Jeremy M. Brooks
Advisor: Colden Baxter
Degree: Postdoctoral Researcher
Office: Life Sciences 310
Research and academic interests
-Stream-riparian ecology
-Foodweb interactions
-Aquatic-terrestrial linkages
-Biology education and student-led scientific argumentation
-Philosophy of science
Biographical sketch
Jeremy Brooks is a Postdoctoral Researcher working with Dr. Colden Baxter and joined the Stream Ecology Center in the fall of 2017. He is conducting research funded by an NSF-RAPID grant to evaluate how riparian vegetation mediates the consequences of climate change-induced extreme flooding for stream-riparian food webs and communities in northern Yellowstone. For his PhD, he evaluated how community traits and interactions mediated reciprocal linkages across a mosaic of stream-riparian ecosystems, also in northern Yellowstone.
Jeremy is also an Adjunct Instructor and Research Scientist at the University of Montana, where he is currently co-teaching Fish Biology and Management (BIOO 340) and investigating the long-term effects of wildfire on stream food webs in the Bitterroot River watershed with Dr. Lisa Eby (Professor of Aquatic Ecology at the University of Montana).
Before attending Idaho State University, he graduated from the University of Montana with a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Biology and a minor in Communication Studies. During his undergraduate years, Jeremy worked with Dr. Lisa Eby in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness to study how stream confluences influence aquatic insect communities in the context of the River Continuum Concept. When he isn’t measuring rocks and scrubbing biofilm with his toothbrush, Jeremy enjoys fly fishing, hiking, skiing, tracking wildlife through the snow, and sipping coffee in the morning.
University Teaching Experience
Fish Biology and Management, BIOO 340 (4 credits, lecture and lab combined), fall 2023 (instructor of record) and 2024 (co-teaching). W.A. Franke College of Forestry, Wildlife Biology Program, University of Montana in Missoula, Montana, USA
Philosophies, Theories, and Practices of Ecology, BIOL 6692 (1 credit, lecture), spring 2022 (co-teaching). Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho, USA
General Entomology Lab, BIOL 4431/5531 (4 credits lecture and lab combined), fall 2021 (co-teaching ~1/3). Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho, USA
Invited Lectures
Idaho State University, BIOL 6604, Freshwater Ecology. Aquatic Insects: More than just Functional Feeding Groups. Lecture delivered in 2023.
Idaho Master Naturalist: High Desert Chapter. Aquatic Insects and Yellowstone’s Stream-Riparian Ecosystems. Lectures delivered in 2022 and 2023.
Idaho State University, BIOL 4431/553, General Entomology. Aquatic Insects. Lecture delivered in 2022.
Idaho State University, GEOL 1101, Physical Geology. Tangled Webs: Trophic Cascades, Land-water Linkages & Ecological Complexity in Yellowstone’s Web of Life. Lectures delivered in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
Selected grants/scholarships
2025 David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship (Smith Fellowship): The influence of pyrodiversity on biodiversity of stream-riparian ecosystems: Lessons from long-term investigations of a working forest and a wilderness in the western US. In review. Principle Investigators: Jeremy Brooks (lead) in collaboration with Drs. Colden Baxter (Idaho State University), Kellie Carim (US Forest Service), and Lisa Eby (University of Montana). Award amount if funded: $182,100.
NSF RAPID: Does riparian vegetation state mediate consequences of climate change-induced extreme flooding for stream-riparian food webs and communities? 2022 – present. National Science Foundation (Award ID 2244011). Principal Investigator: Colden V. Baxter. I (Jeremy Brooks) was a key co-author as a PhD Candidate and am leading grant activities as the post-doctoral scholar. $99,882
Susan B. Anthony Scholarship. 2022. Idaho Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. $2000
Selected honors and awards
Andy Sheldon Endowment Award, Society for Freshwater Sciences. Freshwater Sciences Joint meeting with Society for Freshwater Sciences, Australian Society for Freshwater Sciences, and New Zealand Society for Freshwater Sciences. June 3 - 7, 2023, Brisbane, Australia.
Best Student Presentation, Western Division of the American Fisheries Society. May 9 – 11, 2023, Boise, Idaho, USA
Education
Ph.D., Biology, 2024. Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho. Minor in Biology Education. Advisor: Dr. Colden Baxter. Dissertation Title: There and Back Again: Community traits and interactions mediate reciprocal linkages across a mosaic of stream-riparian ecosystems in Northern Yellowstone
B.S., Wildlife Biology with Aquatic Concentration and Honors, 2017. Wildlife Biology program, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana. Minor in Communication Studies. Advisor: Dr. Lisa Eby
Selected publications
Brooks, J. M., Baxter, C. V., MacNeill, K., Warren D., and Ripple, B. (In prep). There and back again: traits of organisms and their interactions mediate reciprocal linkages across a mosaic of stream-riparian ecosystems in northern Yellowstone National Park. Target journal is Ecological Monographs.
Brooks, J. M., Baxter, C. V., MacNeill, K., and Warren, D. (In prep). Enter the mosaic: Aquatic-terrestrial reciprocal fluxes and food webs are dynamically interdependent across space and through time. Invited to submit to special issue in Freshwater Biology.
Brooks, J. M., Behn, K.E., Baxter, C. V., Kennedy, T. A., and Kraus, J. M. (In review). Note-to-self: Stop applying Sabo et al.’s length-mass regression for adult Nematocera to adult chironomidae (try these instead). Submitted to Freshwater Science.
Brooks, J. M., Grinath, J. B., Rasmussen, A. M., & Grinath, A. S. (2023). I Know That’s a Grasshopper, but I Don’t Know Why: An Argument-Driven Inquiry Activity for Teaching Taxonomy. The American Biology Teacher, 85(3), 159-163.
Kauffman, J. B., Cummings, D. L., Kauffman, C., Beschta, R. L., Brooks, J., MacNeill, K., & Ripple, W. J. (2023). Bison influences on composition and diversity of riparian plant communities in Yellowstone National Park. Ecosphere, 14(2), e4406.