many of these pools exist as separate bodies of water only at low tide. Many tide pool habitats are home to especially adaptable animals that ...

s and the

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

low tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables can ...

, curious to see what creatures were living there. Hotchkiss entered freshwater ecology connected to and inspired by water. Hotchkiss earned her Bachelors in Science for Environmental Studies in 2003 from

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

. In 2007, Hotchkiss went on to receive her masters in

Zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and

Physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

from the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

. Here, Hotchkiss wrote her thesis: ''Impacts of exotic snails on stream carbon cycling''. Staying at the

in 2013, Hotchkiss earned her Ph.D. in

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and her dissertation focused on

carbon cycling The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. Carbon is the main component of biological compounds as well as a major component ...

in streams.

Career

As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from 2013 to 2015, Hotchkiss worked at

Umeå University Umeå University ( sv, Umeå universitet; Ume Sami: ) is a public research university located in Umeå, in the mid-northern region of Sweden. The university was founded in 1965 and is the fifth oldest within Sweden's present borders. As of 2015 ...

in Sweden, researching ecosystem metabolism and carbon emissions from river networks. From 2015 to 2016 Hotchkiss worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the

Université du Québec à Montréal The Université du Québec à Montréal (English: University of Quebec in Montreal), also known as UQAM, is a French-language public university based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest constituent element of the Université du Québe ...

, Canada. Here, Hotchkiss focused on the biogeochemistry of northern aquatic ecosystems. In 2016, Hotchkiss started at

as an Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences.

Research

Hotchkiss works to uncover the impacts of environmental change on freshwater ecosystems. She uses empirical data and models to measure

in aquatic ecosystems. Much of her field work focuses on

stream metabolism Stream metabolism, often referred to as aquatic ecosystem metabolism in both freshwater (lakes, rivers, wetlands, streams, reservoirs) and marine ecosystems, includes gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) and can be express ...

and the fate of terrestrial materials in freshwater. Hotchkiss combines her knowledge in her three fields of study:

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

, and

hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...

to quantify environmental changes in freshwater. Erin Hotchkiss has published many valuable scientific articles that have received awards and have been cited by others in her field. One of Hotchkiss' most notable articles from 2015 is entitled, ''Sources of and processes controlling CO₂ emissions change with the size of streams and rivers''. Her work uncovers the effect of CO₂ emissions in different size streams and rivers and gives key evidence for carbon cycling in rivers. Hotchkiss examines the relationships between stream geometry, chemistry, and ecosystem metabolism. The process of

includes such metrics as ecosystem respiration (ER), gross primary production (GPP), and their difference, net ecosystem production (NEP). This work found that CO₂ emissions in small streams are mainly derived from terrestrial sources, while internal processing (i.e. stream metabolism) is a more important source of CO₂ release within larger rivers. These findings are significant as they provide evidence of the importance of inland waterways and aquatic ecosystem metabolism within the global carbon cycle. Some other of Hotchkiss' notable work includes: * Hotchkiss, E.R.*, S. Sadro, & P.C. Hanson. 2018. Toward a more integrative perspective on carbon metabolism across lentic and lotic inland waters. Limnology & Oceanography * Hotchkiss, E.R.* & R.O. Hall. 2015. Whole-stream 13C tracer addition reveals distinct fates of newly fixed carbon. * Hotchkiss, E.R.* & R.O. Hall. 2014. High rates of daytime respiration in three streams: Use of δ18O2 and O2 to model diel ecosystem metabolism.

Awards and honors

Erin Hotchkiss was recognized as a notable early career scientist with two awards: *

Hynes Award for New Investigators The Hynes Award for New Investigators is awarded by the Society for Freshwater Science and recognizes an excellent academic research paper in the freshwater sciences by a scientist less than five years after their terminal graduate degree (usually, ...

from the Society for Freshwater Science (2016) * Raymond L. Lindeman Award from the

Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography The Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), formerly known as the Limnological Society of America and the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, is a scientific society established in 1936 with the goal of advan ...

(2016)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hotchkiss, Erin American ecologists American women ecologists Environmental scientists 21st-century American scientists 21st-century American women scientists Virginia Tech faculty University of Wyoming alumni Emory University alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American women academics