Colden Baxter

Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
Idaho State University

 

Email: baxtcold@isu.edu
Phone: (208) 251-5980
Curriculum Vitae

 

Research conducted in the Stream Ecology Center focuses on rivers and streams, but more generally on the ecological linkages between water and land. Reciprocal connections such as those between streams, floodplains, and riparian forests are critical to watershed ecosystems, and they couple land and water in their vulnerability to the agents of global environmental change. Research led by Dr. Baxter is aimed at improving our understanding of the basic nature of such connections and the consequences of their disruption by human activities, but also contributing to better-informed conservation and stewardship. Examples of current research include 1) studies of the direct and indirect effects of nonnative species invasions, habitat degradation, and the loss of Pacific salmon on reciprocal linkages between stream and riparian forest food webs (being conducted in both the U.S. and Japan), 2) investigations of the effects of human land use, flow regulation, and changing climate on large river-riparian ecosystems of the western U.S. (work focused in the Snake and Colorado rivers), 3) studies of groundwater-stream water interactions, including human impacts on this connectivity and potential for floodplain restoration efforts in the Columbia Basin, and 4) research into the effects of wildfire on linked aquatic-terrestrial ecosystems in watersheds of the northern Rocky Mountains.

Selected Recent Publications

Benjamin, J.R. and C.V. Baxter. In press. Do nonnative salmonines exhibit greater density and production than the natives they replace? A comparison of nonnative brook trout to native cutthroat trout. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.

Monroe, J.B., C. V. Baxter, J.D. Olden, and P. L. Angermeier. In press. Freshwaters in the public eye: understanding the role of images and media in aquatic conservation. Fisheries.

Fausch, K.D., C.V. Baxter, and M. Murakami. In press. Multiple stressors in north temperate streams: lessons from linked forest-stream ecosystems in northern Japan. Freshwater Biology.

Dunham, J.B., C.V. Baxter, and 10 coauthors. 2008. International perspectives on the ecology and conservation of bull trout, white-spotted charr, and Dolly Varden charr. Fisheries 33: 537-550.

Baxter, C.V., K.D. Fausch, M. Murakami and P.L. Chapman. 2007. Invading rainbow trout usurp a terrestrial prey subsidy to native charr and alter their behavior, growth, and abundance. Oecologia 153:461-470.

Torgersen, C.E., C.V. Baxter, H.W. Li, and B.A. McIntosh. 2006. Landscape influences on longitudinal patterns of stream fishes: spatially continuous analysis of fish-habitat relationships. In R. Hughes, L. Wang, and P. Seelbach, editors. Influences of landscapes on stream habitats and biological communities. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

Baxter, C. V., K. D. Fausch, and W. C. Saunders. 2005. Tangled webs: reciprocal flows of invertebrate prey link streams and riparian zones. Freshwater Biology 50(2):201-220.

Laeser, S.R., C.V. Baxter and K.D. Fausch. 2005. Effects of stream channelization and riparian vegetation loss on web-weaving spiders in northern Japan. Ecological Research. 20:646-651.

Wright, K.K, C.V. Baxter, J. Li. 2005. Restricted hyporheic exchange in an alluvial river system: implications for stream ecology theory and watershed management. Journal of the North American Benthological Society. 24:447-460.

Baxter, C.V., K.D. Fausch, M. Murakami and P.L. Chapman. 2004. Non-native stream fish invasion restructures stream and riparian forest food webs by interrupting reciprocal prey subsidies. Ecology 85: 2656-2663.