In 2013, a Massive Flood event in Colorado caused millions of dollars in damage. But did the giant rolling boulders also impact stream insect communities? We evaluated the effect of this 100-year flood event at the community and genomic level for stream insects in three Colorado drainages. 

​

Unfortunate as the flood was, our labs were fortunate to have collected copious amounts of data and samples before it happened, through a pre-existing multi-institution and international NSF-funded collaboration. That baseline data allowed this "natural disturbance experiment" to happen, as we are able to directly compare populations across the landscape before and after the flood. 

​

​

This manuscript was recently published in Ecology Letters! 

​

​

​

​