Megan is a biogeochemist working to understand the impacts of climate change to aquatic ecosystem functions. At UVM, Megan is working with Carol Adair and Raju Badireddy to explore how increasingly frequent winter floods are altering watershed function in Vermont. Her postdoc project will leverage low-cost microsensors to identify how warmer winters are shifting watershed nutrient exports, critical source areas, and flowpaths.

Megan completed her PhD in Oceanography at the University of Washington in Seattle in early 2022. That research interrogated the processes microbes use to break down organic matter in aquatic systems and the consequences of those degradation dynamics for carbon and nitrogen cycling. As part of that work, Megan helped build and deploy incubation systems to intercept sinking particulate matter in the anoxic depths of the Eastern Tropical North Pacific (off the coast of Mexico) and perform controlled stable isotope-labeled experiments in situ to measure rates of fixed nitrogen loss.

Megan strives to apply her research and training to environmental and community justice. She has worked as a scientist to support legal action fighting oil and gas development, and volunteers coordinating a long-term water quality monitoring program near Class II injection wells in the Columbus, Ohio metro area. Born and raised in northern Vermont, Megan is thrilled to return to her home woodlands after more than decade in the Pacific Northwest.